selkirk

Does that come with sauce, or ?????

Wrong area Dru, that would be down a Smith this weekend. All those Prana wearing sport climbers.

Just about a 50/50 ratio. And what are doin showin off for the camera Distel when you climb with your other half???

That is one thing the Mounties have going for them. I just finished the basic class last year and now have more female climbing friend than male! Of course the other possibility is to find a worthwhile lady and get her to start climbing...... Get's around the whole 7:1 ratio. Well, if you can get over the whole socially inept part

I'll be there.... wet rock is such much suck!

Is anybody not going to be at Smiffy this weekend?

Go Lite makes some disgustingly light hardshells. Don't know how well they'll stand up to serious abuse though.

The national Weather Service site http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/Seattle/ Has pretty much the same forcast for the Olympics, and Cascades all the way down to Rainer. It may be more typical than the good weather in March/April, but it still translates to showers when you least want them. Someone hasn't been sacrificing their Roosters I think.

Mostly cloudy, Chance of Rain are the most annoying words an alpine climber can hear! If the weather bites at least you can make other plans, but that's just purgatory. We all know the weather is going to suck this weekend but how many of us are going to drive to the trailhead anyway! gggrrrrrrrrrrrrrr It's so

The drag difference between a single and double should be almost nothing. Friction for ropes or belts going around something (i.e. a biner) is only really a function of the types of surfaces involved. The equation relating how much more tension is on the rope your trying to pull is T2=T1*e^(mu*beta). Where T1 and T2 are rope tensions, mu the coefficient of friction between the surfaces and beta the angle of the direction change for the ropes. So assuming the sheaths are more or less the same and the skinny ropes don't actually kink, then it shouldn't make a bit of difference. The diameter of the biners, amount of surface contact etc doesn't really make a difference, same goes for friction over rock. So the idea is to minimize the number of turns the rope takes, and it's easiest done with 1/2 ropes clipping alternate pieces. For twins and singles it won't make a difference unless you manage to kink or the twins. Sorry, had to be engi-nerd for a moment! I'm all better now.

Tying is only tieing after you've tied one on.

As memory serves it was actually tested during development here at UW in one of the Wind Tunnels.

There's lots of stuff you should be able to use for a personal anchor. 9/16th Climb Spec is supposed to hold 11 kn (however you've got two strands of it so long as your using a tied sling it should hold 22kn. somebody let me know if i'm wrong here) the Metolius PAS is at 18kn, 9/16th Spectra Sewn Runner at 27 Mammut Dyneema Sewn Runner at 22 You could also use Spectra Accessory Cord at 20 kn, Generally all of these things should be fine for a Personal Anchor. The sticking point is you really don't want to fall directly onto your personal Anchor. Your going to generate a shit load of force. So you definitely want it backed up. Take a look at if your interested. http://flash.lakeheadu.ca/~lurock/factor2.html They're analysis comes out to 18kn for a 1.2 m factor 2 fall onto static rope/runner The other thing to remember is that the rest of the climbing system will fail at about the same point Anchors -- 25 kN Carabiners -- 20 kN Slings -- 22 kN Harnesses -- 15 kN So not only might your personal anchor fail, but you could quite easily pull your pro, blow your harnes or break your biners. Best thing to do is keep the personal anchor snug and you below the anchor your attached to so you can't take a factor 2 onto it. And definitely back it up! Take your climbing rope and tie it directly into the anchor ASAP. The other thing to watch with Daisies is that the stitching in the pockets blows out well before the whole runner (i've heard at around 300 lbs? for some). So there's the whole threat that if your clipped through 2 loops (say the end loop and an intermediate loop to shorten it) you could potentially blow the stitching at a low force and detach the daisy from an anchor.

I just picked up a few of the FCU's at pro Mountain sports and they're doing a great job so far. Watch the real small ones though, the trigger bar isn't really far enough above the bottom of the cable where the sling is attached to get your thumb under it, so you have to place your thumb on the bottom of the cable instead, and it's a wee bit less steady. Only a problem on the sizes below 1.

Your reading this thread......

If you can find them you might look for the Cebe Mark's and Supermarks. Both pretty cool. I think you might even be able to get them with doubled lenses so they should almost never fog.

It seems to me climbing is an addiction. The rush, the focus, the freedom, the beautiful images, it might as well be a good drug trip. Mix in good people and life doesn't get much better. It makes me appreciate the rest my life a little more too. Nothing gives perspective like a good trip into the high places. Everything a risk. Climbing maybe a little more so, and much less forgiving than many, so lets just watch each others backs, and keep thinking and evaluating. Those are really the only safety mechanism anyone has on climb.

