boadman

What about the relatively thin wires that run over the levers on the cam lobes? Are those fraying at all, or showing any wear for people that have used them a lot?

Now that these have been out for a while, how's their durability? Are they going to last 10 years like the c4s? Are they more fragile? Do you have any 0.75 C4 equivalents available?

I recommend that you get the best, you're probably going to be stuck with them for at least 10 years. Saving a few dollars doesn't make sense if you ammortize it over how much you'll use them, just buy a couple less and add more over the years. The Petzl Spirits, or the BD Livewires are both very nice if you climb a lot of sport. I like the Petzl spirits a little better because you can get the longer draws which are a little nicer for trad climbing.

I could drop the most weight by stopping eating ice-cream. How old are your cams? The new BD C4s, and the new DMM dragons are roughly equivalent in terms of performance and lighter than their predecessors in the large sizes. The DMMs allow you to carry significantly less draws though, which is a pretty big weight savings.

I hope he's ok! Hitting the ground sucks. I would like to know what happened, we can all learn from each others' mistakes.

I wonder if he grades his often un-repeated routes index-style. He's got those slab-tastic skills that a lot of us modern climbers never quite develop.

It is kind of scary though. On a hard onsite attempt, for instance, I never look at the biners on the fixed draws to check and see if they're in good shape. I've also (personally) had a hanger pop off on a crux bolt where people regularly dog and had worked it loose, and a sling cut on a fixed draw where it was rubbing against a rock and you couldn't see the wear. I love fixed draws, but they definitely have some safety issues associated with them. Saying, "oh it can't happen to me, I'm too smart" is just as bad as the doom and gloomers. Oh, and the hanger coming off and the sling cutting both resulted in ground falls. One from about 25', and one from about 15'. I walked away from both of them, but fuck with my head to this day.

I read the report, and it seemed like their description and the media report matched up pretty well. It's not as if they were even claiming a ground-breaking ascent. I could see being a little disappointed if, for instance, the dawn-wall team reported a red-point but didn't place pro on lead.

It looks like someone needs to sink a bunch of bolts in the cave. How was the rock quality in there? Worthy?

I think the SBP is actually as good as any of the gyms in Boulder or SLC.

The big science extension was rebolted and cleaned last year.

I think there's also a demographic issue at work. A lot of the climbers in colorado moved there because they are climbers and moved there basically for the weather and because they want to climb all the time. Climbers that stay in the PNW generally have other facets of their life that are nearly as important to them as climbing, such as jobs and families. Speaking as a typical professional with a job and a family, I generally get about 1 day a week to climb outside during the season, sometimes no days at all. I only usually get about one weekend each summer where I can sneak off to the mountains and do an alpine route. So, I tend to focus on cragging, bouldering, and projecting harder stuff within an hour or so of Seattle and when I get a chance to do an alpine route I usually go do something classic that I haven't done before.

I've never put in a glue-in. How do you make sure that the epoxy is properly mixed, and that you've got the right about of epoxy in the hole? Also, if you're bolting ground up or on a severely over-hanging face, and there isn't good pro, it seems like you'd have to wait a day in between bolts or something?

If the rope becomes static due to the impact from the first piece failing, and there is several feet between the two pieces, the added force on the second piece from the now-static rope could be enough to cause it to fail. I think the only way to decide conclusively would be to do a bunch of testing with some load cells and find out what actually happens in the real world.

I find that idea repellant.

Nice! I need to fight off the momentum and make it up there next next season for sure.

nice link to the fuddyduddy forum on the taco, but are you thinking of cc.comers that qualify as all around yosemite 5.11 crack climbing experts or as tiresome windbags who whine ceaselessly about how things ain't so good as they were back in the day of the stonedmasters? seems like there are more than "a couple" on this site who qualify for the latter. So, if your one of them, who is the "other" one that qualifies? Ivan? I'm a solid 5.6 trad climber, does that mean I'm half a 5.11 trad-master? A bit more than half, to be precise. [video:youtube] I think the point of the post by John Long was that calling oneself a 5.11 climber and being able to climb any 5.11 onsight regardless of style is a fairly select club. I am most certainly not in this club... I'd say Ben is, souldreaper is, mike is, etc...there are some awesome climbers on this site...that was my point...Pysched on the NW climbers! I bet if you asked all three of those guys if they've failed to onsight an 11 at Index within the last couple of years, they'd say yes. (not to imply that they're not all fantastic climbers)

Does Index count? If so, I'm not sure if I know anyone who hasn't fallen 5.11 reasonably regularly there, including people that onsight 5.13.

He did report it to the Sherriff. A shoulder bag with books, keys, etc, was all that was left behind and all that was taken. I didn't see any suspicious vehicles, but I saw a mid-twenties man and women, slightly over-weight, that wouldn't meet my eye or respond when I passed them in the parking lot. The dude was blondish, wearing a baseball cap, and dressed in a red/black basketball jersey and black shorts. The woman was wearing black pants, shirt, and baseball hat, and had blond frizzy hair. I have no evidence that they're the ones that did the dirty deed, but they were the only characters I saw hanging around that obviously weren't there to boat or climb. This was mostly meant as a public service announcement to remind people not to leave shit in their cars this time of year. It's the easiest solution, by far.

Just a little heads up, a friend's car got broken into and cleaned out this weekend at the LTW parking lot. There were a ton of people there for the work party, and definitely a few non-climber shady characters. It's probably a good idea to leave your car empty, and your doors unlocked for a while.

I grew up there and go back pretty regularly and have not been able to find any. South Beach (American Camp) is a beautiful beach, and there's a nice short loop over Mt. Finlayson down to the light-house and back. English Camp and Mt. Young is a nice loop. Sunset from lime-kiln point is pretty incredible. Biking and kayaking around the island are the nicest way to spend your time there. I'm curious about bouldering you've found on other islands. Besides Watmough bay, which is pretty limited, I haven't really found any.

Rock looks good up there, I still need to check it out!

green alien, yellow alien, #6 bd nut

Stepping left off of the other 10 (avenging the goddess kring?) is also really fun, and there's a pretty cool 11+/12- bolted pitch at the top, with really cool granite pockety features.

Has anybody put any signage up? Signs on the approach work best for people who aren't obsessed with the interwebs.