JosephH

I like your story better - it has a way happier ending...

Thankfully no! Now that would have been some explaining - though there were a few babes in the crowd - who knows how it might have gone. As it was, I just disappeared pretty damn fast...

In Southern Illinois I once soloed half way up the [standard] short face in Giant City and sat on this particular spot I liked in the sun. It was a beautiful day, absolutely no one was around, and it felt great to just hang out and catch buzz and some rays. Unfortunately I hadn't had much sleep and I eventually found a way to go from sitting, to lounging, to laying down sleeping on the small top of that broad, rounded arete-like feature I was climbing. It was also a part of a time, summer, and environment where lakes near the campus would feature joined flotillas of 200 hundred innertubes and rafts of naked bodies and floating kegs; main street with all the bars would spontaneously erupt on friday nights into a mass streaking exhibition; and all our daily hours long down-and-back swims of Cedar Lake were done nude. So before finally going to a deep, deep sleep on my little perch, I stripped off everything and hung it on the rock in sort of a circle around me. About two hours later I wake up to full-on pandemonium. The park - which is a lawn up to the base of the cliff - is now packed with people and a rescue is well underway. In my groggy state attempting to come out of my haze I hear someone below explaining how, "he must have landed so hard it blew all his clothes off of him!". Everyone I think, including myself, was a bit surprised when I finally managed to get up, collect my wits and bits and top out as quickly as possible. I'm not shy, but I was about three shades of scarlet between the embarassment and sunburn...

Not having soloed anything harder than a 5.9 I don't know about soloing at your limit. But for me, soloing doesn't bring out my best climbing - my best climbing brings out the soloing.

Highly premeditated, public soloing of any kind for an audience or camera at a pre-arranged date/time is to me pretty inconceivable and stupidly banal. Can't relate to it at all. As far as the onsight/wired thing goes, I think if you have it going on within a certain level, you have it going on - it doesn't matter all that much if you are playing something you've played a hundred times or are improvising - it's all just happening regardless. Does one happen a great deal more than the other? Sure. Novelty and familiarity co-mingle in an interesting dance all the time.

All the Persians I've had first-hand experiences with have been very bright and extremely well-educated. And I suspect they will deploy some of their best and brightest to their new weapons systems. They now possess about 30 TOR M1's and are acquiring S-3/400 to use with them in a well-integrated air defense system that the Israelis will pay a price to defeat. There's a video out on you tube of a three-missile strike on a drone where one missile hits the exhaust, the next the body debris and the third the ejection seat - pow, pow, pow. These are also highly automated systems both individually and as an integrated whole so I'm guessing the Iranian's won't have a long spin-up time. Add to that Chinese hypersonic surface to surface missles and cavitating torpedoes and no one is going to get away from an engagement with them clean unless they screw up in a lot of ways I don't think they will. Overestimating the Iraqis was one thing, underestimating the Iranians is another, and dangerous. That doesn't mean the Israelis won't attack, it simply means they'll know upfront the costs will be likely be quite high, will have to limit their targeting more than they'd like, and both they and the U.S. will have to worry a long time about what form a counterstrike will take, because one will be in the offing and the Persians will not forget just who's GBU-28s were raining down on them.

"simple monkey concentration" Hmmm. I wish it were that simple and in some ways it is I guess - but I consider it less a matter of concentration and more one of 'zen', 'flow', or whatever 'xxxx' word you want to use I suppose (actually, I strive for the same in all my climbing). I've soloed onsight only very occasionally and do rope solo onsight a fair amount each year while traveling. Most of the difference for me between the two is the thought processes going on before I leave the ground - once I'm on the rock it's pretty much the same deal either way. That's because I try not to think or concentrate or otherwise get in the way at all when I'm soloing. As a geek I'd say the most actively conscious part of soloing for me is what I'd call 'exception management' - if anything looks or feels in any way unusual I let thinking kick in again - otherwise, Dane's "feet, hands and heart" sounds about right to me. Wired or onsight - you're either 'in-the-zone' or you're not. If you're not, you're sketching and sketching completely sucks regardless whether it's wired or onsight. So, from my perspective, onsight soloing in total control is bad ass - onsight soloing sketching your brains out and ending up lucky enough living to tell the tale is a mistake in perception and judgment.

