JosephH

You go Karsten!

Now that has to be a beating on the shoulders and elbows. Hard to even imagine it...

They look like they'd be fine - but better if they came in stainless.

You need to attend a Route Restoration Clinic. See about halfway down this page for details: http://www.rockclimbing.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=1189141;

Eldo - Bastille Crack and Yellow Spur, did both this weekend - dosen't get any better than that.

You mean beyond the normal powerful desire to chalk up at the mere thought of a move...?

adboy - I believe it's the blind master who's with you. I'll be roped up all weekend with the chalkfiend of Eldo - hopefully I'll survive with my lungs intact. If one substance doesn't get you the other one will.

Well adboy, when you or some other gimp dumps a half a bag of the shit on the first half of the first pitch of a 5.7 trade route within days of the rock opening and I have to wade through it I'll probably feel like ranting all over again about it. Get your head out of your bag sometime and set your hands free for a pitch or two on a cool day - who knows, maybe you'll be surprised how many of the times you're dipping have nothing to do with need.

Might have him post it up on RC.com where the whole alien debacle is being tracked...

They took the sign down because they decided it was inciting people to throw rocks down...

CoolClay - Tarbuster over on ST identified your other four picks as Forrest "Lifetime Tools" Vector picks. http://www.supertopo.com/climbing/thread.html?topic_id=581062&tn=0#msg581108

Yeah, that would be great, thanks CoolClay!

Oh, Bill and I will take them. We'd want the two on the left in your photos just above and the short stubby picks in the photos below of the ones we'd want. The photo of the ones on the right just above don't look to be Forrest picks. If Bill will cover them then I will split it with him...thanks.

So how much do you want for the three sets of Mjollnir picks?

One point of clarification - the Max Cam is a truly asymmetric cam relative to possessing a varying cam angle. The Super Cam has the outward appearance of asymmetry, but in reality it is a symmetric cam from the the perspective of having a constant cam angle and it operates no differently than an old original, solid stem friend in that respect.

See the other thread...

It did, but the attachment plates, screw holes, and serration count on the ones he has above don't appear to match the Forrest hammer as seen below...

The 4th one down on the left and the 3rd & 4th down on the right are all for the Forrest Mjollnir Hammer. Bill Coe and I own one and would likely be interested in one or two of each of those three. The tubular ones and any with attachment holes matching them are likely for the original Lowe Hummingbirds. The first generation was just a cylinder of metal on a handle where as later versions looked more like the head of a modern tool. Maybe check this page as well: http://www.coolclimbing.com/axe1.htm Here is one of Bill's pics of the Mjollnir (top) and the regular Forrest fixed-head Mjollnar below it: And here's a pic of the later generation hummingbirds:

Andrew - whatever gets you back in shape and keeps you there! What's your schedule look like for this coming weekend and the one after that - I'm thinking of jamming out of here for one or the other given our forecast looks bleak and Vegas is already too hot.

Mark, just curious - how old are you and what type of shape are you in relative to 1983? I started in '74 and am 56 this year and still at it. But, I had to pay some pretty vicious dues for about a year back when I was 50 to get back in decent shape. In the end I found it was well worth the effort and I've also seen a few other 50+ climbers around PDX go through the same spin cycle as well who are back climbing at a reasonably high level. I do like your concept of working on yourself before working on the route - pretty much what I have to do every year before I can get back on my own routes with any confidence. I use them as a yardstick for how I'm doing as the year progresses given I can't usually just jump on them right away. In general, I don't mind not getting up other peoples routes, but it's a drag when I can't get up my own.

Regardless of which device, when using a backpack you can still use backup knots. In my case I rarely do, though. I may throw one in for an particularly awkward move, but that's about it. For my reasons why see the posts in the link I posted earlier. Also, be sure to tie a couple of overhand knots in the end of the rope before stacking it in the backpack if you use one - you don't want the end somehow coming out of the bag near the end and zipping on through your device.

