eldiente

That's really cool! I give that props. Side note, from L-worth you could bike/climb some burly shit!

John is a good dude, and I'd say we're friends (hi John!) No question he gets after it and is one of the most excited people about climbing. That said, if you hire a PR agent to announce your recent climbing accomplishments... (hahaha, just kidding) But yeah, I think these short resource heavy trips aren't something we should aspire to. (I do plenty of them myself and have been known to fly for a weekend of sport wanking) For me I get more excited to hear about people that sat on a glacier for a month or laid siege to a sports project for years because it shows commitment and love of the sport. These short trips should be viewed as necessary evil because of real life time constraints. As for the carbon thing.. All types of climbing are resource hogs, but alpine climbing has to be the worst. You could live in the Valley for six months and climb every day and still spend less money and burn less fuel then one trip to a major alpine destination. I don't have a problem with that, but it is hypocritical for climbing companies to spray about how their alpine athletes being "stewards" when they burn more fuel in one trip then a red neck on a dirt bike does in a year. Sending routes is always nice, but hanging out in nature with your mates is the the real joy. These short trips lack that as it is just rush rush, I do plenty of that in my day to day life. Climbing should be a break from modern chaos, not an extension of it Sorry for the thread drift on this one. I'm going to sit in traffic for an hour to climb a few pitches *pout* -Nate

Climbed Outer Space yesterday. Yes ticks were bad but no big deal. Just pick them off when you get done with the day. None of them stuck on me long enough to get stuck on my skin. Nice day out there, dry rock. -Nate

IMO... I always use cheap Nike running shoes. Sure they wear out fast but they are lighter than most climbing specific shoes, and they are comfy on the hike in. If the hike in isn't too rough I'll go with a pair of flip-flops. nate

Kevin, are you high?

I'm in Van and looking to climb. PM sent. -Nate

Wild Country Friends work great for this, I buy the cheap-o Tech friends for the Creek to cover some odd size ranges.

This is RAD. 100% support this, thanks for doing the work. Quick question. Would you allow users to go back and fix their TRs with proper peak names and locations? I for one would gladly fix my TR locations if this would help with the mapping. Thoughts?

Umh.. A belay loop and device PROPERLY rigged and in good condition can't fail, it is impossible much in the same way a that your rope can't break, it just can't be done. (when properly used) Ask a QC engineer, you can rig a rap device/system one million times and it will hold one million times. Why would you tell a new climber that it might fail and this is how to plan for that contingency? Not trying to be harsh but this sort of information isn't helpful for new climbers. I saw some new guys climbing at the crag the other day that were stepping on the brake side of the rope while on belay because they were told this was a back-up in case their belay device failed( what!) Sorry for the thread drift on this. Mods feel free to move this elsewhere, sorry all. -Nate

Sorry to hear about this, makes you wonder about tat fixed draws at popular crags. Hope he gets better soon. Thread drift>piton. You put lockers on your draws? For heavens sake, why? I can't imagine how scary it would be trying to fiddle a locker while pumped out at a clip. Maybe I'm weak but I'd blow 75% of my clips if I had to use a locker on them. Blowing clips is scary and sometimes results in some long falls. Yuck.

I agree with John on this one. I used to play around with things like: Hangboard and then jump rope on the rest cycles. Or boulder traverse with pack and then go into a row. My thinking was that it was a way to simulate that "smashed" feeling you get on enduro days. Since then I've gone back the other way, train one thing at a time and make it count. EX: morning cardio, night hang board session. The idea being that you want to give max effort to whatever you're doing and to do it properly. I found that when I mixed the two I was doing both half ass. A proper hangobard session should leave you so pumped that you can't hold your dick to piss. Conversely I found that when I came off the rowing machine or jump rope and launched into a boulder problem, I was so wasted that all I could do were easy jug hauls which isn't helpful for anything. The idea of a hybrid workout is fun and I really enjoy mixing in cardio/weights in while I climb. (You get funny looks at the gym doing push-up after every boulder problem) However it didn't make my a better climber or runner or much of anything.

