Julian

Not done. Look at the desecration of that virginal rock, compared to the unspoiled natural beauty of the concrete and rooftops below.

"it's just a metaphor for people in general I guess." There's nothing more tiresome and hyperbolic than "bolted routes equate to the fall of western civilization" type comments. But I guess the Disciples Of Dawg need to sound off whenever a Bosch gets turned on.

I'd never heard of Groupon before their disgustingly tasteless "Tibet suffers under Chinese rule but at least you can still get their ethnic food!" commercial they ran during the Super Bowl, and after seeing that I've vowed never to use their business.

I'm a bit confused by this, 8 feet left is not "within reach" for any human being I know of, and there are routes at Smith (and elsewhere) where the bolt lines are not much further apart than that, if at all. I think the question that has to be asked is "If you follow the line of Super Slab, can you reach the bolts without having to do something contrived or go way off-route?". If the answer is yes then maybe they should be removed. If the answer is no then I don't see the harm. It's not like Super Slab is some ultra-bold chop route like they have in Britain, where a line of somewhat accessible bolts would severely change the psychological factor. I can't imagine anyone climbing it would bother with the bolts unless they are right there at less than arm's reach from the route.

“Don’t spend money on gear. Spend it on plane tickets.” That's all well and good if you are some dirtbag adventurer, or a semi-professional outdoor type. If, like many of us, you are a weekend warrior with a steady professional job, then it may just not be feasible to be routinely jumping on planes and going off on explorations and climbing trips. But with lots of disposable income, a car (which is for commuting to work so its not part of the "climbing budget"), and the weekends or maybe a few weeks around Christmas to get your trips in, why not spend some of your cash on nice gear? Anyone who claims that having good gear doesn't make the experience at least slightly more pleasant (all other things being equal) is someone who doesn't have much of it.

Damnit, I missed a good Oregon slapfest? Anyone got a cached version of it?

Only because far too many people on that route have no fucking clue what they are doing. Everyone who ropes up on the South Side (or anywhere else) without placing pro has read that story about Pete Schoening arresting the fall of 7 guys on K2 and thinks that's standard operating procedure.

Optimism about weather and Ht. Hood are rarely a good combination.

From everything I've heard (i.e. complaints in my Facebook news feed), "Hood weather window" has been pretty much an oxymoron this year.

For the past several years I've been using a TNF Orion sleeping bag - 20 degrees F and 2lbs 8 oz - but unfortunately it looks like that bag has been discontinued. The Fission appears to their new version of this with the added toebox zipper (appearance is the same otherwise). I can't say enough good things about this bag - with the right clothing choices its comfortable in a wide range of temperatures, has P1 insulation, and for an ardent synthetic supporter such as me you really couldn't ask for much more in a 20 deg bag at that weight. If you can find one anywhere I'd highly recommend it.

I think an aspect of Fast/Light that perhaps doesn't get emphasized explicitly enough (although it's often there in a lot of Dane's writing, at least implicitly) is that the clothing systems, in addition to shedding ounces, also remove a lot of the need to be constantly (and time-consumingly) adding and shedding layers (besides possibly a belay jacket, but that's pretty easy to do). I've done trips (through student groups and classes, etc.) where there was a much more "old-school" approach to things taken by a lot of the participants, and cycles of "overheat/layer off/underheat/layer on" were frequent (and necessitated lots of stops). So it's not just about weight, but also efficiency.

Sometimes I felt like I was the only person I knew who didn't give a shit about having a camp fire and preferred the bivy area (with its actual bathroom and running water, in addition to being right there when you wake up) to the grasslands.

Good post. The problem you identify is why I like the Yates pickets.

"I know it's April Fool's but this is not an April Fool's joke" jumped the shark pretty badly this year. I think every message board or website I visit on a regular basis used this line yesterday.

It needs a more creative name than that. I'm thinking "The Dawg Pound".

What are you talking about? Spray's in the same place it's always been, right between the Oregon Cascades and California forums.

Am I an idiot (or an a-hole) for even asking if this is a troll? What's sad is that I had to think about it for a few minutes before decided that it was sarcasm. Because I have actually seen people take all that (and more) to go up Middle Sister on the same day as I was there in shorts and trail shoes. I would actually assume that list is pretty close to the standard Mazama kit for any trip into the alpine zone.

I'm curious to know why being "rap-placed" makes a line of bolts any less "leave no trace" than if they were placed on lead. Because that's the obvious implication of adding that adjectival. Personally I find "leave no trace" to be a bit of a buzz-phrase in this day and age - something people say to make them feel better about their personal ethics.

How did this thread manage to get dawged? Oh, right, "sport climbing".

I PMed you about 2 hours ago, just in case you haven't been checking them.

Here's a new video of UK climber Franco Cookson taking a 20m groundfall! http://vimeo.com/21420505

I mean using it set up like an ATC, which unless I'm reading the instructions incorrectly is not how it's set up to belay the leader.

How is creating economic incentive for environmental degradation through material demand any better than just going out and doing it yourself?

Sorry about your friend. Climbing does has its risks. My opinion? Don't even think about tearing up the vegetation. Big problem, dude. Boulderers altering the landscape is becoming an increasingly recognizable problem. (Denuding vegetation, stashing crash-pads which the local rodents love, chalkin' up every last crimp, etc). You want bouldering to maintain a low-impact reputation and stay relatively uncontroversial? Keep it clean and low impact. Leave the saw, ax, or whatever at home. How much strip-mining and quarrying had to go on so you could assemble that trad rack that allows you to climb "clean" and be "low impact"? Or does environmental degradation only count when it's nearby?

Why do people insist on belaying with plates such as the Kong Gi Gi as if they are tubular devices, when they are not designed to be used as such (I've seen these before as well, with other similar gear)? If you want to belay like you are using an ATC, buy a fucking ATC!