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couchmaster
climber
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Topic Author's Original Post - Sep 16, 2008 - 04:20pm PT
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Cilogears pack is going to be the best rockclimbing pack on the market when it hits the shelves. Big props to Ray Olsen for the original design of 30 years ago?. I've got an original one and it's getting holes and still rules!
Here's some pictures Kyle Silverman took of Ujahn him and I doing the GFA of "Bride of Wyde". I call it Bride of Wyde because you don't actually get forced to do some of the classic wide moves like chickenwings: which is a good thing as the route leans to the right and would be sick hard. Lots of grunting is still called for, both Kyle and Ujahn had foot slips while following, which only gave me some small measure of satisfaction as they are both in so much better shape than I. Wearing the kneepads may be aid, as I got a couple of good spots of knee baring in there someplace. I have sh#t knees though, so it's nice to keep them that way and not to have to downgrade them to :"total sh#t knees".
I swung by and borrowed Cilogears new prototype Big Wally backpack before we left. Here's the gear with Cilogear's pack to the right in my living room. I wasn't suppose to be doing this route this weekend anyway. My wife had decided to have a get together on Saturday to celebrate my son going away and told me Thursday I had to get home early to help out. We'd been planning on a real serious project for weeks which had to get scrapped for this deal instead. Of course I tried the usual whining and complaining but it fell on deaf ears. I was pretty good with this one after the fact though, and she was happy I was uncommonly home by 2pm! That other projects will stay there until I'm ready anyway.
The pry bar got made by an old friend Keith Litchfield 30 years ago or so when I was doing concrete construction and it still get's used in rockclimbing route prep. Keith lives in Ballard now, and surprisingly popped into my house the other day with his family after 6-7 years absence to say hi etc. The water bottle is a liter and a half sized, and the drill is the biggest cordless Bosch 36v to give you some idea of scale here.
Here's the lid, still big but in fact better as Graham has improved on the original.
Then I have to get my climbing shoes, ice axe and pistol still in the basement and are still yet to get loaded. I chose to leave the pistol in the car for the climb, I already had too much weight. Side note for Ron, this is a Wilson Combat Protector in stainless steel, oh baby, it's as smooth as butter on the trigger! Groups could be tighter *cough* cough* , but I suspect it's the shooter, not the tool.
Here it is in the basement with the lid open.
We'd seen this last year. The wider, near body width line of the right.
It's a real obvious line, but I didn't have gear then and didn't want to top rope it. Just getting to the top would have been a mini expedition any way. Over the winter I bought the gear I thought I'd need (and then some), Silverman was cracking up as he was pointing out that the #4 Big Bro, the only one which wasn't used on this route, still had a sale price tag on it: $76.00
Let me start by saying that I've always found offwidths and squeeze chimneys very distasteful. I've done a few anyway, mostly due to stupidity I believe. That 50 classics in Lovers Leap, Travelers Buttress, for instance, was downgraded 2 stars in my mind due to that squirming thing you have to do to send the route. Part of my issue is that early on I'd never owned any wide gear, #4 Friend being the largest cam of mine. Later I bought some Chouinard tube chocks. So I never really did any wide stuff. It's very physical and not graceful, and I don't like the movement necessary to get it. I've done up to 5.9 but it tended to be runout, which is another issue as well as it's then usually a scary proposition.
I spent the winter accumulating the gear for this climb. It was not too long ago I realized I still hadn't sent, or even tried it yet and year was winding down! I fully expected to be falling on this route, but hidden holds and and odd side pull or hold inside the wide worked the magic
and cruised it with the usual grunting. That’s why I over protected it. That and I'm a pussy. Got tired of carrying those heavy cams, so when I got to the wide I plugged them in anyway, and they were close to each other, although they were really not needed.
Ujahn belaying, all pics by Kyle Silverman.
At this point I realize I have a lot of weight!
Didn't have to pull any roots.
Note Olvesky follow though on the knot.
