markwebster

this is such a worn out topic. I was reading an article recently about John Bachar and Ron Kauk. Back in the seventies they wore swami belts, and refused to wear leg loops because they thought it was cheating, and led to hang dogging. 5 years before that it was: I won't climb in EB's because it's cheating. 5 years later it was: using friends (cams) is cheating. Now some people say you are not having a "true" wilderness experience because you carry a cell phone. Most of the time the phone is dead anyway, but if they work, why not? It might save someones life. We got someone into a helicopter at smith in '93 because of a cell phone. She would probably have died without that timely call, 80 foot fall. Natural selection and Darwin's law...true, but is that still a good idea when it could be you, or your loved one?

imagine if that was you. This could happen to any of us. I was leading a route yesterday with less than optimal protection, considering a move that might result in a ledge fall. I thought about Paul...and backed off. My partner finished it for me. That's the great thing about this sport, we help each other out. Been thinking about buying a 5 camalot. It's payday, I think I'll make a donation to Paul's hospital account instead. There is no way we can approach what all that costs, but if those of us who know Paul pitch in for whatever we can spare, it would at least cheer him up a little when he comes out of the coma.

yes, he has climbed a lot at index.

I don't know if any of you know Paul Bailey. He has climbed all over Washington and smith so I suspect some of you have seen him around. He worked for rmi two summers ago, and spent last summer working in mazama...maybe for outward bound. He is on a road trip in Australia and just took a very bad roof fall. newspaper story He had $25,000 of medical insurance, but that won't cover his costs. I'll be sending him what I can. Paul and I spent 3 weeks together at jtree this xmas. http://www.websterart.com/html/jtree2008.html The guy is an awesome climber and partner. more info here: paul bailey website If you believe in prayer...

jtree 2008 xmas. A climbing partner. my wife in 1982, before all the bolts, and the kids, when we were young heart and sole, jtree outsiders, smith this last one was taken with my oldest camera. has a 2 hour exposure time. jtree

