crackers

Howdy, Another update: at least six people are receiving packs tonight when they get home. The manual is sort of up here and I'll email it out tommorrow morning, but right now, its 5pm and I'm going climbing!

I just wanted to let everybody know that I apologize for how long it took to get the packs out the door. I sold 65 packs in nine days, which is a lot more than my previous high, with 15 or so going to cascadeclimbers members*. It created some serious bottlenecks in the shipping process. The first 50 or so went out last week, and those of you around Seattle started getting packs last night and the rest should see them today or tommorrow. Send me an email and I'll forward your tracking info on to you. cilogear@gmail.com Otherwise, yes, I have two or three VX51 Mediums available, and a lot of smalls. The larges sold out in about a day, and the smalls didn't sell at all.

The ortleibs are actually waterproof. They carry really well for most loads too, mostly because messenger bags --please trust me on this one, i know WAY too much about this-- were designed for irregular odd sized packages, and adapted to normal sizes by the users, not because of some benefit to most riders. You can always add to the ort's padding with a piece of eva or two... of course, i do know somebody who makes padded shoulderbags, but they aren't waterproof.

They can't weigh more than 250 combined. They're tiny. If you rolled over on them in bed after the threesome, only their mutant power fingers could possibly save their lives...

I've never done more than 2 days in a row of 10+ hour climbing. But it's my fingers that go first...I'm not climbing crack on those long days. Yet, if you think my experience might translate, the shoes I found the most love from were actually big anazazi lace ups or velcros. I would wear soft slippers training, and then switch to the comparatively more rigid velcros or laceups for the big days. Somehow though, I think my experience is not exactly what you're looking for.

Hmm. I've found some strong initial interest with large institutions for supplying them with task lamps for entire offices. I think I'll be moving forward with it in about six months, but basically, I pay part of the initial costs, and they split the cost savings with me over five years with buyout optionality.

Uh, I'm not sure where you got this tidbit, but I'm willing to say its totally wrong. Dyneema is a chemical invented (and patented) by DSM. They licensed the polymer but not the manufacturing process to Honeywell. Honeywell has a license to sell Dyneema as "spectra" inside of the USA. Under great demand from the government in 2001, DSM built a huge plant in NC to make Dyneema in the USA because Honeywell's production process was not and is not as efficient as the gel spinning done by DSM. I buy Dyneema, not a lot, but enough to have had several conversations with DSM about the stuff. And the people who I know who make kites and parachutes agree with me in that it has nothing to do with the material, abrasion resistance has to do with the size of the drawn fiber...both DSM and Honeywell make a large number of stock sizes now.

I was away from the internet almost all weekend, and I sent out confirmation emails for sizing for those packs that people have spoken for, and tommorrow they'll get the invoices. I do not have any VX52 Larges left, but I still have mediums, smalls and a bunch of VX21 packs. And CC is looking forward to a fat paypal!

plaquette magique.

Oh for sure the installation costs are higher, but depending on your electricity bill you can recoup those investments within two years, and many of the packages i've been playing with (the next business project perhaps) have 4-5 year life spans under normal use. (nichia, luxeon and osram 1 watt and bigger packages.) How dirty is the manufacturing really?

I feel really badly for everybody who bought a pack before I opened these three boxes. I was pretty pissed off about it for awhile, but there just isn't anything I could do.

I think you're wrong parislover, I think the ROI is certainly there for office lighting over halogen and other types of task lamps. A 60 amp transformer versus a 6 amp transformer for the same amount of light? Not for all applications, but certainly for some...and the manufacturing? yummy. couldn't agree more.

