mts4602

Awesome, thanks. Didn't feel any flat spots last time, but I'll check again.

I've got a 10.2 mm rope that is a couple years old. It has developed significant fuzz on a section and I'm not sure what to do about it. I realize that you all can't see and inspect the rope yourself, but I was wondering if this generally considered a very bad thing and I should retire the rope? I am pretty new to climbing so I freak out if anything on the rope looks suspect. I don't want to spend the money for a rope if I don't need one, BUT this is my life here so if I need to replace it I will. As far as I can tell everything else looks ok, the core is not exposed anywhere. Thanks, Matt

You're new to climbing, right? Go do the South Face of the Tooth, not only is every tree wrapped with a mile of brightly colored webbing, gear is stuck on nearly every pitch. Never climbed trad. I live in KY and climb in the Red River Gorge. There are permanent anchors on all of the sport routes so I've never had to deal with the issue.

awesome, thanks. Easy enough.

I don't have the time or money to learn to do that haha

If you are climbing an alpine route or a route that doesn't have permanent anchors and you have to rappel down, do you always have to leave a sling or some other piece of gear behind? It seems like there has to be some other way. I can't see climbers leaving slings everywhere every time they climb a route. Matt

This actually is a serious question and I don't know whether I will get a "your crazy" response or not. I'd like to climb Rainier via the DC route but I've never done something comparable to this (i.e. glacier travel, alpine climbing). I realize you have no idea of what my skill level is or that of climbers I would take with me. All I can say is that I am an avid backpacker with basic rope knowledge and I study "Freedom of the Hills" like it's my bible. The only reason I ask is because I was on another forum where someone asked about climbing Rainier with a guide service and they had similar skill sets. People on the board told them they should think about not using a guide service because it would probably be a waste of their money. Thanks, Matt