pinner

Egads! What's happened to the 'unreal' photo? I love this TR and me want stoke back!

nice shots of the Aussie Couloir on Joffre there, makes me want to dig the planks out of the garage!

Dude, what the hell does any of this mean? Why did he need "bailing out of Canada"? How were you going to do this on a bike? Why in the middle of the night? Where were you? Where's Lake Rothlisberger? How is a lake assaulting young women in the back of the ladies' room? Why did you never get to Canada? Why does your class start so early? Why did that guy pass you and not pick you up? Is it because you tell stories in the car that make no sense? Why am I writing this? What the hell are those pictures of? Anything? Do I see a random red thing in one? What is it? A bird? A plane? Mark in Canada? .... wait a minute... think I figured it out... so the Canada thing was just to explain why you had to figure all this out really late (although I'm still confused), and the biking in the middle of the night was because it was your only way to get to the class from wherever you live (or were)? ... that was really hard... anyway, glad you made it!

also, it looks like you are indeed using the rope in that last photo... looks like I'd want it on in that spot too!

Nice work fellas! Thats' a pretty quality line for your first multi... hope you're not disappointed with what comes after! Marc, looks like your partner is hauling a second line that's just laying flaked below him - in case you guys needed to bail? I've never done this, works alright?

There's some fantastic 5.8 (sandbag) grovelling to be had on the North North Arete... headed up there with nothing bigger than a #3, and thought we must've been off-route, but another party brought their 4.5 along for that pitch... 10m ish totally pro-less, and I'm skinnier than Marc by the looks of things, and my thigh was too small to jam - slipped right through... brutal. Left me a sweaty, exhausted, lacerated shuddering heap at the top. Nice pics photog!

You're in luck when you return then; there are now 3 (sort of) IPAs at the Brew Pub... Devil's Elbow India Pale Ale, named after a grade 4 rapid on the Elaho Total Eclipse of the Hop; Imperial IPA - haven't had this one yet. 8%, and limited time, part of their John Mitchell series, apparently. And the sort of... Pumpkin Eater Imperial Pumpkin Ale - also 8%, also limited, apparently also John Mitchell series, but this one's a yearly deal, and it's goooood. Come on back to town sometime!

crikey! Forget about the 15 cam hooks, why 10 nut tools, 5 or 6 identical?? and all the belay devices? Thanks Bill! can't wait to show these to my wife, that'll shut her up!

hope you didn't rush in breaking that record... seems like a pretty ok place to hang around and spend some time in

Put your helmets on boys

"Aside from injuries to his leg, Edington suffered a partially collapsed lung and a ruptured disc in his back, but he plans to make a full recovery." wow, so this is how medicine works these days? "Well son, you've had a nasty fall. How much recovery do you feel like having? Just tell the nurse, she'll write it up on your chart there."

Nice work Marc. The video of Matt and Steve on the net is awesome - Matt showed it at a filmfest night last year: check this out too on Matt's blog: http://climblife.blogspot.com/2007/08/bugaboo-link-up-record.html

Tough decision to make at times - do I make damn sure this thing goes while I can hopefully stay above it? Or do I eeeeaaasssee my way down with soft, smooth turns to try and avoid releasing the slab onto myself, or a party that may be below? Looks like a pretty small slide, and above the cliffs, so presumably the danger was greater to you than a party below. (and because you had a late start, I'm guessing you figured/hoped noone was ascending below you, and after waiting for your weather window knew noone was descending? and the cliffs were off route anyway?)

Hey Checat, perhaps in the meantime, while all the guidebook stuff is yet to happen, how 'bout a small, nice, wooden sign where the trail meets the crag with a short notice as to the preferred ethic and a friendly request to adhere to it? Happy climbing...

excellent! :tup: This is a great point

food for thought... another note... As far as no-bolt being sustainable, in respect to your big anchor trees... eventually, those trees will die, rot, and fall. True, it will be long a time from now, and there may well be new ones to supplant them. But what if there aren't? Sling damage will eventually occur on even the largest trees if they get enough use, though it sounds like this area won't see that. Then again, trees are amazingly resilient... I was climbing at the Niagara Escarpment in southern Onterrible once many years ago, and was a relatively inexperienced climber who (unknowingly) had only climbed at areas with ridiculously easy access, and was just getting into trad and recently had my first shock of arriving at the top of a route and finding neither tree nor bolts. Rattlesnake Point, the area on the escarpment, sports trees well back from the edge for anchors, and being sensitive and in a prak, require padding before slinging. As naive as I was, I was extremely lucky to have with me that day 3m of 5 mil cordelette, but still was able to run an anchor to the edge only by lassooing the tree with a single (obviously unpadded) strand of 5 mil, and linking several quickdraws end-to-end to reach the lip. Scary! (I learned about the possibilities of creating anchors with the rope only much later) While this is surely off-topic and rambly, its just to show that the more people are able to find out an area exists, the more likely they are to show up unprepared for it... Currently Rattlesnake Point is having (or has had) bolt anchors installed at the top of its trad routes to eliminate impacts on trees and erosion of the cliff tops. Very interesting stuff... Ontario Access Coalition again, this is a high-traffic area, so does not quite apply to the Lack...

