TT Rock Climbing Club

“hehe, i like free shipping and the $224.95 price tag was the best i could find.”

“http://www.alpinist.com/p/tcl31-6


Issue #21 goes on sale Sept 1!”

“I was looking up some news on everest and Goran Kropp.
I admired his '96 ascent, riding his bike from Sweden to Nepal, coming close to the summit and retreating until a better window came along, summiting almost totally unsupported without oxygen and then riding back home.

He died in '02 while climbing Air Guitar 5.10a in Eastern Washington.

http://www.everestnews.com/kropp.htm”

“Thanks for the link, Roamy.

Sick Mountains!”

“Kropp was a unique individual. His fall was a kind of 'freak' accident - allthough he was more known as a mountaineer than as a technical rock climber.”

“something about that article doesn't read true. he fell when a piece of prot failed. the first paragraph says fell a few feet but then it says he fell from near the top to the ground. it also says a weak piece of prot pulled out and that the prot was spaced to far apart... but then says the rope did not hold (wouldn't it have been the prot that did not hold?)

i guess dead is dead but it underscores the importance of being careful. a fall from even a modest height can be deadly. i was doing a bouldering problem about a month ago, shoulder height above the ground... the piece I had broke as I leaned into it trying to make a hook with my heel. I dropped on my side, no more than 5 feet, onto that chopped rubber stuff. i wasn't injured but i'll tell you it reinforced my ongoing respect for gravity and a belief that even holds i think are bomber can fail. it all happend in a split second. one second i was leaning to make a hook and a fraction later i was on the ground... whump!
last edited: 8/22/07 1:40:32 PM”

“I didn't read the article, but Kropp fell when a piece pulled, don't know about the rope, but i do recall from reading a while back that a piece pulled and he hit the ground.”

“Thanks for the link, Roamy. SWEET!!

Kropp was amazing. I read his book a few years back, definately a worthwhile read. His epic trip to Everest and back on bike is mind boggling. It's a shame he's not around.

Speaking of books, I just finished Maurice Herzog's "Annapurna." Great book. Those guys back in 1950 had very serious nads.

Back to rock... it's been raining since Sunday but we got a little window afer work so I hit Ralph Stover for a few laps of solo tr'ing. The rock was wet and slippery so I stuck to a 5.4 and discovered that climbing wet rock is kinda doable. I experimented with the grigri as a solo device. It works but it doesn't "follow" you up the rope so you have to manually feed the rope as you go. It's nice for lowering though, especially when I needed to lower at a stance that would have been a pain with the traxion. I'll stick with the traxion for now, unless Jimmy San's Silent Partner report makes me run out and buy one. There WILL be a report as soon as you get it, right?

WHO is this GreenMonkee character? Will I EVER see him on the rock again? ;o)”

“i'll make a report but it might be a while before i can get outside the gym to really play with it.

be careful with the grigris. two problems using it to self belay. first, if something hooks onto the plastic handle when you take a fall (a loop of rope, your clothes, etc) it could open up the friction grip and drop you or cut the rope. this is dangerous and it's easy to see how this could happen.



i have been fascinated by the "death mod" gri gri for a while now. here is the only page i can find that describes this mod.

http://www.thebikezone.org.uk/therockzone/selfbelay.html

second is if the gri gri gets out of position to stop a fall. i have seen versions of this mod where a small hole is drilled in the gri gri to attach a wire to force the device to stay upright. this page describes how to use webbing to keep the thing positioned properly.

good read.
last edited: 8/22/07 7:34:40 PM”

“Why don't you hang out over there, with this thread. Seems like the best place for rock climbing. Don't see any threads over there called RC hiking club. You guys are going to get yourselves killed, do you really want to share your inexperience attempts, and encourage those who might think what your talking about is really the correct way of climbing in the first place.”

“Are you offering me a drink from the cup you have, or is it a fresh cup.”

“as we all know, trolling is a sport on TT for a few and a PITA to many.”

“i actually will be home tongight to go to the gym and play with the SP. so i may have something to report this weekend.”

“If your gonna do solo climbing, why not just free it?

;)

Incidentally, the new climbing arrived... Michael Reardon is on the cover in a shot apparantly taken moments before he was swept into the sea.”

“i got home early from work. the sp was here. it's huge, like the size of two grigris. i played with the clutch a little segment of rope. the design is ingenious the way the clove hitch works over the ridge in the center of the pully. it's easy to engage the clutch (in either direction).”

“I'm probably feeding a troll but....

Rockclimbing.com - Why don't you hang out over there, with this thread. Seems like the best place for rock climbing.
It probably is one of the best sites for climbing, and I am there often. I've been backpacking for about 7 years with friends I've met on Trailtalk. My climbing partners are also backpacking partners and I enjoy sharing climbing experiences with them and also the non climbers people in a relaxing format.

