pope

I think somebody's gonna give ol' Jim a B.J.

But......can he fuck a goat like a climber?

I many cases I think buying local in order to support the local economy or be patriotic is a joke, such as when choosing between a Japanese or American automobile. Why go out of my way to spend hard-earned dollars on a pile (the price of which about doubles when you include the continued trips to the mechanic)? At PMS (I'd have chosen a store name with different initials), you not only get quality equipment at a reasonable price, you also get to talk to somebody who knows the hills around here pretty damn well, and I haven't talked to a snotty or ignorant salesman there yet. It's inconvenient for me to drive up there, but in the Tacoma area, all we have is Marmot and REI. REI's recent holiday catalogue just put me over the top. I just can't stand going in there, snaking my way past Christmas Smoked Salmon and K-2 board games in an attempt to find somebody who can cut me a little webbing.

Wow, Allison, gee, um thanks! for all those reading, check the dates on the original posts. When life feels like a traffic jam, you can alway exit onto Memory Lane.

My comments? A typical cyber-tough-guy contest (obnoxious in the first place) has evolved into some kind of post-modern, ghetto-glorifying electronic "rap off" (da kids, they calls it free styling'). This is trash!

I know a guy from Spanaway who fell down Libra Crack while trying to down-solo. When his buddies observed bone sticking out of his leg, they figured he needed something for the pain and found him a bottle o' booze. Then they put him in the bed of the pick-up (no canopy) and drove him to the hospital.....in Puyallup for crying out loud! He was seen at Spire rock about three weeks later trying to climb with his leg in a cast. A week later, he had cut it off since he figured his leg was healed and the cast certainly inhibited his climbing game. Of course he injured it again and last I heard it was so messed up his doctor was considering amputation. Dang!

meow

The Pisces hand crack is one of the best in the NW and probably qualifies as moderate. On my first trip to Index, I tried to lie-back the crack on top rope and failed! I tend to think that 5.10+ and 5.11a is pretty tough for moderate status, based on what I see the average weekend warrior getting up these days. I think of moderate as being 5.7 to 5.9 or 5.10-, and in these grades, it's tough to beat.... * Damnation (for variety, entertainment and scratching warts off your back). * Pedestal to Library Ledge pitch, Outerspace (ain't no finer 150 feet of granite on earth). * Easter Overhang (tough moderate but it includes the 2nd best hand crack in "Lebewurst" followed by super cool handle-bar jugs that allow a feet dangling chalk-up prior to squeezing into an enormous, granite anus feature). * Brass Balls (this is a crack climb, isn't it?) * Pitches 5 and 6 of Burgner/Stanley on Prussik Peak. * The Dihedral pitch on Serpentine Arete * Classic Crack with a sit-start (just kidding). * Coach's Crack (UW wall) * Givler's Crack Also, Squamish ain't in the NW. It's in SW B.C.

Peter speaks the truth and offers good advice. Head down to the UW wall (one of the best simulations of granite climbing to be found).

The last time I went sport climbing, I found it pretty easy to adapt. At Smith, I was able to on-sight two letter grades harder (tied in with a bowline around my middle) than I had on granite; at Exit 38 the grades were even softer. In fact, most people I know claim to be able to lead harder grades on sport routes, and it ain't because they're concentrating on sport climbing. It's because, grade for grade, sport climbing is easier. For training suggestions, any steep climbing will make you fit, but sport climbing (as I see it practiced) teaches you to fall and hang on your gear (poor habbits when you're in the mountains). It also makes you think you can climb grades that are actually over your head (see above), and it teaches you to climb with a "sissified" rack so that your legs won't be ready to carry a big pack up to a real climb. Hence, I recommend training with the big boys. I recommend climbing steep crack routes. If you really want to get fit, sling one of these on while you train:

