eldiente

Will Gadd gets in on it. http://gravsports.blogspot.com/2010/06/david-lama-red-bull-patagonia.html That's an interesting post from a guy who gets his paycheck from Red Bull.

If nobody is falling maybe we should be unroped. *laughs* Kidding aside, if I'm on mellow terrain where nobody is going to be falling, I belay the normal way just because I can pull the rope faster. Even this way, I always have the rope going through the some pro. Belaying off your hips with an ATC because you don't trust your anchor is serious business and should only be used in the most dire of situations. Once in a while you see people do this when they are at a bomber anchor, eeek! Reminds me of the new climber that is scared to weight a rap rope so they try to down climb while holding the break hand at the same time. That's redundant right?

Indeed connivence for the belayer is important. The leader is doing all the work, taking all the risks, anything you can do to make her life more comfortable is a good thing. Let's face it, you were too scared to lead that pitch and are glad to be on top-rope. I'd feel guilty making my leader catch a bunch of falls off their harness after they were kind enough to put up a hard pitch for me. With the auto locker in place, you can fall all over without worrying about taxing your badass leader's groin. Plus, with so many walls getting cell service now, you can thumb your iPhone while still giving your second a SAFE belay. :-)

I'm going to disagree there about the safety of the auto-lock Joseph. While I'm following I want my leader to be hydrating, eating, organizing the rack, putting on a puffy, none of these tasks are easy to do or very safe if you are using a "normal" belay. I'd be pissed if I pulled into a belay and my leader hadn't sorted the rack because he was too busy belaying me. You can get tricky, but there isn't a safe way to put on a pull-over while belaying without an auto-locker. Very unlikely but what happens if the leader is hit by rockfall while belaying the second up? Bee sting? (Climbed with a girl last year that is so allergic to bees she'll go into shock in just a few minutes, hell yeah I want her using auto locker!) Side note about this. Belaying has nothing to do with climbing, it is a necessary evil (like ropes, cams and bolts) to make climbing safer. Lazy?! Hell yeah, belaying isn't supposed to be work, the work happens with moving your body up the wall.

Hold on, I'm late here but if I'm reading your previous posts right, you were very loudly arguing that BD gear would now become unsafe Now you are saying "BD equipment won't become unsafe." Which way you want to go with this? -Nate

Quick question for you John, answer as you like. EX: You buy a used car, low miles and dirt cheap. The previous owner meets you and says this "Man, I'm bad. I ran over a kid with it while I was drunk. I owe lots of parking tickets on it, would you like to buy it?" The deal is cheap, so you agree, pay off the parking tickets and go about your way. Now you are the owner of a child killing car. Does that make you a "bad" person not fit to perform the job of safely driving this car without running over any more kids? The fact remains, you are the operator of a child killing car. I have only scanned the links above, sorry I'm not that informed. However, reading your post it looks like the new owners of BD bought a company that used to make un-safe products. This is what you are saying, yes no? Oh and Jersey, Connecticut, is there a difference? All of those States that you can walk-across in a day can die. Nothing good coming out of there except failed banks.

This is all very normal stuff more most businesses. Without looking at the books, it appears BD grew too fast and over extended themselves. That's great their revenue is growing, but this can be a curse. I would be curious as to what BD's cash situation is and how profitable they are? To sustain themselves and all their new ventures, they need cash and that's where XYZ Corporate Giant from Hell comes in. BD got into a lot of new markets recently, skis, packs,tents, headlamps etc. I'm not sure this was such a hot idea as it takes them out of their core competency. I hate to see groups like this grow for the sake of growth. Some of these products are OK, but some are downright awful (BD's packs are the worst I've ever used) Staying small and focused isn't for everyone, however for a climbing company I would rather they do a few things well instead of trying to do everything half-ass. (When is BD coming out with a bike, or ropes or boots?) Going forward I can't see any reason that their hardware will become "unsafe." Cams, binners and the like are fairly simple things to make, assuming BD keeps using the same tooling there is no reason that their hardware will change. Also, last I checked BD was pull testing cams to half strength before they leave the shop. Good enough for me. Gear wise, BD makes a few nice things (hard to not like a nice #2) but there are others out there that are doing just as good of job or in some cases, doing it better. I now consider the Master Cam the gold standard for cams and reach for them most often. Unlike BD, Metolius is a local company doing just a few things really well. If you like the idea of supporting local business and climbers, buy their gear. If you like to give your cash to a bunch of ass-hats from Jersey that know zero about climbing, buy some BD cams. -Nate