Howdy All, I've got a problem. I have about 26 of the CiloGear 60 Liter WorkSack packs that I don't want to sell the normal way because I've got no interest in describing what happened as a 'feature', and then running more production of these packs in the future. Instead of using VX42 in the center panel, they made some with VX21 and some with VX52 in that panel under the crampon pouch. The technical details follow below, but the basic story is that those with VX21 are lighter and will want some care, while those with VX52 are heavier and will put up with more abuse. Honestly, I've done a lot of business because of this website and this community, and I wanted to continue giving back. I pm'd Jon, and here's the deal for you: $125 buys a pack, all inclusive. I'll pay cc.com $15 and I take care of the shipping and handling. If you want one, just pm me or email me at cilogear@gmail.com with the subject line "cascadeclimbers" or something like that. Tell me what size you want and what material you would prefer. I'll respond with an email invoice and reserve a pack for you, if I have what you need. Technical Details: VX42 is a laminated hi-tenacity nylon which is 400d. It weighs about 9.3oz/yard and its almost as strong as 1000d Cordura in terms of abrasion resistance. It is almost as strong as the VX52 in terms of tear strength, tearing in the low 60lbs of force region. The VX21 is 200d laminate which is roughly equivalent in strength and abrasion resistance to 600d Cordura aka PackCloth. It weighs 6.2 oz/yard. The VX52 is a 500d x 100d laminate which is pretty hard to destroy. Generally, it's used for the bottom of the packs, because it weighs about 11 oz/yard. It tears in the high 60lbs of force region, and has superior abrasion resistance characteristics. I put up a few packs on eBay: 7236095403 and 7235945406 with basically the same details, and mentioned similar deals on other websites, but cc is the only one getting the thank you $$$...mention the cascadeclimbers deal! Thanks for your time, As always, ask if you've got a question. Graham www.cilogear.com

There's something about watching those worms squirm that just gets to me. Maybe cause I've had them and it sucks? hmm... Now, a goatse with worms coming out of the tuckus, now, that'd be something gross!

If you go to Hungary for the weekend, and come back with stomach pain, maybe this is why... New England Journal Of Medicine work, but perhaps not lunch, safe.

1992 to 1998. I still come back and visit the peeps...

I'm taking a wild guess here. Am I close? Good Luck. 90 pounds 3 miles 90 minutes flat terrain, 45 pounds 3 mile 45 hour?

I'll agree on the deadlifts and overhead squats. In all honesty, i don't think thats all that much weight, and the real thing would be time. That is said with the caveat that i'm 6'5" or so and 180 or so...If you were 140, that'd be a LOT more weight relatively.

oh shit, i love bloodninja! thanks for making me laugh, i totally forgot that one!

I lived in Missoula for more than seven years and continue to visit on a regular basis. I've gone climbing in Rattler or Mulkey Gulch only twice. The basic reason is that it's not very good climbing for the most part. There's a short crack that's okay, and some bolted stuff thats ok. The grades are ridiculous if the guidebook hasn't been updated. I don't know what Raf was smoking when he came up with the original grades, but damn, I've never climbed a 5.6 that masqueraded as 5.10 before or since. Please note that this vitrol is entirely directed towards the car climbing. I've never been so disappointed by a climbing area. Now, Blodgett, well, that's different...

I know people in Eastern Europe who made their own gear out of scrap metal. I have made stoppers out of scrap metal. I made home made pitons in the early 70s.Several friends have. In the early 80s I bought a bunch of home made cams. I wonder why this pattern isn't followed. Do you use the gear that you made as your everyday gear? I personally do not use my homemade gear as my everyday stuff. My slovene, czech, polish and east german friends who made their own gear to climb trad routes also bolted sport routes. And they replaced their homemade gear with store bought stuff as soon as they could. People generally prefer store bought gear, and honestly that doesn't surprise me. I don't think that I argued that "the cost of pro determines ethics". I thought that saying the bolts belong in "rock gardens only" was clear enough. However, Yes, I do believe and did argue that cost is a much more of a factor in climbing ethics than you might want to believe. Did you read the article? I think they mentioned loose rock, teetering pillars and death blocks pretty clearly. I'm not going to second guess the ethics of somebody I've never met, especially in a developing country.

Have you considered the purchasing power in post ww2 eastern europe and sandstone ethics. Absolutely. Interestingly enough, there is a formation of the stuff in SW Turkey, and the accepted ethic there is the same as in elbsandstein areas. And there are sport crags in the Pfalz areas of Eastern Europe where you could use cams and other 'modern' pro. But, in the limestone and granite that comprises most of Turkey and the Caucasus, well, they've got different things going on...

