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AR_Guy

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Everything posted by AR_Guy

  1. Thanks for the info folks. L-Worth might be the ticket. We can get in some other training while in that area as well. Mt. Erie also sounds good....can always hit it on one of those rain shadow winter days and it's not too far away. Oh, and this would DEFINATELY be for the later stages of her training. I'll start her off at the slabby stuff at Exit 38 - It's easy to scramble to the top of flamable pajamas at the end of the trestle for low angle and to use the bridge abutment for near vertical.
  2. I'm looking for a spot (other than the center of the bridge at Exit 38) where I can set up a free hanging rappel. Ideally, it's walk up access to the top, solid places to anchor the rope(s) (gear works, trees or similar preferred), and not more than 200' down to solid ground, won't interfere with a popular climb, a clean start down the line into the free hanging part, etc. The bridge at exit 38 works pretty well at ~100' of dangling in space, but getting off the edge cleanly and safely is a bit tricky for a newb. If there's a better spot, I'd sure like to know about it. Purpose: My teammate and I are thinking about doing an adventure race in Utah in the spring which includes a rap section which eventually goes free hanging for about 50' or so. I'd like my teammate to get plenty of experience on this type of rappeling before race day, especially since she has issues with exposure. Thanks
  3. I've found a few mid size hexes (BD 6, 7 and 8) are a nice complement to cams and extend the range of passive up from the larger stoppers. Quite a bit lighter than a 2nd cam in the same size range. I place the #8 (~2") quite a lot. They're also cheap (~1/4 the price of a similar sized cam) so if you have to bail - at least it'll be less expensive than leaving cams behind.
  4. AR_Guy

    Mattress

    Well, it's all about weight & cost. If you get used to it, a foam pad will save quite a bit on both. After hiking the PCT with a single 3/4 length foam pad, I'm pretty used to the thin, not much comfort way of doing things. It's about 1/2 pound, vs about a pound for the light end of Thermarests. When I car camp, I'm always amazed at how plush my 3/4 ultralight thermarest from ~10 years ago feels. YMMV if you're on snow or bare rock. On dirt, foam is fine (if you're used to it).
  5. AR_Guy

    MSR Z lite?

