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all this talk of day routes and scary stuff that hasn't seen many repeats or at least successful repeats.. kinda makes me want to try all the r and x stuff in the gorge after it gets too hot.. say july/august

anyone with me? i'll lead the pitches.. just need someone to belay, preferably with medical experience. we can call it the summer of survival (hopefully)..

im in

When I first started climbing I loved everything about it except the danger. But I was already hopelessly hooked by the time I saw my first issue of that great British climbing rag Mountain. I got a shock when, flipping through the pages, I came upon the obituaries section. The obits always had maybe one old codger that had died in his 80s or 90s, and, sadly, several young climbers that had gotten the chop at the absolute top of their games, usually in the Himalayas, sometimes in the Alps, and occasionally on some British horror show route like a slate sea cliff or such.

With this in mind I became really cautious about the pro and tended to sew routes up with pieces that I did my best to weld in place. Over time it got to be a real pain in the ass waiting for the second to clean the pitch, so I learned to place good gear that was easily removed. I got pretty good at it, and noticed that I frequently found "poorly protected" pitches to be not so difficult to protect at all. Slowly, like a some sort of pathetic junkie, I got hooked on the sport of turning Xs into Rs, and Rs into PGs. It was a ton of fun. Just glad I never had to pay the full price of admission to this intoxicating game. The culmination of this kind of stuff was a mixed route that Malcolm Daly and I did in RMNP. We called it Dazed and Confused. We had a 330 ft 9mm rope, and Malcolm lead one 300 ft pitch that had maybe one runner, then the last move on the last pitch was really hard, and at least 200 ft above the last piece. Again, it was Malcolm's lead. I never saw anybody with a cooler head than him in that kind of situation.

I never got that much into the soloing thing, however. It just didn't make sense to me. If I had a rope and some pieces I always believed I could keep my ass off the ground.

Day wrote:I never got that much into the soloing thing, however. It just didn't make sense to me. If I had a rope and some pieces I always believed I could keep my ass off the ground.

it's thin line, huh? somehow, i believe the same.. we've all got to be careful about beliefs, though..

rro wrote:im in

only say it if you mean it

are you talking about weekends or weekdays? if you're talking weekdays.. i'll do what i can but don't forget that i am the Paul3eb

Sure - the precedent was set with Milkin the Chicken. As long as I don't *have* to lead scary, doom-filled pitches, I'm down.

Corporate Whore wrote:kinda makes me want to try all the r and x stuff in the gorge after it gets too hot

Could this be the start of the angry Paul phase? You just need some death metal and some clips of Michael Reardon to get you psyched. But, please don't let the pendulum swing all the from emo to goth, as I don't think you would look good in all black.

weekdays for me chief, you know that

Hey wes, I saw Micheal Reardon this winter at Crossroads Coffee shop in Joshua Tree. Yes, he was wearing his red soling shirt.

BEDTIME FOR BONZO was a cool topout for the red.

oh and Chainsaw Massacre was good too.

There's a picture of Katie Brown working a finger crack at the Red in the new Mountain gear catalog. Any one know what route it is?