JosephH

Nothing worse...

Nice. I guess I will be a forever newby. My generalization is based on the fact that most routes that are set on trad climbs are generally set up to be climbed with a 50 to 60 meter rope and that would facilitate being able to rap the route with one rope. It has been my experience in the past, having had climbed at several crags all over the western US. I'll just mention the different States, Oregon, Washington, California, Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, and B.C. Canada It sure doesn't make me an expert but is has been enough to form my own opinion over the last 8 years. Plaid, there are no shortage of multipitch crags around the US where you have to have two ropes to rap. That you haven't been on many such routes is a different matter. Also, routes aren't "set" on trad climbs - they're just there. Look, don't get me wrong, I love your enthusiasm for climbing, and you've been getting more experience over the past couple of years, but I'd still recommend foregoing the generalizations in your media ventures.

Well, that's another poor generalization. You still have pretty limited experience in climbing to be making either of these generalizations. In this case, your numbered explanations serve your case far better than your attempts to generalize.

Being that 55 meters is close to 180 feet and if there is a bolt every 7 feet that would be 25 bolts. It would be reasonable on a trad climb if you were sewing it up to place a piece at your feet. Especially if you were on uncertain terrain. I think its apples and oranges Shapp, at Darrington what is required is confidence, verve will see you though and people do come out of long slab falls without serious injury. The explanation regarding breaking knobs and falling down merely vertical knob studded walls made sense to me. I would agree somewhat with Off relative to it's very dependent on the rock, but as some sort of generalized justification vis-a-vis 'sewn-up' trad climbing? Absolutely not. On multiple full-rope length trad pitches you are not 'sewing it up' to the tune of a piece per body length unless you are carrying more gear than I can almost imagine for free climbing. No matter how you look at it that's bolting to gym specifications. Now, as Off is saying, you may very well be able to justify it on the basis of rock / fall quality, but justifying it on the basis of 'sewn-up' trad over a rope length just doesn't fly - or at least I've never experienced it. [ P.S. If these are big, honking, Coe-like SS bolts then I sure hope the route is worthy of the expense involved with that bolt spacing... ]

Bravo! It would be hard to find a more succinct and exact summation of exactly why western and slavic cultures have compiled such an abysmal military record in the Mideast over the past several hundred years.

I never have really understood the appeal of going up that corner. The face is so much cleaner movement, faster and the pro is dead simple nuts. Went up the corner once early on, never again - too much of an awkward thrutch by comparison.

Replacing the anchors on LLL was definitely part of the secret agenda - unfortunately you'd have to burn the poison oak out of there to clean it at this point and maybe more than once. Mistakenly I had thought it was a single big vine that could be taken out, but it turns out to be a million individual plants rooted way back in it's entire length. After that evil plan to recover LLL failed is when I finally decided I loved not being able to climb for 6-7 months out of the year so much I set out scheming how to make the closure permanent if not year-round. I figured the best way to do that was to start 'sticking it to the man' every chance I could and leaving obscene phone messages and emails for the WSP and WDFW calling them cheap whores and liars. It took quite awhile, but at this point I pretty sure climbing at Beacon is history and isn't going to open at all this year - but WTF, the place sucks balls anyway. Suits me, I like doing the same couple of climbs over and over like groundhog day. P.S. Tyler is definitely my bitch...

Nicely done on the BLM's part! This is a significant level of active cooperation between climbers and the BLM compared to the relationship between the two parties in the rest of the country. Congrats on managing this side of the 'fledging' relationship...

Surely you need every bump you can get for a post of such purplessness...

The PRG/O has it all and then some (and thank goodness for that)...

only if u have a backpack full of gravel Well, it is kinda nice to have a little something to trade for early opens. But hell, I'm sure no real beatard would even consider climbing a day before July 15th if it meant cooperating with 'the man' once a year. Oh wait, that's right, you guys all just signed on to the big document enthusiastically pledging to do just that - never mind. And crikey, I can't wait for the BRCA to actually start picking up some of the slack out there as I'm gettin' kind of sick of doing it...

We actually used to do that with the all-woven, yellow MSR ropes bitd because they tended to get these weird 'hairballs' as they'd fray. We'd use them until the duct tape started getting stuck in the biners. It helped we had a duct tape factory at the north end of the strip some friends worked at part time. P.S. Nice rug...