    http://www.gossamergear.com Check out Gossamar Gear if you want light sleeping pads from a US supplier. The night light is in the same vein as the Z-Rest, but it has a flat side and the egg crate on the other side. They also have the Thin Light, probably similar to the 'hard man' pad you refer to. I used the Nightlight for a thru hike in 06. I made it last the whole trail, but probably should have replaced it once. They last longer than a Z Rest.
  6. Great link Hemp. Nothing quite like hard data when there is a question like the OP.
  7. What's the intended use? How much of a gram weenie are you? After all, one person's "light weight" is another persons way too heavy shelter (the Hubba is in this catagory - depends on who you're asking, and the intended purpose, if 3 lbs is light or heavy for a shelter). If you're hiking, the answer is probably one set of products. If you're up on a mountain somewhere with that potential for nasty weather, it's probably a different set of products. If the intended use is hiking, check out the products from the following: Tarptent.com, gossamergear.com, sixmoondesigns.com All have a first rate reputation in the long distance hiker community.
  8. Here's what I take my 8 y/o neice and 6 y/o nephew to do: - The easy slab at Stone Gardens. The first several times, it was use what ever for holds, go as high as you like. Then, as the neice especially, has gotten better, I 'made' her stick to the taped routes. She does the 5.4's and 5.5's pretty well now. The nephew just started making it to the top of the wall. I'll give him a few more times before 'making' him start doing proper routes. - The neice has been outdoors once. Exit 38, the easy wall at the end of the trestle. Flamable Pajamas is a great first outdoor kid route. You can scramble up the left margin to set up a TR. Have 'em do it several times. Next time out there I'll bring her up to the Gritscone and the Farside / Headlight and Squishy Bell - there's a couple of 5.5-ish routes there that ought to be kid friendly.
  9. Aric - great work on this. Too bad ice-ice doesn't bother to read and can't (or won't due to willful ignorance) understand how a strength rating for a life safety critical piece of hardware is developed. The short version for strength rating in aerospace: the rating of a raw material MUST be set such that 99% of all material meets or exceeds said rating - period. Using this standard, Aric has clearly shown that the strength ratings on the noted products are invalid.
  10. I was up there a few weeks ago - partner and I did the first 8 pitches. I'd say the helmets are a must on the climbing pitches. While I was up on P8, the party ahead of us (linking P8 and the P9 traverse) kicked a few rocks loose. They were literally whizzing as they went by me about 1/2 way up that pitch. Partner had a good tree to hide behind. I'll echo the 'bring slings' or alpine draws. There are some wanderings where extension will help to mitigate rope drag. Get a copy of the topo. We scored LOTS of booty - slings and 'biners from a party that must have been up there just the day before. They must not have known of all the rap stations, etc. as it was obvious from where we found stuff they were rapping 'out of sequence'. If you rap per the topo, there's no need to leave gear behind. Start early - we hit the start around 8am and got through about 4 to 5 pitches before the sun hit us. 1 60m is adequate. On the last rap, rap to the left (when facing the wall) to land in the gully up from the start. Else if you rap straight down the last rap aiming for the start, you'll end up 10 meters or so short with a 60. If you end up here, there's a bolt and a nice chickenhead you can sling, or just go from the bolt, for the last 10 meters. It's a fun route for the non-hardman climber. I though the grading of the pitches (on the photo copied, hand drawn topo we had) was a little soft - in line with Exit 38. The one exception to this was the 8th pitch, which (IMO) went from sustained 'real' 5.7 on the lower 1/2 to sustained 'real' 5.8 (balancy, thinner edges, more delicate, non-pumpy) on the upper 1/2. Good exposure on this pitch as well.
  11. Gary hits the nail on the head on strength ratings - it's similar to how strength / stress allowables in raw materials (for aerospace) are determined. Break a bunch of samples, set the strength rating such that 99.xx% are at or above said rating. If your process control is so poor that you get a wide variation in actual breaking strengths, you'll end up knocking down your allowable / rated strength so that you have confidence that any one item you pick up will meet that rating. If CCH just tagged them at being good for only 3kn, problem "solved".
  12. This level of failure in my line of work (aerospace) would result in immediate grounding of the suspect piece of equipment, no ifs, ands or butts. One need not be a metalurgist to realize that. These pieces of equipment, cams in this case, but it applies to all the gear used in climbing, are life safety critical. That this bunch at CCH have put out suspect life safety critical equipment in the past, and apparently, based on the seperated piece above, still are....sheese. Again, in my line of work, the FAA would have shut down a supplier with a record like this a LONG time ago. Climbing has enough objective hazzards when the gear is all top notch. To play Russian Roulette (good or not) with your pro..... Being relatively new to this sport, I saw the earlier incarnations of this topic when I was deciding to buy my trad rack. I bought all BD - C4s, C3s, stoppers and hexes. At least when I leave the deck, I don't worry if my equipment has manufacturing defects. Placed properly, I have every reason to believe they'll hold their full rated strength. CCH should just sell the design to a competent manufacturer and collect the royalities.
  13. Also check out All-Battery.com and Batteryspace.com I'll second the candlepower forums. Another good one, specific to bike lighting, is MTBR.com, forums, lighting. One thing to note: NiMH are 1.2 volts per cell. Alkline are 1.5 (nominal voltages). This may or may not matter in your particular application.
  14. Lots of good advice here. Sounds like you're in good shape. I'd tend to throw in some more longer, but moderate workouts. 20 mile hikes with a pack on heading up all the hills you can find are great to get in shape. If you can, get out here a few days early and spend it at elevation. When I bagged Whitney as the side trip to my PCT hike in 2006, it was fun (in a sick sort of way) to chuckle at the folks coming up the portal who were totally unacclimated. The thru hikers, prior to this section, were all acclimated up to about 6k (plus had 700+ miles of hiking to get in shape). The during the 4 day approach hike from Kennedy Meadows preceding doing Whitney, we'd camped at about 10k, so we were all very well acclimated. Compared to the folks coming up the portal, all of the hikers, while it was hard with the elevation, were flying up the trail. The portal folks were standing still by comparison. As said above - looking forward to the TR with your pics from the top.
  15. I was out there yesterday. Clamshell cave and Playground point were great. There was still enough moisture in the soil so that it wasn't a complete dustbowl. Very nice conditions.
  16. Or head all the way down over toward the river. Last time I was out there, the parking lot was full, so there were quite a few folks in the general area. I think we saw all of two other people all day down on 'our' part of the wall. Had it totally to ourselves. It was a fun day of 5.7 to 5.9 sport and one 5.7 gear route. The new guide book is great for getting away from the more well known routes (like those listed in Weekend Rock)......
  17. So Kevino - you let the air out of 2 of their tires and explained why they're dumbsh**s on a note you left on their windshield, right? Not that I'm suggesting vandalizing anyones stuff, but sometimes a mild tap on the shoulder does wonders.
  18. AR_Guy

    Noob here...

