willstrickland

I think this argument is lacking. The innovation has certainly made a difference in the ability of doctors to treat condiditions. The fact that health levels have not increased is due IMO to the fact we as a nation are on a downward spiral of poor lifestyle choices. We make a big production out of changing the FDA's "food guide pyramid". Gimme a break! Nobody uses this kinda BS to decide what to eat. They indulge in what tastes good that they can afford. Do you ever see the president or senators on TV telling people "put down the bon bons, get off your fat ass, and go for a walk. Bike to work, go run around with your kids, walk to the corner store". Can you imagine if Bush were to televise his daily workout. "Weightlifin' with W! Everyday at 7am Eastern Std time on CBS!" Have GWB on there all like "Now I want all you do this with me. Jumping jacks, on my count. Ready, exercise.One-two-three-ONE, one-two-three-TWO!" Maybe Schwartzenegger will hook it up? "Ok I want you to put 400 pounds on the baaahhh. You girlie man democrats can use 350. Now grasp the baahhh and explode from your glutes. DEADLIFT THAT WEIGHT YAAAAHHH!!!! Guud!" During the workouts they could talk sense to the people. "Decrease your consumer debt. Don't buy more than you can afford. Volunteer for a charity. Spend time with your kids" We have so glorified work, that we slave away until we are too mentally exhausted and sleep deprived to exercise, and too time-starved to cook healthy food. Add the stress levels from consumer debt, job security, commute traffic...we're on an unsustainable path. We like to think of ourselves as the most efficient workers...not true! The euros are just as productive, they just choose to work less. I do believe that the administrative costs of health care are excessive, and I am surprised and a little skeptical when I hear stats that say the public sector is more efficient in administration costs than the private sector. I also have a problem with people who abuse themselves for their entire life and then feel entitled to publicly funded care for preventable illness. Hello! You fat fuck, if you hadn't eaten Burger King eight tiems a week for forty years you probably wouldn't need that quadruple bypass on the public dime.

I can loan you a cordless Saw-Zall.

C'mon you fuckin pussy... runout, pee your pants, jedi mind control, sea of nothingness type slab climbing is cool! It's like top stepping on a string of #0 heads...you never know when you're gonna go for the big ride...well in this case, the big SLIDE. Sack up and get after it. If it ain't scary enough for ya, chop some of the bolts on lead....with a power saw.

Bob Rubin's fingerprints are all over this policy, I'd wager he wrote most of it. Personally, I don't fnid the unemployment rate especially high in a historical context however... Much of the so-called "natural" unemployment rate, which economist put variably around 4-6% is due to inherent shifting of employees within the market. Advances of technology for the recruiting/hiring process should tighten up this process and reduce the natural rate. That's just IMO, but I think the acceptable rate should be less than it was 15 years ago, or even 10 years ago. Also consider the nature of the jobs created within the last several years as the rate has declined. They are not particularly good jobs for the most part. I think you can intuit this through the median income numbers. Outsourcing is a extremely complicated issue and we had better adopt a stance of learning how to profit from it rather than fight it. The fact is, it is going to happen. However, we should not be giving tax incentives that favor it, nor should we be giving China carte blanche to artificially manipulate their currency which is contributing to our trade defecit. In the end we cannot control whether they decide to float it,but we should definitely be putting pressure on them to do so. I don't buy some of the optimistic numbers in the article, but I do agree with the overall tenor. I think Rubin is a pretty clear thinker and a decent policy maker, although some of what he advocated in Clinton's terms (which was not adopted) were a little off base...but hindsight is always clear.

Thanks for the spray dudes! Ya'll packed alot of quality into 4 pages. Looks like a good kickoff to the post-rock, pre-ski spray season.

