crackers

But a picture of Sharma costs $20K? I'd say your industry insider was off by a significant digit. But he's the outlier...

My view ranged from 90th street at 8:45am down to on area in the late morning. It sucked. I second JDjr's thoughts.

Yep. Definitely. Want pictures?

I suspect you'll be fine. But you should probably put your gear into the pack when you get it and make sure it all fits inside...

But the Guide pants don't have them either...

As somebody on the other end of the continuum, may I interject my thoughts? Naah, I didn't think so. I think that the easiest climb ever mentioned in Alpinist's Newswire is actually this one. 30,000 posts can't be wrong... As most of you know, I own a tiny company based here in Portland that makes the worlds best packs for climbing. Seriously. Otherwise, folks like that alpinist fellow who lives in Terrebonne wouldn't buy from us*. My company "sponsors" about five or six climbers. We sponsor three because they are really quite good at climbing and sending us amazing pictures that we can then use for ads or whatever. That's benefit number two. Benefit number one is that they are incredibly annoyingly detail oriented at describing the smallest nitpicking detail of why "the pack is great but this minuscule deviation from my standard of perfection ruins it for all time..." I give a pack to one of these three characters and I get a frigging essay about it in a week after 72 hours of straight use on one route and a few other days out. I sponsor the next two so I can have a place to crash during a trade show or whatever. The last guy we sponsor, well, that's a long story of guilt due to a drunken night after a long day of climbing, vomit and an idiot who vomited under a couch. Some climbers make a living shilling for companies that make stuff they use. Other than those 10 - 15 guys and 4 girls, I think most "sponsored" climbers get a credit for clothing every season and the chance to sell some pictures to the company. Some of them are, for sho, full of barely warm air. Every month or so, we get a request for sponsorship from people with a resume consisting of crap that nolse could climb carrying my dog. I kid you not. I'm all for folks trying to do something, and it never hurts to ask, but as Scott writes: If sponsorship isn’t backed up by a legitimate accomplishment that is significant to the sport, then being rewarded for something insignificant is sad and undeserved. Now, Scott's ideas about what significant and mine might well vary, but that's another ball of wax, isn't it? Finally, I think that Layton's got it right: knowing people who are trying to become sponsored is awful. It's like watching people stumble through adolescence as adults. *okay, he bought one. I gave him another. but still...

So you've got Forest Repellent for sale? That's a stunning look! And those glasses!

perhaps perhaps...

Thanks to everybody for showing up and making it a success! I don't know who stuck around for it, but let the record show that Bryan got higher than either Marcus or I did on that final's route. I think we should have been camming the edge of the pick when we were trying to cam the tips...

I'm not sure what time the slideshow will start, but I'll post up when I find out. Here's today's booty update...for the raffle and the silent auction. A couple of hats, two pairs of Alibi II Gloves and a Alibi Jacket.

Just an update... We'll have stuff from Integral Designs for silent auction and the raffle!

5 PM!

Portland Rock Gym September 26th 2009 Demo ice tools and check out other new ice gear. Ice climbing comp with prizes for top finishers. Cool slideshow. We will again be raffling off much gear with all the proceeds being donated to a climbing charity. Lots and lots of beer Stayed tuned for more details! Do yer pullups!

bummer.

Heh heh heh. May I suggest that instead you buy what you want today and then spend a LOT of time thinking about what you want in the NEXT pack?

A group including the senior directors of DMM Engineering bought Wild Country back in '96. DMM Engineering owns DMM the climbing gear company. DMM the climbing gear company does contract manufacturing for Wild Country, which is also owned by DMM Engineering... Or at least, I *think* that how it works.

that would be a V1 60L...whoever buys it is more than welcome to get in touch with cilogear and buy a new lid off us if so desired.

As you may know, I own CiloGear. It is my informed opinion that there are different successful manufacturers because folks are looking for different things...ie, YMMV. If it's a pure dollars and cents issue, go buy what you can afford. If it's not a pure economic issue, feel free to consider some thoughts. I'm willing to bet that you'll end up using it more than a few times a year. 30L sized packs are among the strongest part of the market because of their general utility. If the pack isn't too heavy, if it isn't a piece of crap, you'll end up using it for daily tasks, for short hikes, and a number of other things you never thought to use it for. The CiloGear 30L and the REI Flash are about the same size. That's where the similarities end. For twice the price, the CiloGear pack uses significantly better materials -- from the 210d Dyneema / Cordura Ripstop to the VX42 -- and significantly less crapola that's just going to get in your way. Even though our pack is made from a heavier material (210d vs 140d nylon -- it's not even Cordura to hit that price point), our pack weighs less. Go figure, or to put it another way, welcome to contract manufacturing versus JIT manufacturing in house. I think the lack of straps on the side of the Flash pack will make it very difficult to carry skis or anything else on the side of the pack. But again, what's your priority?

congrats!

uh, read them again. I've read the whole series at least four times (it was a long time overseas...), and the highlight books as many as fourteen times each. Hornblower will feel cheap. How about Fernand Braudel's "The Mediterranean..." and Gibbon's "The rise and fall of the roman empire"? They're both crap in terms of historical accuracy, but fun to read. John, thanks. that link grossed my shit out.

Amen on the speedy stitcher. You know, with a mechanical machine, you're supposed to use two different thread coolers or sew at a a glacial rate with Dyneema / Spectra thread?

