Public view of portaledge camping

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Messages 1 - 14 of total 14 in this topic

deuce4

climber

Hobart, Australia

Topic Author's Original Post - Dec 16, 2017 - 10:55am PT

Facebook gives us a glimpse of the inanity of people who have never seen a portaledge. The comments are hilarious.
https://www.facebook.com/SHTFPreps/posts/1638415159582773

jonnyrig

climber

Dec 16, 2017 - 11:36am PT

Interestingly enough (or not) I don't own a portaledge. However, I fancy the idea I might someday be a big-waller. To that end, last night I made a feeble attempt at sleeping in a hammock; because that's what I got.

Now this may not sound very interesting to you; but I tell you, it's a good thing it was dark outside at the time. Having slung the hammock between two trees in the back yard I proceeded to attempt the requisite acrobatics of inserting myself into a nylon sleeping bag on a nylon hammock, whilst wearing a tied-in harness, headlamp, and water bottle. If you've not had such an exhausting, exasperating enlightenment, GO and try it now!

Apparently one can EITHER get the sleeping bag over their feet OR drop it to oblivion while balancing precariously atop said hammock. One CANNOT fully immerse oneself simultaneously into/upon both the bag and the hammock. Greased pigs and snot on a doorknob ain't got nothing on the frictionless bond between that bag and the hammock.

After a good half hour fighting this whole monkey-football-clusterf*&k, I somehow managed to stick the whole feet-in-the-bag-on-the-hammock thing, somehow hoping the fleecy shirt and the beanie would retain the heat generated by the whole exhausted effort of it all. I think I either passed out from exhaustion or perhaps actually slept. That is for a good 1.5 hours, right up until the tenuous bond between feet/hammock/bag gave loose and I sort of slid out of the whole mess like a dead limp fish from a plastic bowl and land with a thud on the ground, some mere two feet below. No hammock, no bag, beanie askew and headlamp spotlighting my crumpled form for all the neighborhood to wonder just how drunk I was.

Portaledge.

It's on the Christmas list.

Lituya

Mountain climber

Dec 16, 2017 - 11:49am PT

WyoRockMan

climber

Grizzlyville, WY

Dec 16, 2017 - 01:26pm PT

johnnyrig, read Will Gadd's take on hammocks:

https://www.explore-mag.com/Gadds-Truth-Why-I-Hate-Hammocks

Byran

climber

Half Dome Village

Dec 16, 2017 - 08:20pm PT

This is off topic but its lame how these popular meme fb pages make thousands of dollars in ad revenue by just stealing photos and videos from other places

[Click to View YouTube Video]

zBrown

Ice climber

Dec 16, 2017 - 10:29pm PT

Let me sleep on it, but in the meantime bump for FB expose.

Remember back in the old daze when worth was determined by intrinsic value rather than views.
-El Voyeur

Tom

Big Wall climber

San Luis Obispo CA

Dec 16, 2017 - 11:17pm PT

Facebook won't let me see your link properly, unless I sign in. My Fakebook (fake Facebook) account is so old, I don't even remember what the username was.

I've camped on my portaledge a few times, and people like to come up and admire the setup. Some of them know what it is, even by name, but others just think it's a cot with no legs. It's unusual enough that it's a conversation piece, the way geodesic dome tents were about 40 years ago.

One thing that I've found when hanging it from a tree, even up against the trunk, is it tends to rotate down, headfirst, unless I hang my feet off the end a bit. In other words, it's best to keep one's C.G. (navel) right near the middle. Either that, or put some kind of support, like a cooler, under the short tube near your head.

JOHNNYRIG - a hammock between two trees is going to be worse than a hammock up against the side of a cliff, as far as difficulty in moving around. You'd be able to use your jumars or gri-gri to hang just above the hammock, get situated, and then lower yourself down.

And, I know you're not going to drop your sleeping bag to oblivion, because it's going to be tied in, like everything else on the Big Wall. Sew a big webbing loop onto it at the foot, and maybe another at the top.

The Third Rule of Chongo is, "It's not a matter of you might drop something on a Big Wall; it's a matter of when you will drop it."

kunlun_shan

Mountain climber

SF, CA

Dec 16, 2017 - 11:27pm PT

Tom, I don't use FB and can read the comments without logging in. Just click the "499 comments" directly below the photo. Then keep clicking "View more comments"....

Tom

Big Wall climber

San Luis Obispo CA

Dec 17, 2017 - 01:07am PT

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Thanks. That worked.

I'm so used to seeing comments printed right below a news story, I didn't even bother looking at the page very carefully.

I didn't even have to turn off my javascript blocker to see the comments.

donini

Trad climber

Ouray, Colorado

Dec 17, 2017 - 04:12am PT

Public view....underemployed, scraggly dudes inching up a wall in perfect rhythm to their supply of drugs and alcohol.

Don Paul

Mountain climber

Denver CO

Dec 17, 2017 - 06:45am PT

I did two big wall routes with a malfunctioning portaledge, I can't remember the name now but it would twist into an hourglass shape and toss me into the void. After a couple of those I rigged something with the haulbag and extra slings. This was on Zodiac in Yosemite and Moonlight Buttress in Zion. I remember in particular my partner laughing on one route and saying that for him, sleeping on his portaledge was the best part of the route. Also remember on the Nose the party below us never made it to their destination ledges and spent every night hanging in harnesses. In those days, the early 90s, not a lot of people had portaledges, even in Yosemite.