Fairweather

I don't consider nationalized health care an 'investment'. I continue to scratch my head when I hear liberals, and even some libertarians scream about their eroding freedoms in one breath - and then tout the virtue of turning over the fate of their very bodies to some new government behemoth in the next. Will our national investment in education be for naught if our industries continue the current trend of using well educated foreigners who are willing to work for one-third the price of their American counterparts? Not to defend the idiots that manage Boeing, but are you saying that Airbus is somehow liberal? I suspect that the execs at Airbus would love to conduct their business under American tax and labor regulations versus those under which they now reside. (The illegal EU susidies they receive notwithstanding)

Mount Lago. Azurite Peak. ??

I've done it both ways- a couple of times each. From Paradise, we climbed it once in winter with no problems at all, but the time we did it in early June the Cowlitz crossing was heavily crevassed and we both punched through several times. The Ingraham was smooth both times-no problems. I would not push this crossing in poor weather conditions as dropping even slightly low on the Cowlitz will place you into the largest icefall on Rainier, and missing the crossing of the large rock pillar that divides the two glaciers would be bad. A strong party, starting early, can do this trip in one day. If you need more info, feel free to p.m.

It was clearcut, strip-mined, and dusted with Cobalt60 just yesterday. ....sorry Ali! I just couldn't resist.

Wellll... I'm pretty certain it was a grizzly bear. Of course it could have been a brown colored, hunchbacked brown bear. The guy with me, coming off of 19 years core drilling in AK with plenty of looks at bears of all flavors, was certain it was a grizzly. But maybe not... We are both reasonably certain it wasn't your ass. Mine wasn't the only griz comment, but I didn't mean to offer it as support..or...opposition to the Wild Sky proposal. I'm in the latter camp but when I go off on that tirade I tend to start raving and only succeed in convincing people that I'm a twit. Mister Mo, ....actually, if you look at the R-E-P-L-Y it was in response to D-A-V-E S-C-H-U-L-T-Z' original post. Not yours. I don't doubt your Grizzly claim. They are frequently seen in the north eastern corner of the state. I just don't like it when enviro groups and their willing dupes (again,like Dave...not you) push this whole grizzly habitat tripe. It is completely disingenuous. As stated in one of the posts above; why are these groups claiming this when it isn't even present in the EA? If grizzly bear sightings south of hwy 20(much less, hwy2!) are proven by some sort of scientific survey I may reconsider my position. But until then, I wish these Wild Sky snake oil salespeople would just stick with the facts.

Supporters of this proposal should just stick to the science/facts. When they start using lies to promote their cause, they lose. Grizzly bears; my ASS.

Road life is supposedley improved when the grade is allowed to dry out for a couple of weeks after the snow has melted off. This is also practiced in Oregon on the road to Cloudcap, I believe. I was pissed off (too) a few years ago when I biked past the Paul Peak gate on Mowich Lake road and found one small patch of snow the entire way to the lake. I honestly don't know if this whole line of reasoning is a management ploy to 'limit human impact'- or a legitimate course of action, but it does seem to make some sense.

Lemme see them tittiees! DAMN!

GO AWAY! I'VE GOT A GUN!....

Has anyone here actually been into The Valhallas? I read about a guy who was trying to climb every peak in The Olympics over 5000 feet back in the 70's and 80's. Sadly he slipped on wet rock and died hiking out The South Fork of the Hoh after a successful trip into the Valhallas. I would guess the Chimney Mtn/Muncaster Basin/Mt Dellabarre areas are rarely visited. The Lightning Peak area in the Southern Olympics is pretty lonely too I believe.

If that keeps a 'Massachusetts liberal' from getting elected, I'm all for it. But we're not really that cynical, are we Matt?

Sounds like an affirmation that Al Quieda is getting desperate and grasping at straws. Kinda like the little punk who lands the first sucker punch and then wants to sue for peace when he discovers the recipient of his attack outweighs him by a large margin. I would guess, based on this pathetic plea, that 'we're getting warmer'. (In the mountains of western Pakistan.)

