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thekidcormier
Trad climber
squamish, b.c.
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Turns out Bmacd is NOT the ultra hardman he led us to believe he was.. He's just a little fraidy-cat scurd of a passive belay station.. nyuk nyuk nyuk
I am sure glad for the invention of air traffic controllers, body rappels seems quite off-putting.. Why didnt you guys use munter hitchs? I just learned how to properly tie a munter the other day, thanks to fishboy.
Speaking of fishboy;
Note the massive penji he's set up for should a hook blow out..
Then we got scared and decided we shouldnt put our selves in to an un-retreat-able position with a snow storm in the forecast, and we ran home like the lightweights we are..
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Mighty Hiker
climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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We didn't use a diaper sling, or a carabiner brake, a Munter, or a single-carabiner system because we didn't know how to do them, and probably didn't have enough gear. We'd read about these exotic techniques in Basic Rockcraft, but not actually tried them. (Maybe Eric had, as he'd taken a Seattle Mountaineers course, and IIRC even had an SMC brake bar.) So we had to body rappel. We used fairly heavy army surplus type clothing then, and with care a body rappel is OK - although it was probably the first time I'd done a free hanging one.
Later that summer Steve and I tried a carabiner brake for the first time, having thoroughly read up on it, and maybe experimented in the garage or a tree or something. I had a hand-sewn harness, based on a VOC (REI?) pattern. For the first time we made sure it was on a low-angle cliff, so that if it didn't work we'd be OK.
Glenn: "120-foot climbing rope onto a 200-foot 1/4" line" - was this with Leif? My Adamants story has a similar thread.
ps With two named Bruce and two named Hamish posting, this could get confusing.
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hamie
Social climber
Thekoots
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MH
You want confusion? My middle name is Bruce--so make that three!!
HBM
PS Six carabiner brakes? That was so 60s!
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Mighty Hiker
climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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You can't all have ordinary but distinct names such as Håkon, Magnus, Øyvind, Knut, Harald, Ivar, Eirik, Leif, Ingard, Kjell, Aslak, Sigrid, Kristin, and such? Show some imagination, eh?
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bmacd
Boulder climber
100% Canadian
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thekidcormier I urge you for the sake of your own existence, in fact for the well being, of the future of mankind itself, do not attempt the HU-DU black majik. Lest the integrity of the 3 geometric dimensions as we know them, be forever altered ....
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lucander
Trad climber
New England
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This thread is great! Thanks for all the pictures and stories. My wife and I have 3+ weeks at Squamish in July/August this summer, this thread intensifies the anticipation. Your crag looks like one of the neatest places in the world.
D. L.
Shawangunks, NY
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thekidcormier
Trad climber
squamish, b.c.
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Tell us about your trip to the adameNts Anders!
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lucander
Trad climber
New England
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I must have a lot to learn about speaking "Canadian," I don't have a clue what the hell you just said.
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Big Mike
Trad climber
BC
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Topic Author's Reply - Mar 4, 2012 - 08:06pm PT
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lucander- he was talking to mighty hiker aka anders. Squamish is pretty awesome.. a mini valley.
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lucander
Trad climber
Shawangunks, New York
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Sorry 'bout that, guess I'm more of a self-centered New Yorker than I thought.
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Mighty Hiker
climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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It was a dark but not very stormy night. No shots rang out. (Sorry, Ron.) We were descending from the northwest face of Mount Austerity, in the Adamant Range. A pleasant ice climb, about six pitches, including a steep exit couloir. Leif led us up it. There were four dramatis personae - Leif, Henry, Ric, and your narrator. We were about a week into a two week trip, and at that point based at the original (pre heli-skiing) Fairy Meadows hut. I was then 15, and had been climbing for just over a year.
Leif Patterson was then one of the most experienced climbers living in Canada. (Although born in the US, he was a Norwegian citizen. Leif and others did the first alpine style ascent of Denali's west rib that spring.) He and his family moved to Golden a few years earlier, and built a lovely house to the south of town. However, there wasn't a lot of demand there for people with doctorates in math from MIT, and he was considering options, including "guiding". Leif always made time to take inexperienced and young people climb, liked teaching, and thought there might be possibilities. Guiding in Canada then had little credibility as an occupation - it was essentially a few Europeans stuck in the past in the Rockies. Twenty years later it became another story, although as Leif had strong ideals, he might not have been entirely comfortable with some of the associated compromises.
In any event, leaving aside might have beens, Leif took the three of us into the Adamant Range for two weeks, and put enormous effort into making it work and helping us have a good trip. Which eventually led to us being perched in the dark on a bump on the descent route named the Ironman, from which a rappel was mandatory.
To be continued...
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Ghost
climber
A long way from where I started
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munters tend to twist the rope.
A couple of years ago I asked Jim Nelson to order some kind of belay device for me. He expressed doubt about the need for not only the kind of belay device I was asking him to order, but for any at all. Why not just use a munter and save both money and weight.
I said to him what you said above.
He didn't say much other than that a munter wouldn't twist ropes if properly used, but the way he said it left me feeling like the stupidest noob ever to walk into a climbing shop.
Now for those who don't know him, Jim is... Well, put it this way: If God needed a partner to make sure he didn't get into trouble on an alpine climb, it would be Jim that he turned to. Others may be more famous, but very few are in his league.
I was too gumbified to ask him for details on the difference between proper and improper use, but maybe somebody here knows?
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lucander
Trad climber
Shawangunks, New York
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Mt. Austerity and the Selkirks look ridiculous - what's the drive time & access from Squamish?
DL
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Mighty Hiker
climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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Too late! Although the telling may take longer than Alice's Restaurant. Should I go to the Group W bench? Or should we put it to a vote?
The Adamants are in the Selkirks, about 100 km north of Roger's Pass. (Golden is now about a ten hour drive from Vancouver.) In those days, you drove north from Golden on the east side of the Columbia River to a point opposite Swan Creek, canoe across, and hike the steep and rough trail. It took some effort, and we had significant adventures in VWs and canoes on our trip. A year or two later the lake behind Mica Dam filled, so that approach was no longer possible. However, by the 1990s logging roads extended up the west side of the lake, and for some time you could drive right to the trailhead, making it a quite reasonable one day hike. (A few girlie men still flew.) Unfortunately, the west side roads weren't driveable the last time I checked, so you'll have either a long boat trip or short helicopter ride.
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thekidcormier
Trad climber
squamish, b.c.
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Who's older the bear or Anders. And where is mr bear hibernating.
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Mighty Hiker
climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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Hey, don't look at me. I bumped the Origin of Tube Chocks thread with a fascinating bit of history.
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thekidcormier
Trad climber
squamish, b.c.
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Gf, tami or Peter; did anything eventful go down on the FA of the roman chimney? What style did you guys do it in? fully ground up it with no rappel inspection? Or was there some pre cleaning? Any photos?
Thread drift from stories and photos to Q+A
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Scrubber
climber
Straight outta Squampton
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I have attached a photo of me leading the 2nd asc. If the photo looks familiar, it was used in Dick's Coast Range guide.
Well by golly, There you are! Good to know who that is now.
K
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hamie
Social climber
Thekoots
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and the tiny figure in the bottom right-hand photo is......significant pause.........
....................CULBERT111!!!!!1111
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Scrubber
climber
Straight outta Squampton
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A Yeti? All I know is that the photo was taken by Glenn. When I open the foldout there are two people on that glacier. Are you going to tell us who the other one is? And who's the guy a few pages earlier smoking his pipe while dangling off the end of his rope in a crevasse?
K
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