stiffler

JosephH, thank you for the response. Your blend of sarcasm and common sense, plus the use of the dated but much loved word "gingus" brought the clarity and decisiveness I was looking for. The webbing slings stay. Sdizzle, you and I share a worldview on this topic. And thats the rizzle bizzle, my nizzle. G-spotter, be sure to wrap those spilt ropes with electrical tape. Personally, twin ropes are too Euro for my tastes... but, Cheerio Mate! See you on the Old Man of Hoy. All of the responses were good. I'm glad that I solicited the input of the community before acting on such a rash impulse.

look, Sobo was the first. Ok, so he gets 'em. nobody has adressed my original post... Is cuttin' the slings off crazy, or what? sobo, send me a pm wit' yer digits and stuff.

I also bought Hotwires. Here's what I did: REI charges $8 for an individual carabiner, but the orange and silver hotwire QD's are $11... so I bought them, removed the sport-o draws and netted the two biners for a cool $5.50 ea. I put these new anodized hotwires on the rack next my old USA hotwires and wiped away a tear. I don't know, but I'd swear the older Hotwires taste better... I would like to give away 15 brand new BD sewn webbing QD's with the rubber carabiner positioner to some lucky cascadeclimber forum user. I will retain 10 for my personal, but unlikely use. Contact me now! I will send them to you... or I will throw them into the fireplace in a fit of self recrimination and consumer fury!

Hello friends. Thank you for taking the time to indulge my tangential and silly post. So I bought a whole rack of BD stuff, did you know it's all made in China now? Doubles .5-4, and double sets of stoppers, quite an investment. I don't know why I'm so geeked up about the stuff being made in China... I guess it's cause my old rack was all American and European, and I'm brimming with National Pride. Alas, I digress. My old Camalots were double stemmed and I just clipped a carabiner to 'em and away we went. These new C4s with their groovy thumb loop are plenty nifty, but the webbing is kind of a bummer. I guess if I were climbing Quarter of a Man they'd be perfect, but I'm not. I prefer to slut around on junky choss where the rope drag is constant and you clip a 24" runner to everything. I also don't care for the way it makes the cams hang down an extra 6" lower when racked up. I'm thinking of getting a knife and a buzz and cutting... cutting the slings off and throwing them away! Then I'll clip a biner to 'em and have a nice orderly rack that sucks up into my armpit. I know, I know, it'll cost me 2kn per piece if I fall, but that's unlikely. And I still have like, what, 10 or 12kn left over? Please, tell me. Tell me what you think. Gracias and Mahalo

Looking at buying the whole rack, all at once. Double sets of nuts, doubles on cams... but some prices have doubled in the last ten years... whoa, pump the brakes! I know what I like, BD Hotwires... but I have a buddy that can get me a deal on "Cypher firefly" carabiners. Anybody using them? I had planned to get a set of WC rocks and a set of DMM wallnuts, but the same hombre can save me some serious dollars if I go with "Omega Pacific wedgies". They look like a WC Rock knock-off... anybody using them?

Thanks for the good responses! I sorta thought that's what I would hear.

Hello amigos. I need to tell you a little information to get a little information. I climbed avidly but unexceptionally from 1990-2001, when I got hooked on surfing and eschewed the ways of the rope, except for my job as an arborist. I climbed a few 5.10's (Karate Crack, etc) a few choss-ventures (Alpenjager, Apocalypse Needles, etc), and generally had a good time in the sub-5.9 trad-junk wastelands. Fast-forward to 40, and ten years off the rock. I'm moving from the Willamette Valley to Arizona in January. Already I'm showing signs of a total relapse... I bought a new harness, new rope, and a couple guidebooks (J-Tree for Geriatrics, etc). I also picked up a couple "canyoneering" guidebooks, too, as I will be pretty close to Zion and a bunch of AZ canyonlands. Web searches show that these dedicated canyon-folk will use any ropes to rap down these chutes... static, dynamic, 8mm, 11mm, whatever... Anybody on here done any of those canyons? If I can use one rope for climbing and doing the odd canyon, that'd suit me fine. Or is there some aspect to canyon rappelling that would make it better to have a dedicated rope for rock climbing and a seperate rope for canyon trips? Thanks, i know this barely qualifies as a legitimate question... I mostly wanted to babble because I'm excited about moving to new turf and new experiences!

this post cannot be deleted, apparently

Y'know those old hinged 12pt crampons with the orange straps? SMC, Salewa, etc... I'd like to buy a pair of those. The cheaper the better. Thanks, -Stiff

I attended Don's services yesterday, and it was a first class affair. I think Don would have been surprised that his passing could fill a church, and I know he would have been overwhelmed by his friend Matt's kind words. I saw many people I hadn't seen in years, and I put some faces with names from stories Don had told.