But, for argument sake, I still think the reasoning you posit is faulty. I doubt few here would agree that we should bolt all the cracks in the U.S. simply because it would allow more people to get take up climbing, and would make climbing a much more populist and mainstream activity. Why should it be different elsewhere? I certainly agree that we shouldn't bolt cracks except in extremely special circumstances in the USA. We are rich. And I think our bolt wars are mostly over. A list of the prices of gear might help explain why a lot of stuff in Turkey --a country that has a very strong ethical framework and a pretty strong economy-- got bolted as recently as three years ago, and these are the prices my partner charged...you can ask Erden when (if?) he resurfaces here about Oral. BD cam: $125-$150 BD biner: $15-25 WC cam: $85 Petzl Quick Draw: $25 Climbing Shoes: $165 WC nuts: ~$20 EACH. I think that should give the picture. Ropes were too expensive. There were only a handful imported a year because they were literally too expensive. The kicker was always the 23% sales tax on whatever you bought, which would make your 300 rope cost almost 400 bucks. If you were buying a $1k of gear, it would be cheaper to fly to Germany, except that you couldn't get a visa, so... Things have changed rapidly in Turkey as a few importers decided to go for volume. Until these importers changed the rules of the game, it was a common assumption that 90% of people would stop climbing when they graduated college because they couldn't afford to buy the gear that they borrowed from their school's club (shoes, harness, rope, everything.) At the same time, the locals have a very strong traditional ethic when and where they can afford it. They have a clear understanding for themselves of what that means and rich and fervant (read flamewar) debate about the place of bolts in the sport. The old climbers --I am making a massive generalization here, ok?-- tend to be anti bolt and the young climbers tend to be pro-bolt in climbing gardens only. There tends to be an observable difference in disposable income that is strongly correlated to an individual's view of bolts. Correlation is not causation, and the above paragraph represents a massive stereotype based solely on my experiences over the past ten to twelve years. Basically, I wouldn't ever want to bolt a crack, but when a poor kid tells me that he saved up his money for two frigging years to buy my second hand rope, well, i'm going to at least listen to his ethics before I spout about mine. I do think that the world's rock is a non-renewable resource that should be available to every climber. I'd love to see the least damage possible done to it. But I also remember what it means to my local friends when i donate time, money and gear to organizations devoted to climbing in the developing world and what a huge impact it can have in hearts, minds (and just maybe ethics )... As for bolts next to cracks, I have seen bolts on crappy sandstone here in the states, and bolts in Canada next to a cracks that don't seem to bother people too much, but, hey, i've never touched the rock mentioned in the OP. If my reasoning about how I deal with helping out my friends overseas is faulty, I'm open to constructive criticism, and I'm always willing to have people tag along when I'm doing "pro-bono" stuff overseas. graham williams signed cause i take this kinda seriously... btw: please, no offense is intended in my posts, if we have differing views, fine, like I said, I'm willing to listen.

You're right, I don't know you, but I have met Ed and a few other black and white south african and namibian climbers when I was part of a group that hosted them in New York some year ago. And I have spent a couple of years working on developing climbing areas in developing countries. And yes, the locals ability to afford gear is a major issue in having them take up the sport. I've found that ethics regarding rock, style and culture don't always travel as well as one might like, in both directions. I did not mean to be harsh, I intended to be real. According to my conversations with Ed, membership in colored climbing clubs back in the apartheid era was roughly similar in numbers to membership in the white clubs. I really don't know enough about that to make informed comments though. What I do know about is the costs of a cam versus a quickdraw in the developing world, and the locals' choices that they make dependent on their values. After all, it's their rock, not mine.

I second the stairmaster and the lunges with weights. It will spare your ankles and knees the brutal impact of the load. Hiking up and down conrete will probably lead quickly to osteoarthritis which is not the goal, is it? I'd recommend doing intervals on the stairmaster. I would also recommend going swimming or stretching for ten minutes or so after each workout. If your body's not used to it, you will get seriously worked. If more people do it, maybe we'll look less stupid in the gym.