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I dropped an iodine pill in that bottle of water when we left it. So if you find the bottle and the water looks brown, be assured that it is a nice sterile, dead, chemical brown. The route is 20 pitches of fun, and you can stop and rap any time if you happen to lose the stoke. I hit the figurative wall on pitch 18, but was (barely) able to suck it up and complete my on point duties and get the rope up 19, a cool pitch but with an intimidating start (or maybe it was my frame of mind). Other highlights that come to mind: p1: easy cracks to get the blood flowing then some wavy slabs with a short balancy crux. p10: Very smooth start, but frictiony and not too steep. Trust your feet exam. p11: cracks! sweet. p12: steep but enough edges to make it fun and sustained p15: The "yellow wall" highly featured fun slab. p16: superfun finger crack traverse. Route info can be found here: http://cascadeclimbers.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=1044503 Thanks Otto!

Fun read! When they got to the Storm King-Goode col, I was expecting, "And then we realized we left the rope down at our shiver-bivy, lol."

Jeff Hansel and I climbed this (first 6 p's) yesterday. Very fun route (first 5 p's anyway), and an excellent choice for a hot day. We were in the shade the whole time. Apparently it is also a good idea that you head up there after a period of prolonged dryness. Both times I've been there it has been dry and nice and cool, but it looks like (and reports indicate) that it could be pretty wet on the stellar corner pitches (1, 5). As it was, p1 and 5 have lots of seriously good crack goodness (on pebble-studded congolmerate) and p2-3 are some serious face climbing up a bolted face. Pitch 3 is pretty heady with some runout 5.9 climbing and a well-protected 5.10 move. Pitch 6 is a short handcrack which has refilled with moss (lots of on lead gardening) and a very funky topout. You have to pull up over a dirt cornice through a bunch of dead trees, and the rap station is not obvious. So if you are going up there for an awesome crag climb, I would suggest rapping from the top of p5. Further adventure can be had above (about 5 more pitches), but should be thought of more of a mountaineering adventure with route finding, bush thrashing and figuring out how in hell to get back down (we didn't do that part yesterday). INFO http://cascadeclimbers.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/484691/Re_TR_Big_Four_Direct_Tower_Ro And I am very happy to report that CrazyJZ's helmet was retrieved (http://cascadeclimbers.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=487270). Which was quite useful as Jeff had forgotten his. As we are once again reminded, everything happens for a reason.

In the past at Cochise there have been Falcon Closures starting Feb 15. There is still lots of climbing available during the closures, but the stuff that is closed (Rockfellows) is supposedly pretty damn cool.

And he's a Klenke lookalike! An astute guy like you might be able to milk this.

Seems like a disconnect here. You call them whiners, telegraphing how little you value their opinion. Yet for some reason you felt the need to do their bidding. [img:center]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/69/First_Peanuts_comic.png[/img] Quite the paradox, not having enough ego to parry those who feel your ego is too big.

But if you drove 25mph everywhere you'd have a little better chance of avoiding that highway heart attack guy. Better yet, just don't drive on the highway. You can get almost anywhere you want using regular city streets.

I think simuling is worth it, if you're not fooling yourself about what it brings you, and treat it accordingly. I treat simulclimbing like fas mentioned above, like coiling the rope and moving together. Though his/her distinction of 3rd or 4th class is arbitrary. The grade/comfort level is determined by the abilities of the team. Basically, when simuling I consider myself soloing, but worse. When I'm seconding I'm more scared/careful than if I were soloing, as I've got another life in the mix, AND that person could get really badly hurt or dead if I just tumble a few feet at an unexposed spot. Where simuling can really help is when you get to a spot that either person would not solo. Then they call out, and you get yourself into standard belay mode for a few moves. Since you've got the rope on already (and a few pieces in) this can be done relatively quickly and efficiently. So anyway, putting it that way I see no more danger in simuling than any other mountain climbing or scrambling. On some mountains it's just part of the game. You're gonna simul so you can get up it in less than three days, or you're just not going to do it. It's like the decision you make when driving to any recreational activity. If you had some compunction that required you to drive 25 mph the whole way (because that'd be much safer) then there's a few things you'd just cross off your list.

Here's a picture of it from many years ago. Insert cairn on top.

You can hear the train in that video.

You want beautiful scenery, I'd echo Washington Pass as the others have suggested. South Arete on South Early Winters Spire hasn't been mentioned yet. More off the beaten path up there is the North Ridge of Cutthroat Peak, mostly 4th class, but a bit of loose 5.7 right at the entrance. May not fit your criteria there, but it won't be crowded like the other standard WA Pass routes will likely be, and it's a ridge run in a very nice area. Another off the path one is Mixup Peak in the Cascade Pass area. That'd be more of a hike and less technical climbing, but again a beautiful area. Might want to camp for this one. This one involves traversing a dying glacier which may add or detract from your interest I guess. If you're able to camp, and you and your partner are already snow and ice hardpeople from up in icy Quebec, then you probably ought to jump on the West Ridge of Forbidden Peak. Beautful easy (short 5.6 somewhere, I didn't find it) rock climb up precipitous ridge. The crux is the steep snow couloir getting to the ridge. That is why I prefaced this with "if you're an ice hardperson". If you can forsake the rock climbing part, some spectacular summits would be Sahale Peak, Black Peak or Columbia Peak.

