markwebster
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Posts posted by markwebster
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I've not done it, but I suspect it is not ready for summiting. The control on those things is precarious. I've heard they are similar to windsurfing, which I did for 9 years in the Gorge. If your kite/windsurfing sail is too large for the wind gusts, you need a smaller kite/windsurfing sail.
At Hood River, we would just sail up to shore and change to a smaller sail. I climbed with a pilot for southwest for a couple years. They had a layover in an oceanside hotel. His copilot was kiteboarding and came in fast to the beach. He miss-judged his turn and crashed into, and through, the second story hotel room window...spent some time in the hospital.
But for what J was doing at Pan, that looks super fun, and reasonably safe, if you had the proper training. J, the guy doing it, is a semi-pro kiteboarder and snowboarder. He is sponsored by some big names.
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Trip: Mt Rainier - carving turns uphill at Panorama Pt
Date: 1/31/2011
Trip Report:
I wouldn't ordinarily post a trip report that I didn't go on, but this is my son, who only posts on facebook. This new sport is so amazing I thought you all would enjoy this.
Thursday he and a friend from the ER room skinned up to the wide valley just East of the top of Panorama Pt where my son took these pictures of his friend kite skiing. No one had skied there, so all the tracks are the guy on the kite. As many of you know, it is always windy up there. My son said the kite was very light.
My son's notes on this photo: "J was literally skiing up the mountain, all those tracks are his. awesome to see"
He was getting 20 feet of air in this shot:
My wife, daughter and I skinned up yesterday, but it was IFR (Instrument Flight Rules) the whole day. Nothing like wandering around for hours in a big cotton ball, 40 feet of visibility. I've not skied a sunny day up there this year. Love that mountain though...
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Awesome idea!! My solution was to use copper wire swages for 1/8" wire, but they were overkill. Your solution looks much better. I'm gonna' get me some of that copper tubing. I think I've seen it at home depot, and in hobby shops.
How long have your homemade swages lasted? Those rabbit j-clips last decades.
It's odd that the images won't show up on this board. I can navigate to them with your link, but they won't show with the standard image code for the board. Probably flicker intercepts them as a misuse of the bandwidth?
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I have a 8, six E, so I feel your pain. When I used to mountain climb, I bought a pair of Raichle steel shank boots and had the REI clerk stretch them sideways on his machine. They were leather back then, but they opened up very nicely, sideways. The plastic ones now should "punch out" also, if you have a knowledgeable salesperson.
If you drift into rock climbing, with that foot, you should be fine getting wide rock shoes, but for my flipper feet, I had to get creative:
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There is nothing wrong with fat ropes. One of my buddies has one of the new 9.somethings and loves it. But it feels like dental floss to me. I've led on it, and carried it and it was nice and light. But to say you can't have fun on 10mm ropes is just not true.
I started on 11's and had tons of fun climbing on them. I've watched technology drive them thinner, and that's cool. Despite the logic, there is something inside me that just likes thick cords better, regardless of technology.
Back in the early nineties I was poor, I had two trashed out 10.6 ropes, couldn't afford a new one...led a bunch of 10's at Dog Dome up the icicle on double 10.6's. I knew two of them together wouldn't break. Took long sliders on some bolts that way.
I know, too much force on the bolt, not enough stretch with double lines...but I was poor, and stupid.
I have enough trouble with my lead head without worrying about my cord. I keep 'em nice, and buy 'em thick. You young guys are welcome to your dental floss.
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I've got some dirt bag friends that push their ropes long past the point where I would retire them.
When I buy a rope at rei, I take it out to the car and flake it out, looking for the slightest flaw. I return one rope for everyone I buy this way. They are very likely to have snags, lumps, or outright sheath errors when brand new. And I don't just mean the flat spots from hanging on the wooden hook in the store.
I think we should force the rope makers to sell perfect ropes, at least when new. Then they have a much better chance of lasting long enough to get that nice fleecy feel where the worn hairs begin protecting them.
Since 1977, I've bought a new rope about every 3 years, but I only climb 2+ weekends a month. I don't like them when they get super furry, and have big furball sheath flaws from getting stuck in cracks, and hooked on cactus on the hike out. But my dirtbag friends climb and fall on them for years after I would get rid of them.
In my travels around the west coast, I have noticed a correlation between the skill of the climber, and the shabbiness of the gear. (worn out gear = time on rock)
It's the old: "Do you have confidence in your (rope, cam, wired stopper, bolt). If not, replace it, tempered by your finances.
