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Thanks Oly. 2nd question- what is LAME? (Dru, spare us the endless spray opportunities here) So far my experience is that the iTunes store has the widest ranging selection I seen. If it isn't found there, I usually can't find it anywhere else.

(Home computer not in front of me right now) Is it still possible to then rip the CD back to your computer setting the songs as unprotected MP3 files? I've been able to do this with the old version of Itunes but haven't tried this since the new version came out.

I agree with the base point here, but the tricky part is, at what point or at what level might inclusiveness of all "user groups" turn what you love into something you do not love? What one person considers wilderness, another considers an abomination. For example, if 4 wheelers were allowed full access to backcountry trails in wilderness areas, the ORV riders would likely consider their experience a full "wilderness experience". But hikers who went out to the mountains and trails specifically to spend time away from the noise and pollution of mechanized travel would be appalled and never want to go there again. True enough, they used cars to get there, but at least it ends at the trailhead. Is there a line to be drawn somewhere that will allow reasonable access to a broad base of users but which ultimately meets the original intention of wilderness? I think we can all agree that wilderness, at the least, is land undisturbed by human development. However, this premise of wilderness operates chiefly from the notion that humans are something altogether separate from the "environment"- in fact, we ARE the environment as much as the trees and the water and the mountains. But unlike other elements in the environment, we are blessed (or cursed?) with the opportunity of choice, and consciousness of our actions and how it affects things around us. Are these really choices, though, and are we really conscious? I've always wondered if the cities, pavements, clear cuts, pollution, etc, is just as "natural" in the scheme of the environment as, say, animals creating game trails, birds making noise, trees making a valley look green, floods carving a canyon. After all, why would we purposefully choose to poison our environment? But that seems to be exactly what we are doing. It's the order of things, apparently. Time will tell if our ability to "choose" manifests itself into an actual change in the behavior of our species. Our city living has given us this false sense of separation from the environment and spawned this concept of wilderness. Since that die is cast, however, and with all of our comfort oriented technology, I think retaining wilderness is crucial to a broader based awareness of the natural world outside of human influence. I once heard a guy in my town in Alaska complaining about people moving in from the lower 48, saying: "they say they're just trying to escape from the big city, but in the end they just want to turn it into the shithole they left!" So how do we balance out the need for wilderness without loving it to death?

Not sure how influential he was, but Mark Knopfler has always been one of my favorite guitarists. Has a very definitive personal style and sound.

Why does Thermogenesis always gets labeled as a "hard" route? It's 3000 feet of 40-50 degree snow that happens to lie directly under seracs...making it an endeavor requiring fitness (i.e. speed), and luck, and not a whole lot of technical skill.

Some great WI4's and (usually) moderate WI5's: A Bridge Too Far- steep crux pillar then fun rambling Eliot Left Hand- fun rambling then sometimes funky crux pillar Malignant Mushroom Weathering Heights- thin at start; similar to "Snowline" Cool Spring (says 5+ in the book but usually has a 4 or 4+ line on the left side) Murchison Falls- has an alpine feel to it. R+D- might be too late though, high avy danger. Lacy Gibbet- remote, long approach, lots of WI4 terrain, Easy 5 at the end. Super Bock- Cool pitch through arch, difficulties gradually increase to final high quality WI 5 pillar.

I remember that incident, but I thought I remember that was considered an accident? I assume you mean that this would be why Rumsfeld would have been meeting with Saddam? In any case... I find it completely easy to see how we could have supplied Saddam with loads of weapons to use on the Iranians given that Iran was, at the time, the enemy of the day. And also, covertly or otherwise, stood by while American companies peddling nasty chemicals sold them to Saddam.(As if the US Government was unaware this was going on? Come on...). I'm sure that no one at the time foresaw the events of today- but they should have. You roll around with a skunk what do you end up smelling like? And today, well, it's understandably embarrassing and shameful; and it exposes the hypocracy of the politics of convenience.

Post 1979 Tehran hostage ordeal and standoff with the Ayatollah...followed by the brutal Iran-Iraq war...how preposterous could it be that the US would pick sides, and choose Saddam and Iraq as the lesser of two evils? I doubt even Reagan could have foreseen the conflict we have today. The politics of the day coupled with the picture of Rumsfeld shaking hands with Saddam speaks volumes, but why is it a surprise?

We did play a lot of frisbee on the beach at Railey- the secluded one in front of the ritzy joint, with all the sunbathing topless French models. "oops, sorry about the errant throw"

I was with my wife in Thailand...so I no go Pat Pong...

Hey GI! You go Pat Pong now?

Hey Marcus did you ask them for the BD complimentary downgrade? Actually I've had plenty of good experiences with BD to offset a few bad ones. Between my old Prophets, and Cobras, I've sent my tools back 3 times to have the rubber grips glued back on or replaced. All three times were the result of Alaska Range action- desperate snow climbing. The QC guy once told me, when I suggested they come up with a composite grip (as CM and Grivel have) that the Cobras "weren't meant for alpine climbing" but that they'd warranty them anyway Boxing gloves- word. The old "Verglas Plus", which now is essentially what is called the "Element", remain my favorite ice climbing gloves. The only problem is, they aren't waterproof, so each pair requires a full on seam grip treatment. The plus side to that is the gloves are kind of grippy afterwards. (I know...aid.) Anyway, when they do get something right it's always right on and I'm still a customer. Jedi master, you coming north to slay another one?! I knew you wouldn't stay away long.

