pope

Boulder, CO. Let's see...never been there, but once at the City of Rocks my buddy ran into a couple of Boulder babes who stole his heart and nearly ruined our trip. That's right, before I knew it I was walking around the City trying to find my lost partner, who, come to find out, was sniffing around these Boulder babes, setting up top-ropes and such, trying to be as hip as they were. I found them to be rather annoying, what with their self-righteous, post-1970's, adolescent-wanna-be-hippy charades. When my buddy called one of them from Jackson, some dude named Sterling or Sylvester answered the phone. Turned out that the little bitch was engaged to this guy, although she never mentioned it to my buddy during the three days he sniffed her out in the City. Then, weeks later she began calling my buddy, even sent him some plans for an "earth ship", a subterraneal hippy hut built with used tires and other recylables. Mildly attractive and excessively self-absorbed, she was the kind of girl who could benefit from eating a hamburger or at least shaving the vigorous bush growing from under her arms. Hey, any yous guys had a similar experience with Boulder babes? Anyway, even if the gals are a bit crunchy, you've got Christian Griffith out there, inspiring us with artsy photos of bouldering in his panties and shaving his back in the tub. Yeah, Boulder is way out in front.

Hey, you irreverant little A-pipes, how's about a little respect for his Big Louness? And as long as we're making cheese out of corn, try this one: What's the principal ingredient in pickle bread? Now that would have to be dill dough, right?

In the currrent ed. market, you'll get a teaching job with just about any training. They're not going to give a rip where you went to school. CWU in Ellensburg actually graduates many ed. majors, and academic majors who then get a credential, and among ed. programs, they have as good a reputation as any. Close to Leavenworth, plenty of sun, cheap rent and low expectations...you should get plenty of climbing done. Ditto on WWU, minus the cheap rent. WWU is closer to Squamish and the North Cascades, but you'll spend many a rainy weekend studying worthless ed. theories, dreaming about dry rock. At the UW, they take themselves seriously in the ed. department, and you'll be put through every imaginable hoop. You'll still graduate with a head full of crap, the applicability of which is vanishingly small. The UW has a superb climbing/simulation facility, and plenty of other distractions. Conclusion: don't borrow a lot of money, whatever you do. You're not going to pay it back very fast.

Your instructional strategy is missing one key ingredient: evaluation. You can certainly learn both mechanical and conceptual ideas from reading manuals, and you can fart around at the base of a cliff, trying this and that, and such activity is valuable. But when learning to place gear and build anchors, the smart thing to do is find/hire somebody who can evaluate your work and progress, who can critique your current understanding and suggest ways to develop safe practices. Meeting this person through happenstance will be difficult, since your ability to recognize competence (vs. some guy with a mountain rescue patch on his parka) might not be as keen as you think. Save a few hundred bucks and hire a guide. It's not like golf or skiing where bad habbits will screw up your game. Bad habbits have serious consequences here. But just as in golf and skiing, you sometimes need qualified, outside review before you can recognize your bad habbits.

We're getting a new color for them, I presume.

That one's from me, ScottP.

The stars are neat...but I like 'em brown.

I'm trying to get sponsored by Home Depot, so I highly recommend 1/2" hemp. Chuckles.

Seems like rumors of plans for a Tacoma gym have circulated before, and if the rumors were true, there may have been trouble finding investors. After years of driving to Seattle gyms, and even living in the neighborhood to be near a gym, I gave up on the idea of a Tacoma gym and built a garage wall. It's tough to get motivated without other climbers to push you....it's particularly tough when I can reach into the fridge for a coldy while hanging from jugs on one end of the wall!

Back in the day, we used to get by with 45m. I can remember many situations when that didn't reach the belay. But only a on a couple of occasions has 50m been less than adequate (Devil's Tower has a few pitches over 50m). Why not have an extra 10m, just in case? Because that adds 20% to the weight of your rope, 20% that you will pay for and carry but hardly ever use. On alpine terrain, simul-climbing with that much rope between you doesn't seem practical; the leader will constantly be fighting rope drag. If you can afford extra weight, go fat. Get an 11mm rope and ease your mind. I highly recommend a dry rope. Pope (on a rope).

Mighty big of you, Andy, to put your "credibility with the entire spectrum of climbers" on the line and illuminate the subtle colors of this complex issue. And, to the sprayers of this site, let's not fudge this up! We've got a real player contributing here, and we should extend our warmest welcome.

And remember that the practice and existence of one transgression does not mitigate another. Obviously there are a number of environmental evils in this world. How do we get logically from this to "Therefore, bolts are O.K."?

