Rad

Heart of the Country has a 10a hands section and an 11b crack, if I recall correctly.

In the 10+ to easy 11 range you might try Cunning Stunt, Tunnel Vision, Angora Grotto, Leave My Face Alone, and Heaven's Gate. Others I haven't done but want to are Kite Flying Blind, Hairway to Stephen and Golden Road. They're safe so go for it!

Want to learn about investment? Read thirty years of shareholder reports for Berkshire Hathaway written by Warren Buffet. Not only does he know how to invest better than anyone on the planet, but he's a great and funny writer to boot.

There will be plenty of great climbing to be had. Shoot me a pm when you get back, Tim, and let's go climb something.

chicken heads rock, but that middle one is not perky enough to keep anything on board.

Weather in your window will determine your options so while researching is good, make sure you have options in different places (e.g. Rainier or Forbidden area if weather is good or Enchantments or even farther afield if weather is poor in Western WA.

Nope, but I've seen lots of leaf cutter ant colonies. They are really cool too. BTW, one defn of civilization is division of labor - and ants qualify! But humans are still better because we have middle managers, and even micromanagers...

"Freedom's just another word for nothin' left to do, Nothing ain't worth nothin', but it's free."

Thank you for the work!

Great. When I put up a new route I'll make sure to use 1/4 steel that rusts away within a couple of years. That way people can get really scared on stuff that was safe on the FA.

yep...that old aluminum hanger is just like the one used by the FA!! , likewise them bomber 1/4"-ers!!!!! Same as the day they were put in, i tell ya! keepin' it real... This sums it up for me too. I've clipped bolts in Yosemite and Pinnacles and many other places that might have been safe and solid when they went in but are garbage now. Reputable areas and organizations, including Yosemite and the Access Fund, support upgrading crappy hardware to make it safe. The focus is usually on anchors, but the same logic applies to bolts. Perhaps not to pins. That said, I too enjoy seeing and clipping old gear. It's part of the magic of experiencing older lines, so I would hope hardware is only replaced when absolutely necessary (i.e. failure is imminent). Finally, this is an issue for the Castle climbing community to decide, not the interweb SWAT team.

Here's a good article he wrote on the subject: http://www.mountaineers.org/nwmj/08/081_Pantilat.html

This kid is fun to watch. Moves much better than Sharma did at this age.

I guess the lesson is WEAR YOUR HELMET because this is not a steep climb.

If you never fall you're not going to improve, no matter what grade you are climbing now. If you only wear a helmet when you plan to fall then you WILL fall. You've set yourself up for it. Motivation is strongest when the chances of success are close to 50/50. The most satisfying leads for me are ones where it felt like I was going to fall and then somehow I kept it in control and pulled it off. Sure, being in a great setting with great partners is wonderful, but to get that heightened awareness I need to be at or near the edge of my abilities. Difficulty doesn't matter in that regard, which is why I can be as excited reading someone's 5.8 TR as someone else's 5.12 TR. It's about adventure, which means the unknown. Try it. You might like it.

cc.com needs an autobot to search and destroy any threads with "infinite bliss" in the title.

First, I send positive healing energies to Paul and his family. Accidents happen to good people, and we all wish you a full recovery. Speculating about things that might or might not have happened is not very useful. But we can look forward and think about the risks we take. I beg to differ. A difficult route is more likely to see a fall. A fall is more likely to result in an injury. And a helmet is more likely to prevent a brain injury. Make sense? Sounds like non-climber logic, but I don't want to trash your post without explanation. I think we can all agree that if you hit your head you're far better off having a helmet versus not having one. The question, then, is whether hard climbs are more likely to result in head impacts/injuries than easier ones. Let's make a few assumptions to start (feel free to dispute these if you wish): A - Steeper climbs are generally harder than lower angle climbs in the same area/style. B - One generally finds a higher ratio of experienced/inexperienced climbers on harder routes than on easier routes. C - Less experienced climbers are more likely to make mistakes than experienced climbers (perhaps the weakest of these three assumptions). Then, consider how these factors affect the most common head impact/injury situations: 1 - A falling object hits your head. The object might be a rock dislodged by a climber, a rock or other item falling for unknown reasons, or an item dropped by someone above you. This mainly applies in the mountains and on multipitch routes, but it can happen on single pitch routes as well. On steeper terrain (aka harder routes), falling objects are more likely to bounce away from the climber (belayers note that you are in the line of fire too). Also, less experienced climbers are probably more likely to drop or dislodge things onto people below them, and less experienced climbers are more prevalent on easier routes. For both of these reasons, harder/steeper routes are safer than easier routes. 2 - The climber falls and somehow flips, tumbles, spins, or pendulums and hits their head. Everyone is going to fall if they are pushing their limits, and everyone has different limits, so the suggestion that people fall more on hard routes is a fallacy. If anything, more people try the easier routes so more fall on them. Recall that it's not the fall that hurts you, it's the sudden stop at the end of it that causes damage. With that in mind, let's pose a few questions: Who is less likely to put their leg behind the rope, flip in a fall, and hit their head: the fledgling 5.9 leader who has done little outdoor leading or someone who has climbed and fallen on lead outdoors many times over many years? The experienced leader is probably safer. Who is more likely to be cognizant of unavoidable risks in climbs (moves away from corners, runout sections, mediocre pro) and be able to back off or keep it together mentally to fight through or fall safely? Again, the more experienced climber is probably safer. Whose trad protection is less likely to fail in a fall because it was improperly placed/clipped? Once again, the experienced climber should be safer. Since there is a higher proportion of experienced climbers on harder routes compared with easier routes, the harder routes should be safer. But what about the climbs themselves? Assuming protection is adequate and belayers do their jobs properly, climbers are least likely to have nasty impacts on overhanging routes, less likely to have impacts on vertical routes, and most likely to have nasty impacts on routes with ledges or big protruding features (easier routes). Thus harder routes are generally safer than easier routes. In case you need a baseball bat summary, two factors make harder routes safer than easier routes: the higher proportion of experienced climbers on them AND their steeper nature. Of course, we can always come up with exceptions. Experienced climbers make mistakes too. Steep routes can be dangerous, particularly if protection is bad. Heck, climbing is dangerous. If you want zero risk stay home and watch TV.

