Coldfinger

Well if you've ever seen ESPN's around the horn...... Offwhite-- you could deduct posts from Kev's total for the really dumb ones, double deduction for starting a dumb thread. Hit 'em where it hurts!

Drinking and climbing continuously over several days........ OE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If you know what a leash is, I say go for it.

It's a free country brother!

Do you accept trolls in your group?

I don't buy it either, only thing is when they will pay. Actually when their insurance will pay. And that's the problem here. Can't say I'm a fan of whoever made such a crappy fork either. Fair enough debate whether corporate structure or insurance industry is the real villain, for my two cents I can't for the life of me see why we as a country rely on either or both to serve our best interests when they are only there to make a profit. Just seems like the insurance scum were getting a free pass here. To me it looks like the appeal was more to protect their long term interests, not REI's (taking a beating) and most certainly not her family's.

Because it is probably the take home lesson, I'm reposting this section: If people are going to get angry at someone, I suggest you direct your ire against the insurance industry which heavily lobbied the WA legislature to pass RCW 4.22 and those lawmakers who are shills for the industry. As I state above, REI likely has no control over whether or not to appeal. . . . This is America, where the powerful blame the victim and obscures the truth. I might suggest you read your home and auto insurance policies to see how much control you have if there is a claim against you......

You wanna bash them, bash them. All this second guessing re what kind of insurance? Do you think that an insurance company would even offer what you want? Or put another way what about the contract between REI and the manufacturer? Do we ignore that also? Besides, seems like there are MANY other excuses to feel good about Returning Every Item.

No, routine returns are under the direct control of REI as it THEIR policy, insurance is for when a product they sell causes personal injury, property loss and/or death. Just a guess, but if I were Monika's attorney, I wouldn't return that bike for the REI refund until case was closed as it is a a rather important piece of evidence. Not saying this case has been handled well or not, just seems like REI is taking a bashing and folks are all over the place as far as understanding what is actually going on. Rabble rabble......

Well if you mean Mounties style mountaineering, I'd go with a trash bag. My two cents is get a really good pack, don't be cheap, go light and not too large. I've not been impressed with what ALPS stuff I've seen, maybe a MH Direttissima (old stye) on sale (seen them at $110ish) would better fit the bill. Those packs seem more like hiking packs than CLIMBING packs, keep in mind most cascade trips won't be month long trips, so skip all the pockets and extra crapola.

Well said! As an bit of an expert on these matters, I'd say (speculation), you hit this right on the head. Keep in mind that from the insurance company's perspective it would be grossly (fill in the blank) for them to assume ALL the financial liability without ANY and most likely ALL control of the case. One often unseen benefit of insurance (until you need it), is that they do get in there and make some pretty tough decisions. Keep in mind that without a vigorous defense by said companies, most of us with rather more limited amounts of coverage would end up paying any excess amount. On the flip side there are the legal bills for all this wrangling and I have to wonder what that slice of the pie will be......

Thant's what I'm thinking, poles better for most easy slopes, especially at altitude, just want the thing for plunging in steep snow (doing that saved my life two years ago!), self arrest, steeper climbing and anchors. Got two short alpine tools but have been told they tend to rotate when used in snow and loaded.

Howdy, have a pair of Grivel Matrix tools, looking for a good axe for snow, glacier, etc. and am abandoning the old straight shaft designs. According to the old logic, I have used a 65cm axe, wondering what length would be best in a modern curved shaft ice axe, looking at either the Petzl Summit, or the Grivel Racing or Evolution. Thanks!

Well there has been a death from this.... Let's see, keeps the rope end biner from cross loading, makes it easier to clip, and in the case of the DMM gear mentioned, makes unclipping the right strand of the extendable sling easier in addition to the above. FYI just about every quickdraw made nowadays uses some sort of rubber keeper, the kind folks at Petzl make one that is way more durable, and works really well and can be re-used but has the added benefit of being dangerous.

Howdy everybody, as I have just purchased a bunch of new 11cm Petzl Express Dogbones and own a bunch of DMM Torque Nuts and Dragon cams, I was thinking of using the old strings I had from retired Dyneema runners to make the DMM slings on the gear mentioned above easier to use. Problem is that you have to pull the right strand to get the slings to extend as the bartacks and plastic sheath don't fit well through the stem of the Dragon cams and Torque nuts. So I just did a quick search on Petzl Strings as they make several versions and one, the String S, is designed for use with Dyneema. Here's what a Petzl String is: Sometimes Google does us BIG favors with weird unforeseen search results, and up popped Billcoe's post here last year: One more way to die...... For the sake of ease here are the key bits of info from Billcoe's Thread: UKC Warning Video Petzl String Warning Turns out I have been using short OPEN loop DMM Dyneema runners in 11 and 17cm lengths WITH the strings as well of thinking of death rigging my DMM kit. :: I liked the open runners as they seemed to be more flexy and thus help keep gear from walking or popping due to rope drag. I just happened to switch to the Petzl Express dogbones as I wanted something easier to clip (with the open loop draws the bottom biners weren't held as well and made clipping a bit trickier). I had actually test rigged my DMM Torque nuts with strings playing around back home but never used them that way. So...... Just thought I might repost this issue, seems kinda important and perhaps expands the issue to all trad gear with extendable slings, i.e. Wild Country, Trango, DMM to name the biggies. Not to mention reslingsers like Mountain Tools and Yates. My 2 cents would be to create a bar tacked dog bone with a rubber keeper on one strand of the slings sewn into ALL gear (like ALL dogbones have nowadays), thus forever eliminating the problem. I emailed links to this to all the abovementioned entities, will post any relevant responses. And kudos to Billcoe for bringing this to our attention.

Bible!

Yeah, good concept but since I don't rack a TON of stuff, the mini loops keep gear from sliding a bit to stay in balance, so no likey. Got a very minimal Trango unadjustable sling and it fits the bill.

Naw, new rope!

Hooray!

Shoot, should have won an audience award for all the comments we got. Nice shot of it in your blog I recall...... Stinger is orange too, we'll see.......

Nope it's the orange, washed it with the Sterling stuff and it looks great, we'll see if it still creaks. Just something I haven't seen before but might be natural with a Goldendry rope?

Latest beta is to wash the rope, might try that! One of these days I'll be sponsored and get a 70m bicolor rope! In the meantime......

You are a good test weight! BTW still sore from the lashing you gave on my other rope choice.......

That's what got it creaking......

Have a Beal Stinger, bought in '06, that is now REALLY creaky when lowering, guess it's time to retire, and no the whole thing creaks, not just the middle mark. Just wondering if washing it will do any good or what the deal is.