Don't see any threads over there called RC hiking club
Ya don't see many threads HERE about hiking.

You guys are going to get yourselves killed.
I certainly hope not, but if it does, it would be from some bizarre accident, not from careless climbing. Safety is number one when we climb. Anchors are always bomber, there are always backups, and we always check each out (knots, harness etc). If you're referring to my grigri experiment: yes, I was aware of what can happen with a grigri, and that is why I use backup loops when I solo. Even if the grigri severed the rope, I wasn't going anywhere because the backup loop on the other rope strand would have stopped me.

do you really want to share your inexperience attempts
Abso-freaking-lutely!!

and encourage those who might think what your talking about is really the correct way of climbing in the first place
To my knowledge, no one here has encouraged ANYONE to climb incorrectly.


So, what's your story? Climber, troll, or just a troublemaker? If the thread offends you, don't click on it. It's that simple. Or, just have another cup of GreenMonkee's special brew.”

“Roamy - I got my Climbing mag today. Wow, that is a freak accident that happened to Reardon. All those free solo climbs and he gets done in by a wave. Yikes.

JimmyS - thanks for the link to that site. I actually have that bookmarked but I forgot about it. Good stuff about all the solo devices. The grigri was a one and done experiment, and I vaguley remembered something about the possible dangers of using it for self belay, but couldn't pinpoint where from. That's one reason I picked a route that I knew well and would have had to try to fall on, and of course I had the backup loops. Doing the grigri surgery is tempting, but I think I'll stick to the traxion or go for the SP. The Cinch is tempting if Trango would do testing on it for self belay.”

“Who TF is this Pennsy character?”

“i took the sp to the gym and played with it. it actually didn't work that well with the gym ropes, which are old and a little fuzzy... prolly need to be replaced. it didn't feed that well, probably because the rope presented more friction. when I switched out to a rope in better shape it fed like a dream. basically i could climb like normal and hardly even knew that it was feeding out rope.

the clutch engages quickly on a lead fall (i tried a few). it didn't feel that different than if I had a somewhat sloppy belayer... no "take" when you yell "take"! ;) overall, i was pleased. i tried using backup knots like the manual says. i found it hard to deal with figure-8s like they show in the manual, but in one section of the manual they say to try a clove hitch as they are easier to tie and untie automatically when you take out the backup knot. this worked well but i constantly confound myself trying to tie one... practice makes perfect i guess. i am betting i could get to where i could tie and clip/unclip one one handed which would be cool.

these were short pitches in a gym just to get a feel for the thing.

oh, the two biners to clip it in is pretty important it seems. it keeps the sp well oriented relative to the climber. i thought this was just for "backup" but i guess there is method to the madness... ;)

overall i am pleased but it will be a while before i get out on real rock with the thing.
last edited: 8/23/07 6:33:58 PM”

“Cool. Thanks for the quick report. How was it for lowering? I like the idea of using clove hitches for the backup knots (in the lead climbing setup). I think they would be easier to manage when releasing them during the climb. I use figure 8's or butterflies for the backup loops when top roping.

I went to Rick's Rocks tonight but the 5.6/5.7 wall I wanted to climb was way too wet to climb. I ended up doing laps on the beginner route, which would be the perfect route to do leads with the Silent Partner. Dang, I want one.”

“lowering was ok. not great but it worked. it took some practice but wasn't hard. it's not fast. if you go too fast the pully locks up. it would be great for doing laps, as you pointed out.

washing one of my ropes tonight. when playing with the SP i noticed it was dirty. shame on me. after my last trip to rrg i didn't wash it.”

“Hey Pennsy, since you are now obsessed with climbing got any cool backpacking gear you want to pass on?

You really should come do the 100 mile with me!”

“i am thinking of making a "suicide run" to red river gorge if anyone is intereted. some friends and i will be driving down LATE on friday night (after work for all of us), crashing until sunrise, and then climbing all day saturday returning LATE saturday night.

besides, my rope is now squeaky clean and i need to get some more grunge in it.

i ordered a new harness the other day, a "Petzl Calidris". my harness is nice (a mammut focus) but i have found that the way the leg loops hang after a hard week of climbing it has a tendancy to... um... bruise the boys. i have so far been unable to adjust it to a position where i don't suffer so i figure i'll try something else. one thing i like about the Petzl Calidris is that the waist belt has two buckles so it tightens from both sides... that said, it adds a point of failure (as if!) anyway, hopefully this will be the end of these painful incidents.”

“snagged a copy of "THE RED RIVER GORGE: A ROCK CLIMBING GUIDE BOOK" for 40 bucks. this sucker is out of print and hard to find. great color photos, descriptions and ratings of climbs, and a guide for the approach. a really great book. the author has a web site now. i have never really studied the book so i don't know how redundant the book is to the web site, but i'll know soon enough!

http://redriverclimbing.com/RRCGuideV2/index.php <-- Web Site
last edited: 8/25/07 9:35:20 AM”

“I see what i am going to get involved next
last edited: 8/25/07 9:56:51 AM”

“Another sucker convert?