    - Stone Gardens / Vert World are good places to meet folks. - Post in the partners forum. Lay out your experience / skill level honestly. You'll have a good chance of finding folks to climb with. - I see you're in Seattle. Exit 38 is a good place for a newbie to hone their basic skills. Plenty of beginner friendly routes out there. Vantage and L-worth also have climbs at modest grades, once you're ready to go a little further. - If you really need an intro course, try the 101's at the climbing gyms for basic belaying skills. Private instruction is also available, but will cost you a fair chunk of change. - Get some good instructional books (Freedom of the Hills, for example) and study them. These, along with some coaching from your new partner(s), ought to get you into leading sport climbs without killing yourself - the basic stuff on clipping draws the correct way, and rigging bolted anchors, rapping off, etc. The above is what I did - it worked for me.
  19. If you would be willing to go to Vantage..... My first trad lead was Chapstick (5.5-ish, but felt easier). Another pretty easy trad lead is (I think this is the correct name) Little Black Rooster (I did it the same day as Chapstick)- another 5.5-ish that felt easier than its grade.
  20. So, I'm kicking around the idea of blowing off work for the summer of 2010. I have a lot of things I might do with that time (another long hike, MTB trip, kayaking trip, etc), climbing being one of them. I want to get the heck out of Washington for a while. Background: - I'm an obsessive planner, which is why I'm looking this far ahead at this option. - I'm currently only a (comfortable) 5.6 to 5.7 leader on gear (L-worth, Vantage standard), 5.8 to 5.9 sport, and could follow probably 5.9 and possibly low 10's reasonably well. I can jam only 5.7-ish, possibly 5.8-ish. - I figure I could improve the above by at least a full grade, especially on gear, by spending the summer climbing. - I'd like to keep the venues to the Western US (or Canada), say no further east than the Dakota's down to Texas. - I'd have up to 5 months available, starting in March or April. - Transportation isn't much of a problem (reliable car). - I'd like to focus on gear more than sport. Multi-pitch more than single pitch. After a while building up the experience and skill, more alpine than cragging. Given the above, what would folks suggest as a possible extended trip - Where to, how long to be there before moving on given the listed skill level, sequencing to get the best weather and conditions at each location?
  21. What John fails to understand is: Yeah, sure. One is unlikely to get the shit from untreated water, especially high in the Cascades or Sierra. BUT, it's possible. You don't KNOW that someone from the group a day before you, who happens to be a carrier, didn't take a massive dump just up stream from where you're dipping your water bottle. I for one, don't care to take the chance and it's worth my time to treat what I drink, especially since it takes so little time to do so. Hell - one of my fellow 06 PCT-ers was nailed by giardia at Cascade Locks. Sucks to make it 2150 miles only to get sent home with a case of the projectile shits. Add to what was said on hygene, that Purell is great while in the BC, only a fool shakes hands out there without subsequently doing a dose of Purell and you'd be especially stupid to grub a handfull of trail mix out of an open container. All pretty basic hygene that anyone will know. Oh yeah Jon - saying the same stuff over and over, only more obnoxiously, isn't the best way to make your point.
  22. I'll third Aqua Mira. Used it for my entire PCT hike in '06. Nothing to break, unlike a pump filter. For real nasty water, use a double dose. As mentioned, a coffee filter or two isn't bad to have for silty or water with lots of floaties.
  23. Yeah, Scott finally completed his first Yo-Yo in 04 or 05 after something like 7 or 8 attempts. He did it again in '06, cutting quite a bit of time off from his first one. He must have passed me heading NOBO at about Kennedy Meadows (~Mile 700, I didn't see him) around June 12th or so and I saw him on his SOBO leg at Cascade Locks around September 2nd. He was out again this last year trying to do the trail in some incredibly short time period. The guy is a legend in the PCT and general long distance hiker communities.
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