JosephH

On the larger DMM Allow Offsets I had to epoxy the nuts to the wires to replicate the originals. Before that, the wire was just so damn slick it was pretty hard to clean them as the wire would just pushed through the nut and the nut would stay put.

No monsters, but our girlfriends in the car were pretty damn pissed by the time we got back down - all but almost left our asses out there...

Well done, congrats on the send...

I and my partner once decended from a bluff with a branch covered on one side by luminescent fungus that we inadvertantly turned over while crawling on our hands and knees. We'd been groping our way about after a long FA at a crag we'd never been to before. Starting late because we thought we weren't going to get up it anyway wasn't the 'brightest' idea we ever had. And given we had no idea where we were or were going once we topped out, and the bluff was in-cut with steep, slimy, mossy ravine edges like a sawtooth, we were pretty stoked to stumble across that branch. By the time we did we'd been in pitch black long enough so that 'light stick' allowed us to walk and see edges. Every now and then even the incredibly stupid get lucky...

Give me a pm with your contact info and I'll probably be going out in that timeframe.

I believe the eventual effects of three or four days of extended debauchery in advance of Crimper's wedding played a substantial role in Stewart's big blowout.

Crimp, with regard to Eldo and the Gunks I was talking about trad climbing, then and now. Bottom line in trad climbing is you end up 15' above your gear on a regular basis unless you are carrying a hell of a rack and are stopping a lot to place it.

Crimp, I'm guessing in most trad venues such as the Valley, Eldo, Gunks, Looking Glass, etc. my take on how falls are characterized is probably not at all out of the ordinary. I don't sport climb so I don't know, but I don't doubt on a majority of sport lines going up today it would be hard to fall 30'. I've taken quite a few 40-60' falls over the years (goldline stretched a lot...) and because we started out climbing steep stuff and roofs we never did buy into the whole ridiculous "the leader must not fall" bullsh#t. You were going to fall on the stuff we were doing and you were going to fall a lot. We also fell a lot while getting a feel for climbing in Eldo and the Gunks back in the '70s. You've seen me fall, it's just another part of the craft from my perspective if you're pushing your limits. But you have to do it wisely with experience and judgment brought to bear before and while you're out on the edge. And the fact that I do it a lot doesn't necessarily mean inside I'm not whimpering like a baby just before some falls. I suspect Bill has taken his fair share as well or has just been tenacious or lucky as hell because I've seen him runout on shite ground and gear more than once or twice. Maybe he'll expound a bit more as well. Edit: gspot lives in PDX? Who are you?

I would definitely call taking a 40'-50' foot fall inside of Blownout's p2 dihedral a "big" fall. That is not a flat, clean wall - you are falling in relatively tight, irregular confines and I'm somewhat amazed that's all Stewart broke. Again, it's highly dependent on the situation at hand - or out of hand I suppose.

Depends on the venue, terrain, and what you're likely to hit. On relatively clean air I pretty much classify anything bigger than 50' to be "big" or "huge fall". I'm over my [clean air] pro 15-25' on a fairly regular basis which probably would make for 35-60' falls if one were to whip. I probably whipped 20-30' a half dozen times last year and probably in the 30-40' range only once or twice in the last five years. Personally, given clean air, I'd rather fall 20+ than shorter as the lack of rope stretch make falls in the 10-15' range are pretty damn stiff. I don't retire ropes after such falls, but I do keep track of them in my head. My old partner took a 110' fall off Metamorphisis in Eldo back in the day and I consider that a "huge" fall. That said, I've been in situations where a 10' fall looked and would have been "huge". I've also had a good friend sent to a nursing home for life at age 29 with a paralyzed right side and massive brain damage because of a 15' fall - I'd consider that a "huge" fall in my book anyday.

Congrats - glad to hear you took up the surfing - great way to stay in shape for climbing. There are lots of alpine folks around here, I'm not one of them though. If you are going to be in pdx and wanting to get on rock then pm me. Maybe pm Ivan for the alpine stuff.

I have a medium Terraplane X available if anyone needs one...

Petzl has had a bumpy start in the rope business - check over on RC.com

Where is the wedding?

I downloaded the .pdf fine, but you could though do a web site at http://sites.google.com or start a blog to chronicle your exploits and conquests. Any good tips on insomnia? Might need them after I retire, wouldn't want to ruin my career as a tech person before that.

WTF! I thought you moved to SLC to have more time to climb and collect wives? F#ck, you might as well move back to the NW if you're sitting around celibate indoors doing this half your time. A fair number of your audience is more likely to need a training manual on getting laid by Mormon chicks - they already know how to climb. But, all in all, it's quite a collection of useful info. I'm more of a 'just go do it' sort of climber, but for folks looking for a directed path and a condensed program from someone who knows their stuff then I'd say you did a good job - for a guy who probably should have been selfishly climbing and getting laid rather than monkishly (or is that monkeyishly) scribing 18mgs of training for others.

Mark, I'm climbing tomorrow and would be happy to pick you up and head out.

Nah, for the traffic most routes on Beacon see, and especially that one, those burly Metolius rap hangers (and 50kn Fixe SS rap rings where installed) will last nearly forever.

Shane has has been working to free that line up through the middle of the roof. Ivan, the bolts are fine as is if you rap down over the roof at an angle of about 45 degrees out to your right as you face the anchor.

Kevin, yes, I believe so. The roof is on the right side of a large ninety degree corner as you come down to it on the trail. And the face Ivan is talking about is directly in front of you. It has a bolt and two pins on it. Do any of you guys know the name of any of those lines in there if they have names?

He's just careful with the rope. You could throw a nut or cam in there to prevent the rope from getting back in there. I've yet to lead it and need to get out to do just that so we should hit it some time together and give it another whirl.

Ivan, Shane - working through the BRSP - established that anchor after the FFA. He has done a second pitch above it, though I didn't get the idea it was opening up great new vistas for climbing relative to the terrain above. Oh, and when I said 'the route to the right', I meant in the line in the middle of the adjacent wall as opposed to the corner. Kevin, routes can go up those NW faces, but the "gardening" (and managing habitat) by clearing whole faces of moss with snow shovels is definitely 'out' at Beacon these days.

Ivan, it definitely doesn't need a bolt there, you just have to be careful with the rope. Shane recently did the FFA of that line and I've seconded it with him once. The lone bolt and pins are old, though we checked and reset both pins so they're solid; the bolt is anyone's guess. I believe Shane calls the line "Head Skirt" and the one he's done to the right of it "Head Case" as Jim didn't seem to know any names for them from the olde days past - Pink, Bill? All in all, it's a real classic pitch with one of the more interesting finishes at Beacon. I'd highly recommend it to anyone and big kudos to Shane for freeing it.

Epoxying expansion bolts is just a bad idea. Pretty much what glue-ins are made for if you are intent on bolting it.

Kevin, no - there are three anchors over there I hadn't gotten to before I and Metolius ran out of rap hangers. Six months later that ship has finally just come in so those will get done, along with the high Flight Time anchor, checking the two angles on Stone Rodeo, and replacing the webbing on the main rap line. Don't have any other plans for the year beyond that other than cleaning out a couple of other classic South Face column routes. As for thanks - Bill Coe supplied all those expensive SS bolts.