JosephH

Yeah, I'll buy all that in the context of higher-end alpine where you both have your shit together and you're already cutting some corners and have some imperative around getting the fuck up and down the something in as reasonable a time as possible.

It should be noted just about the time of that picture Kauk's car was 'savaged' and everything in it 'appropriated' to the tune of thousands in gear for similar happiness.

The 'executive committee'? That's good. The reality is they have simply recycled a failed '96 proposal which has a single guiding principle - that their favorite route up the Corner and off the party ledge to the trail be open. Period, end of story. Everything else is political and technical fluff they don't believe a word of. And I haven't seen it, but I can absolutely guarantee you there is nothing in it that manages fixed protection in any formal way and without that Beacon will be open to just the sort of bolting that just happened on FFA. Here's the deal, everyone who climbs at Beacon will be governed by this plan and the idea that there is any reason to be all hush-hush about it is totally bogus beyond words. The fact that it's all secret tells you everything you need to know about it and especially that nothing has changed since '96. It succinctly puts the lie to all of stevetimetravlr's fervent claims to the contrary. And P.S. I have one and only one agenda out there: getting every single climbing day in I can. Period. Same as it ever was. But I not willing to be anything but direct, upfront, and honest to get those days and I'm not the one with the hidden agenda.

It is the use of them; specifically the repeated bending of them breaks fibers over time. I rack mine as trad draws so they are constantly extended and shortened, unracked and re-racked. You can tell it's time because they go from being smooth and shiny to very hairy and dull as the fibers breakdown. Three days of use / five years old? Likely good for a year of solid use and then I'd probably toss them.

If only it were so - unfortunately, every word of it is dead-on true. The said part here, once again, is you know it.

I used Mammut 8mm dyneema slings for four of years and had a percentage of them tested every year. That made me switch to Yates 11mm dyneema slings. Love them, but I find they really are only lasting three-four years compared to the 8mm dyneema's two-three years. At the moment I'm not sure if I'm going to just replace all my 11mm slings or bump up to 13mm dyneemas. Likely I'll just bite the bullet and replace all the 11mms as I do like light slings. It's just important not to fool yourself into thinking they last longer than they do because, ultimately, skinny dyneema slings are designed, manufactured, and sold to the fast-and-light alpine market as a consumable item and not an enduring product for year-in, year-out cragging.

But yet you keep lying over and over as you just did here with this completely horseshit lie about the Totem Pole. What exactly about the above is a "web of bullshit and deceit" as opposed to just another utter and bald face lie on your part. The Totem was not and is not open for climbing and I had no role in that whatsoever, let alone an 'instrumental' one. If anything, I've repeatedly offered up suggestions to the AF on how to approach climbing on Indian lands by involving Indian youth in climbing. Dude, with every post you just keep making it perfectly clear over and over you are immune to the facts and incapable of the truth. Oh, and here's a another recent foray of mine into Indian country earlier this month - notice how I weave my "web of bullshit and deceit" and end up being called out for my anti-climber "behind-the-scenes actions": POSTING EMAIL EXCHANGES WITHOUT CONSENT OF ALL PARTIES IS ILL-ADVISED AND IN VIOLATION OF THE USER AGREEMENT

Absolutely - the name of the game with this crew is they don't want anything discussed publicly and especially not how they really feel about it all. Being public and honest would require they actually be willing to entertain mutual respect for the land managers, develop a shred of honest concern for the Peregrines, and be willing to act in an open, upfront and honest manner in their dealings regarding Beacon. That picture is unfortunately, the antithesis of the honest truth of the matter and after eight years of horseshit and one lie after another out there it just gets to the point of calling a spade a spade.

Kevbone - please! Out with all my 'behind the scenes' "actions" - I'm just in rapt suspense dude. I'm sure everyone here would love to know. The only 'behind the scenes' "actions" I've done to-date are helping out the Summit Rock crew get their permanent year-round closure lifted. So spit it out if you've got'em dude... The only place I've seen this apply of late around the PNW is Trout Creek where folks had been climbing since the '80s, but being low key about it. And, to be honest, had the recent crop been lower key about the place and skipped the internet spew, guidebook, and magazine cover they might have gotten another couple of years before the BLM took notice of the place. But going whole hog online and in print pretty much did the place in from that respect. But once a crag is under active management by a government land manager the surest way to make the AF's job all that much harder is to start poaching the place during closures.

