Beck

It is difficult to follow such an erudite post, Lowell. My reply pales in comparision. Contributions to Northwest climbing by Beckey is obvious. look at the CAGs. these "Beckey Bibles" , like the actual good book, should be taken with a grain of salt. Fred is a brillant artist and writer, taking a sketchbook approach to the Cascades. He's got information about pretty much every peak. what an invaluable resource for those of us to follow. most other areas the expanse of the cascades need about twenty guidebooks, and then there still isn't a complete picture. I like the fact I can look at a map of WA and some southern BC, then go to the Beckey bibles, and find a route up something. Pretty much guaranteed. In the field, guidebooks are meant to be that, merely 'guides.' do you hear of many people dissing Fodor's or Lonely Planet guides because " that bus line wasn't reported accurately" or this type of dissent? If you look at a book like 'high adventure' by B and I Spring, published in 1951, has a few crags featured, and wrong names on things. and a reference to young 'Louis Whittaker' and 'crag rats' and a feature called 'the chisel' which i can't find in the guidebooks... And as to the fellows around the NW that contributed to skiing and climbing history, it is always a pleasure to listen in, and hear the history if they happen to want to talk about it. overheard at REI during a Mountain Skiing presentation... "I said, 'Reporting for the tenth mountain division, sir!' and he said, 'Son, as of now, you ARE the tenth mountian division!" a recounting of reporting out west for duty during WWII by the first recruit to the vererated mountain division. And a getting back to mountian trivia (culled from the beckey bibles) What peaks were going to be named 'the three dicks' by the FA party?

I'm not going to do an internet search on a topic that I am aware is valid. my source on crystal degradation: Gary Brill, and personal field tests with new vs older beacons. I will check with Minot Maser in the next couple of days. He is a rep for BCA. I will also call Brill and maybe the folks at NWAC to check it out. Again, I don't need any convincing about avy beacons. They get compromised with age and hard knocks.

the m1 and m2 were analogue avy beacons with digital screens. sorry to be posting intoxicahte.

thanks snoboy for putting a spin on things, but i think the M series had two directional receivering antennas,gave a digitally rendered directional as to where the dual receivers said a burial was.. and i din NOT know the new beacons got away from crystals, that is news to me... I guess this is technology... does the x1 still have crystals in the transmitter matrix? I hope so, the ortovox products always had extremely high sensitivity and range...

and what do the pros disagree about? Is it the beacons, the fact that radio beacons like avy transceivers use crystals, or that used beacons degrade in their real world transmit range? couldn't really tell. Cracked, i don't know what you are talking about, ever. beacons use crystals as part of their telemetry equipment, like "quartz watches" (which also have crystals in them!) to ensure proper frequency... wow, talk about heavy science lessons. wow, quartz technology...

the f-1 is analogue, the m-1 still, analogue, with a funky lcd screen and two recievers, and the x-1 the first ana/digi from ortovox. the m1 was still a analogue receiver, with digital readout.. don't buy used avy beacons unless you can test it, ebay is a fools game!

do you mean the f-1? M2, used, never buy a used avalanche transceiver. the operational transmitting range of transceivers is dependant on the integrity of crystals used to transmit beacon signal. A beacon's crystal tends to degrade over time after incurring various knocks around, a serious drop can halve the operating transmit range of a beacon. Take a five year old, any model, avy beacon that has seen normal field use. Compare it to a new beacon of the same model. Transmit range will be compromised 100% of the times in the older beacon. So, for a piece of safety equipment like this, i'd reccomend to buy new. That being said, new Ani/digi ortovox is a bit slower processing wise than some other ani/digis. but the ortovox is simpler. I still need to take some barryvoxs and x1s and BCA trackers and f1s out and compare max ranges and ease of signal pinpointing... since this is life and death stuff, spend a little extra and buy new.

water isn't slush at 4 degree celsius, that's almost fourty degree american! Water becomes fraziil at about a half a degree cent, or so, but ice is less dense than water, thats for sure, so maybe water is densest at 4 degree cedlsius but it sure isn't slushy- we'd surf 3 degree celsius lake superior and ice was not an issue.

In high school I played hooky one winter and was a luger living in Lake Placid. I was drinking, whoring around, getting BJs from the "grassroots" athlete girls. Didn't crack the books all year. Got back to school the next fall, sold dope, skipped school a lot, burned my books, and high tailed it to california with my thumb at 16. By 17 I was running a mountain lodge with slot machines and a house hooker high in the ruby mountains of Nevada while my buddies were.... well, trask, whattya think?

those are the best on the market IMO as well. You can get a ten liter dromedary for camp or desert and it still weighs about the same as a one liter nalgene. leakage, go buy another cap or screw the things on good. sometimes the plastic threads get compromised by cross threading and then they always leak a little. you can wear a two-liter droms like a vest on the front of your shoulder strap if you're on the approach, it evens out the weight distribution as well. Attach them to your yank strap at the top of your rucksack, you can even drink out of the standard bags, sans hydration tube, by aim and shoot method. Sorry to have to be so graphic.

dru i guess i was still drunk...and I'm glad to hear that allison, I think you'd have the ability to ruin just about any party that didn't have you as the center of attention. You usually look like you have a bad case of hemmoroids, or gas, everytime I see you anyway...how do you carry that nose so high without hurting your neck, girl? anyway, again, to all the attendees who climbed and ate and drank, you are the reason the party was thrown- to Mattp, Hikerwa, Steve Swenson, wayne 1112, Erden Eruc, John Harlin, Pete "Dr. coffee", Mark the sound guy, Lisa and Janet from the Ranger station, and all the rest who helped out, thanks, you guys ROCK!

