I can remember two incidents of being lost now, but Funk Rock is the only one that really stands out in my mind. That was epic! Your sunglasses are still there somewhere, poluting the environment. Or was it Diego's sunglasses? I forgot.

Weren't you and Jermy the two gumbies that spent 3 days doing a 3 pitch easy aid choss tower in Moab?

You've gotta be fucking kidding me....

My first thought upon reading that was, "What established guide in her right mind would want to be even loosely associated with Jeremiah?" There's a major risk there, without any obvious benefit.

I can only imagine how he would respond to a complicated emergency.

I'm sure he'll tell us.

One thing a few people are missing - Greg isn't really a strong climber. He doesn't pretend to be, doesn't say he is, and definitely doesn't act like he is (you know, like I do ).
He has climbed a fair amount and knows what he's about, and he certainly luuuuuuuvvvvvvzzzzzzzzz to make his blog posts dramatic (such is his style) but he's a sound lad.

I don't get why J-dude is getting all emo on us, though.

The second day was entirely my fault. I was still suffering the lingering effects of an ankle sprain and this was my first time aiding anything, ever. Yeah it was a bolt ladder, but I was freaked by the quarter-inchers with wingnuts and I hadn't climbed at all in about three months (i.e. - I was slow due to a bum ankle, lack of aiding experience, and a complete lack of exercise the past few months).

Yea... i liked this bit..

"We both had some trouble at the top." - re: 5.7

"I thought it would be an easy warm up to get started on because it looked that way from the bottom." -re: 5.11b onsite "warm up"

sorry bud.. no one that onsites .11's struggles on 5.7.... anywhere. ever.

I used to write about my conquests too.
Then I realized no one gives a shit, so should you.

But then, I try my hardest to learn from my mistakes. I'm sure you do too.

Desert towers, even short ones, are no joke. This is why I so strongly suggested that you spend some time in the Boston area really practicing your systems in advance of your trip. Instead, it seems you soaked up lots of precious vacation time to learn the fundamentals of aiding, and getting the first few failures out of the way. Basically, you set yourself up for failure.

And I'm afraid you may have been setting yourself up for failure, too, by trying to lead so much of Moby Grape. Jen is a stronger climber than you, especially when it comes to crack climbing. Cannon climbs do require some proficiency in jamming, both hands and feet. Only if you're climbing waaay below your limit will you be able to avoid them. I believe that when I did the triangular roof, I basically had a bomb-proof hand and foot jam after pulling through the roof. For someone so reticent to learn to crack climb, so willing to try every move outside of the crack to avoid jamming in it, falling off the slab atop the triangular roof is, sadly, almost predictable.

Just the same, I have no problem with you finding your own way, however tortuous it may seem from my perspective. No doubt, many would find some elements in the path I've taken through life entirely ridiculous and predictable. But then, I try my hardest to learn from my mistakes. I'm sure you do too. And perhaps for you, blogging is part of the process of learning? Dunno.

GO

I didn't have the opportunity to prepare in Boston before I left. For one, the trip started the last week of March and; two, the trip started right at the outer limits of when my ankle was starting to heal. I think I climbed once in the gym three days before I flew out just to test it, and I wouldn't have been there for more than an hour or so. I was fully prepared to be a belay slave and be slow all vacation. The vacation was a success, even if the climbing wasn't as great as I would have liked it to be.


Yeah, well, I know that now. Still, I was very close to gaining that ledge that is up to the right (as in, about an inch away, and I had already felt it out before, so I knew what I was going to). I don't doubt for an instant that if I was a better crack climber I would have found the roof easier, but I also don't think one has to foot jam because of how close I was with only one hand jam and two smearing feet.

Still, my strategy will certainly have to change next time.


To each his own. There have been much greater climbers who have made bigger mistakes than me. I certainly try to learn from my mistakes, but I think that learning part is generally pretty personal for me. Sure, I talk about it on the blog (and you're right, writing does help me to think things through). But by personal I mean that as "I have to make this decision and I have to live with it." I can certainly live with all of the days I've had on Cannon and can live with going back up again this fall (if the ankle heals. It's not nearly as bad a sprain as the one I had this winter, but I still feel it - hopefully I'll be better when I go climbing again in two weeks).

Actually, he doesn't. This thread-- after the BOTR debacle--is evidence that there's little to no hope for improvement.

His determination to learn nothing from mistakes is one of the more depressing aspects of this entire debacle. What makes it worse is that he's not an outlier. Each day I see more folks who are truly convinced, that their opinion on absolutely any topic is at least as good as anyone else's. That sort of hubris is annoying when it comes to topics like writing. But it's genuinely dangerous in the mountains.

This whole defensiveness thing you have going on is getting tedious. Maybe you should reread your sig.

Cracklover was commenting on Greg's trips, not on Jeremiah. There is some confusion due to Greg and Jeremiah sharing a blog and Greg announcing Jeremiah's blog updates.

Cracklover was commenting on Greg's trips, not on Jeremiah. There is some confusion due to Greg and Jeremiah sharing a blog and Greg announcing Jeremiah's blog updates.

Yes, I know. I was also commenting on Greg's posting here, both in the BOTR thread and this one. He's repeatedly made errors of fact and judgment, condescended to the few folks who gently offered helpful or corrective suggestions, slagged off one of the best-respected climbing guides on the West Coast, and finally argued that incompetent, lazy and ignorant are good things to be, and that anyone who believes otherwise is a dangerous elitist who wants everyone else to eat from spoons. Whatever that means.

He may well be nice enough in person. But his online persona in these threads has been hopeless. And as I noted, if he were an outlier, it would be easy to just write off the entire deal. But he's not.

Sites like this one-- and blogs like the one under discussion -- have become the public face of our sport. God help us.

There is some confusion due to Greg and Jeremiah sharing the same blog; the same gumby tendencies; the same inordinate defensiveness; the same bloated sense of importance; the same incapacity to learn from criticism; and the same verbose, melodramatic writing style.

Jay

Sites like this one-- and blogs like the one under discussion -- have become the public face of our sport. God help us.

Sites like this one-- and blogs like the one under discussion -- have become the public face of our sport. God help us.