Ah, thanks - looks like a smart piece of gear...

Hey, what is that? Aggregate? Concrete? And why is it in some shots and not others? Looks a little bulky for a drone launcher...

Glad things are livable, but you may want to consider not letting that alternate reality soak in too deep - don't want to end up off your game or guard despite daily rhythms and appearances...

Sounds like he's figured things out now and just wants to get headed out in the right direction for a change - everyone comes to it at different ages and some never do. I know it can be a rough transition, so good on him and all my the best.

Greg, helpful list and even more helpful recommendations: Until climbers actually learn something about the Peregrines and start establishing trusted working relationships with raptor biologists this issue is going to continue to elude and confound our sport. It should also be noted that in these hard times of economic distress, with relentless calls for cuts to 'big government', you can bet your ass the resources required for the FS, BLM, and state wildlife managers to conform to the letters of the law you cite above are likely the very first to evaporate. The unavoidable net result of those losses will be more blanket, static duration, and unmonitored closures. If climbers aren't prepared to pick up the slack as honest monitors then we'll have to live with the resulting closures. I've been [digitally] involved on and off line with the Summit Rock effort for some time now and my latest comments are over on ST here and speak for themselves. Also, it should be remembered Pagel got into the Peregrine business as a climber so he's not entirely unfamiliar with our world even if appearing unsympathetic.

Maybe we'd been more secure using a couple of trillion dollars to pay down the debt instead of flushing it down a hole in the desert. And maybe the personal debt on your clock points out more the problem along with this red line: Or these lines of effective tax rates: Pretty simple deal - money in, money out relative to the GDP of the country. And who's to blame if you are concerned with the debt? A lot of economic razzle-dazzle and flag-waving by Reagan and successive Bush administrations while at the same time flushing money down military ratholes and paying off corporations and the wealthy. Republicans have repeatedly steered the ship of state into one iceberg after another and you want to give them another shot at the wheel?

Gotta say I don't buy all the [big] govt spending arguments:

During the year I spent on the cruiser we always ran out of 'fresh' food withing two weeks and both our enlisted and officers messes were repeatedly condemned upon inspection. And anytime we were out more than 30 days it pretty much came down to cold cuts, peanut butter, stale bread, and various tasteless liquids and starches dyed and sugared to 'taste'. Logistics and supply chains have obviously taken a turn for the better...

Front part. Did an unleashed high tightrope dismount into the McKenzie river that inadvertently turned into a botched highbar-like dismount which shot me up against a cliff face above the level of the tightrope and then into the river. I ended up collapsing/folding feet-to-face too much after my belt in back snagged on a nubbin projecting from the cliff during my head-down, face-out plummet into the river at the base of the cliff. Separated a triangular piece of bone from the front-top of L5. Spent my fortieth birthday in Sacred Heart in Eugene pushing the drug button. Took about six months in a thoracic clamshell deal to heal up. Never bothered me since so I consider myself lucky in a few ways given the runaway lunacy of a day that I would deny involved any botanical, mycological, or aquavean influences or just being out-of-my-mind desperate to windsurf at the coast on a day it turned out to not be blowing.

Broke my L5 once, not much fun down there when that shit happens. Neuronal routing, organization and behavior is way, way more complex than what we do in high tech networks. If only fiber optics self-assembled... Genetic analysis of synaptic target recognition and assembly

Matt, good for you for managing to arrange a cooperative monitoring session! Establishing working relationships with federal and state biologists charge with raptor monitoring is the best thing we can do in this issue. You can also offer to check and document the nests immediately before or after the closure is lifted if they are interested in that data. Maybe even try to get them out climbing where possible.

Getting senile and barely remember this given it is all so last season at this point. Not even sure I remember what it was though maybe I vaguely remember a nut and cam of some sort. It wasn't there when I did the route a week earlier though, but I'd still be willing to label it as 'Stewart Memorial Rescue Material' if I do come across it in the basement this year.

The biggest PAIN IN THE ASS about the gallery is no one EVER wants to look at their photos in filename order, EVER. The default should be descending chronological or at the very least please persist and restore our settings. Having to put it in descending chronological every single time I use the gallery sucks. That said, the recent improvements in speed are a big improvement.