On a mixed root on book-hill-eht-iv-more I was gearing up for my hardest mixed lead (trad) I've done still to date. I was scared as shit, obviously. My partner started rolling a J and scorched it up. I didn't smoke any, but the fact he felt so confident in me that he would scorch up while belaying me made me confident, and I climbed it feeling good. I never once worried about his ability to perform under the influence.

I used to climb and drive stoned on weed all the time--never had even a close call. In fact, I always felt more alert and tuned in when high.

Two years ago I made a poor decision climbing--while perfectly sober--that required a rescue and caused me many months of pain.

Rappelling in the dark with no headlamp?? Done that many times--don't consider that an epic.

The main thing I watch for in a new partner is how they belay.

I can't remember the whole story but didn't your partner catch one hell of a fall on that, so much so that he knocked himself out on an overhang above you and a grigri stopped you from sliding down all the way to his knot or ground or something worse?

I climbed once with two guys from my gym who I thought they knew what they were doing but then on the wall some 10 pitches up I find out that both of them spend a night on the same wall the year before for not having a light to locate their rap route...

I climbed once with two guys from my gym who I thought they knew what they were doing but then on the wall some 10 pitches up I find out that both of them spend a night on the same wall the year before for not having a light to locate their rap route.Now a year later, one of them finds a bag of rope at P5 while I was on P6 cleaning and he decides to carry it down . once we got down (near dusk) to base, I noticed this extra bag and wonder where it came from but then I heard people yelling from above;

hey hey, guys

you guys seen a rope bag down there?

Anyway, the climbing party above lost their cam and left one of their rope bags on P5 to go and locate their lost cam but luckily , they had another rope and they used it between the the shorter rap routes to get down but I learned my lesson.

Do not ever climb with dumb fuc*s cause, they could either kill you,kill themselves or kill someone else.

Well, it looks like we're going to be seeing this story again and again, so I might as well go on record:

I was one of the two climbers who spent the night on a ledge at Royal Arches Rap 8. That was 20/21 August 2005, and the temperatures were quite moderate, so we just hunkered down on a ledge to wait for the sun. We'd specifically chosen that weekend because it offered a nearly full moon rising about an hour after sundown, and we could probably have found the rest of the raps in moonlight. We didn't stop because it was the only thing to do, we stopped because it was the safest thing to do under the circumstances. We had a cell phone, we'd alerted my family to our situation, and made sure they knew how to contact YOSAR if we didn't turn up in the morning. It was inconvenient and a bit uncomfortable, but hardly life-threatening and we had several layers of contingency in reserve.

I don't understand why Majid says he didn't find about this epic until our Royal Arches repeat of 30 September 2006, since we told the story widely among the climbers at City Beach in Fremont, CA where we used to climb with Majid.

As for the rope found on 30 Sept 06, Jeff or Majid found it on the bench atop P1 where the rap route crosses the climbing route, and decided we'd take it with us.

This Update on my glider project Web site has a brief TR on the 30 Sept 06 RA climb, and a couple of pictures, including one of Majid:

http://www.hpaircraft.com/...ate_9_october_06.htm

There's another picture of Majid at the SAR Cache (and also Werner Braun) in this Update:

http://www.hpaircraft.com/...update_22_oct_07.htm

Thanks, Bob "BoKu" K.

I think what you did bob for not down climbing on RA was the right thing cause last thing you wanted to do was killing yourself on RA . Also I was one pitch higher than you guys when jeff pick that rope up so I did not know about it till I met you guys at p1. Also, those two climbers were on p2 but not P1 when yelled for their rope . I was also upset about you guys trying to rush back to lodge for pizza instead of thinking about plan B to get the rope back to Canadian climbers.

Luckily, they had another rope to rap otherwise, I could not count on you two as partners to go back on the wall to save them from freezing their as*es off.


Regards

I have been climbing for nearly 2 years and climb high 99% of the time.

I go every weekend and up to twice a week outdoors. Usually sport/multipitch, but I throw some bouldering in there.

Never experienced an epic, neither have the group of friends I climb with (around 7 total). I dont drive high, but I ride high. Ive had a 600cc sport bike for the past 4 years which I ride everyday high. Only had one accident which was not my fault and I kept the bike upright. I have almost 45,000 miles on this bike. So I dont see any correlation between climbing high and experiencing epics.

and cigarettes won't kill you because none of the other cigarettes you smoked killed you.

...a bit like the drive to the crag (not dead yet, but next time?)

...or like the climb itself (not dead yet, maybe next time).

(you are aware that for all the people who die of smoking related illnesses, we are still only talking about a small fraction of smokers, right?) The fraction of sober climbers who die of climbing related situations has got to be comparable.

Absolutely. Climbing is an inherently risky game, just as most anything else in life is. Climbing has risks to it that are slightly more... intense... than most things in everyday life.

If you want to get high and climb, that's between you and your partner. I have very little problem with it. However, you would be foolish to think that getting high and climbing does not increase your risk.

We do stuff all of the time that increases our risk and it sometimes makes for a more enjoyable climb. This includes climbing multipitch, trad, running out placements, sketchy approaches, etc., but we deem these things "worth it." Smoking pot falls into that category for some people.

My only beef is with the logic "well, I smoke and climb all the time and I've never had an epic, so THERE."

That logic is, plain and simple, completely faulty and just plain stupid.

Appropriate logic is: "Yes, smoking pot and climbing increases your risk. Hundreds of studies show your reasoning ability, memory, and reaction time all suffer from smoking pot. But it is worth it to me and my partner to take that risk because we really enjoy climbing while high."


So yes--I know that driving to the crag is dangerous, I do not pretend it is not. I minimize the risk by driving safely and wearing a seatbelt. However, I'm still willing to take the risk of driving over the speed limit. But I refuse to text-and-drive or do other things that will increase the risk to an unacceptable level.

I also know climbing is dangerous, I minimize those risks in ways that I deem acceptable without destroying my enjoyment of the climb.

Minimize or increase your risks as you see fit--I have no problem with that. Just don't lie to yourself and think that you aren't increasing your risks by climbing stoned.

i smoke 2 joints before i climb anything.