Petzl Reverso III and the Black Diamond ATC-Guide

I am a big fan of the auto-block belay devices. The Petzl Reverso III and the Black Diamond ATC-Guide are the two I have used a lot.



I have bought my own Reverso IIIs and older Reversos before that. And bought as well as been given the newestBlack Diamond ATC-Guide. It is not unusual for me to give skinny rope belay devices to my partners. Not everyone climbs on or likes 7.7 twin ropes. Since they are belaying me,I think giving away a high quality belay device it is a good investment. Generally I have given awayATC Guides because, I have beengiven several in turn, andthe Petzl is more expensive and harder to find.



Hard climbs and skinny ropes in the future? I'll make a point to loan mypartner a Petzl Reverso III ;-)



Rapping the Pencil or the Midi bridge makes you a believer.











I generally use either a a 9.1 Beal Jokeras a single rope or a set of 7.7mm Beal Ice Twins. So a belay device that will work in auto-block mode, rapping and regular belay mode with thin ropes is important to me. For my use on the thinner ropes I think the Reverso works better than the ACT Guide when belaying off the anchor.



The direction of the clip in point is different. I find the Perzl much more user friendly. Bd's version clip in point is at right anglesto the Petzl.



If you are using a rope fatter than a 10mm get the ATC guide. The Reverso gets sticky in auto mode as the ropes get bigger. 10mm seem to be the auto block limit on the Reverso III.



Neither company'sbelay device is very durable. If they actually anodize the aluminum it has to be the worse anodizing job in the world. As both companies belay devices wear quickly on the surface. So toss up there. Also don't buy the silver colored (clear anodizing) versions. The directions (if you ever need them) on the belay device disappear within days of first using the clear version.



Other belay device reviews that are worth a moment to read and a lot more comparisons on Supertopo gear reviews. More rock gear reviewed therethan I will ever see, let alone use. FWIW they are reviews I trust to be accurate.



http://www.supertopo.com/review/Black-Diamond-ATC-Guide



http://www.supertopo.com/review/Petzl-Reverso-3



weights of the newest version by both companies



Petzl Reverso III weighs in at 76g.

BD ATC Guide (new version) weights in at 90g.





Reverso3 - the ultimate belay/rappel device for... by Petzl-crew





REVERSO - How to belay & rappel by Petzl-crew

Going to Mt. Taylor

The other day we went to Mt. Taylor, just to the north of Grants, NM. We had not been out there for about 10 years and had forgot just how far it was from our home in Rio Rancho. And how long that desolate road full of nothing was between here and there. Here are some photos of the highway and the 'nothing' we saw on the way. There were a few interesting rock formations in some areas. It seemed there were as many big freight trucks as there were regular cars and pickups.

Success, failures and a happy thrashing to all!