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The Sedona/Oak Creek guidebook is called "A Better Way to Die" I only climbed there once and was scared out of my mind. If I were you, I'd go to Paradise Forks instead (if you have time of course). Awesome basalt cracks. A very very cool small crag where having a triple set of TCUs is not overkill at all. Sorry to not answer your question, but my suggestion for routes in Sedona is "enjoy the wacko new-age vortex scene in Sedona and go somewhere else to climb" Oh yeah, re: Jack's Canyon. I did a day there around 1999 or 2000. The grades are soft like a kitten. Seriously, it's worse than Red Rocks sport ratings. Dr. Topo's site had (still has?) a free mini-guide to Jack's. http://www.drtopo.com/

There's a wall in the SE with: Harrison's Ford Abe's Lincoln Freddie's Mercury

As for the "how long" question: In good granite, a 3/8" by 2.5" is pretty standard. I am generally for re-using the existing hole if possible, but let me bring this scenario into the discussion because I know you (NOLSe) have seen it first hand: WF NEWS, undercling pitch has a rusty 1/4". About 3 or 4ft above it, a new 3/8" stainless was placed. The old bolt and hanger (which actually look pretty good for what they are) were left in place. I think it was wise to move that placement if you were going to replace the bolt because it protects the moves better than the original spot. However, leaving that old bolt in place creates it's own problem. Some people will not see the new bolt until they have resigned themselves to the old one and moved well past both of them. I was contemplating whether to clip the old one or just skip it and climb through when I happened to lean back and look up to scope the rest of the pitch. That's when I noticed the new bolt. So while I can apperciate to some extent the historical aspect of the old one, I think it should have been removed and patched. Not a big deal either way, just one more twist on the issue and in the same area as Scott was discussing.

Shit Jon, $1.25? I don't drink soda, but that's highway robbery dude. So let me give you some Free Advice: You should start a little side business slingin' cokes out of your office. Throw a dorm fridge under your desk and make a trip to Sam's Club. You could probably rake in $14, $15 a week in pure profits! Once you build up a little capital, you could expand into snacks and eventually 1/8oz sacks of chronic...which would then cause an explosion in your snacks and cokes sales. If you need a business consultant, just let me know. I work cheap, $147/hr. After all, small businesses are the backbone of this growing and flourishing economy!

I have some of the 8mm version of these. Spectra and Dyneema are trade names for the same material, a high-performance polyethylene. Allied Signal makes spectra, while a dutch company DSM makes dyneema. Other than the proprietary names, they are the same. The Mammut ones I have are both wider at the bartacking as well as covered with a label/sheath at that point. I do notice that they are "fuzzing" up pretty quickly. The ones I have are double length for "alpine draw" applications and they are very well suited for it being so skinny. I know they make 8mm versions which I think only became available in the last year or so. There are also 11mm version. They claim the same rating on both, so who knows.

On a related note, one of the dudes at Feathered Friends told me that the new version of the Trango S (the red one) is going to have a WPB liner, hopefully solving the waterproof issues. So if you're going that route, you might want to wait for the new models. He also mentioned that the red fabric was going to be slightly different in appearance, like shinier or something.