As an aside I should add that without the large numbers of scenic-flight tourists, flights to the Alaska Range would otherwise cost much more than they do currently. Talking with the different Talkeetna air service owners, the costs of Wrangell/St. Elias air support seem to reflect real costs, it's not that there's just one air service charging high prices because "they can". AK range flying is cheaper because the volume of climbers coupled with high numbers of scenics allow air taxis to keep their planes full in both directions, saving fuel. The fee increase proposal, by the way, is unanimously opposed by the Talkeetna rangers. It is coming from the top ranks with the support of the federal government. It's the phenomenon I call "neglect and collect"- gut the park budgets by keeping the majority of the gate takes in DC for other uses, spend wastefully, and then act like there is no option remaining but to double charge visitors. Climbers are the easy target of course. We have to keep the pressure on.

I've also been told (albeit unconfirmed), and would suspect anyway, that WD40 is not very good in the long run for the sewn cam slings. Changes in latitudes...

No, but it is yours and everyone's civic duty to society to demand the truth- because if the source is providing people with false information, it adversely affects everyone in the long run- including you.

That alone is a good enough reason to care about this. The danger is that media- left and right- increasingly package their opinions as "the Truth" and "facts". I suppose that has always been the case to some extent, but should we all just standby silently while the masses are "educated" by ideologues promoting their own agendas? I think we're better than that.

By that logic, one could argue that the 1993 WTC bombing was years in the making, which would put the bulk of the blame on HW Bush and/or Reagan. But of course that would be overly simplistic and unfair. I don't think it is fair to place all the blame on any one administration for 9/11. I think a 9/11-scale event was the only thing capable of motivating any administration to implement the types of security measures needed to actually prevent such an event. Even Bush did little to change security measures until the WTC was on the ground. Can you imagine trying to pass the Patriot Act, Homeland Security, the TSA, all the things we have right now, back in 1993? No one on either side of the aisle would have stood for it. People weren't frightened enough. They are now- which also makes things more fragile in another way. Blaming Clinton wholesale assumes that had they killed Osama in 1998, that 9/11 would never have happened. I'm not so sure of that, given the money and organization that al Qaida enjoyed, and the motivation they (still) have to kill westerners. They were bigger than one man. In short, I think 9/11 was inevitable and it took that day to wake everyone up to what al qaida was capable and willing to do. Hindsight is 20/20. Obviously mistakes have been made by both administrations, but I did read things yesterday such as Limbaugh: "this proves that Clinton bears the full blame for 9-11" and Michael Savage: "Berger, Albright and the Clintons should be arrested and tried for sedition". So, as with wacky 9-11 "inside job" conspiracies, don't underestimate the power of misguided finger pointing. This is being used right now as propaganda to scare people into voting Republican this fall, on the basis of something for which blame is shared universally by us all. Fringe elements on both sides of the spectrum now fully control and distort the news and events and interpret them to the public in a way that forces everyone to choose sides- effectively eliminating any hope of a middle ground and unity. Opinion-based "news" sources are stultifying everyone's critical thinking and destroying discourse.

I climbed this in 1998. My partner Joe and I were concerned about the guidebook's entry: "bring KB's for the belays". We asked around a lot but we couldn't find anyone who had done the route to confirm this. Enroute to Colchuck Lake in the dark, there was a party hiking at a fast clip ahead of us who we barely caught up to as we reached the lake. Joe joked "it's probably Matt Christensen (Boving's partner on the FA) going to retro bolt the Boving route. Well...it was Matt Christensen, and his teenage son, although enroute to climb Prusik.So we got the beta right there. The first 5 pitches are stellar, mostly clean, with a few spicy face moves. Some of the climbing is a little run on p2 and p3 if I recall, but the hardest moves always have pro closeby. Definitely, the 1st belay took a little time to rig. There were broken off KB's here. Pitches 3 and 4 were a little dirty in places but not too bad. After the traverse left above p5, it is like a looser version of upper Serpentine ridge. All of that was simple except there was one 5.9 pitch up high that maybe could have been avoided by better routefinding. The only things I remember about rack needed was some thin nuts (including brassies) and a #3 camalot were useful. But no KB's needed. One thing- after we did it, Jim Nelson told me he thought it had quite a lot of rockfall hazard from the headwall above the opening pitches- we didn't see or hear any, but certainly there's a lot of blocky things hanging over you.

