Peter_Puget

Your grooviness continues to inspire me DFA! Thanks! Next question: anyone know who sells their crampon?

What ever happened to this company?

Good point Trask. Why just today I was wondering how much would be saved if biking was prohibited on public streets! Wouldn't be surprised if it was a net gain to the commonwealth. That is to say maybe those eco bikers are costing us more than if the started driving one of those evil gas guzzlers.

Interesting Link

Any good suggestions for a boot that can go between aid and free climbing fairly well?

Web link High-Altitude Breathing May Be in One's Blood By Guy Gugliotta Washington Post Staff Writer Monday, December 23, 2002; Page A09 The mathematics are inescapable. The higher the altitude, the less oxygen the air will hold, and the more difficult it is to breathe. Either the body adapts, or the person dies. For decades scientists accepted an "Andean man" model for acclimatization: The body at altitude will grow a higher concentration of oxygen-absorbing red blood cells to mop up scarcer oxygen from rarified air. Add bigger lungs and deeper breathing, and equilibrium is reestablished. The result is a blocky fellow with a washtub chest, like the musicians who play the panpipes and wooden flutes of Andean mountain music. "Their lungs are 25 percent bigger than ours," said Case Western Reserve University anthropologist Cynthia Beall. "Andean highlanders are very distinctive." Earlier this month, however, Beall and five colleagues reported on another distinctive people -- a community of Ethiopians who live at 11,650 feet, and whose blood, by several common measures, is exactly the same as if they lived at sea level. "I'm flabbergasted; I don't see how they do it," said exercise physiologist David Martin of Georgia State University. "I'm left with a dozen questions. It's a fascinating kind of story." And it is not just a curiosity. For Martin, a consultant for USA Track & Field, and others like him, the extraordinary success of African distance runners -- principally Ethiopians and Kenyans -- has been a source of wonder ever since barefooted Abebe Bikila won the 1960 Olympic marathon. Is there a secret that others cannot possess? "Efforts to find a genetic explanation have been dismal failures," said Dallas cardiologist Ben Levine, an expert in exercise medicine. "My personal opinion is that these successes are cultural. A distance runner in Ethiopia or Kenya is a national hero." In an online article to be published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Beall's team reported on 300 people living in the Semien Mountains about 300 miles north of Addis Ababa. Testing showed they had neither elevated red-cell concentrations nor low levels of oxygen saturation in their blood -- two key indicators of the Andean model. "We were stunned," Beall said. "The Ethiopians are finding the same amount of oxygen we find, even though the amount of oxygen in the air they breathe is two-thirds of what we have at sea level." Humans transport oxygen via hemoglobin, a protein in red blood cells that binds to oxygen molecules and moves them from the lungs to muscles and other tissues. At sea level, between 95 and 97 percent of the body's hemoglobin is saturated with oxygen during every breath. At altitude, reduced oxygen logically means lower oxygen saturation. In the Andes, highlanders compensate by producing more red cells to create a heightened "hemoglobin concentration" -- a higher proportion of red cells in the blood. That way the blood has more hemoglobin to sponge up scarce oxygen. Lowlanders need at least 10 days for this process to begin. In the meantime, however, they will acquire the other characteristic of high altitude survival -- deeper and more frequent breathing. The Andean barrel chest comes from being born and raised at altitude. Scholars were satisfied with this explanation until studies in Tibet in the 1970s showed that highlanders there had both low hemoglobin concentrations and low oxygen saturation levels. In theory, the Tibetans should have been oxygen-starved. "But they breathe faster, and there's also some evidence that they are better able to modulate blood flow," Beall said. "When they exercise, their blood flow increases more rapidly, so they may have a larger cardiac output. We don't really know." The Himalayan research triggered a debate over a possible evolutionary explanation for high altitude adaptation. The Andeans, whose lowland ancestors migrated from Asia perhaps 16,000 years ago, adjust to altitude essentially the same way as any lowlander would today -- and it is not a perfect solution. "Creating more red cells is a pathological response," said Temple University anthropologist Charles Weitz. "If you have too many red cells, the blood's too thick, and it's like pumping oil. Eventually you have to move downhill." Tibetans or their ancestors, however, have been in Asia for 1 million years or more -- time enough, some scholars theorize, to evolve a different approach. Exercise physiologists were moving along a different track. Realizing that ultra-high hemoglobin concentrations were no good for athletes -- syrupy blood doesn't flow well -- they still sought enhanced athletic endurance by increasing red cell counts, but only in the context of a larger overall blood volume. "Over time -- four weeks minimum, or many months -- you can elevate both red cells and volume, therefore keeping [sea level] hemoglobin concentrations," Levine said. Athletes with this training have hearts that "pump more blood." So why is it that the Andean nations -- except for Colombia's cyclists -- do not produce more such athletes? There is no scientific answer, but Georgia State's Martin suggests that many Andeans may "live too high -- 12,000, 13,000, 14,000 feet" -- so high that "the blood turns to sludge." Altitude training seeks to expand the competitor's blood volume using a combination of lowland workouts and highland living, varying the amounts of time in each milieu. Finding the optimum times and altitudes is a Holy Grail of athletic trainers. In Ethiopia, the two tracks may converge. Human ancestors first arose there and in Kenya as much as 4 million years ago. If Darwinian adaptation has played a role, there may be no likelier places. Ethiopia and Kenya are also countries where the runners come from high altitudes, but not too high: Ethiopia's Haile Gebrselassie, who holds the world's 10,000-meter record at 26 minutes, 22.75 seconds, lives at 7,900 feet in Addis Ababa, and trains in the surrounding hills. In the Semien mountains, Beall's team tested people of all ages, mostly herders with no particular athletic bent. Unlike the Andeans, their hemoglobin concentrations were the same as those of lowlanders. But unlike the Tibetans, they also had high, sea-level oxygen saturation levels. Beall does not know how this can be, but her team did not look at blood volume, which might at least explain the hemoglobin concentrations: "If Ethiopians have a bigger blood volume, they could do a better job of transporting oxygen," Martin said. "If an athlete in Ethiopia has this huge blood volume, he's going to have an enormous advantage at sea level."

