Beck

... Circue of the Gargoyles over by Buckhorn Mountain provides quite a few short routes...

... I think sport climbing IS making it into the olympic games as a exhibition sport in the next summer games, the next step being full medal status the following olympiad. Part of a trend by the IOC to keep the olympics popular. No word yet on if the new sport "Survivoring" gets into the mix...

...special.

I think FF and Filson are corraborating on an 8000 Meter Tin Cloth 700 fill power parka. All made in the USA but I don't know about the down source.

Yeah, Sean, no need to state the obvious- We go Swiss, Ya?

Bronco, those Jim Beam traveller flasks are 375ml, a fifth of booze and are made out of a more durable plastic than a gatorade bottle.

The "flyspeck" Amanita? Best not chomp too much of this or your nervous system'll just HATE you.

Yo, Smokey, you SKI IN THE RAIN, dude and get wet, whatsa matter, you afraid of a little rain?

I think i'm usually one of the highest 50 on this site, no wait, this is about the Tallest 50 in this state!

Make those thirsty Bastards SUFFER, cavey? Why you give them water? Erik, you don't need to bring my scholler stuffed sausage warmers with the rescue garters into it, I'll never forgive you for stealing Teddy's bear skin kimono! Is it keeping you warm right now on some frosty belay ledge while you spray vile untruths in the twilight with a Satlink laptop?

I got hooked on the evil spray by my climbing buddy "Teddy Ruxpin." "The first one's on me," he'd say on our way out to the internet crag. "That spray won't get you hooked, you're SMARTER than that." That bitch got me hooked, then pimped me out to every wall rat at Camp 4, then knocked me up and left me stranded and penniless at a computer terminal at a Moab Kinko's! He's been whoring around with the Burgess brothers in the Himalaya but I'm waiting to climb with him again, I'll keep you guys posted!

You guys actually fell for that Thermarest crap? Those were bogus from DAY ONE. Oh, three times heavier than a foam pad and prone to puncture, valve failure and they still get people to buy em! I've got some Rescue 8's laying around if anyone wants some , although I see a ressurection by Petzl for cavers called the PIRAHNNA. Oh yeah, and a three layer goretex mountain parka for sale, CHEAP. [ 12-13-2001: Message edited by: Beck ]

Why limit yourself to 250 bucks if you want a heavy duty goreplex XCR storm parka? most new ones cost 400 bucks. You can buy LL Bean's Marmot knockoffs for a lot less, but I still think they are more than 250- The Patagonia Supa Pluma's been my choice for about the last ten years but they cost 325 For Winter use, go SOFT SHELL- my $.02

Take a look at a more affordable Grivel axe as well, the Pamir. Still plenty light with a traditional spike that'll bite hard ice better, also the teeth under the Air Tech axes extend real close to the shaft, I think you mignt run the risk of damaging your rope in a boot axe belay.

Hey, Flebelebleb, There's a couple options you can use, but you'll have to look for them in the used gear shops. 1) Chouniard Equipment used to sell a toepiece that would fit their Riva cable binding that adapted the binding for use with mtn boots- not designed for lotsa turns. 2) NATO ski binding with adjustable toepieces are designed to fit any boot- I used these in the mid eighties with some (not fully rigid) mountain boots to tele at the lifts with, evebn took them to Colorado and they worked fine- after a couple hard seasons they degraded the welt a little bit worked just fine. Look fot these items on old tele/ski gear, you can make it work, man. [ 12-11-2001: Message edited by: Beck ]

Hey Erik,or anybody else in T town, I'll be in Tacoma Weds night if you want to slug back some brewskis at the Swiss- I'm going about 9:30

Sir Edmund Hillary was often heard saying (and I'm paraphrasing) "The best thing westerners can do for the Nepali people is ... stay home."

Do you all go out in the winter with a Texas Instruments Graphing Calculator stuffed in your snow study bag? or Duct taped to the shovel, ready to factor initial diameter for effective penetration at a moment's notice? Just DIG the DAMN HOLE if your buddies' at the bottom of the pile, I'd save the fancy math for your appointment with the auditor-

I carry the Ortovox probe and haven't found any problems with it yet in three years. Take colored electrical tape and mark it in 5cm increments if you want to use it as a snow ruler for snowpit analysis. Is 2.4m too short? Probably not. A beacon search will narrow your search area down by quite a bit, to where probing becomes secondary, quick, prefunctory canine like "find the stick, dig, dig, DIG" when the victim is wearing a transmitting beacon. Probes are probably and unfortunatly used more often in corse/fine search body recoveries.

Still looking for a place to live. I got a couple good leads off this post but they weren't quite right. Looking for a room to rent Seattle area, bike commutable to downtown, room to store gear and self. If anyone has any leads I'd really appreciate it. Beck

Anyone else ever have the pleasure of seeing a wolf in the Cascades?

Wow, fern, I think you just shot right over the heads of about 90% of your fellow CascadeClimbers... it certaintly dropkicked my melon into the outhouse, that's for sure. As another practical hint, there's some vector variance in deep burial tranciever searches that generally puts the victims upslope of the point of the strongest signal.

Washington FRESHIES rule!!! I've got 7 days in already this freshie season, and I work a full time m-f job!

The Guinness Book of World Records was actually created by the Guinness Brewery as a handy "settle the pub argument" type of resource guide, as well as a marketing tool. In 1951, Sir Hugh Beaver, Guinness high falutin' muckymuck, was engaged in a discussion over what was the fastest game bird in Europe and reckoned a rescource guide with this type of info would prove valuable. In 1955 the McWhirter twins published the first edition of the Guiness Book, and it soon found its' way into pubs throughout the British Empire.

Bring on the powdre! Last weekend was thigh deep fluffies in the trees, heinous soft slab above, but bring it on,old man winter! let's see the snow, skadi!