I have some sad news for friends and accquaintances of Don Gonthier, a Portland area climber. Don passed away this morning as the result of a brain tumor that was diagnosed last summer. Don instructed climbing classes at Clackamas Community College, on occasion at Mt Hood Community College, and was part owner of a small guide service for a while. His climbing career spanned a couple decades, and I could fill a forum with stories and memories, as I am sure a few others could as well. He was a good partner and a good friend, and I will miss him very much. Goodbye, Don, I love you, man.

Please ignore Dons churlish remarks with regards to the completely inappropriate entourage I travelled with on that trip. Furthermore, The Don neglects to mention his argumentative and pedantic nature which turned a pleasant hike through the woods into a Bataan March of pontification. While it is true that the mobile circus-in-tow did nothing to help our efforts, the real point of the trip was to see these behemoths up close, and in that regard, the trip was a success. I think in these statements The Don really downplays the crappy, life threatening quality of the rock. To my recollection, which has steel trap clarity, it was big, steep, runout as hell, and remote enough that a fall resulting in a twisted ankle or break of any kind could result in a mega-epic. Having sought out and climbed a few of the tottering death piles, and having meager skills (at best) with which to work, it is my estimation that like many other Oregon pinnacles and summits, the Twin Pillars are best appreciated through binoculars. I would love someone to prove me wrong. I have a few pics, and I contacted the original FA party, so I can give you a few more details if you are really interested. Don, you know we have some unfinished business out east, and in the Willamette Valley.... now that we don't sleep under the same roof I never hear from you? What am I, chopped liver?

Yeah, the Apocalypse needles are located out by the Dalles. If you're on 84 E, and you drive out that way, go about 6 miles past the Dalles. look up on your right, and you'll see detatched columns leaning out about midway down the hill. They blend in with the columns behind them. I've climbed 2 of them, one I would call 5.5 pg, and the other one 5.7x. It is definitely adventurous. I'd post a couple pics if I knew how..let me know if you want more info..

I've climbed the alpenjager, it's not that bad. If you are serious about the zuchini route, do the alpenjager first. You'll get a feel for the place, and a better picture of the size, etc. Park @ the pull off across from Rooster on the E bound side. Walk up the scree slope through elderberries and nettles to the base. The first pitch is runout 5.4 or easier, almost no gear. It angles left to right, following the path of least resistance up mossy steps. You'll come to a fixed anchor consisting of some wacky pins and a good cam placement, at about 135'. Step right, and move over a slight bulge (crux) passing a bunch of old, weird fixed gear below the chimney. That pitch we cut short, stopping at some crappy bolt(a 3.5" bolt in a 1" hole, nice) and once you're in the chimney, you've got a couple options. We climbed straight up to the summit of the detached thumb that forms the chimney, on the W side. that pitch was very long, and we simul climbed a portion of it. It was very run out, and there was one section where the rock was quite friable on the W side of the chimney. I think Clif only got maybe four pieces of gear in 200'+, and a couple of those were fixed pins. Once on top, we rapped off of slings around elderberry stalks. If you got into the chimney, and weren't up to bridging up all that way (which comprises at least half the route), you could walk up the talus slope in the back of the chimney, which comes out on the W side of the crag, just below the Vista house. We hitch-hiked back down to our car on 84. PM me if I can give you some more info. Before I tried Zuchinni, I would definitely do Alpenjager, the Rabbit Ears, and a couple of the Apocalypse Needles.

The tools are: brs, adze, red shaft, hammer, asking $180 for the pair, the 'biners are brand new, never been clipped, $5ea, $10 for the gear sling