mattp

Garter snakes are very common and they can get surprisingly big.

Here's a shot of the first ascent. Fred and friends took the "preferred variation." By the time the guidebook came out, climbers had discovered that it was slightly easier to cut right under the roof and slither up the chimney that has become known as "Midway." This error has been faithfully reflected in every guidebook since.

Yes, I drew the topo for Midway. Champaign could use a good topo. It is a popular route and lots of folks are confused by where to go. I drew a topo for Mary Jane that is posted on cc.com, and it needs a little refinement but J believe could be useful for someone looking for an alternative to Outer Space and Orbit. link

Older versions of Kramar's book provide more detail. For Midway, I have a topo that shows the original line which is not indicated in guidebooks but is the better way to go and the line that many parties take inadvertently. pdf file Some readers may note that I probably overstate the fear factor for Midway Direct, but I don't think it is a beginner's lead whereas Midway is.

In my opinon, that greaspit Castle Rock is the best crag in the state for climbs below 5.9. There's a reason it is so popular. As for trailbuilding in Icicle Creek Canyon, many people have talked with the rangers over the years and they have generally asked climbers NOT to undertake any trailbuilding.

Hey: be nice. He's right: activists really suck. People who love to deride others and call each other names on the Internet are way better.

With regard the discussion that started this thread, I wonder if we might talk about under what circumstance we might think it appropriate to hold a cop accountable if they shoot somebody who was unarmed and did not pose a threat. We've read here that "they do it all the time and are never held accountable" and that "they are adequately (or maybe overly) punished for such action" yet I haven't seen any evidence or even a suggestion that anybody has any statistics or other basis for such statements. Statistics aside, there is a historical reason that we generally don't hold police officers and a variety of government representatives responsible for their actions in the same way we would a private party and it makes sense: we value what these folk do and they need to have the ability to do their job without undue fear of being personally punished for it or they would be less effective. However, there certainly are limits. We read about the spectacular cases where police officers shoot unarmed civilians. Is this really a distortion based on sensationalism? Or does it reflect the reality that 1 in 10,000 encounters go bad? Are there cases where good cops are unfairly punished for an accident or something that maybe they didn't even cause to happen? What could be a reasonable inquiry other than what a cop saw/heard etc. and what they thought of it?

When I was a kid we played army with toy guns and I had a BB gun that was NOT for playing army but for shooting at trash cans and stuff like that and I learned how to shoot a 22. My parents were liberals, and certainly have supported most any gun control efforts but they weren't nuts about keeping toy guns out of the hands of their kids, they would gladly have sent me off hunting with uncle Joe if I had an uncle Joe. We didn't have strict rules based on some notion that "a gun is not a toy" so much as simple practical idea like: if you shoot a bb gun at your buddy you might shoot his eye out and if you point a real gun (even a bb gun) at your friends an accident is like to happen sooner or later. It seemed clear enough to me -- even at age 7.

Jay, there are a bunch of cool places for relatively safe and sane sea kayaking. The Broken Islands, for example, are quite popular with families.

I suppose we could debate whether this or that scenario is more difficult or dangerous, and clearly there are a lot of skills to learn either way. But most of the time I was able to find a reasonably sane landing even on the outside coasts of the Olympic Peninsula and Vancouver Island. With some notable exceptions, the places I went usually offered some kind of protected cove or a sneak landing behind a sea stack or something within a mile or three. On surf beaches, too, I could usually avoid total ruin by waiting for a big swell to come by and then paddling like mad to try and hit the beach just behind it and before the next one came crashing upon me. If I ate it, I was generally able to hop out and drag the boat on shore. Sometimes, though, it DID get kinda scary. On the outside coasts, I always chose favorable conditions and told myself I'd park the boat and walk home if things got too rough.

I'm not so sure that sea kayaking is really about "getting good and doing crazy stuff" so much as whitewater kayaking or climbing. Surfing in a kayak is kind of a specialty thing, but most sea kayakers are out for sights and sounds as much as the activity itself -- kind of like backpacking as opposed to mountaineering. In some ways it is about NOT doing crazy stuff - it gets scary and dangerous when you start hitting rocks on a rough shore landing or the wind and waves come up on an exposed crossing.