We were very, very hot. All of us were long out of water, even though we'd each started the day with 2 or three liters in our camelback packs. Jill had managed to save one small package of juice, which she drank just before rapping as we watched with dark, brooding envy. I had an inkling that we were skirting the edge of disaster as all of us were fading at the rap station. Jill dozed off several times. I asked her if she was ok, and she said she was "just taking a little nap". I'd given them the last pitch as it was too hot to be fun, choosing instead to stay at the baking belay station (top of pitch one of Sons of Yesterday [pitch 4 of Serenity] ) and slept deeply, dreaming about cold mountain streams. They were grooving on the girl power thing, rock paper scissors for the lead...and all that feminine macho crap. I admired their gung ho attitude, but it looked like just another nice 10a hand crack, and I was too hot and dry to enjoy it. My fingers were still screaming at me from falling off the crux of Serenity. I'd ripped a large flapper from the tip of my little finger, it being the only thing that would fit in the dam crack. As I hung there resting, I ripped off the flapper and tossed it. Jill was watching from the top and said later she almost yelled "Rock!" because the flapper was so big. It floated gently down through the baking air, dripping blood. I was having a wimpy day as I'd also bailed after taking a leader fall, and then completing the friction traverse on pitch 2, letting Sandra finish the last 40 feet of 10a fingers. Sandra was so baked from leading the 10a pitch of sons of yesterday that she simply lay down in the crack under the bolts and zoned out. "You guys do what you want, I'm resting". Jill rappelled over the edge. She was a long time rappelling. We expected her to be off rappel but she was just hanging there, for a very long time. Sandra and I talked about what could have happened. We were 4 pitches up. Sandra leaned over the edge to see Jill but Jill was out of sight. We shouted, but could hear nothing. Sandra extended her daisy with a couple of slings, backed it up with a cordallette and was able to lean out far enough to see Jill. "Oh no! She rappelled to the wrong tree! She is a hundred feet climbers left of the anchors, three pitches up on an overhanging wall. Does she know how to prusik up the rope?" "We've talked about it," I said, "but she doesn't have true prusiks, just shoestring alpine slings." Sandra walked down the bulging dome until she could see Jill again, 60 meters down ,and shouted into the wind: "Can you prusik up the rope? Shit! I can't hear her." Sandra came back up to me and slumped down in the crack. "We will just have to wait and see if she can prusik," she said, "Damn! Do you have any water left, it's baking up here." "Dream on," I said, "I've been out for 2 hours." Nothing happened and the rope sat motionless on the hot cliff. After 10 minutes Sandra walked down to the end of her extended cordalette, and hung there over the edge, balanced precariously 420 feet up in the air. "Damn, I can't see her!" "Where did she go? How could she just dissappear?" Suddenly the rope went slack. We wondered if she had anchored into something, but in the back of our minds was a far more ominous possibility. We had knots in the end, and she has done many 15 pitch rappels, just days before she and I had rapped the entire 16 rappels of royal arches in the pitch dark, reaching ground at midnight. Still, as heat stroked as we all were, there was a possibility that the worst had happened. My heart gave an awful lurch as I thought about it. The double 60 meter lines went taught again and we looked at each other with big smiles. "She's still there! We may have to consider the possibility that we will have to lift her up with a z-pulley," I said, "Do you remember how to do it?" "Um, maybe...I've done it before in rescue classes, and I was reading that book on the way down," Sandra said as we stared at the unmoving taught double strand representing our partners life. "I've done it before too," I said tentatively, "but it's been 32 years since we pulled each other out of crevasses at Mt. Rainier." "Let's see if we can remember how to do it, at least we'll be doing something!" Sandra said. ******************** From Jills perspective: You guys told me it was ok to go first, and I thought I could easily find the rap stations, having just led the third pitch. It looked too hard to go to the top of third pitch of serenity since it was far off to climbers right, so I rappelled down, angling off to climbers right, but heading for the top of the second pitch instead of the top of the third pitch. After 150 feet, as I rappelled downward on the dual 60 meter ropes, I found myself angleling down to climbers right along the edge of an exposed arete. I saw a sturdy tree, and thinking it might be the top of the second pitch, I headed toward it. Suddenly, my feet slipped and I pendulumed leftward off the arete, flew over an overhang and slammed hard into a right facing open book. I managed to hold onto the rappel rope, but I was stunned from the force of the impact with the open book. Because I was now below the overhang, I was hanging in free air. 20 feet down I saw a lesser angled slab, so I rapped down to that. I rigged up my thin alpine slings as prusiks and tried to prusik up to the tree, which was now above me. With mounting frustration, I realized the prusiks would not allow me to climb the rope. They would grab, but were so thin and flat that I couldn't slide them upward. They would lock under load, and stay that way. Once Sandra leaned out far enough for me to see her I tried to tell her I was going to try to prusik up to the tree and anchor, but she couldn't hear me. When I heard Sandra yell: "Do you want us to lift you up to the belay?", I tried to tell her my plan, but the wind blew my words away. After a few minutes, when I again heard the distant, wind blown words: "Do you want us to lift you up to the belay? Yes or No?", I thought for a moment about my options and yelled "Yes!" End of Jill's perspective. ******************************* It took us half an hour before we could figure out how to get the z working but eventually we had our prusiks on the line and we were ready to start hauling Jill up the cliff. "Ok, ready, set, pull!" I pulled directly on the rope while Sandra pulled on the z pulley cordalette. The rope came up 5 inches. "Can you hold her while I slide the my prusik down?" I asked. "I've totally got her, it's easy to hold her weight with this z pulley, slide the prusik!" I slid the prusik down the rope and Sandra eased off on her z pulley strand until my prusik held Jill. "Now we've got to slide the z pulley prusik down the rope as far as it will go and do it again" - Sandra. We lost track of time after that as twilight approached and the desperately hard work of hauling Jill and the two ropes up the cliff continued for what seemed like forever. The z-pulley wasn't able to haul Jill up at all, even with both of us pulling on it. It seemed to add only about 20 percent of lifting force, and was great for holding her while we maneuvered the prusiks. But the bulk of the lifting power came from me, yarding up the line. Despite the screaming pain in my back and arms I was giving it everything I had. That was my partner down there and I was not going to give up on her. Not that day, or any other day. Jill had the one cell phone in the party, and at one point we saw a helicopter fly into the valley and we wondered if she'd called for a rescue. (She hadn't.) The hauling took so damn long, and only through the combined efforts of both of us could we pull her up, and our progress was measured in inches. Many times I thought it was not going to work, it was just so damn slow, but gradually the rope came up the cliff and we actually had a 20 foot loop of slack line that needed to be tied off in case the prusiks broke. We took breaks now and then and Sandra would walk out to the end of her cordalette and shout down to Jill, who, once the sun had gone down seemed to emerge from her heat stroke and said she was fine, and that we should keep hauling. Finally she got up to a ledge that led to our position and was able to climb up it to us. "I know you're not touchy feely," Sandra said, "but I need a hug after that. We are just so glad to see you!" Sandra and Jill embraced. I looked at Jill, and remembered all the times she had said she is not the hugging type. The hell with it, I thought. "Give me a hug Jill, I am just so glad to see you alive. We thought we had lost you!" Jill and I embraced, and Sandra joined in. My eyes were brimming with tears as I thought about how much worse it could have ended. The rappels down were uneventful. It was dark by then, and the temperature was no longer making us stupid. When we reached the ground and tried to pull the double ropes, they were stuck. Sandra wanted to come back in the morning, but I knew we all needed to sleep in to recover so I volunteered to prusik up and clear the knot, which had got stuck in the crack at the top of the first pitch of serenity. The prusik up was uneventful. Just another long dry exercise in the dark, by headlamp. When you can't see the ground, it seems less scary, you get very focused. Sandra and Jill hung around to cheer me on, telling me stories and singing bad songs. I've since re-enacted this situation at the gym. You have a loaded rope and two anchors. How to you start hauling? We found that we could untie a long cordalette (I'm going to be buying a 30 footer) and rig up a 3 to 1 z-pulley using two prusiks. You pull on the z-pulley until you get enough slack to use the rope as the z-pulley. It goes better then. It's possible also to rig a 5 to 1 with the cordalette, which "might" be enough lifting power to do this by yourself, I have yet to try it but plan to. Jill could also have rigged a bachman or a kleimheist knot with her slings, but she had never learned those knots. In retrospect we realized we had all become cocky. We thought rescue was something that happened to other people, and we were too smart to need to practice it. We know better now. I'm working my way though a great book called: "Climbing self Rescue", I recommend you do the same, it could save someone's life.