First, know that "alpine" climbing ranges from short trad climbs, close to the road, that happen to be in a mountainous setting (Washington Pass for example) that require no special skills beyond normal trad climbing to multi-thousand foot vertical ice and rock, a hundred miles from the closest road, in arctic cold requiring aid climbing skills, water ice, mixed climbing, and rock climbing. Most "alpine" routes will involve some form of snow and/or ice travel/climbing. But, there are also plenty of summer alpine routes in the NW that never touch snow and are simply ascents of peaks on rock. Learning how to live in the alpine environment is one part of the picture. You need to be able to stay warm, fed, and sheltered. Snow camping is common. Learning how to deal with the various shelters you might use...tent, bivy sack, tarp, snow cave, is important. Being physically fit is another aspect. You will typically cover alot of elevation gain on an alpine climb and the approaches can often be more physically demanding than the climbs themselves. Add an unhospitable climate of cold, rain, snow, wind, etc. You need to be tough. Another aspect is the glacier/snow/ice travel. You need to learn crevasse rescue skills, basic route finding/terrain reading abilities, and basic avalanche awareness skills. You need to learn to navigate in a whiteout. So where do you begin? Seriously, read "Freedom of the Hills". Why? Because it is full of useful, basic information on a huge array of topics, and it is beginner friendly. Most of the book is oriented toward "alpine" endeavors. You can learn alot of basic skills and terminology by simply reading this text. Then figure out what sub-aspect of alpine climbing you are interested in. A climb of Rainier or one of the other volcanoes? An ascent of a rock ridge route on Forbidden? Once you figure out the first goal, you can address the necessary skills. For Rainier you'll need to address the crevasse rescue situation and the sheer elevation gain, for something else you might be able to skip that and focus on technical rock climbing skills. Having a specific climb as a training motivator is a good thing. If you know that you need specific skills for a climb, you are more likely to go out and learn/practice them. That said, for my first alpine climb (I'd been rock climbing for about 6 years) me and a college buddy picked out route on a peak in Colorado that we knew got guided. We figured "shit, if they can guide noobs up it, we can figure it out on our own". I'd never had crampons on before that, never camped on snow, never used an ice axe. We figured we knew enough about climbing and living outdoors to get by. We were right. We spent about a week living above 10,000 in the San Juans of SW Colorado where the lows were about -20 and the highs in the teens, and climbed a couple of fun, easy, aesthetic routes. After a week, the living aspect was second nature. We practiced arrests, digging snow caves, and basic stuff like different ways to use an axe between the climbs. I recommend trying to find a mentor. A herd group like the Mounties/BoeAlps/Mazamas is a cheap way to get some basic instruction...plus you can probably take some really entertaining pictures on one of their trips. If you have spare loot, hiring a guide (find a like minded buddy and the cost will be a bit less) for a day or two is well worth it IMO. It would probably cut down your learning curve substantially.

It's hard to say because I was basically coming off the couch and I think it's hard to grade something without a recent frame of reference. My partner would be better qualified to judge, especially since she led 6. I do remember her saying it felt easy for the grade. I was just happy that the chimney was easy. You never know what you're going to get with a 5.8 chimney. Can you pro the wideness on the NW corner or is it just a flare?

Yeah, the pitches are definitely short, particularly 3 and 5. 6 is the only pitch longer than about 100ft. We only linked the last 2 pitches (well I guess I also inadverdently linked part of 4 with 3 too). We were climbing on a 70m cord. I wouldn't chose to link 1 & 2 because 2 is basically moving the belay up through a section of 3rd class trees and ledges and you have the potential of raining shit down on your partner. Pulling rope through that while belaying might not be the best idea, although it isn't super loose or scree filled or anything. 3 and 4 would make a good link and would easily link with a 60m. I wouldn't link 3,4, and 5 into one because of rope drag around the undercling/lieback but you could do it with a 70m. 5 and 6 will link with a 60m and would make a stellar single pitch (sounds like ya'll did it that way). If I were doing it again I'd do it in 4 pitches pitching out 1, scrambling up 2 and linking 3/4 and 5/6. The top of 6 where we ended it is basically a highly featured low angle slab followed by a short scramble to the true summit. You are very close to the raps where we ended the last pitch and we left the rope there and scrambled up to the top. Saw your entry in the register up there NOLSe. Great route, if it were a little warmer I'd have liked to check out the NW Corner as well, definitely recommend doing both while you're up there.