Haha all in good fun. Although I get lured into Spray from time to time, this site would be better off without it. (Sorry thread drift, not the place) I'm a rather poor alpine climber myself and would tip over and die if I had to keep up with anyone on this thread on the approach. However, I've never bailed off any route, ice, rock or otherwise because I was out of breath. Forearms/fingers are always the limiting factor. What's one to do when you encounter M9 moves on your big ice climb? Or a hard boulder move on day three of your big wall? You can't stair master your way out of that kind of terrain. Umh I wonder what mixed climbers like Dave Macleod do for training... Anyway.. Being body FIT and having rad technical skills would be ideal. However it seems like people put too much emphasis on the fit part and not enough on the skills part. (Now I'm just justifying my fat self, I need to go for a run) Soooo go hangobard and get wicked strong digits. Then come summer you'll solo right past your mates that are lugging around around a huge rack and rope up that alpine ridge. Although you'll out climb everyone, the dudes that were busy slamming weights all Winter are going to have better luck with the ladies, hangboarding does nothing for your physique. -Nate

Huh? What does any of this have to do with CLIMBING? Hormones, BPM,HR cardio what is this Runnerworld.com or Men's Fitness.com? Since we're talking climbing training, the only thing worth mentioning is the hangboard. Super easy to do, no running required and you won't bulk up. Plus you'll SEND which is the whole point of training right? -Nate

Ahh yes we just about got run down by the groomer at around 5:00AM. We met several other folks that were coming down at about the same time after getting blown around up high. Good turns on the Corduroy though! -Nate

We gave it a try early AM today and got shut-down. Clear and windy at the parking lot (2:30AM) but by the time we got to the top of Palmer it was fog and more wind. Nasty! Skiing conditions were poor, mostly wind buffed hard pack with a few spots of softer snow and bits of rain crust.

Bump. How's the snow looking up there? Wind blown or pow?

You guys are out of your mind, I climbed Beacon two days ago and it was actually nice ROCK climbing weather.

PTSD is like a lot of mental health disorders, having it doesn't give you a free pass to hurt people/break the law. However we as a society also need to take some responsibility for creating an environment where PTSD can thrive. (Eds note, who knows what happened to this guy, he may or may not be mentally ill, he might just be a bastard. All this talk is strictly speculation and making a ton of assumptions.) -Nate

I'm with Gene on this. Maybe we should think about tragedies like this the next time we send our youth off to war. Condolences to all involved, very sad. -Nate

