ryanb

I've met some climbers from there in Leavenworth, they mostly climbed at the Elwha wall which is steep sandstone sport crag accessed by walking across the (to be removed) Elwha dam. The new olympic climbers guide covers that crag and a few other developing areas...pictures make it look pretty cool.

I hiked around the cordiera huayhuash without a guide in 2003 it took us 9-10 days of walking plus at least 2-3 days on buses/micro buses each way from lima plus time to acclimatize (can't budget enough of this...5000 m passes will kill you with a pack full of 9 days of food). my advice: 1) Learn more spanish. enough to explain to a farmer why you are on his land and convince him to let you camp there. even remote trecks in the northern andes are usually on land people live on and you will need to know how to barter for transit, permission to camp, figure out if the dude talking fast at you is a ranger demanding to see your permit or a scammer pretending to be a ranger, buy fresh fruit in villages you pass etc... If you can't do this higher a guide even if you carry your own weight. 2) acclimatize. that shit is tall. also be in shape. 3) Buy your maps before you leave. 4) Ditto for backpacking food unless you want to live on pasta, soup mix and soy protean (what we ate). 5) Budget plenty of time (days) for missed bus connections etc. 6) two weeks isn't enough time for two "long" trips. 7) Head to the town of huaraz in peru, spend 4-5 days day hiking, mountain biking, (Julio Olazas was the best guide/rental place when i was there...also the only dude who would sell us a map for our unguided excursion...looks like he now has a website: http://www.chakinaniperu.com), checking out the museum then go on a 5 day hike (cordiera blanca is popular) and head home.

Mythos are the rock climbing equivalent of leather telemark ski boots or maybe leashed ice tools. They work fine on moderate terrain where comfort is more of a concern then anything else, there are a couple of dudes out there that can tear it up with them but most climbers interested in doing anything remotely technical would be far better served with a modern shoe. There are many shoes out there that provides much better support while edging or smedging, smear as well, jam as well with a bit of practice, stretch less, are almost as comfortable and don't need to be fit painfully tight. I think the anasazi lv ("women's" shoe but c4 is a plus over the men's velcro), verde or velcro are good choice for trad and the new white anazazi's are hard to beat on thin face climbing (ie most 5.11's at index, gear or bolts). The mocasyms are good initially but stretch too much for me (i know lots of smaller people who love them though). If you prefer sportiva the katana and the miura are also great shoes.

The major wind storm the day before the fresh rock fall was first noticed must have been a clever cover caused by the stealthy perpetrator: http://cliffmass.blogspot.com/2010/05/extraordinary-may-storm.html I'm sure we can all agree this is simplest and there for best explanation. I wouldn't be surprised if he/she also caused the major low land freeze earlier this winter to help get the rock moving with frost wedging.

So, any one re-free the pitch yet?

Matt, thats a good start but can you provide equivalents for those ratings in bryan brudo's "s" system as well for clarity/consistency?

White version or pink? Where are you located?

Climbing' defiantly much easier on the internet... hopefully all this rating spray will increase the self loathing to the point where I actually lead something this weekend instead of doing another crash pad protected rope free enchainment of (very) minor summits in the icicle creek drainage Where does LL put you? Do you end up on library ledge or somewhere right? Edit: Library Ledge is on snow creek isn't it...der...