ABC News 4/14/08 An experienced snowmobiler, John Slemp, 52, of Damascus, Ore., miraculously survived a 1,500-foot plummet into the crater of Mt. St. Helens. He is the first person ever to fall into the crater. After dropping into the crater of Mount St. Helens, John Slemp miraculously survived with minor injuries. On Saturday, Slemp, his son Jared and a family friend took their snowmobiles up to the crater's rim, where John and Jared parked their vehicles, then crawled on their bellies to peer over the cornice — a dangerous overhanging shelf of snow at the crest of a mountain — into the crater itself. The cornice broke loose and Slemp dropped about 150 feet. His son began to slide down with him until their friend grabbed him and pulled him back to safety. The elder Slemp landed on a snow bank, but when he stood to climb back up the crater, the shelf of snow crumbled beneath him and he tumbled about 1,300 feet further down the crater, riding a tidal wave of avalanche debris on his hands and knees. At 5:20 p.m. PT, the sheriff's office received a phone call that a man had fallen off the crater rim but was up and moving around. "I'm not surprised," Undersheriff Dave Cox said. "There was an avalanche warning in effect and the weather conditions were such that, for that elevation, the snow was unstable. There were high temperatures, which means the snow was starting to melt ... [slemp] just happened to be the impetus that caused that cornice to give way." The coordinator of the rescue, Chief Tom McDowell, director of North Country emergency medical service, said Slemp first made a vertical drop of about 100 to 200 feet, then hit a snow bank and tumbled until the crater leveled out. "We've always anticipated anyone falls off the crater rim is not gonna survive," McDowell said. But Slemp was wearing a heavy snowmobile suit as well as a helmet and heavy boots, and he happened to fall in an area without craggy crevices or boulders which could have killed him. "[He] picked a great place to do this," Gary Kapezynski, the training coordinator for the volcano rescue team, said. "This was one of two places at the crater which were snow covered and there were very few cliffs ... if he'd have gone off in other places, I don't think he would have made it." The two men at the top of the crater did not call rescuers themselves. Stuck there without a cell phone, they were equipped with only a family radio service walkie-talkie, which is usually only supposed to work within a range of a couple miles. According to McDowell, the walkie-talkie managed to randomly pick up the signal of a family of campers in Mossy Rock, a city about 20 miles away. "[The camper] was the one who called the sheriff's office. He maintained contact with the people left on the crater rim, and he would relay information back and forth with me," McDowell said, "'Fortuitous' would be a good word to describe this." By communicating through the camper, the rescuers knew that Slemp was fully conscious and even walking around. McDowell dispatched a helicopter with two rescuers and equipment, and as the helicopter flew over the crater, the rescuers saw Slemp standing up and waving. The helicopter descended about 1,500 feet into the crater, where the pilot performed what is called a one-skid landing — which is not actually a full landing but a tricky hover involving only a single part of the helicopter touching down. "You hover with one skid pointed in the snow with very little clearance and [the pilot] was able to do that, let Will get out and get to the patient," Kapezynski said. To pick up the rescuer and Slemp, the pilot "then [did] the same thing to go back in." Slemp was pretty banged up but he was healthy enough to scramble down and get into the helicopter. His leg was splinted and the rescuers checked him out as the helicopter flew back. The rescue effort was swift and wrapped up in 2.5 hours, by about 7:30 p.m. PT. Cox said that injuries on Mt. St. Helens are fairly common. "We have injuries on the mountain just about yearly from people trying to climb ... you get people who are 'day hikers' who think it's just a stroll up to the crater rim, but it's still a fairly technical mountain to climb." As Slemp left the crater in the rescue helicopter, his son and friend left the crater rim to return home in the car they drove in. Slemp appeared to have one more thing on his mind, and he made a request of his rescuers. "Did you tell those guys that the car keys are in the snowmobile, parked at the top of Mt. St. Helens?" he asked. Slemp was taken to Yacolt, Wash., for medical care, and transferred to Legacy Emanuel Hospital in Portland, Ore. The hospital did not return calls inquiring about Slemp's condition, but Slemp's brother-in-law Randy Fairley told ABC News that, to his knowledge, Slemp was recovering.

I use Lowe/Byrne ball nuts pretty relentlessly. I did a route yesterday that went with a #3 and #1 in the mix and I rarely leave the ground without a #1-3 or 4 on my rack. So at the very small end I'd say watch ebay for the Lowe/Byrne units or pick up the Trango BallNutz. They're rated 8kn except the #1 which is 4.5kn

The thief was probably in the gym to work on their self-esteem issues and not making much progress. Climbing just can't cure all the world's ills, I guess. Must be a part of the cost of climbing's runaway growth and probably another sign climbing demographics now reflecting society at large to a degree. In that respect, inclusiveness can occasionally have it's downsides. Sorry to hear of such a theft among climbers, but it seems to be getting more commonplace these days.

Bill, I was about to point you to this one when I checked the date remembering and realizing this was the one you already have. It is definitely one of the finest climbing packs ever made.