eldiente

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.

I would second that. If it is such a "secret" why are you CC talking about it?

The hut has has mice that eat everything and get in your face while sleeping.

ahh good point. I hadn't tried looking up with that pack on. I have a 10 year old frameless pack from Lowe Alpine. I can't stand the thing as the climbing gears always sticks me in the pack and doesn't ride evenly. -Nate

Anyone used the Osprey Exposure 50? I randomly saw it at the shop today and liked what I saw. It was slightly bigger (50L) than I originally wanted but I like the attachment points and the way it would hold a snowboard and crampons. Anyone used this pack? I see they make Osprey Exposure in a smaller size. -Nate

Thanks for the info. I'm doing a bit of shopping right now. I haven't bought a new pack in 6+ years so it is all a bit overwhelming given the choices. Thanks! -Nate

Pete's pile has ice. A lot of it is thin and would require bold leading. Lots of good bordering could be had at the base of the wall as there is lots of thick ice that is out of the sun. The top of the cliffs gets full PM sun and is melted in a lot places.

I drove through on Wednesday. There were a few spots that would be doable. Most of the ice I saw was very thin that would be TR only. Cap horn looked to have a lot of ice on it, although it could all just be wind-blow and rime like. Drive up there and you'll find something to climb if your willing to make the effort. The frozen moss looks to be very good right now. -Nate

I looking for some feedback on what to buy for large day back/light weight overnight pack. I'm looking for something than can take 1-2 days worth of climbing gear and light biy gear. Got any ideas? I've been having problems getting all my alpine gear shoved into my 1,500 cu in Osprey pack. On the flip side , my 5,000 cu in pack is too big to climb with. I've never owned any of the Black Diamond packs but they seem to be popular. The Predator from BD looked like was nice but I've never seen it in person.

I was just up there on Sunday. Spring like conditions with a heavy snowpack. A deep boot pack is in coming from Marble Parking lot.

So is Druy climbable?

Wow! Your chance of finding dry rock at Beacon is zero on that day.

haha. That's funny. You probably saw all the boot prints and wondered what the hell we were doing. Slinging the rock would have been the smart thing to do. We tried all kinds of things to reach those anchors. We even tried free climbing those moves in bare hands and a shoulder stand.

Yes, the ice was perfect. I'm glad you guys made it down without incident. Having never done that route I didn't really want to do those raps in the dark. As it was that first rap anchor was a real pain in the ass. Any beta on to do that first rap station? We wasted a good 30 minutes trying to figure out how we were going to reach the anchor. I couldn't make the move, so I ended up climbing around from behind and slinging a tree above the rap anchor. I suppose with more snow there is no problem reaching that anchor but a very big waste of time. Glad everyone had fun. -Nate