Since my return to rock climbing this past summer, Laura and I have been very busy doing crag work and climbing as much as possible. My shoulder injury from last winters rail antics at 7 Springs seemed to take forever to heal into climbable shape. Starting slow and climbing mostly on 5.11 and under seemed to be working at improving my weak shoulder. After only a short time back and feeling a better I upped the stakes and decided to tryPinch Me I'm Dreaming a 5.12+ mixed gear line at The Knobs in Dunbar, PA. The climb went pretty well, except that I aggravated my shoulder during the ascent. Once again I eased back down to vast amounts of sub 5.10's and easing into 11's for the past several months trying to heal it more. I've since recovered enough and managed to climb a few easy 12's without more injury and am feeling OK, but definitely not 100%. I really want to get back into projecting routes and being able to push harder, but I've been nervous about further injury and destroying myself for ice season. Yesterday Laura and I decided to ride into River's End Crag and climb there for a few hours. We climbed several climbs and I decided it was time to see how healed I was. I decided to drop a rope on Sludge Factory a 5.12+ that I've yet to red point. I figured the top rope was best that way I could safely test my shoulders thresholds without over doing it due to red point determination. I've only tried the route a few days since equipping it back in late . Its seen a couple of ascents that I know of and is a solid route for the grade. To date the best I've done is one hang it. There are two very distinct cruxes on this route. One is making it past the first bolt, the second is surmounting the large overhang at the top. In past efforts the top crux has been my Kryptonite. I'm usually so pumped that hanging in for the last clip is not within my abilities and off flying I usually go waiting to hit the ledge below. Yesterday was just the opposite. The bottom crux rocked my world in every conceivable fashion and the upper went without a hitch despite needing a good brushing. I hope this is the sign of better things to come. I've been waiting patiently trying not to hurt myself, but I really miss working near my limits. I've been recently given the pleasure of watching people on our new routes and have throughly enjoyed seeing both success and failure. Not failure because I'm glad they didn't succeed, but glad in a sense that I remembered how much fun failing can be. Failing means you get to have more days perfecting sections that are "tricky" for you, which in turn makes you a more fluid climber. I haven't met a climber that doesn't like success. The more effort, the sweeter the success. Even after the greatest successes I've found that the "send high" is only a short lived moment of glory that is quickly eclipsed by the next line looking to smack you down. Yesterday was just that for me, the fun part... working the line... getting beat by it and getting to come back and try again another day. Failing just means another day of climbing!

Equipping Sludge Factory in

One of the amazing events I recently witnessed was Laura having a great break through this past week. After being dejected by the crux start ofDeliverance5.11+ at Bruner Run on many attempts, she worked out an inspiring sequence that proves that short folks CAN do this line. Using obscure stemming and showing extreme flexibility, she managed to get a clean send. It was quite funny how convinced she was that it was "impossible for her". She declared that it was a line that she'd never get due to the long reach. Only by pure determination and serious effort was she rewarded with the realization that she could send harder lines... Her display of cranking convinced me that I needed to get back to trying harder despite my shoulder. To put the plan in motion, I'm declaring war on Sludge Factory after a couple rest days. Then its on with Devil's Doorway a project route thatI put anchors on Monday. Its a hard line that repeatedly spit me off years ago when I was a stronger climber. Will I ever send it? Hopefully...or not. Getting to try it once again without injury will be reward enough for me! Happy Climbing



On another note be sure to check out the Ohiopyle climbing guide I've put together in blog form. You can find it on the menu at the top of my page! I'm also working on updating my old Breakneck information and making it available. If you find these useful, drop me a comment. I'd be happy to create guides for other SWPA crags if y'all would like them.

Mono Lake

Mono Lake near the town of Lee Vining in east-central California.October 11, ..

Red Wild Flowers

When we went to the mountains about a week ago we found these tiny, red wildflowers.

Gretton - Harringworth - Seaton - Lyddington - Thorpe by Water - Gretton

11.5 miles, with Barry, Eddie, Gordon, Maureen. Sunny, very warm day.





The sun was shining in Gretton, though some of the valley was in mist. We followed the Jurassic Way from Gretton, out past Harringworth Lodge, and over the fields, across the road from Deene to Harringworth and into Shotley.









Two views of reflections on the very still lake near Harringworth Lodge.





A goods train on the Welland viaduct, seen from just above Shotley. You can see Harringworth church steeple and further back, Seaton church.





From Shotley we walked into Harringworth, taking the footpath past the stables, and through the churchyard. The church was open - it was cleaning day.



Inside the church is a plaque commemorating Fanny Maria Blaydes, nee Page Turner, who died aged 64. She was the wife of the Vicar of Harringworth. On 21st August 1884, she was returning home in a pony phaeton, from a visit to friends in Gretton. The pony took fright for some reason and reared up. Mrs Blaydes fell out and died on the spot. There was an inquest in the Swan Inn, Harringworth, and the Rev Blaydes later had a stone placed by the road where she died. The full story was published in Taking Stock No 1, by the Gretton Local History Society.

