slothrop

Hmm.. I started Soul Mountain a while back and just couldn't get into it. Maybe I'll try again someday. For now, Wind, Sand, and Stars by Antoine de St. Exupery. I picked it up on someone's recommendation from one of these threads

I soak my cams in JP-6 jet fuel and light them on fire to burn off the excess. I find this method is very active at removing particulants, particularly the nylon fibers that collect in a big loop at the end of the stem. One time, I failed to take correct care of my pro and I nearly had incorrectly-cared-for pro. Never again, my friends, never again. It's a blessing to still be able to climb after the incident.

Pfft, I thought this was going to be about mandatory military service for Young Republicans: http://operationyellowelephant.blogspot.com/

Rad. Is this thing down toward Colchuck Lake from the "Aasgard Pass Sentinel" thing in Beckey?

jkeller, that was just the thing I was scouring craigslist for last night! I went there, but all I could find were two lil' boxes and some tortilla boxes. tlg: Yeah, those would be an ideal size. sobo: "Spookaloo"? Is that code for "Capitol Hill, where everyone is white and cares about diversity"? Just movin' across town. My girlfriend and I found a cool place (literally... it doesn't become an EZ Bake Oven after 3pm like our current top-floor apt.) with more space, a yardlet, a washer and dryer (!!!) and a much better landlord. Thanks for all the tips, y'all! It's gonna be hard drinking all that liquor before Saturday to have enough empty boxes, but I'll have to try.

Letter-sized? Like a couple of reams of printer paper stacked on top of one another? That's frickin' tiny. I should just scan all my books to PDFs to save weight.

The rule of thumb is "add suffering to save weight." I brought my Gore-Tex jacket on a 7-day Pickets trip with 5 days of rain. It was totally useless, since we mostly hung out in the tent when it rained. When we did hike in the rain, I got soaked anyway. F$!*$# Gore-Tex. The only time I wear hardshell pants is on rainy winter boredom hikes and lift skiing in a snowstorm. But I am a wuss and just run and hide in the tent in bad weather. Polypro underwear is an abomination. I disgust myself with my smell after wearing them for a single soccer game... I can't imagine a weekend climbing trip.

I'm moving to beautiful Ballard this weekend and need some boxes for my unjustifiably large pile of worldly goods. Anyone know where I can get some free cardboard containers? Can I walk into Costco and grab a carload of their used boxes?

And then there was the CIA kidnapping of a terrorism suspect in Italy, after the CIA had milked the Italians' cooperation for all it was worth. Italy was close to making something of the case, but then the CIA folks disappeared with the guy.

Or just go over Whatcom Peak's North Ridge, where pro is useless and the rock is crap. Then you'll appreciate even more the 30 feet of sweet granite on Challenger. Oh, by "eastern edge of the glacier" I mean go as far east as you can without dropping toward Luna Cirque.

Yes, just bring three runners. Go all the way to the eastern edge of the glacier before heading up. You can't really see the summit until you're pretty close to it. Dunno about how much rope you'll need. 50m certainly would work, tho.

The photo mosaic on the index page is broken up with black lines of various thicknesses. The guy in the photo is cut in half.

Right on! Those two letters on rescue costs were the most intelligent and informed of the bunch, too.

Stretching them after exercise probably helps, but not before. You want to warm them up to get them ready for action. If you stretch too much, your hips will be all loosey-goosey. But I'm just talking out of my ass here.

I've had a similar problem, but it wasn't really that painful for me, just uncomfortable. I could kind of pop it back into place by extending my leg in front of me and bending at the waist (hard to describe). After playing a lot of soccer for a while, the same area started to get painful after games. I started doing a dynamic warmup before games that includes a few things: - Walking forward, hike your knee up toward your chest as you step, moving your knee from inside to outside. You should feel the rotation through your hip joint. Walk for 20 yards like this a few times. My friend describes this as the "Robin van Pirsie" (if you're an Arsenal fan, watch him warm up). - Grapevines, sideways and forward/backward - "Indian hop": do a Google search for a good description, but it's basically hopping forward foot-to-foot, on a 45-deg. angle, bouncing once as you land; good strengthening exercise - Short sprints, alternately with knees exaggeratedly high The idea is to get the joint, muscles, and nerves used to the motions you'll be doing, and not just stretched out and warmed. These warmups might not be practical for doing at the base of the crag, but you can do the van Pirsie thing in place. You could do the others as part of some other workout for strengthening the joint.

I'd traverse Temple Ridge, or climb a bunch of routes on it from a base camp. You could do a "less-traveled traverse", starting with the NW Buttress of Colchuck Balanced Rock (5.8 and dirty, but more fun than Asstastic Pass) and finding a high route above Hel Basin, going toward Prusik. Probably wouldn't see too many people.

Blacker than you are, honkey.

I think if you bulk up enough, you'll be your own pack animal. I recommend supersets of squats to build those horse-like thighs.

Spoke too soon... that second photo is rad!

I was just thinking about this route. Got any photos?

Clintoris, if you were my buddy, I'd give you shit about being so worried about quantifying the number of summits you've done. I met a guy in Boulder, CO a few months ago who told me, unsolicited, the exact number of "climbs" he's done. I didn't know him, so I didn't point and laugh, but the Internet does offer the distance to do so. It's just the nature of the medium. I'd go with Dechristo's advice. If someone's really interested, you should have no problem telling them the whole story of how you camped out at Muir and climbed several routes. Sounds like a bitchin' way to do a bunch of climbing.

Got any photos?

Ned Flanders, now there's a real gentleman! Nice job, guys