dberdinka

Actually you very well might die! See the second paragraph in this link Anchors Away. If you don't have a rope to cut up BW makes some real nice dynamic prusik cord in 7mm and 8mm thickness that could do the trick. No intent to bash Mr Knuckles, his techniques or his TR. You seem like a righteous dude and your TRs are always a pleasure this one included.

While ditching your partner might historically have been completey unacceptable I think that statement now requires an asterick *. * ditching partner is consider good style if said partner is a) in perfect health b) carrying a SPOT and c) decides to activate it because "if they go back the way they came they're gonna die". Ticketed climber wisely decided to have nothing to do with SPOT circus.

Presumably it would be mamnaged much like the rest of the park in that day use would be unregulated and overnight trips would require permits highly limited by zone. So Liberty Bell not much difference, Black Peak hope to get a permit. Even if I'm against the idea I think we are all very fortunate that NCNP has the management and attitude it does regarding backcountry recreation. They are great!

Pitch lengths are overstated. P1 100' P2 95' P3/4 170' "approach" is almost completely melted out and I would guess 80' of vert. Can fix from top of 3 to ground with 2 60's

I see you're in B'ham. I bought that thing at Hardware Sales. Thats sweet your rebolting at Erie, as it definitely needs a lot of it. Dallas Kloke and others might have put up a lot of routes but the hardware choices left a lot to be desired. A couple years ago I rebolted the 10+ route on the Powerline Wall with Hilti SS wedge bolts. I found that the broken nature of the rock at Erie made it extremely difficult to find a good place to put a new bolt. (the rock is seamed by micro fractures and hollow flakes everywhere). I've always thought Erie would be a good candidate for drilling out of old bolts using diamond tipped bits as described here Core Drilling then replaced with fat glue-ins. Seems like there are enough local organizations it might be possible to get a lump of money for drilling equipment (Mtnrs, Skagit Alpine Club, REI, guide services, etc.) and hardware. Radom thought.....

Excellent and lengthy discussion of that idea here Alps Legacy Discussion at TAY Considering that much of that area is already protected and plenty wild I don't see a lot of value to recreators unless your fond of more fees, more regulations and more restrictions.

I used a Lenox 975 mini hacksaw. It was the most expensive one at the local hardware store (still <$10) but is made of cast aluminum and is very thin and has a tie off hole. It worked really well. If you insert the blade to cut on the pull stroke you could actuall bend the blade slightly and still cut parrallel to the rock using the part of the blade that extends out the front eventhough you were holding it at an angle. I should post a pic of all the various tools I hauled up there, it was a heavy load!

Climbed up to manky 4th pitch anchor on Thin Red Line yesterday and cleaned it up. In the new Becky Guide, Fred makes some snarky comment about this anchor giving some climbers a fright. There were 4 threaded split-shaft bolts of various vintage and 1 poorly placed and poor quality 3/8 wedge bolt that did not inspire confidence as well as a partially drilled and abandoned 3/8" hole. The 1/4"ers all came out way to easily. Tried snapping the wedge bolt off with a breaker bar but only ended up torching the threads, managed to hacksaw it off flush with the rock but an ugly scar will endure (look just left of white rope tail). The 1/4" holes I did not reuse were filled with Instacrete (an epoxy, concrete putty) then textured with a wire brush. The color match isn't perfect but you'd have to search to find them. Left 3 3/8" SS Rawl 5-piece bolts and a nice fat Fixe Chain. A hundred years from now when these bolts need replacing they can be removed with a little bit of knowledge and the holes reused. Also replaced another 1/4"er at the 3rd pitch belay.

Though 3/8, the bolts between P1 & P2 of DH and Green Dragon are rusty old turds that definitely see a lot of traffic. If you felt like fixing up the 25 year old 1/4"era in the East Buttress of Slesse you might help recreate a modern day classic.

The bamboo ones go for crazy money on EBAY. 750+ bucks. I don't think you will be so lucky though. Dans 40-100 seems about right. I'd guess on the lower end of that. Seems like there is a pretty active group of Chouinard collectors on Ebay. You might just sell it there for whatever you can get. You can always put a minimum bid amount on it.

I saw a bunch of paragliders up there a couple weeks ago. They launched from near the SE ridge of S Early then spent a couple hours thermaling and buzzing the peaks. I figured you had to be pretty hot-shit to be flying that close to mountain sides.

Well if Giesler doesn't recommend it that's saying something. A while back Bryan Burdo posted a short description of the FA that makes for a good read. I've reposted it below. Another great story involving this route is that the ill-fated team of Guy Edwards and John Millar intended to climb the route in a push. The day of the weather started out mediocre so they climbed the east ridge of Rexford instead. Upon topping out the weather had improved so they dropped down the west side to Nesakwatch Creek then hiked up to the Navigator Wall and sent it all in a day. That boggles the mind. Can any Canadians verify that tale?

