hafilax

Looks fine now. Thanks for fixing it.

The thumb loops will suffer less damage in a hard fall with the original slings. They went with those nylon slings over dyneema or doubled dyneema because they weren't satisfied with the drop test results. That's also why the dragon cams have that funky sling double bit in the stem. That said, lots of people direct clip them aid climbing so it's probably fine.

Is it just me or are the images unmagnifiable?

I've been doing crossfit for a couple of years now. I did a grand total of 5 days of climbing this past summer and have to say that I'm no worse than I ever was not that I have ever been a strong climber. Bouldering OTOH dropped a full grade. I did a 'Paleo Challenge' and quit after 3 weeks. Hated it. It's great for people to discover if they have sensitivities to grains, beans or dairy but it's over the top for most IMO. The biggest thing missing from crossfit for the alpine is pure endurance training. You really can't train for full day efforts with 10 minute workouts. It's better than nothing but I run out of energy on a big day after a few hours. I am definitely stronger than when I started although I've plateaued recently since our coach hasn't been programming a lot of pure strength days. Being sore doesn't have much to do with warming up or cooling down. It's purely a matter of overdoing it. Too much volume too soon will make you sore regardless of what you do before or after. Warming up will prevent acute injury.

It's often easiest to start with an oversimplified model and work from there. To begin with, imagine the zero friction case where all of the energy is converted into heat in the rope. The fall factor is then the fall distance over the length of rope between the belayer and the climber. In the second case imagine infinite friction. Only the rope between the climber and the last piece will stretch during the fall. The fall factor would therefore be very close to 2. This would maximize the impact force on the top piece for the given fall distance. To generalize this to intermediate cases it seems reasonable to assume that rope friction between the belayer and the top piece increases the impact force on the top piece.

I ended up getting and Acto and also picked up an Osprey Variant 52. Hopefully they will be the last two pieces of their kinds that I buy. Next on the list is a cheap light hardshell.

I went to the Arc'teryx factory store on Sunday and they had very little selection especially in a medium. A few Atoms and the only softshell was the Firee which is "Ideal for alpine/urban transitions". I'm not sure if it's just bad timing on my part or what but I rarely find much of interest there. I think I've narrowed things down to something like the Ferrata 2. I stopped by MEC today and they only had a size small and there doesn't look to be much in the online system. I like having a hood for tree bombs and spindrift. The Marmot Uptrack looks similar but with their M3 softshell and non-MEC brand price http://marmot.com/products/up_track_jacket_fall_2011?p=182

That's what, $1000 in jackets (retail)?!

My Javelin actually works OK with two glaring exceptions: it leaks like a sieve at the seams between the hardshell and softshell; when I sweat I get nice soaked stripes under the harshell parts. I actually don't mind getting wet in it because I generally dry off quite quickly since I kick out so much heat. The annoyance is the water literally running into the seams. I figure that something made entirely out of a similar softshell material will do me pretty well. I can't figure out what kind of material it is though. Thanks again for all of the discussion. It's definitely helped me figure out what to look for. I realized that my description of how I will use it was probably misleading. I rarely wear a shell on the way up unless it's cold enough that I'm not sweating like crazy, including in the rain and snow so the jacket doesn't have to be on the far end of the breatheable spectrum.

Kind of off topic but any opinions on Polartec Neoshell? Westcomb Apoc or Marmot Zion for example.

I think the Acto would be perfect if it wasn't $300. I'll go check out the Prodigy (power shield o2) and Fusion (Schoeller) hoodies at MEC. I'll try to track down a TNF Kishtar or a Marmot Pro Tour which are made with power shield pro to compare. Those jackets are also $300 so A'T isn't alone there. Thanks for the suggestions.

Hardshell is pretty useless for me doing anything other than standing still. I overheat like crazy in it. I can wear the right softshell 90% of the time.

Now that I have a real job it's time to update my worn out gear. At the top of the list is a new softshell jacket for ski touring and mountaineering. My current softshell is a shitty Dead'bird experiment gone wrong: the javelin. Water runs through it in the rain. I have Patagonia Alpine Guide pants that work pretty well for me. I am a hot person and sweat heavily and tend to wear a softshell like most wear a hardshell. On the way up I'm typically in polypro and maybe a midweight fleece. When I get chilled the softshell goes on. Softshell isn't well defined any more and there are so many variations that go from snow shedding fleece to basically a hard shell. I've lost track of which fabric does what. My requirements are good snow and rain shedding and not fully wind blocking. For full on wind or rain I will put a light hardshell over top. So what are my best options?

Cat Parkour 2 [video:youtube]XfyyLLUbrdI

The Catar-Yeowian, free solo. Quality knob pulling, steep climbing. The crux is pulling through the roof. [img:left]http://i.imgur.com/GiTYW.jpg[/img]

That looks ominous! Looks like good thesis writing weather.

I read somewhere that it will move to 1 tablet per child once all the Android tablets hit the market.

Oh man, that's way better! What a lineup. Big Mastodon fan right here.

I have Alice in chains tickets for Sat night.....

cock -> The_Rooster

Incroyable!!!! Way to go Marc! I still remember you grilling me on the pitches of the Grand Wall.

So nobody should pay. So everybody should pay. So there should be some kind of progressive fee system. Something like a property tax? I'm just trying to understand why it wouldn't be simpler to impose a required fee. I don't see the advantage of allowing people to opt out.

Can you explain the advantages a little better. Maybe I don't understand the system well enough (I didn't read the long posts above if it's in there). How does a duplex owner end up paying less than someone with a mansion?

The biggest problem with that protection racket is that if my neighbor chooses not to protect their house it's a threat to mine. Even in the case the fire spread to the house next door at which point the fire department went into action. Any of that damage would have been entirely avoidable if the original fire had been put out. Is it up to me to convince my neighbor to buy into it or pay for it myself? That model might work in rural areas where houses are spread out and the emergency response might not be timely but if the fire can spread from house to house it isn't in the town's best interests IMO.

I had a roommate whose only interaction with animals was my cat. He got used to just dropping the cat when he was done. Another friend got a new puppy and my roommate was cradling it with its back to the ground when he decided he was done with it and dropped it. It didn't land on its feet. Our other friend nearly decked him but luckily the dog was OK.