Do you mean the 2nd pitch of City Park or Leapin' Lizards? No 5.11 found on either. I thought .10b. Lizards is more sustained. How ever I do find clipping the anchor on Slow Children a sand bagged .10d I think Sky Valley Rock has p2 Godzilla aka "Leapin' Lizards" listed as a dirty 11a? though as I said I haven't done it and the only guy I know who has (Eric Gratz) said it was pretty soft...I can only see Cummins online guide here at work and it does have it at 10b so you are probably right. I'll have to try it next time I'm up there. Glancing around the Cummins lower wall pages (hoping this rain clears up soon and dreaming of 11a cracks he calls Death to Zeke and Dr Sniff and the Tuna Boaters both 11a and Julie's Roof and Gogum 11a/b so those all might be better comparisons then the sport routes in the country I listed. I'd say Dr. Sniff is easier though I did fall at the crux when I tried it...I think sky valley has it at 10d. Death to Zeke felt harder though it was kind of dirty when we are on it and it is pretty short...I think sky valley gives it 11b. I'm ashamed to say I haven't done Sloe Children ... I was saving it for the onsite but now it's so built up in my head thanks to people like you calling it hard I'm kind of scared of it...I lead p3 J Gardens left of it which is supposed to be similar (endurancy fingers in a corner) and had to resort to swearing, thrutching and hanging more then I would have liked...I definitely do better on routes with distinct cruxes and good rests. I also haven't done Julie's Roof or Gogum...though Julie's looks good and I think it gets 11a in Sky Valley? Anybody been on it? Any other classic gear 11a cracks out there?

I don't think thin fingers (with the slab) is the easiest 11a at index. I'd put it kind of in the middle ... harder then frank presley, leave my face alone or hairway to stephan. Easier then pressure drop, newest industry, elvis nixon or p3 japanese gardens all of which get 11a in sky valley rock. It might be the easiest gear 5.11 there though I've heard p2 of Godzilla is pretty soft but haven't tried it. Sure is fun though. I've found the slab move is 50 % mental and 50% shoes...i'm the doofus who always has to stop and tighten his shoe laces before committing to it.

In the 10+ to easy 11 range you might try Cunning Stunt, Tunnel Vision, Angora Grotto, Leave My Face Alone, and Heaven's Gate. Others I haven't done but want to are Kite Flying Blind, Hairway to Stephen and Golden Road. They're safe so go for it! Nice list! I'd add: Dr. Sniff and the Tuna Boaters, Pressure Drop, p3 Japanese Gardens (11a fingers) and Death to Zeke ... man this is getting me stoked!

After reading the high strength testing PDF I bought a bunch of the 6mm (red) mammut pro cord. Almost as thin as the spectra, handles much nicer and doesn't have the disturbing strength loss characteristic. Good Stuff

I didn't mean to insult, more to encourage you to try some harder routes at index. I checked your TR's and they are rad but I didn't see any attempts on anything harder then 10- which eliminates most of the climbing on the lower town wall...I can only speak from my own experience, but I was stuck doing those same routes until I got somewhat serious about bouldering/gym climbing and developed the strength to do the harder stuff. If you are already bouldering harder then you lead by the widely accepted conversion you should ask what is holding you back when you tie in, not assume the ratings are off. There are tons of really fun 11 routes at index. With decent crimp strength by gym v4 standards and a good pair of shoes (anasazis, miuras or kattans. Not mythos or other shoes that can't edge) lots of them are totally doable, even onsite-able...

The gym just seems easier because you do it more. If you can cruise most v4's in stone gardens at the moment you have plenty of strength to climb 11+ and make a good effort at 12- at index. Both Shrilly and climax control have short hard sections that are probably stone gardens v3 or easier in terms of physical effort, just insecure and heady. Full P1 Japanese gardens has two distinct two move cruxes that would probably clock in at v3 and a bunch of 5.9 crack climbing with good rests every 20 ft. Lots of people just get bogged down in the 10's and never bother to try the harder stuff at index ... the moves aren't unreasonable, some of the holds are just small. Some of the 12's (not to mention some of the 11's and even some of the 10's) I've been on there are stupid hard but I'm not exactly a solid v4 climber in the gym (though i've climbed a fair number of 4's and 5's outside) and I'm pretty sure that I'd do a lot better if I had the crimp, lock off and core strength to send some of the v4's in the front room... those little plastic crimpers with no feet are brutal!