I second Sol's ascertion that the East Face of Main Gunsight has some of the best rock you'll ever touch. It's good. Really good. Just ridiculously good. As Blake pointed out (and then edited out?) the West Face of South Gunsight was climbed in ~early 90's by Cliff Leight and partner. As described to me climb chimney, traverse ledge, climb corner 5.10a. Sounds like your route. Alan Kearney also climbed another unreported but supposedly good route on the Westish face of NE Gunsight around the same time. Regardless, nice trip. You can't be too bummed about a trip that netted an FA on the big wall of Dome.

Thanks for all the input. Again it's all over the board. 1 size? 3 sizes? My buddy swears by them for everything. He wore them up Slab Daddy this summer.... I tried 1 size down and it seemed a little on the loose side. Going to go 1.5.

Having climbed in nothing but sloppy Mythos for years now I'm finally joining the 21st century and getting myself a pair of these lace-up, toe-turned-down, cotton-lined Miuras. Some people claim they barely stretch and you should only go down a single shoe size. Others claim to wear them 3 sizes small and that they stretch a ton. As I see lots of people climbing in them I figured I could get lots of opinions. So....if you were buying a pair primarily for multipitch trad like DH-LA, Cruel Shoes to the Grand, Iconoclcast, Ellation! heh heh how far down would you go? FYI I wear 41 Mythos 43 Exum/Boulder 43.5 Nepal size 10 foot (and apparently growing) Thanks

Good point. I do use rope bags and unfortunately there is nothing out there commercially available that really does the trick. Fortunately I like to stay up late at night sewing things so I've made my own. They're light, stay open on there own, fold into a pocket and are set up with an adjustable strap for easy stacking. Maybe I should post a diagram. I'm curious what others do.... I have had the whole clipped-together-for-backup assembly hangup while rapping a wall and it's no fun. If the rap ring is small and solid and your blocking biner is big and thick do just a carabiner block to avoid potential headaches. Again be very careful. If you were for some reason (and there are reasons) doing this set up with a single rope it's easy to rap on the wrong end which would quickly lead to....death.

Whoa! This thread strikes me as being highly dangerous. So danmcph there are two ways you can use a skinny cord for rapping. 1) actually rap on it as seems to be advocated here. or 2) use it only as a pull line to retrieve your main rope. Either method can get you killed but I argue the 1st is far more dangerous. So unless you are.... a) Climbing Nanga Parbat b) <=23 years old c) or going through a divorce ....you might want to avoid actually rappelling on something as skinny as 5 or 6 mm. Here are two other threads and some outside links on the subject Rappel Cord? 50 Meter Skinny Rope How to set up pullcord rappel Tutorial on carabiner blocks As far as the actual skinny rope goes I'm really happy with my Imlay Pull Cord. It's light (so I bring it) stiff (so it doesn't tangle) very static (so it's easy to pull) durable and cheap.

While BD makes plenty of cool and innovative gear that we all use they seem to have a long history of recalls associated with new designs. I'm definitely a bit skeptical of anything truely new they bring out, seems like it's always best to wait for v2.

Such a nice climb. One of my all time favorites. We picked up a pretty big rubber boa on the Snow Creek Trail a couple years back. Beautiful creature and seemingly quite friendly.

Amazing photo! I'm presuming this is on the really good pitch?

Brand new, never used. Grey model. $125 + shipping or could pickup in B'ham. PM or e-mail dberdinka AT gmail DOT com. Thanks.

Finally got back on Ellation after almost two years. The climbing was in fact better than I remembered. The trail is in good shape and fairly easy to follow, the route itself looks to have seen very little traffic. The "Approach Slab", Pitches 1-3, have definitely collected a bit of grit and tufts of moss but are fine to climb. The main wall has remained very clean, infact I think it's quite a bit cleaner than it was the first go round. I'd recommend a mid-day start as the "Approach Slabs" are still suffering from some runoff in the mornings before the sun dries it out. If anyone ever gets out there and climbs it let me know what you think.

About a month ago and shortly after starting up the far climbers-right hand side of the headwall we witnessed a very significant serac fall totally pulverize the left-side start as well as the the mixed snow and rock bands between the two lobes of glacier ice. While it might be a relatively infrequent occurence it does happen and had anyone been over there it would not have been pretty. Something to consider when choosing your route.

Wow. Thanks for the pics of the Lake Fork Approach. The North Arete of Goliath Peak has always looked really aesthetic on a topo map it's cool to see a pic of it.

Whatever asshat. A dog as big as that who has "completely torn up all the cartridges in her ankle" sounds like a permantly crippled dog. I hope that makes you happy.