JosephH

Quoted for posterity! i thought jh couldn't stand ozone. Gotta read the whole quote - not just the part philly sampled. Sorry about the 140m business, screwed up my my meters + feet in the rush - good thing a satellite didn't crash into Mars. Trail to Eric's rap = about 20m Rap to first anchor = about 25m Rap to Big Ledge = about 40-45m So about 85-90m... And it could be worse - lots of the 2008 closures around the country are like this one in NC: 1/15 - 8/15...

The fact that you ever see a message like the one in the thread title means there is either some deliberate throttling to the search function going on or some really bad code that needs to be fixed.

If it isn't more or less 'so simple' then UBB.threads is the wrong software - how many other forum sites do you see throttleing thread listings in this way?

The biggest access issue of our time. WTF is with this UBBError and throttling function? I know of no other forum website that 'features' such a feature. How about turning it off. If someone gets themselves in a nationally recognized clusterf#ck on Hood you can turn it back on for a few days until it blows over. Right now this just blows period and you couldn't possibly be getting traffic to warrant this - or if you are - sell more advertising at a better price and host this baby on webfarm in a reputable datacenter.

Near water

If a route wanders so much you can't achieve an acceptable [single] rope path despite extensive slinging then you need to switch to double ropes. Or, if you are on a route with a lot of loose rock doubles can make a lot of sense as well. If all you're looking for is more convenience in rapping long routes without dragging or carrying a second rope then you should just go with twins. There are a few companies that make ropes rated as both twins and halfs - I use a pair of Metolious 7.8's for places like Red Rocks. Putting up new routes on sharp, lose basalt I'll bump up to 9.8's or even 10.2's if there are obvious and unavoidable hazards which must be dealt with. Belaying doubles is very much an advanced skill and the handwork and rope management can sometimes be complex and confusing. You need to really put the time into learning to do it on easier, familar routes before launching into the void or on to something hard.

I'm preemptively re-posting the following from the 'Beacon Outings' thread for anyone interested in the details and current status of Peregrines out at Beacon Rock... ================================================================ Funny how the rock stays open to the hundreds of thousands of hikers/walkers, yet they close the south face to the 50 climbers that climb there every year, due to those “stupid birds”. One could speculate that closing the entire rock to protect these “stupid birds” would be the most beneficial for the birds mating season. But NO……the climbers are scape goats. Oh well….same story every year. Kevin, at just what point does this tired diatribe yield to reality? Sure, nobody likes that it closes to climbing - hell, David Anderson and the BRSP don't like that it does - it's a friggin' royal pain in the ass for them as well as for us. And how many times does it have to be written that David and the WDFW did try to close the hiking trail as well - but that the legal terms of the transaction creating the BRSP precluded it? WDFW had the choice of burning political capital fighting WSP on an issue or letting it go. They knew they were going to lose that fight to close the trail in the end so chose to let it go - but they did try to close it. No one 'scapegoated' the climbers, period. You know exactly how many routes climb to, past, or traverse Big Ledge - the Peregrine's preferred eyrie - as opposed to the trail which is 140 meters way at it's closest point. The closure is consistent in every respect with, or shorter than, all the other Peregrine closures in the country. Also, there is nothing 'dumb' about the Peregrines - they fucking lay their eggs out in the weather on a bare rock ledge on a verical wall in some of the worst weather the Gorge has to offer. They teach their young how to explode meals out of thin air, and are one of the burliest creatures on Earth. Pretty much no other creature besides mountain goats better represent what it means to get out and survive on one's own on a vertical surface than the Peregrines. And no one despises the fact that the stone closes more than I do - hey, I and a few other nuts actually get out there this time of year every time it's almost dry. But let's not 'scapegoat' the Peregrines because we're asked to time-share with them so these 'dumb [magnificent] birds' can try to reestablish their historic natural range. They are 3/4 of the way there and every single successfully nesting pair is critical to their species succeeding at that goal over the next 15 years. The year-round pairs at Beacon have made it among the most consistently successful eyries in the country which is the reason behind the closure. Again, no one wants it opened more than I do and it has taken four years of the steady investment of a shitload of time and gas (22 days last year at six hours at a shot while you folks were climbing away at Ozone) to re-establish a working relationship with David and the WDFW so that climbers are vested in the process of monitoring the Peregrines' progress and the details of the closures. That has allowed early opens and, if and when the Peregrines ever decide to stop using the South Face eyrie, it will allow either not closing or a very early opening. But - to be excruciatingly clear as to what that means - that means the Peregrines have to not even attempt to nest on Big Ledge in consecutive years based on strict monitoring protocols (which I meet in my monitoring). And contrary to public rumor and myth. That has not yet occured - what has occured is they have failed in three years of attempts on Big Ledge and were successful somewhere nearby in two of those years (we've never been able to pin down where). So where is it all at right now? As of last summer the latest resident Peregrine pair have established themselves high up on the East Face roofs at a point about two o'clock on the Southern/lower of the two main arches that make up the East Face. They have been consistently using this location every visit I've made to Beacon since September. Does this mean we don't have to close? No, they have no track record using this location and certainly have not successfully bred there. They could easily abandon it for Big Ledge starting anytime around the end of the month. We will close, but I will be monitoring them earlier and as heavily as possible this year starting in the second half of next month. If they conclusively don't attempt to use Big Ledge AND are undeniably and verifiably continue using the new East Face location, I will work with David and the WDFW on an much earlier open. Establishing the facts of such a scenario under the monitoring protocol would likely take through April sometime if it actually played out that way. If it doesn't play out that way, then it will be business as usual attempting to either verify the date of any fledging or summarily conclude they have failed to successfully breed altogether (last year's outcome) so we can hopefully open sometime earlier than July 15th. The best possible outcome for this year and next is the new pair continue to use, and successfully fledge at, the East Face location remaining and returning there in spring 2009 without ever attempting to use Big Ledge in either year. But however it plays out this year and next, you folks now have Ozone to get by on until we know for sure what exactly is happening at Beacon. And given how many cars I drive by at Ozone to get to an empty parking lot at Beacon even after it's open, I'd say you have enough going on to keep you in enough climbing until it does. Anyway, that's the whole story on the Peregrines at Beacon so there is no misunderstanding about just what is going on out there this year.