The stone is inscribed

Hic Obit

FMB, Aug . . .1884

Sudden death, sudden glory.

I'd noticed the stone several times, but was intrigued in Jan 2005, when I saw that someone had left flowers there. A sad footnote on the plaque in the church was that one of their sons died at sea at the age of 21.

Eggs for sale in Harringworth.The path goes alongside the house, but was a bit tricky to follow properly.I have several photographs of Seaton church through the viaduct - this is Harringworth church, looking back from the valley floor.Once we had found our way back to the correct path, we crossed the Welland, and made our way round the renovated farm, through a 'stile' where you slide the bars through the posts, and out to the road between Caldecott and Seaton. We crossed this and almost immediately on our right was the path over the disused railway up towards Seaton. From Seaton we took Grange road, which became a track and led us gradually down to Lyddington, passing by, but not climbing nearby hills.We are not sure what this is - on Lyddington village green.

From Lyddington we walked up Thorpe Road, with its double hill, then down towards Thorpe by Water. We didn't go into Thorpe, but took the footpath opposite Thorpe Road, after crossing the road between Caldecott and Harringworth. This crosses a couple of fields, then goes under another disused railway, and over the Welland on a bridge with one handrail.We followed the river for a while, until crossing a field towards some trees, where the path comes out near a farm building. From here the path continues up hill by a hedge, then cuts across a field to a gate. At this point we crossed the railway line which is still in use, and after another kissing gate, made our way through a field with evidence of ridge and furrow. We came out at the gate behind the church.



The trees are changing colour down near the river.

Happy Easter

Wishing all a very Happy Easter. Make sure to find all the hiden eggs but don't get a belly ach eating to many goodies.

Biking the Cannon Valley Trail

On Tuesday this week we were inRed Wing, MN to bike the Cannon Valley Trail. The day started off wonderfully, with temps in the low 60's and overcast skies but no rain! The last hour of our ride, though, we were accompanied by a heavy drizzle which left us pretty wet by the time we got back to the car. We rode approx. 30 miles that day.








Some sections of the trail were covered in leaves.








There were several nice wooden bridges along the way...








Jessica enjoying the forest scenery along the trail.








Loved this picture-perfect curve with the wooden bridge!












This bridge was pretty impressive.









Taking a break and checking out this cool map of the trail in Welch, the half-way point (roughly) between Red Wing and Cannon Falls.








Beautiful section of trail elevated above the river.








Lots of benches along the way too! We enjoyed a trail snack at this particular bench.








Fun sign at the entrance to someone's driveway that crossed the trail.








Jessica and her Surly Cross-Check enjoying the awesome trail!

Morning Glory

The PBR

The PBR or Professional Bull Riders is the only sport I really follow. I always said I would never get involved in a sport like some people do with football, basketball, baseball, soccer, golf (did you notice all of these are 'ball' games). The people who follow theses sports know all the players, and all the winners, and all rules, and all the big moments in the sport.

Well, I did get involved with a sport. But it is the 'roughest sport on dirt'. Most of the riders start in the minor rodeo events and work their way up to the PBR. It is a rough, hard climb to get there and most of the rodeo riders never make it. The top 35 riders in the rodeo bull riding events are allowed to compete in the PBR. They have to win points and money to qualify. Another words they have to be good at what they do and not be afraid of getting hurt. It isn't if you get hurt, it's when, 'cause it will happen.

I have been following the PBR since it was started 20 years ago and always wanted to go to the Ty Murry Event when it is held each March here in Albuquerque, NM. I finally got to go last Sunday for the last day of the 3 day event. It was fantastic.

The event might have been fantastic but my photos aren't. I'm still not that good with my new camera and in the flashing lights, spinning, whirling, bucking, bulls made for hard to take photos so I didn't get any really good photos. But here are a sample. The videos I took with the same camera did come out better but I can't get them to download.


There were a lot of noise and on the ground fireworks when it first started.



