Beck

Hard to see Rebuffat confused with a lecturer! He was one of the pioneers of big wall climbing in Europe, wrote a book, "Starlight and Storm" about climbing six classic North Face routes, (The Eiger, etc.) He was a lyricist, not a lecturer. Sounds like he enjoyed the bivy for all it's cold dark and damp aspects. [ 03-22-2002: Message edited by: Beck ]

...get the review of all the transceivers Couloir magazine this season, it really spells out the differences in detail. Generally, digital beacons have a greatly reduced receive range vs. analog beacons. The F1 can pickup signals up to 70 meters away versus 30m or so for digital beacons. The plus side of digital beacons are ease of use, directional prompts and accurate distance readings in meters. The Ortovox M2 people are reccommending is a digi/analog beacon. The advantages of analog signal reception strength with the benefit of digital processing and display to make it more user friendly. the Barryvox and The Tracker are digital beacons but are very easy for an inexperienced user to use. If you intend to wear your beacon regularily and practice often for real life burial scenarios, pick up an Ortovox. If you only need a beacon on occasion to ski the backcountry at the resorts and DON'T intend to practice actually using the thing, get a Barryvox or the Tracker.

There's two cobblers in Seattle who make shoes- one is "Mobeta Shoes" down on Western Ave just below the Pike Place Market, and the other is ??? who had a shop up on capitol hill in a small shop right close to Charlie's on Broadway. I imagine there's more but none I know of.

All the more reason to fight the war on drugs! More bodies into the labor pool! And no early release for you possessors of the evil weed (or the evil speed, a whole different can of worms)the states would rather let the rapists and murderers out first. Lady justice may be blind(ed) but she's weeping thru the blindfold.

It may not be that bad for the prisioners and I can't expect profit driven corporations to make ethics based decisions vs. economic forces. Or to have legislators stop listening to PAC contributors. It still gets me, that states encourage the growth of prison labor. It's preferential treatment all the way, the state wins out, the manufacturer makes out, the prisioner makes out. So why stop with the manufacturing sector? I've got a great idea. Let's get the prisioners jobs in Olympia! They could replace the french chef who caters to the state senators. Maybe the skilled ones could become Social Sercice workers or run the phone lines for the govenor. Or, get the guys on work release to become school bus drivers. Hey, they've BEEN rehabilitated, haven't they?

Prison labor is a bad trend in America- the largest office furniture manufacturer in America was forced into bankruptcy by Michigan prison labor producing same type of furniture. There the prison system itself is the manufacuturer of all sorts of products and the prisioners get the 75 cents or buck fifty an hour. I understand market trends drive industry and understand how cutting costs increases the bottom line and can help keep consumer prices down-but, essentially, any manufacturer who's using prison labor makes the decision to employ convicted felons instead of hardworking law abiding citizens to save some bucks, taking jobs away from average joes and having rapists and child molesters work for them. That pisses me off! Same with the Bush administration plan to make it easier for illegal immigrants to work here. WTF? Why? Oh, I'm NOT pro union, I own things made in China and I have OP gear. The world's not a perfect place. [ 03-21-2002: Message edited by: Beck ]

Let's keep the venue for next week at the Alki as I think it's already been decided- As for the Buckaroo, it's a SMOKEY bar with lotsa bikers and people who pride themselves on their RENAGADE status, might not like a bunch of dirtbag climbers crampin their "local" bar- It's a nice place to drink, but not for big groups like us, me thinks.

All good, joe, I like sewing up gear as well, just tossed out some beta/logistics. Also , I hear it's real tough working with the silcoat stuff, as I'm sure you've figured if you've already got the fabric. Let us know how the finished product turns out!

Integral designs is making a silicone coat nylon pyramid teepee tent, also the Betamid by BD sleeps 3, regular coated nylon, weighs 2.2 pounds and costs 99 bucks. Might save a bunch of hours tracing,cutting, felling, searing, pinning and sewing.

Here's a Wyoming joke- Don't tell it in Wyoming- what do you call four cowboys in a pickup? a Wyoming double date.

The two work in conjunction to give you better results than just glucosamine alone, from what I understand- BTW, the vitamin packets known as "Emer'gen'C" just came out a glucosamine-chronadotin vita C vitamin packs. 17 bucks for 36 packages. Goes great in a nalagene to cut the taste of Iodine.

I've always held the opinion that people who choose to stay in town and wait around REI all night waiting to get in to the big "garage sale" were a bit out of touch with the notion of quality recreation time- the people camping on sidewalks to get into a store to buy more gear to get outside themselves... And it's all returns and crap gear we used to always be able to buy anytime in the bargain basement up at the old store. They are manipulating their members into a false supply and demand scenario and generating a damn good plubicity stunt that gets on the news every year and makes me want to puke.

