Jon H

I've also used BD heel levers on my Darts with no problems to speak of, even on some hard mixed with monopoint torquing.

Great video, thanks for posting it up. Really enjoyed the music and of course, the climbing.

Dane is all sold out as far as I know, and Blue Ice discontinued them and made a new version that I don't like as much, so the used market is pretty much my only option.

Looking for the Blue Ice Boa umbilicals in excellent to good shape. Anyone have one they aren't using? Can buy outright or trade cams, screws, etc.

EMS has them on sale here: http://www.ems.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3656545 Full retail at $50, but if you spend >$75 you get a $50 gift card (some restrictions - read the fine print). Alternatively if you're willing to wait a couple weeks, EMS frequently will run "XX% off everything" sales and with Black Friday coming up, expect a 25%-35% coupon code to show up.

Great video. The approach segments brought back memories from last summer when my partner and I took a shot at Liberty Crack. Hoping to do the Thin Red Line one day.... just gotta do a "couple" more hangboard sessions first

I'm flying in to Seattle on Sunday and landing at 10:45AM and fly out on Tuesday morning around 7:30AM. I have a meeting downtown at the Capital on Monday from 10AM - noon but I'm free other than that. What should I do with my free time? Is that realistically enough time on Sunday to make it out to Index or should I just be content with a session at SBP? What's worth seeing/doing/eating? Want to do it with me? Want to let me surf your couch? I've climbed and stayed with a bunch of CC fellas who I'm sure would all vouch for me being a stand up guy, solid partner, and respectful house guest.

I did the exact same thing last summer.... Went to to Index, aided City Park. The first 30' are a bolt ladder so you get used to standing in aiders, then move into tiny nut placements once you hit the "business." Tiny offset brassies will be your best friend here. About 1/2 way up the first pitch you can bail off to the left and hit some bolted anchors on another climb and bail if necessary. It took me 90 minutes to reach those anchors (maybe 50'?) on my first attempt. Sooooo slooooooooooooowwwww. Hopefully you manage better. After running up that a second time, we went out to Washington Pass the next day to attempt Liberty Crack. Last year in August the snow pack at the base was pretty treacherous and still quite long - Microspikes would have been REAL nice to have. We sorta crawled our way up using nut tools... pretty sketchy. Watch all the Supertopo videos on "Learn to Aid Climb" first. Make sure to save some daylight to find the rap slings off the summit of the Liberty Bell... they're around a small shrub down the left side off the summit. A small, exposed downscramble is required. Good luck! EDIT - If you happen to find a small point-and-shoot camera on the approach in the talus below the Bell, please let me know. I'd really love to get the pictures off that card.

OK, let's clear up a couple things... The Baruntse stock liner IS heat-moldable (AKA "baking") and you will get the best fit and results if you do bake it If you are planning on using an aftermarket footbed (and you should), then remove the stock footbed, insert your Superfeet, then insert both into the outerboot Superfeet does make a specific model that is heat-moldable, however you will not harm a regular blue/green footbed by baking it If you plan on baking your liner, I would STRONGLY recommend that you get it professionally done if you've never seen the process before. It's way too easy to screw up. You need toe caps and other specialty items.

Hexes no longer needed. Bought a set. Thanks CC

I have a pair of Sidelock Darts that I would really like to convert to the normal Heel Lock style crampon. I can't get a good fit at all on my Phantom Guides. What are my best options? I haven't been able to find Petzl heels or heel levers for sale independently. Anyone have any ideas? It appears that the SideLock has been discontinued by Petzl. Anyone know why? Safety or it just (understandably) sold poorly?

Nope, the cave has a bunch of fixed pins and tat for an anchor. There used to be a smaller cave at the same height, but to left of the huge cave. That smaller cave collapsed some years ago - I seem to recall hearing something about there being bolts there.

Looking to buy current nomics. Nothing too beat up, please. Let me know what you've got.

Posting on behalf of a friend. Looking for ice boots in size 43. Prefers La Sportiva as they tend to fit his foot the best. Budget is about $100. PM me if you've got anything.

Plenty of stores have the old Quark Cascade pick (best production ice pick ever made, according to a couple people on this forum) in stock. I know just off the top of my head that EMS.com has them and there are several others as well. Asking the same old MSRP of $50 IIRC. They run 20% sales pretty frequently. I suspect that they'll be running a good sale (I suspect 20-25%) within 2 weeks as Christmas gets closer. Just sign up for their e-mail list. Further, if you also sign up at EMS rewards and answer 5-6 simple questions, they will also e-mail you a $5 coupon code right away. You could be out the door for about $70 shipped to your house for 2 picks.

Mammut Moses or the new BD Oz ("hoodwire") are great replacements for the old Nano biners. They are both full size, easy to clip, and extremely light. The Oz has the added bonus of having a keylock nose for non-snag goodness.

I have a similar foot - long, low volume, fairly high arch, and laughably narrow heels. All my heel-lift problems were instantly fixed with a pair of Scarpa Phantom Guides. I have green Superfeet in them too, but I'm not sure it even makes a difference. Before getting the Guides I had owned (and hated): LS Nepal EVO, LS Trango Prime, LS Nuptse, Kayland M11, Mad Rock Alpinist (ugh), and Koflach Degre. I had horrendous heel lift in all of them except surprisingly the Mad Rock, but they left me in such crippling pain (just shitty boots) that I got rid of them after 3-4 climbing days.

+1 Listen to this guy

A camera dropped out of my partner's pack on the approach to Liberty Crack. Most likely it's in the talus field at the base of Liberty Bell. While in all likelihood the camera is gone forever, we would certainly appreciate the camera's (and more specifically, the SD card's) return if found. It is a blue Fujifilm point and shoot. It contains photos from a 3 month road trip from CO - WY - MT - AK - WA - BC and more. Long trip, lots of photos. A safe return would be great. Thanks!

Nice send Mikey. Cool running into you in the Index lot. Thanks again for the spare nut tool!

If you guys do decide on Liberty Bell, please do me a favor and take a glance at Liberty Crack. Flying out on Friday to give it (and a couple other Cascades routes) a shot. A conditions report would be most appreciated.

Oooooohh, burn!

I highly, highly doubt this is stolen. The average junkie or smash-and-grab thief would never be able to identify lost arrows or mamba draws. Sorry OP, in all likelihood, you're wrong.

Messner and Kukuczka (and Steck, for that matter) are absolute deities of the climbing world. Calling any of them, for any reason, "ball buffers" is the absolute height of internet climbing spray. Kind of like calling Dave MacLeod a "wanker" because he hasn't climbed 15b or Dave Graham "weak" because he isn't even in the top 100 on 8a. It just makes you look like a buffoon.

You might consider asking your fellow guides what boots they use to guide full time. And yeah, the Firstlight is a popular choice for Aconcagua although, you'll definitely need to guyline it out to the max (and build windbreaks out of rocks and/or snow as available) if the storms start getting bad.