abalch

It appears another attempt by Lexus to make their new car seem adventurous. They keep coming up with weird comercials involving that button they have on their new car that starts the car. So far I've seen 1. a woman walks out to her car as voice over announces a ten second countdown to launch. She hops in the car and presses the start/stop button, and drives away. 2. a rubber clad woman descends on cables like in mission impossible, and presses the start/stop button in the middle of an intricate crystal structure--cut to car drivng down road. 3. a diver enters a rotting hulk of a ship or sub, opens a couple doors, and reaches a room reminiscent of some military missile launching room, and presses the start/stop button 4. the ice climbing commercial, where the climber drills into the ice to be able to uncover the start/stop button. It seems that they are attempting to make people believe that pushing a button to start your car can make driving a Lexus seem like an adventure.

The problem is that "technically" any liquid fuel stove that has been used is classified as a dangerous goods. So, to obey the laws, it is neccessary to package, label, and ship that stove with FEDEX, UPS, or with the airline as a dangerous goods, which requires certification for the shippper, etc. Think back to those oxygen generators on that flight over Florida some years back. When those oxygen generators were installed in the plane, it was all ok--but when not installed in the plane, but just carried in a box in the hold of the plane, they violated the regulations for safe handling of dangerous goods. IATA ( International Air Transportation Association) is the regulating body for what can be shiped, and how it can be shipped when transporting by air. There are exceptions for what are considered consumer quantities of certain prohibited items. That is why you can carry hair spray, disposable lighters, rubbing alcohol in your first aid kit, matches, radioactive materials contained in pacemakes, etc. So, maybe if you could convince the airline that the traces of fuel in your stove is a consumer commodity, then it would be acceptable to carry it on the plane. Otherwise, technically you are up the creek.

Climbing magazine did a tech tip on using a dog-eared bowline for quick anchoring at sport anchors. You tie into your harnes with about five feet of tail, and tie a double bowline on a bight with the tail. clip that out of the way, and when you get to the anchors, clip each ear to a seperate bolt, and clip a locker to your harness, and clove hitch the rope to adjust the length of the rope between the dog-eared bowline and your harness. I have used this technique a few times on climbs, and it works pretty well.

VacPac, you made a mistake. Twins are clipped as twins, IE both ropes into each piece. Doubles, also sometimes called half ropes, are clipped into seperate pieces of pro. I won't argue the higher impact, because I can't be sure of the numbers off the top of my head. Don't confuse the young padawan that came to everyone with his question. All that said, I would go with doubles, because the rope is more versatile, and more durable. They work great when doing full length rappells with your normal rope. Just make sure to tie the ropes together with a double fisherman's if you are rappelling on two ropes of different diameter.

Perhaps it is because in your original post, you can't seem to stick to third person, and will occasionally go first person, by saying such things as "We try to keep most of our products versatile, with the exception of a few designs aimed at our 'hard core' users." Now, if you had quoted that line, such as I did, people might be less inclined to think you are saying it, and maybe believe that you are quoting the response you received when you contacted this company.

Someone over on Rockclimbing.com commented about a new climbing gym right next to the Alpine Experience in Olympia. Can anyone give me more information on it?

Big Log Camp is about six miles in on the Staircase trail. If you are up to it, you could hike up to Flapjack Lakes, which is right below the Sawtooth Ridge. It is a beautiful place any time of the year. It would be four miles in on the Staircase trail, and then head uphill at the Flapjacks/black and white lakes junction. Another four miles sees you at Flapjack.

Part of the reason to suggest buying two new half ropes is that the reason you always match rope brands and models. You want to keep the characteristics of the ropes as identical as possible. With a four year old rope, even if it never caught any falls, the rope has aged, and even without any use, a rope only basically has ten years before it loses too much elasticity just from the nylon losing plasticity.