Truth? You have repeatedly shown again and again you have no regard whatsoever for the truth. And how are you lying in this case? Let's lay it out: Fact: I had nothing whatsoever to do with the Totem or any other Monument Valley tower being closed to climbing. The Totem and all the other towers have been closed to climbing for decades by the owners the land, the Navajo Nation. The Navajo Nation Tribal Parks and Recreation Department is the land manager of record for the park and have never allowed rock climbing on any of the towers under their jurisdiction which they consider praysticks between two worlds. So again, no, I had nothing to do with climbing being closed on the Totem. Fact: A few years back a well-known Valley climber posted up that a tour company was advertising $1000 per person climbs on the Totem and was objecting to that commercialization. What I did do was verify whether the advertiser had some special arrangement with the Navajos that gave them special rights to charge for climbing the Totem. From my perspective the idea someone would have such privileged [commercial] access is just plain wrong - either it's open to all for to climb or it's not. So I checked with the Tribal Parks and Recreation because I'd be interested in climbing it if it was open, but not to pay some clowns a couple thousand for a partner and I to be able to do it. And on checking it turns out they were just commercial poachers with no permission of any kind from the Tribe to make any such offer. What they had done was cut a under-the-table deal with a nearby tribal member who had no authority to speak for the tribal government or to make such an arrangement. Fact: And it should be noted that this sort of deal is exactly how most tribes have lost their lands, fisheries, and hunting rights over over the past several hundred years - by the military, government agents, or commercial interests seeking out and paying off some tribal member to sign a document when they had no authority to speak for the tribe. My wife is an enrolled member of the Colville Reservation and that's exactly what happened to them - one corrupt deal after another led to their losing large tracts of their reservation along with an endless array of fraudulent mining and timber deals. Hell, the treaty the government cut with her tribe for the Grand Coulee Dam was done this way under the signature of someone who didn't have the authority to sign for the tribe. And just for perspective, that treaty specified the tribe would receive annual revenue from the dam as well as irrigation and electricity. But they received nothing after signing that treaty in the early 30's. They had to grow generations of lawyers to pursue their treaty rights and finally settle with the government after my wife and I were married in the 90s. Even then they settled on less than pennies on the dollar for what they were rightfully entitled even by the bogus treaty. Bottom line is it's really great historic carpetbagger footsteps these commercial poachers were following in. Glad I could help set the record straight in this particular instance. Fact: So no, I didn't have anything whatsoever to do with the Totem being closed to climbing. And poaching ascents of any of the towers in Monument Valley will just make it that much harder for the AF to ever strike a deal with the Navajos for climbing on their reservation. Again, it's either open to all or open to none from my perspective. Fact: What I have done over and over is suggest climbers interested in climbing on Indian lands should start going to Indian schools and offering climbing classes and getting some the rez kids psyched on climbing. That and have suggested climbing and guiding classes for tribal members who are interested should be part of any deal to climb on Indian lands. On the matter of the Totem? In every respect. On the matter of my working to get every possible open climbing day out at Beacon? In every respect (...and how many days have you help out with getting? None, dude, zip, nada, not a one.). On the matter of Jeff Thomas' rope? In every respect. On the matter of 'tearing up the trail'? In every respect. On the matter of the destruction of the YW p2 variation? In every respect. So far, I've yet to hear anything but lies out of you aimed in my direction...

So you want to talk about your blatant lying mischaracterization of my involvement with Totem Pole. You sure about that? Because - like everything I do - I own my shit, am completely open and upfront about it, and aren't skulking around telling lies and half-truths. Just let me know as I'd be more than happy to lay out the details on that story so you can just keep digging that hole of yours a little deeper here.

Mainly the Casual Route on the Diamond, shoulder depending -otherwise just finish a longstanding project and possibly make it back to Arkansas and Tennessee for some steep sandstone.

Speak of the devil...yes, you are the perfect example of exactly that guy. It's absolutely remarkable how some folks can bend reality and flat out lie to suit their personal interests without the slightest regard for facts or the truth - but, then it wouldn't be the Beacon reality distortion field otherwise. As I said, same as it ever was...