See my Rampage TR- if you didn't have your cornflakes for breakfast, you'll find them up there. On that note, this is the third route in Burdo's book that came with rave reviews but has been decidedly subpar in my opinion. Clean Break isn't a bad climb but Mike points out the issues. The worst by far was his rec of the East buttress of NEWS ("Flycatcher"). In the same book he downrates Liberty Crack and Freedom Rider for "bad rock", comes this recommendation. Flycatcher is a pile: 5.6 bushwhacking sprinkled with decomposing, cheese grater 5.10 jamming cruxes.

To each his own...but just curious, what is it you don't like about it?

Fern- I did the Burgundy approach last sunday. There is no running water or snow on the approach. Potentially, you could camp in the basin below Burgundy (nice campsites) and the creek looks like about a 15 minute hike south. We were on Paisano Pinnacle so I didn't take notice of whether there was any snow on the east side of Burgundy Col, but most likely there would be snow not far down or around the corner towards Chianti.If there is...the col itself is actually a great camp- there are some nice flat sites ringed by rocks, with wonderful views.

Climb: Paisano Pinnacle-Rampage Date of Climb: 8/27/2006 Trip Report: Tim M. and I climbed this route yesterday. This route would be very classic if it was cleaner, but copious lichens and occasional dirt/plant clumps take it down a notch or two. Still, it's a good adventure with some challenging pitches, and hopefully some traffic will lead to it getting cleaned up. P1 is easy with just a short section of 5.6 at the top. Belayed at slings on the highest tree, just under the big corner. P2 is the best and cleanest on the route, and in fact it's awesome. Begins moderately and gets progressively harder, running a full 50 meters to a stance in the corner about 50' above the prominent white roof. The upper half of this pitch is fairly sustained 5.10 stemming, liebacking, and fingerjams, with good gear (aliens, small stoppers). Watch out for a loose, projecting white flake on the left about half way up- you can stem past this if you have been doing your yoga. There is a creative and fun jamming crux entering the narrow corner next to the white roof, with good edges. P3: The 11a fingercrack in the dihedral directly above looked pretty dirty and possibly hard to protect. Instead, we took the steep, flaring hand crack on the left wall. This begins with a powerful and technical 10d jamming sequence; this was clean and enjoyable with good gear,unfortunately the quality of the climbing deteriorates quickly due to dirt, lichen, gravel, and plants pervading the otherwise nice hand and finger cracks. This pitch would be awesome if clean; instead it is mediocre at best. Variation note: About 30' below the start of this pitch, off a small ledge (possible belay) next to the top of the block that forms the white roof, there was another, cleaner 1-2" crack shooting diagonally up the left wall; in retrospect this might have been a higher quality option than what we did, and probably of similar grade. Back on route: after the climbing eases off, there is a choice of corners: we took the left one, which ascends a short dihedral with a hand crack that narrows to finger size and ends at a triangular roof. It's dirty, but better than it looks, and just below the roof you can step right and around the corner on good holds, gaining the right hand of the two corners mentioned below. This corner looked very grassy from above. P4: Above, there is an obvious deep corner that leads up to a steep, wide crack. 30' of awesome hand jams in this corner lead to a 15' vertical section of 6-8" crack- Good horns and holds on the left side of the crack's edge would probably have made it a 'go' even without big gear if the whole thing were not plastered with "cornflake" lichens and dirt- and the fall is not so good. So instead, at the entrance to the deep corner (pay no attention to the handjams I mentioned, just avert your gaze) make a couple of steep face moves up onto a big wide ramp to the right. The ramp- which had obvious signs of traffic- is 50 meters long and takes you straight to a blocky exit onto the summit. The climbing isn't difficult- 5.8 at most- but midway, there is a stellar moss hummock mantle into a sand-filled chimney/ow. Overall: It is admittedly a long approach for such a short climb that isn't all that clean. But those looking for something different and challenging and who don't require spotless rock will probably find this worthwhile; and as this route gets more traffic it will only get better. Also, it would be a good linkup with Burgundy Spire. Gear Notes: Bring a good selection of small to medium stoppers (no RP's needed). Double green and yellow aliens or equivalent, and double #1 and #2 camalots; singles on everything in between. One #3 camalot is sufficient. We had a 3.5 and a 4, they got used, but were not mandatory and I'd leave them behind if I do it again. Approach Notes: Lots of smoke from nearby fires.

Nice report and pictures! Brings back some memories. I wouldn't totally discount a one day attempt, but one would need to be very fit and fast, and even so, you would likely be starting and finishing in the dark. I calculate that the total elevation gain, car to car, ends up being about 9400', due to the descent to the route and then climbing back out of the Marble Creek cirque after the climb. With such awesome scenery, though, a bivouac somewhere along the way only enhances the experience.

What are you talking about? Hannity says Bush (and Blair) are the only leaders in the world with "Moral Clarity" on this issue. That, and this yesterday: "every democratic victory in this fall's election is a victory for terrorists".

My favorite recent "truth", overheard on a rural religious radio station: "Global Warming is a myth that has ties and origins with pro-choice activists. By convincing everyone that humans are bad for the earth, they can achieve their goal of people having as many abortions as possible and depopulating the planet." Of course. And everyone knows that if there's one thing that pro-choice people love, it's lots and lots of abortions.