JosephH

Bill Coe and I found a fairly new #1 BD stopper with a blown wire on a route last year. Looked like someone had an unhappy experience on it. Not sure exactly what "pull tested 3 times" means mechanically, but it is quite easy to blow these pieces. I've typically used a pre-sliced Air Voyager (pre-Screamers) when I'm using these sizes of pro. In general I wouldn't test these babies very hard.

I had an Orange Alien from a batch that had bad stainless steel woven sleeves that blew. I sent it back to CCH and they had it for a couple of months and eventually sent it back repaired free of charge, but I did have to bug them a few times with email to get it back...

The green harness got retired in '87-88 or so after I moved to Oregon so as not to embarass my partners. It's still works fine and is comfy. On a family trip to NYC last summer I took the girls up to Gunks/Mohonk for a day but as it was a family trip to the city mainly I didn't bring any gear at all. But walking on the carriage trail watching some folks I finally asked if I could take a ride. The leader of the group I ask said, "sure, but you don't have any shoes..." and I said I'd climb barefoot and grabbed the rope. He then said, "but you don't have a harness...", but I had already tied one from the rope with a double bowline on a bight. As I started to climb he said, "but you don't have any chalk..." and I explained it wasn't hot and I didn't need any. They apparently had never seen anyone climb old school and my wife was just cracking up as the conversation progress. The route was great, I had fun, but you'd think I was Martian or a Yeti by the way they reacted (actually they were fabulous and very nice...).

Here's a picture of my old harness I used for about a decade made from 2" on a friend's Singer with regular cotton/nylon thread. It put up a bunch of .10-.13 FA's back in the day, and held an endless stream of nasty whippers with no problem at all. It had no no belay loop and I still don't care much for the things. I know on one hand these are serious discussions, but sometimes us old guys crackup over the level of concern and nuance around such topics as the gear now is just so much better than before with comparatively huge margins of error. Should you know how to use it, sure; but trust me - you are about a million times more likely to screw up then than have your gear fail. For that matter, for the first five years we just tied into the end of the rope or used 1" swamis... On the ropes...

NOLse, You really do have a suicidal obsession with CP don't you. Of all the climbing activities the NW offers it's hard for me to imagine ever wanting to climb CP. I simply abhor choss on that scale and not so much for the objective danger as the quality of the climbing itself is so subordinated to staying alive as to take all the joy (such that it is) out of the movement over that stone - but to each his own... As for DT I'd say have at it on any part of that pile, though I think you will be magnifying your risk by applying increased localized pressures/loads on the rock from a pick compared to hands/fingers. It will also reduce your feel somewhat I suspect. As for drilling - ditto if you can really get anything solid in up there have at it...

I bought a set of trinuts to check out and they are pretty much worthless except in rare specialized placements. To be fair, to some extent you have modify your pro worldview to really use them to their full potential. Not to be a [complete] ego-maniac, but I'm pretty fair with pro after all these years and those babies went on ebay the night after I took them out the first time... DMM WallNuts - hmmm, this one really steams me! The lame, weak [slim] bullshit that passes for a WallNut after the grand re-design destroyed what was best about them suck as well. The old design was infinitely superior, but they had lots of complaints about them getting "stuck" too easy (obviously by folks that set their stoppers relentlessly). Thank god I got two sets of them before they were offed. If any of you folks fall into the "hated them" category and have old, fat WallNuts, give me a shout as I'll take them all. Oh, and new DMM Wall Nuts compared to Metolius Curve Nuts - hands down the Metolius every time, any time - in fact, I'd take original Chouinard stoppers before the DMMs.

I checked a set out and plan on getting one or two sets - they are great, 4-6k is fine for what they are free or aid.

Wanted to get some swaging work done and wanted to know if any of you PDX folks are set up to do it.

July? Probably here - getting in shape for when Texplorer gets back...

PM me...

From a new thread of the same title on SuperTopo.com : 10 April 2005- Patrick Wang (last name unconfirmed) died after an attempt at glissading off of the MR top couloir. A group was camped at Iceberg Lake when 3 men descending the MR came and asked for a phone. They informed the group that one of their partners had gone over the NW face cliff after trying to glissade off the steep section just above the notch on the MR. One of the party members walked out to a point where they could get reception and phoned for assistance, which eventually came by helicopter on the morning of the 11th . Inyo SAR dispatch confirmed the recovey operation near Arctic Lake (Sequoia Nat'l Park side). This is the SAME spot as last months tragic accident....!! ======================================= from summit post- "The climber's name was Patrick Wang. An outstanding photographer, poster on this site (patrickwang) and member of the Portland climbing community, who will be greatly missed by all of us." his photographic work can be seen on his site Patrick's Gallery RIP brother be careful out there, everybody

Have to admit the thought has never really crossed my mind. Seems as though one would have to be ill-equipped or otherwise in a bad situation to resort to such measures. I certainly wouldn't buy cams based on that criteria.

how do you aid 10a slab climbs? with suction cups? You don't, you run them out... French Freeing (A0- [my minus sign]) is aid as was said; when speed climbing in the valley all bets are off and getting up the rock is what it's about. Texplorer here has done a one day ascent of the Nose - ask him about it. Such an ascent is quite a different beast from Lynn Hill and Brooke Sandahl freeing the Nose... Equivalents? Surfing with a tow in less than very large waves comes to mind...