Climb: Wasington Classics Tour-W Face NEWS, OuterSpace, Total Soul, etc Date of Climb: 9/1-7/2004 Trip Report: Warning: Long winded TR. Short Version: climbed sporto 32 stuff, OuterSpace, Another Roadside Attraction, W. Face NEWS, Total Soul, Rogers->BOC. Long version: Sometimes you don’t know how good you have it until it’s taken away. When I lived in Portland, I dreamed of Yosemite and sunny Cali granite. Now living in Alaska I frequently flip through Cascade Select and wonder “why the hell didn’t I climb that when I lived there?!” After checking out all the road accessible rock within 6 hours of Fairbanks, and sucking forest fire smoke while fly-fishing all summer, I started plotting and scheming to get some cascade rock in before the summer passed me by. The only problem was, who the hell am I gonna climb with? A cc.com posting took care of the partner issue and quick. It’s always interesting to climb stuff “off the couch”. I’d free soloed and TR soloed some choss around Fairbanks this summer, but the last trad pitch I’d led was almost a year ago in Yosemite. A year. Fuckin sad, that is. Even sadder was before that Yos trip I’d only gotten in maybe 5 pitches of trad the prior year. How I went from 40 pitch weeks in 2002 to this sorry state of affairs I still don’t understand… I finagled a spot on a non-stop flight into Seattle and went straight from the airport to Feathered Friends. I don’t know what the dude’s problem was who was bitching about this shop earlier this year, because I got great service there from Todd and walked out a few minutes later with some pretty pink shoes. Soon after, Pax and I headed out to Little Si for some sporto pullin with IceIceBaby, Rocksanyone, Ken4ord, RuMR, Brett, and a few others. Rain moved in for a couple of days so I headed to the east side for some real estate investigation. By Friday it was on again. I met up with Pax and Kim in 11worth and headed for the famed Outer Space. I’d never been up to the Snow Creek Wall, and the fire damage in the area is impressive. After a few minutes of hiking on the nicely switch-backed trail, the wall came into view. Very nice! We soon crossed the creek and noticed only one party on the wall. The leader was on the fearsome crux pitch and didn’t seem to be moving at all. I was intrigued. I lobbied to lead the crux pitch and Pax having done the route before was gracious enough to give me odd pitches We did the regular start and I headed up the non-descript first pitch. We used reversos and two ropes to allow following simultaneously. It soon became evident to me that managing the ropes in this set-up might be the crux of the route. As Pax and then Kim pulled into the belay, it looked like my skills needed a little help. Nice and tidy rope mgmt eh? Pax ran across the next pitch in about 20 seconds, which put us below the crux. It’s funny sometimes how you hear so much about a particular pitch and it turns out to be nothing at all like your mental image. This was a prime example. It looked like I could go either slightly left up a shallow diheral or slightly right up a splitter crack. I started up the crack on the right expecting to find a traverse with no feet, funky finger and thin hand jams, and wicked exposure. After spending a good minute figuring out a move below some fixed tat halfway up the crack below the traverse, I found myself trying to commit to the traverse. It looked short, and not bad at all. Leaving the security of the stance was the real crux of the pitch. I started across and wtf? There are huge feet all the way across the traverse. I found a single spot without good feet and after one move, it was back onto big feet again. I thought the crack below the traverse was quite a bit harder than the traverse itself. Pax again flew up the next pitch, cruising on chickenheads and then up and over the pedestal. We joined him and I now understood why this route got so much good press. The next 300 ft were a splitter thin handcrack through a sea of chickenheads, conveniently cleaved halfway with a bivy-sized ledge. I cruised up to library ledge on amazingly fun climbing. You could probably climb the headwall crack pitches without ever placing a jam by yarding on chickenheads. What an awesome pitch! The six feet off library ledge are probably the crux of the route, involving a few 5.9 fingercrack moves with good pro. Soon we were on top gazing back toward 11worth. The descent is a little tricky, but not too long and not bad. There is a crucial traverse on skiers left that puts you back at the base of Orbit which we missed. If you miss it, you’ll probably end up at a rap station on a tree. Rap and climb back up the hill a bit to the base where you will find… Goats of course! The next morning I met up with P & K in the Icicle again to hit “Another Roadside Attraction” before I drove up to Washington Pass. This is a really fun little 3 pitch number on the Icicle Buttress. It’s aptly named because it literally starts about 6 feet from the shoulder of the road. A little steep move, some slab, a diagonaling low angle crack, more slab…yeah! This thing is fun. The diagonal crack reminded me of an easier version of Mexican Crack in Little Cottonwood. I linked the first two with a 70m and Pax cruised the last pitch, putting us on the ground exactly on time. I bid them farewell and hopped into my trusty Chevy Cavalier rental and hit the road for Washington Pass and a rendezvous with The Surly Brunette. The drive was pleasant enough, winding along the Columbia and taking me through the Methow Valley. After starting the morning in Leavenworth and it’s fake Bavaria theme, and ending it in Winthrop and it’s fake wild west theme…I was starting to wonder a little about Washingtonians. Driving up to the pass I was slack-jawed. That place is amazing. Absolutely gorgeous. The Surly Brunette was waiting for me. We both commented on how chilly it was and headed down to Winthrop and the pub. SB recognized our waitress from a party last year, while I recognized her from an Uncle Tricky trip report of Dreamer. Rain fell on the tent that night…hmmm, this could be interesting. The short approaches at the Pass are a blessing, and maybe a curse if you’re doing something popular. This was Labor Day Weekend after all. Driving back to the Pass we noticed fresh snow on quite a few peaks. Pulling into the Blue Lake parking lot we both go “hey, there’s Caveman”. Things were looking pretty wet and Cavey and Sky were headed up to solo something. The SB and I hit the trail to “have a look”. After a leisurely 90 minutes or so, we arrived at the base of the West face of North Early Winter, it looked dry enough, but damn it was cold! The line is obvious and it looks awesome! We started racking up and the SB earned instant hero points by producing shake-n-warms for our chalkbags. Now THAT is a quality partner! We decided I would take odds and she evens. About thirty feet off the ground I could no longer feel my fingers. At the top of the pitch I looked down and the SB had layered