slothrop

Maybe no one wants to climb with you because you proclaim your death wish every other time you post.

Eh, Clog cams aren't that bad. Granted, the placement of the sling is a bit annoying (it lies right where your thumb wants to go), but they are decent for my purposes. Maybe I just don't climb hard enough... oh, and thanks for the #4, Fred, it was just the piece I needed while climbing at Smith last week

I was in Feathered Friends today browsing the book shelf and saw a ratty Japanese book with a note in English taped to the cover. The note explained that this was a book about sawa-nobori, stream climbing. Apparently, it's a big thing in Japan to climb a mountain by ascending one of the streams coming down from it. It looks like vertical canyoneering or really melted-out ice climbing. Anyway, this book contains topos of various stream climbs all around Japan. It looks like a "Selected Streambed Climbs of Japan" sort of thing. I don't read Japanese, but those of you who do should go check out this book, it's wacky. Perhaps you can uncover some tips on how to ice climb in summer . Soon the Canadian Rockies will be overwhelmed by Japanese climbers doing first summer ascents of all the hard ice routes!

Yeah, I've bagged at least 100 bolts this summer alone

quote: Originally posted by SEF: We did the E Ridge Direct without any difficulties. I've been wanting to do this route for a while. Which route did you descend? How long did the climb take you from camp? Thanks.

As if the guy (and his family) hadn't gone through enough... sad. His partners must be devastated. I know I wasn't there, but I'm trying to imagine the accident and learn from it: if Jim Wickwire reported Mr. Hommer's death at just past 6am and they were below the cleaver, it seems like they didn't get much of an early start from Camp Muir. Perhaps the sun was just hitting the upper mountain when the rock came down.

quote: Originally posted by MtnGoat: "Media does indeed drive consumption -- it's called advertising." Sure it does, but it operates by generating want or need. Rational minds control most want and need. We must acknowledge human rational thinking and self knowledge that allows conscious control of wants by subordinating them to morals. If we wanted everything we saw advertised we'd go crazy. Even seeing something we don't have now but know about, like your buddies nice bike, generates a certain amount of want. Sure, humans are capable of rational thinking, but surely you must realize that people do not always take the most rational action. Wives don't leave their abusive husbands, for example, and smokers keep smoking, even though either of those behaviors can result in a severely shortened lifespan (and finally, "the ultimate coercion" ). quote: Originally posted by MtnGoat: I control my morals. I control how I view advertisements. People sell things in every culture from the most primitive to the most advanced. Everyone knows how to deal with it. From a hawker on a side street in bangladesh to that bastard in the used car dept, humans the world over know and every age, know about salesmen in any form. But you don't control your morals! Maybe you are talking about adults here, adults with a particularly focused bent on controlling every thought in their heads. But first let's examine the other extreme: children. Children certainly do not control the formation of their value structure. At the very least, we generally refuse to allow them that control, for fear of the irrational decisions they will make. People can make choices to have certain values, but in the end it's action that matters, and certainly the anecdotal evidence of the futility of reason in the face of extreme circumstances (hereafter referred to as "world history") destroys your concept of a perfectly rational humanity! Shit, just last week I hit the snooze bar too many times and wound up late to a commitment, even though every rational moral fiber in me raged at the thought of being late. quote: Originally posted by MtnGoat: What about pocket knives? Lighters? Buttwipe? Radios? Kitchen utensils? Are you aware of how much consumer goods flow into these places? Are we claiming people don't recognize these wants no matter where they live and they are tricked by adverts too? So they want a coke...hell I want a coke, I love em! It's about the world where cool things go places people want em. There's nothing like a cold coke on a hot day, get to your rig *burning* with exhaustion, rip open the cooler and pull one out of the ice..... with that weird sizzle and bite as an icy fizzy gulp races down! Now *that's* good marketing! I'm not saying advertising is "tricking" anyone (although it can sometimes be deceiving), but it does it's job of associating otherwise absent values with mundane products like Coke. And advertising is designed to be a prominent stimulus for people, whether they intend to view it or not. It *wants* to grab your attention, and when a person's attention is tugged at, something registers in the brain. There's no escaping a stimulus once it's experienced, just like you can't deny the bullet that shot you just because you knew it was coming and decided you didn't like it. quote: Originally posted by MtnGoat: "It's utterly ridiculous to claim that a person's values are unaffected by what they consume, see, and hear." I don't. I claim they control their lives and judge everything they see, don't you? No. My brain makes my decisions, obviously, but my consciousness is not in control over all of those decisions. I do not choose when to breathe, but I do it regularly. Trask does not control his abnormal desire for chickens, but somehow it is still there and still causes him to act . I fear this will soon degenerate into a discussion on the theory of consciousness. Um, we were talking about bombing Iraq with Coke, right?