I ordered the kit. From my research online it appears that the biggest problem is finding a way to apply pressure during the curing process. I love a challenge though and already have some ideas for carving a jig out of wood to put in my vice. Should be fun.

here is the info on rockclimbing.com, thanks for the tip. I'm still undecided on what to do. If I was more organized I'd simply send them off, but it seems I procrastinate and end up just buying new ones...which is stupid. This could be a nice rainy winter day project...and if I get good at it, I'll post a good tutorial for the do it your selfers out there. http://www.rockclimbing.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?start=0&t=70986&topic_view=flat

Can anyone provide any links to a webpage or video that explains do-it-yourself rockshoe resole? I've heard you blow the first 3 tries, and I'm willing to pay that price on some old beaters. But I need detailed explanations. Surely someone has put it online?

I used to love dog dome, awesome bolted slab climbs there, "safe" runouts with no ledges to hit. I may give it another go. I hear you on the wire brush, great idea. I've thought about going up there with a $20 can of moss killer, sprinkle it on the moss on the way up just like I do on my roof. Anyone ever try that?

yes, I know, sport climbing is neither. I have a bunch of friends from edgeworksclimbing.com in tacoma who drive all the way to smith because they think there isn't sport in Leavenworth. I usually just climb trad there, so I'm out of touch with what new sport areas have been developed up the icicle. I know about the pinnacles, love washboards etc. I've also been to sam hill, 4th of july wall, secret dome, the new 4 climb dome down river from Mountaineer buttress and have climbed heart of gold and off duty. Dog dome was overgrown 4 years ago, I assume it still is? Is there anything I'm missing? Yes, I know these guys need to grow up and learn to climb cracks, but in the meantime, where can they sport climb in Leavenworth?

