RRC Archives

p0bray01 wrote:junk is only facing one direction....to the wall...balls to the wall gentleman...balls to da WALLL.

Balls to the wall and boobs away?

the great wall also has 5.6 5.7 and 5.8 that are all quite easy too, if bruise and practice walls are both swarmed with ppls

"I will gladly dispose of any ropes that you took more than 5 falls on"

The fall rating on a rope has nothing to do with when you should retire it, my rope is rated at 13 fall factors of 1.85, and Mammut recommends retiring it after 52 days worth of sport climbing on it, or whenever it no longer becomes stretchy, or if it has sustained a fall factor of 1 during a 15 foot fall, or if it has a spot where the sheath is so worn that you can see the core, or at least has insane damage done to it.

"and any cams/quickdraws you may have dropped on the ground."

Well I have learned enough in the vertical caving world to know that a dropped caribiner, draw, ascender, or cam can have an invisible hairline crack in it that can only be detected by ultrasonic jaz, and I can only assume that your life isn't worth the $5 - $50 to replace it according to your post.

You climb your way and I'll climb my way, you know the way recommended by the people who make the gear you are climbing with.

Redpoint wrote: Well I have learned enough in the vertical caving world to know that a dropped caribiner, draw, ascender, or cam can have an invisible hairline crack in it that can only be detected by ultrasonic jaz,

This is yet another falsehood from you. Please, STFU about things that you have no idea about. As I said before, your really don't even know what it is you don't know. Keep with the 5.7 route beta, but leave any technical safety posts to people that know what they are talking about.

So all of the vertical cavers I know are wrong, please explain your findings, I am dying to know what source it is that said it's ok to keep using a piece of gear after it has been dropped...

I am sure there is some details I missed, like it has to have fallen so many feet on to solid rock in order to have a possible hairline fracture, or are you saying that its always ok to use no matter how far it's fallen on to solid rock?

I will have to ask my caving buddies where they obtained their information from. Some of them have been vertical caving for decades, so I find it hard to believe that they are all wrong about dropped gear.

I believe that it's possible they could be wrong, because maybe they are only going on word of mouth, and not actual scientific testing. I need to read Onrope 1, I bet it addresses this subject.

Well I have read a lot of car modding magazines that have addressed fractures in the head that can only be detected by ultrasonic tests, and so I find it hard to believe that this phenomenon isn't possible with climbing gear, I mean do you honestly believe that all hairline fractures can be found by just a microscope... I don't.

Redpoint wrote:You climb your way and I'll climb my way, you know the way recommended by the people who make the gear you are climbing with.

You do put up a valid point. As a die hard american, one thing that really tickles my wistle is when people use common sense. Don't you people know that detailed printed instructions are ALWAYS more correct than the obvious right choice??

Now, just like anything, being a "by the books" type of guy does have its downsides. My complete lack of analytical decision making often hinders me when I try to do simple tasks. For instance, before Starbucks started printing a "caution, very hot liquid" statement on their coffees, I often burned myself in the morning...

Now, some of you might say, "the overly safe precautions are just there for companies to avoid lawsuits and are a gross overestimation of reality." Ha! Don't these naysayers know that a company's first priority is NOT making money, its giving you (the customer) the safest, cheapest experience possible??

That was deep. The only reason I prefer placing the draws in the right position is because after I played around with gumbie clipping, I realized that it is a very real danger if you are doing a traverse. It wasn't just based on the fact that the manufacturer said "you should do it like this". I also figured you might as well just do it the right way, what excuse do you have not to: "Turning my wrist 180 degrees is inconvenient" just doesn't cut it for me.

...when a simple 5.7 sport route thread turns for the worst...

Redpoint wrote: Mammut recommends retiring it after 52 days worth of sport climbing on it,

53 days sport climbing = a bad rope. now THAT'S funny stuff.

Placing the draws in the "right" position is good but definitely not necessary...
and
Equipment made from steel should surely be replaced after dropped, or equipment made from cast aluminum, like old jumars. Hairline fractures in new forged aluminum from dropping is a myth. If your aluminum biner cracks, you can see it with the naked eye.