This is the cowboy and horse who's job it was to rope the bull and get it out of the arena if the bull didn't leave on his own. The area is the University of New Mexico Basketball arena. They bring in heavy tarps, then plywood, then tons and tons of dirt and the chutes for the bulls. It is the smallest arena of all the PBR events. It looks small on TV but looks even smaller when you are there.








The rider is getting onto the bull in the chute. The men with the rode are ready to open the gate when he says to.In the red shirt is Shorty, one of the 3 bull fighters that keep the bull off of the rider when he comes off. The ride is only for 8 seconds, if the rider can stay on that long, and usually they don't.







Flint Rassmussen is an ex-bull fighter turned comedian who entertains the fans while the riders are getting ready to ride.



This is Crag Hummer, a well known sports announcer, and Ty Murry, 7 time world champion all-round cowboy, who started the PBR, and announces with Crag. They are the ones that do the TV announcing but there is a different announcer that you hear if you are actually at the event. Our seat was just 6 rows from where they were sitting to do the TV part.



Got these out of order here, this is the winner of the event, Joao Ricardo Vieiro, one of the Brazilian riders, and his first event win. Since this is an International event there are riders from the US, Brazil, Canada, and Australia. And we like them all. Many people are fans of the bull more than the riders. At this event were the two most popular bulls, Bushwhacker and Asteroid, who have each won the Bull of the Year award.



Here is a view of the arena and the seats. Thats 40 very steep steps down to the bottom and we were close to the bottom. Great for seeing everything up close but climbing out was a workout.







After an event the bull riders circle the area signing anything you want them to sign. I got the autographs of 3 riders and as I was leaving the I almost ran into a retired rider that I have always admired, and whowon the PBR World Title of 1997,Michael Gaffney, who was nice enough to autographed my program.

If you want to know more go to www.pbr.com

Old Bird

this is a very old Christmas decoration that my mom gave to me when I first had my own home. She had the birds long before I was born, so I am not sure how old they really are. Maybe early 1940's.

Terminated

This is a macabre post, so avert your eyes (or check out this site) if you don't like to think about anything really, really, really cute being injured, shot or killed!

As you can see, we have "Pickles." Pickles is a Cascade Fox. And unless you're an insensitive brute, most people would consider him a very adorable little guy. The problem is, Pickles was so charming, that he attracted a lot of friends, and with those friends came problems. This week, Pickles had to be euthanized (i.e. shot) because he was seriously injured. The general feeling is that he was injured because he was fed by humans.

So the story goes, Pickles was injured (or ensnared) a few weeks ago. Since then, he's been seen pathetically limping around the park near the road between Longmire and Paradise (let me say that this was not a very pleasant sight to witness). No one is sure what it was that exactly injured him, but something did destroy his right front leg. The general thought is that it was probably a vehicle, but maybe a trap. We really don't know. What IS known is that Pickles loved human food and became habituated to humans behavior. With that habituation came problems. The NPS biologist had this to say on the matter,

"After consultation with two wildlife veterinarians, we decided that this animal did not have reasonable prospects for survival in the wild. The leg injury was severe and there was some indication that there was head injury as well. This Cascade fox was fed by people well prior to the injury (even after the injury). Fed animals like this one quickly found that hanging around the frontcountry and roads between Longmire and Paradise was really rewarding. What the feeding public does not understand is that what they do has consequences - some very serious consequences.

This was the third Cascade fox/vehicle collision recorded since 2005. All were fed animals or cubs of fed animals. Vehicle occupants and wildlife are at risk when aimals are fed. Like the old adage with bears - fed wildlife most often result in dead wildlife.

Addressing the park's wildlife feeding problem is a big task that is going to take a while. We've been working to increase awareness of the issue with park staff and visitors but have a long way to go. We're seeking help from social scientists, trying different ways of getting information to the public, and are seeking funding to help reduce the problem. Please help me get the word out.

So here's the word. Don't feed the wildlife! Or...