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ERIK! The most dynaminitic belay will produce a very high impact force (though it would be on the ground, not the usually discussed impact force on the pro). CBS! You spelled "nerd" wrong.

Rasta Erik

Whoa! That Lamplighter p1 is sounding intense. Is the 10c you are talking about in the chimney or up past it? I ask because my progression of guidebooks rates the chimney as 5.6 (Brooks and Whitelaw) 5.9+ (Cummins), 5.10b (? Cramer) and now you throw out 10c. Thanks for the beta guys! Is Heaven's Gate in the Cramer guide?

I thought that you just had to have thick skin to post in spray. I didn't know you needed to be smart too.

Right-o Iain! And by the way, they should set up a big long butt-glissade trough down that thing like on Shasta and the Interglacier. That would kick ass.

Peak baggin' is cool. Denouncing someone else's hobby as nerdy is far greater "hubris" than peak bagging will ever be.

god is a lie. But it is a reasonable lie. Perhaps much more important than lieing to keep the Republicans in power. Lieing that there is a god, and that if you are a good worker who doesn't hurt anybody or spread STD's you will eventually receive an awesome reward, helps keep our society from going totally to hell. If people thought that their lives of suffering under the weight of the man would come to nothing but suffering then nothing, how could you keep them from killing their boss? How could you keep them paying their taxes? The only other way to prevent such mayhem is to divert their attention with the Lottery and spectator sports.

Even if you do have parents who can afford private education, it should get you all in a twist. Public schooling is about making everyone else around you educated enough to contribute positively to our society. Giving your money to public schooling is not altruistic. It should be looked at as a selfish effort to improve one's environment. You can only run so far. Sooner or later you're going to have to venture out of the gates of your security compound to get a six pack or something.

Oops, sorry Ursa. I didn't realize you were joking. No offense I hope.

Nice comeback . I never wrote we shouldn't worry about the cost. Why don't you refute my points instead of just calling me a name, loser.

But then how would you phrase the estimated Federal budget deficit? 150 billion$ - infinity? You see how this is a sticky point? If you estimate an upper level on the war cost, then the demos will make hay with that. If you start espousing an infinite budget, there would be real problems there, major one being Bush probably doesn't understand the concept and probably can't even pronounce the word. Then the damn liberally biased media would make fun of him. And we can't have that because we're in a war here and we need to support our troops.

Matt, If the Democrats get in the White House or take control of congress it will be very bad for the country. Perhaps worse than what would have happened if Saddam Hussein's government was not toppled. Thus, it seems obvious, EVEN TO AN IDIOT, why it is OK for the Republicans to lie about anything that might make them look bad and help the democrats regain power. As for the omission of the war cost in the budget, I think it's fair that they wait until, as they say in baseball, the "book is closed" before they add up the numbers. Once this little Iraq thing is all cleaned up, we can see it as an item in the budget, perhaps about the time a new regime is in the White House.

So I was looking at this climb in some older Index guidebooks ( Cummins, Brooks and Whitelaw), and saw it described as "mostly free" 4-5 pitches. Now there was an A3 part (scary ) listed in those, but I seem to recall in the newer book (Cramer) that I don't have, that there is a bolted free part (10c?) around that A3 area now. Looking at it from the base last year I remember seeing a very scrubbed looking crack up about a pitch too. with that? Anybody got any current beta for this route, just the bottom free part or the whole thing? Lamplighter, yeh. (And I already did a search on this site, no luck).

jibber, jibbing, jibbering totally kicks ass on "snafflehound" and "horsecock"

Isn't a slackline supposed to be slack?

Where is it? This could be a great CC.com contest!

Head down to the UW Rock and ask for "Coach". Bring a girl or some beer with you.

I believe that if you want to progress you should focus on your weaknesses. It sounds to me like one of your weaknesses is getting gripped while trad climbing. Sport climbing is just going to avoid that obstacle.

Colin, Great read! I fear it would be pretty difficult to understand for a non-climber. Unfortunately, if you try to explain enough for a non-climber it's going to be very tough to keep your story from getting too bogged down. You really have no choice though but to think of your audience. Tough assignment! A description of the mountain early on would help to set the scene.

Oh, yeah, I almost forgot... What does "histrionics" mean? Maybe one of you guys that likes to look stuff up in online dictionaries and cut and paste it to the board could do that for me?

Allright!! Great stories guys n gals... although perhaps you could have added more easily recallable psuedonyms in your story Dryad, like sleepy, grumpy, slowy, etc... One thing I noticed in these stories is that the psycho bitch from hell and Catbirdseat were getting all bent out of shape about people slowing them down. That happens to me sometimes and here are a few of my ideas on the subject. Having someone catch up to you at another spot doesn't really change the amount of waiting, just where you wait, but does isolate you from your comrades. In some cases this might be good, but if you really want to be isolated from your comrades (who are slowing you down) why aren't you just heading out solo? You can do poking and prodding for a little while, but often it becomes apparent that you are just annoying the slow (ahem, more laid back) members of the group and not really going to speed them up to your liking anyway. At that point you need to just resign yourself and go with the flow. Catbirdseat's trip where he knowingly brought newbies up to Mt. Rainier and then got pissed because they weren't as fast as him does seem a bit silly. Try to figure out something to do to amuse yourself, like taking off your pack and bouldering hiking up to lookout points not on the trail etc. Dryad's strategy of switching packs is a good idea because that gives you more of a workout AND speeds the party. If you are still worrying about the pace, make damn sure that your side amusements don't make the others end up waiting on you, or give them an excuse to be even slower. Finally, I'm sure everyone can remember back to some time when THEY were the slow one, and how it would have felt to be belittled. When you are forced together with really annoying people it can sometimes take the edge off a little when you get to the point where you've totally lost respect for them. Because then you can just laugh at them instead of getting upset. Just make damn sure you're not going to need to ask them for something later on (like a ride home), or that they won't kill you in your sleep or something if you goof on them to their face.

I don't get it

Cheney is getting 200,000 per year from Haliburton right now! It's his "retirement" package.

Hey man! Those pictures were either confusing or TOTALLY SUCKY!