another jacket on which she wore the rest of the climb. As she followed the pitch, nice edges and cracks to a short and easy 5.8 chimney, some snowflakes began to fall. I was ready to bag it, but figured “what the hell, I won’t be getting back here anytime soon, let’s see what happens”. SB ran up the next pitch, weaving through trees and bought me up. The description for the 3 rd pitch says “stop at the first convenient belay, short pitch”. They mean it. It’s a really really short pitch that ends on a flat 3ft x 3ft stance about 40ft off the belay. I kept going another 40ft to a marginal stance before I realized the next stance was the beginning of the pitch 4 wide lieback and I would have no way to build a belay. The Surly Brunette came up as a few more flakes fell between glimpses of sunshine. In this pic, she is right at the 3x3 stance, I am belaying from just below the wide lieback. If the clouds would hold off, the sun would soon crest the shoulder and we would be able to feel our fingers again. The SB groped the lieback holds and started up…hmmmm…back down. Tried another method, down again. I offered to take the pitch. SB was not giving up yet. She took off up a crack system to the left on what looked like a fairly stiff finger crack. About 20 feet out she looked to traverse back onto the route above the unprotected wideness. The traverse was not yielding. SB put on an impressive display of downclimbing while keeping herself protected and handed over the rack. I grabbed the edge of the lieback and went “shit, this sucks! Wish I could feel my hands. Damn, this does not feel secure at all.” I cranked a couple of lieback moves and reached high to where the edge of the wide crack became a thin flake. Now I am not a tall dude, at 5’9” but I have quite a bit of reach on the Surly Brunette. This pitch would have definitely been harder for a short person with nothing to look forward to except hitting a ledge sideways if you greased off the lieback and bouncing off for another 6 foot drop. At the top of this flake is an ancient 1/4” rusty ass bolt. Don’t clip it. Look about 3 feet directly above it and there is a replacement 3/8” shiny stainless. The pitch finishes with some cool underclinging /liebacking and smearing up to the base of the crux fingercrack. The next pitch, the crux, is short maybe 20-25 ft. One observation: when climbing finger cracks, it helps when you can actually feel your fingers. I pulled on a piece one move from the end of the crack before the traverse and found the traverse moves to be much easier than advertised (guide says .10, they are maybe .8?). The crack takes good pro, either nuts or small cams in the 00-1 tcu sizes and has decent locks and ok right foot, non existent left foot. The SB came one move from flashing as well and racked up for the last pitch. This, pitch 6, is the money pitch - a finger crack turning into a handcrack as the angle kicks back. SB walked up this, whooping it up along the way. It was a nice lead and I was all smiles following, this pitch was killer! If you do this route, make sure you get this one. We are barely visible in the white streak in the background of this pic from Lib Bell: We read some register entries and watched the circus on the Beckey route on Lib Bell. We counted 16 people on the top section. We also watched a party on the Direct E Butt of SEWS…it looks awesome. Next time for sure ya! The views from the summit are stunning, a fine reward after a fine route. The raps went pretty quick with a single rope…I’d actually recommend a single rather than doubles, there is a lot of loose shit in parts of the gully system. I kicked off a small thumb sized piece that scored a direct hit on a belayer at the base of SEWS. I yelled and he saw it coming, realized it was small and just took it in the shoulder and a party rapping behind us dislodged a grapefruit sized piece that would have drilled him again if the Surly one hadn't given him a loud warning. I was happy to have my helmet on during the raps. SB raps the last overhanging section: At the base we ran into another family of… Goats of course. We also ran into the PDX contingent of cc.comer’s…rbw1966, MtnHigh, Shredmaximus in the parking lot afterwards. After deciding that we wanted no part of another freezing ass day at the Pass, we decided on Darrington for the next day. I had designs on one of the quality Washington slab routes on this trip and since the SB had done Dreamer, I suggested Total Soul. She was game. The approach to 3 o’clock rock is not as long as the beta suggests…I think it took us maybe 40 minutes total and we were really taking our time. At first glance, the route seems ho-hum. Don’t let smooth taste fool ya! This thing is rad. So much variety for a slab climb. There is pure friction Jedi mind control shit (which the Surly one led in fine style) a weird crack, overlap/roofs, and a cool dike. There are some thought provoking runouts and well protected cruxes. The SB ran the first two pitches together with our 70m rope and about 15 ft of simulclimbing, after that we pitched it all out as per the topo. The Brunette approaching the end of the first pitch… Highly recommended! You get nice views of Exfoliation Dome across the valley and other climbers on the adjacent popular route Silent Running. (see MattP’s page for more details). We capped the day with a Mexican food feast and some brews and headed to Index. We awoke to another beautiful day but were feeling a little “high gravity”. Index is not really the place to go at the end of a trip after several days “on”. After a HUGE breakfast at the Index café we lumbered to the lower wall. Not feeling particularly motivated we wandered around a bit and finally decided we had to log at least a few pitches. A quick trip up Rogers Corner and BOC and we decided the most important thing on our agenda was…ice cream!! Damn that was some good ice cream. We rallied through rush hour back into Seattle and tossed our kit down at a generous cc.comer’s place. After putting in an appearance at the PubClub, the Surly one set off the next morning to tackle Das Toof while I spent an awesome day enjoying the company of a new friend and checking out some of Seattle including a visit to the Van Gogh exhibit at SAM and Pike Place Mkt. I wish I could have tossed the plane ticket in the trash and stayed, but until that winning lotto ticket comes through, work calls. Big thanks to everyone who offered to partner, those I did have a chance to climb with, and to everyone else who was so gracious with beer, couch space, beta etc. You’re welcome at my place anytime and the beer’s on me. Gear Notes: Perfect OuterSpace rack= set nuts, set of cams to 3 camalot with double #1, #2. WF NEWS=set nuts, single set cams tiny tcu through #3 camalot, add a 5" piece if you want to pro the short wide crack. One rope. Total Soul= set nuts, 9 draws including some alpine draws, single set cams TCU to #2 camalot, TWO ROPES to rap. Approach Notes: Short, easy, trails. edited to fix picture links