Hey boys, why don't you take this to email or PM? As a whole I wish the Mods would crack down on this, if you want to talk to someone, please email them or PM. Common courtesy there. -Nate

Yes, we got shut-down on the first 5.11C pitch (P7 by the guide) I can't see of anyway to aid through this section, no crack and the next bolt is 20 feet above and would be too hard to stick clip. (Although I didn't try it, maybe using an aider off the bolt would help to get the feet up and make the moves?) I could be wrong, but I feel like if you could get over this section, the rest would go. (Other folks told me this pitch is more like .12 where as the other crux pitch is easier) Good question about Texas Tower Connection. I didn't have the topo with me when were up there so I wasn't feeling brave enough to go up into who knows what land. When we bailed I could see up high and left a line of old bolts ( I clipped one while down traversing during the bail) and also a high tat anchor about 150 up and left of Texas Hold Em P7. I would guess this is the Texas Connection. With a topo and some balls, you could do the same lose traverse we did left and bust up to the ramps of Lone Star to finish it off. This might be contrived but still a huge day on some really cool terrain. No endless crimp ladder like POD! I'd be stoked to see someone do this. It would be worth it just to do the Texas Tower Flake. Yes, last year Jens and partner (?) linked Texas Hold Em and Lone Star. He was very kind and gave me good beta, we were planing to do the same thing but unlike him, I'm weak. -Nate

Thread drift on this one... In defense of gym rats everywhere. All of the really hard gear climbs being done lately are being done by people with gym backgrounds. Think of Pringle climbing .14R on gear a few months after learning how to place gear. Kevin Jorgensen climbing .12C at Joshua Tree his first week trad climbing. Alex Honnold started with gym comps etc etc. Obviously were talking about some very talented folks here. Starting out trad climbing you do a lot of dumb things, but how do they say, if you're gona be dumb, you better be strong. Gym climbing makes you strong, on a trad climb there is great benefit to be able to dead-hang a crimp and fiddle in some gear without getting pumped. If you're not pumped, you can spend all day hanging out firing in gear. Plus the stronger person is most likely going to climb steeper routes where the consequences of having a piece pull are less severe. I think mounties/Mazamas should require mandatory hang-board training before they teach you anything about gear. If you can do 20 pulls on the 1/8in edge, you won't have any problems with that 5.4 crack they'll make you lead out at Tieton. "Who needs gear for this route, I'm stupid strong." :-) -Nate

Alex's solo of that route is hard to comprehend, those cruxes are slick. A few bits of beta: Keep your climbing shoes on and French Free this route. I was fortunate not to have to aid any of the pitches, but I was watching closely to see if it would be doable by French Freeing, yes it looks doable that way. Many of the cruxes are followed by easier moves, in many cases the cruxes are near bolts, you could aid off a few bolts and then free climb to the anchors. Hauling doesn't seem worth it, the route isn't that long. Being in the shade I bet you could climb in the late Spring when the days are long and have plenty of time for a aid/french free. The descent is easy raps right down the wall, even in the dark it would be easy to do. As for the bolts. I've heard aid climbers complain about them. My feeling is that the bolts were a good idea, this is a high traffic area on soft sandstone. Without the bolts the only option for climbing (free or aid ) was nailing the seam. With the bolts in place the whole route is doable on clean gear that won't damage the rock. -Nate

Sherri, that's a a crazy looking animal? Do they really look like that? I didn't get a great look at the creature I stumbled on, however it smelled like a skunk and had that black and white tail. (Although I wasn't aware that skunks lived down there) -Nate

Following that logic every third time I place a cam, I can expect it to fail on me (?) So on a nice long lead up the split pillar I can expect three of the nine pieces I placed to fail. Yikes. A well placed cam in good rock won't fail. In the same way that we only climb with one rope because we know that ropes don't magically break. Of course a perfect placement is easy to mess-up and with small gear, just moving the pro a slight bit might make that bomber placement worthless. On the flip side, it is amazing what kind of falls "bad" gear can take. Check-out the falls that this tipped-out hybrid Alien is taking.

