still_climbin

Rockcentrics. :tup:

Perhaps if Kev would sprinkle a little Old Spice in his chalk bag.... Then would you climb with him?

For good cheap eats any of the large outer (off The Strip) cassinos have inexpensive buffets. Suggestions are the Texas Station. Santa Fe Station and the Feista Cassinos. These all cater to the local retired crowd (read cheap) and are more or less on the right side of town from Red Rock.

Awesome job guys. What an effort.

Nicely done. Great pics.

Excellent, guys!

Ought to sell beer. I remember in the early Leavenworth days that a big draw on weekends at the Shelton Cafe was the climbing crown just because they had large B&W photos of climbers plus bottled beer.

Hanging is justified, precidents being the hanging of horse thieves in the old West. A rescuer's gear is at least equivalent to one's horse back then.

The media doesn't use the incident for anything except to sell their product. Their mantra: "Use the news to gather an audience and sell it to the advertisers." What happens along the way is mearly colateral damage.

His face says it all. :

I agree and extend the same to the families. I regret the media hell they had to experience on top of all of this.

Worst for me was an attempt on Liberty Ridge a number of years ago. Crevass conditions chaneled us to the east side of the Carbon to gain entry onto the ridge. The three of us ascended a long coulior up toward the ridge crest just below Thumb Rock. About 100 feet from the crest (and several hundred feet from the planned bivy) we got caught in rockfall. The third on the rope was hit in the arm and ribs by a watermelon-sized rock that knocked him uncouncience. We move him to a rock outcropping and wrapped his arm to his chest with amn Ace bandage. After feeding him some pain killers we lowered him down the couloir several thousnad feet to the Carbon. As we stepped out onto the glacier a huge rock slide scoured the couloir, unnerving to say the least. We spent the rest of the day and much of the night slowly walking to a safe bivy site off the glacier. The next morning we exited the alpine by decending through a jungle of snow and brush to the Carbon River and a trail. Then we hitchhiked home. That was a tough weekend.

Climbing any of the NW volcanos in the face of a storm is more than risky, yet there seems to be an attitude that winter mountaineering has gone mainstream so the risks are more acceptable. Fact is that a winter storm on one of the volcanos can be harrowing; a clear lesson that nature is in charge and you're not. I've been on Hood in winter, a few yards from where this past week's dramma unfolded, in 100+ mph winds and bailed when a huge banner cloud formed over the peak warning of an oncomming storm. We were lucky and narrowly escaped a huge snow event that closed Mt Hood Meadows for several days due to the high risk of deep snow deaths. Last year there were some great winter ascents reported on this site. But, most of them were not done in the face of a major storm and I'm sure that those climbers cancelled or bailed many times before finally bagging a great climb. I think that a service we can do on this site is to heighten awareness that winter climbing is far different than summer in terms of the expectation that you can schedule a trip (coordinate vacations, etc) and feel entitled to success. The same goes for encouraging sprint alpine style winter ascents with virtually no gear or resilience to ANYTHING that goes wrong.

Great news! Now if someone could just do a study about the cross-sectional area of by belly as I continue to get oder and older.

I agree with Ade. If you ever have the unfortunate occasion to really test your helmet you'll have wanted to have the best you can get. I chalk my life up to a good ski helmet that stayed with me through multiple killer blows to the head during a bad fall. Also, a ski helmet would be too hot during the summer and a montaineering helmet would be too cold in winter.

In the closet, in a bag is fine. Ropes don't like sunlight or heat. Your rope should be just fine in three years...ten or fifteen years, then I'd maybe retire the rope to non-extream conditions like sport climbing, TR, or moderade glacier climbs.

I also have some of those old coat hanger screws. I used them. They had a habit of breaking off at the beginning of the threads. They never would support the kind of ice routes being climbed today.

Might be game for it. I'd be comming from the Tri Cities so where/when would I meet you?

Anything I can climb in this.

Even if ther are many raps the two-team shared method saves time by simply leap frogging the two teams. The time saved over the two teams rapping independantly is equal to one half of the administrative time taken to rig the rappels and retrieve/coil the ropes since only half the number of rappel setups are performed. Then whether you single or double rap is a second time saving choice that has no bearing on whether you pair or not. In the case where each of the two teams only have one single rope each, more time is saved if two-rope raps can be set.

This is a great thread. It's why I visit this site. I applaud everyone who has the guts to bear their inner soul and share experiences that they feel are worthy of a brag. I climbed in the late 60s when there was no CC.com, climbing magazines and very few guide books. Climbers were effectively isolated from one another and it was only though sharing the kind of experiences some might call "chest beating" that the sport grew and climbers attained access to the huge amount of information available today. So, hats off to you all.

Alex, Nice follow-up. I like the idea of park users contacting this Matt guy. Did he mention an email address? That would be the best way for the keyboard freaks that frequent this site to weigh in.

Best tick for me is the following given my business calendar: - 9 alpine summits all grade II or III, 5.4 to 5.8 - 8 days at various crags - Not one weathered-off day - Introducing my son to alpine rock and for him to pay me back by organizing the best 5.8 grade III of the year down in New Mexico.

I believe I was in class that day. He finished the sentence "Solo aid climbing in the rain is a REAL Man's Sport-climbing-like substitute for bad assed, runout, pumped ALPINE ROCK"

For WA cracks: The top 2 pitches of Outer Space are bliss. Givler's Crack is classic and always makes me remember the good times with Al. Face climbs: Nothing like Midway Direct to shake the cobwebs loose in the spring. Easy, but exhilerating. Also liked the "Traverse" picth on Improbable Traverse...I never found the 5.8 move but loved the feel of the whole pitch. Friction: WF of Grand Central Tower. The "Nervous 5.6" pitch of SEWS SW Buttress blew out some synapses when I did it on wet lichen several weeks ago. Extinct Climbs: Skin Graft Crack, Granite Point (now about 50' under water) First Column Direct in the old WSU Field House.