Oooh You are in for a treat! "High Exposure" makes a good first Gunks lead. At 5.6 it sounds ridiculously easy right? It will probably be the most memorable 5.6 you'll ever climb in your life!Usually done as 3 pitches. Make sure you get the last pitch lead. Nice eh? "Shockley's Ceiling" is another memorable 5.6 "Madame G" is yet another great 5.6 and Bonnie's Roof is a nice 5.8+ My quip to westerners visiting the gunks for the first time goes something like this: "Take the rating of the route and that's about how many feet long the crux roof will be" It's not much of an exagerration in many cases. Also, take your tricams, there are tons of horizontals.

Here's what I don't quite get: Everyone is focused on shooting the messenger, rather than addressing the issue. I just read through this thread for the first time. More time was spent railing against Merv and raising peripheral issues because of pre-existing disagreements with his bolting stance, than addressing the issue itself. As I understand it, this is about visual impacts in the woods from draws left hanging on a project. Everyone seems to believe that leaving them hanging is accepted in some places while actively "working" a project, but that they should be removed when not being worked. Perhaps we should be focusing on what constitutes "actively" working a project and guidelines for when to remove draws. End of the day? End of the season? Surely these guidelines will vary based on individual area. Whether or not you agree with Merv's other stances on bolting and sport climbing is beside the point. He did not raise those issues, but instead pointed out this particular issue. I used to climb in American Fork,UT and Foster Falls, TN where there are some steep cave type routes that ALWAYS have draws hanging on them. In fact, on some of the climbs in the bunkers at Foster's the draws consist of a wrenched down quicklink through the hanger and a biner in the other end. That kinda pisses me off because I don't know anything about how long they have been there and I can't clip into the hanger with my own gear. It's not an issue for me anymore because I don't really sport climb anymore...maybe once a year or something. The point is, those routes are very hard to clean draws from because they are about 75 degrees overhanging, and it's accepted that there will be draws hanging there full time. These routes are also situated such that the only people who would notice them are other climbers or the rare hiker who scrambles onto the climber's trail at the base. I only add this because I think it illustrates some scenarios where leaving draws hanging for a long time is generally accepted. I personally concede that there is a place for sport climbing much like there is a place for lift skiing. I don't care for it myself, and I believe it has no place in the mountains, and that trad lines should not be retrobolted and trad areas shouldn't have a bunch of bolted squeeze jobs added, but that's neither here nor there. I am under the impression that the developers of this area intend to add more lines. Will they then leave draws hanging on those lines as well? When does it become too much? Here's a contrasting example: I climbed Total Soul in Darrington last week. This is one of MattP's creations and the bolts, chains, etc are all painted matte grey or black to blend with the rock. In fact on the raps I was hanging about 10 feet from the next rap station, and really had to look around to see the next station...it was right under me almost. That's an effective visual impact reduction job. Just food for thought.

