bedellympian

Several people on MP's thread for solo TR have recommended using a CAMP lift. It seems pretty similar to the Petzl microcender. Does anyone one have personal experience with the Lift? Would it be likely to have similar problems to the Ushba? I was contemplating using a Lift and a Microtraxion so that I had redundancy and one cam-only device with one toothed cam. Thoughts?

Also, as my list #3 indicates, I need more ice/mixed/alpine experience. I have a week off in late March and would just like to put it out there in case anyone needs a partner or would be willing to provide some mentorship in exchange for beer and a belay slave.

Going to the Bugs in August if everything works out... B-C is my #1 objective but I'm not sure if my partner and I will be fast enough to tackle it. We did Backbone/D-tail in 19 hours car-car last August. I know I can move fast on moderate terrain and snow, and I know he can climb all pitches no problem, just not sure if we can keep up with each other on our non-strengths and avoid taking the dreaded bivy gear.

1) Have climbed. Exum Direct (car-car first trad lead) Complete North Ridge on Stuart Jeff Park (winter solo) North Sister (winter, stormy weather) Tenaya-Matthes-Cathedral solo linkup 2) Capable of but have not climbed. Torment-Forbidden Traverse N Butt on Terror Beckey Chouinard on S. Howser Regular NW Face on Half Dome Evolution Traverse 3)**Want to climb but need more experience or to climb harder.** Polar Circus North Face of Mt. Alberta Ragni Route on Torre Super Canaleta on Fitz Roy Slovak Direct on Denali (why not set big goals?!) 4) Admire but will never climb. 5.14 (I only climb 5.11 right now, but I'm tryingg not tto set limits) A4/5 scare fests (I'm fine with C2) double corniced ridges (hopefully, but you never know where you might find yourself )

Just curious if Hyalite is still reliably in during late March?

I have a week off in late March and thought a road trip to the Tieton for a few days might be a nice break from school. I've never been and I'm wondering if it can be warm enough to enjoy camping and climbing that time of year. Obviously the weather will determine things ultimately, but is it worth making tentative plans there or would it be a waste of time?

Wanted to plan something for spring break in late March and would really like to ice climb. Wondering if anything in Hyalite or Canmore is still in by that time? Jasper? Should I just go alpine climbing instead?

so finally got in to see the specialist, diagnosed with acute tendonitis of the peroneus brevis. negative on all fractures, which is a relief. cleared for boring activity like lap swim and stationary bike. hopefully a month or two of aggressive ice massage and good activity will get me back towards normal. kinda crazy this thing went so long without getting figured out.

Thank you gentlemen... I have now dabbled in almost all the above listed activities (no details). Just saw a foot specialist after 3+ months of minimal activity. The official diagnosis is now acute tendonitis of the peroneus brevis which is impinging itself and getting all pissy and inflamed. Glad its not a bone thing, but basically cant do sh1t except ice it hard and baby it. Possibility of surgery down the road if it doesn't improve... I am cleared for all boring activities, in-line, low impact motion in supportive footwear on even surfaces (no hiking, climbing or running), only boring stuff like stationary nike and swimming...

Sloth, there are a ton on the three blog posts I linked if you want to check those out.

Yoga sounds hard when you can't stand on one foot. Kayaking sounds fun though. I have some friends with kayaks, maybe I can borrow them for some spins... winter kayaking sounds hard core, maybe even more fun than alpinism in a blizzard! Gene, I would love to build something, used to do that a lot, unfortunately we rent right now so my options are limited. Maybe I'll make a crack machine and invert it for some campus-roofclimbing. I was thinking about a road trip to the coast too... I'm sure some vitamin D deprivation will really speed up my bone growth

Maybe I should start to meditate... then I can amputate my mind from my lame body. Oh wait there are other ways to do that

Yeah I got a little crack in my metatarsal... I have a hangboard at home and access to a gym. Ideas? What should I work on? My first goal was 100 pullups, I did that last week. Now what? My life is meaningless without some sort of exercise

Yeah I know. Normally my other go-tos would be running, skiing, biking, and hiking... all of them are out. I've been watching Netflix but too much screen time turns me into a grouchy zombie :: . I have also been tooling around on the guitar but that's kind of like climbing on sharp crimps... you can only practice so much before it just becomes unpleasant. I've been cranking out pullups on the hangboard too... but again you can only do so much (got a pretty bad crick in the neck when I did 102 last week). My wife gets a gym membership through work so hopefully I can swim and bike a bit as this gets better. Anything worth doing outdoors that only requires one foot?

