eldiente

Buy more gadgets and you'll be safe! Stupid. Reading it sounds like that this site is paid for by AT&T or Garmin. As a whole I'm not a fan of Cell Phones in the woods..

You do not need a partner or a rope for the South side. It is often skied this time of year. If you go on a weekend you can follow dozens (hundreds) of people to the summit.

Sure, just because he didn't get hurt during any of those falls doesn't mean it is a safe thing to be doing. Clearly he is a master of this type of climbing and knows how to make it safer. I always thought the R rating was just another way of saying there is long-run-outs and potential for big falls on this route. I'd say this route has both of those.

That's awful. That's really crappy as the poor guy was just messing around at the crag and it ended up this way. It is amazing that short falls can cause so much damage. I've only seen two inverted falls and both of them were on bolts that were very close to the leaders body. I think it is easier to get twisted up in the rope when you take a short fall. Yuck.

The blog is way funny, I stated reading it a few weeks ago and had a good laugh. Nothing funny about that route though. Making those kind of moves way above mirco nuts? Wow..

I skied up on W'East on Sunday. There was 6-12 inches of new up high but it already turned into nice Spring Corn by Sunday mixed in with some nice windblow pow. No avy problems where we were, snowpack is very solid, maybe a few small wet slides late in the day. -Nate

On moderate terrain where the chances of a fall are nill, I don't have a problem leading on an 8.2. Folding it in half for a short crux section might make you feel better. 8.2 is still very strong but will not hold up to repeated falling or sharp edges. I think this would be an ideal rope for a lot of things around WA where your doing a lot of simuling and maybe a few pitch of "real" climbing.

It goes without saying that Winter is a total bitch and that were all green with envy. Looks like a lot of fun. -Nate

I've used a 9.2 and a 6mm tag line to rap with. Yes, you have to hold on tight and it is a little scary at first. Works great though as the tag-line stays in the pack until needed.

True that. Everyone always like to spout off about how if such and such route was in the Valley it'd be 5.6.

Depends what type of climbing were talking about. Certainly dragging heavy packs up Rainer takes a different type of training than .13 redpoint at Smith. Physical fitness is important for every type of climbing, I can't find any info on that site for which type of climbing they are training for.

Go Solo. You'll move faster and have a great time.

She is a real person, I know here. PDX local. Very funny lady actually.

I'd second that. Third Pillar of Dana is way fun.

Taking advice on safe anchors from people on CC.com? Have you seen the anchors some of these people build. Scary. Jokes aside, I don't normally place a directional piece at the belay unless at a hanging stance and/or there is really hard climbing right above the belay. On lower angle terrain ( Moscow) the chances of the leader taking a huge whip and pulling you way up ought to be low. Also, as the leader I'd rather have a few extra pieces with me that I can place right away to protect the belay than have those pieces tied up at the anchor being used in opposition. It really sucks when your run-out and realize the piece you need is being used at the belay.

I just finished a good read that might be up your alley. Food for Fitness Book A little different than most diet books as it pays attention to what athletes should be eating. Many books you might pick-up are aimed at overweight people trying to lose weight which isn't all that relevant for someone that is active and looking to increase performance.

Speaking of CCH. Has anyone seen this video? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fH1N1c8fbeQ I have to wonder how CCH can afford to sponsor anyone when they appear to be a breath away from going out of business. On a side note, going for big runouts over a black alien is brave.

I use my Gri-Gri on ropes as small as 9.7. If the leader takes and honest fall, it will lock up no problem. The only trouble I've ever had using it on smaller ropes is if the leader calls for a "take" or tries to rest on the rope. In this scenario, there won't be enough force to lock up the GriGri so I have to hold the break end of the rope like you normally would with a ATC. If your on really skinny ropes and still want to use this method, simply put a knot below the device. The biggest advantage to the Gri-Gri for alpine/simul climbing is that you can move from belay to climbing very quickly without having to have the leader pull-up a bunch of slack to put the 2nd on belay. -Nate

If your looking for only a file server, Apple's new storage gadget might be an option. The Time Capsule can mount up on any machine and act as wireless data dump. http://www.apple.com/timecapsule/ My concern with Time Capsule would be the lack of host OS. If something breaks, I see no way to troubleshoot the device. Other than that, a old/cheap PC or Mac running Linux or OSX with lots of cheap drives mounted in there should do it.

Sounds good.

Learn to crack climb for $999 a day.

Thanks for the post Jeff. Everyone appreciates your hard work up there and the guidebook is helpful for finding some of the more obscure lines. I would like to see the directions not published in the guidebook. The crag isn't hard to find and word of mouth seems to do just fine for everyone. I have yet to meet anyway that has climbed there that has any problem finding the place. Actually almost everyone has a good story about how they found TC, and who took them up there for the first time. It is a unique experience to find such a great crag under on your own without the usual "turn right after 50 feet and look for a sign" that you get at most crags. What does everyone else think? Bill, if we get a consensus on this issues, would you be willing to delete your post with the directions? -Nate

I always prefer to have the stronger partner on the bottom of the rope belaying as the second must not fall or your both dead. Climbing and belaying at the same time is not an easy task so the weaker climber should not be trying to both, Basically the person that is belaying needs to comfortable soloing the terrain, if not they should be belaying/climbing as normal. I could see having the stronger climber go first if he/she was faster at route finding and terrain that was easy for the second. Often times on long moderates there will be shot sections that are to difficult to simul through but don't need a full-on belay. For this I like to have the leader stop and clip a bomber pieces and belay the second up. A Grigri is perfect for this as the second can tie in short simply by putting a knot below the device and can than climb through the hard section. Once through the hard section, take the knot out of the Grigri and continue to climb as normal. Yeah Grigri is sort of heavy to carry around the mountains, but for rock simuling it is great.

Trout Creek is a small place that can't handle the crowds. It was a shame that Climbing ran an article on it even though the locals specifically asked the author not to. If you need directions consult a map and bring a pair of hiking boots, that's how most of us found it originally. Please do not post directions on this site or any other. Trout Creek is clearly not a secret, but it doesn't need any more attention or step by step beta for finding the place. Half the the fun is the effort it takes to find the crag and the approach. If a bit of hard work isn't your thing, your not going to have fun out there anyway. If you really want the detailed beta, buy the book. Jeff is a good guy and responsible for much of the development at Trout Creek, giving him some beer money is the least we can do for all the hard work he has done out there. -Nate

96 Subaru Legacy Wagon. 25 MPG or so.