slothrop

My roommate, girlfriend and I go usually twice a week. We'll be there Thursday night. I mostly go for the bouldering, but I bring a harness in case one of us wants to use the ropes.

Yeah, he gets tired after about 10 minutes because he's yarding himself up every hold using only his arms...

Yeah, yeah, meow. Look what a shitty day at work does to me. Anyway, I go to the gym to climb, and I'm glad to have everyone there in the gym with me. I've met some folks there (whose names I've never learned or forgotten) who b.s. with me about routes or moves or whatever, it's all good fun. And who is not amused when some football-player-lookin' dude comes into Vertical World with his gorgeous, clueless girlfriend, who struggles to get anywhere up the wall without the weight of her enormous hooters pulling her back into the void? I don't see why anyone would go to the gym *just* to socialize or troll for a date... I'll see you suckas at Stone Gardens Thursday!

who the hell goes to the gym just to socialize? i only go because i'm a gumby antisocial loser with a plastic fetish. bite me, erik

Cool. I'll be the tallish guy with brown pants, purple shoes, and no chalkbag, feeling up a hot blond girl between routes. I'll look for the pink spandex

Veggie, where did you see the incident report? I looked at the NWAC site and the most recent thing I could find was a report on two guys whose tent got buried near Source Lake at the end of January.

I've got a Lowe Triplepoint jacket I found used at a yard sale for $25. It is heavy and not too waterproof anymore, even after I washed it in Revivex (whatever). I only use it for lift skiing anymore and wear a soft shell instead most other times.

BD's 44 liter Ice Pack is on sale for 90 bucks through mail order only (not the website). Call them at 801.278.5533.

Trask, you'd have to have an attitude to walk around with all that denim shoved up your ass. Ms. Goatbags would knock herself out cold with her swingin udders if she tried to run away, so you have a fighting chance with her...

First post of the day

I just bought some cheap wiregate biners from sportextreme.com, with a decent shipping cost to the US. I haven't received them yet, but they were about $3.25 apiece. Barrabes has a much better selection, but I've never bought from them, either. Feathered Friends is a good local place. Every time I've bought something there, someone's given me a gear tip, or made an ice axe leash for me out of webbing, or given me 10% more off for buying a bunch of stuff. My experiences at small gear shops have been good just because of the people there, even if it's not necessarily cheaper. I also recently ordered some stuff from a gear shop in Utica, IL (what do you climb in Illinois?) called Starved Rock Outfitters. I picked up a rope, gloves, and some hardware on sale. It's fairly easy to find cheap gear with a simple search on Google, or through GearShark.com. It seems to me like most climbers want gear that does the job for as little money as possible. I've never heard anyone refuse to buy a solid, cheap piece of gear because they know that its "Made in the US of A" label really means that it was sewn in some dank sweatshop in Guam. Personally, I don't pay much attention to where my stuff is made More important to me is that it's made well and will last.

See the recent thread about the Ice Sac, though: http://www.cascadeclimbers.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=9&t=000320 Looks like the 5-year-old ones are good, but the new ones are much too flimsy.

rkb (at) speakeasy.org

Does anyone know how to get in touch with Mr. dps? We talked about climbing tomorrow, but I don't have his phone number. Thanks.

Ha ha, Dan Larson. Quit yer trolling.

Whatever happened to the Capt. anyway?

Cut two short pieces of 1" webbing, slice open the hot-sealed ends, and slip them over the straps of your gaiters that go under your bootsoles. Replacing 1' of webbing is cheaper than a new pair of gaiters if the straps wear out. The nylon tends to collect snow like a mutha, though, until you're balancing on an inch of ice under your arch with every step. Some guy at Feathered Friends showed me this trick.

Awesome photos! Looks like you all had a fine time. Is the approach reasonable to do just with skis? The price for the snowmobile shuttle seems a little steep ($45 each!).

I was up at Source Lake yesterday stumbling like an idiot, trying to figure out how to tele for the first time. I guess it didn't help that the snow in the bowl turned to chunky concrete by the end of the day. Despite a few icy sections, the run back to the parking lot was actually a lot of fun, even for someone who can't link a pair of turns. It was very mellow, down among the trees on a ski track, and there were a few nice spots where you could go off the trail for a bit into some undisturbed powder. I was just happy to be out in the mountains on such a beautiful day

Anyone climbed that basalt-looking wall that you can see from Hwy 12 on the right going up to White Pass from Packwood?

i did something at stone gardens that seems like a good core strength builder... they have six tiny footholds mounted on the wall in two rows of three behind the pullup bar, about 4 feet up the wall. i hung on the bar, arms straight, and did laps on the footholds with alternating feet until i fell off. it worked my back and stomach and hips pretty well, and you're hanging from your arms the whole time, too.

yeah, that sounds more like a good stomach workout, i'll have to try it next time

hey courtenay, i'm a bit confused about one of the finger extensor exercises shown on bodyresults: quote: For the third, fill a large cup or mason jar (something with an inverted lip so the cup or jar won't slide off your hand) with water, leaving room to submerge a hand. Open hand in jar so fingers extend outward against jar walls and do a "reverse farmer's walk". does this just mean that you hold a weighted object using the pressure of your fingers pressing outward on the inner wall of that object? and walk around swinging your arms to make it more strenuous?

i've got cerro torres and had to size them smaller than usual to get my narrow feet to not slide around. now i have to tape my heels to prevent blisters. despite this minor annoyance, they are comfortable and all-around good stuff. i climbed eldorado and went serac cragging in them -- they worked great on rock, snow, and ice.

height definitely has an effect... i often find myself unable to pull a move off the ground or in a corner/under a roof while bouldering since i am too scrunched up to get any leverage upwards. on the other hand, being able to stretch for a hold instead of jump has its advantages. i'm only 6', though.