dberdinka

+1 for DPS. One more excellent example of why you should lease your dog in the wilderness.

BOLD!!!

Alpine - Nooksack Tower - Bertulis Route Scenic - Central Garibaldi Park Cragging - Near the top of The Nose, El capitan Whatcom County Ice - Cold Snap 2009

So...parking 4 miles from the trailhead these days? Any chance the roads going to get fixed?

A surprisingly well written article on fatalities in the Alaska Range Article

At that rate how long until someone skis Nooksack Tower? I mean there's snow on it...

The ability of a corporation to make completely self-contradictory statements in a single breathe while maintaining their perma-plastigram smile is absolutely disgusting. "Thank you for your email. Monika Johnson was highly regarded in the outdoor community, a member of the REI community, and a dear friend of many REI employees. Please know that we have expressed our condolences to Monika's family and extend them to you, as well...... As we have since REI was founded in 1938, we stand behind our products, and we are committed to acting in accordance with the co-op’s values. We have kept those values front and center throughout the defense of this case, and we will continue to do so through final resolution." "Condolences for causing you brain damage now go fuck yourself".... I'd absolutely love a thorough explanation of how REI has "kept those values front and center throughout the defense of this case". So come on Libby if you're so damn responsive let us know how manufacturing shitty products then not standing behind them when they fail reinforces a commitment to your co-op members. Ryan and everyone else who knew Monika I am so, so sorry for your loss. Clearly she was exceptional in her passions. To be exposed to this bullshit just makes it that much worse. I've got an REI credit card, I swear it's gone tomorrow, as is shopping there it's only become an exercise in frustration anyways...

In June DEFINITELY HAVE A BACK UP PLAN/DESTINATION MAYBE MULTIPLE. Which means east side. All things considered if I had four days hanging out in the Icicle Creek and cragging would be better than the alternative locations. If the weather really sucks you might be able to salvage days in Vantage or Smith/Trout. I always seemed to get weathered out in Skaha.....

So bad ass. The exposure at the top of that must have been?? !!!

crackers... what kind of foam do you use in the back panels of your packs (the stiff stuff)? Better yet, do you know I can get it?

That is some crazy ass glissading there at the end. Going for it!

That is awesome! Most of those kids look like they were 8 when 9/11 went down, is there a fraternity row next to the White House or something?

His life defines Tragedy A lifetime of incredible effort in the mountains committed to redefining the capability of the human spirit and body yet his own life ultimately defined by a few careless seconds. I'm sure no one was harder on Erhard in the last 10 years then himself. A cautionary tale for the rest of us. RIP.

+1. Saw Peregrines in the Cheeks (or more accurately they seemed to be hanging out in the crud between the Cheeks and the main UTW) a couple weeks ago.

If Osama was a Sunni doesn't this just prove that Obama's a closet Shia?

A Silent Partner should feed very smoothly and without visible friction on a brand new ~10mm rope. Others have already pointed out the likely problems. 1) check that you've loaded the rope correctly with the strands coming out of the device on the side with the carabiner hole. 2) SP is designed with the intent that both strands of rope hang below the device when climbing. With the rope in a backpack and presumably feeding over your shoulder I'd think you get some weird ropefeed issues. My advice (having never done the backpack thing...) Get or make a GOOD rope bucket, not a rope bag but a bucket. The Fish Snake Charmer is awesome. If you really plan on just using a single line for more or less straightup pitches his single rope bucket would work fine as well. I don't think there are any other good alternatives. Us a backup knot (I use one then retie 1-3 times a pitch) It serves two purposes 1) as a backup and 2) maintain semi-equal rope weight/tension on each side of the SP. Used correctly you won't have to tie off your rope midpitch to avoid excessive feed, which compromises the whole system IMO.

“I've been doing a lot of thinking about this. Don't worry about what happens to the environment. It doesn't worry about what happens to you, does it? Think about it. Hurricanes? Part of the environment. They roll in. What's the environment's role? It creates the hurricanes!” “Nature only provides us with trees which basically lure humans to stand under them and then it provides lightning to kill us underneath the tree.” “[The environment] lures us to our coastlines. ‘Come, come to the coastline.’ We build our most important and expensive buildings only so the environment can cause flooding and beach erosion, stealing millions of dollars from honest citizens like you. ‘Come to the coastline.’ The environment could provide temperatures that are mild and consistent. Oh, no, no, no, but that's not the style, oh, no.” “I love the forest, who doesn't love forests? Oh, they're great. Yeah, that's what I used to think until I saw... who hides in forests? Bears, killer bears. Bears, part of the environment. More than happy to rip your torso from your extremities without a second thought. Gee, I don't know, maybe we should have a cap and trade on the humans there.” “I propose immediate sanctions on the environment for creating oil in the first place. I didn't create it. I just pumped it out of the ground! It's the environment's effects on dinosaurs, former members of the environment murdered by the environment which create oil in the first place.” -- Gle.....oh I'm sure you can figure it out.

Check on the two ropes. Blakes suggestion on using some sort of knot or carabiner block will work well on routes equiped with traditional chains it won't work well or at all on those huge horse-shoe sized rings that make up a lot of the rap stations on that part of the wall.

