JosephH

I did it the day after the first day I tried them.

I never did try the JB's, but I have the TC Pro's and immediately had them paved over with 5.10 rubber. In the end I find them pretty much a wash with my Kaukulators with a slight bit more flexibility which is both a plus and minus depending on what I'm doing.

I never know quite what to make of these discussions. Academically interesting to a point I suppose, but pretty much worthless on rock unless you really are some kind of a rocket scientist I'm guessing. Or at least I've never found this kind of information particularly useful, but that could just be me as I'm usually trying pretty hard not to think that hard when I'm climbing. Overall, my take on it is most of this stuff either comes intuitively on lead, is learned through bitter and unfortunate experience, and that you're probably operating out of your league if it keeps being an issue over an extended period.

Hmmm. In general, I always try to sling things well to minimize rope drag and when that looks like it isn't going to be possible I switch to half ropes (though it can be hard to find belayers competent with halfs - more of an east coast deal). I also have climbed above a lot of marginal pro over the years and have [successfully] fallen on quite a bit of it. In most cases I've used screamers on placements I thought were real borderline and had that pay off as well. IMHO I'd say sling to minimize drag as much as possible and deal with marginal pro independent of that. Oh, and when I've been runout over marginal gear I've never wanted my belayer to fuck around with attempting a 'soft catch', but rather just lock that puppy up and either my gear holds or it doesn't.

Would be classic if it weren't really that scary - or maybe you're just spoiled from climbing in the hyper-competent atmosphere of your own backyard...

PM me if you want it back. Phenomenally gorgeous day out here today...

0-270

Which is the more treasonous abuse of executive power: a) president assassinating U.S. citizens or b) president killing thousands of U.S. citizens (troops) in a pre-emptive war started on the basis of lies and manufactured intelligence? If you're going to go after Obama for utilizing policy and powers established by Bushco, then you'd have to go after Bushco for any number of treasonous acts.

The republican field is now wide-open for Donald, Jeb, Palin, Joe the Plumber, David Duke, and Charles Manson. Ted Williams may also run if they can thaw him out in time for NH's Xmas primary.

None if you aren't going to climb with them as halfs / doubles. In Red Rock I use them as twins (always clipped together) and I bought them for use as twins. People tend to use doubles / halfs when routes wander or they are worried about sharp edges - mostly often the former. I pretty much just use doubles / halfs for routes with sharp edges and because of that I don't use the 7.8's, but rather I bump up to 9.X's. It should be noted that learning to belay doubles / halfs takes time and some never really master it. It's a pretty advanced skill when its done well and typically an angstfest for the leader when it's not.

I have the monster 7.8's as well. Mainly just use them up in the Red Rock canyons. You may want to explore some of the smaller rap devices as I suspect it would be a bit unnerving rapping them on the wrong device.

...But he's got high hopes, he's got high hopes He's got high apple pie, in the sky hopes

Which is total bullshit. Really, you can actually type that with a straight face...? 1970 - Penn Central Railroad 1971 - Lockheed Corporation 1979 - Chrysler 1980 - Chrysler Corporation 1981 - Harley-Davidson 1984 - Continental Illinois 198x - Savings and Loan Crisis (we sure learned from the deregulation attempt) 1991 - Executive Life Insurance Company 2008 - The Bear Stearns Companies, Inc. 2008 - Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac 2008 - The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. bailed out by the federal government and Berkshire Hathaway 2008 - Morgan Stanley bailed out by The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ 2008-2009 - American International Group, Inc. multiple times 2008 - Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008[15] 2008 - Citigroup Inc. 2008 - General Motors Corporation 2008 - Chrysler (again) 2009 - Bank of America And those are just the highly public tip of the proverbial iceberg. That, and the level of private sector / corporate lobbying and feeding at the federal trough is simply astounding. Face it - 'free enterprise' and 'capitalism' is about profits; the minute they become loses the private sector is the perfect model of socialism.

God, nothing worse than a geek with a grip on history screwing up perfectly good internet arguments.

