freeclimb9

I'm slowly re-replacing all my synthetic base layers with wool blends. Same brand of stuff I used back in the eighties (and I wonder why I ever used the polypro stinky layers). The Ullfrotte brand (http://www.ullfrotte.com/) works great. I recently did a bike tour in southern Utah, and wore the same clothes for eight days --the smell was comparable to about two days in polypro.

Tollhouse rock is close to Fresno (http://www.climbingsource.com/LocalBeta/California/tollhouse.html). Besides that Valley place, there's also great climbing to be had in the San Juaquin river valley, around Courtwright resevoir, and in the Sequoia Natl. Forest.

Try a Good Morning lift if you want to really toast your hamstrings.

quote: Originally posted by trask: What the hell is wrong with being a gun nut and having family values? Nothing. The latest stat is that 40% of households have guns, so odds are the two mix here in the US. But nobody was promoting Ted as the bastion of family values when he was screwing every teenage girl he could back in the 70's and 80's. That would be irony. [ 02-26-2002: Message edited by: freeclimb9 ]

That letter was attributed to George Carlin late last year. It bummed him so bad, he went out of his way to deny writing it. Now it's been pinned to the Motor-City Madman. I doubt that it's his either. Besides, the Nuge has gone off to be a self-declared Gun Nut and Republican poster boy for family values (what a reversal of fortune). I wish he'd have stuck with banging the jail-bait and rocking stadium's of rednecks. (BTW, lest anyone think I'm Nugent-bashing, Stranglehold is one of my all-time favorite songs.)

The numbers associated with Friends translate to their mid-size in inches. Camalots don't have the same scheme --the numbers don't relate to any known measuring convention, and they don't relate to Friend sizes in a formulaic way (at least not a simple formula). I wish they would have used just letters (A, B, C, etc). Their size range is summarized here: http://www.bdel.com/rockclimbing/pro_cams.html Roughly, I'd compare sizes of Camalots to Friends as: .5 Camalot about a 1 Friend .75 ~ 1.5 1 ~ 2.5 2 ~ 3 3 ~ 4 4 ~ 5

The cheapest way to go is 5 drops of Clorox per gallon of water. Iodine tablets are more convenient, and I keep a couple taped to the side of one of my bottles. The "Potable Aqua" brand does kill Giardia most of the time (the water can't be too cold or cloudy), but won't kill Crypto. Boiling for 1 minute kills both Giardia and Crypto parasites. But a healthy person won't be strongly affected by Crypto anyways. But for a day hike's worth of water, it's pretty easy to carry it all.

quote: Originally posted by mneagle: Well, I'm still looking for partners if anybody is interested. dude, you only need one partner. Why the plural? Personally, I'd love to go to Bolivia, and have lusted over Brain's guide for years. But planning has never been my forte, and the future is uncertain.

recent floods have rearranged some neighborhoods in La Paz. Bummer.

quote: Originally posted by whillans: Hey if everybody "come on Ray" he will have to go thru a whole box of kleenex wiping it off. Think! bukkake is all the rage in some parts of this sick world. BTW, how many perverts does is take to put in a lightbulb? Only one, but it takes the whole emergency room staff to get it back out.

one more option to the snowshoe: http://www.karhu.com/images/sweeper_back.jpg

I lived in Tucson for six years, and have climbed at just about every area in southern AZ (I even scoped out The Dry area before I left town). I'm sure I can point you in the direction of some climbs, but can you define climbs "that arnt to hard"? Do you have a rack and double ropes? How about a car and mountain bike? Some of Mt Lemmon's best won't be very climbable this time of year due to road closures at the ski resort, ice, and snow. Closer to Windy Point, I'd reccomend Cripple Creek on the Pharoh. If it's cool, Milagrosa Canyon has some fine sport climbs amid tall sagauros. If you're up for more adverturous stuff, the Stronghold, or Mendoza canyon can provide lots of thrills.

quote: Originally posted by Dru: So what would happen if you barbequed a dog on the campfire? It's dark meat, in case you were wondering. Supposed to be a potent aphrodisiac.

the CMC route is at most 5.5 There is no distinct line demarking the route, but wandering over the face (left of the dike) is much of the same. Descent is made by a combination of downclimbing and rappelling. The ascent also requires some downclimbing and/or rappelling as you clear a notch before getting on the main face. The approach is most easily made with a canoe.

The CMC route is the classic on Moran. The ascent route is also the descent route, so it's a lot of time on a rope and requires rappeling. But if your nephews are strong and bold, it would make a great memory.

quote: Originally posted by nobody: This is a trivia question. I was reading through a guide book last night and there was a note about one of the peaks. It said that a certain route, a scramble, was done solo by a 17 year old Yvonne Chiounard. It was his first peak. (I would have thought he would have started climbing at a much younger age). Anybody know the name of the peak? (I know many on this site have a problem with postings regarding well known climbers, so if you have a problem, don't participate in this post.) Actually, that peak was first climbed by Frederick Cook.

quote: Originally posted by Dru:[QB]Statistically most BR's are not caught until their 10th heist. So you should be able to knock off 7 or 8 with no problem.[QB] FYI, 85% of bank robbers are caught. Statistically, it's safer to rob smaller stores and gas stations. Bad karma all around, though.

On packs, what is the advantage of ice-tool tubes over the older loop design? I only see three slight disadvantages in the tube design. 1) decreased durability (a broken buckle renders a tube useless unless you dro the tool in from the top); 2) where do you stash the hanging leashes?; And 3) a slightly heavier amount of material.

Climb onto a bench and throw back a few tall boys at the Deli and call it "bonding". Ski a few runs at Badger Pass. Unless you've got skis or snowshoes, getting to the peaks will be tough. Half Dome would be ambitious what with the cable being down and the small saddle before the cable being in shade most of the day (and therefore snowy). If the Highway 120 weren't closed in winter, I'd suggest North Dome by approaching from near Porcupine Flats. Caltrans strives to have 120 open by Memorial day.

On the rant wagon . . . I haven't paid for a Climbing of Rock&Ice mag for years because of editorial changes in their formats (and because I've got better things on which to spend my little money). And it's getting worse. It must be a reflection of the current Editors. Case in point: at the Summer Market I saw who's now the current head Editor in an outfit that would embarass a queen in the Tenderloin district. Way homo.

I just found something else to lust after: =snow-boards-details.html&oid=1997&cache-oid=1997]http://www.rossignol.com/index.php?&class=SnowBoard&function=display&template=matrice-snowboard.html&context[file]=snow-boards-details.html&oid=1997&cache-oid=1997

"Straighten out your bloomers and finish the lead."

thanks for the info.

Todd, the snowfall in the South Fork has always been low since it's in a rain shadow; that's one of the appeals of climbing there since postholing to a climb ain't generally a problem. Cody's Annual Average Rainfall: 9.4", Snowfall: 35.20" But I do take your mid-December observations to heart, and don't doubt that it could have been better. BTW, on road trips, the ice-climbing seems ancillary at times to all the other fun possible.

Is this a case of one man's trash being another's treasure? Mulkey and Foote are both raving about the conditions in the South Fork. Broken Hearts (among others) has been reported to be all in. That alone would seem worth it to me.