underworld

seem like reasonable topics. i'd just suggest to take the word conservative out of it all together. we are all americans...why introduce the polarization?

to oppose obamacare is not to oppose health care...

idunno.. it was dark and they stung.

allergy warning!! it was dark so i can't really explain precisely where... but at one of the rotten logs that lie across the trail is a bee hive. i think the swelling helped on a few hand jams tho. just letting those folks know that might be allergic

tape is more tard

evergreen road (the one that leads to hetch hetchy) is free camping on the side of the road. poaching in camp4 is risky cuz the rangers come thru in the middle of the night. even if the folks in that camp let you stay with them.. if your tent or bivy doesn't have a tag - you're roasted. just bivy in front of the kiosk at camp 4... you'll be 1st in line for the next day and have a place to sleep that night. there's even a bear box right there

pm sent

where's the outrage?? imagine if this happened under bush.... he'd have been a racist, anti-free speech, anti-free press....etc..etc... ..i'm speculating, of course

would aliens be still called POS's if they had a 5kn rating stamped on them insted of the 12kn? i don't intend that as an attack or argument - just a question. while i agree that the cams should be as strong as they advertise ... aliens are useful tools in climbing IMHO. they will stick (and stay) where many other cams would pop right out. so in those situations, the aliens are MUCH more safe than some alternatives.

pm sent for offsets

RAD trip!!! (but it doesn't count if you didn't top out!!!)

pm sent!!!!

sounds like you had it dialed...enough! add another prussik into the mix for: maybe your second placement or so to attach to the lead line in order to keep your anchor 'upsidedown'. that is....in case it gets suddently waited upwards from a fall later on in the pitch, the biners and all the gear will be already pulilng in the right direction and possibility of crossloading the biners is lessened. you can add a screamer into this whole thing to give some dynamic to the belay. (maybe i'll draw another picture) everything changes if you have a big pig you're hauling that can be used as counterweight for a dynamic belay.

bad idea... all of a sudden you just skyrocketed your fall factor. assuming that that piece can take an upward pull, that is. either way, it's not good. i've hear/read stories of people falling on the next placement and welding that clovehitch to the biner. And, a key to the prussik thing is that you use a long one such that if you fall anywhere above it... the rope stretch does not pull the prussik up to and pull out that piece. oh yeah.. and btw - nice job on the send...

the cool thing with soloing is you get the luxury of omitting the sharp edges from the system. or should i say, isolating them. take along with you some long skinny prussiks and below sharp edges - hang the prussik off a good piece of gear and pull up the slack (if any) in your lead line. this will also take up some of the deadweight of the rope and preventing it from feeding too much penalty slack thru your grigri (or whatever solo device you're using). what this does is make a new point that is holding your lead line while you jug and clean while keeping the rope loose over the sharp edge above. see: artwork

green dragon and town crier are close enough to each other that you can penji from one to the other at...well...probably any point. you can turn it into a playground and then just deploy the ledge when it gets dark. now THAT'S a fun weekend! you could totally dial your lower outs, penjis and hauling by doing those two routes in some random manner.

get in line for camp IV at 6am... take a book and a sleeping bag.

thought: buy used...these things are pricey!!! i've only used the old A5 wind chime double and the Black diamond one that unfolds. wind chime: lighter can be flagged but is a beeotch to setup foldup one: heavy but set up is super mega fast. imo - the last thing you want to do at the end of a long day...is struggle setting up the ledge. that being said - i'd be willing to sell my old A5 for a bargain if you're looking to pinch pennies.

pm sent on haul pack

or pick walls that don't have (real) free climbing...

the big wall is more mental than anything else... don't do wall-math..just keep going up unless someone is hurt or your ropes are chopped. just keep going. i've bailed of el cap several times cuz of wall-math and jitters. got sick of bailing so i went back and just committed to going up. it worked. wall-math? you ask.... is realizing how many pitches you've done, how many more are left how many more per day how many more days how much water you have left how much have you had how much water per day is left how many days are left your sides already hurt and they will hurt for how many more days how much have i hauled on how many more hauls how many hauls per day how many more days what time is it when does the sun go down ...on and on... don't do that. just climb and enjoy the views. it all goes away when you pop the top to some ravioli and the boxed wine is flowin each night. you will cluster you will get frustrated you will think you won't make it. f@#k all that and just keep going up. fix the cluster and move on...... mental...

could this have happened if a biner was put in the lower 'safety' holes of the protraxion? seems unlikely - but don't have it in front of me right now. i know there is a lot of folks that think the protraxion is a deathwish already - this event won't help that situation - but i agree w/ jh, that this was a miss-use thing

if they went off the aurora bridge, that someone wouldn't have to keep going back every week.

my mythos are a full size smaller than my muiras which are a full size smaller than my street shoe... the do stretch - a lot and in all directions. (that's what she said)