Yep, down at Smith you can actually watch them set up for and make some pretty big leaps. Going to be one of the worst tick years in history - everyone watch for ring rash...

In the [way distant] past we climbed on ropes until the duct tape wouldn't go through the biners anymore. And I just replaced my 11mm soloing rope after about 11 years and somewhere between 15-25 falls (and half of it was magic markered every 15' for that 10 years). Yeah, old ropes will fail a rigorous sharp edge tests and if I climbed on granite I'd probably be more concerned, but today's ropes are way better than any that we ever had in the past. That said, today's new "skinny" ropes are probably milking strength/durability/capacity that in that past would have been what we got by on. I certainly wouldn't stretch out the life of one of today's 9.2-8's, or even a 10.2 for that matter (though I suspect my Supersafe will last more or less forever).

The left 2/3's of Sentinel is always interesting looking...

Red Rocks / Epinephrine

Tell me where and it's yours...

We used mine in the chimneys on Epinephrine in Red Rocks. Don't really need anything larger than that for it...

My father is a retired United pilot and was flying 747 from SEA to ORD the morning it went off and was the first flight that got routed down and around the base just off to the SW to avoid the ash. He said he took it down to about 3,000 above the terrain and spent about 25 minutes circling to catch the sights close enough for the fuselage and wing to load up some pretty heavy static discharges (lightening). He said while they were circling he talked to another 747 going westbound for Japan that was bumped up into the high 30k's in altitude who said he still couldn't see the top of the plume. In general he said it was the most amazing flight of his career. And of course that day he didn't bring the camera he usually always carried...

Beacon was a bit wet in spots, but otherwise great today...

Astanga Yoga - It is about as balanced a regime as you can do and in inspite of climbing, running 20 mi/wk, and swimming 6mi/wk it still kicks my ass all around the block...

Well, let's talk about that... Opposition placements aren't anything special; they're just a normal, common sense way to insure a placement is solid even if a given piece has one or more deficiencies such as: 1) It might lift out of its placement as you go by it or move above it: This case is all about the importance of properly slinging a placement of any type (even cams). For those of you who have mainly sport climbed with quickdraws this is a fundamental change in the way you operate and think about clipping. Every piece you place will be affected by the rope moving in and out from the rock face and pressure from the rope to one side or the other due to the path of the route relative to the placement. It is imperative that a piece not be adversely affected by the rope as you pass it. This is typically done by slinging it appropriately with the correct length of sling or if that is insufficient then you need to lock it down (or otherwise in place) with another piece in opposition so the primary piece stays secure in it's placement. 2) It won't stay in the placement by itself unless held in a specific direction Sometimes you find a good placement that will hold a fall fine, but the damn piece simply won't stay in the placement on its own to do it. This is a typical use for a piece in opposition. 3) It is not sufficient by itself (a placement only good in pairs - typical in horizontals) There are times, rare though they may be, when one piece by itself won't cut it. I usually run across this in either horizontals or when dealing with a lot of small pieces. Once I did a circle of eight micro stoppers, then equalized them all to the center point with a sling, and then attached a screamer to that. No three or four of those pieces would have held a fall, but the eight together held quite a few of them while we worked the route higher to a solid cam. In horizontals the concern is if you fall on a piece and swing towards and past it you will pull it. To that end horizontals are usually protected by two opposing pieces. 4) It is only good for a [narrow] specific direction of pull [by the rope or a fall] on its own: You have to consider the effect on a piece of both rope movement while climbing and the direction of the force applied to a piece in a fall. Particularly pay attention to the force vector of a fall - both during the fall and once it is fully loaded. Make sure a piece will hold in the right position for both circumstance and use an opposition piece if necessary. Again, slapping in the odd piece in opposition to prop up or insure another piece should just be a common part of your trad leading repetoire. There are lots of books out there on the topic so read up and drag an old traddy out to plug in a bunch of examples for you to clean.

Michael, damn - didn't think of that one! The cotter pins work great for the smaller size of the large range, but chopsticks would be ideal for the really big ones as would the toothbrush mentioned earlier in the thread...

Yes, please scan it that would be interesting. I've always adherred to the premise that there are no unique ideas - someone else somewhere is having the same stinking thought as you; but what we see are the unique individuals who dare to bring those ideas to life...