quote: Originally posted by willstrickland: Not quite the end of the story DFA. The real motivation behind Pope's slip-cover idea? We know Pope once shit in his sleeping bag, but his fecal folly's don't end there. After plastering Dwayner's pad with splatter, and incurring the rage of the good Prof, the idea struck him in a flash of brilliance...poop the pad, no problem...just wash the cover. Right Poop...I mean Pope? Will! Will Strickland! Well God damn my eye, how the hell are you? How long has it been? In your hiatus, my modest post total has nearly eclipsed yours, something I never thought I'd see. Slow and steady.... Anyway, the slip-covers are available with a teflon treatment that is guaranteed to repel most staining fluids and malodors. Also, they are completely washable (drip dry only!), and the price is not so prohibitive that a guy couldn't afford to replace one when its essence begins to reveal a history of romantic experimentation.

quote: Originally posted by Alex: I find it disturbing that pope is still thinking about this idea almost a year later. Check the date on the original post. After a summer finishing grad school and 10 weeks of coaching football, I finally have some free time again. Anyway, I was fooling around on my garage wall last night, milking a no-hands rest in an overhanging corner, when I looked down at my crash zone and thought, "Wouldn't it be goofy as Hell to have a pad with El Cap Meadows on it?" Then I remembered the old thread about pad covers (Meet More Babes) and wrote.... And here's another idea, for anybody who recognizes an opportunity for a quick profit. Your average boulder hopper secretly wants to know what it feels like to get way off the deck, but he lacks the vision and courage to get on the sharp end. Hence, the need for another fine product (coming to the REI stocking-stuffer isle for the holidays): a bouldering pad slip-cover with a silk-screened photo of El Cap Meadows, taken from high on the Nose. That's right, the photo selected is of such high resolution that one may even observe tourist trams and gapers eating potato salad in the Meadows, and if you look carefully, you will see a full rack of cams and a jug of water tumbling down Free Blast. Johnny Bachar is visible only two pitches below, 80 feet out on his last nut and obviously climbing up your ass. One look down at this pad (from the third move on your garage woody) and you'll be sure to capture that big-wall ambience, which may be just what you need to stick the big dyno (and crap your pants in the process). Speculators and serious investors may send me a PM.

quote: Originally posted by salbrecher: Has anyone considered that the kind of women climbing out there these days DON'T want flower patterns and pastels? maybe you havn't seen some of them but I can't help but think they might not be down with that. Huh? The girls who are climbing "these days"....at least the ones I tend to notice....don't have a problem looking pretty or appreciating delicate beauty. I know you're just trying to score points with one of the more independent, rugged (and hairy) gals on this site, but why don't you purchase a pad cover and watch your social circle expand. You'll thank me.

And here's another idea, for anybody who recognizes an opportunity for a quick profit. Your average boulder hopper secretly wants to know what it feels like to get way off the deck, but he lacks the vision and courage to get on the sharp end. Hence, the need for another fine product (coming to the REI stocking-stuffer isle for the holidays): a bouldering pad slip-cover with a silk-screened photo of El Cap Meadows, taken from high on the Nose. That's right, the photo selected is of such high resolution that one may even observe tourist trams and gapers eating potato salad in the Meadows, and if you look carefully, you will see a full rack of cams and a jug of water tumbling down Free Blast. Johnny Bachar is visible only two pitches below, 80 feet out on his last nut and obviously climbing up your ass. One look down at this pad (from the third move on your garage woody) and you'll be sure to capture that big-wall ambience, which may be just what you need to stick the big dyno (and crap your pants in the process). Speculators and serious investors may send me a PM.

quote: Originally posted by vegetablebelay: Something else that's outrageous is the fact that of the recently announced college football Academic All-Americans, the Cougars had 3 and the Huskies had none.... Football players are stupid no matter where they go to college. At WSU, a football player can be academically competitive, maybe even break the curve on a midterm or two (since the chances are pretty good that he's attending class with his intellectual equals). At the UW, hey forget about it. When it comes to crackin' the books, you've got to be pretty outstanding to be a Husky, and no football player is going to shine in the classroom (although he could probably match wits with the doctoral candidates at WSU).

