mattp

I thought the pillar had been climbed -- years ago.

That knob on the left side of the pyramidal peak makes it slightly resemble Mt. Pilchuck viewed from I-5 near Arlington. I suppose the peaks to the left could be some revisionist view of the Three Fingers - Salish - Whitehorse group.

Veld, the area is not entirely straight-forward and you have a legitimate worry but I think it is pretty manageable. I have taken kids to the closest wall to the parking lot - "summit wall" or something like that, several times. The trail down to the bottom of the cliff is slightly confusing and does involve one passage down a blocky corner that is awkward and then a traverse where I have either set a hand line or spotted the kids, but I have managed to get even a couple nervous moms down there OK. I don't think the bottom of the crag is much of a problem, though if you had kids running around throwing a ball you'd certainly be worried about them. It'd be nice to have an extra adult to supervise. The top-outs, too, are a little indistinct and travel above the anchors could be worrying while, with the cliff being somewhat blocky, lowering is a little awkward. I have not seen a more manageable cliffs on that hillside (though I have not been to all of them) and some provide even more cause for worry. There are more easily managed crags at other areas, but I like Mt. Erie because of its high scenic value. Those nervous moms or the kids, too, will enjoy watching a ship out in the distance of hearing the cry of an eagle.

I have a bunch of bracken fern in my yard, but I've been told it does not transplant well because the actual plant itself is fairly deep (or something like that). Maidenhair would be cool, but you'd need a water fountain and rock garden.

I've had good luck with vine maple, sword fern, and bleeding heart; I've managed to kill Deer Fern and trilium, though I think lack of watering in the follow up may have been the issue.

Another very cool native with exotic leaves and a great flower. Probably requires even more water than devil's club, I bet. You'll need standing water at least part of the year.

Right on Roboboy! I've always wanted to put some devil's club in the yard. The leaves are very exotic, and the berries are not so bad either. Also, it has an interesting pedigree: a cousin of ginseng, my herb medical friend says it was the top most powerful healing herb for all kinds of ailments in native NW medicine. For some reason, my wife has a bad impression of it and would prefer I go to the nursery and bring home some more rhododendrons or dahlia bulbs or something. You're going to have to keep it pretty wet, I bet.

Toby and I had a good time. Sorry you missed it.

Sounds like we'll be there tomorrow. We'll probably hang out at Summmit Wall or whatever it is, but maybe if Toby is psyched we'll go for Snag Buttress. C'mon out and have some sun!

I'm thinking about taking my 7 year old nephew to Mt. Eerie tomorrow if someobody else wants to go.

I have used the leap-frog method on climbs where I expected only a very short difficult section and really as much as anything else just wanted the option to (maybe) be able to plug in and take a break. I agree with Freak that much of it is a mental game. On every significantly technical climb I have ever soloed, I experienced at least moments of doubt -- even on climbs substantially below my limit and in some cases climbs I had done plenty of times before. For me, at least, that sense of doubt is generally greater in a truly alpine situation with snow, ice, and often loose rock, and maybe a difficult or dangerous retreat or descent expected. On a crag, or maybe a popular alpine rock climb, there is usually much more detailed information available, I feel more confident that most of the loose stuff has already been pulled off, and retreat or descent anchors are already in place; these factors offer me a greater sense of comfort and control.

There are a lot of different approaches to this. I've used a very simple system of just tying the rope to each piece of pro and looking ahead to the next spot where I intend to stop and protect and giving myself enough leash to get there. The techno geeks around here will tell you I was setting myself up for that dreaded factor 2 fall and guaranteeing extra shock on my gear, but it didn't take much thinking and I used no gizmo that might have issues with different rope diameters, wet rope, proper vertical orientation or whatever.

I've never heard of anyboy trying either one of them. There is no ice step and I bet climbing over/around the Cockscomb would be a challenge and it would require mixed climbing or rotten rock climbing totally unlike anything on the North Ridge unless there is a snow ramp around it.

It took you a month to drink the single malt? No wonder you are suffering SAD.

Yeah, but what do you guys drink up there? Had any good single malt lately or is it just some aboriginal brew for Mr. Strickland?

I know, but poor Jay is seriously outnumbered around here and he seemed worried that he was accused of not only being a cracker, but an unfair cracker. [edited by JayB]

Don't sweat it, Jay. For anybody who may have been confused: I was the one who modified my own post. Jay has not abused his moderator powers in a political argument. I think you are full of sh*t here, but carry on.

Condi Rice said: And Bush? I 100% agree with both statements, but how can they feign indignation with a straight face?

[edited by JayB]

Gosh, a couple of black dittoheads think Bush policies are pretty cool.

You get special subsidies and set-asides and we hate you for that.

While were working to clear things up, I should point out that it is probably a more generally accepted premise that Bush is a facist who just doesn't care about the problems of non-whites in this world than it is that he is a racist in the classical KKK sense of the word.

Not that it directly answers that last point about how the evil NYTimes is undermining national security, but don't I remember how someone in the Bush administration leaked the existence of a sting operation in Brittain a couple years ago, effectively closing down that operation, when it served their own purposes in responding to criticism of a terror alert?

I think we could assemble a pretty convincing list of how Bush policies and statements have been racist. He has vetoed, resisted, slashed just about every possible social program that serves low income people who just happen to be mostly non-white. He vetoed a Hate Crimes law in Texas, then lied about it in the 2000 debates. He embraced Bob Jones III during the 2000 campaign, and his operatives accused John McCain of father a "Black Baby" to turn the tide in South Carolina. His campaign used racist tactics in Florida to help steal his first election when his brother added extra black voters to the list of felons disqualifed to vote, and his friends in Ohio made sure black voting districts in Ohio were under-served during his second election. He lied about policies to help deserving minorities attend quality colleges and grad schools, saying these amounted to racial quotas. While making frequent statements about how not every muslim is bad, he makes stupid statements like his initial announcement of a "crusade" and his pals have invested a tremendous amount energy into scaring all of us about how all "those people" want to do is to kill us. etc. etc. etc. But your question about his racist policies, I fear, was just a dodge. We were talking about whether it was appropriate to make remarks about him at the CSK funeral. Part of the playbook for civil rights activists has always been to stand up and speak truth to power and, in this respect, I think making some comments about George Bush (and very mild comments in my opinion), was in fact more of a demonstration of respect for CSK than disrespect. [edited to remove double cut and paste]

But that is my second cousin's son's friend's birthday and I think there is going to be a special episode of CSI.