tradclimbguy

Hit Mt. Kenya and Kilimanjaro for sure. If you have the money, you should do one of the longer routes, it gives you a better chance to see the entire mountain. Kenya has some nice alpine routes on it as well if you have a partner.

If you want to have a good time, you might consider hitting the many wineries in Chili. A great way to relax after climbing Aconcogua. Which route are you going to shoot for?

Yes, that video of you is pretty funny. So the question for you is. What color were her panties?

I don't think I've ever had the book for Vantage but somehow know most of the routes anyway I'm a book bum I guess. My recommendation is to just show up at Vantage and start talking to people, in addition to finding out all the route info you want you'll probably meet some new people and maybe even share some TR's.

Sounds good. I don't think we'll make it out this weekend anyway. The weather looks to be good this weekend elsewhere. I'm just glad we don't have to deal with graffiti at all the crags. Vantage is a given but just think if you jumped on some of your favorite alpine routes and ran into a bunch of graffiti. That would really suck!

Looks like the guy took a pretty good bite out of the ice on the way down. Makes for a happy dentist

I can relate to the problems of getting behind a slow party. Did that route about 15 years ago and ran into a huge group of boy scouts on the final crawl section. They ended up fixing lines all the way to the final pitch, and then took a huge group to the summit block. We ended up getting all the way to final pitch and had to turn around as they were taking a very long time. Although the exposure on the crawl was spectacular, I have not returned since for the final crappy summit pitch.

I have found these to be very nice on alpine routes. You can bring two or three of these cams along and not worry about the size from 0.75 - 2. However, the weight is a downside for sure. There is something to be said for good ol' hexs.

We still carry extra webbing with us for leaving behind but I've more or less stopped tieing my own runners as sewn ones are cheap and readily available. If the knot is good on the tied runner its NO different than a sewn sling except with a sewn one the connection point is generally cleaner than a knot and you are guaranteed that its good to the strength that the sling is rated, not to say a knot weakens the sling, but that you don't have to worry about checking your knots every outting. As for slings over my shoulder, when I first started climbing back in the dark ages we carried almost all our slings over the shoulder, but now i climb with a mix of regular quickdraws and long runners doubled up like quickdraws on my harness. Unless a climb is known to need lots of long slings I don't usually throw any over the shoulder anymore.

Take the trail to the upper wall. Eventually you run into a Y once you get about as high up as the lower wall. If you are on the right trail it will take you to another split. Go left and your at the Rythm and Blues cliff, go more or less straight and you cross a cool old wooden bridge and a couple of sets of stairs people put in years ago. The bridge is getting a bit of dry rot and is kinda sketchy to cross but fun and the stairwells are both in need of rot repair. Sorry I can't give better directions to the initial Y on the trial to the upper wall, we just found it again this season after years and years of not being up their since some of that stuff was originally put in. You can descend via Gorilla of my dreams and then down the trail that leads you to even steven and toxic. I guess you could go up that way too.

So has the new graffiti removed yet at the feathers? We Saw it there a couple weeks ago while trying to escape the rain at index. I was thinking about a trip to the area again this weekend if index is wet and maybe trying to help out and clean a bit. Sounds like paint is the best solution? Anybody got the color codes for what matches the rock or is it worth trying to clean it by hand instead?

What a bummer. Skaha is a fun place to go and get some sport stuff in every once and a while. A bit hard finding camping outside of the RV parks or away from the logging trucks on the roads above town. I personally like the provincial park on the south end of the lake. A bit of a drive but it's cheap with another buddy or two. Hopefully they'll work with the new owner and gain access again. I'd really miss walking by that sign reading "Stairs for climbers not people..." or something funny like that.