This thread reminds me...anybody out there have a Strawberry Mountain chalk bag in good condition? These are the oversized, red/navy cordura jobbers one could purchase in the mid-1980s. I'd be interested in purchasing it.

And Coug fans, I don't want to hear any crying about how you could have won if Gesser hadn't been crushed under the wheels of the Dawg Team. Face it, that guy is fragile, just like the team he tried to lead. Too bad that highly regarded WSU O-line couldn't protect him. Bow down to the mighty Dawg. Dawg dawg, diggy diggy, dawg dawg, diggy dawg dawg......WOOF! Hey, the Huskies did you a favor. Now there's no chance of embarassing yourselves (and our state) in a national championship game.

quote: Originally posted by sexual chocolate: (I bet he runs....) I'll bet you're correct. He's their only hope. That's pathetic. [ 11-22-2002, 05:21 AM: Message edited by: pope ]

quote: Originally posted by chucK: Hey Pope, Can you regale us with tales of slide rules now? Chuck, you're older than I am, aren't you? I never used one of those bad boys. But here's some more math history. The word "algorithm" was actually coined at the National Democratic Caucus. It is basically the juxtaposition of the words "Al", "Gore", and "rhythm", and it was intended to remind the public that not only did Gore invent the internet, but also that he is a happenin' guy.

quote: Originally posted by sexual chocolate: Pope did it three years ago. Oh no, not I. I ain't climbin' much of anything difficult these days, nothing that a piss ant couldn't hop over anyways. Besides, I ain't a climber. I'm an impresario, least that's what they call me. Uh, that ain't dirty, is it?

I'm no historian, but logarithm stands for "logical arithmetic". Log tables were useful for multiplying large numbers quickly, in the following way: The log of 100 is 2, since 10^2=100. The log of 10,000 is 4 since 10^4=10,000. Now, you can determine what 100 times 10,000 is by adding 4+2=6 and looking 6 up in a log table: log(1,000,000) is 6, and so 100 times 10,000 is 1,000,000. You don't need logs for this simple problem, but imagine two large, nasty numbers that you need to multiply, and imagine that you need your answer to be fairly accurate, but that it's more important that you get it quickly. Without technology, you can look up their logs in a table, add them together, and then find what super large number has this sum of logs as its log. That large number will be the product of the two numbers you intended to multiply quickly. Pretty slick, especially if you have to multiply several big numbers quickly. OK, there you have it. And who said you don't use math in real life!

I just realized.....that was my third post (log 10)!

quote: Originally posted by sexual chocolate: No. Yes. Well, let me think about it for a sec. Yes, he might be. It might be the same Erik Wolfe. But I wouldn't bet my last copy of Royal Robbins' Rockcraft on it, if I were you. Tortoise, hummingbird. Damn. Thanks for your prompt (sincere Pope) and useful (sarcastic Pope) reply. Erik Wolfe (gave himself that last name after "the great American author") used to come down to the wall in a clown outfit and pull down pretty hard. I asked him about the outfit and he told a story about working on the Patch Adams ranch or something. In the middle of his story, some kids came up and requested balloons but he didn't have any. The next time I saw him, he had transformed into a hummingbird. Yeah, no shit, that's what he told me. I sarcastically replied that I was the Easter Bunny, and I think I hurt his feelings. That's the last time I was really sarcastic with somebody, since I went home feeling shitty about insulting him. I don't know....he used to be a cool hippie, back when we did ROTC (that's the only time I climbed with him), but the last time I talked to him he had obviously evolved. He's the guy who coauthored the UW bouldering guide with Scotty Hopkins.

Jeeesh. It's amazing how excited people can get over vertical mud. Hey, does anybody know whether Erik Wolfe is the same Erik Wolfe who used to hang at the U.W. rock? You know, the guy who honestly believed he was Patch Adams (before he morphed into a humming bird or a tortoise or some damn thing)?

Wow....swell to see everybody has been taking it nice and easy. Did anybody climb anything hard?