Dru, you missed all the fun games after pancakes Sunday morning. Fern got them going with a wild cup game, and a couple of us hit the dirt after a spin around round... party was 100% full force, regardless of weather. Who would let a little weather hose them off from CAR CAMPING? hmm, best those folk dinda show anyhoow...

yeah, that rain wasn't bad... I wore a soft shell all weekend, didn't have any problems... i think we had nearly a hundred people that showed up, and the raffle was a big hit! thanks to everyone that helped to make the event a success! You guys ROCK!

...nice gully on that bastard, caveman...crux low, cruising higher up, loooks like... schweet!

....i heard it's going to be multi-kegitudinistic in Leavenworth with free food and three slideshows! and NOT A SINGLE keychain biner, only over a thousand dollars in prizes for the raffle....donated by guys like Jim Nelson at Pro Mountain Sports. partial list of prizes. note, no keychain biners. five harnesses two sets aluminum crampons two rope bags half dozen wire gates two b-52's, a reverso and a hb sheriff a ladies smart wool top an msr titanium hanging stove kit - oh, that's just the stuff Jim at PMS donated! Plus, he's buying pancakes and maple links for Sunday morning. Thanks in advance, Jim, you I think it's going to be a helluva party!

i'm sorry, do you people think i am afraid of my real name? and if we don't have a fire, so much the better, as far as I am concerned. but most people will want a fire, so bring some firewood everyone, whoever's got it It IS a party! see you dirtbags there, might be muddy!

well, we still need firewood. sorry to be overly uppity about ropeup, I want to make sure everyone has a great time. I don't like fires, myself, but hey, it's a party!

lots of grub. no fur. rostbratwurst being made by a German Master Butcher. Bring firewood if you've got it... firewood guy pulled his support over a "personality conflict." Talk about pissing in the fire....

there's 50 pounds of Thuerenger RostBratwurst for saturday night and pancakes, maple links and coffee on Sunday morning. 100% chance of snafflesausages.

here's what i wrote about the monorail in my column last month- "A guilty pleasure" by Mike Beck copr. 2003 I have a confession to make. Please forgive me, my admission of this guilty pleasure is a bit difficult for most Seattlites to stomach. This guilty pleasure overrides my sense of societal decency, so I have to disclose this, get it off my chest. I ride the monorail regularily, and I like it. There, I’ve said it. I like the monorail. From my house to the Market takes me all of 10 minutes if I catch the monorail with a close connection and 20 if I don’t. I like it because it’s the closest thing to commuter light rail this city’s got. As soon as we get a rapid transit system dedicated to moving commuters independant of roadways, Seattle will enter a league of other large cities all over the world that have rapid transit systems. How did Seattle get so far without a system of light rail, or elevated or underground transit thoroughfares more elaborate than the bus tunnel? Denial of growth by planners. Fake light rails built into the bus tunnel, with full knowledge by project managers and the city’s governing body at the time of construction. The rails were a symbolic gesture of the city’s commitment to transit. If they truly were committed, they would have installed real, workable track. Follow this with misguided efforts by a pro- development mayor and his attempt to railroad the Olympics on the region. A problem with transit under his administration, funding was directly tied to the Olympic bid to secure fast track federal funding for mass transit projects. No Olympics, no money for light rail, sorry. At least he got us a couple new stadiums. Too bad the public can’t sail them across Lake Washington during the afternoon commut. A quick recounting of errors encountered in Seattle’s transportation system can point out a few of the errors. A more wise course for the region is to look ahead, make compromises and get the thing built. Build two, why not? Light rail AND a monorail. The more community mass transit, the better. Maybe people could commute around the Puget Sound area like you can transit the greater Bay area, or the Boston/ DC / NYC corridors on light rail and local commuter systems. Anyone who has ridden the subways of the East Coast or BART knows the amazing convenience of light rail. After transit gets built, regional planners need to plan the next phases without resting on their laurels- greater Seattle has a lot of catching up to do. The future is easier to control if it is planned for. What if gas goes to four dollars a gallon, and more people can’t afford to drive their cars to work? What if the reality of polluting by automobile becomes socially unacceptable to more people? What if two million more people move to the Puget Sound region in the next decade? This editor wonders on our collective ability to rise above our Eyman angst and start living in reality. Cities need mass transit, and lots of it. Sometimes taxes paid to government actually support valuable public works projects. Like mass transit. The monorail runs 730a.m.-11p.m. M-F , slightly limited hours on S-Su. It runs every 10 minutes and costs $1.50 one way.

best fall days i remember around the lake was when it was pushing 6-8 feet of offshore break! You should try to complete a yooper triathalon one day: skiing, surfing and biking. I've been lucky enough to do that a couple of times. also, you can substitute sailing for surfing or biking. skiing is a standard part of the yooper triathalon, however.

actually, not.

Dirtbags only. that might keep some of the riffraff out...

there will be a beginners top rope area during the day on saturday, so cracked and iain can come climb too, but at night it turns a little bit randy. ropeup is all ages. On Saturday, cascade crags from everett will have a beginners area at bruces boulder, and there will be introductory climbing all day. the nighttime gets a little wild, most parents would be well advised to be camping with their kids a ways away from the group site. and cracked, and iain, if your mommies send a note, you can camp at the group site...

okay, I admit it. When this event got going we checked the six month forcast just to mess up the weekend... sometimes it is wet in the mountains, sometimes it is dry. whatever. I'm packing up boxes of gear for the raffle and give away right now.