I had the monster 9.8 and loved it...I just retired it after a couple of years of hard use. The middle marking system is the best out there. Just picked up their 9.2 but haven't used it much yet. They have soem 60m's on clearance atm: http://www.metoliusclimbing.com/close-outs-specials.html

I've been wondering about the g3 onyx. Seem like a cheaper, maybe burlier alternative to the dynafit but i hear rumor of them failing in the field. Any one here have any experience with them?

Head injuries from lead falls seem to result when the leader inverts. In general there are two things that are very likely to cause this: the leader getting their foot caught up in the rope and the belayer locking off and giving a hard static belay that flips the leader and slams them into the wall. Both of these thing are more likely on easy climbs where the leader doesn't expect to fall. In particular, in particularly it is quite easy to get ones feet caught up in the rope on hands or wider cracks in the 5.8-5.9 range... I see inexperienced leaders doing this all the time usually while being belayed by someone who seems to have never caught a lead fall. People on harder routes tend to be more aware of their feet hand have more experienced belayers...the risk of flipping on a hard sport climb with a good belayer is low. I do tend to wear a helmet on harder routes including sport at index where you re often required to make moves with your feet directly above the last piece of gear which I find slightly unnerving but I feel it is reasonable to not wear one at a steep sport crag provided the amount of loose rock is low.

Pic Bump

They ran an ad similar to an absolute vodka ad, got sued and disbanded. The founder then started Revolution Climbing which offers a lot of the same designs as cordless/pusher.

I used to work right by the Ramuta family's downtown shop before the rock shoe operation moved to montana and got hooked on fresh c4 perfectly glued by expert hands. I've tried other resolers but ramuta keeps me coming back...i've had some shoes (miuras, mocasyms) go back for multiple resoles till I wore holes in the uppers and stretched the leather beyond usability. Good stuff.

Its great. I grew up out there and used an older edition of it to scramble a ton of peaks in high school...rout descriptions are generally accurate and easy to follow. The newest (4th...pink/purple cover) edition has a lot of new info so get that one.

Index: Istanbul, Magic Fern and Battered Sandwich at Private Idaho all involve some wide crack climbing... it would be some work to TR them but could be done (are their bolts at the belay on magic fern?). Another man's car (left of lamplighter on the upper wall) looks vaguely intriguing but I haven't tried it. The thing left of Timberjack (also has a short wide that can be layed back) on winki dinky cliff could probably be TR'd as an off width. Bring a broom. Behind the 8 ball (inner wall) would be good if you were really determined to find a walk around. There are also some short off width boulder problems at swift water north including a cool thing where you invert and heel toe out a short roof crack (on the boulder up hill from premium coffee).

Metolius (who imports lanex ropes and adds an awesome middle marker) is my current favorite rope brand bar none though I tend to buy cheap and buy often since I put a lot of abuse on my ropes. I just put one of their 9.8 70's into semi retriement (could chop the ends and keep using it but then it wouldn't be long enough to lower off thin fingers etc...) and have a 9.2 in the bag waiting for use on long routes this summer (replaces a POS petzl 9.4... petzl does almost everything they do right but they need to rethink the rope line).

I should have stressed that I had no knowledge of where the ropes came from more. If they were as you described, I apologize for 'causing a stir and thank the op for hauling extra weight out of the mountains.

I most certainly appreciate your desire to give back to the crags by removing abandoned gear but, be aware that their are anchor replacement and moss removal efforts going on at Index and other local crags due, in particular, to the bolt failures that occurred last year. Someone may have left the ropes there after a saturday ascent so that they could return on a rainy day to replace bolts or clean moss etc. It is considered bad form to remove such ropes because we all benefit from these efforts. If the route was Davis Holland or another route in that area then there is a particularly good chance this is why the ropes where there since the bolts that failed are below that route. If you must remove such ropes it is considered polite to either wait a while to make sure they are abandoned or leave them neatly coiled near the route or many climbers would feel you had stolen their gear. I don't mean to offend and I want to stress that your desire to do some crag clean up is appreciated but I do want to let people know that their are (in my mind) legitimate reasons that ropes or other gear may be left fixed, particularly at this time of year.