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Climbing, Adventure, Gear & Choss
The Story of a New Bolt
There are thousands of bolts on climbs across the country, and some are in dire need of being upgraded. Pretty Hate Machine, in Rifle Mountain Park, is a local climb whose time had come to get the old, rusting bolts replaced with new ones that should last well into the future. Situated in the Arsenal, [...]
Death Grip: A Climber’s Escape from Benzo Madness
His hammer swung wildly at the bolt. It was binding up in the hole, and he demonstrated little patience for the stubborn installation in the hard rock. I had first met Matt Samet a month earlier while developing a new crag outside Carbondale. His slovenly appearance didn’t seem to match his impressive record as a [...]
Scarpa Boostic Review
su-per-la-tive 1. of, relating to, or constituting the degree of grammatical comparison that denotes an extreme or unsurpassed level or extent 2. a: surpassing all others: supreme b: of very high quality: excellent I’m going to try my best to not talk in grandiose superlatives as I describe the Scarpa Boostics. As you’ll see, this [...]
Edelrid Fraggle Kid’s Harness Review
Kid’s harnesses are often notorious for being a Sisyphean task of working through a maze of webbing, buckles and adjustments, untwisting leg loops and trying to figure out the front from the back, and the top from the bottom. Meanwhile, your kid is growing impatient and about to start free soloing above a garden of [...]
Lead Belaying with Newbies
How to you keep yourself safe when you need to lead a route with a new or inexperienced belayer. Summer is a great time for many things, including family reunions. Imagine yourself sitting back on the old family porch, sipping a cold drink when you are introduced to a distant cousin you’ve never met. “Hi, [...]
Self-Rescue (2nd Edition) Book Review
If you climb long enough, you’ll probably be faced with a self-rescue scenario involving yourself or someone else you encounter. Maybe it’s a bad fall, ripping some gear or hitting a ledge. Or, perhaps you’re fortunate enough to avoid witnessing an accident, but you’re faced with a challenging scenario when you decide to impress the [...]
Tech Tip: The Big Bad P.A.S.
By Mike Schneiter If you’ve spent any time on Internet forums lately, you’ve inevitably run into a post where someone asks a seemingly benign question about the use of a Personal Anchor System (PAS). And, almost without fail, the forum quickly devolves into a scathing dialogue that runs along the lines of “Yer Gonna Die!” [...]
Tech Tip – Rappelling with a GriGri (or Cinch or what have you)
By Mike Schneiter Multi-pitch sport climbing, though somewhat rare in the US, is such a joy. I love the feeling of casting off on long pitches of beautiful face climbing, with nothing but a dozen quick draws bouncing off my harness. Forget the extra burden of cams, stoppers, cordalettes and related gear. And you can [...]
SuperTopo Yosemite Big Walls, 3rd Edition, Review
By Mike Schneiter A text message flashed across my screen, “Will you climb the Scenic Cruise with me this year?” “Of course,” I replied, “that climb rules. I would do it any day of the week. Actually every day of the week if I had the chance.” Internally, I wondered about my friend’s request after [...]
Yosemite Sport Climbs & Top Ropes Review
The secret’s out: Yosemite Valley is home to many well bolted sport climbs of all grades.
Black Diamond Ozone Harness Review
After hanging for six hours on an overhanging wall, with an assortment of hardware pulling from the two gear loops, my legs and waist were in surprisingly good shape considering I was wearing the Black Diamond Ozone harness, marketed as a sleek, sport climbing rig. Somehow, I don’t think BD had multi-hour hang sessions in [...]
New Zion Climbing Guidebook Review
By Mike Schneiter The long-rumored and long-awaited climbing guidebook to Zion National Park has finally hit the shelves. For years, there has been no real guide to this sandstone big wall mecca. Sure, sparse information could be gleaned from overview guidebooks such as Desert Rock, but McAfee’s Zion Rock wasn’t worth the paper it was [...]
Local Anchor Upgrades
By Mike Schneiter You know the scenario. You get to the anchor of a pitch of sport climbing at a popular crag, and the lowering ‘biners are heinously worn thin. Your inner dialogue runs through your head, “I’m sure I’ll be okay lowering. I’ll bring some new ones tomorrow.” Time and time again people make [...]
Saftey First
By Mike Schneiter A recent ice climbing accident on the Rigid Designator in Vail has garnered some attention, most notably because the error that caused the accident was something most climbers learn their first day out: never lower on a rope running through webbing slings, as it can burn through and sever them. Apparently this [...]
Speed Climbing Tips – Belay Exchanges
by Mike Schneiter Steve and I had set out that morning on what seemed like an audacious mission for two everyday climbers: 31 pitches of climbing with a few thousand feet of vertical gain, a 5 mile hike and a hitch-hiking return to Yosemite Valley. Our objective of climbing the classic Crest Jewel Direct on [...]
New Western Slope Guidebooks in the Works
I wanted to get the word out that there are new guidebooks currently in the works for the Western Slope. Yes, that’s books, plural, because it’s going to be a two part volume. Rifle will have it’s own book (volume 1), and then the rest of the crags in the area will have their own. [...]
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9/29/12
A Festive Fall Weekend
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7/11/2012
The 2012 International Climbers’ Festival
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