Trip: Red Rocks - Sandstone Samurai, Only the good die young various Date: 11/28/2011 Trip Report: I haven't seen much on CC.com about any of these routes at RR. A few bits of info. Sorry not much in the way of pictures, too cold/lazy to shoot much on the longer routes we did. As a side note, I think RR is the WORST place to shoot pictures. For some reason nothing stands out, the ground always blends into the pitch and it looks like you're 40' off the ground even if you're 400' The short days and cold temps kept us from climbing any of the big rigs and instead had to settle for lots of sport wanking and a few short "long" routes. Still it was nice to tick off a few less traveled routes at RR. *Unimpeachable Groping. 5.10B 700 +/- feet. Really fun multi-pitch sport climb on the Ginger Cracks Buttress (Left of the Cloud Tower) Bolts and face climbing, lots of both. I thought this was way more fun than other Red Rocks clip-ups like Prince of Darkness. The terrain is steeper with short fun cruxes, most of the route felt 5.10- Unlike Prince of Darkness there is some variety, jugs, roofs, and even a touch of slab climbing on nice varnished rock. Super fun! Bolts are close together. Beta. Link p2 and p3, this cuts off on hanging belay and lets you belay from a huge ledge. Need extra draws to do this. P3 hasroof to pull at the start, probably 5.9ish on huge jugs, I'm a rock climbing God! At least I felt that way on such nice holds. Gear. Draws, 15 or 20 if linking. No gear needed despite what the book says. Descent. You need 2x ropes to get down from P3 but the rest of the route is doable in 1x rope. We left our 2nd rope at the ledge on p3 and used a single rope to rap pitches 6-3 with 70M. Watch out for rope snags on the raps, those jugs are everywhere! Looking down the route. I think this is why I gave up on pictures in RR. Ledge on top of p3 belay. Leave 2nd rope here and climb/rap the rest of the route with 1x rope. *Only the Good Die Young. 5.11C. 400 feet. Far right side of Whiskey Peak past "Wholesome Fullback." Cool movement on amazing rock but kinda short. This would be a good route to do with other routes on the wall, I would think a fast party could tick off 3-4 of these mini routes in Whiskey Peak without too much fuss. Wall sees no sun, maybe a good summer outing. P1 is hard to see, look for a low bolt into a seam. From the ground the seam looks hard and scary to protect but it is actually mellow and takes good gear. (5.10D) All pitches are short, like 50'-70' short. P2 has a crux leaving the belay with bolts every 2'-4' feet (!) Sounds over-bolted but it works as there is these whacky overlaps and roofs that would suck to fall over. Higher up on P2 there is a flared roof crack crux, feels whacky but a hand jam saves the day. #1BD will protect. P4 The real crux at 5.11C but oh my this is the most one move wonder pitch I've ever done. One harsh crimp move traversing right under the roof take you to jugs and a long bit of 5.7 to the summit. (rope drag) I got ripped off as my partner led the best pitch on the route (P3, 5.10) make sure to fight for this lead, super pitch in a corner to face climbing. The rock was great and unique moves, but the pitches are so short that you feel sort of ripped off. Bolts are close together, all cruxes could be A1 with ease. Gear. 12 draws, single set of cams to #2. No nuts needed. Descent. Walk off right, ugly bushwhacking. Stay skiers right if possible. One rap from bush. Sandstone Samurai. 5.11 700 feet. Black Velvet Wall. Change of pace from the usual Red Rocks clip-up. I've often felt that Red Rocks is a great place to "cheat" up routes. The soft grades and abundant pro have let me sneak up many routes that I'm not qualified to get on. With that in mind I thought it would be a good idea to do a route where I'd have to do some real climbing without the training wheels on, no calling for a "take" on this route. Although I think my partner got really tired of me yelling "watch me" 100 times per pitch. Overall the route is like other BV routes, endless crimps and high-steps. Feels much like Prince of Darkness, same style maybe just a tad harder in P1 and P2.(slab moves at times) Mostly RR 5.10 face climbing. I find that style of climbing a tad boring, hard on the toes and tips with no real distinct features. Of course the lack of gear makes you forget that your getting bored doing the high step over and over again. Getting lost seems to be the crux of the route, often there's no indiction of where the next bolt/pro is going to be. The fear of getting 50' above the gear and off-route is very real. I poured massive amount of chalk onto the wall while nervously trying to figure it out. If you get up there soon it might be less confusing as I left a trail of chalk behind. Sorry about that. Beta: Eeeeek! Up and down climb at least 10x time per pitch trying to figure it out. 9 out of 10 times my first intuition ended up being the correct one, if I wasn't such a wuss I would have just gone for it the first time without so much fidgeting. So I guess the beta is go up and don't fall, better holds will come. Gear. On the hard moves I felt the gear was close enough where I could jump off and be OK. Clean wall with no ledges to hit. However on some of the easier terrain (lot of 5.10) a fall would ruin the day. I used screamers on much of the gear and bolts, no idea if screamers help in these situations but seemed like a good idea. Very poor nut placements at times. Single set of cams with 3x of purple- green C3 cams and brass nuts. I nested gear a few times and equalized them. A double rope might help as you could wonder around to find more gear options. Although maybe it would be smarter to forgo the shitty gear and save your energy for the climbing. A few sport pictures... The shortest 5.12 ever. Looks like a boulder problem, climbs like a sports climb. Black Corridor route unknown.

First, name dropping for who uses what and for what reasons isn't really a convincing argument. Just about any name brand cam on the market is going to safely hold a fall when properly placed, even on 5.hard terrain. I've been down at Indian Creek for the past few weeks climbing on all types of gear. A few thoughts. 1.) 3 cam units (TCUs/C3s) don't do very well on soft sandstone. Several locals claim to have pulled bomber C3 placements at Indian Creek. I was a bit skeptical as normally I'm a big fan of C3s on granite and basalt, however I had a green C3 fail on me last week in a body weight situation while at IC. Beware of the sandstone! 2.) Master cams aren't perfect but in my mind they are a solid small cam. The bigger sizes are too flaccid so I'd say blue-orange is my master cam rack. In Smith tuff or pods of Basalt nothing is better. 3.) Trigger wires on Master cams get snagged in the crack at times making them hard to remove, I could care less as I'll make my second deal with it. :-) Oh back to the name drop thing.. I watched a guy send the " Optimator" yesterday using master cams in the tips section. But oh wait, master cams suck and this guy was a total moron because nobody that climbs hard trad uses master cams. But wait, this route isn't hard so never mind... My rack: C3s from purple to green (for basalt and granite) Master Cams Blue-Orange. BD C4s. Grey-#6. -Nate

What a great shot! That pitch is fantastic, and like Pazzo said, very short.

