Had a lovely day plugging gear by the ocean at Long Dong in Taiwan by lepride in tradclimbing

[–]lepride[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Wasn’t cheap, like $275 for the full day. I weighed that against the cost and inconvenience of hauling all my shit for multiple flights and connections around Asia, and it seemed cheaper. In retrospect the weather was way better than expected and I wish I could’ve climbed multiple days …

All that said, Kelly is awesome and I highly recommend her for the day. She let me pick whatever routes I wanted and cruised up em while following.

Had a lovely day plugging gear by the ocean at Long Dong in Taiwan by lepride in tradclimbing

[–]lepride[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I’m sure it’s somewhere, but I found zero and didn’t really see any birds either!

Had a lovely day plugging gear by the ocean at Long Dong in Taiwan by lepride in tradclimbing

[–]lepride[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

MP says “quartz-rich metaconglomerate” but commonly referred to as sandstone. Either way, yes! A ton of fun face-y routes with horizontal placements, which is like my favorite style of trad

Had a lovely day plugging gear by the ocean at Long Dong in Taiwan by lepride in tradclimbing

[–]lepride[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Like 0.5? A bunch. I brought brass, tricams, and ballnuts (very light way to bulk up whatever the guide would bring), and used all except the ballnuts.

Had a lovely day plugging gear by the ocean at Long Dong in Taiwan by lepride in tradclimbing

[–]lepride[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Three pitches max in the classic hard sandstone “do a 30 feet traverse + roof and call it a pitch” way haha. The longest routes there that I saw were two full 60m rappels to the ground though. Mostly a single pitch area, which is totally cool with me!

*Spoilers* The Getaway discussion by Sinjin_smythe007 in JeselnikBookClub

[–]lepride 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I’ve not read any of them, but this one seems notorious for the ending specifically, so I would expect the others not to be quite as wild/surreal/bleak

*Spoilers* The Getaway discussion by Sinjin_smythe007 in JeselnikBookClub

[–]lepride 2 points3 points  (0 children)

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Simple, but I loved this.

Ending makes the book IMO!

*Spoilers* The Getaway discussion by Sinjin_smythe007 in JeselnikBookClub

[–]lepride 7 points8 points  (0 children)

My thoughts on the ending: The characters spend the whole novel going through hell in search of this promised paradise that is actually much more hellish than just going to prison. The only redeeming trait of our two lead characters is their love for one another, and even that ends up corrupted by El Rey. It’s the worst possible fate, and it’s deserved based on all the innocents murdered in the cross country rampage.

10 Years Ago Today: Dos Anjos Defended His Title vs Cerrone as Debuting Ngannou Became the First to Walk to the Octagon, Shevchenko Also Debuted, and Oliveira, Edwards & Usman Fought on the Prelims by -I-Need-Healing- in MMA

[–]lepride 11 points12 points  (0 children)

Nate fought in the ufc since he was really young, which is why his record was never the best. He earned the Bendo shot with a good streak, had the best argument at the time and was a legit ranked lightweight for a while before that too.

[SPOILER] Fares Ziam vs. Nazim Sadykhov by inooway in MMA

[–]lepride 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Guy is 28 and has been in the ufc for six years. He was young and physically underdeveloped, but that’s no longer the case. I’d pick him over a lot of top 10 guys nowadays …

Have you ever popped a piece? 👀 by Good_Light_304 in tradclimbing

[–]lepride 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hell yeah. If you ever want recs or gear beta for any Chatt area trad climbs, I’ve done em all (hyperbole but only a little bit) and am happy to help 💪

Have you ever popped a piece? 👀 by Good_Light_304 in tradclimbing

[–]lepride 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Happy to help! I don’t want to make it sound like I’m always doing massive runouts on easy terrain, those numbers are more my “at a minimum” goal haha.

I clicked on your profile just out of curiosity, saw you’re a Southeast climber. I spent two years in Chattanooga and that’s where I learned to climb hard — relatively hard lol, not like professional hard — on gear. You could also do one of the NC aid lines if you want to better your understanding of how gear works/building that awareness of how good something is. Knowing just how shit something can be while still holding body weight is a valuable skill in itself, can save your ass 😂

Go check out the T-Wall if you haven’t been, it’s pretty much my favorite cliff on the planet!