Only 8-10 raps? Yikes, that's an expensive descent! I'm sure it depends on the type of terrain you are going down, (myself, mostly steep rock) but I recently switched to Mammut Pro Cord 6mm, very strong stuff, and I haven't had any durability issues. Having used 7mm rap cords for a long time I would say the advantage is that you can tie it to your lead line and do normal double rope raps. I'd be bit nervous to double rap on a 6mm line, even the 7mm line requires focused effort to keep from losing control. I'd say go with the 7mm if you plan on doing a lot of raps just because it is easier to rig and gives you the option of doing either a pull-line, or a double rap. However if you're thinking of carrying the tag line only for emergencies (you get rained off for instance) or if you're climbing at your limit free climbing, go with the 6mm line. Check-out the Pro Cord, very cool stuff.

For the tag line buy 65M x6mm of cord. It is so light you'll never notice it in a pack, and it is cheap too ($80-$120) You can either rap on it double rope style, or use it as a pull line. I like the pull line method, but if there is any chance of the rope getting stuck, I double rap on them.( the knot I use for the pull line is bulky and prone to getting stuck.)

Trip: Red Rocks - Texas Hold'em/Lone Star (attempt) Various Date: 5/9/2010 Trip Report: I must need a life as this is my third trip to Red Rocks this year. Hard to not go there, the flights are cheap and with easy logistics (condo rental) you're sure to get big days in without difficultly. Unfortunately this trip we had really poor weather, good temps but strong winds. I checked the weather station the day after we came off of Black Velvet and noticed gusts to 70 MPH were reported in Blue Diamond. Day 1* The Gobbler to Dream of Wild Turkeys, rap, up Sour Mash. 5.10 Day 2* Texas Hold'Em 5.11C (bail, finish on Epinephrine) Day 3* Rest day, sport wank Second pull-out. 7 pitches 5.11-5.12. Texas Hold'Em/Lone Star link-up (attempt) [img:center]http://lh5.ggpht.com/_XNueStDVX8c/S-xj74oZC7I/AAAAAAAAJ5U/fXFFNUi_9ts/Screen%20shot%202010-05-13%20at%201.40.13%20PM.png[/img] First four pitches marked. I've had my eye on this one for a while. Anyone going up the classic 2,000 foot Epinephrine (5.9) can't help but look to the right and see the huge blank wall, a very big piece of terrain caped with large roofs. Some joker figured out a way to push a route through this wall and called it "Texas Hold Em." Having climbed many of the other classics in the park, I was looking something with a bit more adventure, less people, more committing. Texas Hold Em has all of that. I've found that many of the other "hard" Red Rocks routes tend to feel soft, or at least they go without much drama. (I recall z-clipping myself on the crux pitch of Levitation 29, not very run out) Texas Hold em goes the opposite side of that. The normal route only goes half-way up the wall and rap from there. I'm not a fan of raps so I looked at some pictures and figured out a way to connect this route with another route called Lone Star and take it to the top. (Lone Star, 5.11 described as being "old school") Seems I'm not the the first person to get this idea, another CC.er did this link last year for a possible first ascent. We hoped to do the same and climb all of Texas Hold Em, connect with Lone Star and tag the summit of Black Velvet. Done this way you'd get 2,000+feet of climbing with very little moderate terrain. [img:center]http://lh3.ggpht.com/_XNueStDVX8c/S-w2Gj1crsI/AAAAAAAAJ0A/UD0V7smhOHg/s640/P1010169.JPG[/img] Base of route, first lose pitches starts in the corner in the right. The beta from the guidebook is solid, nothing to add there except that there is no mention of the how serious this route is. We climbed with one rope to save weight and to prevent any thoughts of chickening out and bailing. The route goes over several bulges, I'm not sure if it is possible to bail with one rope even if you left gear behind. If you only want to do Texas Hold Em, you can rap over those bulges back to the base with double ropes. p1-p4. 