fear

Luck is certainly part of the equation. If your don't think so then you're just fooling yourself.... Lot's of people seem to have the "I'm sooooo experienced and in control of all the variables...." In alpine climbing? BS...... Control everything you can but in the end you still roll the dice..... -Fear

A fall from higher up the ridge past Thumb would likely dump you either into the huge crevasses at the base of the Willis Wall or on top close to it. Either way, I sure as hell wouldn't want to be in that area just for a body recovery. I'd imagine a helicopter would be the "safest" way. -Fear

Ditto that. Each unfortunate rescue has produced a dead body, not some hungry hiker. And each of the first two accidents involved very experienced guys who just ran out of luck. Hopefully everyone else will be ok...... -Fear

And noone had helmets from the reports. wtf? Having dodged my share of 80mph bombs on the DC that seems kinda silly... -Fear

Sounds like BS to me. Spiking trees and burning unoccupied vehicles and structures is one thing. "unstable" explosives rigged with mercury switches is another... "Needles" shoved into locks reminds me of the old urban legend of "aids infected needles" in the coin return slots of payphones. If it were true I'd bet my left nut it'd be on CNN or some other major news service.... Turn it into snopes.com, they'll research it. -Fear

DC is a great summer route in good weather conditions. Just have your shit together even though it's a trench. I always try to be the first team leaving Muir or Ingrahm. That means a 11PM departure sometimes. That'll cut down on any rockfall from the DC and avoid the RMI herds. You'll also be down before everything turns to the dreaded wet oatmeal. Nothing beats a sunrise from the top either... -Fear

Would ribbed ones be considered aid? -Fear

Good question. Lots of bad information out there. Exposed to direct sunlight HCV wouldn't last a day. On hot rock w/ sunlight less than an hour. But in a shielded cooler area (like a nice cool crack) ~4 days. http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/diseases/hepatitis/common_faqs.htm#5 Keep in mind the chance of you actually contracting HCV from contact with dried blood on a rock is very, very small. But still possible. I would rather just not climb bloody rocks.... Heps are also not easy to kill like HIV. Don't think spraying a few squirts of Windex or Bleach onto a spill will eliminate the virus. Straight bleach exposure for 1 minute is the rule..... Rock could get tricky though with the irregular surfaces... A liberal dosing with MEK(brake cleaner) would do the trick. But the cancer might get ya..... -Fear

Just climbing/camping gear? 10 to 1 it's someone you know....... Probably been in your house before.... -Fear

Judging from conditions this May I'd say your "safest" bet in September might be to start from the upper Carbon and do the whole ridge in one push at night. You'd almost certainly have to start from the Liberty Wall side.... I wouldn't stop at Thumb or anywhere else until I was on top......... Then again, I'd climb something else myself.... Bring a couple of those Lexan riot shields.... -Fear

No problem in a rental car..... -Fear

Damn..... That's just nuts dude... almost completely insane.... -Fear

Only problem I've had with Primaloft is that it doesn't like being super-compressed over and over. It tends to lose it's loft much faster than Polarguard and the others. Other than that I think it's the absolute best synthetic insulation out there.... -Fear

fenderfour, I think you nailed it. And Buterfly, you're assuming I'm a man, aren't you? I seem to be the only one really "complaining" here - most people seem to think a "mixed" relationship works, except Mike but he's just cursed right? There are many reasons I didn't want people to know my gender. The advice has been much less distracted by speculations on whether I'm an asshole guy or a whiney chick. I used to be in a relationship w/a serious mtn biker, but we both dug skiing/snowboarding and they could climb (we met on an alpine climb). It just wasn't their first priority, and mtn biking wasn't mine, and that actually worked out REALLY well. It gave us enough space to do our own thing when we wanted, but we could also join each other if wanted and provide some comic relief. Now I'm w/someone who prefers bars, the scene, the excitement of flirting, and TV. Hmm... Thanks all for the advice guys. I'm getting this creepy feeling it's Pat from SNL...... -Fear

True, the "button" is kind of lame. But I'm already too heavily invested in Team Bibler, to switch teams now... FWIW my 1-door Eldo (made 1-2 years ago) has the corner button AND large hypalon-type pockets. I just stab the pole in there and worry about finding the button later... Oh wait... we're talking about tents... Averages a 4 minute setup time(For poles and basic structure). 30 minutes to anchor it.... -Faer

As far as this refilling stuff goes I think the biggest problem is where the hell you going to find an iso-butane-propane refiller? I buy bottled gas for welding at a place that has just about every bizarre gas combo you can think of and I've never seen it..... EMS/REI sure aren't going to get into the business of refilling explosive gas containers. There's just no market.... -Fear

If you're going to stage a car anyway, why not the Emmons descent? Easy, and should be well wanded with a track soon. Be kinda neat to climb over the whole thing... -Fear

Big 'ol Bastard file for tools and a dremel/grinder for crampons since there's lots more points and I have better things to do. I know I know "it'll ruin the metal". No you won't. Just don't get it hot. The key is not to press real hard and take a little from each point at a time with the appropriate grinding stone. Much faster. Never sharpened the bottom teeth on picks. On old style Pulsar picks I used to have to bevel the sides of the bottom teeth with a flat file but the newer quark-type picks are pretty nice right out of the bag. -Fear

Cat urine is the only thing known to man that damages rope.... Oh wait... this isn't rec.climbing.... Just double up on those slings and you'll be fine. Plus you won't scratch up your beeners(which can make them fail). Just don't pull the rope too fast. -Fear

Just go for the Liberty Wall direct instead. Noone's died on that yet. Std. Ptarmigan might be a better bet this year too for a realistic alternative. -Fear

I'm trying to setup a toprope anchor to my car. Well, actually it's not a car but a motorcycle. Anyway it's much heavier than me so it should work. I only have 23' of 9/16" webbing. Should I get 1" or will that stuff be strong enough?

One doored Bibler Eldorado with a hanging butane stove is your ticket..... Perfect for Lib Ridge... At least we thought so... -Fear

Puncture the can, crush it, and throw it in the trash. The puntured cans stink so maybe bag 'em first and throw them somewhere outside. -fear

Just under 13" Course I can't do a one-armer yet (or ever) either. -Fear

We climbed to TR the week after Peter Cooley died with the same thoughts.... But after seeing the route in person I think it's a really brilliant line that's pretty safe from the horrendous danger on Willis or Liberty walls. Certainly not a "death route" in a technical or objective danger sense. It's just really, really long moderate alpine climb coming up from Ipsut especially. Definitely a route only for the very experienced unless you get lucky. For weekend warriors like myself weather, snow and ice conditions were key. We were very tired after postholing up to TR and knew that 10-12 hours to Lib Cap was realistic for us going very slowly and carefully. We also knew that we'd be beat to crap after reaching Lib Cap and in no shape to get stuck up there. So a 24-36 hour perfect weather window was what we wanted and didn't get since we knew we'd be racing an incoming multi-day storm. Not a route to race on..... At least for us. So if you get the weather window, go for it. Just be prepared to run away if you don't like what you see. And even though I've never carried a cell phone before, I always would on this route...... at the very least just for weather before leaving TR. -Fear