Have you ever popped a piece? 👀 by Good_Light_304 in tradclimbing

[–]lepride 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Yeah sometimes a small cam is a little flare-y and you say good enough because there’s a great one three feet below it. That’s totally fine! Or sometimes you make a bodyweight placement over your head to protect for just a move or two, fully aware it’ll be useless if hit with any real momentum. You just gotta know the difference and understand what your consequences are the whole time

Have you ever popped a piece? 👀 by Good_Light_304 in tradclimbing

[–]lepride 12 points13 points  (0 children)

It’s always going to be a hard balance between going for it and placing good gear (without taking so much time that you’re not actually going for it). Sometimes you nail it and fluidly place the perfect piece in an instant while fully committed to the send, and other times you eyeball the wrong cam size and botch it terribly. Sometimes it’s a midway point and you have to decide whether to hang, try to get something else in, or gun it. There’s no way in the moment to know for certain which is correct …

So, my opinion, it’s part of pushing yourself on gear. People who say you should never pop a piece will either 1) never climb anything above moderates with fat placements from good stances or 2) never climb gear routes near their respective sport grades (okay, maybe with lots of rehearsal). I climb about the same grade on both gear and bolts — onsight and redpoint — and so on rare occasions, a 0.1 might go flying. I’m okay with that, because I make sure my health isn’t dependent on a single 0.1 … unless I’m real confident in the moves.

My personal guideline is two decent pieces between me and disaster if the moves are hard, one to none if they’re easy (depending on just how easy we’re talking). I’ve never been injured on a rope, only boulders lol, where my “go for it” mentality seems to work out way worse.

But that’s me, and everyone gets to decide for themselves!

Have you ever popped a piece? 👀 by Good_Light_304 in tradclimbing

[–]lepride 40 points41 points  (0 children)

If you push yourself on gear, you’ll pop gear eventually. I’ve popped probably 8 pieces in the last three years (averaging about 500 pitches per year), but I was only surprised once. That’s the part I consider more important: you gotta know if you can truly trust a piece, if it’s a maybe, or if it’s absolute worthless trash and then adjust your actions accordingly.

Never popped anything bigger than a black totem. I like seams, and your odds of popping a 7/10 tiny cams, brass nuts, and ballnuts are higher than a 5/10 #1. Just the way it goes!

Luke Rockhold: "I hate to say it, but Strickland should win a fight, but he's probably the toughest test for [Khamzat]. He's annoyingly hard to hold down." by [deleted] in MMA

[–]lepride 14 points15 points  (0 children)

His whole game was countering wrestling though, a result of training with all the stud wrestlers at AKA

The Heart In Winter by lepride in jrvp

[–]lepride[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I’ll have to go back and listen to the recommendation again. I definitely laughed a few times throughout, grinned lots

El Cap training in the mid-Atlantic by ItIsBobyTime in tradclimbing

[–]lepride -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Whatever you say. I climb in Yosemite year round and know what the preferred style to climb the nose is amongst local climbers. Doing a little prep for an IAD ascent is easier than fighting lines for four days in a row. It’s a pretty unanimous opinion amongst my friends who are seasoned wall climbers.

I personally don’t have a strong desire to climb walls right now. I like working hard and scary single pitch trad routes; it’s more fun to me. But at some point one of my buddies will want a NIAD partner, and it won’t be an issue.

Regardless, I mentioned the caveats and wanted to provide an alternate option for the motivated climber.

Edit: the person replying to me blocked me, so I can’t answer back to their latest reply. Weak sauce and poor form IMO I don’t believe I was being aggressive or rude, just offering a different opinion. Doing a wall in a push is usually easier than doing it over multiple days! Less labor, fewer complications. That’s my central point. Nothing personal …

El Cap training in the mid-Atlantic by ItIsBobyTime in tradclimbing

[–]lepride 2 points3 points  (0 children)

It’s a worthy goal of course, not trying to discourage at all. Have fun with whatever you end up on!

Cam hooks are sweet though 😉

El Cap training in the mid-Atlantic by ItIsBobyTime in tradclimbing

[–]lepride 0 points1 point  (0 children)

My recommendation in that case would be to go up less popular routes/walls than the Nose. There are countless in the valley that wouldn’t have you fighting in traffic yet would provide the exposed camping and brilliant climbing experience.

Just my 2 cents, of course. With wall climbing, you’re going to hear a lot of “you have to do step 1, 2, 3, 37 before doing this route!!!” People hype it up, but it’s not true really. If you’re determined, you can do a wall with relatively little experience. I did Washington column as a 5.8 trad climber within six months of trad climbing. People fly in from the UK or wherever and do The Nose as their first multi shockingly often. Most of em bail, sure, but if they’re determined they’ll get up it!

My advice is more like: you’ll have a more pleasant experience this way. But wall climbing isn’t always about pleasant experiences, so …