Technology is the crutch on which you support your incompetence. One of my dearest memories is of the time I tied a boline around my ass and climbed one of my hardest on-sight's at Smith, with a group of wiener heads yelling beta (from a full day of sequence miming/rehearsing on the same route). Funny thing was, when I found a rest after the crux, I looked down at my girly friend to see about ten feet of slack sitting on the ground!

What we have is this. On the one hand, a number of wealthy individuals are foolish enough to think that hiring a guide can make up for their deficit of experience on one of the least forgiving hills in the world. On the other hand, a number of men are willing to accept their tuition and lead the former group into situations that can, with a shift in the wind and a drop in the barometer, evolve into conditions in which even a seasoned party might not escape. When Krakauer claims that he narrowly escaped to his tent, in the face of the deadly storm, I tend to think he had a better understanding of the situation's hazards than we do. I don't think we're in a position to question whether he made an appropriate decision in saving his own butt. Also, his analysis correctly identifies choices and practices that resulted in having so many inexperienced climbers high on the mountain. I don't recall him criticizing how the guides and clients handled themselves during the disastrous event. Also, here's to Jon, our esteemed moderator, for performing a thankless job.

OK, don't tell anybody, but I've always wanted to learn to comb my hair in the middle of a drop-knee move. I too am a coach, and I understand that some skills just aren't coachable. Think you can help?

What do I read? Thanks for caring! I read Climbing Magazine! But I like dessert before meat and potatoes, so I always flip to my favorite section first...right up front, just after "Hot Flashes", there's a column with neat little tidbits, human-interest stories about our pebble-crimping, back-stepping, sequence-miming heroes. You learn about who's getting married, who's having a baby, who's dating Billy Back-step's X-girlfriend, who broke from their strict diet and had a slice of chocolate cake before astonishing the Euros on the World-Cup circuit. These bits of trivia and entertaining anecdotes make the stars of this sport seem more human, like they could be your buddy. I think next time Sharma's in town I'm going to tell him what a great interview he gives and how he's inspired me to push my personal envelope. Maybe he'll let me belay him!

I don't know that this is going to help, but I never checked it out because a reliable source told me the routes are scruffy. I know Jim Yoder established some of these routes more than a decade ago, and I doubt they've seen much action since. Are you an Enumclaw climber?

Crimpers and slopers and long waits in iso; Frenchies yelling, "Allez!" as I set up to dyno; The beta I'll need for the crux underclings.....these are a few of my favorite things. A bolt by my feet and my knee and my shoulder; A hot little number to spot while I boulder; Apparel that matches my colorful slings....these are a few of my favorite things! When I'm clipping, when I'm taking, when I'm not feeling rad, I simply remember my last night with Donna and then I don't feel.......so bad.

Spice Girls, Katie Brown, Power Gel, X-Games, Mt. Dew, Big Lou, Dwayner with a wig, greasy sleeping bags, Oktoberfest, Return of the Salmon Fest, Christmas Lighting Fest, Mai Fest, Exodous-of-Tourists-Fest, Arrival-of-Tourists-to-Purchase-a-Bunch-of-Nutcrackers-and-Yodeling-Records Fest, usw.

Jon, Will, Philfort...an El Cap sized "THANKS" for steering me right. I've heard similar comments about the value of Pentax medium format cameras/lenses for years.

Medium/large format photography. Any hot tips from the pros?

"Tiki mano ahu akoakoa haliaki kamu poa." That's aloha-land for "Tiki says, "A bolt in the mountain is like a fly in the poi!'"

I prefer to simply release into my one-piece Gore-tex Everest suit. When you fight so hard to maintain body heat, why let that warmth escape? This is not an original idea..it's an old scuba trick.

How to get around this kind of thing? In addition to parking on the road, you can make one-day and even extended trips into the Enchantments without a permit provided you take the advice of a Leavenworth friend of mine (BTW, I'm not promoting ANY of these practices): 1. Go in and out in the dark. FS rangers don't typically operate in the dark, so your chances of an encounter are vanishingly small. 2. Have a big guy in the party. Nothing works like intimidation. Also, if you bump into a ranger on the trail, just keep walking. 3. Carry duct tape. This can be useful when Ranger Rick reaches for the radio. Just give him a wedgy and tape him to a tree. But seriously, if you're just day-tripping to SCW, park on the road and fill out a day pass at the trailhead. It's astonishingly simple. Not so long ago, we had had to visit the FS station in town just to get a day pass, and they didn't exactly open at 5 am to accomodate alpine starts.

Here's an idea related to multi-tasking at the belay station. Ever belayed a guy up an aid pitch that seemed to take a good fraction of the day? Ever get distracted or find yourself dozing at the belay after two hours of belaying some slow aid master? Just back up the belay with a clove hitch (with about five feet of slack) and take a nap.