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Scott Hedrick wrote:
Don't you just hate it when they start moving?


It was a Wile E. Coyote moment, I tell ya, especially since that same rock
held me fine on the way down.


This is a fun website BTW: http://home.nc.rr.com/tuco/looney/acme/acme.html

Pat

"Pat Flannery" wrote in message
...


Scott Hedrick wrote:
Don't you just hate it when they start moving?


It was a Wile E. Coyote moment, I tell ya, especially since that same
rock held me fine on the way down.


This is a fun website BTW:
http://home.nc.rr.com/tuco/looney/acme/acme.html

I wasn't scared as I fell. It's nothing macho, I was just too busy digging
my fingers into the rock racing by.

Scott Hedrick wrote:
I wasn't scared as I fell. It's nothing macho, I was just too busy digging
my fingers into the rock racing by.

Sounds like me and the butte by Bismarck.
It was a big "badlands" type formation (not rock, but extremely hard
dirt, like dried adobe) and had a pretty vertical face where a road had
been cut through it.
So I had the brilliant idea that it would be very easy to climb; all I
had to do was cut hand and footholds in it with my geologic hammer and I
could scurry right up it. This worked like a charm, and soon I was on top.
Only one problem...once on top, there was no way to see where those hand
and footholds were when it was time to go over the edge and start back down.
So I decided to go down the side which was inclined at around 45 degrees
and covered with small loose pebbles.
....which is where I started sliding down the side at a ever increasing
rate until I arrived in the pile of cacti at the bottom, which drove
their needles through the sides of my tennis shoes, effectively nailing
them to my feet.
As I looked down at my shoes, and realized I was going to have to take
them off, I suspected that this was going to be a bit painful to do. I
was not to be disappointed in that regard. :-)


Pat

On Feb 3, 10:21 pm, "Scott Hedrick" wrote:
"Pat Flannery" wrote in message

...

I thought the whole flight was fascinating, and the view wonderful; but I
can guarantee you I don't remember it anywhere near as much as that time I
was up in the Bridger Range of mountains near Bozeman, Montana all on my
own, and hyperventilated to the point where I almost fell off the mountain
because of my senses getting muddled and unconsciousness setting in.
That was memorable, because if things had gone just a little differently,
it would have been all over.

Well, gee, Pat, *I* almost lost it at the Grand Canyon because of a poor
choice in picking the rock to put my weight on.

Where were you hiking/climbing? Off a designated trail?

Eric

"Scott Hedrick" wrote in message
...

"Pat Flannery" wrote in message
...

Well, gee, Pat, *I* almost lost it at the Grand Canyon because of a poor
choice in picking the rock to put my weight on.

Don't you just hate it when they start moving?

It was a Wile E. Coyote moment, I tell ya, especially since that same rock
held me fine on the way down.

My wife won't let me climb rocks anymore. Ropes are for pussies.

Nah.. rocks are for pussies. Now, climbing a 220' rope with nothing but you
and the rope... that's the way to go.

(Just did a couple of vertical caves in Georgia the other weekend. Still
both love and get afraid of being on that 11mm. (actually the 10mm was a bit
hairier, made me really think "did I rig this against rubbing well
enough?" )

Greg D. Moore (Strider) wrote:

Nah.. rocks are for pussies. Now, climbing a 220' rope with nothing but you
and the rope... that's the way to go.


Let me get this straight... you climbed _up_ a 220' foot rope unassisted?
And can see climbing down one, but up one even with the aid of
ascenders, sounds like something that Army Rangers would have trouble with.

Pat

"Pat Flannery" wrote in message
...


Greg D. Moore (Strider) wrote:

Nah.. rocks are for pussies. Now, climbing a 220' rope with nothing but
you and the rope... that's the way to go.


Let me get this straight... you climbed _up_ a 220' foot rope unassisted?
And can see climbing down one, but up one even with the aid of ascenders,
sounds like something that Army Rangers would have trouble with.

Well I used ascenders but yes. 220 feet of rope. In a gorgeous cave.

I've done at least one deeper cave.

The granddaddy of caves is Golondrinas in terms of single drop, over 1,100
feet.

And I've known a few people who have ascended half-dome.

It's not the ascent that's really a huge problem, that's just a matter of
being in shape.

It's the descent. It's sort of like re-entry.

You can descend quickly, but then have to decelerate more at the bottom, or
go slow the entire way.

Either way your descender will build up heat and if it gets TOO hot, starts
to damage the rope.

On some drops, folks wlil routinely spray water on their descender to keep
the temperature down.

(and then there's the aprophycal stories of folks coating their descent
device with Teflon... keeps the friction down doncha know... and that way
won't damage the rope as much.... If the stories are true (and at least one
decent source indicates they may be true) me thinks the caver sort of missed
the point. ;-)



Pat