stillcrankin

I use one of these for bouldering where I don't want to hit the ground. Actually, I don't EVER want to hit the ground but when I REALLY don't want to hit the ground because of something nasty, I use this. It's heavy, expensive and must be set up properly. You've gotta have anchors at the top or figure something out. There's no give like the gym auto-belayers. When you fall, it locks. You better be able to make it to the top or down climb slowly or you'll be there for a while. It doesn't work for overhanging problems as you'll be left hanging in space. This is left over from my ski lift maintenance days of doing line work on tower tops. They're expensive, about $600 I think. There's a one-shot stitching release, similar to a screamer, at the hook end to let you know it's been over-stressed. I guess I've never over-stressed mine.

Wow! There’s a lot of VERY good information here. Everyone here has something useful to offer. I work about 10 minutes from a great climbing area and go Mini Tracking 3 or 4 days a week after work. Pretty much everything Hummerchine says is WORD. Never trust one device. I rappel with a Petzl Stop, etc. My setup looks pretty much like Wallstein’s except I use a small cord through a couple over-the-shoulder slings attached to the biner hole in the upper Trax to keep the upper Traxion as high as possible. I really like Wallstein’s idea of drilling a hole and using an elastic strap to keep the Traxion high and am going to make that happen ASAP. I now use a micro trax and one mini trax since I bent one of my mini trax doing a 2 to 1 haul (with a Pro Trax) on the Large Stone last year. I use a static rope. This way, if you barely get through a hard section and fall, you don’t have to keep doing the hard part over and over again due to rope stretch. No, I’m not as young as I used to be, thank you very much. Also, I carry a few cams in case I can’t make it up something and need to descend. Hopefully you have the right size you can slam in a crack and get your rappel set up then remove the cams. If you’re hanging on a rope with the Traxion devices, it’s very difficult to get undone to go down. A cam or two make it way easier. I’ve found this especially prevalent in Yosemite where Ron Kauk has fixed ropes on many climbs at the Cookie and Arch Rock during the week. He doesn’t hang ropes on pedestrian climbs so descending is always a consideration. He has a 600’ static rope that he once hung from the top of the Bachar-Yerian to the ground and did laps on it. I think he said it took him 1 hour and 45 minutes for a lap. I have a small Fish Beef Bag made out of haul-bag material about the size of a chalk bag that I put a rock in and hang it on the bottom of the rope to weight it. The cell phone is not a bad idea. I had one with me the time I cratered while descending a gulley to get to the base after tossing my rope and totally tweaked my back. I was too embarrassed to call anyone and made it back to my car on my own. Took a lot of shit for that. Mr Off White, did someone finally take the tire out of your cage??

What Blake said. When Dave Anderson and I first climbed BOC, we had to rap down and dislodge a bunch of loose rocks and flakes that were sticking out of the crack. Fortunately, like most days, there wasn't a soul around so we didn't have to worry about rockfall.

Yah, sorry about the thread drift. My bad. Oh yes, I'll be there. Was just at the base of El Cap last week. Floor temps were 14 at night. Pretty chilly during the day. Lemmeno when you're gonna be down again. BTW mister Olyclimber- I know what it's like to be hospitalized with tubes in every orifice and some in places where no orifice existed before they made one to ram things in to. No fun. I remember thinking that this must be what dying in a hospital is like. I treasure the things people sent me during that time including a quilt where all the 35 people that work for me made a beautiful square and then sewed it together. Made me cry when I got it. Still does when I look at it. Live life as though someone left the gate open. Life’s journey is not to arrive safely at the grave in a well preserved body but rather to skid in sideways totally worn out, shouting “Holy Shit....What a ride!

ivan you bad dog!! What's shakin??

Love these things….. They can turn A3 into A1 (until they fail, then they turn A3 into A-see-ya-later).

Sweater vest??? Day-am, yer good. I think it actually was a sweater vest. Don's fashion sense ran between Sasquatch and Yale-preppie, usually leaning towards the Sasquatch side of the scale...

Don Brooks=tough as nails Don on Leaning Tower in 1973, moments after he caught his beard in his rappel brake and ripped a chunk out....

