boadman

I just did it this weekend. All I had was a 70m, so that's what we took. We could do some long pitches, but really should have been simul-climbing most of it. I think that a 35m rope with a super skinny 35m tag line for hauling your packs through the 5.8 slot and up the gendarme would be the best for weight and rope management if you're going to simul-climb a lot. If you're going to pitch a lot of it out, I'd take a 70m.

I didn't think that you guys actually had any decent rock down there, but that actually looks like ok climbing.

Those are great photos! I'm going to go climb this route next week. A couple of friends of mine did it a couple of weeks ago and were recommending we take crampons & an axe. Did you feel they weren't necessary? Did it feel sketchy anywhere on the approach/decent?

Ryu & I did that route & Rattle-tail this spring. AGK is pretty awesome, and the last "12a" pitch is actually pretty doable, not too much harder than Kite Flying Blind. I knocked off one little hornets nest on the 3rd pitch, and Ryu did some serious black berry excavation on the second pitch. I didn't notice a hornets nest on the second pitch. The first 20 feet of the first pitch could use a good scrub. I liked it almost as much as Rattle-tail, I think the little traverse at the top of the first pitch is one of the classic 5.10 moves at Index. One 70 gets you down to the top of a big block from the top of the second pitch. You have to down climb some easy 3rd class to get back to the base. Put knots in the end of your rope!

The trail was actually pretty well established already when I did the route last summer. There was good flagging most of the way, and the shwack had been cut back to get up the hill to the plaque. The only place it was hard to find was actually way up the hill after leaving the cirque and entering the woods.

I would probably call it the TC-Pro

Bump? Anybody have a recommendation for a crag that I could just walk up to and expect to find people to climb with?

Hey - I'm going to be in Spokane for work next week and would like to get out at least one evening. Anyone have time to show me around Tuesday or Wednesday evening? I'll have a car, shoes, and a harness, I'm not planning on bringing any other gear. I can generally climb easy 12s sport & 11s on gear.

Video for the new grigerator Looks zexy

Technically not granite, but for the purposes of a sandstone climber it falls into that bag. I would agree for the most part, the proclivities of the majority of sourthern [sport] climbers runs to the steep edged monotony with little creativity. Our band's interests lay primarily around roofs. Movement over granite 'subtle'? Now that's a good one, in what way exactly? Again, granite is all but devoid of monkey. Absolutely, I climb to monkey and to have my feet higher than my head as often as humanly possible and for no other reason. Come on up to Index. Very minute changes in body position make routes impossible or easy. I think that's the definition of subtle.

Catch the train up to squamish. Take your bike. It's super easy to find partners up there this time of year, and you can always boulder. Squamish in the summertime is heaven, and there is a ton of stuff at your grade in the smoke bluffs and on the Apron. Just walk up to groups at the smoke bluffs and ask to trade belays, you shouldn't have any trouble finding people to climb with. Have fun!

Wow, when did the gunks turn into granite? Southern stand-stone is fun, but pretty mindless climbing in general. Granite climbing is usually much more subtle, I think that boring is an odd way to describe it. I guess this is another example of you being impossibly stuck in your ways. 200 routes out of the thousands available in yosemite seems to be pretty minimal. I wonder why you'd buy that guidebood instead of just buying a complete one and reading through it to find the TRs & sport climbs. Seems like a waste of money.

Rad, I can't answer the question, but I was wondering what kind of scratch is this going to set you back? On the fixed draw thing, to me, if it's just for convenience, then your basically littering and pissing off a large group of your peers. I don't mind the visual myself, but I know lots of others do so if it was me, I'd only leave them if it was very, very difficult to unclip them afterwards. In the end, this is your call. You might wait till some other folks climb it and see what they say as none of us knows a darn thing about your place. Good luck. Littering is generally defined as leaving garbage laying around instead of placing it in the proper receptacle. Putting nice, safe, incredibly convenient, unobtrusive fixed draws on over-hanging routes so that I don't have clean on my way down doesn't seem to qualify. Anyways, the climbers that it pisses off can't climb over-hanging rock and most likely won't ever see the offensive draws in the first place.

Chain is easier to grab when desperate too.

Generally, I really like fixed draws, because I'm lazy. I think that if there aren't really any access issues associated with the crag, and it's a place will only climbers will go, there aren't too many drawbacks associated with fixed draws, except for the obvious ones associated with complacency about sketchy old nylon that's been hanging out in the elements for 10 years. Quicklinks on top for sure. The only problem I see with the Frost wire draws is that they would suck to grab if you're dogging a problem and were having trouble clipping. Is the location of this continuously over-hanging wall a secret?

Single guys get to scrub. Married guys with two kids get to climb on the rare occurrences they get outside.

Rattletail is awesome, although the bottom needs a scrub. AGC is also awesome, with a fun sporty pitch on top too. The second pitch has seen some recent gardening, but the first pitch needs a serious scrub.

I would go to Squamish for an August trip. City of Rocks is pretty freaking hot that time of year.

What's the actual difference in weight between a 9.7 and a 10.2? Two pounds? I can't see it actually being a big deal. Skinny ropes do clip nicer while they last, but considering how often you have to replace your rope, I would go with the cheapest, longest lasting one that you can find and not worry about anything else. I mostly crag, but I do a few alpine routes every year too, and I never notice my 10.2 ropes slowing me down.

If there's no gear, I'd rather see a bolt than another pin. If there is gear that works, no bolt should be necessary.

I'm glad he walked away! I've only seen one piece of gear fail (a worn out fixed draw on a sport climb) in 12 years, and I climb quite a bit. One gear failure a year seems pretty out of the ordinary for my experience. I think you just have terrible terrible terrible luck.

There are some old limestone quarries on San Juan, but none on Lopez that I know of. There's an old sandstone quarry on Waldron, but the rock there is too soft to climb. I checked out Watmough last weekend. It looks like it has some potential, but would require some serious cleaning. I think it would require some negotiations & planning to get approval from the local BLM steward to put up routes. Isaac & Co has done some pretty cool bouldering problems on the beach.

Yep.

My understanding is that they're doing it that way to make it easy for people to use the gym for endurance training.

Anybody considered vibrations from a big freight train? I'm always freaked out when I'm on lead and one thunders by. It definitely makes some of the bigger flakes vibrate (i.e. sagitarius/jap gardens). If one of the corners was supported by some sort of pebble, I could see it rocking loose.