Just a note for folks who may be new to the area. Climbing on Beacon Rock's South and West faces is now closed until July 15th for the Peregrines. The Northwest face (by the road and around to the tourist trail) is still open. While July 15th is the official date to reopen, monitoring the Peregrines in cooperation with the WDFW will resume at the end of the month and could possibly provide another early open in 2008 depending on how things go for the resident breeding pair out at Beacon. Please respect the closure as it causes considerable problems and could easily rollback the progress made in recent years in working with the WDFW and WSP relative to opening earlier than July 15th if the monitoring observations provide for it. From now until Beacon does reopen is when Ozone really shines as a great resource for PDX climbers. Make good use of it, Trout Creek, and Smith this spring and Beacon will be open again before you know it...

Thank god Bill and I are past middle-aged and on to hard old guy stuff...

Well, Kate Beckinsale and Kate Bosworth are too young and Karen Allen, Barbara Hereshy, and Angelina have all made it perfectly clear they aren't going down that road again, and my wife wouldn't allow them all in bed with us anyway so my ultimate dream is being unsatisfied as well. What can you do besides go climbing? Plenty of good advice here - figure it and make it happen, it's how life gets done.

I have about 15 gallons available if someone is doing this in PDX...

The crew down here at Beacon Rock will all vouch for Ken as far as getting on rock with him goes and just being a cool cat in general.

Cat, that's a tough situation. I've had to leave my family to go work during hard times before, so I can empathize with your predicament. But my family was going to be alright in my absence and be there on my return - yours is a much more difficult situation all the way around from the sound of it. I'm can't say what decision I'd make under the same circumstances, but I think I'd take a last hard look around for a job in WA/OR, talk things over with my wife, and based on that discussion head south if that was what we decided. That would be very, very hard for me to do if I knew my wife was that sick. Again, sorry to hear of such a rough situation - hope you can figure out something that works as well as possible for you.

Well, then, I'll just take a set how ever you've been making them...

Yeah, having to deal with that on top of just being Ivan (or any of us) certainly makes things tougher. Good times out there you guys. Dave, we'll have to pick it up when we re-open.

I was thinking more along the lines of wet sloppy weather moving in tomorrow afternoon or evening. But just now looking at the weather maybe I'll go back out and hit Beacon again... [ Drive by with wind...]

Just got back from doing a couple of laps out at Beacon and I'd say that if you want to get on some ice there's a ton of it in, but you better get on Saturday morning or you'll likely miss it.

How about noon and we'll pick up Ivan once he gets out there...

Anyone able to play hooky tomorrow afternoon? I feel some lapage coming on...

Having been plagued by pneumonia over the years, and particularly this past year, I'd say he's giving you some sound advice - get home or get to Buenos Aires or somewhere real. Make getting healthy the priority - live to climb another day...

Wayne, from the looks of it, your presentation was intended to be as much about the spirit of "going solo" as any specific aspect of accomplishing it. You've got an impressive tick list of solos that looks quite varied and representative of many different 'contexts' for the technical side of soloing. If you add to your solo site you might want to consider expounding a bit on the differences you've experienced between free, rock, wall, and alpine soloing as well as between free / aid - what 'soloing' means in each. I know even from my own experience on rock it's sometimes sensible to make certain trade-offs between movement / protection / speed / etc depending on what you're doing as well as where and when you're doing it. Just a thought anyway, given you do have that varied background of to know the differences...

Gives new meaning to "Off the couch" and "Couchmaster" - better get ahold of Bill on that one...

Yeah, if tomorrow and Wed are really cold you might be able to scratch around and find something on Wed. Unlikely, but maybe.

Just drove through a few minutes ago - "ask again much later" might be more like it. Sorry...