Mapquest says RRG is 625 miles from here. A tad to far for a one dayer, but I sure will be interested if you go down for 3-4 days.

That harness looks sweet. You sure like expensive stuff, eh? I went from a Focus to a Petzl Sama. Mucho more comfortable. Speaking of expensive, I caved and ordered a Silent Partner. To quote you: "Damn you. Damn you to hell."

Yo Lt! Long time no see. Hey, I still backpack. Sometimes I have to bp to some of these cliffs. ;o)
100 Mile Wilderness? Ooooh, that's on my must-do list. I'll have to check out the trips page for the info. Doubtful for this year but I'll take a peek.”

“i got it in sale for 75 bucks. that's still a lot for a harness but a fair price.

i played with the sp at the gym again today. i can't wait to put it to use in the real world. i got my rrg guide book and there are so many great places to climb.”

“Well worth the bucks if it's as comfortable as my Osama.

Holy Moly! There are over 700 routes posted at Rockclimbing.com for RRG. Dang.
RRG Routes”

“check out that url i posted for rrg:

775 trad routes
81 mixed
824 sport routes
23 bouldering
48 toprope
6 aid
1757 total

kick azz!”

“SCOURED my new RRG climbers guide last night. it's a great book. if you visit that url i posted you can pre-order a new edition that is coming out in september. anyway, this is going to be huge for me because i can actually plan out a series of climbs for a day rather than just showing up at the gorge and wandering around not knowing what to climb. last time i did this we went to military wall and stumbled around all the 5.12-5.13 lines the day AFTER we climbed all day and were shot. i don't think any of us were able to climb these clean but we wanted to try. we were so darn tired from the day before even the best climbers in our group could hardly make the first clip.”

“RRG has a great reputation as an excellent climbing destination.

Went to Eldorado Canyon on Saturday and climbed "Gambit" a 4 pitch 5.8 trad. Only one pitch is really 5.8 but the rest is very sustained and pumpy 5.7. Great, great climb. VERY exposed, at a couple of points I looked down and had NOTHING beneath except the tops of trees a few hundred feet down :)

Very airy belays - almost a hanging belay at the top of pitch three, more of a perch than a ledge. Lots of dehedral stems and cracks. Fractured rock, nice holds and a few good hand jams.

Starting pitch 3, my leader took a fall right on the first move - freaked me out, coz I didn't think he'd clipped his first piece... 1.5 seconds that seemed like 5 minutes! He'd clipped the first piece though - an old fixed pin.... it held. Got BOTH our hearts pumping good though!

On the way down, we stopped at Rincon Wall and hit a 5.8+ one pitch route up a small, thin seam - not even fingertips for the first 30 feet or so, then it went to tips and finally jugs right at the anchors. Way fun little route though.

Wanted to stop on the way out and do a 5.2 route - i was gonna lead it, but there were three people on it already so we went for beers instead.

My first trip to Eldo - yeah, I'll go back there for sure.
last edited: 8/27/07 7:40:48 AM”

“mountain project has good pics of the route we climbed on saturday. I didn't carry my camera.

http://www.mountainproject.com/v/colorado/boulder/eldorado_canyon_sp/105751960



new friend Jimmy? :)”

“That's it, I'm going to Colorado.

Any floor space available at Chateau RoamA?




Well done, man.
Killer route.”

“That's it, I'm going to Colorado.

Any floor space available at Chateau RoamA?

GreenMonkee

Come on out - you'll be glad ya did.

Always room at my place for a bonehead or two.”

“I'm not going to RRG if there are only 6 aid routes. ;o)
I'm claustrophobic, but I think I want to go caving, even if she's wearing cotton.

Sweet climb Roamy! Loved the pics even if they weren't yours.

I rope solo'd AGAIN on Saturday. I want my partners back!”

“Hey Pennsy, you should try putting out a post on mountainproject looking for partners. Around here, if you want to go to a specific area on a specifid date, you can ALWAYS find a partner via mp.com

I've done it that way a couple of times and had good luck each time. Just be up front about your ability level and what your looking for.”

“haha, well technically every route can be an aid route if you can't climb otherwise! ;)”

“a #4 camalot makes a great foothold when your desparate!”

“Great reading...

http://adventureguides.com.au/PDFs/Dan%20Osman%20Rope%20Failure%20Analysis.pdf”

“Good read. I read a good book about Osmun, "Fall of the Phantom Lord." It was written before he took the big fall.

haha, well technically every route can be an aid route if you can't climb otherwise! ;)”

I had to grab the rope a few times the other day, so I guess that makes me an aid climber. Yay me.