I got a speeding ticket in that safety zone around Mt. Hood a couple years back coming up from Smith, and when I went in to try to get it reduced, The first thing the judge said is that if it was in a construction or safety zone, Oregon Statute does not let them reduce it for any reason. At that point, your best choice is to try to perjure convincingly, and demand proof you were speeding, subpeona the radar detector, and generally do all you can to get them to become tired of trying you. The flip side, is if you lose, you have to pay more for the court costs of you being such a dingus.

If you were down in the Portland area, I would say Climb Max. They do a good job, from everyone that I have heard down here. I was planning on getting some of my metolius TCUs reslung soon, and if I don't drop them at the plant on a trip down to Smith, I will probably go to Climb Max.

Thanks for the heads up. Seems a simple enough thing to spot--I will have to check my draws when I get home.

according to Trango's own website, only the #1 is rated at 4.5kN; size#2 and up are all 8 kN. If you can get a good placement, still better than a lot of the really small cams out there. (I believe the zeros are only rated about 2 kN.) Make sure you set them like they are a nut, though, so they don't move up and into the crack. Even though they are a hassle to get out when fallen on, I still would rather fall on a slider nut over a similar sized cam any day. Of course, the one time recently I have placed a small cam (00 metolius), and fell on it, it deformed and I took a ground fall as a result, so I don't trust my small cams lately.

Great one!! For all the rest out there--positrons are positvely charged friends of electrons--same size, etc., hence the antimatter reference.

Where is that picture taken?

....by the way, I would really check out that pink tricam you bought. REI returned all the sizes manufactured by the same process as the size two, because in the size two they had a high number of their inventory had the cracks in the area of the pin, and on testing the size 2s that had cracks, they failed under the listed strength for that size as a passive piece, or as a camming piece. Your wife might get mad, if you give her a faulty piece of gear(but only for the few seconds as she falls to her death.).

The reason that REI only has the larger sizes of Tricams right now is that REI discovered in their inventory a few months back that the size 2 tricam with a particular manufacturing lot number ( can't remember of the top of my head, but I think 2G) had hairline cracks around the pin in the head. They also determined that the tricam set as a passive piece did not meet the strength reported by tricam. While REI is resolving the manufacturing problems and the strength of a tricam as a passive piece, they have returned all of the smaller sizes, to be re-inspected, and to be marked with the correct passive piece strength. I found out about all of this a couple weeks after buying the four smallest sizes, and was able to return them to REI no questions asked, even though I had already used them (gently), and even though REI was only at that time aware of there being a problem with the size 2. The REI stores down in the Portland area have assured me that when they are confident that the product defects have been corrected they will start to carry the other sizes again. The larger sizes are not affected in this, because the larger sizes are manufactured by a different method (cold forged "panels" of metal, versus solid pieces) and the larger sizes have checked out to be full strength in either passive or camming mode.

Clip 1: center blue, orange Clip 2: left blue Clip 3: right orange Clip 4: center blue, orange Not a good idea. If you start twin clipping, stay twin clipping. You can use doubles as twins, but if you do as you decribe, and fall after clip two, you have two different lengths of rope out possibly, and even if it is close to the same amount, you can cause rope damage, because the ropes will quickly slide against each other when you fall in the one piece where they are clipped together. the different lengths of rope means one rope doesn't stretch, while the other does through the carabiner. You can minimize this problem, if you don't have the extra ice screw, by putting one short, and one long runner on the first clip, so the rope are independently clipped. It is advisable to use lockers on the end of those runners where the rope goes through, to avoid problems in the unlikely scenario of the long runner opening the gate of the short runner.

at broughton giant's staircase? is a very simple trad climb that you can set a toprope on if you want to mock lead. Edges and Ledges and the Sickle also are nice, at I belive both 5.7. Same thing--can mock lead on top rope to practice placing gear. down at beacon rock, cruisin' it is a 5.7 that take gear great, but it is a little sparse on the eay traversing scramble to the anchors on the right. If you climb cruisin' it, make sure you have a 60 m rope.