So I think I have a stress fracture... still. Long story, had it in a boot for 7 weeks, took it off like a jumped up idiot because the dumb doctor couldnt get me in for an MRI for two more weeks... Anyway, I need something to take my mind off climbing. Its prime season at Smith and the good alpine routes are coming into shape and I'm staring down the barrel of another couple months or more of fawk all. I'm in grad school so I'm kinda busy but still need something to break up the homework and endless BS. I know this is spray... entertain me in my self-pity and misery you hopefully healthy assholes!

For those of you who may be down at Smith this fall and like to climb on the basalt of the Lower Gorge, there is now a 10m extension to Gruff (classic 10a crack on Wildfire Wall). Local climber Matt Farrell got the FA. I checked it out this weekend. It still goes at 10a/b and involves some easy ledge climbing past copious birdsheet, followed by a really fun overhanging hand crack and layback to chains. Apparently you can lower/TR with a 60m but only have a couple meters to spare, we used a 70m. A #2 and .75 camalot protect the crux nicely. Matt posted a comment about it on the Mountain Project page for Gruff. He refers to it as Gruff Plus (lame name but its his call)... http://mountainproject.com/v/gruff/105803718

Thanks John, nice to meet you and Loren. I've enjoyed your TRs for a while, Chris and I were actually just talking about your Hyperspace TR on the drive up there. I appreciate the compliments but we've got a long way to go before we're on the level of "ancient" guys like you!

Trip: Dragontail - Backbone Date: 8/16/2014 Trip Report: Chris Sepic and I drove down from Bend Friday to tackle the Backbone. I had wanted to do this route since I first saw a photo of it and Chris had a similar desire. I won't spray all the details as there are a bazillion and a half TRs on this thing, I'll just give our impressions and a brief summary. If you want a complete story and pictures check out my blog... Mountain Mischief Our estimate for the route car-car was 12 hours, definitely wishful thinking. We left the car at 5:30 am and reached Colchuck lake by 7:00, there is a small tongue of ice and snow we crossed to reach the 4th class ledge system. The rock was wet from the rain the day before, especially down low. Chris led the OW, we opted to bring doubles to 3 and one 5. He wished we had a 6, as does apparently everyone else who goes up there for the first time (see MP). This took us a long time and the next pitch was also slow with wet rock. After that we did a couple more odd pitches and then blasted into a simul block to the base of the fin. I linked pitches on as much of the fin as possible but it is definitely longer than expected. We reached the summit after 7pm. The snow field descent doesn't require pons or axe if you hit it in sun, but it was just a little slick in places when we got on it. Neither of us had been down Asgard, we thought we were on the right track, but definitely weren't. The light left us about a quarter of the way down with no cairns in sight. Awful knee bashing on loose rock (maybe from that rockfall Blake and Jens heard a couple weeks ago? or more likely that's just standard, either way, we were way too far skier's left next to Dtail) went on forever. We didn't find the proper cairns until within a quarter mile of the trail. Eventually we made it back to the car at 12:40 am. Overall fun route and we had a blast despite the descent. Gear Notes: doubles to #3, one #5, bring a #6 if you aren't super confident on 5.9 OW, 70m rope allows some serious linkage on da fin. Approach Notes: no pons or axe req'd

Thank you for saying what we are all thinking, so that we can further justify our elitist attitude, and feel awesome about our lives, and our lack of nice cars. I say this with sarcasm but secretly mean it with the utmost sincerity.

Nice work Bellinghamsters! That's an impressive month of alpine rock.

That was a blast to read. Super stoked to eventually get in there. Just when you forget about the Wadd something like this comes along and makes you want to drop out of school and blow a huge wad of cash on a trip to the Wadd and then blow a huge wad of something else climbing in the Wadd. (puns intended)

Nice work. North is intimidating the first time with that exposed choss. You should consider climbing the Oregon Cascades in the winter... sounds like you have some experience with ice. There are many routes that are quite moderate snow/ice and much safer in the right conditions.

So I don't know if I somehow missed it or if no one posted about it yet, but I just picked up a copy of the new Hood guide at the gear shop in Bend and it is totally awesome. Looking through the contributors section I saw several CC.comers who helped write it. I would just like to say that I think it's an excellent guide that anyone interested in Hood should have, and give a big thank you to everyone who contributed to such an awesome resource. You guys already have me stoked for winter and summer is just beginning!

Ask around in Bend... I know someone who had an old black and white printout but it fell apart and then they lost the original computer file. Legend has it that JT and BAG put up a 5.12 sport route back in the day... but that could just be myth. You could always "tweet" them and ask...

I've used a found #2 and used .5 and .75 cams in my rack since day one. I did the inspection, consulted other climbers I trust and started using them at the end of pitches and in anchors (where a failure is not certain death as mentioned above). They have never failed me, I have whipped on them and I trust them just as much as my other pieces... I consider them time tested Make your own safe evaluation... and yes I agree, they are pieces of metal, either they work or they don't, it's usually pretty obvious when they don't.