Really depends on your budget I guess.
The lead ropes at our gym are mushy, lumpy, and not inspiring at all, but people take whippers on them all the time. I try to bring my own. YMMV
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Hey Mr. Klondike! Nice TR. Love the exposure in that self portrait, long ways down. Cool to see the lawnchair! Great seeing you on the board.
You should tell the story about why you brought the lawn chair. I mean, the logical, and slightly quirky thinking that made it a good idea. I loved that story.
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I live in Tacoma where it rains...probably all over the state today. In the rainy winter, climbing at the gym is all there is, not counting ice climbing.
All the gyms around here have some sort of lead test. At stonegardens, they make you lead a 5.7, while being toproped by another belayer. But all the lead routes are overhanging for reasons mentioned by Gene. There are however routes as easy as 5.8 that can be led. Lots of big jugs, and vertical, if not overhanging.
Making you TR a 5.10 means you must have done at least some climbing, which would assure the staff you are more likely to know how to lead clip.
At our local gym, you have to first do a short mock lead where you intentionally back clip, and z-clip, then fix it. Then you do a real lead up a 5.8, and take a lead fall at the top, usually about 10 feet of air time. Then you switch and catch one.
It's lots of fun getting air time at the gym. I've taken intentional whippers just for the ride. I like to bring my own rope though, the gym ropes get a lot of abuse.
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Owl looked good, if a bit run out. We were gonna do it but the sun had come out at joshua tree, finally, which was where we wanted to be.
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Marmot in Bellevue sells them:
It's odd, I know they used to be on the website, but they aren't there now. My wife and I bought both last years model, and this years model of the 7tm Power Tour Releasable binding from Marmot in December, 2010.
Here is a review, though the product sold is not the 2011 model, which we have and has the step in function.
http://www.backcountry.com/garmont-7tm-power-tour-releasable-telemark-binding
That is my review at the top of the page. Awesome release-able binding. The Axl may have more performance and control on the back of the ski, but I willingly trade a little performance for a release able binding. And yes, they have popped off a couple times in big bad falls. But 98% of the time they stay on in minor falls. I think they are awesome.
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Both my kids work as RN's in the ER room at a large hospital in Tacoma, swing shift. They both also got hired in their last year of nursing school as Nurse Techs, several months before graduating. That hospital uses the Nurse Tech positions as a sort of apprenticeship program for future RN's.
They tell me that the hospital hesitates to hire new nurses right out of college because they have to spend around $15,000 on 'on the job training'. In this bad economic climate, they would like to avoid that, especially if experienced nurses are available. My son tells me they are fully staffed right now, and not planning on hiring any new RN's in the ER (ED) for a while. But I have been surprised at the amount of turnover I hear about there. People move away, change departments, or get promoted to management, etc.
Tacoma is a decent location for a climber, a great gym with an active community of friendly climbers, and both trad and sport climbing within an hour or two's drive.
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I think they are being cautious. If you loaded 150 pounds of 2x12 boards, 15 feet long, right in the center of the dealer rack, the crossbeams would begin to flex, as would a yakima rack. My hope is that by spreading out my load (on the board) over three points of contact on the cross beams, I have some margin of safety.
I've actually wondered if the board, which tilts up slightly at the front, lifts me off the road a little, like a wing. Be cool to start flying! Bring your parachutes.
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oh dang, I had to hunt around for those stainless steel ring bolts. I have some of cheaper steel ones, but they rust so fast. Perhaps I will go to bolt hangars instead, then I can use stainless bolts which would be stronger since there is no ring in them?
Scary about the rack being attached with just a few sheet metal screws. Perhaps I need to run climbing rope down around the bottom of the car? That would be classic. I have to believe that those screws are pretty big. The car manufacturers know that people are tying $6000 worth of kayaks on top of their cars on the dealer racks...
All my car manual says is don't exceed 150 pounds.
I like your idea of the table conversion. I'll have to work on that.
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Looks like you found some good rock at Chochise. I've heard that the good rock is at elevation, one hour approach sort of thing, with bad rock on the short approaches. That is what we found anyway. I need to go back and do some of the long approaches to see that good rock.
We did find good rock on the sport climbing above Owl Rock.
Nice TR!