One word - Willy

Normal market mechanics are one thing, systemic fraud on a scale not seen in recent times is another. What happened politically in the decade prior to '99 and what followed financially was nothing less than organized crime on an institutional scale and a open raid on the four main forms of consumer debt. From board members, to underwriters, to originators, and hell, even higher-ed boards and financial aid directors - the system was deliberately gamed at every level. That it took a couple of years to gin/spin-up and co-op a ubiquitous fraudulent infrastructure isn't exactly a surprise. Again, the fact all the origination mills are now foreclosure mills pretty much says it all. Everyone on Wall St. and in DC want to talk about our current situation from the perspective of market dynamics - no one wants to acknowledge what really went on and the fact we basically arrived here on a wink and a nod.

Interest rate distortions...hmmm. As opposed to, say, systemic fraud in the loan-securitization market as we sliced, diced and obscured our way through the four principle forms of consumer debt in an orgy conducted of originators, SPV's, trusts, rating agencies, insurers, etc. And let's not lay any blame on derivatives-gone-wild. Did interest rates play an supporting role? Sure, but top-to-bottom fraud and greed across the board was doing the driving from where I sit. And curious how now, on the way down, the foreclosure system has turned into a cesspool of fraud riddled with the exact same criminals who were originating loans on the way up. There were a lot of distortions alright, but interest rates may have been the least of them...

They could suck harder if Christie and Palin would announce - could be a big opening for Jeb Bush as well.

And your argument is Ron Paul isn't?

Republicans don't think and believe the only things that are free are wars because they pay for themselves.

From one of the cooler threads on SuperTopo... and CABLE-SUSPENDED PEDESTRIAN BRIDGE DESIGN FOR RURAL CONSTRUCTION

A couple of years ago there was a mother with three cubs she'd bring down to the slough from Hamilton quite a bit and they'd also hang out on the tracks down at the Elk crossing east of the corner about a 100-150 yards. The next year the cubs would come down and sun on the tracks at the crossing moving whenever a train came along and then going back to sunning. Haven't seen any since, so glad to hear some more have turned up again.

Had all mine setup that way, with stiffener cut from large softdrink bottles and then covered with electronics heatshrink tubing. Then I rigged the heads with sport tape so they also work for one-handed placements either cammed or as regular stoppers. Have to admit, though, that I haven't carried them in years as I don't find them all that compelling on basalt; did used them pretty relentlessly when I lived back east and climbed at the Crow Hill, Gunks, Cathedral, and Cannon.

Having bad ankles which turn under towards the inside, I've had dozens of sprains and broken the right one over the years. It has mainly meant I've had to stay conscious of my foot falls more than most and on the right side it has affected my running gate relative to how my foot strikes which in turn leads to some hip joint and lower back issues if I run too long at any one time. But I am talking about a five decade time frame to get to that point.

There was a USA-host family program over the summer where Japanese-American families took in mothers and children from affected areas around Fukushima to allow the children to be outside for the summer. Friends of mine here in PDX were a host family and I had the chance to meet their visiting mother and two children and take the older daughter climbing at PRG. They've gone back home now, but the issue is they had just bought their property and built their 'dream house' and their extended family are all orchardists in the area. The mother is encountering stiff resistance from her husband and extended family to the idea of abandoning their life there for the children's sake. The whole clan has been on the land their forever and because the radiation can't be seen the older and more influential members of the clan think it's not so bad a problem, or that it will get better with time, or are in other forms of denial from being so tied to the land and their family history there. There is also the issue of a great deal of prejudice in Japan against those from affected areas around Fukushima such that on their way to the US the mother had to try and keep their origin a secret while traveling from Fukushima to Tokyo and while boarding the flight for fear of people's responses. Pretty ugly. Overall the young mother is in a real bind with both she and the US host family here trying to convince her husband and extended family that they need to abandon all they have ever known and try to resettle in some other part of Japan and attempt to overcome both the financial hardships and prejudices that would come with such a decision.