500 feet. 5.9. Fairly mellow climbing in a corner on broken terrain at 5.9. Nothing too hard except that there isn't pro, I was often 40-60 feet above gear. To compound the problem the rock was awful, the plates were lose and I broke off several while leading. To secure myself I went for flared hand jams in the corner only to discover the inside of the crack had layers of rock that would peal off when jammed. Uhm, back to the lose holds for me. After all the bushy business down low the rock suddenly turns into smooth varnish, the best of the best for Red Rocks. We climb some really nice varnish cracks to base of the Texas Tower and the Panhandle Crack. [img:center]http://lh6.ggpht.com/_XNueStDVX8c/S-w2ZyHeOPI/AAAAAAAAJ0U/gcnDGbrflCM/s640/P1010173.JPG[/img] The Panhandle Crack, the best pitch in Red Rocks? The Panhandle Pitch goes at 5.10D for 180 feet to the top of the Texas Tower through an overhanging roof/hand crack. It is the wildest, most exposed pitch I have ever done at Red Rocks. I feel very fortunate to have gotten the onsight, but then again an overhanging hand crack through a roof is perfect for me. It would be hard to think of a better pitch of climbing. My gripe was the wind, I had to dead-hang jams during gusts to keep from getting pushed off. Trying to clip runners meant first pulling them from above my head and down to the rope. The gear beta for this pitch is to unload a #1 in the flakes below the roof, saving your #4 and #3s for the obvious parts. Up high the cracks goes to fingers so you won't need any more wide gear. For reference I didn't find this pitch to be much easier than the last pitch of cloud tower, similar style. Above the Texas Tower the route falls apart for us. Sam leads the crux pitch and soon after is flying through the air. I watch him take dozens of falls onto a bolt trying to push through. This makes me nervous as Sam is a lot stronger then me, how am I going to get up that? I try to stay warm with the usual jumping in place tricks but nothing is working. Sam turns the lead over to me and with chattering teeth I try to make a go. Falling through the air, same result. It is hard to describe the crux, maybe it is the cold fingers but I'm stumped with no signs of useable holds, only smooth rock. Having climbed dozens of pitches in the .11/.12 grade at Red Rocks I just can't understand why this supposed .11C pitch is so damn hard. Take those fun .12s at the second pull-off and think harder, way harder. We never figure it out and looking at cold night at a hanging belay we start thinking about how were going to get off. Very sad to be bailing. [img:center]http://lh5.ggpht.com/_XNueStDVX8c/S-w2b6rx2yI/AAAAAAAAJ0s/PFvWm39x_3g/s640/P1010177.JPG[/img] Looking up the crux pitch, any beta for this one? With only one rope, a rap is not possible. However I can still see the Epi chimneys low and to the left of us. Maybe we can traverse and rap into them? I traverse straight left from the airy belay on horrible, lose holds with hopes of coming across some pro.(airy!) After 70 feet of traversing on this garbage (5.9 or so) I come across an old star drive, clip it, keep moving left, clip another star drive. This is Mother's day, I hope I don't die. Finally I get to a better looking bolt, clip it and get lowered straight down to a belay. Sam does the same thing following and I can't watch, too nervous. Thankfully now were above Epi and can start to rap into it. More rap action and were now back inside the Epi chimneys 600 feet off the ground at 5:00PM. This still isn't ideal as with only one rope we still can't rap to the ground. No problem as I love the upper pitches of Epi and know I can climb them fast. I lead the last 1,300 feet of Epi linking pitches and placing very little gear to keep the pace up. We top-out at 8:00PM. [img:center]http://lh6.ggpht.com/_XNueStDVX8c/S-w2d6uqHVI/AAAAAAAAJ1A/hBQt3bvid7I/s640/P1010179.JPG[/img] Sam in the upper corners of Epi, incredible position. Unfortunately for us the wind and darkness at the summit presents new problems. Walking on top of the ridge is impossible with the wind so we stay low skiers right on the ridge and shiver. I've done this before but still miss a turn in the dark and take us straight East off the ridge instead of left behind Frogland. Takes us four hours of down-climbing and bushwhacking to get back to car, I fall on a sleeping skunk (he didn't spray me, thanks!) and we both have numerous encounters with Cacti. Ugly, car at 1:00 AM. [img:center]http://lh3.ggpht.com/_XNueStDVX8c/S-w2fVbNVkI/AAAAAAAAJ1Y/hO_uw674rBg/s640/P1010183.JPG[/img] Summit of Epi, Vegas in the background. Follow-up. Please PM if you'd like to to do this route, I still want to do it but need some help working out the crux pitch. :-) [img:center]http://lh3.ggpht.com/_XNueStDVX8c/S-w2hnl03CI/AAAAAAAAJ18/hdBse8NVNN4/s576/P1010189.JPG[/img] Heel hooks on a rest day, 2nd-pull-out the Pier. [img:center]http://lh4.ggpht.com/_XNueStDVX8c/S-w2DSXmzcI/AAAAAAAAJzU/Ar2xg9yK3fs/s640/P1010162.JPG[/img] Sour Mash Belay. Happy times. [img:center]http://lh3.ggpht.com/_XNueStDVX8c/S-w1-ZKNgpI/AAAAAAAAJyY/r7Jw1Y6-aZI/s640/P1010154.JPG[/img] Looking down from the top of pitch 2, The Gobbler Gear Notes: Texas Hold Em. Doubles from Blue Master Cam to #4 BD. Many runners. Some belays are bolted, some are not. Approach Notes: Start 100 feet right of Epi