Ok, notice that this thread was started 3 years ago. This was the start-up thread and then a new thread was started to pursue the story. Here's the link to it (you'll see the difficulty of executing something like this) Story Here's as far as the story got before the arguing, spray, and weekend intervened: "Four years had passed, four years of constant reminders. Every glimpse of a rock face, every postcard of a mountain, every carabiner keychain a reminder of that day. Looking in the mirror........I had to wonder if I still had it in me. Sure, accidents happen and people die in the mountains, but it wasn't supposed to happen to me. And it wasn't really my fault. Even my friends have told me that over and over again. But then why does it plague me so. Why does my gear just sit in the corner? My old partners don't even call me anymore. Deep inside I know I have to climb again. That's what Kristi would have wanted….. Things seemed simple at that time in my life when she and I first met, I was youthful and full of energy ready to conquer the world. Looking back now though maybe I was too careless, blind of my lack of abilities and too willing to take risks. I promised myself to change my ways when she I first took her climbing, but I didn’t and my recklessness led to my demise….."

The other 1/4 could be permafrost, ice in high bowls/depressions/tarns that does not move, etc. I assume "glacier" by definition means movement. Your quote say "lower 48" so the ice caps are out. In related news, an El Nino is brewing, so maybe the resulting precipitation will help replinish the glaciers a bit. We hear quite a bit up here about an arctic icepack monitoring study using sattelite and aerial imaging and another ongoing study of permafrost temp fluctuations. The decrease in the arctic icepack over the last 10 years is unbelievable.

One thing to add re:"sliding x" You can reduce the potential of shockloading by throwing an overhand in each leg betweeen the powerpoint and the protection piece. You probably don't need alot of travel in the "x" unless the route wanders all over. By knotting each leg a few inches above the powerpoint, you can reduce the potential shockload from a foot to a couple of inches. Cordelettes are great because you essentially have built-in redundancy in the sling system, but you will never be able to perfectly equalize one. A fall onto a cordelette belay will almost certainly load one piece of the anchor before the others. That said, last week I used cordelettes, sliding x's on a single sling with 3 lockers, a sling to each piece and 3 lockers, and 2 regular quickdraws to set up anchors in a two day period. Learn lots of systems and then decide what is appropriate at the time based on what gear you have available, the condition of anchors, path of the routes, etc.

