boadman

I imagine you aid climb a lot? I find off-sets have limited utility when free climbing, unless I'm head pointing a pitch where I have time to fiddle with placements. I wouldn't recommend such a large array of offsets for your average free climber. The totem basics, which are alien clones, shouldn't work any better than aliens with a single set of cams engaged (i.e., not very well). The non-basic Totems supposedly work pretty well with only two lobes engaged. The patent for the alien internal springs design expired, so Totem didn't need to buy the design to start copying them.

Here ya go... Socks with climbing shoes?

I'm pretty sure it's in the guidebook. The 11 is orgasmatron. I don't think it requires any gear anymore.

Hey that's my goal! I'm just not sure how anyone with toddlers gets out much! I don't have toddlers anymore, but my main climbing partner and I get up at 5 on saturdays during the summer and usually make it back to town by noon after getting in about 6-8 pitches. It leaves the rest of the weekend for family time.

1. A new long route in Squampton this year. I didn't manage to get up there at all this summer. 2. Send a couple of long-standing projects at Little Si & Index. 3. Continue to indoctrinate my children into the climbing life-style. 4. Finally make it up to Colchuck Balance Rock and check out some of the granite up there. 5. Get to Smith at least twice. 6. Get back to Midnight in Leavy at least once. 7. Avoid debilitating injuries.

I would recommend living as close to work as possible. You will inevitably spend more time commuting to work than you will driving to the mountains. Driving in Seattle is a real soul-sucking activity. Depending on what you're looking for, the Beacon Hill, Mt Baker, or Ranier Valley neighborhoods all have good access to I-5 and I-90 and would be a 10 minute commute to work and you could probably bike pretty easily. Capitol Hill, or the Central District would also work. Capitol Hill can be annoying to get in and out of. The Seattle Bouldering Project is also very convenient to all those neighborhoods and is a really fun gym. Good luck!

I think that a lot of "climbers" don't actually ever fall on their gear.

Sunny and 40 is just about perfect at Index.

Oh, and stop paying for charter flights?

Ummm, maybe they should go back to work for a while?

I really like the merrels, they're super light and pack really small, they hang pretty well on a harness too. I was thinking of trying these as a cheap alternative: http://www.martialartsmart.com/45-35k.html A lot of the parkour kids wear them.

Ooooh, sucky. I hope you find it. It's a bad sign when you don't notice your rack is missing for a month. Either you've got too much gear, or you live in the PNW.

How many days have you climbed on your totems? How many falls have you taken on them? I've got aliens that are 12 years old, probably 30 days/year? At least a fall or two a day? But, I don't aid climb at all, maybe that bashes them up worse.

I'm going to wait until people have been climbing on the totems for a couple of years before I spring for them. Those skinny wires running over the lobes seem like they'd wear out pretty fast.

My only issue with them is that the lack of range. With small cams, range is even more important. I've used them when climbing with friends a couple of times and been annoyed because they just won't go in as many places as my aliens do. The finish and handling seem nice though, like all metolius products.

I don't know how they manage not to pass out. They should be able to do some quirky stupid human tricks, like sit-ups with people standing on their heads.

Wide boyz trailer

Here's a video of a rope cutting test for a unicore and standard rope. It looks pretty convincing: Unicore rope cutting video Another link: beal's description

Yeah, as soon as you can get a knee in, you're good. Until then, I usually get one fist in super deep, with my arm more or less straight in from the shoulder, gaston the edge of the crack with the other hand above, push the sole of my bottom foot against the opposite edge from the one my top hand is gastoning, torque my top foot, and thrutch a few inches at a time. The 11a "offwidth" at nightmare in Squamish is a perfect example of this size for me.

That is a hard size. I usually end up just going really deep and getting sort of horizontal fist arm bars until I can get a knee in. As soon as I can get a knee in, I start doing a more standard arm bar. The trick seems be just accepting the fact that you can't move very fast at all. As soon as you try to do a big move, you pop out. Progress is generally measured in inches.

Dylan Johnson, a strong local climber and talented architect is related to Tao and designed his house for him: http://djaarchitects.com/?page_id=75 It's a cool house, even if it's over-glazed. He also designed the walls at SBP.

I think calling pervitical a 5.11 is kind of stretching it. It's a pretty mellow 10+.

julian saunders - dodgy elbows There's pretty good info there.

I was bummed that there wasn't any footage of the Phoenix at Reel Rock this year.

I'd probably get them a size up from your mythos. 41.5s or 42s. They don't stretch nearly as much as mythos.