mountaineering

Exum Ridge on the Grand Teton

http://www.summitpost.org/images/original/178408.jpg

xp oh that's totally 8080. i like hard stuff, for sure, but cruisy multipitch routes are the best

exum being the definition of a cruisy multipitch route!

Fuck know what I;d be like now, I am older and fatter.

hey river wolf, yep, that picture brings back horrible memories. I *hated* Wall Street, the part where you switch directions and there's a brief overhang was a nightmare for me as I'm kind of scared of heights and you are really, really, really exposed on Grand Teton for a while there. I'm not a technical climber really, just went to climbing school for a week on site with my Dad and the guides to prepare for the Grand Teton ascent. On Wall Street I got "sewing machine leg" a few times and had to fight to control myself mentally and physically. But, whoah, the rappel down the Teton is awesome, it's like some serious James Bond movie shit, way fun and seems to go on forever!

wow, this thread is giving me one of those "what the fuck have I done with my life" mindbenders. That is so awesome you made it to ABC on Everest, Drew.

Thirding the request for Drew to post some pictures somewhere. I'm in respect of anyone that makes it to ABC.

A podcast I've been addicted to is The Rest Of Everest which documents much of the minutia of a large scale Everest expedition: hauling stuff, dealing with trash, hauling stuff, acclimatizing, hauling stuff, bribing off Chinese soldiers, hauling stuff, etc. It's rough style is a great contrast to the heroic IMAX-knockoffs that make up most of the mountain documentaries. One entire episode was about the base camp latrine, so that should give you an idea.

wow, this thread is giving me one of those "what the fuck have I done with my life" mindbenders.

tell me about it. i've been futzing around in school and shit, while my buddy from college is globe-trotting and doing nasty shit in the big ranges.

w/r/t "the other side" of climbing -- i've always been interested in that, too. i remember an article in Climbing about Mt. Kenya; the climb was almost secondary to the unbelievable shit dudes had to go through just to get there.

Ok, I will look for some pictures. I brought one of those throwaway "panorama" cameras and it's grainy but it kind of works to convey the ABC experience. I remember just shivering in my full down suit inside a sleeping bag while rolling a hot water thermos across my face over and over all night to stop my skin from stiffening up because it was just . . . . so . . . . COLD.

actually im terrified of heights. not such a good hobby for me to pursue.

love the pics ,tho!

guys, thailand:

http://ksp.pzs.si/images/Thailand/thai18.jpg

sardinia!

http://www.climbonline.co.uk/photogallery/europe/sardinia/Cala-Luna.jpg

(not really "mountaineering," per se, but wtf i will hang out on all this beaches, climbing in the sun)

http://www.iit.edu/~andejoe1/Rockguide/images/gallery3.GIF

durrr, here i am in high school

Separate Reality (which is as real as it gets)

http://pbpl.physics.ucla.edu/~hristo/Separate%20Reality.jpg

a climb only possible after the invention of cams, i think? (ditto all of indian creek)

plz more pictures of blonde hot stuff climber dude kthx bye

HI DREW

http://pbpl.physics.ucla.edu/~hristo/trad/SR1.jpg

http://pbpl.physics.ucla.edu/~hristo/elcap/half%20dome.jpg

lol beefcake

http://pbpl.physics.ucla.edu/~hristo/elcap/Salathe%20Wall.jpg

haha i've got pants just like dude on the right

Thanks for the beefcake bro. Sad to see Badakov's not a natural blonde. *cries*

i think maybe i need to post more pictures of actual alpine climbing, hmmmm

http://www.brianpostphoto.com/images/rapidtransitcathedral.jpg

http://www.alpine-guides.com/images/alpine%20tech%20alpine%20course.jpg

http://www.umich.edu/~climbing/images/ice.jpg

mixed climbing is fucking terrifying

http://www.dave-stephens.com/iceclimbing/banff/johnsoncanyon/johnsoncanyon06.jpg

barf

http://www.alpinedave.com/ice/source_lake_mixed/M7_loren_lead2.jpg

http://www.waltonsmountains.com/ice/VI0303.jpg

hardest shit in the world (The Wheel of Life V16)

http://daihold.com/gallery/Australia/TheWheelOfLifeV16-3.jpg

http://daihold.com/gallery/Australia/AmmagammaV13-2.jpg

TS: canyoneering vs mountaineering.
canyoneering=a few moments of adrenaline-pumping fear interspersed amongst much fun. less awesome. less of a sense of accomplishment.
mountaineering=haven't done much really but what i've heard makes it sound pretty hellish, with the main plus being being able to say you've done it.

I can't find any pictures of it, but the maddest climbing I've done is climbing the south coast chalk cliffs. This are generally done with ice climbing boots, crampons and axes, using warthogs for protection. There is something indelibly daft about stomping down the prom at saltdean in short t-shirt, plastic boots and a belt full of axes and spiky protection.

