keenwesh

oh phuck yes!

I ended up climbing some dirty 5.7ish shit that was off route in that area when I did it. It all leads to the top so being exactly on route isn't really very critical, at least in my opinion.

it's sierra

more drift. Whats the diamond go at?

replacing the green and blue C4's with X4's would be good. they're a full cam lobe narrower. i still like the softer metal of aliens in the small sizes.

totem basics look incredible. I haven't used them, but I'd buy them if I had the money/need for more small cams.

jesus! I bailed to the high country as soon as I saw the heat wave coming. A wall was the last place I wanted to be. nice work not dying of heatstroke.

mmmm, what I'd do to get my hands on some totems for el cap this fall...

If you can make it to estes park I'm looking for someone to get on the diamond with. My scheduled partner got scheduled at work for the next couple days. I'd love to get on those routes at WA pass when I'm in the area in August.

I'll add to the pictures, here I am following the crux pitch on PV, starts with a thin stemming corner to a slippery wet lieback to a funky flaring buldge. after that is a 10d fingers section and finally this, thin steep and exposed 11a to the belay. Full value and 5 stars!

that's for speed climbing in the world cup circuit. For real ice a garden rake would be a better tool.

you need to get on the venturi effect if you thought positive vibes wasn't sustained! Too bad I missed you.

buy it from fish. worth every penny.

some guard dog... tweakers suck. goodluck on getting both the dog and the truck back.

they stretch a little bit, it's more like a break in. Moccs stretch at least a size and a half. TC's are maybe half a size.

I've heard april is the prime time for the nose, warm weather, longish days, and zero crowds. I think I've picked out a route on the captain for the fall. The hard part now is finding someone to climb with!

hell yeah guys! I've gone for 2 NIADs but both have been thwarted by crowds in the stovelegs, sounds like I just need to keep trying!

bailing off the RNWF after the robbins traverse would be epic, and require leaving pretty much your entire rack. There was another party that we were about to pass but they threw a hissy fit so we stopped and waited for them to rack up and lead past us. about 20 feet up the belayer who had piss poor rope management skills had to spend 10 minutes untying a knot he'd gotten into the lead rope. the leader took 45 minutes to lead the 5.8 chimney, and then I rode the seconds ass as he followed it. they let us pass at big sandy, but then we were stuck behind team epic gumby.

I've got my own ledge, so my buttocks will remain unmolested. GGK-I don't understand your post, were you shit hammered when you wrote that?

I've skinned up to silver basin before at crystal. It was probably 3 years ago though. No one told me that I couldn't. I just stuck to the side and stayed out of the way of downhill traffic.

I'm jumping up on a super obscure right side route later this week that is guaranteed to have no one on it. I'm roping up with pitons pete though, so we'll probably only manage a pitch or two before I have to go back to work. The crowds here are something else though, I'm used to cragging in MT, where a busy day is 2 other parties on the entire wall.

agreed on the passing by building a intermediate belay and then climbing/simuling through them. That's what Mark and I resorted to on Snake dike a few weeks back when we climbed it by moonlight. a team of three started in front of us and then spent 45 minutes leading the 2nd pitch. I just told mark to start simuling, and we zipped right past them. A soloist was insistent that he would be really fast so we waited and let him go ahead on the second simul pitch (mark and I switched leading somewhere around maybe the top of the 4th pitch, and I ran to the top) Anyway, the soloist was pretty damn slow and I was riding his ass the entire time, it wasn't that big of a deal though because he was a cool guy and provided good conversation.

Regular northwest face of half dome I've been in the big ditch for a month and a half straight so I refer to everything in acronyms. I forget that not everyone is imprisoned in this insane asylum. PDL-Pakistani Death Loop lead a pitch, pull up 60 or so feet of rope, clove it into the anchor, yell down that the rope is fixed, and start leading off again with the giant loop of slack. On really easy aid (the smallest piece that I place in the 2nd zig zag pitch is a bomber purple c4) yer just not going to take a fall. Once my partner finishes jugging the first pitch he throws me on belay and I continue to lead up to thank god ledge.

I climbed the RNWF yesterday in 21 hours car to car, 6 of which were spent sitting around waiting for a incredibly slow team who wouldn't let anyone pass (until the guy who was doing all the leading couldn't figure out how to do the penji on the second to last pitch in the dark and let me zip by and fix their rope for them) We topped out 15 minutes after passing them (one short bolt ladder pitch with a couple aid placements and then a 5.7 traverse to the top) getting back to the base of the NW face took an hour and we could see headlamps and hear the girl screaming "up rope" almost non stop (which she'd been doing all fucking day long) So anyway, if you start climbing at 4 am (we could see their headlamps before we even started hiking up the death slabs) and have a queue of 3 parties behind you not even halfway up a climb how do you get told to move the fuck out of the way? I PDL the entire zig zags and ended up standing in the alcove for half an hour waiting for her to jug far enough up so that I could climb right behind her. Un fucking real. IN CASE ANYONE WAS WONDERING, RNWF ISN'T THE BEST GIRLFRIEND ROUTE

yer also gonna die. depending on how long you're in the trench I might be down to do a 2 day wall (cause that's all the time I get off work) but I'm for sure down for some beer drinking and bullshitting. Something like 10 days after or jesus built my hotrod. I gotta ledge and all that crap, but not carrying a bunch of shit is a nice way to start a wall. If I can get 3 days off I'd be super stoked on doing the direct NW face of HD. Do we have each other's #'s yet?