I should also say I'm not and never was into 'sketching' at all when soloing - I'm either in total control or I'm not soloing, period. I've never had a need to push my emotional envolope that way - I personally like my fear. And now that I'm an old guy I have nothing in particular along those lines that I feel the need to 'conquer' or 'prove to myself'. For me it's simply about experiencing a level of confidence and assurance that doesn't exist with a rope on. I enjoy that, but I've never 'needed' or been addicted to soloing though I do think that it, like many other things in life, has a reasonable addiction potential. But, despite being Irish, it's never really had that big a hook into me.

In the past my soloing was never premeditated - I'd be somewhere and I'd suddenly realize everything was lined up and I 'knew' the outcome before ever leaving the ground. Those moments of that solid outcome awareness are more what I remember and hold dear than the actual solos which, in hindsight, were completely secondary to the simple 'knowing' things would be fine. Today, about half of my climbing is rope soloing when Beacon is open, but I'm operating under a promise to my wife and daughter not to free solo. However, on the rock that translates to rope soloing the first and second pitches of the SE Corner and just soloing off the last three. I make that trade-off because the rappels back to the start of those pitches are just too much of a hassle to be worth it and the risk they represent is likely a wash. If I weren't under that promise, then Young Warriors would probably be my standard solo given I have every nub, nook, and potential loose flake wired down to the point of unconsciousness.

No, the question was not about trad climbing at all or about 'perfect' routes of any variety. It was about the fact that about twelve years ago battery technology advanced to a price point where now pretty much anyone one can go outside and do a piss-poor job spraying with it. The OP's conjecture was that a lot of drilled 'routes' go in that, top-to-bottom, yield about the same value and gratification as your average thread here in Spray.

You shouldn't think that way - it's all good...

He said "we're"...

Ryan, thanks for finding that info... It's actually considerably more complicated than that. Now that I take a look at it, the Metolius SafeTech Helmet looks like it will be replacing the Petzl Ecrin Rock once it's available. http://www.metoliusclimbing.com/catalog_2008.pdf

I don't know the technical data behind the two competing designs of foam in direct contact with skull or a suspension system - but I personally have way more [unsubstantiated] faith in the suspension system helmets than the foam jobs for either rock fall or impact in a fall. Anyone know the real data and trade-offs or links to them?

I believe Opdycke and company are going Wednesday night.

I have nothing bad at all to say about folks who are learning to just learn with a helmet on and so get used to it from the beginning.

Not really a prerequisite in this case.

The "always wear a helmet" deal is, I think, OT . I'm not really into much in the way of dogma of any kind, but more typically just think everything has a time and place when / where it's appropriate. At some point we're all spitting into the wind and taking our chances. Always wearing a helmet covers one base, but I generally perceive risk as an odd deal that perniciously tends to squish up and around whatever bases you specifically attempt to cover, clobbering you in some other way.

Yeah, the Meteor is an ultra-light deal which I take to mean easily damaged by abuse and good for only one actual use of any kind. I don't like helmets and normally don't climb with one. But, on busy weekends, or any time I get "that feeling", I like having the Meteor around as it doesn't seem like a big imposition or hassle to slap on just in case. When I'm thinking about the Ecrin Rock and Supersafe, their weight and 'discomfort' are usually among the lesser of my worries...

Petzl Meteor III for general cragging when I'm worried about anything loose coming down (or off) for any reason and for semi-dicey leads. Petzl Ecrin Rock for doing FAs and serious lines involving significant loose rock/block potential, marginal pro, and / or runouts. I usually am also on my Mammut Supersafe or doubles when I have the Ecrin Rock on.

...

Doug and Chongo need to team up...

Pretty much anyone who willingly ties in to the other end of the rope. Them, and Silvia Vidal, if I were into the hero thing.

"The three have not been identified, but Bacher said they are couple and a friend, all in their early 30s from Bellevue. Bacher said all three were experienced climbers, with two having summated Mount Rainier before and all three had made several trips to Camp Muir." http://www.komonews.com/news/local/19723464.html

I've gotten about three pairs of blue Kauks off of ebay including a "brand new" pair. If I see any 45's go by I'll let you know.