Rad

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.

- post deleted - see below.

Thanks all. Nice ones. Up late because son won't sleep, so here are some more bouldering vids:

With you on that one. Too much of life is indoors already.

Nope. I think the guide shows it as a short 10d but it didn't look appealing when I was up there a year ago. So I don't know much. I've never seen a climb at X38 or X32 without top anchors as most were bolted on rappel...so wear your helment and go for it and let us know.

For me, the top two are David Graham on the FA of Coup De Grace in Dosage IV and Sharma on the FA of Es Pontas in King Lines. They are not on the interweb. Got more to add to my list? The intersection of power, precision, focus, passion, and creativity. Awe-inspiring. Great cinematography and music help too.

Awesome. Thanks for posting. Good luck sending that blank slab. "Tamara is always happy..." A wonderful personality trait or medication state, whichever the case may be.

Jon's graph is a good one that I think a lot of people miss: rest and recovery are important because that's when growth/strengthening/repair happens. Too little rest is bad. Too much rest is bad. Find the sweet spot.

Cool. There's an excellent new 11b (Tea Time) that takes a line just right of an 11c down the hill (11c shares an anchor with the super soft 10c). CC.com was working on developing a route wiki. Not sure where that stands.

Crevasses are not an issue on that thing, only whether it is hard or not.

So which hotel(s) have the best value/quality all you can eat gourmet buffet value?

East facing crags tend to dry fast, but watch the forecast. Winds out of the East funnel in and rip through the areas that are not in the woods, making some annoying conditions. Other crags will be more sheltered from wind but will seep longer.

Search for TRs on this site and you'll find some good info and people to pm for detailed beta.

Thanks Jon. Search improvements are greatly appreciated.

We'd love to have this in the Northwest Mountaineering Journal this year in one form or another. One of us will contact you about that. Rad

Very impressive, nicely written, and beautiful photos!

Kay, Many on this site view TRs as the best content on cc.com. A number of TR posters have gotten tired of the endless spray that clogs the arteries here, and several have stopped posting their cool climbing stories. So if someone like you makes a post that threatens to eliminate another chunk of TRs, it should not be surprising that many people take offense. Without TRs this site would be just another trash talk heap on the interweb. If talking trash about TRs is your thing then find one of those other sites or move to spray. Thanks and have a lovely day. Rad

Actually, today I went to Si. It was so SICK! Well, maybe not the big Si cuz we're not ready for that. Just the Little Si. It was still totally SICK, though. Actually, we didn't make it all the way up the trail, we got sidetracked by this SICK cliff. There were some small curly-haired dogs walking on the trail that left little curly dumps on the gravel by the parking lot - SICK! -but they didn't scare us - the dogs or their dumps- cuz we're climbers. Well, mybe not REAL climbers, more like SPORT climbers. So we warmed up on a reptilian climb. It was SICK. A few bolts next to a crack. But hey, it's sport climbing so what do you want?! We used my pink rope. The anchors look crappy and need to be replaced so someone doesn't lower, fall, bounce on his head on the ledge, and fly into the trees below in a pile of gelatinous gray matter. SICK! Then we went to climb some route named after prana-topped hotties in VW. It was SICK . The route was dry except on the last move to the chains you had to step into a sopping slobbery foothold while pulling an undercling on an overhanging wall. SICK. Clip, clip. Lower. Meanwhile, a 5.14 climber was warming up on my SICK project. Well, it's not mine, and it's not a project, cuz it's been climbed 1000s of times be4, but it's a project for me cuz I haven't climbed it so I was projecting my proj. And it's SO SICK! It would be my first at that number grade. So I asked the 5.14 climber to hang some qdraws for me, cuz I'll take any help I can get. So I set out on my redpoint attempt - actually pinkpoint because the draws were pre-placed - feeling like Superman. Well, not really super, but at least OK, and more like a sport climber dude than a real MAN, so really just an OK sport climber dude. SICK! I was stressed beacuse my lucky chalkbag was at the gym where I left it on Friday, but I borrowed one so it was ok. So I started up the proj. I made it through the SICK bouldery lower crux, rested on the ledge while my belayer untangled a hairball of rope, barely hung in there through the enduro middle, and snagged a SICK rest on a hold so caked with chalk it looked like a seagull guanofest party. But I chalked more anyway cuz it was my proj I was projecting. Then I slapped up the arete, sketched past the second to last bolt and...fell two moves from the end of the bidness of the route. Not so sick. More sickening. Simply ran out of juice and couldn't crimp the crimpy crimps on the bouldery upper bulging SICK final crux. So I hung like only sportos can and then climbed to the top, undaunted by the fact that the bolts were almost 6 ft apart! SICK! Redpoint still awaits. So that was my day at Mt Si, or at least Little SI, or somewhere up the trail half way to Little Si. SICK!