mattp

Yoda?

May the force be with you, young Fuke.

He did. He's just shy about sharing the details of his seminar group. Half of them are transgendered and the rest are "diversity" students. (Wink: I'm laughing with you rather than against you here, Fairweather. It sounds like you're taking some good classes.)

Mr. Klenkinator: what do you have for show and tell? The muffler bracket that the jeep left behind on ??? peak? And Peak Pimp: the broken tooth ice screw from your last montaine adventure? And Dawg: a photo of you and the bandits facing off at your last dig? Let's make this a night to share! Ballard is great. It is definitely out of the way for anybody who doesn't already have a reason to be in that part of town but we've been to West Seattle and Monroe in times past, and (within reason) "out of the way" may be more something to complain about than a serious deterrent. Still, though, if we are going to have more than one event it'd be a good idea to focus on locations closer to I-5 for the next one. As for times, there have always been some earlier folks who want to show up at 7 and leave by 8:30 whereas others won't even show up 'till 9:00. Rarely have we stayed out must past about 11:00 on a week night.

Hey Wayne: I think Mt. Garfield and Mt Index are in the "Alpine Lakes" region. Surely there is something on both of those peaks that would merit mention on your list.

Meanwhile, I'll note that I've been watching this thread and so far I have not seen any real argument as to why we actually benefit from having the facility at Guantanimo and being known for torturing the bad guys. There's been some talk about how the bad guys really suck and our guys are underappreciated, but not really any discussion of exactly or even vaguely what it is that we've gained from having Gitmo. I got one private message that there might be some tangential benefit in having that facility but it was really not very specific and you tough guys aren't even trying to say that we've gotten good intelligence from Gitmo or that the gains have been worth the PR losses, let alone even acknowledging the fact that it has been an embarrassment.

Righto. I used to head down to the hills in West Virginia and N. Carolina/Tennessee for caves and climbing over spring breaks and never had any kind of Deliverance moment. Quite the opposite. Anyone else ever eat the wild green onions called "Ramps?" My in-laws from Kentucky never heard of 'em but when I was a young lad the locals down there would crawl through the woods filling gunny sacks with them in the Spring.

Hey Jake: I'd share a ride with you but I live in NE Seattle so I'd meet you 3/4 of the way there and I'm not going to be in a hurry to come home 'cause my wife is at her sister's house and all I have to look forward to at home is an ornery cat.

Baltoro is right, that this is not the "preferred" way to self belay. However, depending on what the climber was actually doing it may have been a "secure" way to do so. I've done some solo climbing where I simply clipped into each piece with a figure eight and, on a remote mountain wall covered with lichen, I took comfort in the fact that I had multiple anchors and fat rope and simple mechanics. There are devices made for this purpose that would undoubtedly do a better job if employed correctly and if the set up was undertaken with proper care. The crude system with clipping into every piece with a static or relative static cord may or may not be entirely stupid.

Who ya got in your cross hairs, there Pink? I love that film, by the way. The John Birchers were always better than Hollywood when it comes to subplot and subterfuge.

Nice!!! The John Birch Society rocks.

I'm a solid member of the curmudgeon team around here but to this statement I'd say: why not? He's excited about climbing and folks around here and I bets everyone else is saying to him that it's amazing that he is doing all of this at such a young age. "Get experienced and be sure you are ready" is excellent advice that I'm sure he get's plenty of but setting out to be the youngest climber, or the one who rode his bicycle from home or the oldest climber or the demonstration of international-brethren, or the no-oxygen climber or the clean-up-the-south-col climber or [name your particular fetish here] are largely just different ways to motivate or define our experience. Lots of people enjoy these record-setting or climbing-plus type expeditions and if the "theme" helps someone raise money for their venture because someone else wants to contribute, I have no problem with it.

Good question, Braydon. Dane's looking out for your interest here, and I agree with him nearly fully -- but in fact younger climbers CAN do some amazing things. The #1 thing you should do is to get as much as possible experience on the biggest mountains you can find. Rainier is better training than Mt. Si, but McKinley would be better training than Rainier. I don't know exactly how high Pumori is, but people die at that altitude just because they happen to be there. It is serious.

They are trying to get her phone number.