I make packs for a living. I probably have the most machines of anybody who visits this site on a regular basis, and I definitely have opinions. Your mileage may vary, etcetera...warning: long ramble ahead. I would say that since this is related to my business, I certainly have a conservative approach. I have never nor will I ever make life support or protective gear. There are just too many variables... If you're talking life support, don't do it. No offense, but since you've got little to no comprehension of what you're doing, it would seem to me that you'd be smart outsourcing life support stuff. Make some packs, make haul bags, make tons of stuff, but I'd really consider leaving life support stuff alone for awhile or for ever. Have fun, don't create situations where you're wondering if you're going to kill a friend. As far as I know, you don't use Nylon in outdoor life support bartacks, you use bonded polyester. Polyester has significantly better resistance to UV degradation and to salt. Polyester is about 90% as strong as nylon and doesn't go bad in the sun. I believe that most climbing stuff is done with T-70 (aka 69 aka E) weight bonded polyester thread, with some T-90 thrown in. It's more than strong enough for our systems. I have reason to believe that the best machines for doing bartacks on things like cam slings are actually not computer controlled but instead mechanical cam machines (some do have computer controlled feed systems, but that's another story). Mechanical cam machines are significantly more robust and regular than computer controlled machines. For manufacturing, you have got to be able to test, prove and retest your manufacturing systems, and mechanical cam machines are way better at that. As an aside, the average bar tack machine has something in the neighborhood of 500 rotating parts. Richard Moore got into building tools because of his work making sewing machine tooling for the Singer Sewing Machine company...if you have any idea who he was, it's pretty remarkable. If you don't, let's just say that Moore and his son Wayne invented machining in the millionths of inch tolerance world. Like 25 millionths of an inch over six feet and incomprehensible accuracy like that... Taking a well maintained, accurate mechanical cam machine and your polyester thread, you next determine needle type and needle size that you'll be working with. You now know that the maximum working temperature of the bonded polyester thread is 212 degrees fahrenheit, so you do some quick tests and figure out you need a thread cooler. When you use a regular bar tack machine -- like the ones at my shop -- we can easily be running up to 200 degrees by the end of a set of tacks. Obviously, since it's your life we're talking about, you'd want to stay way below that, say below 150. Getting my drift? It looks like a nice little stitch, can't be that complex, well... Mechanical cam bar tackers with the appropriate parts start around $1800. You should buy them new for life support stuff. You can pick up an old electronic bar tacker starting around $2k. They start new around $4,500 and go up to around $100,000 for the really cool ones. You can also spend a couple of tens of thousands of dollars on platen tables, presser feet, attachments, and the whole set of tools that accompany real machines. I highly unrecommend the sailrite machines. What's your budget? How often will you really use it? Sailrite sells machines that would never be used in an industrial setting to folks getting in over their heads. I'd really recommend finding some local community college or similar and taking a sewing class. Get some time on a plain jane straight stitch machine and see what it can do. It's the classic case of operator skill versus machine ability. Learn to sew well and the machine won't fail you. I'd really recommend getting a needle feed machine with an electronic servo motor and control box if you can afford it. If you're going to use it a lot, and you can find one and afford it, get an automatic trimmer machine. It would probably cost you between $1,000 and $2,000 for a used machine like that, but without computer control or the trimmer, it'd be less than a $1,000 -- there appears to be one on seattle craigslist for $700 right now. For what you want to sew, it will help alleviate your relative lack of skill. A servo motor, as somebody else wrote, is substantially quieter, more energy efficient and more controllable. You can throttle down the maximum speed on most servo motors to allow you to sew at a comfortable max. As you get better, open up the throttle. I like sewing around 2700 stitches / minute, while most of my sewers like being around 3500. It's rare for my interns or my non-sewer employees to be comfortable much over 1000. You can buy a servo motor off ebay for a hundred bucks or so. An electronic control box does a ton of things. Since I've already written too much, let's say that one feature is to start the first X stitches at a slow speed. It help make you sew straight lines like a pro. Most electronic control boxes come with servo motors. I think that a good electronic control box and servo motor combination is probably about a $1,000. The trimmer cuts the thread. You reach the end of the seam, you do something, and the threads are cut. Perhaps it sounds simple, but if you're spending a lot of time on the machine, you will fall in love with this feature. I'd recommend a needle feed for a few reasons: You're more likely to find 110v electronic machines. 220v3phase is a pain in the butt. Avoid it. It's much easier to learn to sew with a needle feed. Learning to sew with most walking foot machines is kind of like learning to drive a tank. It will be easier for you to control what you're sewing and easier to keep things straight with a needle feed. There are some mellow walking foot machines, but they tend to be significantly more expensive -- the very nice Mitsubishi LU2-4710 walking foot machines retail for something north of $5,000. Another reason is because of the relative ease of getting feet and attachments for needle feed machines over walking foot machines. With industrial machines, a lot of the things you want to do are semi-automated to make it easier. You can afford these parts for a needle feed or a regular drop feed machine. For example, I just bought a couple of different feet for doing the topstitch where two pieces of fabric come together. For our needle feed machines, I bought the four I wanted for less than $50. For my walking foot machine, one foot was $350. I'm going to make sure our production will really really benefit before buying the second one. Oh, btw, for repairing stuff, you really want a cylinder bed machine. Think expensive. Think advanced sewing skills. Also, the old Singers that Richard Moore developed the tooling for can sew through 1/2" plywood. They are amazing. I was just playing with one with 348 weight thread sewing together two 1/2" strips of plywood yesterday. Talk about sewing through your finger... I think making your own gear is a ton of fun, and a really good hobby. If I can answer any other questions, go for it, but we're super busy these days and I don't get too much time in front of the computer. We have office hours twice a week at our factory down here in Portland, and you're more than welcome to swing by and check us out. But please take my advice to heart...get John Yates to resling your camalots. Don't do it yourself.

Motorcyclist slams into stopped ambulance. The guy on the motorcycle is a friend whom I met through this website. He's a regular here... All my best dude.

Ditto. Cheap too.