dylan_taylor

Whats up with the "12-" pitch on the Calling/Northern Lights? Baffling! I want to watch some one free those moves. There's no grips! The rest of the route is solid compared to that little section.

The reason you would do this is because if you don't the following will happen. Assuming you are belaying and tied in with the rope, if the leader takes a whipper, the biner could get pulled one way, while the tie in goes the other way on your harness. Conceivably, the leg loops could get torn off, or you might get squashed by the compression. The idea is to transmit the load of the fallen leader directly from your belay device to the anchor. The Alpine Bod harness is the only one for which this is necessary. If you have a belay loop, as the vast majority of harnesses to, you don't have to worry about this. Unless you wash your ropes and harnesses in Battery acid, they won't break. Your bod will not break while catching a monster lead fall unless the climber is leading on steel cable. Clipping the waist and leg loop with your belay locker is fine. Clipping your figure 8 (like its a belay loop) is fine. The maximum impact force allowed on the climber is 12 Kn, and there is friction in the 'biner, that puts the max load on the belayer in the ballpark of ~6-8Kn. Redundancy is important, but it only realistically applies to how your rope is attached to the rock, you don't need to "back up" the rope itself.

I think most single ropes are marked by a "1" inside a circle, aren't they? the infinity sign sounds like the twin symbol, as does two circles touching - the same thing.

I went through a ten series in Boulder, past home of Ida P Rolf, and quite a saturated market. My friend has been doing structural integration for a few years and gave me the bro-deal - $600. Several other patients of hers have reported miraculous structural changes and improvement. I wouldn't go so far as to call any of my changes earth shattering, but I do think it was a good experience. My feet grew 3/4 of a size, I did get a touch taller, my ape-like posture evolved by a million years, and most of all, I have an increased awareness. The reason that it is a ten series is because the entire process of structural integration has been broken down into ten "baby" steps. I forget the order, but it involves inside upper body, outside upper body, inside lower body, etc... Seems like a good SI spends a different amount of time on each patient, depending on what their needs are. And, you can always go back after ten, and the SI will try to maintain the changes they have stimulated in your structure.

I watched an old screamer save a life at squamish a few years ago. A beginner friend of mine augmented his rack with a bunch of my gear and draws (including an ancient screamer), then headed up on "up up and away". He thought he was getting on a 5.6, not a 5.9. He placed a yellow (#3?) HB offset backwards! in a little flair, and clipped my screamer to it. This was near the top, where, for those familiar, you have to lieback for a few feet along a nice crack. I don't know why he didn't put a bomber cam in there. His last piece of gear was about 20' lower. I was around the corner at the time, on witchdoctors apprentice, and I heard an awful scream, the sound of gear crashing, an impact, and the sound of a giant unzipping his fly. When I went around the corner, my buddy was hanging upside down, the screamer was 3/4 extended, and the air was full of little pieces of white thread falling like snow. I thought the offset would have been welded, but when I went up and cleaned it, it plinked right out with barely any effort. Not much deformation on the brass, considering the amount of energy in the fall. The moral is, screamers work, and a lot of people above have hit the nail on the head - the screamer lengthens the amount of time available for the rope (and the rest of the system) to absorb energy.

Mike, Buy my POS '84 Westfalia. Maybe. Umm, do I really want to sell it? Hmmm. Those AWD previas are looking awfully attractive, though.

Found this to be quite interesting... http://www.xmission.com/~tmoyer/testing/pull_tests_11_98.html

I wish I wouldn't have bought those hot pink Lowa quantum IV's w/buckels. Those coupled w/footfangs made for the heaviest boot-crampon setup known to man. I've been trying to sell them for twelve years. Anyone interested?

The alpine bod still kicks ass for ski mountaineering and regular old glacier travel - times when you aren't likely to endure too many uncomfortable belay sessions anyway. When I see people using a harness for the first time, and it happens to be bod style, I just point out that its important to pick which side you want your break hand to be on, otherwise there is some rope twisting. The nice thing about using the belay loop on the rest of those harnesses, rather than clipping through the tie in points, is that the belay is ambidextrous. The rope to the climber goes up, and the rope to the brake hand goes down. Choose brake hand as you wish.

My cheapskate replacement slings for u-stem camalots, juniors, and TCU's consists of tying a normal loop of 9/16" webbing, but pre-threading it through about 4" of 1" webbing. Once the wide webbing is centered around the cable, I either use athletic tape, or run a few tacks through it on my sewing machine. That keeps the thin webbing padded. There have been occasions where folks webbing has cut almost all the way through on these types of cams because the webbing is under tension around the cable, and has nothing to pad it. The factory sewn slings on TCU's and the old juniors have an extra layer of non-tensioned webbing sewn between the closed loop and the cable. For camalot trigger repairs, three words: weed-wacker cord! It's cheap and lasts longer than the factory triggers anyway.

One Man's Mountains. Tom Patey.

Oh, i forgot. Suunto also has a golf line (maybe its weight helps your swing?), and an "internet" watch that, combined with an MSN membership, allows you to catch the latest news flashes and sports scores (as well as recent DJIA and SMP trends) Whew! Its the last piece of gear we'll ever need!