They say kneepads, tape and shoes are aid....no tape, left it behind in the car on purpose:-) If there is a star of this show, it's the Cilogear pack. Graham only let me take it out for a shake down so that he could get some feedback and iron out the kinks. He had some things he was going to improve, one was that he didn't like the shoulder straps. We'll, my original Big Wally has damn awesome straps, so I was prepared to hate these. Furthermore, that prybar, last month at another cliff, had worked me so hard that both shoulders are still in pain, fortunately, the left one is coming along, but the right one still screams. I'm typing on Ibuprofen right now cause it hurts so bad (insert endless old people noises and complaints here about that). Picking up and swinging a 50 some odd weight pack isn't any easy thing to do in full bloom and health, and although I do give the nod, by a slight margin to my old Wallys straps, these were pretty damn good. I also put all my stuff on top of the hip belt Graham had tossed inside, and found the belt only after the fact. So add that positive into that equation. With a hip belt there will be even less weight onto the shoulder straps. Graham has a bigtime winner here. The material on this pack will outlive you, I don't care how young you are.
Here it is with all that crap in the first picture, wide cams, bolt gun, hammer, aiders, 2 sets of jugs, coat, harness, shoes, food blah blah blah blah blah, and a 60m rope inside of a Metolius backpack style rope bag strapped on top as well.
This pack is the shizz™. Maybe that should be the name?
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bluering
Trad climber
Santa Clara, Ca.
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Sep 16, 2008 - 04:48pm PT
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Pretty cool. Did the .45 go on the trip too?
Nice job on the o/w
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G_Gnome
Trad climber
In the mountains... somewhere...
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Sep 16, 2008 - 04:56pm PT
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Ok, but what does the other side of the pack look like? I do have to get it to the crags too and if it holds all that stuff the suspension system had better be current state of the art or I will never buy it.
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tooth
Mountain climber
B.C.
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Sep 16, 2008 - 05:29pm PT
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What is a 'state of the art' suspension system? Did they come out with something other than shoulder straps and waist belts now? Nipple ring hooks? Magnetic attachments to pacemakers...
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couchmaster
climber
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Topic Author's Reply - Sep 16, 2008 - 09:33pm PT
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G_Gnome, I have a "state of the art" suspension system on a North Face Pack my lovely and awesome wife gave me. IT SUCKS FOR CLIMBING. Big. Not little. And this NF monstrosity thing has straps coming every which way off of it, state of the art blah blah and it easily weighs several pounds more than this, and it still won't hold a candle in the ass of this (ugly-assed) beauty. If you feel you need the extra weight, cause you're working your arms as you hand over hand the the backpack up the pitch, then might I suggest you add some rocks inside the pack, as it will be less to get hung up on. See, these straps will 100% tuck away in less than 30 seconds and this is a haul bag. Maybe less than 10 seconds. Try that with your (or mine) North Face Piece of sh#t. This pack was designed for rock climbing, not long range backpacking. It hauls massive amounts of weights though.
Bluering: of course we ran some rounds through it...after we climbed though. I don't carry guns when climbing or hiking, and I got stalked by a cougar here just last year. I had some cougarbits™ with us last night when my wife and I hiked up after work, here you see Hank on the right and Sadie the Trailer Park Floozie™ in the center along with my wife Jasmine.
Jasmine and the pups, err Cougerbits™.
The Wilson doesn't shoot as well as my Les Baer Premier 2, but I was younger then, like last month. It feels like total quality though, very, very smooth and super soft recoil. Here's a 50' (measured) grouping of 2 clips of 8 with the Baer from a trip to Cathedral. I'd spent all day drilling and cleaning and was trashed and pwn'ed when I finished the day (shooting is done at the end of the day for me). This was at the very, very end of that long day. I suspect at a range, with better light, fresh, I'm putting them in the center. The Les Baer is the upper right and has the optima red dot sighting system. Didn't take the others out that day.
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Ed Hartouni
Trad climber
Livermore, CA
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Sep 19, 2008 - 11:51am PT
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wyde bumpage, 'cause it's out there and you have to deal with it!
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Loomis
climber
o(>_
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Sep 19, 2008 - 12:56pm PT
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What model Sig-Saur is that? The P220?
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bluering
Trad climber
Santa Clara, Ca.
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Sep 19, 2008 - 01:07pm PT
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The more I look at those packs the more I like 'em.
