markwebster

where can we crash if camp 4 (yosemite) is full? I've seen this question answered here before but I couldn't find it so I'm asking again. I *think* I heard that you can park at el cap and hike up the trail for twenty minutes and bivy. Is this still true? There are bear boxes there too. Our problem is that me and the wife are arriving mid day Friday and camp 4 is likely to be full until Monday morning. thanks for any advice you can offer. Yosemite in 2 days babeeee!

My son just bought a bi color 60 meter 10.2 PMI rope from rei. http://www.rei.com/product/751695 At the middle where it changes color to the other pattern, there is a substantial bump in the core. It gets thicker there for about an inch. Or maybe harder is the right word. Feels like the core is all bunched up. We've climbed on it two days now...still very new. Is that normal with bicolor ropes? I've never had one and assumed it would be flawless at the color change. I didn't notice it until I was lowering him through my new cinch autolocker (love that thing for sport!) and the rope stuck for a moment while the bump in the middle hung up. Once it passed, I dropped him 10 inches and realized the rope had a flaw.

marry a climber and then there is nothing to manage. Wife and I were doing Serenity crack in yosemite *wearing our helmets* when we looked down and saw a couple doing it out on the edge of the ledge at the nude swimming hole above the awanee. Neither was wearing helmets, or anything else. Wife was very disturbed at the blatant exhibitionism. After we rapped down, we had to check it out. No one was there...we didn't wear our helmets either. Now I have two kids...hmm, there's a lesson in there somewhere

there is a bomber red or yellow camalot placement there. That route is so cool in that it is overhanging to the lip, but there are stem holds for the feet that give great rests. No fair doing it without a full on bicycle pedal at the lip. Feet come free, pedal furiously.

my wife just called me, says she picked up a new petzl helmet today to replace her old loose Joe Brown. I love it that she is getting back into climbing. Wives who climb are hot! Yosemite in 7 days baby.

damn! Jonny was an awesome guy. If you know jtree at xmas, he was the long haired leader of the drum circle last two years. pictures of Jonny here: http://www.websterart.com/html/jtree2008.html and here: http://cascadeclimbers.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/758207/TR_Joshua_Tree_for_Christmas_m#Post758207 He was obviously a great climber, but I had no idea he was famous until I went to send him pictures after last xmas and saw his website. He was very low key, just a happy soul, living the climbing life, played all kinds of instruments. We jammed together both years on guitar, drums and harmonica. Vibes like his will be hard to replace. His was the mellow campfire. No drunkeness or screaming, just a super cool dude. Damn. Gave me a big hug when I saw him at xmas, remembered me from previous year. I'm gonna miss seeing him at jtree. I met his parents and his girlfriend there as well, I can't imagine their pain.

to crackers: thanks a lot for the long reply! I'm going to copy all this stuff to a word document so I can study it later. The expertise and knowledge of the people on this board is amazing. Sewing through 2 pieces of plywood! That is a great analogy, and that's the kind of horsepower I *didn't get* when my parents gave me my little machine for sewing bivy sacks 30 years ago. thanks for steering me away from the sailright. It did look too good to be true. When I have the time I'll go to some pro sewing shops and take a tour. I agree that making your own stuff is very cool and a fun hobby. I love working with my hands. My computer job took that away from me, and I miss it. And I promise not to sew my own slings...at least for a while until I am better educated and trained.

When I was actively putting up and maintaining routes I went to a gravestone shop and asked if they had any discarded granite blocks. Got a nice one for free, about a one foot cube of polished high quality granite. I practiced drilling, placing and removing (with a crowbar) the bolts until I had it down. It's amazing how strong those suckers are when placed right. Gravestone still sits in my yard 30 years later...bunch of bolts sticking out of it.

excellent links, thanks! Now I just need to get to work to earn some money to pay for a new toy.

that sailright machine looks awesome! is it as good as it looks in those videos? Thing looks too good to be true. Cool that they have something similar in Seattle. I'll need to go look at them and start educating myself.

if you climb long enough you will eventually hear a number of rocks of varying size land within several feet of you, if not directly on you. That is your first clue. And then there is the unplanned head first swing on lead, or toprope. Do you feel lucky? Is life fun for you, do you value it? If you don't, well, I guess you are just cleaning up the gene pool for the rest of us. Same goes for crotch rockets. Have at it. My wife and I both have Joe Brown helmets. They last forever, may not still be made. My son wears his bmx helmet.

