Lambone

I'm not a kayaker...but perhaps he slammed a rock underneath which knocked him out. From what I hear about Ben's strength and skill, I can't imagine he couldn't have bailed if he wa concious. Maybe it doesn't help to speculate.... As one who just lost a close friend to a watersport a few weeks ago, I can sympathize with you. There is nothing much in this world that feels worse. Take care, Matt

I saw it on Oct 27th from the N Ridge. Thin ice smears looked like they could be linked, and lots of rock. But alot could have changed since then. I'll try to get my photos developed.

Allways celebrate his life.

BD Bionic Crampons 1 year old, only used a few times. $100 obo

jim could be syearing you away for a reason...

Hey rbw, You might get some good turns in at the highest elevations around here. Mt. Mclaughlin, Brown Mt., Mt Ashland, and Mt Shasta will be your best bet. Keep in mind this was our first real snowfall, so you will be skiing on top of volcanic shale with a 17" base, possibly less since it may have melted some. Expect pretty wet snow, which makes for a good base, but less than good turns. On Sunday my wife and I drove up to Mt. Ashland with our mountain bikes (14 mile downhill singletrack to our doorstep)... But with almost 2 ft in the parking lot we felt pretty stupid. People were pulling skis and boards off their cars and here we are with bikes...everyone was laughing at us. I pulled a U and gunned it through the wet snow outa there. What a gaper move! Thats ok, 500ft lower we were ripping moist mud.

Frightenly beautiful, amazingly scary looking... I see a haul bag, did you haul and bivi on it? Just curious...looks like bad mud hauling taboot...

off topic... Matt, you belong out west...escape corn country while you are still young...school is no excuse to suffer in the flats....

John Ramuta picks up and delivers orders at the Redmond Vertical World. He or his families cobblery should be able to take care of them for you.

hmmm...what does a whisperlight stove have to do with Trad climbing?

I have an Andinista...is there anything else? Only bad thing is the straps loosen on their own. But mine is the older style...

I can't even figure out what you're trying to say... You can't placement a shit just by looking at it...duh.

I don't work for BD, but maybe because the Viper is not an "Alpine" tool

I can pretty much check all those off the list, except: -car is more expensive than the rack...barely. -I wear scholler pants... -No desert towers yet, unless Red Rocks counts... -who the hell is larry panteberthy????

my vote... Bali is good for a party, but Thailand and Nepal should be visited by everyone who loves climbing and adventure.

....uh...I meant to do that...

...whoa...

you are not a trad climber until you have climbed in Yosemite...

More than half is pretty steep. They are trying to expand it to add more green runs...how sad but lots of the ashlnd liberals are against the expansion, it is sort of a hot topic around here...

I'd rather have a wee hill than no hill...I think Mt Ashland is way better than any lift served access at notsnowquality pass, and not far off from Stevens. But mostly I'm just glad that it is 20 minutes from my house with no traffic bullshit to deal with....

exactly

"You, in your ultimate knowledge of all things climbing, are probably qualified to tell me where the idea comes from." Easy there buddy... "It has also been argued that it is more important to learn to build an anchor than to learn to place gear -- flat out. " Which comes to my "duh" point of how can you build aan anchor if you don't know how to place gear, and vise versa... I think that the importance of building good anchors is taught in instructional settings because... most instructors, as far as I am aware of, don't like to teach their students that it is ok to be "half ass" about anything in climbing. Saying, oh...one good peice with a back up is good enough...just goes against good teaching ethics. In my opinion... Also, cams work best in parrallel cracks, a cam in a nut constriction is a marginal piece....in my opinion. Every ancho I build I try to visualize the worst possible scenario, whether it be a factor 2 fall onto the belay, or needing to build a complex self-rescue rig. Simple is better, but bomber in any circumstance is the minimum if you can get it. This is the attitude I believe should be taken regarding anchors... Then again, you are allways going to run into situations like Paco's on Shucksan this weekend, where you are threading a chunk of moss....

I take that blank as "none"

matt, I am wondering what "recent climbing instructional settings" you have been involved with? "a single bomber camelot placed in a construction where a nut would fit is more than sufficient for a belay anchor in my book ..." whoa shocking