The guns too, of course.
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bluering
Trad climber
Santa Clara, Ca.
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Sep 19, 2008 - 01:33pm PT
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Are the packs available right now, I didn't see them as being purchasable on the site.
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Irisharehere
Trad climber
Gunks
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Sep 19, 2008 - 02:10pm PT
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Graham has been moving from Brooklyn to Portland over the last few weeks.....I suspect he'll have everything settled and up and running again in another week or two. Send him an email though, he's usually quick to get back to you.
I took my 45L Cilogear worksack hiking in the White Mountains for 7 days earlier this month. Held everything I needed, and it fits me like a dream!
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Raydog
Trad climber
Boulder Colorado
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Sep 19, 2008 - 03:06pm PT
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well, originally I wanted either 1/4" galvanized steel
cables for the shoulder straps...
or,
something like a huge chromed fish-hook that would
really "bite" into the users body, no luck.
Outdoor industry bunch of sissies...
Actually, props to Graham, for recognizing
and for contacting me and being a very ethical player;
showing way more professionalism than so many others.
Best of luck guys!
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Ihateplastic
Trad climber
Lake Oswego, Oregon
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Sep 19, 2008 - 03:22pm PT
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Not trying to be an arse here, but how tall is that route?
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neebee
Social climber
calif/texas
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Sep 27, 2008 - 02:13am PT
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hey there couchmaster, great climb story... (cant say much about the pack-style as i dont know about those things)... but your climb looked like lots of fun...
say, kyle silverman, your pic-taker sure did a great job...
wife and dogs look liked they had a great time in that pic, from hiking...
thanks for the share...
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couchmaster
climber
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Topic Author's Reply - Sep 29, 2008 - 12:11am PT
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Ihateplastic: short route. I figure I need a paragraph per foot of height:-) so that should help you figure out the length:-). Couldn't do an El Cap write up with that ratio though, probably couldn't do a Beacon Rock one either. There's plenty of Sarah Palin threads going if you find short wide cracks distasteful like I do and don't want to read about one:-)
There's longer routes I'll show later, I wanted to be showing the pack, now I wish I'd gone to do something longer the day I had it:-(. I have to blame my wife for the plan cancelation, the one on the agenda she made me cancel was over 300' or so and overhanging in a testicular shrinking way.
_
Loomis on your question "What model Sig-Saur is that? The P220?"
Good call. the 2 lower pistols are both Sig P220a's. The one of the left is called the Earnest Langdon model P220. Langdon massaged and modified it and made it so it will drive tacks.
For him anyway. For me it will drive dinner plates:-). Actually, I have some real sweet high end .45 pistols and the Langdon may be outperforming them, and it costs a lot less: although they don't make them anymore. The Sig on the right is a regular P220.
Thanks Neebee. She'd been hearing about me going out there, it was nice to have her accompany me for once. Hank thought it was the shizznitz when he chased a furry critter under the boulders. It was bizarre, I could hear him way under the rocks in the crevasses that were between them, but didn't know where he was. Jas turns 50 this year and told me were going to Thailand so I can climb and she can vacation. If anyone wants some great company, Kyle Silverman is it. As Neebee says, he can take great pics too. (And shoot and he brings his own ammo!)
BTW, Raydog, I had your original Big Wally out today with 80 lbs on it. Eighty! I weighed it when I got home it was right on the money 80. And I'm an old weak Fu*k too! That was 3 60M ropes, a 50M rope, (admittedly that was only 3 ropes strapped down under the top, one was free and tossed over my neck) the drill, hammer and all that crap, lots of stainless hardware, all my climbing gear like jugs, biners, some cams etc etc. I drank all my water except a few sips so I didn't have to carry that back. The legs complained going up hill when I was off trail, but it was still (relatively) comfortable. That damn pack rules. I have a Arcterix, made in Canada abortion that cost more and despite having a rep of being the best, is not nearly as good as that old fugly yet beautiful thing you made. You can die as an old man, happy and secure in the knowledge that you put out a kick-assed™ ™ ™ well designed product like this.
The new Cilogear uses some real rad material on it that I think you're going to love.
Regards to all
Bill
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