Teddy Rux dropped me like a hot potato when he got the chance to be "best boy" on the Brittany Spears movie. That bitch can't steal him away from me that easy.. I'm planning on heading to LA, dress up in my Fraulein shirt and Kevlar falsies and kidnapp his delightfully furry hide out for some Joshua Ttree hijinks. Stay tuned. I'm HOPING Jon might want to put my last climbing tale with Teddy R. up in the epics or superstars stories sections, Teddy R truly is a forgotten master at climbing disaster.

and "Guiness is good for you" isn't it true that a pregnant woman in Ireland gets free Guiness because of all the vitamins in it? I think that grease/lube/joint connection is right on the money, also gives me an excuse to super size my fries because I take the ones I can't eat and apply them topically to my knees before going skiing, you can just mash them into a poultice and smear them on the affected areas underneath your longjohns. Also comes in handy as extra food for unplanned bivies. [ 03-14-2002: Message edited by: Beck ]

Just wait until the Bush Administrations sends out a RFP requesting bids to contract park entrance operations out to private industry- Hasn't the USFS already done that with campgrounds? Does anyone remember the USFS cabins all over the country (over twenty THOUSAND of them) that you could rent for 10 bucks a day? Those got axed by the Reagan Administration because they weren't cost effective. I believe that our current administration (and that includes the legislative branch!) are very interested in reducing federal outlays by privatizing whole sectors of operations previously maintained by the feds. Look at the privatization of the postal service, deregulation of the energy industries, giving the states the burden of welfare and refusing to subsidize Amtrak, or numerous other debacles showing the erosion of our governments interest in protecting intangible rights of we, the people. THERE'RE GOING TO TRY AND DO IT!

...The direction the Bush administration is taking on all sorts of wilderness issues is absolutely reprehensible! The Secretary of the Interior is a pro mining, anti-regulation harlot who's going to open up exploratory drilling in wilderness areas and neglected to send comments from DOI regarding wetlands issues to the Army Corps of Engineers, ensuring weakened status of wetlands protection. Does the administration want to privatize the running of wilderness- yes! Why wouldn't they, they are NOT concerned with such trivial issues like wilderness when there's a bunch of energy policy to write with some dudes from Enron. And not to mention there's a bunch of TERRORISTS out there we need to hunt down and exterminate. We the people are getting a royal screwing by the Bush administration, thas fo sur.

...skyhooks, baby, skyhooks. I think Raold Dahl invented them, sold em to charlie in the chocolate factory if you need some...Jman, no 'fense intended about your manhood, just spewing away!!

...some idiot was yelling he's going to shoot me one time when I kept passing him on my bike while he was stuck in traffic on the way to the U district on eastlake once- I 'd pass him and he'd start screaming and yelling at us asshole bikers, catch up in a few blocks, try to block my bike with the nose of his car, etc. etc. All I could do was laugh at him, foolish man stuck in car. NEVER heard of a man not standing up for his wife and waiting for a lawsuit, who cut his balls off? Her?

...I think that Peter Puget dude's some big dog with the AAC- but can't say who.

...I only intended to bring up that the focus of our national parks are to preserve the land and wildlife for future generations, not unlimited access for current generations, even if that's what the public wants. I'm totally AGAINST a monopoly in concessionaires (whether climbing related or not) in the Parks system, and I firmly believe the current DOI wants to wrest more of the services parks provide out of their direct control and let outside contractors run in the park operations- Look at the influence the ARC and Disney has had on the Recreation Pass program. I'm aware the scoping process currently under discussion for MORA involves regulating and bringing more or less competition into the consessionaire bidding and that it's been in the works since before the current administration. I just wanted to bring these two points into the discussion.

Erik, I think the NPS mission statement starts with the preservation of national lands and preservation of the wildlife, not people recreating...

...I think some of the current administration's appointees in the Department in the Interior would love to see private enterprise takeover more operations in the parks service, maybe let Aramark Services and the like just start runnin all the parks! I know these scoping meetings are focused on the guiding services at Rainier, I just see a deeper anti environmental conspiracy amongst the DOI that is currently working to weaken environmental protections of public lands and degrage the quality of our nations wilderness resources- Yellowstone brought to you by, Disney.

...a second for Rene Daumal's "Mount Analogue" being a book of fundamental importance in Mouuntaineering literature and it's slim enough for the top pocket of the pack-

Jerry- get in touch with Scottish Lakes High Camp,their camp is pretty close to the Chiwakum range and I think they'll haul you in on a snowmachine or snowcat for 10 bucks or so- I think they're on the web-

...once you try a wool baselayer you will be sold and never want to go back to polypro again (although i haven't tried wearing wool baselayer in summer yet) -funk factor goes WAY down, esp on multi day trips, and the performance is way better than poly or capilene, it seems to stay dry a lot longer and then never be as wet and saturated feeling as a soggy set of polypro