[pct-l] VERTICAL LIMIT! Non-member submission from ["William Edward Kendall" <WilliamEdwardKendall@msn.com>] (fwd)

Guess it is a matter of perspective- having climbed several hundred peaks
I thought the movie was a little boring becasue of **MAJOR** technical
inaccuracies:

(However I will admit that without the goofs the movie would have
been even worse!)

1st- one does not use nitro in the mountains; it is composition C4 or CX4
which you can burn to heat your soup and it does not blow up; the
actuating device is a small easily kept blasting cap (I trained on this
stuff). Also- the actuator was mechanical- NOT used in cold weather-
we use purely electrical timers that are not affected by sub-zero
temps or moisture.

2nd- EVERYONE of their anchors and belays were *wrong*- a proper
ice anchor uses screws into the ice; perhaps a snow anchor back up.
Three anchors are used as a matter of course- and it is not debated
whilst one is climbing:-)) The fall at the beginning would not have
happened with three anchors properly placed- especially if you
have 3 people on one rope! Then you use at least 3 sets of 3 anchors
to take the weight...a 150 falling person (from physics) generates
several thousands of pounds of force as you might guess.  It looked like
the ropes were static (ie they did not bounce when they fell)- they
should have been dynamic- but I admit I might have missed the
bounce.

3rd- they made conspicuous NON-use of boulders that were near their
ice-axe anchors; looping a rope around the boulder (duh!!) that size
would have made a bombproof anchor.

4- next- their ice axe anchors were wrong-- rope should be tied near the
middle of the ice axe and shoved into the snow if they did not have
a snow anchor (highly unlikely- I carry one always in the winter with
a lenght of 7 mm safety rope._

5- They never used double ropes!! (Biggie)

6- Ed ? Vistieurs (sp) was there and should have known better if he advised
the director on this film.

7- If you looked closely you can see several people had their harness on
wrong! The belt should be looped back into the D-ring- it was hanging loose!!!!

8- I understand one of the actors did an ice climb for real-- if he did he,
used no safety (top rope) that was apparent in the movie!

Other than that, I enjoyed the movie :-)))

Rich


At 9:21 AM -0800 12/18/00, PCT List Admin wrote:
>This is  forwarded message.
>Please reply to:
>mailto:WilliamEdwardKendall@msn.com
>---------- Forwarded message ----------
>From: "William Edward Kendall" <WilliamEdwardKendall@msn.com>
>To: <pct-l@edina.hack.net>
>Subject: Movie/fear
>
>After watching the movie Vertical Limits last night I have decided to drop
>my plan for a winter hike and never want to hike the PCT if it requires an
>ice ax.
>Hang on to your hat. It's the most gripping movie to come along in some
>time.  In the first 60 seconds my body went tense as a basket of decade old
>jerky, and I am just now beginning to relax.
>
>
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