Sorry, that wasn't directed at you so much as Kevin's obdurate annual rant. But you also have more than a bit of confusion, misinformation, and bias' going here as well. One place you are correct, however, is that the build-out of wind energy has occurred just as raptors were about 4/5's of the way through some multi-generational recovery programs to restore their annual nesting pair counts and natural ranges on a state-by-state basis. The effect has been fairly devastating nationwide and is quite unfortunately putting a renewed emphasis back on protecting productive eyries in an effort to try to counter the growing losses from more and more wind farms going in. My involvement in all this abysmal bullshit goes back to the fall of 2004 as just another idjiot climber trying to put up a couple of FAs with the closure being a complete downer on those efforts. At that point, well-intentioned but naive (in fact, right now you sound just about exactly like I did around the third week of October 2004), I started out just trying to figure out what the deal with the closure was and fact-check the history, policy, law, stories, and written material around it. My idea being I'd take a shot at seeing what could be done to get it lifted or shortened as I'd had some experience in photojournalism and environmental politics and wanted every climbing day I could get in out there. Let's just say I ended up with quite the eye-opening multi-year learning process which unfolded enveloped in more complete and utter bullshit and outright lies than you could ever imagine. The Long Sordid History of the Perennial CC Beacon Peregrine Palaver And some general ST Peregrine discussion I've also been putting in some time online and behind the scenes assisting efforts to get a permanent year-round closure lifted at Summit Rock, CA... Ongoing efforts at Summit Rock Same as it ever was (but I will say while Kevin is savantly moronic on the topic, at least he's completely upfront and honest player about it all which is more than you can say for some others...).

Well, given the enduring cluelessness on the issue year after year that would fall in the category of:

Ah, the annual Peregine bitchfest and misinformation thread - as inevitable as rain and relentlessly clueless year after year in that 'Groundhog Day' sort of way... And why? Sutton's Law dude, Sutton's Law - always start with the obvious and be sure and not let anything remotely resembling a fact get in your way...

Nice work - if you get a wild hair you might want to drop a line to these guys - looks to be up your alley... http://biolitestove.com/BioLite.html

I suspect the latter is the much more common case due to a heavy reliance on a mammalian diet versus fish as in the case of Balds. The point being that the fact a pair of Goldens don't nest at a particular site for a couple of years doesn't mean they aren't using it per se, it just means it's in the rotation and they'll likely get back to it again in another year.

Total bummer. Given this was a highly-experience crew which was intimately familiar with the terrain it brings up the discussion around how accurately can [any]one judge objective hazards in the mountains. Maybe over time it will come out how much individual / collective evaluation went into this particular slope before pushing off - did it really look o.k. or was it a case of somehow being overly familiar with the terrain? Tough business either way.

Some Golden Eagle pairs behave like the Bald Eagles and use the same nest year in, year out. Other Golden pairs rotate among several nests every couple of years.

Getting to this level of cooperation with the BLM staff is a really solid accomplishment - keep it up the good work...

Who am I voting for. And considering the field? I'm holding my nose and voting for the lackluster leadership, stay-the-Bush-course, environment-is-just-a-bargaining-chip, try-talkin'-to-em guy who's in office. Kind of a no-brainer when the alternatives are sanctimonius, adulterous, a racist, or a corporate shill.

I'm going with ganglion cyst as well, very common on hands and foot arches of barefoot water skiers...

I see Petzl's facebook wall has a post warning about the rigging used in the video and warning against this sort of thing. All in all, if you want to jump off shit then just learn to BASE; don't use climbing gear for things it wasn't designed for.

Right or wrong, my perception of you is you're an interesting one. You are smart, well-organized, and have, on the surface, arranged your 'conventional', non-climbing life in ways I could consider as showing a healthy aversion to ordinary domestic risk. But you do so in order to dally with the significant objective risks inherent in high-end alpine climbing. Again, interesting, if not curious, from my perspective - in the way of older, successful big-wave surfers or those olde-school, alps-style, longwire acts of the kind where they took lunch in the middle of the wire they were so long. [img:center]http://www.worldrecordsacademy.org/stunts/img/112094-2_Freddy_Nock_highest_cable_wire_walk.jpg[/img]