Another tent faux pas. I was guiding on Baker a couple years ago. It was mid-summer, and we ended up camping on the coleman glacier at about 7400' at the popular spot at the black buttes. My client wanted to sleep in his own tent - didn't like sharing. So I slept in mine solo as well. We camped in some pre-dug spots about 30 or 40 feet from the moat that forms between the glacier and the volcanic choss. There were sites dug closer to the moat, but I didn't like the look of the rocks that had landed on them. My client was cooking dinner in his vestibule and I was cooking in mine. There was a loud noise coming from above us, and all the hairs on the back of my neck stood up. By the time I unzipped the vestibule and looked out, there was a pile of rubble stretching from the moat to a point right between our two tents. It was a few feet tall and probably comprised about 5000 Lbs of stone. I don't camp there anymore. Not neccessarily because of that, but mainly because that site gets crowded and no one bothers to pack their shit out, or for that matter, at least properly dispose of it in the moat.

Twelve years ago, when all I did was clip bolts in colorado, I was climbing with some folks at rifle. I had just finished a route, my hardest at that point, and I clipped the anchors, untied my knot, re-threaded the rope, and tied in. I never said off belay. You can see where this is going. I made a huge error in not communicating well enough with my partner. I pulled into the chains, and the rope felt like it went tighter. I unclipped and let go. I fell all the way to the ground (60 feet). The route was overhanging the whole way, and I think the only thing that kept me from going upside down was the small amount of friction in the dude's belay device (he had a figure 8 rigged in "sport-belay" mode). My feet hit the only two flat spots around, and my ass landed on a round boulder. If I would have landed anywhere else I probably would have died right there, but I got away with a broken foot and a huge purple ass-cheek. My climbing partner moved to Thailand the next week and I haven't heard from him since.

I wandered the show in a haze of 3.2 poison. The thermarests are finally looking different, and smaller. Everybody's packs seem to have waterproof zippers. BD packs look quite a bit different, how much better they are who knows. Fritschi bindings changed colors and lost a few grams of weight. Everyone's skiis seem the same, just different graphics. I thought one spiffy item were the new Grivel screws. They rack nicely, have adjustable leverage, and they have a little wheel that sits in your hand while you start the screw, which may make it harder to drop them. Maybe the wackiest thing is marmot's new shell, with electroluminescence. Supposedly, you can read a map with your sleeve, find your tent, or wave frantically at a truck driver before he runs you over. And the Marmot logo shines brightly with all the fancy. Oh, and the most important thing: Suunto finally has a watch with a stock-ticker on it.

ummm, mine... Fun in the Black Canyon Fun on Sacred Space Fun on the West Rib

Seems like if you're soloing on aid then there are bound to be some dubious placements. I never tie in short unless there is an obvious ledge and I have the ability to build an entirely new upward-pull anchor (with one downward-pull piece tensioned to it to hold it in the correct direction). I have no confidence that sketchy placements will hold one of my falls, and now I equalize most tiny placements to one another rather than clipping them each with independent draws. I also liberally clip screamers to dodgy fixed relics, micronuts, and anything else I suspect. I started changing my ways after my fat ass ripped some RP's in eldo a year ago (A girl had fallen on the same RP nest just before me and it held). I've always aid soloed with the clove hitch but I took some little lobs recently while soloing with a grigri (non-modified) and it seems to work fine. The new Trango Cinch has some potential as a soloing device and toothless jumar (a la ushba).

a helicopter would be handy for saving the knees.

Tons of ways to skin a cat. Using an autobloc or adding a 'biner to your atc are both effective at adding friction and ought to be used more often, since the average preferred rope diameter seems to be steadily shrinking, but the inner gap size of vertually every belay-rappel device out there is not. My favorite technique is the one that Jason suggested, because it is simple (far simpler to do than to explain). It's just another version of re-directing or reeving theme, and it is really easy to build or dismantle mid-rappel. Its also smooth, doesn't twist the rope, and is easy to tie off. If I'm simul-rappeling and I get the skinny floss, I rappel-z or redirect the brake rope every time. And if I need to stop and de-tangle or pendulum to a station, I can build my autobloc and go hands free.

I guide for the institute (AAI) so my opinion is obviously biased. But, if I may sound objective: Any of the big three washington guide services (American Alpine Institute, Alpine ascents, and Mountain Madness) would be good choices. The guides are all experienced and the curriculum adopted among the companies is getting similar.

what about the floating bridge support with the sport route. Is that still around? I've always wanted to check that out when I find a boat. As for the hand cracks on the I-5 supports near the mercer exit, maybe an old #3 friend could be donated in order to facilitate expedited descents? I'll look around...

I hope this is relevant. I guess a rope decision would depend on what constitutes "alpine routes". A couloir climb with a glacier descent? A little simulclimbing? A 30 to 50m 8mm or 9mm cord should be plenty. For rock routes it seems 60m has become the standard, so beware of coming short on raps with a 50m. When rapping is anticipated, I climb with a 60 m 9.4 lead and 65m of 7.5 mil static that I found in AK. I wish I had the $$ so I could get 70 or so meters of 6mm. If your backup/tagline is static (like 6mm cord)get it a few feet longer than your lead bc/of rope stretch, and you can always chop chunks off to beef up anchors.