I have also had some collisions with the mounties. The wife and I graduated from basic in '77 ,pursued intermediate for a few years but gave up to climb with friends who also dropped out. After that we began calling them the 'hardy queers' when we saw their large groups (run the other way!), "hardies" for short. You have to admit they are hardy. Those turkeys haul big loads up far mountains...I have nothing but envy for those strong backs and knees. I rejoined this year to help a couple good buddies teach a new class: http://www.websterart.com/img/cragtrad.pdf The concept was to take a small group of gym climbers and teach them to climb trad. We kept the instructor to student ratio good, about 1 instructor to 2 students, or one on one. We did not tie up cliffs with top ropes. I missed one trip, but I think they had everyone leading or following, no gang banging or top roping at all...right Marty? On the trip last weekend, I took one student, and we climbed the hell out of castle rock. I made sure he could build and place anchors, then we started swinging leads on everything from midway direct to damnation. No gang banging, no top roping, just a couple guys climbing hard as they could. Does that sound like the dreaded hardies? trip report here: http://www.websterart.com/marty.html Organizations are made from individual climbers, and, at least in Tacoma, we are changing.

I used to sew my own leg loops when all we had was a 2 inch webbing for a swami. This was pre-harness days. That was with my home machine. It's pretty obvious when stitching is weak, look at any cheap back pack. You can test your work by dropping heavy bags off buildings, see what breaks, what holds. Just need a better machine. I trust myself and my common sense better than some blue collar slave working for peanuts. I'm a perfectionist, and it's my life at stake.

Anybody have any suggestions for an industrial grade sewing machine for stuff like repairing backpacks, and sewing new slings on camalots? Seems like I'm always fixing a backpack, or building a chalk bag from scratch. My old machine isn't up to the task of sewing through the super thick materials I sew...like a quarter inch of stacked seat belt webbing, full grain cowhide...stuff like that. Nobody makes anything durable anymore...wanna make my own stuff, but need a really beefy machine so I don't have to hand sew it with needles and vice grips. Recommendations, on brands or models, pictures? I'm thinking one of those old 1850 cowboy singers would be about right. Fix a saddle, or sew a pair of jeans.

thanks for the compliment shaoleung! And thank you to ilookeddown for fixing the bolts. I've not placed any of the new bolts, only the old split shaft bolts so I wasn't sure whether tightening the rap bolts was the right thing to do. As far as the 4th bolt, you tapped it with a punch? wow. Is there a website anywhere that has a diagram of how those strange bolts function? It's so weird because they have no nut, just that round disk, and possibly not even threads on the shaft. Thanks for your work up there. There are so many selfless individuals who put up sport routes out of their own pockets. The sport monkeys who climb them seem to take them totally for granted, with no thought of the hardships and money spent on their behalf. I spent a while talking with Leland Windham about the many routes he's put up. He is, or was, just a carpenter. His out of pocket expenses must be huge. I sent him a little money, need to do that again.

I bought a canon sd1100: http://www.amazon.com/Canon-PowerShot-SD1100IS-Digital-Stabilized/dp/B0011ZK6PC/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1243627360&sr=8-1 at costco. it works reasonably well, is tiny, and came with a nice little canon hard case. I bought a otter box at rei that fits it perfectly and is bombproof. The pictures are ok for a point and shoot. And the video function is very sweet for short movies. However, being a long time slr user, I really notice the drop in quality. It's not the cameras fault. My slr is so big and heavy, I thought I'd love the new point and shoot. But the control of my canon 50d SLR(and the 5 frames a second capability) make it irresistible. I'm back to leading with the big boy, though I usually leave the extra lens in the pack. The control of a real camera is *so* worth the weight.

He is right about thomas distributing. I just bought 20 of these new maha batteries and have been pleasantly surprised. I also bought this charger. http://www.thomas-distributing.com/maha-mh-c9000-battery-charger.php It is not your fathers battery charger. It is very smart, takes a while to figure out as it has many options. And the batteries don't discharge as fast on the shelf. They sell the batteries at "batteries plus" stores in Tacoma, or buy online. I use the batteries in headlamps, calculators and high powered canon external flash units that need lots of juice.

dude, you are missing the fun at edgeworksclimbing.com! (tacoma gym) Why build your own gym? Organizing climbers is like herding cats. If you can't afford a membership, they need volunteer belayers. 6 hours a month = membership. I did that for 2 years before buying in to the monthlies. I've met so many awesome partners there it's hard to even imagine I went 29 years before joining a rock gym. I walked in last Wednesday at 7 pm, hoping to do some leading. There were 3 pairs of partners leading, including the owner. I knew them all, had climbed with them all, and had a partner in 30 seconds. Went in there a week ago to confirm my weekend plans. My partner bailed on me, found another one in under a minute. There is a big crowd of really nice people hanging out there. They take trips together to Smith and Vantage, more the merrier kind of thing, beginners welcome. Did I mention the good looking women? These girls are fit! If I had to say something bad about edgeworks it's that it's not very high, but it doesn't really matter. There is also spire rock out in Spanaway, it's free, and you can practice gear placements. But good luck with your gym, sounds like fun.

no taper on the "stack of pennies". Its definitely not one of those old quarter inch button heads with the lead tapered disk holding the hangar on the shaft. I used to see those in the late seventies. It's a modern stainless bolt that has gone bad. There are several others of the same type on the route, but they are still tight.