I'll echo the don't burn bridges comment. Same is true in any part of life. You never know who'll turn up as your boss or dating your boss or working next door. Also, if you feel the need to take time off just tell your boss. They may allow you to work remotely part time and would probably appreciate the notice to hire someone else. Maybe you can stay and train that person too. Leaving on a positive note is good, especially if you think this employer would be a good reference later.

When I was wrapping up grad school, I was contemplating taking some time off to travel before starting a new position and gaining a new set of responsibilities. Before doing so, I talked to members of my thesis committee, asking them if they had take time off in their careers at all. I got back two answers: 1 - I took time off and it was the best thing I ever did and I wish I'd taken more. and 2 - I never did take time off and I really wish I had. So....I bought an around the world ticket and spent a year traveling, mostly in Southeast Asia. The dollar was strong and the asian currencies were really low, so I was able to have an amazing trip for about $16,000 for the whole year, including plenty of air travel. I had planned to connect with friends for different parts of the trip but most bailed. They fell into two camps: those with enough money but no time, and those that felt like they couldn't quit their jobs because they didn't have enough money. Traveling alone actually ended up being better because it's easier to meet the locals that way. That year was incredible. I've done shorter trips since then, but now I have three kids, a mortgage, a job, fun consulting on the side, volunteer projects, and climbing when it fits in. So I don't have that kind of carefree travel on my horizon. Seize the day!

OW, I respectfully disagree. The Bayh-Dole Act of 1980 enabled universities and other institutions to take title (own) inventions arising from federally funded research. The result was the genesis of the biotech industry and a flow of technologies from academia to the private sector, with revenues relating to those inventions tracking back to universities and the inventors. This has had a big benefit for Universities, including the UW. Implicit in your comment is the presumption that we would all be better if ideas went into the public domain. Actually, that's probably not the case in many areas. In short, patents grant a limited term monopoly (ability to exclude others) in exchange for teaching the world how to practice the invention. Without this incentive, companies would never invest the large amounts of money needed to turn cool ideas into working products. Without patents, there would be no new pharmaceuticals and no subsequent generic pharmaceuticals when the patents run out. We could go on and on...laws relating to patenting of inventions go right back to our US Constitution. See also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bayh%E2%80%93Dole_Act

I'm with you, but the irony is that you created this wonderful corner of the internet in which these people spray. So by DOING something are you suggesting these disgruntled folks actually go out and chop bolts like Ken Nichols? Perhaps if Ken had been content to flame away on the internet then CT and MA crags wouldn't have seen the bolting and un-bolting wars they have. Maybe we should just all have a puffy jacket group hug and go climbing. Or skip the hug and just climb.

Perhaps at a cc.com event we can set up a mock TR anchor with my old timer oval biners facing the same direction. I'd give you ten to one odds you can't flick the rope out of them in a hundred tries. Seems like hardly anyone topropes any more anyway.

Tiblocs rock, but I've never fallen onto one, just used for ascending rope. If you plan to fall a lot on one part of the rope that might be sketchy as the teeth may damage the sheath.

Didn't mean to offend y'all. Post deleted. Just trying to discourage the ambulance chasers from using this site as a source of gory details. Pretty much everyone who climbs at Little Si falls on every outing while working one route or another, so the opening post sounded like one from a non-climber. Moreover, the fact that your first and only post on cc.com was an accident inquiry also suggested a media troll. Perhaps I was too quick to judge. Don't get turned off cc.com by me. Go to spray and let others do that for you. Better yet, post some TRs and share the stoke. Anyway, I don't know anything about an accident. Maybe someone who does will decide to post something.