“a #4 camalot makes a great foothold when your desparate!”

HA! I knew you were a poser. ;o)
Do you actually have one of them? #3 is my largest and one of these days I'll get a 4. Gotta lift more weights to get stronger though.

Greenmonkee found a few partners for the Gunks through Rockclimbing.com. I may go that route (or through mp.com as well) at some time. Right now, I'm not that comfortable about hooking up with strangers. I'm not much worried about being comfy with them as much as worrying about how comfy they would be with me. I'm sure I'll get over that as I get more comfy with myself on the rock.

Everybody comfy now?”

“i was reading about victory whippers when i saw that posting”

“I've met one guy via rockclimbing.com - he's made a good partner and we've gone climbing a couple of time.

The ropegun I found that's been leading these super cool multi pitch climbs I found thru mp.com. He and I seem to have meshed pretty well.

I guess I've been lucky, but I'll admit that at first I was rather apprehensive - we probably both watched each other pretty carefully as we tied in and stuff like that.

I've got a #3, but Tim has a #4, we've placed it a couple of times actually too - that thing is friggin HUGE. Actually, I have yet to step on it though.... I'm sure it'll happen. :)”

“My largest two cams are:

Metolius Ultralight Power Cam #8 (1.91" - 2.92")
Wales Quadcam #3.8 (2.28" - 3.58") (close to the BD Camelot C4 #4 I think)

I have a wide range of cams and "double up" with curved hexes middle->top and with Camp Tricams middle->bottom. Then I have a range of stoppers. Not much else in terms of variety however.”

“Never used tri-cams. more versatile than stoppers maybe?”

“they are certainly very versatile. i think of them as active pro since they can have a definite camming action, but i think some people think of them as passive pro like a stopper.”

“I've had good luck with finding more partners as well. Ursula and I have climbed about ten multi-pitch routes together. We met through RC.com. She's been climbing for several years and know the Gunks. I've learned quite a bit from her. One thing though, she doesn't lead. I don't mind leading every pitch, not at all :) She's picked all the climbs and done a great job at showing me the ropes.

I met another potential partner while climbing with someone I just met at the Uberfall. I follwed up Horeseman, we toproped Laurel and I had just lead Rhododendron. Brian convinced Shay to shoot a rope up Apoplexy for us. After we climbed it the others left and Shay asked if I wanted to climb. We talked for a while about my climbing experience. The two sevens I followed him up blew me away, especially Miss Bailey. We hung out after climbing, went into town for burritos and exchanged info. I think I'll be climbing with him again.

Hooked up with Neil through RC as well but we had already met, kinda. It was after a mini epic on what I thought was Red Pillar 5.5 with Pennsy and Ursula. She directed me towards a notch in a descent sized roof. I had to lower off an old piton and a cam after getting stuck on a steep face of Three Doves 5.8. I followed a corner up and traversed back to the notch. After two tries, backing off to rest, and a huge effort, I got up. Neil and partners were climbing next to us and watched some of our fiasco. I lowered Pennsy down after a valiant effort. Ursula tried to sport climb it on the pro I placed but wouldn't do the traverse so I set an anchor on the ledge and threw the rope over to her outstretched hand, barely visible over the lip about 30 feet away. She made it to the notch after tying in and took a couple of little falls before lowering and retrieving the stranded cam. Way to get off topic, huh? Neil and I talked quite a bit about the events of that day. I can still hear his partner yelling "Either way, Bruce, you're f*cked!" ;p His partners had just left and he was willing to belay me on anything I wanted, being his rest day and all. It was the 4th of July and the cliff was deserted. I had my pick of routes and lead every pitch of High Exposure and The Last Will Be First before the rain came in the afternoon. It was an intense yet very mellow day. Neil's a teacher in Canada and an ice, rock, and aid nut. He was heading out to Joshua Tree to finish off his vacation after weeks of living at Camp Slime near the Trapps.



All this reminiscing has got me itchin' to climb.
Hey, Pennsy. Doing anything this weekend?”

“Ropegun? That's a new one for me. If MY ropeguns, Crazypace and Greenmonkee, would get their priorities in order, I wouldn't have to look around or solo. ;o)

I really like the tricams. I use them mostly as active pro in horizontal cracks. I have the 4 smallest sizes: red, pink, purple (or blue?), and brown. I doubled up on the red and pink because they get used a lot. I have a set of stoppers (1-13), and several camalots: the 4 small C3's and all the C4's up to #3. Gotta get me one of those #4's soon.”

“speaking of ropeguns (of course I really don't know what a ropegun is - I may be calling him an @@@hole or something), I missed the monkee's post. Thanks for rehashing that epic. Sheesh. ;o)

I'm free this weekend. I might need to be home late Saturday afternoon which would leave out an overnighter, but I can dayclimb Sat, Sun, and Mon. What say you?”