counterfeitfake

A real Jumar, not an ascender of some sort? Jumars freak me out when they HAVEN'T been dropped.

Is there a good story?

It feels like you read a bunch of other things that made some sense, and kind of puked them back in a weird way that is nonsense. First, why would it be okay to belay with it and not rappel with it?? I'm not climbing with you. I have read many refutations of the "microfractures" theory in aluminum, by metallurgists. I am not one so I can't be sure they're right, but they sounded valid. The "test of stuff at the base of el cap" is kind of a climbing urban legend at this point, I think we should refrain from citing it until someone has the real story. And the "isn't your life worth X" argument has no logical merit, and it is a bottomless hole.

Ah, that explains much... hope you guys get it sorted out. You probably don't really need to worry about anyone poaching. Thanks again for the work.

I read somewhere that people plunge step down Hell's Highway... is that the case? Seemed steep, and for us the top snow was soft with hardness underneath. Maybe I'm a plunge stepping weenie but we faced in.

Better yet, do whatever you want to do as fast as you want to do it, and then shut up.

THUMP THUMP THUMP THUMP

Actually, you're kind of making it sound like the FFA isn't going to be done by one of the developers, but you want to make sure you give it away to the right person. Is that what you mean?

You developers poured so much time, effort, and money into the route, and I am all for you getting the credit and small amount of glory available by having your name next to "FFA" in a guidebook. But why did you release a topo to the public before you were ready for the route to be climbed? You are cool with people climbing the route as long as they pull on a bolt at some point?

A little, I'm not sure you get a very clear view at any point. However all the other glaciers we saw were nicely covered, so I'd imagine it's in pretty good shape too.

You should sign your ice tools. Between that and the custom tape job they would be worth a fortune.

Don't see why you are hating but I'll reply (bite). I just did this as an afternoon special. Left the house at 3pm. My partners were all busy. It was fun to actually do a car to car push on something moderate. But ya, there are much better fish out there. I just needed to test myself on this one car to car (and get out of my "bubble"). It was fun, I don't have regrets. But ya, I hear ya. I realize my competency is much greater than the routes I've done so far. Not sure why that is. Guess I need to start pushing the envelope. You keep missing the point. The point is, stop spraying.

Trip: Shuksan - North Face Date: 7/17/2010 Trip Report: I climbed the North Face of Shuksan with a group of 5 others. The route is in really good shape right now, consolidated snow, glaciers not very broken up, and no mandatory ice. With two ropes of three the climbing went pretty well. We set up the car shuttle to give ourselves options. Unfortunately the road out to Artist's Point is still closed so the best we could do was the Heather Meadows parking lot. We walked up to the ski area and headed out the cat track toward Chair 8. Once we caught a glimpse of the bright green horror at the base of the White Salmon, we decided we would probably try the Fisher Chimneys descent... To avoid the worst of the approach bushwhack, hang a left just before the spur road that branches off left. You should be able to travel through tall timber the whole way. We went farther, past the "clearcut", and I think this made things more difficult. We found a log to cross the creek around 2900 feet, and proceeded eastward, mostly through tall trees, up to the ridge, then along the ridge to camp at the base of the north face. The route itself was pretty simple, from we first traversed eastward under a big crevasse system, then upward and gradually contouring back right to the ridge. After that it was mostly straight up, the "crux" was about 3/4 the way up on hard steep snow, before it rolled over. From the col we walked around the summit pyramid, which takes a little while. Once we got there we found what I expected- many climbers on the south gulley route, much like Gary's old report. The 6 of us didn't want to spend several hours sorting that out so we just headed down. Hell's Highway is in great shape, as is the Upper Curtis. Once we found and crossed Winnie's Slide we kept dropping elevation, looking to the left for the start of the chimneys, which we found at around 6800'. Having read various warnings about this being a hard route to navigate, I was somewhat apprehensive. I was surprised to find it to be DEAD EASY. There's a TRAIL most of the time. The only complication was that there is still some snow getting in the way. Just keep looking around for the easiest way, and when in doubt work your way skier's right. Below the chimneys there is still a lot of snow, hiding what I'm sure is a pretty nice trail. We contoured our way around to Lake Ann and then it was just a rough slog back to the trailhead, and then down along the currently-closed road to where we'd dropped our car. A few pics: Gear Notes: leather work gloves for the devil's club are worth the weight Approach Notes: SHWACKY

Sure, any human could fuck up a belay. I want to know if an ATC-type belay device has ever broken under use.

I wasn't really asking about grigris. This was inspired by listening to the typical speculation about "I dropped my ATC, do I need to buy a new one" where the average response is "Isn't your LIFE worth $25???"

Has there ever been an instance of belay device failure?

This topic gets discussed a lot and you can probably find good info if you search.

Don't worry, they still had their polypro to keep warm.

I saw the dirt from your cleaning on Sunday! I think the thing you're working on is what the Cummins book lists as Tatoosh. I climbed it once, it was doable and dirty. 5.9 seemed about right. We'd intended to continue up for 5 pitches to get to the "top" of the LTW but when looking at the blackberries and shrubs above, we rapped.

Girth Pillar? What kind of a coil are those ropes in?

Proper! I guess you really are an alpinist, Doug.

why don't you tuck them in oh good idea Really? This thread happened? Really?

keep your Beacon-related assholery in the Beacon-related assholery forum.

AWESOME video, Bill. Two years ago, we got our rope stuck at 3:46!

He's not in the all-time list yet, but summitchaserCJB has been workin' it pretty hard the last couple months.