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That was sorta fun (as much fun as taking a survey goes). There's a good dreaming-about-climbing-while-at-work-section where you allocate climbing days to different choice of types of climbing. I'm not sure how in hell they are going to make sense of the data they get from that section, but it was sorta fun to daydream about your climbin druthers.

Climbed Columbia Peak this last summer and was leafing through the summit register. Read an entry from some years back from some guy chestbeating about how he'd trashed the Beckey time estimate ... and it was me .

So with a Reverso (or any of these other devices) can you still bring in one rope while the other rope is locked off?

Whatever you do, use great caution if you decide to bring two seconds up with a non-locking device like an ATC. I did this a couple of years back on an easier climb with two dialed-in partners and we made short work of it. We had the security of a rope and noone fell or hung, and all was cool and quick. Then I applied this technique on the Split Pillar and one guy was pumped out of his mind (had taken a big fall trying to lead it, then lowered). So anyway, I'm belaying both of them from the top with an ATC. The not-pumped guy in front, then the pumped guy. The pumped guy falls, of course, and he's dangling. So I've got the ATC locked off, but the other guy doesn't realize the implication of this and is still climbing. Soon he's got a big loop of slack on his rope and he starts screaming, "up rope". Not good.

I think this picture relates to both Dru's and Bob's comments:

Yeah. CBS screwed up. He shoulda bought a #4

I noticed yesterday that they were still in the bright sunshine an hour after the sun had gone down at Index.

1. Guide 30 mounties to the top of the GNS in 8 hours during a sunny weekend in May. Extra points for each climber you tell, "this route is reserved." 2. Let Klenke "hold on" to your credit cards.

Cool man Now everyone but Klenke has climbed Whitechuck!

Update! I weasled another hour or so, so I don't have to leave right at peak warmth. PM if you want a ride. Planning on leaving around 9:15 or so. Also, got one person showing, so far, so you may still have at least one climbing partner after I leave. (Of course, if you want a ride, you gotta leave when I leave )

GONE!! See U there

Paid for the COBRA (medical insurance) so he wouldn't have been diverted to the shitty welfare hospital. Oh, and BTW let me echo the, "FUCK OFF DRU!"

Excellent story Thanks Mike. The publishing feature is probably broke or hidden due to the board "upgrade". 500 words? You'd certainly have to cut out a lot (but at least you wouldn't have to cut off your arm ). I think if you focused more tightly and settled on a main point, you could get it into a tight 1000 word story. Regrettably you'd have to jettison a lot of the great anecdotes. I urge you to work on honing it down. Make some tough cuts and resubmit. Maybe turn it into two, stand-alone stories? Alpinist will be begging to publish it after you've become a well-known guide-book author!

Too bad GregW doesn't post here any more. I'd love to read his take on this.

First vote in 50 years!

Bring a big rack (that is, many pieces). The pitches are long. The Nat. Monument campsite seemed fine to me. I believe there is still a voluntary ban on climbing the Tower in the month of June.

My new theory of why we invaded Iraq is this: The powers that be thought Iraq was going to be real easy (ref: Pat Robertson's allegation that Bush stated to him that there would be zero American casualties). Once our glorious fighting force liberates Iraq, and Iraq becomes wonderful, then we really got all those other evil-doers in a bind, and quite intimidated. "What's next on the list Rummy?". That would have been real cool. postscript: Unfortunately, hindsight has pricked this lovely balloon. These dunderheads refused to listen to any negative information and their fantasy projections blew up in OUR face. [Not THEIR face btw, because they were able to keep the majority of Americans living in a fantasy world through the elections]. You guys hear about those disparate numbers of trained Iraqi police forces? Bushies are saying over 100k while other sources are talking 4-6k? More fantasy-world crap. "Rather be fighting over there than here"?? As empirical casualty count continues to grow, it gains weight over the hypothetical Saddam-still-in-power scenario. Weigh these wonderful (hindsight) alternatives: option 1: Saddam slowly but surely ditches sanctions. Probably supports international terrorists. Possible successful terrorist attacks on US soil. option 2 Known ~1500 American soldiers dead. Sure ~10,000 American casualties. Definite 400 billion $ drain on the US. Very likely 100,000 Iraqi dead. Possible successful terrorist attacks on US soil.

They are probbably looking for tiny climbers too, as that will help the illusion that the Matterhorn is really large! Go for it Rudy!

I checked that thing out. Matterhorn looks like some sweet granite!

What it all comes down to is its not what someone believes, but why they believe it, that determines whether or not they are actually an idiot.

If it's the tradeoff they are after, they have to be a little worried about Bush's schedule lately. He has been stumping vigorously the last month about his vague social security overhaul and even had a surprise press conference taking questions about it yesterday. While at a giant pro-life rally in Washington D.C. Bush made his appearance by telephone. It was pretty funny to see all those people staring intently and cheering, for a couple megawatt speakers.

From Crystal Mountain webpage CRYSTAL IS CLOSED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE As of Wednesday, January 26th, Crystal Mountain will be closed until further notice. This is the last thing we want to do in the middle of winter. At this time, the weather developments are not what we had been hoping for. We stand by providing the best skiing and snowboarding experience to our guests, and at this point we simply can no longer stand by what we have to offer. Hang in there, don't put your gear away just yet...we plan to re-open as soon as conditions allow!

Regardless of how you feel on global warming, the allegation that the Administration is muzzling scientists is extremely disturbing. In order to make any sound policy you have to have good information about the non-fantasy world. Look what happened in Iraq. Policy driven by fantasy-world assumptions....leads to big pile of steaming shit. Making decisions with your head in the group-think sand is sooner or later going to end in catastrophe.