The ongoing weekend idiot report

[pigsteak]

who is Johnny?

[climb2core]

I am down with Johnny

[Josephine]

This weekend i saw a guy climb through about 15 feet of lichen to go off route to a hueco. Set him self up for a HUGE pendulum fall with several ledges below. Potential for serious injury. I talked him into calmly traversing the choss and to get back on his route. Then he proceeded to put his finger through the bolt (for which i yelled at him). Somehow he made it up and down the route w/o injury.

Same guy an hour later is telling his friends that if you send up an ATC to a climber that forgot theirs you must wrap it in a sweat shirt to protect the ATC from being damaged. He explained that if the ATC is scratched that it is no good and you can no longer use it. Nothing I could say would convince him otherwise.

It's kinda scary to be climbing next to a man who put himself into TWO very dangerous situations - doesn't realize it - and then thinks something is dangerous when it's really perfectly safe.

sigh.

Wow. I'd say that guy has about a 50/50 chance of being alive by 2013.

I know

[Clevis Hitch]

what song is that...are you a big johnny fan?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWCDBKx8Q_w

Much appreciated, I have never seen that, even though I'm a BIG Johnny fan...

[clif]

Judging by the declining quality of online blather, winter is almost upon us.

where am i to turn?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/1 ... ?ref=style

[cinciclimber2]

Last weekend I was telling a friend of mine to down climb a 25ft 5.5 at Chica Bonita in order to clean since he had forgot his ATC when a guy rudely starts to yell us from about four routes down that we shouldn't do that claiming he is part of the rescue team and had seen to many injuries this year. While I was annoyed and thought it was a little ridiculous as my friend is more than capable of safely down climbing a 5.5 I proceeded to lower him so I could clean the route myself respecting that he was looking out for the best. While he is still blabbing safety to us his partner cleaning the route they were on swings way out from the rock and hits a tree pretty hard. Could have been avoided if he'd been watching her and holding the rope while she rappelled. Then a little later I watch him give the same women a horrible static catch and she slams into the rock on a 5.12 that was clearly out of her limit, then instructs her to bail on the route with a single quicklink on one bolt. Seriously idiots at the crag are bad enough, don't be ignorant and rudely preach safety when you nearly injure/kill your partner three times in the same hour.

[ted]

why didnt your friend just lower through the rap rings? TR ing through fixed gear is bad. Lowering because you forgot your ATC on the ground is not. Cleaning a route via Lowering through gear or rapping is skills both you and your partner should know before you leave the ground on 5.5 or 5.12. be safe out there.

[dustonian]

munter hitch if you forget the device and really want to rap

[ted]

or two wraps around a locking biner works well(back it up). i prefer the minimalist hip/shoulder method.

[bcombs]

I think I missed something...

How is down climbing through the fixed gear more of an impact that lowering through it? I would presume down climbing a 5.5 there would be little or no weighting of the rope, right?