Rad

Don't worry Gene, you can Cinch my Edelweiss any time. When we last spoke you were off to sit in a tent in the rain on a foggy glacier with a bunch of hyperactive toddlers. How did that go?

If they can hold a myriad of classes on this crag that should free up Classic Crack so RUMR can finally get his pinkpoint.

Correct. 2 points.

Actually, that was from middle school, but let's not hijack the thread. ...... West Mac bivy sounds like a great vantage to watch sunrise and sunset. My partner and I bivied on the summit of Inspiration and it was very cool.

For the record, Mr. Bee, "its" should have an apostrophe for your use. This is a common spelling error. As a possessive there is no apostrophe: "That cam will never hold because its lobes are tipped out." As a contraction there is an apostrophe "It's the fifth time I've asked you to stop farting in the tent, now get out!"

JH, thanks for useful links. Malcolm Daly of Trango says don't use either the Cinch or the Gri-gri for soloing, so I don't understand why people latched onto the former and ignored the latter. Neither is approved or designed for that use. Dmuja, on TR the rope will run from the ground to the anchor and back down to the climber, just as in a regular TR, so I don't see why you think the fall factors would be longer than on lead. In my case, I know I'll be falling on TR and strongly doubt that I'll fall leading the moderate route. Feck, thanks for tips. This is a sport crag so I don't know if there are gear anchor possibilities. I'll have to think hard about what device to use. Recommendations accepted. Thanks so far.

Congrats on slots and dry heaves. Perhaps this should move to the Pirates forum due to picture piracy, but I'm glad you inserted them.

My books are in storage so I thought I'd ask here about solo roped climbing. I've been climbing for many years but have never done this before and would be grateful for tips/corrections. I want to lead a moderate line to TR a harder line and was thinking something like this: 1 - Climb moderate to first bolt, clip a bight of rope end to the first bolt using a locking biner. Rope feeds from biner to my Cinch (auto-locking device similar to a gri-gri) which is on my locking biner on my harness. As I climb I pay out rope through the Cinch and clip bolts as I pass them until I get to the chains (shared with harder route). 2 - Lower down hard route on Cinch, clipping the rope through Q draws as I go as this route is rather overhanging. Once on the ground, I'd fix the end of the rope to a tree not too far away. 3 - Then climb the moderate route again, cleaning the rope and draws from it. The Cinch is now protecting me like a TR. 4 - Then I'd lower straight down the steep route, fix THAT end of the rope, and tie myself into the end that I'd tied to the tree previously (which runs through the Qdraws). 5 - Finally, climb hard route on TR with Cinch as belay. This requires pulling rope through the device whenever there is a spot to free one arm to do that. Lower or rappel (with separate device) to get off. That's what I envision, but I am a noob and welcome your suggestions/corrections. If you want to spray that's fine but please post some useful tips too.

Dana Designs made backpacks (got my first in 1990 and still have it). Chounard made climbing gear (have a set of stoppers with C in the side). REI took crappy clothing and stuck their name on it. At least some things stay the same.

We may end up at x32. You didn't want to go to work did you?

We have 3 and would welcome a 4th. Leaving near I5/520 jxn about 9am and returning by 5. Send pm by 6am if interested. Rad

source please? Side of biner in pictures and numbers (but I had my decimal in wrong place so was off by factor of 10): Trango superfly: 24kN closed long, 7kN crossload closed, 9kN open. BD wiregate (finder so not sure which): 25kN closed long, 7kN crossload closed, 9kN open.

If you clip the bolts and the chains/rings press on and open the gates of your biners that is bad. A biner with a strength of 23kN might fail at 9kN with the gate open. If you decide to clip bolts directly, which does have less potential points of failure, try to extend your runner/quickdraws below the lowest rings/chains so that the rope runs free of these things.

Either is fine if an inspection suggests rings look ok. There are other things to worry about.

and hilarious!

Keep leg intact and chimney with left armbars.

Cool story Bill. One of my best friend/partners lived in a TeePee on the East side of the Sierra for a number of years. Pictures really conveyed the romantic image you might imagine. In a less aesthetic sense, I know folks who lived in yurts for several years. Still others grew up in trailer parks. How many do we all know living in vehicles? I remember an ad (not sure the vendor) that pictured Dean Potter slacklining in Yosemite in the sunshine. The caption read, "There is a leisure class at both ends of the economic spectrum".

Names don't ring a bell. Which crag?

Thanks for posting. Sounds like several near misses. You have reaffirmed my decision not to go in there until that dang pocket glacier is gone completely.

Jens just completed the FA on a new route he's calling Tea Time. It's at Gunshow - go down right to the 10c/11c pair and climb the line 5ft right of their shared start. It's got some great moves on clean rock - 5 or 6 bolts, 11b. For some moderate routes not in the book go to this area: x38 routes above Deception area - not in guide book yet

The overhanging line under the traverse anchors is a short 11c power problem put up by Jens Klebberud. Not sure what the rating is on the traverse as I haven't done it.

Exotic rests are cool, but I find that 90% of the time my best rests involve a STEM and/or a BACKSTEP. Somewhat less useful rests involve creative use of a large handhold: wrap thumb over top and release fingers, wrap arm/elbow over top, or just swap hands in a straight arm hang.

Which is more important, the partnership or the gear? Think about it before chewing out your partner over a $6 biner.

I don't think I could pick just one. I've had a few high points this year so far: The Sword. Metamorphosis (FA). Leave My Face Alone. Negatherion. Past alpine pitches: Stuart NR gendarme p2 at sunset. 5.9 pitch on E ridge Inspiration at sunset.

Thompson is like Unicorn: a very long way to haul a rope for a few moves of mid-fifth chossy climbing. The setting is certainly fabulous. We came in/out via a road SE of Commonwealth basin. It brought us up to the ridgecrest in 30 minutes of x-country travel at the point where the PCT flattens on the ridgecrest and heads toward Red mtn/Kendall. If you can find this it will save you substantial time/miles/elevation. IMHO, N face Vesper is better in every aspect.