I'm pretty sure somewhere around here Off_White said you could nominate your own TRs, so if I may be so bold I nominate the two part TR I wrote for a trip to the Grimface/Cathedral section of the Pasayten years ago. I love looking at this thing again and again... Pasayten Part 1 Pasayten Part 2

The Nodder

Anyone who thinks their autobiography needs to be 7 books long is a little (a lot!) full of themselves, even royal robbins.

Trip: Zion - Various Date: 4/14/11 Trip Report: Another whirlwind spring trip to somewhere (hopefully) warm and sunny with an old friend. Last year was Yosemite, year before that Moab, this year we head to Zion. Presuming we can keep up the pace maybe that will become the rotation. With some careful flight selection we manage to eke out 3 full days and 2 half days of climbing on a 5 day roundtrip. The weather gods smile, no small feat for what has apparently been a rough winter and spring throughout the west. After scoring a sweet campsite in the park, the morning is spent shopping for mementoes for the children and getting postcards in the mail (which still don’t arrive until after I return ). With half a day to climb we head to Riddlers Delight, a six pitch supposedly good 5.10 route above the lodge at mid-canyon. Four pitches up the camera departs it’s carabiner bouncing off into the void, rendering an already forgettable experience that much more so. While there are no doubt many classic routes in Zion this is not one of them. The Watchman from camp Desert Shield Owen and I are no longer particularly well paired climbing partners. He’s a strong free climber while in the last year or so I’ve immersed myself in the seemingly obsolete practice of aid climbing and can now barely climb a ladder. So we choose a couple walls that split the difference. The mornings are cold and our supposedly early start becomes 8 am. Owen fires off the first 5 pitches of excellent freeclimbing to 5.11a in three hours. I jug with a pack full of aiders, water and umpteen sets of offset micronuts. After straightening out the inevitable clusterfuck of gear I’m off, short-fixing our way up the impeccable 450’ tall and slightly overhung headwall split by a single seam that ends with a perfect top out onto a flat ledge. Nine hours after starting we’re both on top, now all that’s left is to rap the route… The headwall looms above Bolt Ladder pitch Crux seams Great Topout The Temple of Sinawava Down Canyon to Angels Landing Iron Messiah A route I’ve always wanted to climb and excellent to boot! Long pitch after long pitch of awesome crack and face climbing with a short and mild 5.10 crux. Very similar too and every bit as high quality as the famous Epinephrine but maybe half as long. Definitely worth a visit. For once we get back to camp before dusk and actually get to putter around and relax along the banks of the river. Looking up into the main corner Crack in the Cosmic Egg A spectacular looking line that cleaves the center of the East Face of Mount Moroni. It starts with five pitches of aid up a slightly overhung 500’ wall split by a long, ridiculously thin seam followed by another five pitches of mostly free climbing. After burning up through the first three pitches our pace mellows and I manage to throw one of our rock shoes off the wall, once again relegating myself to jugging the once again high quality free pitches. A party above, that had fixed the first half the wall, decides they need to haul their daypack up a variation pitch of 5.7 described as having “loose blocks” in the guidebook with predicable results. Crack! A block suddenly appears on the skyline. Boom! It hits a corner exploding into pieces amid a cloud of dirt. Shhwoooop! Shrapnel the size of bread loaves screams down the wall. I’m fairly hidden on a ledge, Owen is exposed on the face. Everyone is ok. Just thinking about it still makes me feel sick. Is this just the risk we accept when climbing below others? Or is it too much to expect other parties to not haul a pack they could carry across a stretch of rock strewn with loose stacked blocks when there are people below? Regardless of who’s wrong or right the lesson is learned, don’t assume another party is going to have any consideration for your safety. We catch them at the last pitch were they’ve gone to great lengths marking some loose blocks they don’t want us to touch while they rap the route below us. Gee thanks guys, some of us actually figure that stuff out on our own…. Mount Moroni The Lower Wall The 300’ seam Another hanging belay Climbing through “The Wormhole” The Headache and Ashtar Command Already it’s time to leave but we have the morning. The Headache has to be one of the finest multipitch 5.10 trad climbs in existence. Three pitches of steep, perfect handcracks in a spectacular setting. Afterwards we have time to run up the “easiest” climb in the park, the two pitch 5.9 Ashtar Command Tower. Again fun climbing on great rock. Then roll across the desert to Vegas, sit at the airport well into the night when the plane forgets to show up, home at 1 am, work at 8 am. It’s over. Thanks Owen, I can’t wait till next spring…. The Headache Ashtar Command Good Times! Approach Notes: Cheap flight to Vegass and a 3 hr drive across the desert

As if anyone has aided that thing in the last 30 years......

I was down there over a week ago after some pretty nasty weather. Wet in the morning, by afternoon plenty of dryness. Seems like it should be good to go this week if you sleep in.

Just got done using an Imlay 6mm pull cord for climbing in Zion. We hauled (with a minitrax) a light bag a total of about 12 pitches and did about 25+ raps with it and it's held up admirably. It's not nylon rather polyester I think which makes it much more static and hence much easier to pull. It's wirey for sure and we used ropebags throughout to manage it at belays and on rappel. Relatively cheap at $75 for 200'.