dberdinka

Some guy in California apparantly has climbed a few walls and has written a "How-To" guide on the internet. HOW-TO-BIG-WALL-CLIMB Lots and lots of good stuff in there. His advice of not using daisies while leading might seem counter-intuitive but on C1/C2 stuff it really does eliminate a major amount of clusterfuckage and you will climb (much) faster. Here's another description EFFICENT AID RIGof a slightly more refined setup that will get you climbing faster, lighter and safer (as it eliminates the chance of daisy falls). My advice for aid climbing is you need to treat it as a big engineering project. Break it into components then figure out an efficent process for each component that you can repeat over and over again. For example don't just clip a pile of lockers and cordelletes to to back of your harness and then fumble around at every belay station. Instead figure out a system (try googling "Alpine Cock Ring") thats strong, redundant and quick to build, then put together a set of designated carabiners and cordage that are used for that singular purpose. Also, create an ordered series of steps for building the anchor, tieing into it, organizing the ropes, hauling, reorganizing gear, etc. Then repeat in that order everytime. You can dramatically cut down the amount of time you spend at each belay. So on and so forth. Top Stepping is good to know but 95% of the time you'll move faster by not top stepping but just getting comfortably high. Offset nuts are a must. Master Cams are every bit as good as Aliens (and narrower in the small sizes). Double set of nuts and cams is more than enough for the standard UTW routes. A cam hook is nice to have. Grappling hooks seem more useful than a Cliffhanger. Don't waste to much time climbing City Park, as beautiful a line as it is, it's simply not reflective of 99.9% of aid pitches out there. Woah! This got long.

If it got chopped people wouldn't have anything to bitch about. In all honesty there are many other climbs in the world that might be better treated as a "destination climb". Have fun.

Unfortunately billcoe I think most people wouldn't want to climb that with or without bolts!

...The Pope.... ....drilling TIGHT holes in VIRGIN rock.... there's something good in there.... That new Bosch is a beautiful thing. How many holes out of the little ?1.2? amph battery?

That fall/death occured on a static rope.

Sound like a real f$&king control freak you lads got down there. The politics of Columbia Gorge climbing never cease to amaze.

Go Google "Arresting a self belayed fall: A Comparison of Hitches and Ascenders". Basically a fall factor of 1 will cut the sheath but not the mantle. The only time you're ever going to get even close to a FF of 1 is as you approach the anchor. It's pretty easy to jug up to an anchor and have a bunch of slack in your system (mantelling or stepping up on a nice comfy ledge) So...I'm. Always extra careful to keep all slack out of the system and clip in as quickly as possible directly to it. Common sense I guess but there's a good reason for it. I use a Mini, they're handy for many things.

Please delete this post before Billcoe sees it. Thanks.

I ment ugly in a good way. I still think Blake better watch his back.

Kim Schmitz is man, man! And a big ugly looking one at that. He might kick your ass for calling him a girl.

But Thin Red Line isn't a VI?

Some sort of trick question. NW, excluding BC apparently, the only 2 grade VIs aren't it so maybe some old Beckey aid line on the Elephants Perch in the Sawtooths of Idaho. Seems like somthing like Curtis Ridge might be considered a VI due to difficulty, commitment etc. Though thinking like that...Les McDonald in the early 60's climbed Nooksack Tower, traversed Nooksack Ridge to the summit of Shuksan then "descended" by traversing Jagged Ridge to Seapho Peak. Definitely Grade VI and I bet totally unrepeated.

All the cams are used but in good condition, they came right off my rack. None are tweaked, they all have excellent trigger action, I don't take big whippers. Located in B'ham. Shipping is at cost. If you want to pay via paypal add 4%. I'll prioritize sales by quantity and sell all the cams and lockers for $95.00 Please PM or e-mail if you must dberdinka AT gmail DOT com All cams & biners sold enmass. Thanks for looking 2 Figure 8s - $6 each

I think Tom failed to point out that... This was probably the highest unclimbed summit in the Cascades (est. of prominence Tom?) It's the only summit that can only be climbed under winter conditions. While certainly arguable, if it's not the hardest summit to reach it's gotta be in the top ...3?

A little more than 2 years ago "Trophy Wife" was a beautiful clean streak surrounded by deep, deep carpets of moss. Given its isolated location it's not surprising it' gone back to nature. What a shame considering what a great pitch it is.

Thats so bad ass. Nice work.

Josh, you totally rock. Way to get after it!

How do the capitalists increase their capital in a zero-growth economy? Is that the core of the problem? ...random thought....

I've only experienced massive inconsistency from every manufacturer I've tried. I had a couple Sterling Marathons I loved, my latest seems to be falling apart quicker though. Once had a great Mammut Galaxy replaced by a total piece of crap Galaxy. My first pair of Edelrid Twins lasted for years, on my second pair the sheath starting slipping all over after occasional use. Big crap shoot. Though I'm liking my $95 special New England Rope right now.

Climbed the Dragon on Sunday. First pitch and a half was soaked everything else was bone dry. 1st pitch of DH was drenched but the 2nd pitch was definitely good to go. This was immediately after a day of hard rain. Basically I think Index is not experiencing the typical amount of winter seepage that normally occurs due to the dry winter. Hence everything is drying out quickly.

probably about the same time the quality went downhill. Bunch of their signature designs went from being full functional and rad to cute but useless about 2-3 years ago.

OH NOS ITS GONE!

LTW?? or UTW??

This demands resurrection as the best story ever on this site...

Sounds like it's your belayer who needs to watch out.....but you're probably soloing...