Erik And Peter went to the same school!

Calender

My New Year Resolutions: 1. Get myself organized. 2. Spend three weeks in the Valley! 3. "Send" a Smith project this spring! 4. Go to a Pub Club! 5. TBA

Alex - Get out a bit more in the world. Customers are a pain in the rear all over to think the OR industry unique is absurd. Go have a and relax! PP

There seem to be jerk sales people in all stores; climbing stores don't seem anymore blessed with them than other type of store. I haven't found FF, REI, Marmot or PMS to be all that different from one another in terms of the service I receive. I usually don't ask for much help though. FF has a great selection of gear to drool over and the salespeople seem content to let me drool after I say I don't need help. Easy location to get to for me so I get there quite a bit esp. when wife wants to go to REI. REI never seems to have what I want. Marmot is my savior for equipment fondling when I am force by wife and girls to go to B Square. PMS is out of the way for me and for that reason alone I go there very infrequently. PP

You miss the point big time: the issue isn't returning goods but the dangers of purposeful customer sabotage of product. I mentioned fruit because it was damaged in the store no return at all. Clearly the number of cases of customer sabotage are few. Fewer still would be the numbers of cases of sabotage that would go undetected. Sadly the "shop" defenders are confusing "used" and returned. In the case at hand, the merch. clearly was not used. IF it is a real issue, let's see some real supporting documentation. I have sent emails to Shoreline and Mtn Tools asking what would happen if I bought crampons or a helmet through the mail and they did not fit. I will report back as to their replies are. A quick review of the Mountain Gear.com site not reveal any exclusions for returning technical equipment. And we know what REI says. Comparing an axe returned the day after Christmas (still adorn with tags) and returning used gear is just plain silly. PP PS - This policy notwithstanding FF is a very nice store and I will continue to check there first before going across the street to REI if I need stuff!

Yeow Daler blame the customer great insight there. And as far as the convictions lets see some references (if there are convictions there will be references) and I would also add specific excerpts from liabilitiy policies showing how equipt. cannot be returned. I have to believe that if there were several convictions insurers would be hot on this issue. Remember the context of the post Christmas return for a a different size. Remember also fruit has been poisened in grocery stores and yet I can still go squeeze the fruit. I have to still call BS on this issue. PP

Sorry I have to agree with Trask on this one. There is no reason for a store not to accept returns as outlined above. Please show me one real example ( w/ a real reference) showing how a company accepting such a return has had their ass damaged! PP

My only regret is that I have but one 5 star vote to give him!

Once on a climbing trip (first one with this partner) we were at the trailhead and putting on our packs (the approach was only a 20 minute hike) when I noticed he was wearing a holster with a pistol in it. I casually ask if it was loaded he answered of course. The next week we were camping out in the middle on knowwhere and these redneck yahoos were nearby getting drunk by a raging bonfire. Having had problems with similar rednecks in the past I was at first a bit nervous but then thinking of the gun near Name deleted's head I went off to sleep withoput a worry.

Hey guys the survey didn't say centerfolds were becoming fat; it said they were more androgynous! Big difference! Kinda like climbing! Look at the poster boy climbers of the past. E.g. E. Comici (sp?) or J. Long standing below the Nose. The compare these studs to thin boy climbers of today. As far women: give me the curves any day. PP who is getting balder and fatter by the minute

Interesting interview: Jon Gill Interview

????

Parks Finance Page Parking fees as in most user fees are a fraud! The State has a history of not meeting its commitments with regard to them. The use of user fees has resulted the state having an interest in maintaining a budgetary state of crisis. The above link has lots of great info. I suggest everyone take the time to read the fiancial info.

All of my personalities just voted for you DFA - Dont forget us after the election!

YA GregW and I must have gone to the same finishing school!

DFA - You lucky guy. After weeks of campaigning last year end I ended up with two less votes than you do at the time of this posting.

I bought that 38 guide the other night instead of the new Vantage guide. Here is my quick assessment: 1. The usual ratings debate will be sure to follow. 2. It is big - many (perhaps too many) pages and large dimensions. Hard to stuff in a pack I think. Nice plastic protector sheets should help with this. 3. Valley View crags look stunning. I have been to the Valley View East crag and can vouch for its high quality ratings. 4. All the routes are shown via photos. No bolt placements are shown. Similar to Deceptioncrags.com Same guy did the paper guide. 5. Lots of new routes and several new areas. Smoot appearently had the name wrong on that slab route that was being hyped not too long ago. Lots of effort went into the guide and it shows. 6. The writer loves the area and his enthusiasm shows. It is nice to read a book and feel the writer's love of the area. In this case his enthusiasm is catchy and I can't wait to check out some of the new areas. 7. The notes to each route are shown in tables at the end of each section which is kind of a pain because you have to keep paging back and forth thru the book. All in all I bet lots of climbers will spend Chrismas afternoon sipping coffee and paging thru this high quality guide wishing they were actually at the crags! PP