KaskadskyjKozak

How then to account for the long periods of history in which these religions existed without explosive population growth? because population growth has been "explosive" since antiquity - nothing new today

better yet, move them into a halfway house next to Kevbone, and he can invite them over to his home for a bowl and a brew.

You're such a downer, man. Agreed. Bug's post is a sad reminder of a heretofore unnamed geriatric pathology: loss of mental faculty. I'm a bit worried about his diet: "outmeal"?

that's just wrong

lol

Hey, cool. We saw you guys simulclimbing just above us, I think. We had two leaders ropegunning two newbie climbers so we had to go slower and less efficiently.

Only in the first pitch. If I did this climb again, I would try to place the pro outside the crack and do it in a way to keep the rope out of the middle.

Trip: Thomson (Thompson) - West Ridge Date: 8/1/2009 Trip Report: Three climbing partners and I were originally planning on climbing Magic and Mixup this weekend but got scared off our plans due to Beta from a friend of a very close call with rockfall rappelling off of Mixup. So, we opted for an overnight of Thomson instead. We hit the TH at 7 am on Sat - it was already warm. The approach via the PCT was the shortest 6 miles I can remember and mostly pleasant. We arrived at Ridge Lake just before 10. After setting up camp and dropping some weight we proceeded to find Bumblebee Pass, which turned out to not be difficult at all. We then saw our objective clearly: Mount Thomson (sometimes spelled Thompson). W ridge is on the left skyline; east ridge is on the right skyline and through an obvious wide notch not visible from this photo (offscreen to the right): I had hoped to be at the base of the route by noon, but the going was slow up the blocky Talus. You drop around 300 feet from Bumblebee Pass, traverse flat ground, then ascend 900 feet of Talus, finishing off with some exciting, but solid, class 4 scrambling to get over the dog's teeth to the notch. I was the first to the notch, so I started to get my rack out and look for an anchor. There appears to have been a stout tree anchor here in the past, but it looked pretty dry and dead now, so I set up a gear anchor. By this time my partners arrived. We started up around 1:30 (I think). The first pitch (30m) is mostly low class 5 with a few 5.6 moves. It has the most loose rock of any pitch (excluding maybe the scrambling near the end). Pro is ample and the climbing is fun. When I pulled the rope to put my partner on belay I noticed the rope was about to knock a football-sized rock loose. I tried gingerly whipping the rope away, but it was no good. I warned my partners that a rock was going to come down, and, based on the way the gully angled didn't foresee an issue. When the rock came loose it took a bad hop and shot left and almost hit one of our party. Very scary start. Nobody was hurt, and the rope was not hit. So much for avoiding rockfall on Mixup, eh? The second pitch was much more solid and had much more sustained mid class 5 climbing with some 5.6 tops. A great pitch with great exposure. This pitch is about 40m. I stopped at a great belay ledge for pitch 2, but once I started up pitch 3 realized it would have been better to go up 10 feet more. Oh well. I continued up a few more feet, and pitch 3 turned into an easy scramble across an exposed slab. I used up the full rope length to set up my belay. I yelled "on belay". I yelled it again. I did rope tugs. Repeat for 30 minutes or so. Maybe 45. In the meantime the bugs that lived in the belay tree were eating me alive, and the sun was beating down on me. Whiskey. Tango. Foxtrot! Finally after one of my most vociferous bouts of screaming, filled with profanity my follower started up. I had thought my follower just could not clean some pro and had yelled "leave the f***** piece for the next team to clean". Actually, she was helping try to pull rope up for the 2nd follower. The 2nd lead had only brought 2 double slings, and with zig-zagging zippered placements with single slings had totally locked the rope. I brought in my second, got my pro back, and quickly scrambled over to check out the situation. Looking back up to the belayer while investigating the cluster: I yelled down and found out the cluster had been resolved, I scrambled back to my belayer and continued on to the 4th pitch: This pitch was short and easier than the first 2+. It still had some mid-class moves and great exposure. I put in 3, maybe 4 pieces. Again, doubles are useful (I put a triple sling in with my omni-anchor). Looking down from the 4th pitch: Next "pitch" was a full-rope-length scramble ending in a trail headed down to a belay anchor. Pitch 6 was like pitch 4 but shorter, easier, and with only a couple mid-class 5 moves. Enjoying the summit: My partner and I summitted at around 6:45. The second team followed 30 minutes later. Time was short on the summit and we started down. We opted for 3 single rope rappels and leapfrogged with the ropes to speed things up. After the 3rd rappel, the trail down the east ridge was visible immediately to skiers left. There were no routefinding issues back to Bumblebee Pass. I found the trail across the talus and scree hard to follow in some places, but it was dusk. It was not very pleasant downclimbing/hiking. I was glad to have trekking poles. We got back to camp after 10 pm and were quite glad we were overnighting and not hiking 6 more miles back to the car. Bugs were only just then started to die down. I enjoyed the stars while I downed my flask of scotch. Gear Notes: Small alpine rack, lots of double runners, maybe even a triple. 60m rope, or running belay. Helmet. Approach Notes: Snow free. Buggy.

