It's more like 3-4 hrs away but I really enjoyed the climbing in the Cuneo area (Castello-Provenzale Group, Rocca la Meja, Corno Stella, etc) and the tourist+climber traffic is pretty minimal (we saw only one other climbing party the whole time). They get the same good weather as Briancon (more reliable than the rest of the alps for some reason) but without the crowds of the french side. We relied on Guliver topos/trip reports and had no real issues. The food+wine in that region is awesome too (Barolo, Castelmagno, Bresaola, etc).

RIP Opies. Heard some murmurs that the climbing coalition was working to get it reassessed but that was a few years back

Funicular mower system. Genius.

Only thing worse than a pedant is an incorrect pedant. It's a volcanic plug.

That's good to hear (and it's good to see other positive comments in this thread). As I said, this was a while ago and who among us doesn't have some instances of regretful behavior as a young adult.

I find her self-promotion to be exhausting and border on dishonesty in some cases, and everyone I know who's interacted with her substantially (climbers+nonclimbers, men+women) has some negative anecdote, though I've never met her personally, and these are all >5 year old interactions so who knows whether the intervening time has changed anything.

She has a solid list of accomplishments and has parlayed these accomplishments into a long-term sports figure career that's hard to fault her for, but her overselling of her own exceptionality and the litany of people who have only negative experiences to tell make it hard to get excited about this or see it as more than a puff piece.

I believe Horton Heat has a song about this situation.

The straps are great - still quite comfortable and effectively 'like new'. I did wind up having the local used gear shop reinforce the stitching on the shoulder straps (where they meet the pack) after a year or so of overstuffing it and using it every weekend. That's my one gripe - everything else is well thought out and sturdy.

There's no way a 25L or less pack is going to be carrying everything on your list. Even if you could somehow cram everything in, the weight of an overstuffed pack really pushes the limits of those smaller packs' seams - the sewn attachment points of the shoulder straps and hip belt will pull apart much faster than the rest of the pack and are a PITA to repair.

I use a 32L pack (Salewa Apex Wall) for what you describe and it's almost imperceptibly less comfortable than my 22L osprey mutant while climbing and substantially more comfortable on the approach - once you're racked up you can cinch down the side straps to shrink the volume, though it does get in the way of chalking up. As far as other suggestions, if you're looking at the speed 30 you might as well also look at the BD Blitz 28 which might be more suited to your needs.

A 120lb elderly person riding a 45-60Lb bike at 20+MPH on pedestrian pathways is a mess waiting to happen. The fact that he was exaggerating for effect doesn't make the actual numbers less troubling.

I don’t believe there’s ever been a modern rope failure that wasn’t a core shot/cut rope/chemically induced failure. When it’s bad you’ll know.

Prioritize efficiency of movement over perceived efficiency of work. Slow and steady wins the race. My neck/shoulders got seriously messed up from trying to set+strip too much wall space from a fixed position instead of just moving the ladder. When you notice soreness setting in, consider taking a break/switching what you're working on. I'd also seriously recommend stretching/warming up/proactive strengthening.

RSI is a real hazard of the work and one you want to avoid at all costs. Don't let a temporary strain become a permanent impediment. Take time off, take rest days, etc if need be. I worked as a setter in the era before impact drivers (and before anyone thought to care about routesetter health) and my wrists and elbows are probably never going to be the same from the repetitive strain of the old orange handle hex wrenches and the kick of the old drills (and everyone I worked with had the same set of basically permanent injuries). Don't let that happen to you.

Start with glute bridges, then gradually move your heel further away from you and pull with your hamstrings instead of pushing with your glutes. Hamstring and hip stretching also helps with the unusual positions produced (eg: getting your hips square to the wall while heel hooking is super strenuous but a common requirement to pull over a roof onto a flat face)

Reminds me of the “look and say” number sequence where each number describes the decimals of the previous (eg: 111221 follows 1211 follows 21 follows 11 follows 1)

Have you seen the price of brass stoppers? That’s like 2-300 worth assuming the two pics are two separate sets

Connections, resources and opportunities per student, and overall degree prestige (which matters more than people want to admit) are all better at NU. Department rankings approximately rank the magnitude of the output of the department’s research (IE quantity * quality), which is pretty weakly correlated to your undergrad experience.

Is there anything more tiring than reading Mark Twight’s breathless accounts of the danger of his own exploits?

Learn how risky driving a car is. Regardless my point is that risk assessment is more than just “someone died doing something, therefore they shouldn’t have done that thing”

You could say the same about anyone who’s ever died after leaving the house. Had they stayed inside that day they would’ve lived, ergo they should never leave the house?

birdhunter could be a cool consolation prize on that wall. Have you done anything on Mt Wilson? Woman of Mountain dreams would be sick, as would inti

Probably because they’re the only conspicuous infrastructure along a winding canyon road?

Hett sounds like slang for the prefix hetero, which is commonly a shorthand for the most commonly used word with that prefix, heterosexual.

I think your results may not generalize to most climbers since you were forced by small foot size to try the LV versions, whereas the HV models generally increase the forefoot volume far more than the heel.

I suspect that’s massively underquoted but regardless, there’s also the liability question (can they meet the criteria the insurance requires), staffing, etc.

It's hard to tell from everything whether this is someone's vendetta or it just got caught in the logistical details (eg: did the parks department adequately budget the expense, did the person who needed to deal with the legal liability details not know until far later, etc). Hopefully, whatever the cause, it all gets ironed out.