the old hexes from the seventies were made with thicker aluminum, and yes, they were drilled, but by Chouinard, not us climbers. I still carry a few of them. The new hexes he started making in the eighties were made from thinner aluminum...I assume they weighed the same as the thicker drilled ones with equal strength. I personally would not drill a hex that has already been designed for maximum strength to weight ratio.

hemp22-thanks for the offer, but she wants a new one. It's a no brainer to buy a used one, with all the wanna be athletes out there giving up on them, but I don't argue with her about stuff like this. j_kirby - thanks for the tip on the costco model. I've looked at that one and read the reviews. Seems like there are some lemons, but almost any model you look at, for any price, has some bad reviews. I feel very fortunate to have a wife who still takes fitness seriously when 98% of the women her age have totally pigged out. I may soon be out of the doghouse and I haven't even bought the treadmill. Woof Woof!

I've got a yosemite question for you old timers. We have a campground reservation in Yosemite (upper pines) but we might not get there the first night. If our friends get there that night, will the ranger allow them to stay in our 'paid for' site if we aren't there?

I assumed thirty years of marriage would arm one with an answer to this question, but you surely know better than I do. Nope, after 30 years of marriage women are still a mystery to me. A couple of things I have discovered though. Absence does make the heart grow fonder Time heals all wounds. Patience is a virtue. If you don't have anything nice to say, keep silent.

we have our ups and downs. This problem is not helped by the fact that I'm leaving her again for yosemite in a couple days. She can't go this time because she's working and our vacations don't line up. Spent last weekend with her, took her hiking...that was good. The treadmill is for her and my 21 year old daughter. They are both in awesome shape and want to stay that way over the rainy winter. I won't use it as I prefer my bicycle. Usually when she says "it's fine, just go" she means it...perhaps the 30th aniv was the clue that she didn't this time. I do believe that you can't let your significant other rule your life. Show some backbone for chris' sake. If she really cares for you, she will still be there when you get back. I married her because she was a hard core climber. I still am, so why should I change my habits just because she would rather go hiking? She climbs, and likes it, but it's not her first choice anymore. So, here's hoping the locks haven't changed when I get back from the valley.

Leaving Sue to go to Smith on our 30th wedding anniversary turned out to be not such a good idea. She said it was ok... In an effort to get out of the doghouse I'm helping her buy a treadmill. We don't want the top of the line, nor do we want another cheap sears model. Anyone have any advice? We would consider used, but I wouldn't know where to go for service. This is us at camp 4 in June.

got a surprise raise at work that will cover it so I bought the macbook pro 15. I also bought vista to install as a virtual operating system, and the mac "parallels 4" software which makes windows work on the mac. So right now, I have what appears to be a vista operating system in a mac container. There is no sign whatsoever of mac, other than the beautiful hardware and screen. i've been doing all the tiresome vista updates, and now I'm installing my pc software (cs3, office, money, etc.) as if I'd bought a dam pc. Should have bought Adobe cs4 for mac, but I'm too cheap. The only downside is I'm not looking forward to spending a bunch of time learning a new operating system, but, I like learning new stuff, as long as it's not rushed. I've not seen a single pc laptop that is this big, this thin and this well built with a 6 hour battery life. Yeah, I could have bought a pc and bought a bunch of batteries...but there are other reasons outlined above...so far so good. I may hate it in a month, but I like it so far. I didn't buy the extended warrantee. I never get 'em on anything, cars, cameras, nothing. If you buy quality, from a decent store that takes back lemons, you'll be ok...knock on wood.

It does appear that a lot of web developers are working on macs. My brother has worked for the spokesman review for 30 years. Granted, it's the graphics industry, but he was pc for many years and is now mac. He manages the computers for them and works on the website in django and python, using a mac. He swears by the development tools built into the unix/mac os. One of my students works for the biggest web shop in Tacoma: sitecrafting. I asked him the same question, and here is his response: "All of the PHP programmers and graphic designers use Mac at work. The only PC's we have there are for a couple of quirky dot-NET and ASP programmer guys and IE test rigs." So now I just have to convince the wife. She says my toshiba has to be dead before I can buy a replacement. And with my luck, it will limp along for another year. I think it really comes down to hardware and battery life. You do get what you pay for.

yikes! I'm headed down to climb that tourist route in a couple weeks.

