Depends. Since the cure (a crater) is worse than the disease.
The good news is that some people have lived full and satisfying lives with a climbing addiction by avoiding "the way of the gumby". Some climbers have even dabbled in gumbyism a bit and escaped unscathed,... (well OK, most of us did), but this is not advised.
But get some sling material, you don't want to be cutting up those sewn ones.
(and please, its Toker not Mr. Villain, aren't we still friends?)
Oh, but I liked Python R so much better! :D Just yankin' yer chain a bit...
Here's a doofus question (and for anyone that considers making fun of me, I have no fear of asking stupid questions because of the alternative to NOT asking them):
They are correct though, LilaB. I mostly use 9/16 tubular for slings,though I also have a few 1 inchers, & 1/2 for tieoffs. You won't need any of the 1/2's(for a bit, anyway).
The only stupid question is the one that you don't ask.
Careful - it's pretty slippery!
The rope will be handy when it's warm enough to climb. :-)
The last time I was there (way back in the day), it was with a bunch of fellow students, and I set up the ropes. But there was this one cute girl with long black hair who just started soloing up one of the faces, simply unaware of how slick it was and how quickly you can pop off. I noticed one of the strapping young lads was watching her incredulously as well. I just told him, "Go stand below her and catch her when she falls." He walked over, put his arms out, and shortly after she plunged and he caught her like it was nothing!
One of those great moments in climbing that you just can't script.
You and Muppet got that old 9 all untangled. Welcome to the spaghetti club! You know I got that from Ron Skelton via Mark Tuttle. I think Ron got it from Pettigrew who got it from Bridwell. :)
It hasn't quite got the history your Dad's rope has, but you'll make some of your own using it, I hope.
Your journey's just beginning, you know, so don't use up all your curses yet. You have a unique spot in our sport, a person being coached by some of the best in the business. I hope that the advice which you receive is taken and used by lots of others who may read these pages seeking knowledge and inspiration. It's one very good reason for the Taco's being, after all.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BfCqsPP3-yc
Here's a song for you, since you love the Shire. It's travelling music-- and we all want to visit and climb and pick up litter with you again when the stars conjoin in that manner...
Don't start buildering, dear. You are an officer of the court, for gosh sakes! HA!
HA!!! LMAO!!! MisterE, that skit is hilarious!!! Going to have to bookmark it. After I watch it again. ;D
Clint: Thanks for the head's up about the terrain. I'm fairly wary of NE rock generally having spent much of my time during summers growing up entertaining myself on rocks above & below the tide line. It's one thing to lose your balance on such rocks, but an entirely different story when your landing involves barnacles.
Crusher: Unfortunately, there was no companion book to my edition. But that looks like a total hoot! ") I confess that I look at buildings and overpasses, etc. in a whole new way...even the muppet calls out from the back seat whenever she spies a nice, big rock! I'll have to do some digging to see if I can find a copy somewhere. When I bought the book originally, it created a problem because it didn't have a price marked -- well, I wasn't going to leave without buying the ONE thing I went in to buy in the first place (lest my excuse for stopping in go "pouf"!).
As for Hammond Pond, I'm not so sure I'd call it a "cliff", but that's probably just as well. This time of year I'd want to ski it, anyway. Sigh. We have a baaaaad case of cabin fever. Spotting the rocks yesterday was a nice boost. I guess it's as good a time as any to investigate this so-called "sling material"...or maybe we'll head out to see if we can find some rocks in Miss Peabody's woods... :D
Probably a few Old Timers (i.e., Vulgarians, even though they are from NYC, THE HORROR!!) that met/knew your Dad... & would love to meet you....
Locally, we still have myself, Claude Suhl, Dick Williams, and Al DeMaria from the VMC, all of us still climbing even if none of us live in NYC anymore. A few more retired-from-climbing Vulgarians are scattered about nearby, Art Gran, Dave Craft, Roman Sadowy to mention three. All of us were contemporaries of Dolt, but I don't know if any of us knew him personally. I didn't, but I owned a few of his marvelous pitons, which were so gorgeously crafted it seemed criminal to abuse them by actually driving them into the rock. They abide, in pristine condition, somewhere deep in the cluttered recesses of my attic.
If you come down to the Gunks, pm me and I could try to gather a few of the old folks for a meeting, or we could all go out for some climbing if you'd like---scratch up some of that shiny gear you got there.
Beautiful day in Beatown today...we went for a short hike in Miss Peabody's woods. Found a single fabulous boulder with all kinds of problems to solve without getting too far off of the ground.
Goofy
Credit: LilaBiene
My penance for derailing the hike to scramble up the rock...
Let us know!