Don't forget! You MUST have your studded tires removed by Sept 15th or there is a huge fine.

I didn't see any Trip Reports! Can you drive (by car) to the trailhead at Schriebers Meadow already? ...or close? How was the climb? Did you go up Railroad Grade or Sulphur Moraine?

Road, tourism changing Antarctica's face RAY LILLEY; The Associated Press WELLINGTON, New Zealand - Six Americans have just ended a second year of what looks like an impossible mission: carving out a road to the South Pole. The 1,020-mile "ice highway" from the coast directly south of New Zealand will enable hundreds of tons of supplies and equipment to be hauled across the world's most inhospitable wilderness on tractor-pulled sleds to the pole's Amundsen-Scott Base, a U.S. research station. Currently, cargo planes fly in scientists and supplies during the four-month summer. Where once there was only ice wilderness, now there is a packed surface 20 feet wide and lined with green flags, winding through huge crevasse fields, "snow swamps" and flat pack ice. After two summers of hard going, the $20 million South Pole Traverse Project has covered 425 miles, and manager John Wright is convinced it can be completed, though not by next summer as originally hoped. The completion date is the end of the polar summer in 2006, followed by an international environmental review before it can be used, probably no more than three times a year. In contrast, C-130 cargo planes use ice runways in Antarctica several times a day during the summer. "It is just a matter of time and work," Wright told The Associated Press in an e-mail interview from the U.S.-run McMurdo base on the Antarctic coast. "Last year it took us three months to go three miles across a crevasse field ... full of dangerous hidden crevasses. This year we were ... 'breaking trail,' a long, slow slog in soft snow." In the "snow swamp," a 180-mile-wide, 6-foot-deep field of powder snow, progress slowed to as little as 10 miles a day for the three tractors towing accommodation huts and fuel tanks. Instead of gliding along the surface, tractors and sleds plowed deep into the snow, stuck fast and had to be hauled out by vehicles traveling behind them. Wright said the route's newly compacted surface will remain solid over the winter and be useable next year, though the road itself will move, as the whole ice shelf is in slow, fluid motion. From one summer to the next, the crevasse field moved about 1,000 feet north and grew about 100 feet longer. "The ice had stretched," Wright said. Also, five new crevasses appeared in the road surface during the eight-month winter and had to be filled with snow and ice before the tractors could continue. Crevasse filling is expected to be an annual chore. The U.S. National Science Foundation is paying for the project. Wright said early studies by U.S. Army cold regions researchers estimated the road eventually will mean a 30-day round trip between coast and pole. When work stopped in late January, the team was still 270 miles from a vast area known as the Polar Plateau, and a long, flattish run to the South Pole, Wright said. Alan Hemmings, an Australian environmentalist, said the road "is the greatest single footprint of activity we've seen in the Antarctic" and has "the potential for far-reaching impacts." Apart from the 13,000 tourists who visited Antarctica by sea last year, Antarctica's scientific community has to cope with ever more adventurous visitors. In December, they signaled their frustration by refusing to refuel the homemade plane of a stranded Australian aviator, accusing him of failing to prepare properly for his polar flight. He finally got fuel from another aviator whose expedition was aborted by bad weather. Hemmings said tour operators "might want to piggyback on this U.S. route - and the U.S. will be able to do little about that." Hemmings is senior adviser to the Australian-based Antarctic and Southern Oceans Coalition, an environmental advocacy group. Commercial operators already take tourists across the frozen land mass to the South Pole by plane. The more robust adventure tourist can get about on skis. "The route may attract other activity ... facilitate greater access," Hemmings said. "We are beginning to change Antarctica." Karl Erb, head of the National Science Foundation's Antarctic program, said the route is subject to stringent international safeguards. Its "sole goal is to provide an alternative to air-ferrying cargo and scientific personnel to the pole," he said. The first person to drive to the South Pole was Sir Edmund Hillary, the Everest conqueror from New Zealand, using a modified farm tractor fitted with tracks. He arrived Jan. 4, 1958, as part of the British Commonwealth Transantarctic Expedition. It took him 81 days, and only 23 gallons of fuel remained in his tanks when his small team reached the pole. To Wright, of Silverton, Colo., Hillary is a hero. "My hat's off to him," he said. On the Net • Environmental impact assessment: www.nsf.gov/od/opp/antarct/ treaty/cees.htm

