Dru

Actually Easton called Skullfuck a V but said it could be linked with the then unclimbed seam above to be a VI as he thought the seam would be a pitch of a5. of course, maddaloni or someone soloed the seam and rated it a3+.... the only true vi at squamish is bald egos, although both fred beckey and steve sutton called zodiac wall a vi, it would likely be v today..but no one has done it since them so who knows????

is there a reduced rate, if you do not want to take part in a clinic, but still would like to socialize and eat and see the slideshows and win loot?

i heard bearspirit and the little gem, up the drainage between cory & edith, are both good 4s. theres a couple of caves with routes to m9 in there too (not in the guidebook). bountiful drought is supposed to be really fun but never comes in, ditto tout les matins du monde. rock on and off is a good m4/5.8 wi3 but it might not be in this yr, it wasnt at new years.

G-spotter = Sprayshaw I like the affected Euro dropping of the indefinite artcile "an", which is more Russo than "Andorran" I would guess G-spotter=PolishBob but he hasnt called anyone a cock chugger or posted any child abuse jokes yet.

i lost 10 lbs on shuksan nf but 8 of it was dehydration.

G-spotter = Sprayshaw My English is better than that!

dont forget sponsored and would be sponsored climbers whoring for loot!

the pins are only gold plated just like gold records in the record industry.

All the definitions of the system I have seen, SPECIFICALLY STATE that the Grade DOES NOT INCLUDE APPROACH BUT ONLY TIME SPENT ON THE ROUTE so a 12 pitch 10a that is found 2 days travel into the backcountry, should recieve the same grade as a 12 pitch 10a that is found 5 minutes hike from the road. otherwise any climb with more than a 2 day approach (like in the middle of the Pickets) would automatically be a VI even if it is a 1 pitch wonder like standard route on Challenger.

I found coire dubh to be one of the lamest ice routes around. 30 feet of 3, followed by a long slog to 80 feet of 2. There are better uses of your time. If you do the integrale, go where there is actually ice on it. moonlight is a pitch of 3/3+ slabby ice (70-75 degree) to 2nd pitch of 10m of steep 4 then back to more 3 whenever i have done it. i think its only marginally harder than say, oregon jack. gibraltar wall was the second 4 i ever led and it was not any harder than the weeping wall left side which was the first 4 i led, and none of the pitches was harder than the first pitch of icy bc which is my definition of easy 4 - several short steep sections with good rests on easier ice in between. as for coire dubh i guess it depends. its a great route to go solo with m3/5.6/short wi3 cruxes and lots easier. i would rather do a long route like this and get the milage in, than do a bogus whacked out short 4 like his n hers.

Hmmmm Interesting. I note for Layton sake that the Roman Numeral grade used in Waterfall Ice has nothing to do with the NCSS I-VII grade*. other than that i don't know. according to guidebook like beckey's, i-Vi is for "time required for average party" and is to deal with Climb only, not approach. so I= a single pitch or two of low commitment II = a short climb of a few pitches taking only a few hours (eg. R& D route or Diedre) III = a half day climb (eg. Outer Space) IV = a long all day climb with possibility of bivi for slow parties (eg. NE face of Redoubt or N ridge of Clarke) V=a day and a half to 2-day climb, many parties will bivi once on the route EG. NE Buttress of Slesse or Liberty Crack are both given V in the guidebooks I believe. Fast parties will do in a day. VI = generally a big wall climb reserved for long routes with aid or much hard free eg The Nose of El Cap or the Diamond on Bear Mountain or North Norwegian Buttress VII = must be outside the Lower 48 - a big wall Grade VI climb in remote surroundings taking generally a minimum of several weeks to climb on the FA. even speed climbers will be unable to do it sub 24 hours. eg. Porter Route on Asgard, Great & Secret Show on Polar Sun Spire, Middendorf/Bongard on Trango. by these criteria I would have to say the route referred to sounds like a IV to me. But the definition of what a IV is is blurred. I would call routes like those on the Early Winter Spires, III but have seen them listed as IV. I would call Squamish Buttress and Angels Crest III as well but have seen that if you are trying to become an aspirant guide you can call them IVs when you submit your list of ascents where you have to have done something like 10 grade IV's to qualify. I guess there are a lot of reasons to call IIIs IVs and IVs Vs especuially if you are trying to become a guide, or get a new route published in Alpinist or the AAJ, or make it into the ACMG or whatever to puff up your resume. * Although Jo-jo has stated that to convert a Waterfall Commitment Grade I-VII to a Rockies Alpine Commitment Grade subtract 1 or 2 roman numerals so Polar Circus, a V, WI5 waterfall, would be rated a III or IV if it were an alpine route. HOWEVER the Alpine Commitment grades used in Dougherty's Selected Alpine guide, are not purely NCSS grades either. This whole discussion is the reason McLane and Serl and Jones went with Euro Alpine Grades rather than NCSS grades in the recent guidebooks.