Turns out that it was a mistranslation. According to comments by people who probably read the actual paper instead of the NY Times piece, it was not 3 of 9 less than average, but rather 3 of 9 less than normal where below normal was defined as basically below the 5th percentile. So 3 of 9, 4 of 9 and especially 6 of 9 are all fairly damning. My point on causality still stands though.

Hopefully this is a blockheaded paraphrase of the article by the NY Times writer because 3 out of 9 and 4 out of nine scoring lower than average would, if anything, indicate that climbers are better off than the general population. Though , as Andy points out, it really doesn't say much except that there is not good evidence to to say they are different. But it certainly would not indicate climbers being worse off. Take the case of the only statistic appearing to indicate climbers are worse off, 6 of 9 worse on the DSST. If you randomly found 9 people and gave them the DSST (i.e. no special group, just any bunch of people), then the probability that 6 or more will score less than the average is about 25%, not really that unlikely. So this sample doesn't really provide clear evidence that climbers are different from the normal pool. There's also the question of reverse causality. Data such as these (where they have no before versus after values for the subjects) cannot in themselves indicate causality, only association. If brain damage and high altitude climbing are linked by these data, it could indicate that either climbing causes brain damage, or conversely that brain damage influences one to be a high-altitude climber. That's comforting, right?

I learned the other day that the numbers "5" and "1" are pronounced "go" and "ichi" in Japanese. Cool, huh? GO ICHI!...and take Johji with you!

Found gear you want back, August 26th. You asked us to look for it. We found it after you'd left. Contact me and we can get it back to you. Chuck cspieker at comcast d0t net

Whoa! That rock looks clean and nice, though a bit crackless I gather? Where the Hell is this Castle Peak anyway? Nice job mans!

Basic jamming skills will work but if you don't have those and you're stuck and clogging up the route, just yard on the damn gear.

My two cents: If your kid is acting up, you should try to figure out was going on with him/her. Try to figure out if it's just hungry/cranky or if there's more to it that could be worked out better in the long run with an actual discussion or something. Spanking is too easy. Quick compliance. Cures the symptoms but may not address the underlying cause. It can make you lazy. Take a little time to analyze the situation. Try to decide what exactly is going on before resorting to the spanking. This method will also keep you from spanking or pinching in anger/frustration. Modeling that sort of behavior for your kid may turn out real bad in the long run. I haven't ever spanked our kids. I remember I used to get frustrated and grab overly tightly, probably very similar to Kevin's pinching story. Then one day my son was mad at me for some reason and walked up and grabbed me overly tight, trying to hurt me. At that point I realized that I had fucked up. I had taught my son that if angry, the appropriate response is to hurt the person. Yes, I did stop doing that (in a hurry).

The guidebooks are both good. R & F will tell you what most everything is. Supertopo will sort it down to the classics and keep you safe if you are a relative newbie. Being as you are a well-paid professional (I think) you should buy both.

I don't know where the new bolt is. Perhaps Alpinfox has picture?

I've led it a bunch of times (pre bolt). There used to be a pin in the beginning flare, before the dirt mantle. Is the pin still there? I think the whole enchilada is pretty fun, but massive rockfall up around p2-3 a couple of years ago has me a little worried about ever heading back up thataway.

I tried doing it last year on toprope and it was very hard for me. I gave up (and stemmed) before topping out, but not before it got me all abraded and demoralized

Great video. Can't wait to see the final cut. Would be cool if the pull through the roof were included at that point. How many cameras did you guys use, and/or was it all one "send" or did you film multiple laps? Don't worry about the music critics. They suck. Just figure how many more lame complaints you'd've gotten had you scored it with "Stairway ..." (dude), "Aqualung" (though "greasy fingers smearing shabby clothes, might have had some relevance) or "My Favorite Things" (Raindawg's fave, the Anthony Newly version of course), and call it good. And the tape gloves? Next time just paint the tape skin color and wear a bright green helmet, and nobody'll be bitching about the tape.

I think you may be making a false assumption there Rob. That is, that everyone is on the same page in terms of the existence of (and quantity of) "your own time". I have almost totally failed at this marriage/climbing thing, so I guess I can't give you a surefire solution, but I would suggest that you attempt to manage yourself, that is, don't go climbing every possible moment where it seems you could justify jetting out. Also don't make your wife be the limiter, as in, if you feel like it's getting a bit excessive, don't ask your wife to say OK. That puts her in a hard spot of either getting less of she wants (more time with you) or being perceived as a bitch/nag. Though it may be different for others, in my experience, making up for it when I get back has not been a successful strategy, and being headstrong about what I get to do with MY time has backfired horribly.