Hey Fairweather. This must be the second time I agree with you. Thanks Catbird. I hereby declare your views balanced.

Wow! Thanks for the links SB. Here is a sample of their bullshit. Unbelievable! How many recreationalists are they willing to alienate, and at what ultimate cost to the very causes they hope to promote long-term. Short sighted idiots, all.... "Deep in the habitat of the endangered Northern Spotted Owl—along the Dosewallips River where it flows through Olympic National Forest, just 35 miles west of Seattle—the Bush administration is gearing up to log off hundreds of trees—some believed to date to the time of Columbus. The old trees are only a tiny part of what's at risk on the Olympic Peninsula: if Team Bush gets its way, the entire Dosewallips watershed will be put at risk.... The old growth trees in question have not even been surveyed for endangered spieces, and yet their statement above leads one to believe they have. The area in question is not in a protected wilderness area. And "team Bush" is at fault, of course - not local folks who just want to maintain traditional access. How do these people sleep at night?

Wilkeson dog killing teens are idiots. Dog killers belong in jail. But PETA is nothing more than an assembly of blathering extremist idiots who exist only one miniscule step above their ALF terrorist brothers. PETA is simply attaching themselves to this Wilkeson issue to lend some sorely lacking legitamacy to their brand name. PETA sucks.

Thanks for the info Sailboi! Exactly which group(s) are contesting this? It is exactly this kind of shit that turned me AGAINST the so-called 'environmental movement' over a decade ago. I was not aware that there was organized resistance to such a simple and logical road repair. (...But then who ever said these guys were driven by logic.) I'll write! Thanks again, and keep me up to speed on any public hearings to which I can lend my support/presence to your cause.

Im with you 100%!! But I believe this issue has already been resolved.......a bypass is to be constructed..... http://www.fs.fed.us/r6/olympic/news/index.htm

Climb: Ellinor-chute Date of Climb: 4/10/2004 Trip Report: Took the kid up Ellinor this morning for a little exercize. The road is still snow covered about a half mile past the lower trailhead in that shaded area that where the snow always seems to linger (est 3100 feet), but it is melting fast. The bypass trail to the upper parking area and on up the wooded ridge is snow free all the way to Big Rock, just below the first meadow. Still a bit of a cornice on summit. The chute glissade is in bob-sled condition. Time up 2hrs, 30min. time down 1hr, 5min.

Maybe Scalia is averse to the press because, in general, their coverage of the high court hasn't been exactly 'even handed'? http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewNation.asp?Page=%5CNation%5Carchive%5C200403%5CNAT20040323a.html http://www.nypost.com/postopinion/opedcolumnists/21011.htm Hey Double E! You sound like just another leftist thug. Maybe you should try to break my kneecaps instead.

Rest assured, Dolittle, that if a newspaper in this country published lead stories/editorials calling for the assasination of political opponents and police officers, it would be shut down. The Iraqi newspaper in question clearly stepped outside what is protected speech...even in the USA. I think you're a bit confused about press freedoms... in this country. You really sound like a hysterical little girl...or like chicken little. Get a grip on your emotions...and then sprinkle a little 'grow powder' on your shriveled sack and hope some of it soaks through to your underdeveloped testicles..

Lately, doesn't he end every sentence with "Praise be to A-llah!"?