drink whisky

If B-HO fucks it up enough, rich Americans, might be going to Canada.

I climbed near Snoqualmie pass and lost at least a liter of blood to mosquitos. I need to rehydrate fast... where's my beer?

what the fuck dude ^ it's a depiction of an anti-bolter who's caught a "sporto" setting up a new route.

Good discussion, Bug

right back at ya, boner! :brew:

WARNING: Feeding lab rats copious amounts of substance x (fill in anything here) causes cancer!

dope post I was recently given more or less the entire collection... I've been trying to put them in order but every time I sit down to do so I get distracted by one of the articles I was thinking about starting a thread with photos of various articles... thoughts? good idea. don't post in spray though :-)

i've maybe clipped that many..... all Kevbone's?

a dolt with bolts? sorry, couldn't resist...

hmmmm i'm not sure you'd get a lot of disagreement with those, would you? add angora grotto to that list while you're at it, and i'd be happier. i've never met anyone who agreed with the retro bolting of cunning stunt; it pisses me off that it has bolts, when it's a great trad climb. any idea who keeps re-bolting it? anyways, that' a pretty short list, right? hardly something to get all worked up about.... i don't think we in washington have areas as sensitive as say joshua tree, where overbolting creates an eye-sore in a really special place. our crags are pretty isolated and generally pretty chossy and only visited by climbers (ok sure leavenworth is possibly an exception, but i don't notice chalk and bolts when driving through, unlike j tree). I visited Smith Rock twice - once before I ever climbed. I was driving home from Crater Lake with the family and wanted to picnic somewhere, saw the rocks on the horizon and thought "hey, I wonder if we can find a place to eat near those cool rocks". We parked at the higher lot and ate, then hiked around a bit. I didn't notice any bolts at all. Or chains. Anything. I only knew it was a climbing place because as we were about to leave a pair topped off a route right near us. The other places I have cragged - 11 worth, Vantage, Erie, and Tieton. Well, I've generally not seen many folks hiking up there other than climbers to 'appreciate the rock'. (yes, I know these are "trad" places with just some bolted routes - never mind the bolts and chains topping some routes) I'm not saying that there is not unnecessary bolting out there or that it's a good thing to add more bolts to our parks and wilderness areas, but I'm unconvinced that this is the HUGE problem that some posters are saying it is.

What about a "bolts someplaces" standard? That's what I am comfortable with, and you? Just how many folks here are actually putting in bolts? All the moderators? Just Bill Coe? I certainly have never put one in (nor ever plan to)

Your post is about ss much 'serious discussion' as I've seen on this thread or any started by Raindawg. So, you want to remove "chicken bolts". What else? Rap or belay anchors? Old crusty pitons stuck on routes? And is this "cleanup" limited to just cragging areas like Smith Rock, or are you going to do it (or advocated doing it) on popular peaks as well?

I always thought you liked Minx the best

this is something new?

True. OTOH, I would maintain that many bolted areas are places nobody would ever visit (up and close) to "appreciate the rock". Take the Far Side at exit 38 as one example. Raindawg's profile gives his location as "exit 39" - an interesting choice for a location to focus his anti-bolting feelings on (or just sport-climber mockery).

What does he have to say about bolting?