Todd, good times indeed. Enjoyed sharing a rope with you. I have not seen the thread you mentioned so I will do a search.


"Our 0.4 Cam or Bill's Good Karma"
Last year I headed out to the Gunks one weekend. On my rack was a very new .4 BD cam. Some good climbing through the day led my partner and I to finish on Limelight. I led off, and early in the climb I tried to place that fine and shiny piece of aluminum. Alas, it was too small. I placed the cam on the ledge at my waste and opted for the .5 can instead. With solid gear I climbed off.

The climb finished, we returned to the base re-racked and got ready to head for home. ...but where was that little .4 cam.?. We looked all over but we couldn't find it.

Later that day, Bill and his partner started up Arrow. Low and behold, there on a ledge not too far off the ground was a shiny new .4 cam. What luck! Booty, and it's new!! Bill must have thought his angels were shining on him.



So I lost my cam. I figured I owed it to the booty gods. Heck, I've picked up my fair share. You win some you loose some, right? Besides, I hung on the crux of Limelight. Perhaps instead of killing a puppy, god just took my cam.

Then, a few days later while roaming around here on RC, I noticed someone had posted asking if anyone had found their #1 pink tri-cam... Really? I chuckled to myself. Asking for an $8 piece back? But, that made me think. If this guy is going to ask for a tri-cam back... Aw shit, nothing ventured nothing gained. So, I posted and asked if anyone had found my cam.

I didn't even know where I had lost the thing, mind you. I said in my post that it may have been in the thin slabs area, as I though I had lost it there in the leaves. I couldn't imagine that not only had I left it sitting right out in the open on a ledge, but that my partner would have climbed right by it also...

A couple days later Bill became my hero. Even a bit of a Santa. He posted that he had my cam (How did he know it was mine? It wasn't even near where I had said.) He mailed it back to me at his expense saying that I should owe him a beer.

Well, shit. I couldn't have been happier! When the cam arrived in Nov, I hung it on our Christmas tree. A Christmas present indeed!



I still owe Bill a beer. Formally at least. Hell I owe him a whole case! You should here him tell the story of the one that got away too. '...I once caught a cam that was THIS big...' At least he got to use it this past weekend.


Thanks Bill !!!

I took my dad for his second rock climb ever this weekend. He is 69. Turns 70 next month.

Standard Route on Whitehorse Ledge:


TR to follow.

I spent the weekend running our 4th annual Birdsboro clean and climb.

OR...

Drinking+climbing at your lead limit by moonlight=bashed head and lots of blood

The Climb and Clean was awesome; we accomplished all of our very major infrastructure projects. Although we were not successful removing years of caked up chalk on the classic climbs.

We raised enough funds to run our operation next year and formalize our community into a non profit organization. We hope to start a climbing academy for "at risk" youth. This has been a long term dream for me and I am hoping that this will be the first step torwards that goal.

We did have 1 incident (see above)...a group of climbers decided to climb (after liberal availability of beer) up a climb that was at their lead limit. The leader apparently missed a bolt at the crux, flipped over and hit her unhelmeted head on the rocks below. Lots of blood (I have a photo of the blood stained rock) but she managed to survive the night and walk out in the AM. Kind of scary!

I’m a lurker, but I thought I’d make a delayed (two weekends ago) contribution to this thread. Since moving to Oregon from Chicago about a year ago, I’ve finally become a weekend warrior instead of a “couple of times a season” warrior. The highlight of the season so far was a trip to Smith Rock two weekends ago.

On Saturday, we went to Mesa Verde Wall for the shade and the classic nubbin-studded sport routes. With no easier climbs to warm up on, we dove right in and started on Cosmos, 5.10a. My calves got a flash pump from standing on the little nubbins! Calves duly warmed up, I onsighted Screaming Yellow Zonkers, a 30-meter 5.10b and Planet Luxury, a slightly more than 30-meter 5.10c with a fun arête + nubbin crux at the top. The sun had almost caught up to us by then, so we hiked over to the Red Wall, where we did a couple of short but fun sport climbs (Dances with Clams and Finger Puppet). I finished the day with some laps on one of them, pushing my limits by not chalking up during the route, although I wasn’t willing to go so far as to leave my chalk bag on the ground. This has been my first season feeling really solid on 5.10 sport, so this was a very satisfying day of climbing.

Sunday, I climbed one of the must-do routes to do at Smith. My partner and I got up at 5:15 am and hiked over to Monkey Face as the sun came up. We climbed the “West Face Direct Variation.” While the guidebook lists it as a variation of a variation, it seems like the most logical and high-quality route to the top that goes at a moderate grade (5.8). I led a trad pitch that had some loose rock, then my partner led a really fun corner. Following the corner, I hung the second rope and the pack below me in anticipation of chimneying, and they instantly felt like they weighed 50 pounds! I was huffing and puffing by the time I finished the corner, but I made it without falling. I got my first taste of aid climbing on the third pitch, a bolt ladder that goes up the overhanging section from a ledge to the monkey's mouth cave. The real highlight of the climb was the fourth pitch, called “Panic Point.” My partner agreed to do the climb on the condition that I lead this pitch. I wouldn’t have had it any other way! You lean out of the cave to find some jugs, then step out onto a vertical face over hundreds of feet of air. This insane exposure lasts for a few bolts, then you weave your way around the nose boulder and up some easy ledges to the summit. After hanging out on the summit long enough to have a bite to eat and bake in the sun for a bit, we tackled the descent, a two-rope, free-hanging rappel off the monkey’s nose. The Panic Point exposure all over again, but this time hanging from a string and spinning around in the wind! Despite our early finish, we were perfectly content to call it a day after that route.

This was a great weekend of climbing, and it got me very excited to make more trips to Smith as it cools down this fall. I’m free all weekend!

We gotta get crackin'! Either that or change the title. hehe

Too bad you're leaving Gail.. i want to get on Modern times too. my working friday and saturdays and having sunday and week days free messes with most folks schedule tho :/