OlympicMtnBoy

Hmm, that's when I'll be starting funemployment. Got any projects in the northwest in mind? Squamish wall?

That was awesome! After failing on Inspiration once due to weather this is so going down this year!

Fred B is looking for a partner if you want to hang out with a piece of history.

I'm fairly happy with my homemade ones with thin webbing and bungies and metolius FS mini biners and a swivel) but they don't get used all that often. Dane's website had some more good info if you haven't looked at it. I might try reworking mine to be more like the Blue Ice with no biner attachment between the tethers and the tools as those are a tad annoying even with the mini biners. I like having a swivel though. There are people here who do a heck of a lot more multi-pitch WI than I do though.

Cool, does this tie in to the studies Andy Luks has been doing down here? I went in for one of his studies but that was using ultrasound and measuring heart valve blood velocity. I ended up not being a candidate for the study but it was still kind of fun for the first round.

Nice pics! Maybe it'll be a good spring season for this?

Only tangentially related, but here is a great video of what happens when a culvert is too small (like almost all of them on these roads) and gets clogged. Mother earth literally spits this one back up before ejecting it downstream (keep watching): http://www.wmtw.com/r-video/17144859/detail.html

You got a link for the pic?

I'd love to see some pics of your wheel setup and hear the field reports. I've wondered about that for road/good trail -> snow approaches for my sled before. It sucks to carry the sled (doesn't help that mine is fiberglass and heavier).

Not much you can get to without a car, but check out Kevin Pogue's webpage for some of the smaller crags over that way. His driving times are from Walla Walla. http://people.whitman.edu/~pogue/climbing/climbing_areas.html

Cool. I saw those big guns hanging out when I was there several years ago. There is a military base not far off on the shoulder of Mt. Cheget too, so they probably have a dual purpose of avalanche control and border defense. We got run off when out acclimatization hike got too close to the border control area.

I think the Grivel Eagle is the only ice axe I can think of with a plastic grip area. I actually find some insulation most useful for spring climbs where it's generaly too hot in the sun to want gloves but your ice axe gets cold in the snow. My solution was a piece of bicycle tire innertube. I took a short (3 inches?) section and cut a round hole in the middle, then stretched it over the head so the shaft poked through the hole. It's held up for several years and makes it warmer to gram with or without gloves and doesn't interfere with grip any.

Interesting. It would be cool to see those results broken out by respondent age group and climber type.

When actually climbing I just have a tiny Spyderco Ladybug clipped to a biner. I find I rarely need a multi-tool on routes. The tiny knife works for cutting tat and lunch purposes. Otherwise I still use my Leatherman (CS4? Blue one). It's heavy buy has everything I want (pliers, scissors, saw, screwdrivers, wine opener, bottle opener). I normally only use it for non-ultralight backpacking and ski touring (when i might need to adjust bindings or something). They do have some newer micro tools that look nice though but I haven't handled one.

You might try asking at one of the ultralight backpacking site, but I think Evazote just defines the type of foam, but that there are different grades (densities) that will have different r-values and may be available in different thicknesses. All grades may not be available in all thicknesses, and different companies sell slightly different varieties. http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/forums/thread_display.html?forum_thread_id=15694 The main thing for me in this type of bad is that it is pretty durable (especially compared to inflatable pads) and works great as a half pad strapped to my pack on climbs where it gets scraped over rocks and laid out on uneven rocky bivy sites with no ground cloth or anything. I have no idea what exact grade I use, the weight differences for my cut down torso sized pad are pretty minimal.

It's a rope stretching 60 so make sure you have the exact middle, but it works fine. I wouldn't take two ropes if that was all I needed to do.

I've still got a pair of Vetta Plus's sitting in my closet too, size 10.5 if Lovetoclimb's are too small for ya. Good boot, just a bit small for me. http://cascadeclimbers.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/975945/

It's been a long time since I've been there, but at sea level you won't find any snow. It's not a huge park so I'd suggest beach combing and exploring, I don't think you could get more than a mile of hiking if that. Or are you referring to the Dosewallips River and not the state park? If you head up there I don't think you will hit snow before the old ranger station/campground which is ~3 miles past the road closure/washout (several years ago). Just hiking up the old road can be a nice mellow hike. The worst part will be getting around the washout but I think they may have completed a bypass trail since i was last there a few years ago. nwhikers.net may have more hiking info/conditions.

I dunno, we had a grand time there yesterday just chillin and climbing at the far end of sunshine. No crowds and mostly t-shirt's till the clouds came in in the afternoon. I was smiling! We didn't camp though, although I've had fun doing that too aside from the occasional loud music/generator/shit pile.

Nice TR! Your trip sounds eerily similar to our climb of Gib Ledges a couple Januaries ago, complete with malfunctioning stove, crappy skiing down from Muir at 4 PM, and the locked gate at the bottom/hotel visit. :-)

Oh and don't do what I did when they finally let you ride a real bike, and crash it. I looked pretty funny trying to get back into climbing with a walking cast on my foot and one hand wrapped in bandages with stitches from the bike wreck.

Yikes, quite the ordeal but you are right about the positive attitude. I found your journal quite fascinating and it made me feel very lucky about my own much less complicated fractures. I can't help with a bike but I think you'll find that it will help quite a bit with both the physical and mental aspects of recovery. I also found swimming to help quite a bit for strength, cardio, and mobility during my "limited weight bearing" phase, once I figured out how to stop swimming in circles anyways. Yoga as well, even if you do a funny one-legged version and make creative use of those foam blocks. It's still up hill from here, but you like going up hills. ;-) Good luck and best wishes! - Stewart

I think JK is referring to the drill tip, which is pointed in that picture. See the old Middendorf hand drilling/bolting article for a picture of the different types and some discussion. http://bigwalls.net/climb/bolts.pdf Also I noticed this thread on supertopo. "A taper" refers to the tapered shank, might still be able to find some new: http://www.supertopo.com/climbers-forum/1267216/Taper-shank-drills

Sweet, looks like my kind of fun in the sun!

If you're purely going for pull cord and aren't worried about tangles, check out Amsteel too, 100% dyneema braided line. I think Matt Maddaloni even jugged on some 4mm or something silly, but it seems like an option for super light yet super strong skinny pull line. Gotta be a pain for handling though.