I was one of the guys over to your right on the Muir. The storm that night was incredible. Fortunately we had a Fish ledge with his whup-ass rainfly and managed to stay mostly dry. The thunder and lightning was awe inspiring. The wind whipped us around in the ledge like we were nothing. We spent 18 hours in the ledge without venturing out. When the storm finally broke we wandered out and saw what must have been you guys trying to get to the fixed ropes. It was getting late and it looked like you guys were having trouble. I'm glad you made it down. We stuck it out and topped out on the 4th of July.... At least it wasn't freezing.....

Plaidman-good work! That video was frikkin' awsome! The whole time I was watching I was thinking, "You gonna climb that wall or you gonna whistle dixie?" Did your ledge really dump you twice??

Dave Davis in 1986 on "Stoner Ledge" or whatever it's called. You can see the plaque on the right.

What a cool place to be. Pictures like that make me homesick....

The upper valley can be a very cold inhospitable place in the winter..... Camp 4 Christmas Eve 2008 But it can be PERFECT in the lower valley...... Midterm, Arch Rock-December 31, 2008

Very, very sweet! How were the first two pitches?? (never mind-I just re-read your post)

Pretty cool place to be.

Thank you Mr. Hands! And thank you Mr. jshamster- you clever little rodent stuffer.....

Any routes to the top of the NNB other then Doorish's?

Good on ya fer tryin'. Can't remember what we used-knifeblades to 3" bongs, I think. Used some hooks and nuts, also. Put in a few bolts along the way....... The last pitch doesn't really stand out in my mind so it couldn't have been too bad.

Do yourself a favor: don't just roll off your mossy northwest couch on to El Cap. Do something shorter first like something on Washington Column or Leaning Tower. You'll be thankful you did....

That's frikkin' burly! You must have spent half of the 12 hours taking pictures. Long distance mountain running is a total inward journey of commitment and determination (pain is somewhere in the mix, too). Nice job!!! ---

[font:Arial]Mr Plaidman Sir, Having climbed in The Trench for almost four decades, I would consider myself somewhat of an expert at getting spanked by the Yoswide. If you really want to be the spanker and not the spankee you should try spending several months there. Within a month or two, you’ll be the one flashing by the gumbies as you put in little or no gear. There’s really no other way. Being a weekend warrior doesn’t cut it. Being a gym whipper doesn’t cut it. You can come out of a gym pulling down 5.13 plastic and get totally shut down on a Yosemite 5.10 crack. I’m speaking from experience (the shut-down part, not the 5.13 part). If you don’t take a chance, you’ll never know the feeling. You’ll feel the ebb and flow of weekend gumbies coming and going. You’ll learn where not to go on the weekend and avoid the crowds. You’ll feel the seasons change. Take the chance. Take the time. It’s something you’ll have with you for the rest of your life. [/font] ---

Can't tell you how glad I am to see Jim still at it. Is that a Whillians harness he's wearing? No helmet, no filter, 4' ice axe, typical Langdon-you just gotta love that guy. Now HE'S older than dirt, unlike the rest of us mature Washingtonians. I saw him at the Washington survivors picnic at Woodland Park several months ago-not the new wave climbers picnic, but the old timers picnic (Langdon wasn't nearly the oldest one there). Hadn't seen him in 35 year or so. Say hi to him from Don the next time you talk to him..... --

Get strong. Good luck.

That sounds like a metaphor for something. When I figure out what for, I'll let you know. BTW, Richard, I use a static line for mini-traxioning. That way, if you're doing something really hard, you don't have to barely not-do the crux over and over again due to rope stretch. Also, I use a Petzl stop for rappelling a single static line. Single static ropes rappel kind of funky with ATC's or regular belaying devices. --

Yah, all those ghastly experiences that we had oh so long ago kind of blend together during a time when many of our friends weren't so lucky. Check out this link. Scroll down to the picture of Kauk (in the red shirt). http://www.supertopo.com/climbing/thread.html?topic_id=502897&tn=20 That's how it's done. The upper Traxion is there to take your weight and the lower one is for backup. When you get a long way off the ground, you don't want to find yourself with just one Traxion between you and dirt. I've been mini-traxioning a lot lately and it's a pretty cool way to get in some vert without having to wait for a partner. BTW-when are you thinking of coming to The Trench? I've been going there a lot lately-trying to get in shape for something big......