I get really really sore in my left hip flexor while climbing in boots/cramps. What helped me was: 1. Some regular yoga that targets stretching them. e.g. warrior pose 2. Doing some of my training such as stairmaster work using ankle weights to simulate 5lbs of boots/cramps. For my situation, I believe the weight of the boots was the biggest issue. You can train for several thousand feet per day, but if you are doing it in tennis shoes or even hiking boots, actually climbing that distance with plastics and steel crampons is going to be significantly more work and stress on the flexors.

Cracked, this one: Interactive Electoral Count Map from the LA Times is interactive and has rollover links to the latest poll results in each state. Click the states to toggle them red or blue and play out various electoral count scenarios. Pretty slick and I can easily configure a tie in the electoral college (although I thought that 2 states used a proportional system? This would eliminate the potential for a tie I believe)

Speaking of Big Brother, I got this little oppressive reminder at work today: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE The U.S. Office of Special Counsel (OSC) has filed two similar complaints for disciplinary action against Federal employees for sending politically partisan electronic mail messages while on duty, in violation of the Hatch Act. The OSC filed the complaints with the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSBP) on August 12, 2004. One complaint against U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) employee Maureen Taylor-Glaze, alleges that she sent an e-mail message to about 15 of her EPA coworkers while she was on duty and in her Federal office building. The message contained a widely-circulated picture purportedly to be actress Jane Fonda and John Kerry speaking at an anti-war rally. Under the picture were numerous negative statements about Presidential candidate John Kerry, and the statement, “Please keep this going. We do not need this man as our President.” A similar complaint alleges that U.S. Air Force civilian employee Donald Thompson sent an e-mail message titled, “George W”, to more than 70 recipients while he was on duty. The message contained a document mimicking President Bush’s resume and is filled with allegations of incompetence and malfeasance specifically directed at President Bush’s defeat in the upcoming election. It also contains the phrases, “Please consider me when voting in 2004” and “Please send this to every voter you know.” Special Counsel Scott Bloch said, “The use of Internet and electronic mail is second-nature to almost everyone, and has become a favorite and effective campaign tool, even more so perhaps, than four years ago. I want to remind Federal employees to be vigilant about following the Hatch Act, because we will consider this activity a form of electronic leafleting, and thus a violation of the prohibition on partisan political activity in the workplace.” The Hatch Act prohibits Federal executive branch employees from engaging in political activity while on duty, in any room or building occupied in the discharge of official duties by an individual employed or holding office in the U.S. government, while wearing a uniform or official insignia identifying the office or position of the employee, or using any vehicle owned or leased by the government. Political activity has been defined as activity directed toward the success or failure of a political party, candidate for a partisan political office or partisan political group. The OSC provides advisory opinions on the Hatch Act and also enforces the provisions of the Act by filing petitions for disciplinary action. Employees who are charged with violations are entitled to a hearing before the MSPB. Under the Act, the presumptive penalty for a violation is removal from Federal employment. However, upon a unanimous vote of its members, the MSPB can mitigate the penalty to no less than a 30-day suspension without pay. Employees have the right to appeal the MSPB’s decision to the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. *** The U.S. Office of Special Counsel (OSC) is an independent investigative and prosecutorial agency and operates as a secure channel for disclosures of whistleblower complaints and abuse of authority. Its primary mission is to safeguard the merit system in Federal employment by protecting Federal employees and applicants from prohibited personnel practices, especially retaliation for whistleblowing. OSC also has jurisdiction over the Hatch Act and the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act. The way I interpret the Hatch Act is that I can't legally engage in partisan discussions or e-mails from my desk even while on my lunch hour or break. the Man.

Dru, what are some of the parent/resultant relationships in metamorphics beyond the basics? Also, isn't shale sedimentary from mud? I know that: Sandstone->quartzite granitics->gneiss shale->slate But schist can form from basalt, shale, or slate? Others?