Talking of Mixed Climbing, Scottish Grade III provides some of the most fun you can have in the mountains.

i'm interested in both canyoneering and mountaineering, but the latter seems more compelling, maybe simply because you're going up rather than down (because being above everything is more interesting than getting into a secret place? don't think that's it, really. i'll leave the freudian stuff to someone else). maybe also because you feel like your body is better protected on the mountain, ie more clothing/gear?

both interest me more than rock climbing alone because both are much more likely to allow me to see something/get somewhere i couldn't otherwise. the sense of accomplishment of ringing the bell (like i'm gonna free climb) is pretty great, i guess, but maybe i'm less into that sort of thing, and i'd rather play with words when problem-solving. plus i'm unlikely to develop the arm strength. is there a term of art for post-climb claw-hands?

If the rest of mountaineering gear is as awesome as crampons and ice axes, then cayoneering isn't even on the same page.

i suppose my conception of mountaineering is totally ignoring crevasses

you can avoid crevasses and still have a lot of fun with crampons and ice axes though...do a winter summit of Mt. Washington is where I did that. Mountaineering gear is so Batman.

i've always thought ice axes and crampons were pretty cool, despite not being a gearhead of any kind. maybe i just thought they went well with the outfit.

I'm kind of fascinated with the Southwest and canyons, mazes of buttes, boulder fields, all kinds of geology that's super visible out there b/c of the lack of topsoil & vegetation. But that's largely due to the greatness of a writer named Craig Childs. Also because people have historically LIVED there and learned to live with the landscape instead of against it (because otherwise you might died) and you can apparently sometimes find their routes if you know what you're looking for -- cf stories of reaching down off an edge and having to commit yr weight to the existence of a handhold and then realizing there's a measured sequence of hand- and footholds all the way down, carved hundreds of years ago.

never heard of this Craig Childs. this book might interest you.

Ed, did you ever climb the chalk cliffs of Eastbourne, or Beachy Head? I read this history of Beachy Head and it mentions some wild stuff about how dangerous chalk surfaces are, how these "fingers" of chalk break off and form highly unstable towers. Was that going on the faces you climbed?

http://www.bandmerch.com/java2/BandMerch2/Display/ProductImages/1869F.png

rock n' roll, dudes.

I was climbing the much more stable and slabby cliffs at Saltdean. The chalk is moist enough and soft enough to get some great holds with ice axes and crampons. I used to maintain the southern chalk guide, I shall dig it out and tell you exactly what beachy head had/has to offer.

maybenot so good

yeah, probably not so good at all. it is unfortunate that Everest's greatest challenge is its altitude, and not the climbing itself, which means that anyone with the $$$ and the time to get in shape can get up it eventually. K2, only about 800 feet shorter, is substantially more difficult, which reduces traffic considerably (also: kills way more people than Everest does).

This kinda lost in the morass of May season Everest summits, but three guys summited Lhotse's South Face - which as about as difficult as you can get in the Himalyas.

OK, this is freaky...

Free soloist Michael Reardon, has been lost at sea in Irland. Con Moriarty, whose house Mr Reardon was staying in, told an Irish TV news station that Reardon had just finished a climb and was standing on a rock shelf at the base of a cliff when a wave hit him from behind, knocked him on his back, and carried him out to sea.

The accident occured west of Valentia Coast Guard Station yesterday evening. The alarm was raised shortly after 5pm yesterday when Reardon was unable to get himself out of the sea.

Mr Reardon, who was 36, had been in Ireland for the past month along with a photographer who was taking pictures of him climbing for an American magazine. He was due to return to the United States today.

Mr Reardon's wife Marci and 13-year-old daughter are expected to arrive in Ireland tomorrow morning.

Valerie O’Sullivan, a photographer from Killarney who had accompanied him on a number of climbs, told The Times that his death had shocked the climbing community in Ireland.

“He was standing below a climb he had just completed and the photographer, Damon Corso, was about 30ft away taking pictures of him. Michael was on a real high after the climb. He was about 10ft above the sea and he let go and had his hands out, celebrating, to say he had completed the climb of his life. But then a wave just came in. The wave hit him on the knees and he lost his balance and slipped on the algae. He was shouting for help but there was nothing Damon could do.”

My greatest claim to mountaineering fame is that I attended college in Minnesota with the climber who eventually found the body of George Mallory on Mt. Everest. He was a long time guide on Mt. Rainier and well known in international climbing circles most of his life.

Back then, he and I would talk about mountains in the PNW a lot, because we were both homesick for them. His favorite saying was 'go for it', always spoken with gleeful zest. We dropped acid together in college. It was his idea. Really. He even bought my tab. Pretty lousy blotter, but how were we to know?

this thread reminds me of patagonia catalogue in a good way

i'm sad that i've never really mountaineered. river wolf should lead a pansy mountaineering trip for feeble nerds with no upper body strength.

whoah, I just came here to post about the Michael Reardon thing!

bell labs: okay! I am happy to!

...I am going to City of Rocks in ID for 8 days and am :D :D :D :D :D

...and my homey just got back from climbing the Snowpatch spire in the Bugaboos; hopefully I can go back with him later this summer.

http://www.bugaboorock.8m.com/images/snowpatch,spire,from,bugaboo.jpg