FYI: There is a bad bolt on "ellie's sweet kiss" 5.10a, exit 38, interstate park cliff. It is about the 4th bolt up. When I grabbed it, it wiggled badly. I not talking about a spinning hanger, the shaft is moving an eight of an inch in the hole. I clipped it anyway as the bolts are about 10 feet apart there. On the way down, I pulled on it, thinking I'd just pull it out since you can see it from the ground. It's not quite ready to come out, but I didn't try very hard. It's one of those new stainless steel bolts. The head is unusual. It's not a nut. It's a round disk, about the size of 4 stacked pennies. It has a hole, and may be threaded, but I couldn't tell. I have no idea how this bolt works. But it's very dangerous right now. Of the three bolts at the rap station on top, 2 are shaking in their holes. I hand tightened one of them. The anchor bolts look to be about 0.5" diameter, normal nuts. Love the route by the way. Great moves on a bunch of overhanging choss that looks like it ought to rain death on bystanders, but is secure...for now..except for the bolts. I'm going back to trad.

thanks for the advice. I ordered this tent: "assault outfitter 4 man eureka dome" (linked above). Get it in a week or so. It should at least make the wife happy.

thanks for the advice. I ordered this tent: "assault outfitter 4 man eureka dome" (linked above). Get it in a week or so. It should at least make the wife happy.

oh, Porter, nice painting! I'm still climbing with some first generation friends. I've got them all, first, second, third, as well as same for camalots. When we went to the climbing store in jtree this xmas, they had a little climbing museum on the wall featuring all the old gear. My partners called me over: "Look Mark, that gear looks just like yours!" I guess I'm a walking museum.

Awesome collection of photos at that link! Did anyone else ever go to the annual slideshows at Larry's house in Woodenville at the end of the season? I went to a couple, but the last one I remember was in '84. There must have been 40 people there, and the slides were world class. They ranged from Yosemite to new routes on McKinley. My memories of Larry are of a more personal nature. I used to run into him every weekend in the spring when all the west side climbers went to the warmest place, which was usually the Pinnacles or Castle. On many weekends, we'd both be there with our wives, both of whom were named Sue. As we got to know Larry and his wife, we saw past the strangeness and realized they were genuinely nice people. He invited us to stay at their house several times on our way over the pass to Leavenworth or Index. I found that Sue Kemp played the guitar, as did I, and we spent numerous evenings playing songs together late into the evening before a day of climbing. Larry and I started climbing together on harder stuff, while our wives, (the two Sues) would climb on easier stuff. It was the typical "master and belay whore" situation but we did some fun stuff like Devils Fright on Castle. We drifted apart after my wife and I had kids, as I cut back on my climbing a bit to be a better dad. I heard later that they had got divorced, and then much later that they both had died, Larry, run over on his bicycle, and Sue Kemp from cancer. I don't have a single picture of either of them, but I can see them in my mind as clear as day. It's sad to think they are both gone. My wife Sue and I in Yosemite, the year before our son was born: I'm not sure why this picture doesn't show. Perhaps I've exceeded the number of words allowed in one post? Anyway, there are 3 pictures of my wife Sue back in the day on this web page: general photos on my website

My 24 year old Eureka 4 man A frame tent blew up at Joshua Tree this year. It was the expedition basecamp model. They still sell it: 4 man eureka outfitter A Frame. It was heavily reinforced, particularly in the zippers which were the largest zippers I've ever seen, they lasted the whole time. I hate replacing zippers. Eureka makes a new outfitter 4 man dome that looks very good, supposedly military spec: assault outfitter 4 man eureka dome . REI also sells a nice 3 man dome with a good reputation: REI Mountain 3 dome tent . Why doesn't REI or EMS or Marmot sell Eureka tents? Their web site looks good. They seem to have good reviews on the few places that still sell them, other than complaints about heaviness which is a plus for car camping. I don't backpack anymore, all I do is rockclimb: smith, squamish, leavenworth, yosemite and jtree. I want a tent big enuf' for the wife and me and a third (daughter, son, buddy, etc.). It needs to handle the freak 60 mile an hour storm at jtree, and I want solid construction that lasts. I have a bibler for trips without the wife. thanks for any advice you can offer, My wife and daughter: This is Crystal from Jtree at xmas: My son. We bought our old Eureka when he was 6 months old: