Blakej

All good points thanks for the feedback. From what I'm seeing its good to know as a backup technique but probobly not preferable just to save weight.

"The down side is that if any of the anchor points failed or if the line was cut at an anchor point the system fails." It was my understanding that each of the two loops in a bowline in a bight were able to hold independently. Therefor if one fails the other should hold as a back up.

I was just thinking that using the bowline in a bight or a triple bowline could be used to tie the belayer and rope directly into the anchorsystem saving a few draw and biners for the climb. Obviously it would be difficult to manipulate the knot to properly equilize the system and would take up potentially valuable rope but does anyone see any reason not too if those are acceptable drawbacks? edit: forget the triple bowline. Looks like the tail is dependent on the other two loops to maintain its integrety.

I dont know if its been posted before but some of the original petzl elios helmets are fracturing at the rivets connecting the chin strap to the main body. mine did this and I called petzl the other day. They are exchanging them for the new model with better plastic composition.

cool TR but whats with having to be a paid member to look at your pics?

yup its choppos

Yeah baby. Valhallas this summer!

Post deleted by Blakej

Last Thursday my friend Chris and I took off on a marathon 26 hour drive to Ouray via Eugene, Or to pick up Chris2. Driving through the night running out of gas once and only one ticket(mine)we cruised the prarie schooner through the night taking shifts sleeping in the back of the van. Arriving late friday night we parked up the yankee boy basin road and prepared for the next day. This would be my first foray into the world of ice climbing so the constant anticipation kept me up for quite a while looking forward to the next days events. The next morning we walked down the road and set up in the classroom area. Its an amazing feeling rappelling down into a world of ice and quite humbling trying to imagine yourself scaling your way out of it. Starting off on some WI3s and what I understand were perfect conditions the first half of the day was a success. The feeling of quickly progressing from a bumbling idiot to making good pick placements and having confidence in their ablilty to hold left me totally amped for finishing off the afternoon on some steeper more challenging lines. Sunday morning with Chris confident of my ability to take it out of the park we headed up the yankee boy basin road and poached a nice warm up climb before heading up to some of the classics and my first defeat. Chris and Chris2 cranked it up and well used WI4 and then I had a go. Initally I just started going and was doing pretty well until the third screw that just wouldn't seem to come out. After struggling for a good five minutes from hanging position and with fingers going numb I decided to leave it behind for the rappel and get moving when I hit the figurative wall. Staring up the ice felt overhanging and no matter how hard I tried I couldn't manage to get a pick placement. In despiration I called up to be lowered but being on an autoblock I had to unweight the rope for them to change the system. Of course just wanting to get down I climbed up another three feet and unweighted the rope not even thinking that I had just managed another three feet and there for could probobly atleast manage some more. The frustration I felt with myself when I got down was complete. Excuse after excuse ran through my head and out my mouth. It was my cold hands or the fact that the straight shafts prevented me from getting good placements in the pockets. Chris quickly put me in my place. "If you cant admit your scared you'll never beat it so quit making excuses." That was all I needed. We moved over to another route and while chris pulled off a beautiful three tiered seep I belayed and stewed over my failure. We finished off the day with a steep WI3 which helped rebuild my confidence but also stewed me more knowing it wasn't that much easier than my previous failure. The following morning it was back to the park for our final day. We found a beautiful area that gave plenty of options for all of our skill levels and went at it. Great times were had by all until chris lead up and threw a second rope for Chris2 and I to climb out simutaniously. Taking the closest rope at hand I figured I'd just slack it and move it over 10 feet when I reached the steep ice curtain toward the top. As luck would have it the rope refused to move and I was faced with my wall again. Refusing to bitch out again I closed my eyes and cleared my mind, telling myself to just climb its that easy. Looking up with no where else to go I reached overhead and lightly tapped the thin ice curtain with the pick until I just felt it hold. Placing my other tool parallell to my position for stablity I settled my weight on my thinly placed tool for the first time totally trusting my full weight to a sketchy placement and stemmed my feet on up. As I crested over the climb I was cursing and thanking chris all and once for the challenge. All through lunch I was high on life for my achievment. We finished off the day with a WI5 that we were told was a WI3 Chris and Chris2 knocked it off in great style. I on the other hand hit my wall again and was unable to complete the climb though I forced myself to push through my personal crux of the climb and into exaustion. All in all a great trip aside from the 35 hour bus ride home with boiled egg eating man with turrets(sp) syndrome yealing in my ear and the bus driver getting lost 3 times. pictures to follow as soon as I can manage to figure out how to post them. Chris topping out me thinking WI3 sure as hell feels vertical The climb that I punked off of

damn, well atleast I wasn't the one who payed for it.

