sobo

Ask Fred. He's prolly been there.

Holy christ! Slothrop's TR was just a f'n hoot! Sorry I missed that the first time it went around, but thanks Alpinfox, for clueing me into it. HAR HAR.

Get a rope washer (or make one yourself out of PVC tubing) and hook it up to a garden hose bib and pull the rope through it a coupla times. Hang out on the line to dry under shade.

My hands sweat like the back of a Sumo wrestler. I couldn't get off the ground on anything harder than 5.7 if I didn't use it. That being said, I hate how it has greased up once pristine holds. Crux pitch of Outer Space coems to mind...

And what, pray tell, could possibly be wrong with that?

Naaah, the IT guys unpluggd me from the network, then wiped out all my cookies, cache, and history. It was too complicated of a URL to remember, and I didn't bookmark it (wouldn't do that with THAT site on my work computer ).

Cross-post to problem description.

I believe the phenomenon to which CBS alludes is called stress corrosion cracking. It has been responsoble for many deaths in tragic "accidents" over the years (Liberty ships, Delta Comets, link pins in suspension bridges, etc.).

Shop for FA kits here as well. Atwater Carey kits from NOLS/Wilderness Medicine Institute. Good stuff! I personally use a ProSeries 2.0, but then I belong to a mountain rescue unit and have WFA certification, so I know how to use all the extra stuff in there. YMMV.

Atwater Carey makes great FA kits. They come in many different sizes and such. Get a small kit, like a 1.0, and buy a Sam Splint and a digital thermometer ($7 at Safeway or Rite Aid) separately and throw it in there. Or just buy a 2.0, as it comes with the Sam Splint and burn supplies and more of everything (drugs, syringes, sutures, scissors, etc.). They don't cost all that much, and IMHO you can get one of these for less than going out and buying everything in it separately.

um, have any of you ever touched a knife to a weighted rope? you don't need to hit the core to make the whole thing snap like butter under tension (yes, personal experience -- no, i don't know how you would put butter under tension)... Simon? Simon, is that you? I'll re-check my sources on "average percentage of strength contributed by sheath", but I don't recall that it was as much as you say, but I could be wrong. It's happened before.

I'll refer you once again to my earlier post describing the testing we did, and reiterate my statement that you will have no time at all to make any (conscious) decision about getting into arrest mode. You will be jolted to the ground immediately, especially if you are "blind to the troubles that might be occurring behind you." And I agree with Redoubt regarding his comment about folks overestimating the value of yelling "falling". There just isn't enough time to do anything with that information. FWIW, I never yell "falling", in any situation, be it rock, ice, alpine, or volcano slogging. To me personally, it is a self-fulfilling prophecy to yell "falling". IMHO, if you have the presence of mind to summon the words, then you have already taken the peeler in your mind. Instead, prior to committing to a sketchy move or snow bridge, I simply turn to my belayer and say, "Watch me." Then I go about my business and leave it up to him/her to take care of all things falling-related from there. I prefer to focus all my energy and concentration on completing the move, not about falling. YMMV.

About 8 years ago or so, right when the (then) new BD "Fin" biner was about to come out, I was climbing with Carlos Beuhler who was demo-ing them for BD. I took a whipper on a bolted sport route about 5 or 6 feet above the bolt and broke the thing right in two! Carlos sent it back to Chris Harmston, who did some testing stuff to it and said, "...it was wierd that it would do that, on just a 10'+/- fall." I guess they got it fixed, because they came out with them later. Carlos went off to K2's North Ridge and summitted with a bunch of Poles.

I would suspect other activities first, if you go blind. Classic!

Thank you both, willstrickland and Squid. Will gets the checkered flag. WOW!

Damn, figger8, beat me to the punch during editing.

Hmmmmmmmmmm, looks like it might be the stylish start of a new wave. They appear like they would work for me, but I didn't see any info on their UV blocking ability. What percentage of UVA and UVB blocking do they purport to have? That would be my main concern, even over cost.

Still not working. Even hard-keying in the address, complete with the http// prefix doesn't get it. If it's not too big of an article or too much of a PITA, could someone please copy-paste it to this thread? TIA Criminy, even rockclimbing.com isn't up.

link not working

And I'll add this: Get yersef some of that Yuengling brew. Good stuff!

Stretch, Use this board's search function for The Tooth in the subject line, Alpine Lakes forum, all dates, main posts only. You will get a bazillion hits. Da Toof, as it's affectionately referred to here on this board, gets about as much traffic as a whorehouse during shore leave. Somebody will be going there soon.

Ok, thanks. Good beta. Yeah, that east face descent, where it crosses the avy path, is contemplative...

Alex, Were the snow conditions as good as they look in the pics all the way from bottom to top? Looks nice and firm, not post-holing in mush up to your thighs.

As cbs said not too long back, "You never know what will draw out a lurker..." Apparently, a partner with a broken foot and a yen to keep hitting the stone worked for this one. Hope your partner heals up soon, and you find a stand-in for him in the meantime.

Interesting... I read a while back that it was now determined to be OK to use inks utilizing VOCs as the ink transport mechanism to mark ropes. Sharpies and Marks-A-Lots in particular were mentioned as OK. I think it was in Climbing or R&I. I use magic markers (Sharpies, M-A-Ls, etc.) to mark the middle of my ropes, and have for better'n 5 or 6 years. Use to use a "special rope marking pen" sold by "Putzl" until I read the aforementioned article. Used tape before that for eons, but after a while it gets dirt under it and then will slide on you without you necessarily knowing it. Can lead to ugly developments whilst rapelling, especially at night or in low-light conditions when you can't see all the way down the rap path. And I agree with fenderfour: it's all about the core, man. A sheath just keeps the kern confined, and protects it from abrasion and grit. The sheath has a lot more to do with how a rope "handles", and adds very little to the rope's overall strength. Edit: When marking the middle with ink, make a band about 3 or 4 inches long. You'll be a lot less likely to mistake that mark in the dark for a wet spot on the rope (while setting up your rap after ice climbing), shadow of an overhanging branch in the moonlight (be-nighted descents w/o headlamps), missing the mark all together while flaking the rope looking for the middle, etc. Hey, it's happened...!