Dude I think I know of this Solvenian girl you speak of! Is there a pair of them perhaps? I saw these two Eastern bloc girls up on the Squaw, they asked for beta and sounded lost. I assumed they were newbies and going to bail once they figured out where they were. Nope, a few minutes later I see them float up the first pitch of the "Great Game" placing minimal gear.

Laybacking the split pillar? Maybe you could, but why would you? Just because you can climb it with poor technique doesn't disqualify it from being a great crack. I'll give the nod to the split pillar just because it is classic and you can see it from the Pub a the end of the day. Runner-up would be the enduro pitch below the roof on the West Face, Colchuck Balanced Rock. Perfect hands/tight hands for a good long ways. -Nate

I'm very picky about my climbing footwear and have wasted much money trying to find a shoe that climbs well and that I can stand to be in all day. If it weren't for the pain, I'd say the Muria is the best trad shoe you can wear. Downside is that the Muria can really ruin your toes when jammed in a crack. I tried the 5.10 Pitons for a few years, great crack shoe but so soft that it felt really insecure any time I had to come out of the crack to make a few faces moves. Currently I'm using TC Pros and will say that they are hands-down the best shoe I've ever owned. I put in a 2,000+ foot day in them last weekend and had no pain at all. With the laces cranked down they climb almost as well as my Murias, however on easy pitches I open up the laces and feel no pain. For face climbing and crack work, they are the best I've ever used. So far the only thing they don't do well is slab climb, a bit too stiff for that. Also, the laces are exposed so if you are only climbing cracks (Indian Creek) it might be worth it to get a slipper just to save your expensive shoes from the abuse. The break-in period for the TC Pros is really rough, they are stiff shoe and take a long time to loosen up. My other gripe is that they seriously take 3-5 minutes to get them on and laced up. I stopped taking the off at belays as it was taking too long to get my feet back in them. -Nate