That's the real point here. Nobody, and in this case I include Serenity and Alkateke, have even tried to tell us how and why Gitmo has helped make America more secure. Instead they warn of the "Bogeyman" and say "you liberals don't understand what is at stake." I think we do. Terrorism is no joke, but our recent activities have only fed the beast and last I heard all rational analysis says we are in fact little or no better protected against terrorist attack now than we were eight years ago but, at the same time, we've lowered our standing and damaged our reputation around the world. I'm not referring to GWB specifically but to the fact that after 911 we had an opportunity to show leadership and resolve and, yes, power. We showed the opposite and the "we're fighting the terrorists and you guys who don't support that want America to fail" constituency can only urge us to continue to do so.

Serenity, I have some sympathy for that "you civilians safe in your houses shouldn't be second guessing the troops on the ground" argument, but that is why we have the rule of law and a political process which includes the election of our commander in chief. I noted above that I'm sure there were some good reasons for decisions made at many points along the road to Guantanimo, but I'm afraid you are just going to have to live with the second guessing - and should.

Billcoe, nice try on the previous page but really all you did was prove my point. You didn't set forth any argument that we are accomplishing anything at Guantanimo that we couldn't do if we held the same captives at home, nor did you even try to justify the torture practices there. Your chief point is that some of them are bad guys.

How many of our guys –including maybe our friend Serenity- should be tried, then? I'm sure we have plenty of guys active in the conflict areas who are not always wearing uniforms identifying them as our guys.

What I find telling is the fact that nobody has ever made a compelling case for Gitmo in the first place. They told us they had to lock up some bad guys, but never said who they were or how they identified them as bad guys. Then they told us they had to apply a little pressure on these bad guys in order to extract information to protect America but denied doing what everybody in the world knew they were doing (torture) and never told us about much of any actual beneficial information gained and we are not even seeing any real discussion of whether the whole thing has ever been worth it. Now they simply say they want to close Gitmo but don't know how to do it and they present disturbing things like the link above. I'm sure there are some good reasons for at least some of the decisions along the way and maybe we have gained some valuable information at some point or maybe some of the detainees, if they had not been detained, would have committed acts of terrorism several years ago. But the only way you can believe that we actually benefit from Gitmo is if you take all of our government's propaganda on faith and completely ignore the arguments of those like Tvash and Off White. Can you, Serenity, make a real argument FOR Gitmo or similar programs and facilities? Can you really do more than just to say that OffWhite and Tvash are worrying too much about the downsides of Gitmo and not fearful enough of what happens without?

I have had two pairs of them and I believe the first pair DID stretch lenghtwise a little bit but mostly they just became sloppy, which is probably largely laeral. I bought the second pair painfully tight, with my toes curled up, and I never was able to wear them comfortably though due to foot problems my street shoe size is now a size and a half bigger and I'm buying rock shoes bigger as well.

So: Sarge. Did you do it? I bet it was cold out there in Saturday.

I'd be pretty happy to have my friend's family end up with Yvonne Chouinard but I've known other unlicensed guides who in no way should have been taking clients anywhere near Mt. Rainier. If the park is policing things a little more than they have at times in the past that may be an OK turn of things.

Collin's right, Catbird. You live in a pretty sweet place and the weather there is lots better than here. But Pimp, Crillz, Collin and anyone else: let's go climbing at North Bend or Index after work!

Thanks, Collin. My initial response to my friend was that I couldn't believe there wouldn't be any guided climbs available in August and her brothers should try to confirm they were getting accurate and complete information. By the way: daylignt savings time means an after work (cut out a little early) trip to Exit 38 or Index might be a good idea. Lets get something going!

I just received a telephone call from an old friend who says her brothers have contacted "the guides" at Mt. Rainier and been told that they cannot hire a guide this coming summer because everything is booked. I don't know if they have contacted all the licensed guides or if they may only have contacted RMI but can this really be true? Second of all: if is IS true that none of the official concessionaires are available, who as an unlicensed guide might be able to take some healthy and fit climbers from New Jersey up Mt. Rainier? I'm all for regulations and government oversite but if the licensed operators cannot accommodate someone who inquires 5 months in advance I'm skeptical as to whether the certification or concession procedure is adequate. Under these circumstances, I wouldn't be adverse to relaying contact information regarding someone who may not be "official."