summitchaserCJB

Good to hear details. Best wishes.

I basically heard the same thing SB. Except they also mentioned there was not a ton of snow this year and that people had skiied down from Sherman.

ok... Man...sometimes laws suck.

How is enforcing our sovereignty stomping on the Constitution? I mean really. Are you serious? How is it racial profiling? Who do you think lives in Mexico? Africans? I mean people calling this racist are just knee-jerk liberals with nothing better to do.

Yosemite!

It can be. Why is that unreasonable. Statistically I bet it is. How many climbers do you see in the ER verses bikers hit by cars?

And for the record, I have biked highway two, from Lake Wenatchee to Monroe. I did it during the day. I told myself I'd never do it again because it was pretty risky.

haha. That is ridiculous. If you want to get killed biking highway 2 that is fine. I'll save my self for multipitch trad, big mountains. Much safer in my opinion.

In the dark? Have you seen that highway in the dark? It is a deathtrap. In the day is it still really scary to ride. Common sense is not all that common.

I'll take underage for 400

Not using common sense?

"Hopefully Index will repay you with good karma and sick sends!" That's what I'm hoping for. I've already had so much fun at Index so far I can't wait to do more.

Dropped $50 as well. Props to the people putting this together.

A mix between a climbing movie screen play and Candide. Bravo.

Looks epic. I actually road biked from Lake Wenatchee to Monroe in about 4.5 hours last summer. That road can be pretty scary on a bike. I can't imagine what it is like in the dark.

"Perhaps I could start putting more of the reports here?"

Ya Windows 7 pretty much kicks ass. Makes you wonder why people pay twice as much for a comparable Mac.

[video:youtube]

Not that this helps.. ashfall map

hmm..Not sure I agree. I think overall it is safer with the better gear.

Ya, maybe you're right Joseph. I personally learned on passive pro at Index so I think I have a little more respect for protection than at least some people. Doing Roger's Corner with all passive gear is not something I'd recommend, but I have done it. I don't think most people who are trad climbing use GriGris. I could be wrong but I don't see it that often. And ya, the scene today seems much safer than the olden says. I am happy that is the case. And there are those out there that really don't know what they are doing with active cams and don't know what a good nut placement looks like.

So Jealous.

While I think your other advice is good I have a bit of a hard time with this statement. Are gloves a bad idea? No, but if there's any kind of "burning" going on then it's an improper belay from my perspective and gloves shouldn't be used to compensate for bad belaying. In drop tests an anchored GriGri will let a couple of meters of rope slip. Just imagine what happens with a tube device. rgold on stuportace and cockrhyming has been saying for years that hard falls onto the anchor are best handled with gloves and he's caught a couple. I've definitely found loose flakes that I thought were solid on inspection by tugging a cam. I find that giving the sling a wiggle to test for walking immediately tests any optimism that the cam will stay in that spot. Aid climbers vigorously bounce test pieces, why should free climbers just plug and go? If possible I use a few tests to convince myself that piece is good and that blind faith isn't keeping me off the deck. C3s go really small. What sizes are we talking about here? The margin for error with the little guys is terrible. My partner has a set and they are the last pieces I reach for although when they do fit it's a boon. True, but time can be of the essence. And the experienced leader should know a good placement by sight.

I never "set" cams unless I can't see the lobes or I'm feeling strangely sketched out.

Good thing I have aliens. I wouldn't know about that counter- I don't take many falls.