boadman

http://www.backcountry.com/petzl-simba-full-body-harness-kids This is the one that we've got. It seems to work fine and be reasonably comfortable.

actually, the route tyson et al are climbing in these photos is "not sheer strength" (aka "la bamba roof"). "attractive nuisance" is the line to the left with the red quickdraw hanging on it. Yep, you're correct, I didn't closely enough at the pictures.

Attractive Nuisance: Attractive Nuisance

Isn't everyone's favorite Portland Crag located just outside of Bend?

My dad is in town visiting, and I mentioned I thought I might have Dupuytren's Contracture developing. After describing the symptoms, he showed me his hands. He's worked as a carpenter all his life, and has divots on his palm that look exactly like the Dupuytren's pictures on the web. Must have been some randy scandanavians in our background.

What color is your beard?

Ha! That's funny.

I've got two other friends who have dupuytren's contracture. If it turns out that I've got it, then all of us have red facial hair. My 4 data points say that red-bearded male climbers have a 100% chance of contracting this condition.

I have a friend that has Dupuytren's contracture. I've got a lump inbetween my ring and pinky fingers that also showed up a month or two ago and doesn't really hurt when I'm climbing, but seems to swell a bit from climbing. Mine feels like it's on the tendon sheath for the pinky tendon. It's kind of wierd.

The only way for a crack training area to be worthwhile would be if the angle and size of the cracks were adjustable. Otherwise it would be too specific to actually make you better at crack climbing. Unless you were a beginner, I guess. Cracks are so much more fun to climb outside though. I don't really understand why people want to train on them inside.

Goldbar and index seem so much more pleasant.

bump... anyone?

Be honest, do you fall on gear there? I've only climbed there a couple of times, but I definitely was not falling. You're going to miss out on a lot of great climbing if you don't think the Tieton is solid. Forget about Red Rock and J-tree for starters as well as Washington pass and the Stuart range. That's just silly. Tieton is no where near as solid as any of those places except maybe some of the softer sandier stuff at red rocks. I've climbed at all of those locations pretty extensively. Devil's Tower is the only columnar basalt area I've climbed at where the rock seemed really bomber to me. I've also pulled of more "holds" in my 4 days of climbing at tieton and vantage than in the rest of my climbing career. That might have to do with my chunky proportions, but it still seems telling.

Be honest, do you fall on gear there? I've only climbed there a couple of times, but I definitely was not falling.

Hi - We left my son's climbing shoes (yellow and green La Sportivas) at the SBP a couple of weeks ago and someone (mistakenly, I assume) took them home. They haven't shown up in the lost and found yet. I thought I'd post here on the off chance that someone might notice an extra pair and post up. Thanks!

Looks pretty incredible!

Tieton & Vantage cracks have never really felt like crack climbing to me. I feel like I'm pulling and standing on face-holds as often as I'm jamming. The quality of the rock is also pretty suspect, which might not be the greatest for a beginner learning to place pro.

Well, it is at the end of the list for a reason. :-) It's really more of a face-climb. It's too fun to leave it off.

Oh, and I think that Bill's rant about safety is good cautionary information, but probably applies more to the "rock" that he likes to climb in oregon. Granite protection is more straightforward and reliable.

I think one could probably quibble about the order of the first 4, but they're all pretty mellow. I forgot to mention a few more good ones: 1. first pitch of jap gardens 2. first pitch of thin fingers 3. Tatoosh 4. first 3 pitches of davis-holland There are also a bunch of recently cleaned moderates out towards Private Idaho that are fun, although not quite as cool.

If you make it up to Index, there are some great intro crack climbs, in order of difficulty: 1. Godzilla 2. Breakfast of Champions 3. Princely Ambitions 4. Toxic Shock 5. Sagitarious 6. Rattletale 7. Zoom That would be a pretty great week if you're breaking into the 10s.

Amen. On any given weekend in a year in Seattle you could be sport climbing, ice climbing, in the climbing gym, skiing, or alpine. The Gunks are a pile of crap. I've climbed their a ton with locals. If the Trapps were in Yos, it would not have any routes on it. As for the east coast chestbeating, the 11s and 12s are way softer than out west. Tvash, Fossil has one long aid route and lots of secret sport climbing in the woods. To have good sport climbing, you must have small micro features and overhanging walls. Fossil has these and almost nowhere else in WA does (I have not been to China Bend or Marcus). It's hard to take you seriously when you say that the gunks are a pile of crap. I don't think there are many places that can compare if you like steep trad climbing. It's especially good in the moderate grades. The pictures I've seen of fossil make it look pretty uninspiring compared to little si.

Cool vid. There's also a cool video of J* sending at Little Si on Andy Mann's vimeo site.

Tons of people rock climb outside in the winter if the weather allows. A lot of people switch to bouldering though, because of short days and quicker drying times.

I've got doubles in aliens, blue-red, and I've taken large falls on all of them in granite. I also wouldn't be excited to fall on them in tuft or soft sandstone. Vantage even creeps me out. I've also got gray and purple metolius TCUs that see a lot of use. My personal opinion is that the u-stem cams often suck in the small sizes for pin-scars, because the stem forces the cam into a horizontal orientation, so I'd away from the u-stem options. The cam angle on the metolius cam annoys me. In the really small cams, range is paramount, as the placements are already delicate.