I know I've seen this topic on here before, but a search didn't find it. mac book pro vs pc? I have a 5 year old toshiba laptop that is dying. I am a heavy user of Adobe photoshop, illustrator, flash, inDesign and dreamweaver, frequently using all 5 at once plus word and a browser and email. I occasionally edit a small video, but not at a serious level. (Camtashia e-learning videos). I don't game at all. I need at least 1400 pixels of native screen resolution, if not higher. I'm not a mac fanboy, in fact I've always thought it was all hyperbole. But an increasing number of people I know are making the switch to the dark side, and the macbook pro, with it's sexy metal body, and 6 hour battery life, built in apache and cool design is very tempting. Especially since I can run windows (for my existing software) on the mac when I need to, using either boot camp or some other virtual programs/emulators. $2000 at bestbuy gets me out the door with a 15" macbook pro, plus a copy of vista for bootcamp. I could buy 2 toshibas for that much. I'm also a little tempted just to make myself more employable...I don't currently speak mac. My entire department (at the college) is all pc...I will be the only mac fanboy. please help me decide

had some fun climbing cocaine and meatgrinder with a couple friends this weekend. I love to play with my canon SLR, and with 3 people there is lots of time for pictures. Craig is a friend of my son. My son usually works weekends, so I've been climbing a little more with Craig. I just taught Craig to climb in May, and he on-sighted Meatgrinder clean. His new nickname is "mr natural". Meatgrinder is such a classic Icicle 10a. There is a rest every 12 feet. The crux is 5 feet above a ledge you could sleep on. My kind of climb. Me, just above the meatgrinder crux This is Steve, a friend from Edgeworksclimbing.com. He wanted to put some scratches in his new trad rack. Here he is belaying me up Cocaine Crack, 10a, icicle creek buttress: I brought Steve up first, who brought my camera and took over belaying so I could shoot. This is Craig following. Cocaine has a Yosemite feel. It's kind of on a shield of flat, steep rock...a few pitches up too. The exit from this roof is dicey. All the jugs dissappear and the feet are 1/8" flakes on a vertical wall. I was so pumped from the finger crack that I chickened out and french free'd it. Craig cruised it all cleanly. The views are awesome up there: From the top of cocaine you finish up on R&D. The belay at the top of R&D is a couple huge washing machine sized boulders on a sloping ramp, which may or may not be secure. I was able to back them up with this purple mastercam between my legs. Craig liked it so much he took this photo of me and my anchor:

We did cocaine crack this weekend. I may post a trip report later but for now I have some breaking news. There is now a bomber anchor at the top of r and d. It's pictured below. No longer do you have to brace your feet on the boulder in the downward sloping sand pile.

Personally I feel a little envy that she is good enough to climb like that, with or without the video crew. People like that will do what they will do. Nothing we think has any bearing on it. It's cool to watch, just like it was cool to watch Jonny Copp in the "sharp end video". And now he's dead. She may die as well if something goes wrong. What is a little disturbing is how she might have been less likely to do it had she not been paid as much. I wonder how the advertising/sponsoring agency person will feel when the next person they pay to do that bites it. Sort of reminds me of the days of the gladiators in rome. The public has a hunger for blood. It's you and me at the root of it all, asking her to do that.

Anyone ever climb that 50 foot seastack at ruby beach at kalaloch? the wife forced me to take a weekend off from climbing and we went out there, I'm a painter as well. The first seastack you come to on the beach at the ruby beach trailhead is about 50 feet high and has a lovely south face route. It's very solid, sticky and feels kind of like sandstone. Seems about 5.6ish. I got 25 feet up it before coming to my senses. No rope, shoes, helmet, rockshoes. A barefoot idiot. Wife was at the bottom telling me she wasn't going to spot me. 50 tourist had their cameras out waiting for blood. I was really tempted to go for the top. Has anyone done it? I'm tempted to go back with a rope and helmet. No place for pro, but I imagine you might be able to throw a rope over the top somewhere for a micky mouse lower down scenario...or at least a tight rope on the downclimb. This isn't that seastack, but the one in question is just south of where I stood to make this painting. I am looking north in this view from ruby beach. anda photo of the same place for scale: If you've never been there, its about 70 minutes up the coast (north) from Aberdeen.