That's one of the beauties of renting (no worries about destroying it). I haven't boated much for several years, but there used to be a real difference between plastic and fiberglass, where general consensus was that plastic boats were tougher but flexed such that you lost energy so that they were slower. Had I listened to all of my friends, I would have bought a fiberglass boat because virtually everybody agreed they were better. But after a couple of trips where people hit rocks or otherwise damaged their boats I started renting plastic boats for trips on the outer coast where we expected to hit rocks and wanted to be able to drag them onto a rock landing without being careful. I would have been unhappy with my purchase had I bought one.

Like you, I found it underwhelming. I almost bought a cam, but 20% off isn't all THAT spectacular and I didn't want to wait in line. So you didn't buy that kayak? (Maybe not a bad call. I used to make a couple of trips a year and found renting wasn't a bad option.)

I'd say the South Face of Jello Tower is a rather challenging 5.8 lead with some injury potential for a new leader. Great climb, though. Catapult is a one move wonder with pro right in front of you. Although the start and end of the route are not stellar, it is worth it for the 80' of really fun climbing in the middle. Canary is a bit harder but well protected. Neither pitch is completely straight forward, but it IS a classic route and quite exciting.

I bet you are right that we will see little dramatic change with a Democrat in the white house, KK, and you are also right that to a substantial extent we will still blame not so much W as the Republican consolidation in both White House and Congress for some of the current Forest Service woes. Still, I suspect that the agency and our particular interest in having forest roads maintained in general will likely do better if we are so lucky as to have a Democratic President rather than a Republican one - and a few extra Democrats in Congress won't hurt, either. As to the Mountain Loop Highway? I don't know all of the issues but if you actually go up there and look (maybe you have) you will see that the road is built in and on the riverbed at a couple of places. It doesn't surprise me that there would be a need for environmental review and I don't think it necessarily a bad thing that environmental groups and the Department of Ecology may have opposed the project or tried to impose extra requirements to protect fish habitat.

If you start out on Even Steven instead of by way of the boulder problem start to Toxic Shock, and then switch over to T.S. half way up, the climb is a pretty good and easy to lead 5.8.

I think if you asked folks in the Forest Service they would say that it will indeed take years and probably decades to repair the damage done from years of neglect and that the undermining and maybe even active dismantling of their agency over the last six or eight years is very real. Take a look at the press releases coming from Wa Department of Ecology about crumbling forest roads and fisheries habitat. Consider how long it took to complete environmental review and complete planning and politics necessary to re-open the Mountain Loop Highway. Read a little about the backlog in roadway and trail projects. Learn about the shrinking national forest management teams of recent years. It is not just as simple as a "line item."

I'd lcimb with you on Sunday. I'm nursing some injuries and am in poor shape but I'm ready to climb.

KK, how many times have you posted about how regulation is bad, government sucks, and "our ilk" would have the nanny state wiping our butts? Maybe you feel differently about the Forest Service or management of public lands in general, but how's a guy to know? Note: I agree with you in this particular argument, but the indignation about how somebody could assume you take a certain position is misplaced.

No doubt, when the wind or the swell comes up, or when you encounter a nasty rip fence in an inlet somewhere, things can get scary real quick. All of the sudden, you're in a small boat on a big sea.

Over in the NW Culture thread they said we're all jerks. Thanks for the vote of confidence.

At La Push, some of the most amazing scenery on the planet is close at hand. Here' a picture of my wife, Diana, on damn near our first date. The seastacks at Graveyard of the Giants are way cool.

I don't think it is JUST the Bush government that has pushed the user fees upon us. Clinton, too, was a supporter. 1999 Article: Clinton promoting Fee Demo To be sure, though, the "starve the beast" in order to cut the size of "big government" and the overall push for privatization in a broad variety of areas of what many of us think should be public services IS more consistent with Republican talking points than Democratic ones. Either way, I agree with you, KK: the whole thing sucks. There was no problem using public funds to build all those roads into the mountains when they were being developed for resource extraction but, now that logging is severely curtailed and there is little expectation that we're going to engage in a lot of mining activity, public monies are cut off. I'm all for fiscal responsibility and all, but public lands are important and the public should have free and easy access, as long as this is managed in a way that is consistent with good stewardship. They just spent - how much? - building a new campground and they are upgrading the road into the middle fork so a private company can operate it and meanwhile they are gating all the roads in the area and places that you could previously camp and hike for free are off limits.

Have fun with it Arch. I've done a bunch of trips around Vancouver Island and out by La Push and the wildlife viewing and camping on the beach make for good times. It can get plenty scary in a sea kayak but when I read that you were fucked I figured you'd taken up whitewater kayaking because that is where lots more people seem to drown.

Thanks for the show, Ross. Good stuff!