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I had a 2r that I bought in 1977. I was still using it around 2003, and it was awesome. Looks like they are still making them just as well, if not better. They are minimally designed, but have reinforcement where needed. I wouldn't have minded a few more ounces of weight to make a few places more durable. Though nothing wore out over all those years of backpacking and climbing. I also still have and use the sleeping bag, from '78. Very good gear!
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lots of tie downs to stainless steel 5/16" ring bolts with old climbing rope and 1/2 bungie cords for constant tightness over time. I think I could turn the car upside down and it would still stay on. The weakness is in the dealer rack. It's only rated to 150 pounds. Everything I made is over built and probably good for 300 pounds or more.
I put 10,000 miles on a board just like this back in the early eighties, but that was on my gremlin, which had beefy rain gutters. We used to put upwards of 300 pounds on that thing and drive to jtree and back, no problems. We used to sit up there with lawn chairs.
yakima and Thule have got everyone convinced that their plastic boxes are the only way to go, when in reality people have been tying things on top of vehicles since the stagecoach.
Common sense, make it super strong, use lots of rope and bungies, nothing is coming off.
It's a lack of common sense in this country that has led to the infestation of lawyers. Not to say all lawyers are bad, I know some nice climber lawyers. Did you hear what the shark said to the lawyer?
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The board was 45, varnish 20, a whole bunch of stainless steel ring bolts at a buck or two each...call it 30 in bolts. The fabric for the body bag was probably 25. Around $120 total, two days of work when it was too rainy to do anything else.
Sue schmoo.
I hate lawyers, never used one yet. I build stuff too well for failure to be a possibility. The whole reason I did it was the yakima box was plastic crap. My rack is rock solid. I would put it up against anything out there. Hell, I was walking around on it. And I needed more room...a bigger box.
The only thing that could happen would be I overload it someday, beyond 150 pounds would not be smart on any rack.
Perhaps Mark L. will chime in. He also builds things from wood, and saw my rack in action.
I saw tons of stuff on top of cars in the 2000 miles we drove with that rack. Mine was by far the most secure of any of them. We cruised at 85, and all I heard were a few creaks.
I build/invent things because my stuff is better than what I can buy, and yeah, I like to build stuff.
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I had this conversation about sewing my own cam slings. I was advised not to. We have some very experienced sewing people on the board, but I'm not one of them, though I did by an industrial machine. Bar tack machines run up into the seven thousand and up range.
If it's not for human life support, you would probably be fine sewing boxed x's instead of bar tacks.
There is a guy on here "crackers" who gave me some great advice, he sews backpacks for a living, and really knows his stuff in the sewing industry.
A thread here:
my juki, which will sew through 1/4 of anything, including 2 layers of full grain cow hide,purchased at
http://www.sewingmachineservice.com/
It's all about the walking foot:
If I had to do it over, I think I would buy a slower, beefier one for sewing *super* heavy stuff, like up to three eighths of an inch. But they run up to $3000...expensive for a hobby toy. sure is useful having a nice machine if you like saving money and inventing/improving stuff like jackets, packs, bivy sacks, mittens, tents, etc.
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The frost came down on everything, as you can see from the body bag, (spare refrigerator) in the foreground. I bought my negative 30 Stevenson bag in 1978. It did used to have a vapor barrier system that worked quite well. But over the years I think that part of the coating in the interior of the bag wore down, so body vapor can now get into the down as with any non VB down bag.
It doesn't matter because most of my trips are in good weather, and car camping, where it's easy to air it out each morning to dry out the condensation. If I cared about it, I'd get a VB sleeve inner bag to prevent the body moisture from getting to the down.
Stevenson makes awesome bags, or at least they did in 1978, same family runs it now. I use that thing all year long winter climbing at jtree, smith and vantage. 32 years old, and not even a broken zipper. I rarely use both tops, as the winter top is plenty warm most of the time. That photo has both tops on it.
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Spent Christmas at Jtree again this year with a bunch of friends from Tacoma and Smith.
I felt the ghosts of lost and injured friends (Jonny Copp, and blind Paul), but life goes on. I try to remind myself that this lovely sport is not all fun and games, it's a dangerous lifestyle, but one whose risks I accept.
We arrive in Joshua Tree Saturday afternoon, 12-18-2011 to sunshine and ominous clouds. We climbed Sunday in overcast conditions, and woke up Monday to the start of a 3 day monsoon, with forecasts of 80% chance of rain. This storm was so big it flooded the roads up to 12 inches deep, and caused havoc from jtree, to red rocks in vegas, which closed due to washouts.