turn off all heat in your house, and sleep with your windows open. shivering is the most effective means known, of getting the body to burn fat for warmth. and you dont have to get all sweaty and out of breath like with exercising!

the domestic cheese industry was restarted when the falling dollar made cross border cheese buying expeditions, no longer a bargain. however now that the dollar is up to 66 cents US due to your sinking currency, the return of canadians heading south for deals might occur eventually. PS buy Canadian goods now while your dollar is still worth something. the way bush is spending & money is fleeing the USA for europe, the USA dollar will soon be on par with canadian dollar in value.

not in the area you define but gibraltar wall. moonlight in the kananaskis. kidd falls is on my list of to dos i have only heard good things about it. ditto this house of sky and beowulf in the ghost. coire dubh integral if you like 700m M3's.

A group of Canadian left wing activists recently left to Inspect washington DC for evidence of weapons of mass destruction. I guess N Dakota is where they should have looked.

John Clarke died Jan 24/2003 RIP John.

Actually I didn't even read the VIMFF thing. Now I did. Yeah I don't know, like I said I'm all for slide shows but it's like where do you draw the line. I think as long as people ask if it's ok it's fine. The people putting on the bouldering contest and the ice fest contacted us and we said it was fine after trading a few emails. i put spam in the title of vimff post as warning. then OW made it tacked up fo me. if you dont like it take it down. sure it is for profit but there is a lot of interesting stuff going on there this year. i know a washington contingent always comes up.

isnt this the 3rd time weve seen this joke in the last month??? figger 8 really!!!!

scrub and bolt it and it will get better

i am disappointed there was not a spraymaster category cause it would nice to see how i stack up against the best worldwide

PNW version left on a ledge to be eaten by snafflehounds Man wants hungry sharks at funeral A Briton has applied for permission to be fed to Great White sharks off South Africa after he dies. Robert Blackwood has applied to the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism there. but experts say the sharks won't be interested and his corpse is more likely to be eaten by crayfish. The property developer wants his dead body thrown into waters of Gans Bay, Cape Town, between Geiser and Dyer islands. He admits he has never seen a live shark or been to South Africa but made his decision after watching a documentary on Gans Bay's sharks by the author of Jaws. A spokesperson for South Africa's Marine and Coastal Management Directorate says they could not grant the request because a state department was unable to commit to an event with an undetermined date, according to News24.com. Gans Bay resident, George Smit, who has been diving with sharks for 23 years, says the idea would not work because white sharks are not interested in human blood. He said: "The sharks will not give it a second glance. It would rot and be eaten by crayfish."

i was in the library once watching beckey copy out that geography stuff word for word from someone's thesis manuscript onto a mcdonalds napkin someone get him a text scanner!

mags are about pictures so you stand a better chance of getting it published, if it comes with pro quality pictures as a package. if they have to illustrate it themselves with drawings, or with pulled submissions from pros, then its again, more work for them. calling up the eds and asking them what they want to see, is like allison mentioned, a good step. most unsolicited manuscripts get rejected.

dang i missed him, if id known i coulda gone to the border to see it.

Quite frankly, if it is the "most notable achievements of the past year" are you really surprised you heard about them before? Sponsored climbers live off publicity so they cant afford to stay reticent. Only us employed climbers can afford to but most of us* are just as bad spraymasters only our achievements are not so good*. * fowler, full time employed as british taxman, is obvious exception to this. the interesting thing about the golden piton is the judgement involved ie choosing josune sending 14d as more notable than some dude onsighting a bunch of 13d and 14a. the rookie of the year, and humanitarian, sections were not recycled and were pretty interesting. ivan tresch boulderer, sending freerider for first trad route, that cool!