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The sling on that thing is probably getting pretty old. Somebody going up there (Pzack?) should bring the beefiest stainless quicklink that can fit through the eye of a #4 Camalot and install it. Either that or bring something like a funkness and/or wall hammer and clean that sucker.

GM Route at Index. Not the Heart of the Country variation. Of course the HOC is quite recommended. Take a lap on that one after you've done GM proper.

link

With a newbie hiker, you can greatly increase your odds by making sure that you carry as much as possible; i.e. all community gear like tent, cooking stuff, food. Depending on the pride of the newbie hiker it can also be helpful to carry a lot of their personal stuff too if they are open to that. Best not to inform the newbie hiker of that beforehand though as newbie hikers tend to bring way too much personal shit.

"luv you!" "I luv you too!"

The cool thing about gear loops is that it is just as safe to clip into them as tie into them

Yeah shit. Climbing used to be hard, for the hard. Now anyone can do it. I feel so unimportant.

Hand jammies and bouldering pads sound like a good combo for Classic Crack.

This thread has brought out all sorts of interesting tangents, but to more directly answer CBS's orginal specific question: I have never seen climbers bringing along pads protect against ground fall on roped lead climbs at cragging areas. Maybe I don't get out enough though, and I don't really tend to pay much attention to other people. I'm pretty self-absorbed.

With Durrance as a notable exception, most pitches are sustained and long. So bringing a very large rack is recommended.

just like a train wreck....can't .... turn .... away

I guess you didn't process the competing data that says terrorism has essentially been going down for 24 years? Interesting you mention only 10 years of appeasement. Shoudn't you go back about 20 years to include Reagan and Iran-Contra?

Difficult to compare the two. For one thing, the prisoners at San Quentin have been convicted or have plead guilty. Surely, there are some miscarriages of justice here, but probably not the 70-90% false-imprisonment rate that is being estimated by the Red Cross for the detainees in Iraq. Second, though allowing prisoners to brutalize each other is bad, it's not as bad as having the guards doing the systematic brutalization. I like Peter's point about the fact that releasing the photos harms the prisoners even more. It seemes like a plausible reason the administration could use to withhold release. It is interesting that their current stated reason for withholding the pictures is so the soldiers' proceedings are not interfered with. That doesn't seem to hold water because the court martials are just done using a panel of judges that are going to see all the pictures anyway aren't they. They're probably using the "protect the military" excuse because it will play better with the US public and the vets in particular. I talked to this vet today, and he said he got this giant plaque just the other day from Bush and Rumsfeld, thanking him for his service during the Cold War. He said it was so big it didn't even fit in the mail! I wonder if the administration is worried about losing vet votes when sacrificing those 6 enlisted personell? This guy I was talking to was all supportive of the torturers.

here you go

Where do they categorize all the wounded and killed in Iraq? I didn't see them in that list. Maybe you should also write, "Less dead in Vietnam-style quagmires than in the 60's, a time that liberals celebrate!"

I'm not so sure about how much the prez affects and can affect the economy, but !!

Just curious what is one example? Or are you just repeating the (deceptive) Bush/Cheney ads? And even if you are right, as opposed to voting for a guy that you have watched in office for four years and know with certainty that he has continually distorted the truth AND has royally screwed our country? I think it's an easy choice, even if Kerry has committed the sin of actually talking to the public about what they want and vowing to do it. Empty promises versus obvious disregard for sound leadership decisions? I'll take the former. Scary unknown versus horrible known? I'll take the former.

I think it (JAG officer) would be a good title for you cracked. Better than Gortboy anyway .

It'd be cool to be able to haul a pad and maybe some sort of balcony contraption up to the base of Sloe Children.

Maybe in a different time, but right now Iran is surrounded by what, 200,000?, US troops, probably just begging to be rolling tanks over troops instead of the ugly job of civillian pacification. I'd say that's a credible deterrent. If you think it'd be OK for Israel to bomb Iran. What about using nuclear weapons on them and really putting an end to Iran? What do you think about that idea Peter Puget? I'll bet that would keep Iran off of their back for a while, as well every other arab country, except maybe Pakistan I guess.

I'm trying to listen to the senate hearings in between doing work and responding to Peter Puget's grilling. The southern republican rep. (majority leader?) said, "...unlike Lindsey Graham who was an actual JAG officer" If you don't get it, say it a couple times quickly.