Rad

He's on Facebook, occasionally posts here, and you may be able to reach him through his blog: http://colinhaley.blogspot.com/

I like the shot of the belayer waving with both hands while standing 30+ feet back from the base with a huge loop of slack.

Not sure what you mean by french. Clip qdraw to bolt. Clip long sling on bolt. Clip lead rope into qdraw. Stand in long sling. Clip new qdraw to next bolt. Repeat. Clip yourself to qdraw or long sling at any point to rest. No etriers needed. No free moves required at all.

http://cascadeclimbers.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=981531

I'm not sure that bolt ladder has ever gone free. The free Grand goes right at the top of the Sword pitch out that undercling (called the Underfling). Then it climbs a crux slab pitch (13b?) up and left to the anchors at the base of Perry's. Check out some great photos of Mark doing it last year. Don't have link handy. Yes, just take a few quickdraws and a couple of extendable slings you can stand in and that bolt ladder will go fast. It's short.

Dry heaves is a serious ab workout too

Yep, the LA attorneys are at your door right now with a cease and desist letter. D'oh!

yikes! yep, stainless is the only way to go. thanks for doing repairs.

Relationships where one person expects the other person to become/grow into something he/she is not are storms waiting to happen. You need to find someone you love and respect for who they are today. It's not the one red flag in a relationship that you missed that leads to trouble. It's the 358 red flags that you tried to pretend were green or orange that get you into trouble. Cynical, the first day of the rest of your life is TODAY. Not tomorrow. TODAY. Be the change you want to see in your world.

It was a siege ascent too. First alpine style human powered moon shot byfairmeans ascent is still up for grabs. Actually, I think it was capsule style!

Bigotry in climbing serves no useful purpose that I can see.... I have a dream that one day this community will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all climbers are created equal"... I have a dream that one day the sons and daughters of sport climbers and trad climbers will climb together at the gyms, crags, and mountains of this majestic realm... I have a dream that one day my three children will live in a world where they will not be judged by whether clip bolts or place hexes or carry crashpads but by the content of their character.... (adapted from MLKJr).

Many seem to miss the point that objections to Lama's plan (including Colin's) this year relate to his intention to place bolts on rappel rather than ground-up on lead. As Dberdinka points out, rapping in to place protection bolts to create free variations of big walls is standard practice in Yosemite and elsewhere. I won't opine on what's right or wrong, but it seems unlikely El Cap would have so many free routes without this tactic. Gene makes a good point that the ethics of a crag/region should prevail. From a bystander's perspective, it seems that the Cerro Torre area of Patagonia bears similarities to Yosemite and WA pass in our own domain. It's got long granite routes that attract climbers from around the world at certain times of the year. As happened in Yosemite, the major crack systems that mark lines of weakness are being climbed first. The question is whether you stop there or allow bolt-protected free routes on faces, and if so under what style (power vs hand and on lead vs on rappel. In some ways, I'd be more interested to hear Tommy Caldwell's perspective than Colin's on this particular issue, as Caldwell has pioneered routes like this in Yosemite where Colin has not, as far as I am aware. Bolts are now part of climbing, just as pitons and other fixed gear were before them. Vigorous debate and when/where/how to use bolts should definitely happen, preferably in a constructuve way, but we cannot turn back the clock to an era before bolts any more than we can turn back to an era before dynamic ropes or SLCDs or sticky rubber etc etc etc.

pot is a gateway drug to sport climbing

What happened to that guy? This place could use some humor again!

Some of the bolts and anchors on Reptiles and Jug or Not were pretty scary, with rusty chain links notched into grooves in the rock, levering on old expansion bolts. If/when it's time for anchor replacement on these or other routes I'll come help, or at least throw down some coin for hardware. Thanks again.

Every crag develops its own community, ethics, and style, which may change over time. If you want a voice on how things are run, show up and lead by example.

Good point. I have invested my time and hardware, though mostly on different crags. And you? Orion, thanks. It's the one that protects the crux that looked like it was wearing thin. Just needs a new quicklink.

Not what I've seen in Seattle, at least in setters. The ones I've met climb hard and work hard and go out of their way to help climbers of all abilities. If you get poor customer service somewhere let the management know about it. Flaming on the internet doesn't solve anything.

Thanks for the service, Orion. The quicklink on the draw on Bust the Move was pretty scary.

The gym is a good place to get strong, so have fun. If a particular 5.10 is their test, then you have a goal. Go get it!

Colin's Alpinist piece on similar themes was superb.

If you want to talk with the older generation go down to the VA hospital and talk to nice folks who really know what service means...

FWIW, I looked into including HAM into the emergency signaling device pieces I wrote for the NWMJ and Rock and Ice. After some research, it became apparent that HAM is really for people who want a new hobby. They rely on repeaters that may or may not be positioned somewhere useful to you, they rely on third parties that may or may not be listening when you need to send a message, they are subject to interference from other users, etc etc. They could sometimes be useful in emergencies, but it would be foolish to count on one unless you had someone waiting on the other end of the line for you to call (e.g. basecamp).

Nice adventure. On pics, go to the gallery. Upload photos there. Then insert using camera icon.