JosephH

Like I said, if you're never involved with anything even potentially dicey it's all good...

PM me, we clearly need to work on that two-point spread...

Skinny people climbing by-the-dots? I suppose so, they look good. But, handed a rack and pointed at a runout Trovolsian 5.8880-23r in 0.8 gravity, nine out of ten of them would hyperventilate all their O2 before one boot left the surface.

Yeah, and I almost passed out in the truck loading boxes as I didn't know a spray can of auto starter ether had gone off in one of the boxes.

In a nutshell, the Kong Ghost is smooth both belaying and rappelling. It doesn't lock up when belaying, doesn't chatter when rappelling, and just 'feels right' in both modes which is rare. I've used it for 7.8 - 9.8 thin ropes and my main complaint is that they don't make a larger one for normal ropes. I can't comment on how well it works for belaying seconds off anchors because I don't do that. I'm an old guy like Bill, and have used about every belay device ever made; it's not very often that I'm happy with one, this one I am. Also a note about rope size. Yeah, today they make lighter gear and ropes are part of that so you can buy really thin ropes. But don't kid yourself, sub-10 ropes wear significantly faster, stretch more, cut easier, and are more difficult to rap. From my perspective they are specialized pieces of gear and not for beginners or new intermediate climbers. If you are using a sub-10 rope with a grigri you better be belaying like the grigri is just an ATC. And while thin ropes a boon for sport and alpine climbers, trad climbers by and large should still not be cavalier about matching ropes to routes, rock, and the likely task at hand. 11mm ropes are clearly dead, but today's crop of sub-10 single ropes are still not sufficient in any respect to be replacing 10-10.5mm ropes for most serious trad climbing endeavors.

Jim's house has been sold and he has until the end of the month to find a new home and vacate the current one. He'll need help like the last time so we'll probably need to organize renting a truck and doing a moving party. He'll let us know when he finds a new place...

Kong Ghost, my favorite by a long shot so far. I also have a Reversino, a DMM Bugette, and a DMM V Twin as well (and I was a long time Reverso user for normal rope sizes).

Dane, man, sorry to hear about all the troubles of that day and hope you and yours fully recover.

Spent yesterday climbing in Red Rock with Sherri from cc.com and Christian Beckwith, founder of Alpinist. Christian is a stand-up guy who tried to make a go of it at a time when all of today's changing media forces are aligned against a standalone print journal now matter how much of your heart and soul you put into one. None of use likely would have made it to issue #12 let alone #25 like Christian and his crew did. Sounds like the folks who picked it up are honoring subscriptions so let's hope they can make a successful go of it as part of a family of publications - but even that won't happen unless all of use actually subscribe to it - kudos to everyone who did the first time around. If you like the mag and aren't a subscriber, please become one or the new owners won't make it with it either - real, substantive content isn't cheap to produce - we all need to do our part.

Sounds like they're open to a partial closure as opposed to shutting down the whole wall - that's means WDFW raptor biologists up in Region 2 are up for working with climbers on the closures which is way better than the alternatives. They may also be up for monitoring for when they chicks are flying reliably on their own for an open date as well - depends on resources, it may need to be hard date, but is probably worth asking about it.

Yes, they'd swivel and drop out of almost any and every placement no matter how you used them. I did own two of them and they, like the Camlocks, didn't last a day's use before I sent them to the box of bad ideas.

Yes, these (Kirk's Kams) are what we used to affectionately call the CMI "Swivel of Death". They and SMC Camlocks were a couple of the best-built 'misses' of the pre-cam climbing era. Both were miserably bad as pro, despite the fact that some people even today will stand up and defend the Camlocks. But they both sucked, these particularly badly. I have nothing but respect for Kirk and CMI - most of whose products over 30+ year have been superb, but these babies were a mistake.

Probably not yet, but it would be a good idea for the weekend if someone lives over that way and could put one up...

Granite climbers whining about Eldo sandstone - classic.

Lisa - nice pic. There were three eggs as of Sunday. These chicks should be flying in the July 1-7st time frame and typically like to give them a week or two of flying before opening so a July 31st date wouldn't be at all unreasonable. An official closure probably hasn't been instituted - yet - but folks should now cease climbing Outer Space. Cooperating voluntarily will be way, way more productive relative to access issues across WA than continuing to climb the route.

Wayne, is that how it goes? There are no lone wolves?

Need to replace the electrical service in the house and I'd rather steer it some climber's way then just calling around... Send me a pm if you're interested...

Good post Off, it's worth thinking about just who is raping who...

Again - and aside from the fact your statement above is completely and utterly untrue - all your posts in this regard are unhelpful; just keep it to yourself. I'm doing everything humanly possible to lift the closure and your posts simply aren't helping those efforts. But, what the fuck - if your need to bitch is just that much more important to you then, hell, have at it dude...

Sure, would love to tag-team the Peregrines - I'll give you a shout... Regarding Kevin, because in the end, he just needs to stop all such posts if he really wants the closure to go away.

trigger, I'm doing the monitoring and yes there is a very health looking pair either nesting or in the process of nesting there somewhere. Backing up 40 days from the typical end of June openings we've been enjoying would, ball-park, put egg-hatching around May 16th. Back up 35 days from that and egg-laying would be about five days ago from today. My guess is they're probably either on a scrape with eggs or will be within days - but probably already are. The new ranger Ben saw the upper-picnic area Osprey mating last weekend and I need to ask Dave Anderson, the WDFW Raptor biologist, where Osprey mating falls relative to the Peregrines. Because the Osprey are migratory and I've been seening them work on nests as recently as last Sunday I suspect they mate and lay eggs later than our Beacon-resident Peregrine pair. So far nothing has given me any expectations of the closure being lifted earlier than the point chicks have been flying for a week or so. I've been watching a spot high on the right edge of the East Face tower above the parking lot which was where the Peregrines spent most of there time last summer and fall. But last year the Ravens unexplicably abandoned the East Face for nesting. This year one of them has been consistently coming and going from the exact spot I was really hoping the Peregrines would be nesting. My guess is that in a showdown for nesting sights the Raven's probably always win as they are just too damn smart and work in pairs or groups for what they want. I will definitely post up if I do see anything that would indicate the possibility of a significantly earlier opening than either the recent late June ones or the official on on July 15th. Kevin, stop being a complete dick on topic - in the end your posts are pretty damn counterproductive relative to actually trying to do anything about ending the closure when non-locals find such posts here. Or is it the case you actually just love the closure so you can endlessly bitch and spew? Hey, I've been working steady on lifting the closure for the past five years now, have a bunch of time and money invested explicitly towards that end, and you could at least pitch in by not being a bitch about it.

As opposed to a bunch of rock-ravaged, culturally estute, all-too-hip, mutually-flagellating, stromboli-packed clip artistes?

Keep your Nellie in check - it's not a permanent closure by anything other than the poison oak I keep not getting to at the end of each season - it's part of the Peregrine closure and will be open when it's lifted in June - unless of course, people keep breaking the closure and then nothing I can say will make it anything but July 15th...

Baby jesus is crucified on a miniature cross again every time someone breaks the closure. If anyone knows the circumstances pm me or Bill, or chat with Opdycke about it - some one is missing a rope...

Uh...you exist, therefore they mate.