Trip: Squamish - Freeway Date: 7/15/2011 Trip Report: Been in Squamish for the past month or so. Lots of fun as usual, here's a some beta for Freeway. (Sorry, no climbing pics, left the camera on the deck) View of the Chief from my home at the Squamish Yacht Club. With a good pair of binoculars one can watch the action on the Grand Wall while sitting in the cockpit. Freeway. 5.11D 12 pitches. A bit surprised, this route is burly, wild and a good workout. The grade is stiff for Squamish, when compared with other 5.11 crack climbs in Squamish. For a reference point, routes like Crime of the Century (Smoke Bluffs, 5.11C) feel about as hard as the 5.11a pitches on Freeway. We climbed it after a good spell of rain, maybe this is why it felt so hard? Both of us took falls and Jacob had to French Free around a few wet parts. The other noteworthy thing that sticks out for me is the techy face climbing, I was expecting more pure crack work but many times the cruxes where where the cracks ended and committing moves had to be made pawing up smooth slabs or tipped out laybacking. P1. 5.10D. Skipped it due to wetness. Climbed scary 4th lass bush thingy to climbers right with fixed hand line. P.2 5.11b Sandbag. Crux is moving left where the crack ends and just praying something good will appear. There is no magic jug coming out of this move, just more insecure tips and brass nuts once you get stood up. P3. 5.10 fists. The daylight crack. Cool feature. Move blindly right from belay to bear hug this flake. Long fist crack awaits. Exciting climbing with only one big cam on the rack. The name makes sense once you look through the crack and see your mate belaying from the other side of it. 4 inches and sustained. P4. 5.10. Traverse down and right on bolts. Not that easy as the bolts are well spaced and a fall would be no good. P5. 5.11C Long pitch, crux tips laybacking in a beautiful corner system. Many small cams. Take my first fall on this pitch when a foot slips. Bitch! P6.5.11a More of the same, 180 feet. Relief comes near the end when you move left on run-out but fun face climbing. The face climbing is 5.10ish and a real hoot after so much laybacking. Belay below crazy roof. P7. 5.11D. Short bouldery pitch pulling over a steep roof. Severely over-hanging and much exposure. Boulder problem moves hit when upside down trying to stick a rattly hand jam and moving left. Good gear. P8. 5.11. Short traverse around and over the roof you just came over. One of the wildest pitch's I've ever been on, mostly jugs but not getting pumped out (or just plain scared) is the crux of this, turn the roof and keep moving on good bolts, face climbing with lots of air under the boots. Note that there is a jug by the fixed pin that you see from the belay. Have faith and move to it without monkeying around with extra gear. P9. 5.10C fingers. Short right leaning crack. Kinda hard with tired arms. P10. 5.11. Another short pitch. Harsh slab boulder problem with the the potetinal to break an ankle. Brass nuts an RPs sort of protect the move. P11. 5.10 Chimney. A bit wet and not much gear but you can get in there and wiggle around without risk of coming out. No wide gear needed. P12. 5.10D. Short bolted boulder problem right at belay. Slap up left and make the clips, cruise up easy 5th to the trail. Gear Notes: Doubles up #2. One #3, maybe a #4 if you want pro for the fist crack. Triple finger sized gear. Bring RPs and Brass nuts. Bolted belays. Approach Notes: 10 minutes from the car.

If you are Spanish, 5.12 limestone counts as moderate. We got passed by a male/female Spanish team that was climbing 5.10+ terrain in their approach shoes, they didn't even have climbing shoes on their harness.

GroupOn is a giant Ponzi scheme, they lose hundreds of millions of dollars every year and are nowhere near profitable. Check out their IPO financial statements, they take in tons of cash but spend it all on marketing to the point that they are very much in the red. Investors are keeping their doors open by pumping cash into the bizz. For the local business it can be a double edged sword. The GroupOn for Casa Naranja expired on Thursday so half of Portland was there trying to eat. They ran out of beer, half the menu items were unavailable because they ran out of food (!?) the wait staff was rude because they were slammed busy serving cheap-skate Portlanders, and the Fries took an hour to come out. So yeah all that traffic is nice, but now I just wrote a negative review of them online and probably won't be going back. I did buy the GroupOn for the body wax, I'm real smooth now.