quote: Originally posted by MtnGoat: I'll repeat one more time, the fact that the culture which supposedly tricks and bamboozles people here into buying these things is not present in many of these nations, the idea that media drives consumption instead of consumers deciding what they value, is shown for the crock that it is. They are perfectly capable of deciding what is counter to their values and not buying it. What I see is someone *other* than these consumers *claiming* these products don't meet their personal values, which they may not, but they obviously do not speak for those purchasing them. Media does indeed drive consumption -- it's called advertising. Products such as Coca-Cola are themselves advertisements (for themselves), and the Coca-Cola brand is internationally known due to media/advertising saturation. If Coke is present, then the culture of Coke is present (to whatever degree). It's utterly ridiculous to claim that a person's values are unaffected by what they consume, see, and hear. If no one knew anything about Coca-Cola, they could not possibly value it. But if they "know" that Coke promises refreshment or a good time with friends or whatever the ad says, then they associate Coke with those things and value it as a proxy.

Undaunted Courage by Stephen Ambrose - it's ok so far, haven't gotten to the bear wrasslin' yet Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon - for the second time; this time, I'm taking notes Mysterious Japan by Julian Street - most amusing is the wide-eyed aristocratic tone, like when the author boggles that Japanese households get by with so few servants as compared to American households

Leavenworth and the Bridge Creek campground sound sweet. Count me in.

quote: Originally posted by chucK: quote:Originally posted by Attitude: My rack and harness gear for trad: [...] 3 tied slings - single, double, triple belay gloves (Home Depot) 2 hero loops (6 mm perlon) [...] Attitude has identified him/herself as a Mountie! I've got almost exactly the same stuff on my rack... I must have learned from closet Mounties!

Nice! Thanks for the TR. Maybe I'll check it out if I become able to climb 5.10 in the alpine without shitting myself.

Would you trust Beckey that an unclimbed face is "uninteresting"?

I was all set to go, but then I had to do some handholding for my sole paying customer. Ah, well. We should have a fall rope-up kinda thing, though.

I had a similar problem in my index finger, in the knuckle at the base of the finger. It would be fine while climbing, but two days later, it would swell and hurt so I could not curl it up all the way. I kept trying to take it easy for a few days and it would always come back. In the end, I just stopped climbing. I took ibuprofen and iced it every day for a couple weeks, then just didn't climb for another month. Not climbing bummed me out then, but I haven't had any problem since, not even after a long hard day on the rock.

quote: Originally posted by Thinker: Dont forget Krazy1 Man, don't you have a girlfriend?

Dear lord, I can't resist this thread... help! Note Lou skipping with sheep. Now I see why Dwayner and Big Lou share such a special bond. [ 09-08-2002, 07:53 PM: Message edited by: slothrop ]

I'd do some climbing while I'm out there, sure. I've got an old pair of tele boots (Merrell Supercomps) that I'd like to trade away...

Ah, another appearance by humorless RURP. Perhaps you're just jealous that nearly every piece of gear is larger than you, and you're trying to compensate for something.

I know nothing about Redmond pubs... who's bringing the beer?

aight. 6pm, next Tuesday the 10th at Marymoor. who's coming?

Ooh, I like that idea! Catch the fuckers on video, preferably with more than one camera, then roadblock them and walk out of the trees with 911 on the line. Tell the police you've shot some car thieves, but you might have missed one of 'em. It might be a good idea if no one involved in the operation actually has a gun on them at the time. It'd be easy to block them in if they were at the Iron Horse lot, but if we had four cars and some road flares or traffic cones, we could easily block traffic on either end of the pullout, too. All it would take is four drivers to man the roadblock, and five or so others in cover with cameras and reliable cellphones. If they run, they won't get far.

Still curious (really, I'm not a violent person): what if someone breaks into your home? What if you're living in your van and someone breaks in while you sleep? Obviously, you want this person to go away posthaste, but what if, in the course of convincing the perpetrator to go away, you land a solid blow to his head with your stick clip/horsecock/#4.5 Camalot? I know these questions are a bit vague, and deciding what happens in such situations is what courts are for, etc., but I'm still curious. When does assault become self-defense? When you can prove that your life was threatened? Or merely when your personal safety is threatened? If I saw two guys sneaking around my car with a knife, and I approached them to convince them to fuck off, would I not be justified if they threatened me and I tomahawked them with an ice tool? Do I have to be unarmed before they threaten me to be justified (say I grab my weapon from the passenger seat as they circle the car after me)? What if I were lying in wait (unarmed or not) because I knew there were car prowlers in the area?

Just curious, but what are the legal implications of beating the living hell out of someone who you catch breaking into your car?