That's one for the good guys. If there's any search and rescue type people on here, I think were all appreciating your work and dedication at the moment.

Heres the article text. Rescue underway for injured climber on Mt. Hood 09:59 AM PDT on Tuesday, May 18, 2004 By TERESA BELL, kgw.com Staff GOEVERNMENT CAMP, Ore. -- Search and rescue teams are looking for an injured climber who witnesses said fell into a crevasse below Crater Rock, near the 9,600-foot-level on Mt. Hood early Tuesday. An aerial view of Crater Rock on Mt. Hood. (File Photo) A climber called 9-1-1 for help from a cell phone on the mountain at about 7 a.m., after his partner fell through some ice and into a crevasse, authorities said. “The fallen climber is reportedly a 60-year-old male,” said Sgt. Nick Watt, a spokesperson with the Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office. “They cannot see him in the crevasse nor is he responding to them.” Watt said the man was not tied by rope to his climbing partner, a common practice during dangerous climbs that helps provide more stability if someone slips or falls. As of 9;30 a.m., search and rescue teams had just begun their ascent on the mountain after “scrambling to respond,” Watt said. They set up a base of operations at Timberline Lodge and also put a helicopter crew with the Oregon Army National Guard Military Air Rescue Team, out of Salem, on standby for help if needed. At the base camp, a rescue team boarded a SnowCat that began climbing up the mountain at about 9:30 a.m. The SnowCat will take the team to the highest point it can reach, an effort expected to take about an hour, before dropping the climbers off to finish their trek on foot. From there, the specially trained climbers will carefully make their way to the crevasse area, according to Angie Brandenburg, a spokesperson with the Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office. They probably won't reach the injured climber until after 11 a.m. “We’re still trying to re-contact the climbing partner by phone,” Brandenburg added. “It’s a pretty dire situation up there right now.” Meantime, the Blackhawk crew will likely fly to Timberline Lodge, where it will await the next stage of the rescue. The military helicopter team is specially trained in high elevation rescues and has safely airlifted several injured climbers off Mt. Hood in the past. But Tuesday morning, visibility was extremely poor on the mountain, so the Blackhawk may not be able to safely fly at the high elevation. “There’s kind of cloudy conditions up there right now but certainly we can use air assets up there... if we can get this guy out of the crevasse," Brandenburg said. KGW meteorologist Dave Salesky said conditions were foggy and cloudy at 9 a.m., but blue sky and sunshine was moving into the area. If searchers don’t reach the injured climber by Tuesday afternoon, the rescue effort will probably become much more difficult, as weather conditions grow dramatically worse. Salesky said the forecast calls for mostly cloudy skies with thunder showers and up to four inches of new snow expected in the next 24 hours.

It seems like it's starting out to be a rough season already. Is there any word on his condition?

GD, i've got a friend in Iraq right and was going to send over a care package of some sort. Any suggestions for what to include? Thanks

Only Drug Czar. Just have to make sure everything your destroying is legit. Would be just awful to burn a pile of weeds instead of weed, and you just can't be too careful!

You realize your insulting another Republican don't you Martlet? You might want to pay a little closer attention lest you alienate everyone, and not just us Moonbats.

See, now you just being reactionary. We all know Bush isn't an evil maniacal individual dead set on screwing every thing over. Fundamentally I think he's probably a pretty good guy. But good will and good intentions aren't enough. Haven't you heard, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. My biggest problem with the patriot act was the lack of discussion that went into. It was proposed and past at a time when everyone wanted action, and as such there seemed to be very little political discussion and hence tempering of it. And your right, it may not have been abused yet. But do you really want the FBI to be able to tap your phones because someone tips them off that you have terrorist links? Unlike the drug enforcement laws there isn't the court oversite. They don't really need a court order or a warrant to utilize a most of the tools in the patriot act, just a reasonable suspicion. I'm not even worried about blatant abuse, I think most of the individual in the FBI and the DOJ are also fundamentally pretty bright, good people out to do what they think is best and right. What i'm worried about is someone who in their own mind is sure that they're in the right, and aggressively going after someone. Without the court oversight to be sure that everyhing is in order, that overzealous prosecutor is wielding too much power. On the upside it's starting to work it's way through the legal system. The ACLU has cases against it that finally came into public view as the fact they existed had been sealed due to "secrecy". Not that I quite grasp why a challenge to some aspect of the law should be "secret" and therefore not fit for public consumption. So hopefully the justice system will eventually adjust/repair the law and make it reasonable again. But that's going to take a while.

aaahh, we missed you to Martlet. This board just isn't the same when there aren't any republicans to poke for a day.