This is so compelling!!! There are about a dozen posts since page 3 I would like to quote and reply to, but alas, once the quote button is pressed, the jump to the reply screen occurs, and I have too little time left in my shift this afternoon... As such, I will insert a few ramblings in regards to which posts still occupy my tiny mind at this point. First, to Billcoe; PBR has its place, my friend. One can compare the differences of PBR and a true, good beer, to the differences between modern sport cragging and alpine explorations - sometimes you only have an hour after work before sundown, and sometimes you have 3 days, just as sometimes I only have $8 (Canadian - damn extortive liquor taxes) or just need some bonfire-shotgunning material, while at others I have padded pockets and a thick rib eye to accompany. This leads me to one of Checat's replies in which he says something to the effect that in his mind even sport clipping should have some inherent risk to it; please explain the rationale for this. Sport clipping can be a wonderful way to spend a day with friends, an athletic endeavour that need not impose undue risk on the leader. My girlfriend is now an able and competent leader on moderate gear routes, and frequently braves the long, dicey slab sport runouts of the Chief (over 30 feet frequently), but the first time I took her climbing she was hysterical when being lowered on toprope. Without safe, closely bolted, easy sport climbs, she would never have made her first lead, and thus never progressed to this stage.

The UK How much moss/tree/shrub clearing, trundling, and trail building is being done? These things may well show the truth even many years after climbing activity ceases. On the other hand, there are plenty of old bolted routes in Squamish at the Smoke Bluffs of which no trace is visible only 5 or 10 years later... Alder and moss reclaim the lines quickly.

Just pulled one off my hip this afternoon atfer mtn biking in the Garibaldi Highlands - tiny little bugger, got him out before he could get real dug in, but the whole car ride home I could feel it and thought I'd gotten cut somehow. There's a tender swelling the size of a quarter now with a small purple mark in the middle Fucker

Just to be clear about what you are asking……. You want me to name “local” routes that are run out and irresponsible? Correct? Well……what you are asking is from me is to name routes that “I” think are run out and or done irresponsible…..this is such a “subjective” thing to ask of someone. Why would I name names……just so you start to slam me for my opinion? At the end of the day….it would be my opinion vs your opinion. No one is right or wrong…….therefore no. One persons run-out is another persons over bolted climb. Got anything else? I got sumpin fer ya.... So you don't want to get into an argument over whose opinion has more merit eh? Then why this little gem from the opening page of this thread: not looking for you to get hordes o' crap for your route opinions, just curious for more knowledge of an area largely unkown to me, and excited at the prospect of a good face soaking by spray from all direkshuns

Whoa! what's with anti-semitic sentiment in the climbing forums these days

WTF, why would you want to aid at Vantage!? Geez! Probably the same F*n reasons you want to go there. Ok, now that makes sense. Nice! Get slammed 4 times early, then a couple of somewhat helpful answers, who give you the bonus-insult of making you look like a jackass through actual responses, and you choose to respond to....

I've been thinking the same thing, MarkJ....

