hafilax

Although auto-locking belay devices catch more easily they are more difficult to use in general than tube devices especially when it comes to lowering or feeding out rope. You have to control the lever and the rope at the same time. A tube device is more intuitive since you just have to ease out rope. Quite a few people have been dropped when the belayer is lowering for the first time with a GriGri. Tube devices are amazingly fool proof with a little instruction. I've seen a number of, what I consider, improper belaying but I'm also willing to bet they've never had an accident. On the other hand I've seen some scary lowers with a GriGris. Reversos are great but make sure you understand the ramifications of having to lower a second when the autoblock is locked up. Once you know how to use it though it makes belaying a breeze.

Good beer choice. Sounds like a great day out. After reading the CT version of the TR I did a quick search on Urquhart to see if there were any nice routes up that face. Found your old TR. Yikes!

I'm thinking about getting into ice climbing. A few of my friends keep trying to get me into it. I'm a bit of an info junkie so I read and have read everything I could find on ice tools and ice climbing in general. I've read many mentions of modifying picks but most left it at being a personal thing so I thought I'd see what people do around here. Everyone seems to like the Charlet and Grivel swing and a few seem to hate BD saying they are too light. I was curious if it was purely a head weight preference that could be trimmed out with a little ingenuity. I read one review from a carpenter couple who found the BD Viper to swing much like their work hammers making it a natural fit. I guess I've been attracted to the BD price point and curious about why those that hate them feel that way. Opinions on BD tools are very polar. I'll probably go out with my friends and try their tools at first (Quarks mostly). I may have the opportunity to go to Ouray over Xmas so I might give it a whirl there. We'll see.

Anchors is a different story.

I've always questioned the utility of opposing passive pro. It seems to be a technique for marginal placements in order to hold the upward piece in place. In tensioning the pieces to hold them in place you are creating a 'death triangle' of sorts to forces perpendicular to the line of the pieces. If it is set with the intention of an anti-zipper kind of thing this is fine because the forces are small but it can potentially be weaker to a leader fall. I'm imagining something like an overhanging crack where a leader fall with have a large force outward from the wall. It always seems like the first placement has to be magical. It has to hold a leader fall and prevent zippering all while not causing much drag. While a cam may be compromised to a leader fall by rotating I've never seen a cam pop due to rotating into a less than optimal position as an anti-zipper piece. I've seen many first piece nuts pop out when the leader starts to lower while cragging. I've had good success with tricams as a first piece as well. Thankfully, I've never seen a zipper during a lead fall. I guess it's still a good skill to have. You never know when you may need it. I just had a thought. Clove hitch each piece in tension and then use the remaining sling to clove hitch a draw with plenty of slack. This way it is likely that only one piece will be weighted at a time. Maybe I'll just place a tricam, they ARE magical.

In reading reviews of ice tools especially in comparing the Viper to the Quark I've noticed that the Viper detractors dislike the lighter swing weight. Has anyone here experimented with adding weight to the tool head to modify the swing characteristics? I've also read that BD picks tend to get stuck in the ice with the factory design and that many file them to remedy this. What exactly does one do to the pick to make it clear easier?

I've only carried snowshoes while backcountry snowboarding and used the same system for the board as the shoes. Never had a problem. I was using MSR Denalis which lock together pretty well sole to sole. One strap through the binding hole and one around the bottoms held them fine. This was with a Dakine snowboard pack. Forget bungee cords; use compression style straps. Retighten them after walking for a bit and everything has settled. I'm putting together an AT setup this winter. Way more efficient.

Is that where Bugs always makes the wrong turn? I spent some time in Los Alamos and saw some climbing there between White Rock and LA. Placing gear looked a little sketchy but the bolted routes looked pretty good. I hear Taos is a good resort but they're still in the Dark Ages and don't allow snowboards (unless you fool them with a split board). I'm looking forward to some snow.

I've never tried it but I found this at 8a.nu while procrastinating one day. Circus Rope Trick Seems to require being able to do a rope pullup to get it started though.

I used to wear a forest green jacket with black pants and helmet. The only way my buddies could spot me in the trees was by the orange whistle on my jacket. I guess I'd better replace the white boots in case I go head first into a tree well.

Angel of death, monarch to the kingdom of the dead. Mastodon- Blood and Thunder or The Wolf Is Loose

Fight Song- The Flaming Lips

My partner was too short to do the reachy move through the flats on the grand wall so I told him to leash the #4 to himself and stand on it. He ended up climbing the face to the right. Gotta hate those height dependent moves.

I've stopped wearing mine because of neck strain and it's a PITA in the back country. Maybe I should look for a lighter one. Are you sure it wasn't a german nihilist? 'We belief in nossing Lebowski'

You could z-clip the first 2 pieces to add friction. Seriously, you basically answered your own question in the OP. An upward piece isn't that time consuming. Most guides encourage it at every anchor. The only other option is to not fall.

I'm thinking about getting into ice climbing this year and just noticed that MEC has the new BD tools in their online catalog. Viper $183 Cobra $260 $CDN or $US your choice Got me a little stoked.

My friends and I started using 'beautiforama' for a while but it never caught on. How about a super-fun-auto-thesaurus that automatically replaces super fun with a random approved synonym?

I recently climbed the Split Pillar for the first time (and the Grand for that matter) and the climb is at my limit. The approach to the Pillar is nothing to worry about. The bolts are in the right places and the gear is reasonable. The thing with the Pillar is that the climbing is easy but there happens to be a lot of it. It is more endurance than anything. If you have good endurance it's 5.9, if not well... I have terrible endurance so I took the chimney option to the anchor since I could no longer close my hands at that point. I found it to be a tight squeeze at 5'8" 155 lbs. Just thought I'd add the weakling wimp point of view. Oh yeah, you can sew it up with 2-#3's and a #4 but the extra weight may defeat you in the end. The falls are clean as you can see from the beautiful picture above.