Thanks, Soubriquet. You're a frickin' genius!
Monday, November 30, 2009
Monday, November 09, 2009
Lower Mulberry Shenanigans
My friend Ryan and I floated the Mullberry from Turner Bend to Cambell's Cemetary yesterday. The 11-mile stretch has some nice rapids but you earn every one of them. The pools are long-long! Just to entertain ourselves, we hoisted this tree up and jammed it on another tree to make it look like a flood placed it there:
Saturday, November 07, 2009
DMG Responds to Kayaking Rumors
Springdale, Ar., Nov 09/FirstWire/DMG Gibberish Solutions (NYGE: DMG) responded today to rumors that it is giving up whitewater kayaking in favor of rappelling and other more terrestrial activities. The company insists that, while it hasn't paddled anything bigger than Fisher's Ford since May, it has absolutely no intention of quitting paddling. DMG's Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer Dave Renfro said, "We missed the best whitewater day of the year three weeks ago because we had made a previous commitment to demo climbing shoes at Horseshoe Canyon Ranch. We did not buy climbing shoes. Furthermore, the reports that my company attempted to barter it's drysuit for a collection of trinkets and beaded jewelry are categorically false."
DMG Gibberish Solutions is a leading supplier of gibberish for the playground padding, personal floatation, and mulching industries and is listed on the New York Gibberish Exchange.
DMG Gibberish Solutions is a leading supplier of gibberish for the playground padding, personal floatation, and mulching industries and is listed on the New York Gibberish Exchange.
Saturday, October 17, 2009
Cool Product Pick of the Week
Unlike most, this week's cool product pick really is cool! I finally had a chance to try out the Petzl Pirana rappel device that the UPS guy brought me. It's made to fit tightly on the Attache model carabiner also from Petzl which I already had. Unlike a traditional figure-of-eight, you can load the rope onto the Pirana without removing it from that carabiner, making it much harder to accidentally drop it. You can also vary the friction by routing one or both of the rope strands behind the two little ears on the bottom. In the photo, I'm using what Petzl calls "Fat-ass Mode" to get the maximum friction.
Minimalist Ascension Rig
All you need to ascend a rope is a pair of locking carabiners and a prusik loop. They stow pretty easily on your harness:
I had the best luck with asymmetrical "D" carabiners. I also used 6mm prusik cord which worked nicely on my 9mm rope. Getting the length just right took a bit of experimenting. It ended up reaching just above my shoulder when I stepped on it:
With a three-wrap prusik hitch and a girth hitch around my foot, it is just long enough to give me room to grab the rope above the rappel device and below the prusik hitch.
Instead of a second chest prusik, you can use two carabiners with a garda hitch. It will act like a ratchet. This is what the garda hitch looks like loose:
When you pull the slack through with your brake hand, the hitch walks up until the load strand wraps around the spines of the two carabiners causing them to clamp down on the brake strand. Try it sometime. It is rock solid!
It's a bit hard to photograph yourself ascending with a garda hitch so you'll have to trust me that it works. The key is to take big bites with the foot prusik. Wrap the brake strand around your hand so it doesn't slip and haul the slack through powerfully as you stand up in the foot loop. It takes practice. After a few trips, I rappelled halfway down the huge 20-foot cliff I found, tied myself off, set up my minimalist ascension rig, and ascended back up. You need to tie the garda hitch below your descender, obviously:
This can all be done with gloves on. From here, you have to stand in the foot loop while you remove the rope from the descender. This is a busy task so no photos. Once your snug against the garda hitch, you can take a break and shoot a photo of yourself hanging five feet from certain death.
I wouldn't want to haul myself up El Capitan using this rig just because of the friction pulling the slack through the garda hitch, but as a self-rescue device, you really can't beat it. It's cheap and it doesn't tear up your rope.
I had the best luck with asymmetrical "D" carabiners. I also used 6mm prusik cord which worked nicely on my 9mm rope. Getting the length just right took a bit of experimenting. It ended up reaching just above my shoulder when I stepped on it:
With a three-wrap prusik hitch and a girth hitch around my foot, it is just long enough to give me room to grab the rope above the rappel device and below the prusik hitch.
Instead of a second chest prusik, you can use two carabiners with a garda hitch. It will act like a ratchet. This is what the garda hitch looks like loose:
When you pull the slack through with your brake hand, the hitch walks up until the load strand wraps around the spines of the two carabiners causing them to clamp down on the brake strand. Try it sometime. It is rock solid!
It's a bit hard to photograph yourself ascending with a garda hitch so you'll have to trust me that it works. The key is to take big bites with the foot prusik. Wrap the brake strand around your hand so it doesn't slip and haul the slack through powerfully as you stand up in the foot loop. It takes practice. After a few trips, I rappelled halfway down the huge 20-foot cliff I found, tied myself off, set up my minimalist ascension rig, and ascended back up. You need to tie the garda hitch below your descender, obviously:
This can all be done with gloves on. From here, you have to stand in the foot loop while you remove the rope from the descender. This is a busy task so no photos. Once your snug against the garda hitch, you can take a break and shoot a photo of yourself hanging five feet from certain death.
I wouldn't want to haul myself up El Capitan using this rig just because of the friction pulling the slack through the garda hitch, but as a self-rescue device, you really can't beat it. It's cheap and it doesn't tear up your rope.
Sunday, October 11, 2009
The Healing Waters of Lee Creek
My friend John and I floated Lee Creek from the usual ACC takeout down about ten miles to what they call Natural Dam. Because of water levels and some other reasons, this section that didn't get cleaned during the 2nd Annual Lee Creek Cleanup Day in September that drew about 200 volunteers. I don't know how much two guys in one canoe can do to clean ten miles of river bank, but we did our best to get the really ugly stuff. We met a landowner about half way down who was kind enough to dispose of the used tire and other trash we collected. That lightened up our load so we could pick up more stuff. It was my first time ever in a canoe and the third time for John's 2 1/2 month-old border collie who has no idea how incredibly lucky she is. At the end of the day, it was much less about picking up trash and much more about two friends and a dog enjoying a beautiful stretch of river that doesn't get paddled very often. We we're the only ones on it because no one else wanted to "waste" a day of great whitewater somewhere else just to paddle ten miles of Class I. It hardly felt like a wasted day.