By that time though we were in Cochise Stronghold East of Tucson where we found perfect balmy sunshine, temps in the high 60's. I was not impressed with Cochise. James, Steve and Brentley hiked for an hour to some 5 pitch chickenhead climb and loved it.
Craig and I stayed low and hiked up another valley, thinking we would just find a cliff and climb it without a guidebook. We did that, and it was ok, but anytime we found a crack, it was total choss, worse than a rotten Peshastin Pinnacles crack. Apparently the better quality granite at Cochise is at elevation, which breaks my "5 minute approach" rule.
This is Craig, looking up a Cochise canyon, where all the cracks were rotten. There were some 4 pitch routes off to the right (one hour approaches), that people were climbing, had we not slept in.
The third day at Cochise James took us up to a nice sport climbing area that was grid bolted with eights through 11's. That was actually very nice, with only a 20 minute approach.
Steve, rapping off one of the excellent rap stations on top of a nice bolted 5.9. These routes compare to exit 38, in that the rock is a bit rotten, but someone has cleaned it all up, and what is left is excellent, well bolted (not run out) sport climbing. This wall looks down on Owl Rock, which you pass on the trail up.
Craig, doing girlfriend maintenance at Cochise:
That night we drove back to Jtree, arriving on Wednesday evening to normal, if coldish temperatures. Steve looking for breakfast, no, don't drink that orange juice! My stevenson bag got covered in frost.
Craig leading some friction over on Echo Rock.
Steve following a 5.9 left of Heart and Sole. I backed off this route after many falls, and Craig finished it for me. I taught Craig to climb, and use an SLR last year. Now he leads elevens and takes magnificent photos. Some folks are just naturals.
James following me up the second, last pitch of Moosedog tower 5.9 in Indian Cove, where it is always much warmer, a 1000 feet below hidden valley.
Christmas Day I drove one hour to Palm Springs airport and exchanged Steve for my wife Sue. Both could only spare a week in Jtree, unlike James and I who had our usual 2 weeks. This is Sue on Double Dip, a 5.6 super run out sport climb at Echo Cove. I love the way jtree gets you used to friction runouts.
Vange, who was heading off to medical school, followed me up the Flue, a 5.9 fist crack on Chimney rock.
After Vange cleaned The Flue, I was in trouble. It was dusk, 27 degrees, the wind was blowing, and neither of us had warm clothes. There is no anchors, and the walk off is 5.6. What to do? Vange had never placed gear, so she couldn't down lead the walk off for me, plus we had "pinched rib" to clean. I had backed off that earlier. While we slowly froze on the summit, here comes Craig, running across the campground to our rescue, no gear. He borrowed a harness followed Pinched Rib barefoot, in the dark, cleaned my gear, and down led the 5.6 walkoff. The man is amazing!
In better weather, Vange following Toe Jam 5.7:
Ashley, Vange's climbing partner, leading Toe Jam:
My old buddy Mark L, after following me up the flake, 5.8 on intersection rock:
Mark L again, on the flake:
Ashey and Reed (from Smith) on top of Bat Crack, Intersection rock.
New Years day, after the big party, packing up site 28
One last photo, to close out this TR. Craig took this one of his girlfriend. I don't think he'd mind me posting it, he has it on facebook already. On about 12-28, it was super windy. Craig and C. decided to rent a hotel room, while Sue and I weathered the storm in our tent. He took this amazing shot with his external flash on his T2i. It's all about the women, in climbing. I really enjoyed having my wife show up and climb with me, and I know Craig enjoyed having C. fly in:
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I finished my homemade rocket box, but my plans changed along the way. I decided that a box of any kind has problems: What do you do when the box is too small? Story of my life actually...
So I went with two dimensions with an expandable third. I measured the top of my car, and bought a sheet of good quality ACX 3/4 plywood. I sanded and painted it with Spar Varnish. Some people who know wood better than I do recommended epoxy resin, and I may still do that, though I might have to sand off the Varnish.
The dealer installed rack crossbars have an arc to them, unlike a straight Yakima round bar, so I had to add little wood spacers to help distribute the load of the board evenly.
For the most important part, the attachment of the board to the cross beams on the rack, I had a couple choices. Yakima makes adaptors out of plastic for non round dealer racks. I bought them, but didn't like the amount of plastic.
To make my own, back to home depot and the metal section. They have strips of 3/16" x 1" by 3' iron for a few bucks. I bought a few of those, cut them into about 8 inch strips, heated them up with a butane torch (msr stove might work) until they were red hot and got to work blacksmithing.