The cool thing I like about it is it enables you to sit at your computer and just brouse through the maps and just scheme up new trips. It also gives you the ablilty to get a good estimate on distances and elevation gain/loss plus will show you the grade % for different areas of your route among many other helpful attributes. Well worth the money.

I was thinking of heading up and knocking off Mt Deception in the olympics. I'll probobly do the approach thursday afternoon and then knock off that peak and head back friday. Its only a 2nd and 3rd class climb but there are some other options in the area if time permits. Having a partner would be nice for saftey considering the area is fairly remote and I've heard deception can be hazardous if not taken seriously. Call (360)698-6647 or pm if interested. ask for josh.

So I'm thinking of wandering into the alpine lakes area this weekend probobly fri-sun just to bum around and see the area if the weather and avy conditions seem acceptable. I don't have a solid partner yet so that certainly limits the potential climbs but I was wondering about what roads look to have the best access right now to get into the area just to have a look around and maybe knock off a moderate climb. The potential partner is interested in daniel but it looks like about a 15 mile approach from salmon la sac with a fair amount of snow so there might not be enough time. Suggestions? Sage advice?

Just thought I give the quick update. I did a MTB ride up to 5200 ft yesterday at obstruction pt. No snow at all on the road and very little on the ridge. If your planning on going out maybe this will help in your decision on weather or not to bring a fluke picket or whatever and save the weight. This weather sucks

Hey I've got some tools I just picked up and a desire to learn the ice aspect so if you need someone I'll be your belay bitch I have tons of free time so pretty much whenever.

Can't be sure but the low elevation of cushman and hamma hamma roads usually keeps them pretty clean, atleast it did last year. Someone posted having to use 4wd and chains to get up to ellinor upper trail head last week but theres been a lot of snow since then so who knows.

if they're not sold pm me I'm interest but poor so it may take me a week or so to come up with the cash.

thanks might see you up there

I know a couple of you guys have been up there in the past couple days hows sking the chute look and is the snow in decent condition to teach the girl to self arrest?

check avy conditions and go up to seven lakes basin. Haven't been there my self but heard it was amazing.

I for one love guide books. They are a launching platform for a newbee like me to search and explore. To provide me with an attainable goal and a motivation to admire the amazing climbing that has been done up here in the PNW. As for the loss of exploration I would say that is far from possible. As long as there are climbers they will continue to seek harder and more remote places to pursue their passion. In the short year that I have moved from the gym to the alpine I have bookmarked dozens of I wonder if that has been climbed or could some other unique adventure be masterminded in my mind. Sure there will always be the mounty types who only seek to get a dozen pins for knocking off they standard climbs but truly passionate climbers will always seek a certain solitude in getting more remote while doing things that have never been done.

Go to www.rei.com. There is an link to a chart where you can view all the data on each boot they carry as far as material weight full shank half shank and whatever else you desire. After you get a good idea of what your looking at there and what matches up with what you want call the store make sure they have all the boots in your size that you want to test out and go for it. If you find a boot that you like but still want to double check on it then look for a specific review on that boot to see if there are problems with it.

I'm in bremerton. Pub club sounds like a great idea. By the way there is already a bit of one that meets on the last monday of the month as kind of a unofficial part of pennisula wilderness club. If people are interested in coming by I'll post when the next one comes up.

I've been looking for a new shell jacket and came upon some of the hybrid scholer(sp)and gore jackets. The seem pretty good and even cheeper than straight up gore jackets from the same companies but I still have some reservations like how well they work in the super wet conditions around here. Also do they hold up to washing as well as straight gore. Do they breathe better than other jackets or are they just hype? Anyone have a favorate?

Am I misunderstanding here. I am under the understanding that hexes can be used in parrell sided cracks. The wild country site shows the rockcentrics being placed in positions more like a chock. Can they be used safely like traditional hexes.