pope

Actually, there's another option, when wages offered together with prevailing working conditions fail to attract qualified candidates. The state can/does hire poorly qualified candidates. Not long ago, a local school district posted three teaching positions for high-school mathematics. Precisely three applied, and three were hired. Each had earned a bachelor’s degree, not one in mathematics. Not one was even minimally qualified according to state standards to teach secondary mathematics. In fact, not one was licensed by the state to teach. Yet they were hired. I guess they had a pulse and a temperature, and via some “emergency” clause, they joined the force, with the understanding they would begin work on certification. One guy made it beyond the first year. Friday at lunch some members of his department explained to him how to solve the equation log(10^x)=3. I agree with the theory….let the free market (the labor market) dictate wages. If only that were the way it worked, I’d probably be making double my salary. Then I could give up my second job, and I probably wouldn’t have to pay a health care premium for my family equal to almost half my mortgage.

Ausgezeichnet!

Answer the question, jack-donkey!

"Siege climb in progress" means that anybody who wishes to climb the route is given only two options. He can either trust the gear of somebody he doesn't know, or he can wait six months until the "free climbers" have moved on. What's worse, monopolizing a route on public land or removing the gear with the intent of keeping it? But, this is sport climbing at Smith Rock. Ain't it wonderful?

Looooooooozer!

Beneath the Sands of Egypt. Available now. Read my copy in two days. Gets rave reviews including my own. And it has climbing adventures in exotic locations.

Given that these threads are usually started by either Raindawg or you in an insulting manner, are you asking me to delete the entire thread? This isn't a JOB, since I don't get paid, and babysitting your pet rant is not really what I want to do for hours a day, every day. Your rants are not an asset to the site. You want custom service? PAY ME A DECENT WAGE. I’d be happy to moderate a forum on climbing ethics and style. I’ll work for free. How refreshing would it be to discuss one of the most important issues of modern climbing in a spray-free forum? There is no lack of interest in the topic….I suspect such a forum would generate plenty of traffic, pleasing both site owners and sponsors. I also think we’d hear from a greater number of participants representing a broad spectrum of attitudes in a forum where spray is not tolerated.

Hi Jon. Check your PM's. I sent you a copy of my request to Dru to remove my name. Decide for yourself whether I had been rude or confrontational. I don't think he's being truthful.

Honestly, I cut and pasted this quote straight from my PM's. Since I happen to believe in this dictate, and since its source is a man even more important than OW....even more important than MattP himself....I'm going to protect his identity.

"People have a right to stay anonymous [on cc.com]...." Who said this?

This topic is in SPRAY, And was started in SPRAY... You're the smart one, aren't you?

Thread drift! Moderators, move this to SPRAY at once! Listen, if one thing is obvious, it is the pervasion of ADD among recent contributors to this thread. Let's stay on topic here.....which is....if I remember, the notion that one should not make a statement on a controversial topic (like grid-bolting on Mt. Garfield) w/o disclosing his/her identity. There is no small number of reasons why contributors to these discussions wish to remain at large, not the least of which is that foul-mouthed guys like Choda Boy and Dick Head inevitably degrade our high-brow discourse to locker-room talk. The quality of these exchanges is not something with which many of us wish to have our real names associated. It’s nothing less than amusing that guys anointed with the powers of moderation (OWhite, for example) suggest that contributors such as I wouldn’t stand behind our statements if only the general readership were aware of our real identities. Joke. In the words of one of my true heroes, not to mention one of the founders of this website, “People have a right to stay anonymous, I guess Matt doesn't agree. I'll make sure your name is erased that Dru posted so you can reconsider.” This is a promise made to me when I asked …..Gee, this is a long story. Once upon a time, some prick from a third-world country (think it was Canada) started throwing my name around in the Alpine Lakes forum. I asked MattP (you know the guy……he who once was given the prestigious Alpine Buddy award by me and Dwayner) to “correct the problem”. He said, something to the effect that I shouldn’t expect him to do his job as moderator. So, I went straight to the top, asking one of the site’s owners to help “correct the problem”. He promised to help. I’m still waiting. Although he did offer some kind of philosophical statement….. see the quote above. Where am I going with this? Oh yes, a challenge……to the moderators of this site, many who claim to be “liberals”…….you know, vanguards of the free exchange of ideas, protectors of the environment, champions of minorities, etc. Next time a controversial topic surfaces (for example, fixed-anchor ethics), instead of immediately demoting the topic to spray, DO YOUR JOB! Please cleanse the exchanges of all insults, locker-room talk, personal attacks, ridiculous analogies, etc. When (and if) this happens, I’ll be happy to attach my full name to my comments.

Skinny Puppy, DT, WY.

Well said, my thoughts exactly. So many inspirational new routes have gone up this last couple years. Want to make your point? Do it the old fashoned way. Here, let me try: Until you've cut down an old-growth cedar tree in a national park, until you've invested the enormous amount of energy and vision required to create a picnic table from that tree, and until you've busted your ass hauling that picnic table up from tree line and carefully placed it in an appropriate alpine meadow, "....you simply don't get a voice in the discussion because you have no clue what your [sic] talking about. Seriously, it will change your perspective on the conversation."

Please don't pee all over this inspirational thread with what is obviously a satement of your predisposition.

And why's that? The cute girl? Or the fact that he's at Squamish and nowhere close to Portland?

What's truly splendid is a pipe-load of Cavendish followed by a shot of espresso. I love espresso shots, but somehow their caramelly goodness becomes that much more acute when the mouth is appropriately prepared.

This is what sport climbers discuss when they want to feel macho.

An option I enjoyed once is similar to what Dane describes. We overnighted at the base of the West Ridge, climbed the North (upper) Ridge and down the West Ridge, picked up minimal biv gear and out. From our camp, the North Ridge is very close making for an early summit. Just don't go too late in the summer because that bivi will be bone dry.

And each one is just a little different than the two starting 5 feet away from it.

maybe 10 bolts a route on average...definitely less than a 100,000 sport routes... i'd say 15,000 sport pitches would be optimistic...that's 150,000 bolts... And that ain't enough, is it now?

Two or three more bolts and I think Frenchman's Coulee will sink into the Columbia.

I don't know everything there is to know about Timson, but his climb on Givler's Dome is a superb example of restrained bolting and ground-up climbing. I recall having a far more favorable opinion of chasing bolts when there were just a few routes like that to be found in Leavenworth. Regarding Midnight Rock photos, I have a few that I thought were pretty nice, scanned from Ektachrome slides. Pretty sure they're on my work computer so give me a day or two.

What? Bill and Offy are being civil? You know, every once in a while I find myself believing that you two may just be an RCH more dignified than most of the bottom-feeders on this site.

Really? Hey, if that what's you're into. Just watch out for the "deadliest catch".