Dru

Comp. climbing is competitive. Sport climbing is no more competitive than any other type of climbing...look at Watts and Skinner fighting over City Park, a crack climb...

Drinking is a sport to some people. You can improve at it, for instance. For instance last Saturday night I was able to hold down a Guinness, two or three martinis and several shots of Jagermeister. Not long ago just the martrinis would have had me puking cause I'm a lightweight by nature. Sport climbs have copious bolt protection. I challenge you to call a route with one bolt in a 50 meter pitch a sport climb without laughing. Or even something as well protected as the Bachar Yerian..... I personally like the Soviet system. If you could climb well enough you became a Master of Sport and then did nothing but climb. Sounds like a good life. Yes Comrade Commissar! No Comrade Commissar!

If climbing is not a sport, why are runouts "sporty" as in "This climb finishes with a deliciously sporty 30m runout above the last bolt...". I agree with Rafael's dictionary. It may not be a competitive game but it sure is a game, with various rules, and a recreational pastime. So, sport, hobby, lifestyle - all of those. Not incomplementary.

Crags are not mountains. More climbers at the crags doesn't mean more climbers in the mountains. In BC in the last 10 years, the number of climber days spent alpine climbing has DECREASED. Meanwhile sleddding, heli-skiing etc. have increased. Government considers allocating backcountry usage based on # of participants. Less climbers = more backcountry icefields permitted to motorized recreation, basically. So I'm all for more climbers. C'mon up here and spend money! We got sport routes too....

More climbers = more partners. More partners = more parties. More parties = more beer!

My companions were Steve (the Great White Gu) Gu and Johnny Gu. We called the route "Fuck Em We Are All Gu-Eaters Anyways". On the Gu Bath pitch I felt like I was going to vomit up my Gu. She left me for Gu so I went soloing on a giant sweep of frozen Gu, listening to the Gu Pistols on my headphones.Then I took up competitive Gu-Eating.

I think it was one of the then-best all around climbers in the world....(AL RIP)but it should have been Mark Twight and he should have said "The best climber in the world is the one who SUFFERS THE MOST!!!! (and swallows the most Extreme Alpine GU)"

The North Face of the Eiger - 1938 Route IS an alpine 5.8!!! OOps right back atcha!

Bold talk from someone who FAILED on Stuart this past weekend OrificeSpray... what have you been smoking?

Yeah, they take 1 year to develop a new drug that there is no test for then everyone uses it for 6 months until someone invents a test for it.... and then there's stuff like those guys who get their own blood siphoned oput and superoxygenated then re-transfused back into their bodies.... and all sorts of weird voodoo shit. I'm glad the only sport I compete at is posting to cascadeclimbers.com, where the only performance enhancing drugs are recreational in nature...

Also, maybe mom and dad don't want young Aidan doing big trips with strange guys he met on the internet...

I base my comments on "tell all" stories in the media from various ex-Tour Athletes which have been extensively reported on in the world media, on heavy use of drugs by Tour athletes. Look at the scandals of a few years ago which were not based on doping trests but on the inadvertent discovery of a doctor with a car full of drugs accompanying a French team. It is a long tradition - people were dying of speed overdoses on the Tour 50 years or more ago. A recent study of Olympic athletes found that, if offered a drug that would guarantee victory, but would kill them in 10 years, over 50% of them would take it. Personally, I think drug use is up to the athlete, I don't see it as any more of a problem than using Oxygen on Everest... (thumbs that last comment WAS a joke)

I heard they removed 15 golf ball sized tumors from old Lance. That accounted for a loss of almost 8kg!! I also hear heavy use of steroids, HGH and other performance enhancers increases your susceptibility to cancer.... hmmmmm. Every rider on that tour is doped to the fucking gills with every drug they can get away with too. So who should we cheer for - Lance or his team of biochemists??

OrificeSpice - remember Aidan is only 14 and can't drive yet ha ha. So much for getting anywhere on summer vacation. Been there myself only i was 26 with no drivers license, no partner, hitching to Squamish to solo Banana peel and fighting off the man hungry girls of the Squamish highway that picked me up....

I left my shovel temporarily fixed in a dirt filled chimney near Harrison Lake, along with my rake, chainsaw and John Deere ride-on mower. Another 2 weeks of vertical clearcutting may produce evidence of climbable rock...

I think the Gourdfish is simply trying to imply that Fly's are super light and may bounce around on that iron hard alpine ice, not to stir up a fight... In which case a pair of those old 200lb. Stubai farmer tools is probably your best bet....

Capt. Did you receive "Official Permission" from an ace biological ranger cop for vegetation modification and/or removal? What obscure line did you retro-scrub and do you think the Kaskasde Moss Klan will become angry and refill it with moss and dirt?

yeah you can tyrolean off monkey face or even slackline it if you are into that shit. but you will miss the worlds best 48m free hanging rappell if you do.... my favorite part of climbing the pioneer route was watching my buddy catch his aider (hanging off the back of his harness) on a bolt while seconding the 5.7 pitch out of the mouth, and get stuck, unable to move up or down. he busts out with an "OH FUCK TAKE!!" and Beth Rodden, who is cranking the 13c start pitch to Just Do It nearby, looks up and over with this look on her face like "who is that total gumb who is hanging on a 5.7 on TR????" hee hee.

Viktors topos are usually pretty good especially the humorous comments like "SIX BOLTS!!!???" at some dinky little belay stance. Smoot is the one who needs topo support IMHO. Those computer drawn topos always suck especially when they are just lines of x's with dots between them and a number off to the side. x.....x....x....x...x....xx 11-

Good routes to do <5.11, not necessarily the best but a few favorites: Pack Animal Direct soft 10b on gear Zebra Zion 5 pitch 10a gear Phoenix 10a bolts Screaming Yellow Zonkers 10b bolts 2 ropes to get off Monkey Face Pioneer Route 5.7 A0 Super Slab 5.7 3pitch gear Teddy Bears picnic 10a/b 2 pitch sport Lions Jaw 5.8 gear Karate Crack hard 10a gear Tammy Bakers Face long 5.9 sport to belay & short 10c sport above BBQ The Pope 10b sport spooky bouldering to 1st bolt (cheat sticks are weak) Spiderman 5.7 2 pitch gear There is a 50+ route update to the guidebook available at smithrock.com Have Fun. Check out the huckleberry ice cream at Juniper Junction right outside the park gates. Ask at Redpoint Climbers Supply for directions to the free camping area (its out by Lone Pine)

Forget Smoot ( every time I hear that name I ask myself, what about Mump??), check Beckey. It would have to involve following one of the rock ridges I think. maybe the Cockscomb? You still have to cross glaciers approaching & descenfding though?

Yeah i can just see him riding up the I-5 with Erwin clinging to the back of his mountain bike....

Unibroue "eau Benite": "Holy Water". It would be fun to get baptized in that stuff. La Maudite ("The Accursed" or "The Damned") is pretty good name and good beer too. And 8%... They also make "Quelque Chose" ("Something", like, "Let's have a little Something") which is damn good too but the logo for that is a .jpg [This message has been edited by Dru (edited 07-27-2001).]

NOW!!!!!!! See ya Monday!