I ended up making a little bending jig from 2 long bolts mounted in a metal plate so I could more easily bend the red hot iron bar to exactly the curve I wanted. This is great fun by the way, if you like inventing and trouble shooting. I painted the metal with white paint...need to sand that off and prime it, do a decent job.
I also got some stainless steel bolts with lock nuts 5/16 diameter. All the holes got spar varnish inside...but I need to rethink that...they are leaking a bit, must be a better way to make them weather tight.
I bought some snowshoe like neoprene from Seattle Fabrics and glued that to the metal bar, and the wood shim, so the factory rack would not get scratched. The rack cross beam is sandwiched in neoprene.
The whole board:
Side view, before I upgraded to all stainless steel ring bolts.
on my Rav4:
My rack board loaded up at Coyote corner, the shower house in Joshua Tree for the return trip to Tacoma two weeks ago.
Site 28, our home for two weeks at xmas hidden valley jtree with the rack board on the car.
The black bag, henceforth called "the body bag" is the best part. That neoprene fabric is so heavy it doesn't flap. I load it up with sleeping bags, 4 pairs of skis and poles, drunken partners, whatever needs to go on the roof quickly. I strap it down with a few bungies and biniers, and old climbing rope if I'm driving far.
One thing I will do to improve it is to redesign it so the mounting brackets are little 6 inch square modules that can be bolted to the crossbeams individually, with bolts sticking up. I'd drop the board down on the modules, and tighten 4 nuts, locking the board to the rack.
This would solve the access issues of mounting the board to the rack. It's hard to mount the metal bars under the rack crossbeams because of clearance issues. Yakima and Thule have simple levers inside their rocket boxes that make it a snap, but I've not figured out how to engineer that kind of convenience into my system.
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Friend of mine from Edgeworks buys a completely beat up, worn out Mountain Hardware expedition puffy off a fellow dirtbag for a pittance. Takes it to REI, no receipt: "Uh, excuse me, but this jacket didn't last as long as it should have." They give him a brand new $600 puffy. He was so proud of his cleverness.
To me that's robbery. I'm sick of dirtbags basically stealing from society to live their irresponsible party lives. True, we all do it when we are young and stupid..."screw the man", and all that. But to keep working that angle for years on end when you know better, it's just wrong. If you believe in Karma...what goes around, comes around. I used to like the Smith crowd, Bivy Joel and all, but now they make me wonder. They seem like they are stuck in a time warp, and would benefit from getting on with their lives, even if it's a job at Starbucks.
The REI credit card is awesome. You get something like 10% back on every purchase as a member, plus another 5% when you buy with the card at REI. 3% back on gasoline, and 1% on other purchases,approx. Anyway, I got a $400 dividend last year, based mostly on card purchases away from REI, like my power bill.
Marmot in Bellevue is awesome. They have everything, hope they survive.
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thanks for the info. I'll be taking my test in a few weeks. I'm not scared off by the complex technology. It's always fun to learn new stuff...enjoy the challenge and all that.
When you think about it, the cell phone industry is really just ham radio, sanitized and cleaned up for the average lazy joe. Repeaters and cell towers have a lot in common.
I'm gonna ween myself from Verizon, I swear it!
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good points Rad. I did hear a story about a ski patroller on snoqualmie pass (where there is excellent cell reception) using a handheld ham to call the repeater ham radio in his car. That 50 watt car ham radio repeater then sent the signal to a Bellevue repeater that let him into the normal phone system where he dialed a phone number with his handheld ham.
Other uses would be to communicate with my wife on her handheld around Tacoma or backcountry locations where there is no cell reception, assuming she is within range. I could reach out further with a 5 watt ham than with a $40 REI radio.
But yeah, I've always been fascinated by electronics and the theory of radio waves. Be cool to have a hobby that helped me understand how that all works.
[TR] Leavenworth Midnight Rock - Running Start (New Route) 8/25/2010
in North Cascades
Posted
Women seem to like us older climbers. Possibly because we are older, married, and not on the prowl like you young guys. Mr. Klondike is also a really, really nice guy, and climbs harder than most of my 20 year old friends.
I love climbing with him because I am sometimes the beneficiary of accessory hugs from the young ladies :-) They come over to hug Mr. K, see me standing there and think: "Oh, what the hell, I'll hug this dufus too."