Trip: Smith Rock - Astro Monkey. Date: 5/2/2010 Trip Report: Astro Monkey, 6 pitches 5.11+ Sort of hard to write a trip report about Smith Rock (I climbed XXX route at XXX grade and my finger really hurt from all those monos) Still Astro Monkey was an interesting experience for us and deserves some attention. We'll call this the "Astroman of Smith" Sorry not many pictures, too cold to operate the camera. Pitch 1: 5.11+++ What the hell, this pitch was a first class pain in the ass. We first tried the direct start which is three bolts to a crack. Caleb made a go of this, but wasn't really that excited by all the pin scars so after a few tries he bailed and we moved to the right to try the all-bolts 5.11+ variation. This pitch wasn't much better as it took me 30 minutes and a bunch jump offs to figure out the boulder problem to get to the first bolt. Crux is higher up on slabby terrain with very confusing "feet" and balance moves. Harder to figure out than any .12 I've done at Smith. Keep moving past the last bolt on lose 5.7 rock with no pro. The belay on top of P1 has 3x rotten bolts use gear in the crack instead. P2. 5.9. Rad finger crack to lose, shitty terrain. I wish the finger crack part was longer. Belay bolts are again shit, back them up with medium cams below huge roof crack system. P3. 5.11. The wildest pitch I've ever done at Smith. Severely overhanging corner crack system that climbs like a hybrid undercling/stem problem. Feels a lot like the steep section of Wartleys Revenge, just steeper and in a corner. The moves off the belay are the hardest as you struggle to get under this thing while not landing on the belayer. Moving fast and not putting in too much gear seemed to be the best tactic, clip the first fixed bong and come to a jug rest before an even steeper roof. The upper section is hairy as you have to yard on these giant detached flakes that look unstable. No worries about hitting the belayer as by now the pitch has overhung by 20-30 feet putting the belayer out of range. I couldn't figure out a way not to use these flakes so I lugged up on them and lunged to a jug on top of the roof, wild feeling as the feet have to come off and dangle while thugging up over the roof. Yikes! P6 5.10. Combined with the previous pitch, awful rope drag. End at Bohn Street. Not recommended linking. P7-P8. Climb up Monkey Space pitches to the summit. 5.11 B and 5.11B. The traversing first pitch feels very soft for 5.11 but the exposure makes up for it. That would be an exciting place for the leader to fall. Optional .75 BD for the first traversing pitch. Rap fixed line down from the summit. Thanks to whoever is working "Just Do it" for the fixed line. [img:center]http://lh5.ggpht.com/_XNueStDVX8c/S-NpoopDUVI/AAAAAAAAJtY/z0o3y5q7xR8/s640/IMG_1883.JPG[/img] Looking up P2 finger crack. P3 corner is visible up and left [img:center]http://lh3.ggpht.com/_XNueStDVX8c/S-NedGlXSpI/AAAAAAAAJro/yUeE5Mn_RTk/s640/IMG_1889.JPG[/img] P5 (Monkey Space first pitch) [img:center]http://lh5.ggpht.com/_XNueStDVX8c/S-Nef6mWEhI/AAAAAAAAJsA/cyZLxarCWgE/s640/IMG_1892.JPG[/img] In the cave top of P5. Transfer belay to North end of cave. [img:center]http://lh6.ggpht.com/_XNueStDVX8c/S-NeiU65yYI/AAAAAAAAJsY/lAlp6UgDDgg/s640/IMG_1896.JPG[/img] Gear Notes: Triples Blue Master Cam through Red Master Cam. 2X #1BD. We never used the #2 or nuts. The 5.11 roof pitch eats up red and orange master cams which is sort of a problem as that's the size you need for the belay below the roof.

No shoes needed for the walk-off, easy in climbing shoes to walk back to the base.

My 2 cents as it applies to trad. Try climbing routes outside of your comfort zone even if it means hang-dogging or French Free to get through it. Then work it on TR, then work it on lead, eventually you'll send and your confidence will increase and you'll gain valuable experience of what it feels like to climb at your limit. Also, if you want to do just one thing to help bump up your fitness, hangboard. Even just once a week, grab onto small holds and hold them for a few seconds. No pull-ups needed here. Sounds boring but while your hanging there think about how it will feel to lock off on lead and fiddle a nut in. That hold you are hanging onto is going to feel very friendly compared to the hangboad that you are used to.

This is spray and all, but Kevin if I were a family member/friend of someone that died on one of those planes that you say didn't actually crash, my feelings would be very hurt.

I have carried an ax while snowboarding. My thoughts. *On steep/icy terrain I am genrally moving slow, often side-slipping. In this situation the ax is useful, especially on the toe side as I can quickly get a good stick. Very helpful when I need to take a break and am worried that sitting on my ass will lead to a slide, tool goes in and I hang off it while taking a break. Very important on icy slopes where I might need to switch back into pons. *Less steep/faster. Once you start moving at speed the ice tool has limited value, a fall and you are going to rag doll the slope. In this type of terrain I put the tool away as there is no chance of arresting a fall, plus this type of terrain is usually on softer snow where a fall means lost hats and laughs.

Thin Fingers is a real joy to climb, although it does climb like a 2x mellow 5.10 pitches separated by a short boulder problem. Compared to other .11s up there it feels fairly mellow.