A viewpoint from a 26 year old, currently learning the art of realism, and slowly understanding (but still not quite believing) that I am not, in fact, invincible. An anecdote if you will; I remember, at the lofty age of 18, playing basketball with my friends late on night and drinking a bubba-keg per 2 players. I then decided I was capable of driving from Coquitlam to Point Grey to see a girl (45 minutes through Vancouver). After I couldn't find her house, slalomed some traffic cones down Marine Drive, and found myself behind a car parked in the middle of the road on Front St. under the Patullo bridge, I then decided it was a good idea to engage in conversation with the gentleman who had blocked the road, and not quite polite conversation. Three older, much bigger, and much meaner men chased me with a tire iron, peppered my car with chunks of rock from the train tracks, and I sped off up the road. Ahah! I would get them... I pulled off Columbia, grabbed two handy chunks of ashphalt, and hunkered down behind my VW waiting to smash their windshield when they drove by. And waited. And waited. And cooled off, got back in my Golf, forgot I had turned the wheel one full rotation to the left - an ingenious tactic I had devised to allow for rapid getaway from the horribly severe beating that would no doubt have occured, including possibly death - turned the wheel further to left, slipped my foot off the clutch as I jerked and reacted to the car going much further left than I anticipated, got the Stan Smith Adidas sneaker on my right foot jammed under the plastic console beside the driver's foot-box, and so, at five km per hour, chugging along in 1st, almost stalling, made a full 270 degree turn across 4 lanes of traffic and off a 20 foot embankment to the train tracks below. Clearly, alot of this situation had to do with me being an out of control idiot in my youth, heavy drinking, and hormones. But there were many times following this that situations arose where I still made bone-headed choices, believing I was competent and capable of making those decisions on my own, and things turned out hairy. God loves assholes, however, and so I am still here, and still make bone-headed decisions frquently enough, but less and less of them every year, it must be noted, and none even remotely approaching the level of retardedness of that night. My convoluted ramblings are attempting to get at this, Marc; we all believe we are competent, capable, and aware of all the risks. But we're not. And until the shit does hit the fan, and repeatedly, we can never be aware of how truly unprepared we are. There is a reason the age limit to drive is 16, vote 18, and drink 19 or 21 depending no your neighbourhood - even though you may believe you are competent to assume responsibility, the world of adults, of which I still have only my junior membership, knows otherwise. The ability to write a coherent, persuasive argument does not change that. Believe me, I am currently at work at a psychiatric group home, helping clients leran the skills to allow them to reintegrate into society, but two nights ago I was slamming fireball and shotgunning Luckys at 4:30 am (randomly enough with the same guys who had goaded me into "going to get the girl" that fateful night, after having not seen them in over 4 years), and found myself at Whistler after 1 hour sleep, hucking my carcass off an enormous cliff simply because I heard a friend yell my name from the chair. I wasn't sure where I was, but popped anyway as there was an audience, went way huger than expected, and spent yesterday evening at work hungover, with my legs elevated and bruised, popping pain pills. Today, I again believe I am a competent, capable adult. Choada_Boy, though perhaps not making the best use of presentation skills, has a valid point in that, from a pure science standpoint, your brain is truly not completely developed, and your hormones are unbalanced. The law recognizes that though you may be an excellent climber, an exceptionally mature individual, and a responsible person, you are still not legally responsible for your actions. Now go get wasted, tap some underage ass, get caught trespassing while skinny-dipping in the outdoor pool, sneak into the strip club, shoplift some booze and rolling papers, pop in some old school Offspring into that stolen Civiv and heed there wonderful jewels of wisdom: "If you're under 18 you won't be doing any time, he-e-ey, come out and play!"

"Smith Ski Athletes swarm the podium at Big Mountain Ski Comps at Snowbird - March 14, 2009 It was a big week of big mountain skiing in Utah’s Little Cottonwood Canyon, and the Smith athletes were all over the place. Kicking things off was the first ever Jr. Freeskiing Nationals at Snowbird, UT. Smith Optics was proud to be a sponsor of this event and help promote the insane level of talent possessed by these fearless 12-17 year olds. With Smith banners lining the course, as well as more than two feet of fresh snow, the kids went off. In the 12-14 age group, it was the Rose bros who put on a clinic for all the other kids to see. Sporting the brand new Smith product courtesy of their dad (Utah Smith rep Garret Rose) Riley, age 14, and Casey, age 12, earned their keep as they flashed aggressive lines and incorporated big airs, earning them a first and third place finish respectively. In the 15-17 age group, it was Smith athlete Leo Ahrens who blew the field away with his smooth and confident skiing. Leo, who has been known to stomp double backflips off cliffs in previous competitions, played it somewhat safe and skied hard and fast, stomping his airs and saving the tricks for another day. This strategy paid off, as the judges rewarded him for his control, fluidity, and style as the 17 year old Leo finished the day on top of the podium. 16 year old John Collinson, another ripping Smith sponsored Snowbird local, blazed down the course with aggression and speed, and was awarded the coveted Sickbird belt buckle, given to the skier with the most aggressive, hard charging run. Not just a downhill shredder, John is preparing to climb Mt. Everest later this month, and if he is successful in his attempt, he will be the youngest person to have reached the summit of Earth’s highest mountain. By sponsoring the event and having our young skiers dominate, it is very apparent that Smith Optics has its finger on the pulse of the next generation." Maybe get paid huge bucks in another discipline - baseball players make a bundle