willstrickland

Red camalot was not ours, partner apparently left a couple of biners at belay 3 where our fixed lines went. We left one nut fixed Red Camalot must have belonged to the Hubers.

George Carlin in Dogma...too funny

But there's a caveat Necro...Zodiac depends on heaps of fixed gear to go clean, so depending on what shape it is in, it might require nailing. However, since we were the party directly in front of this guy, I KNOW what shape the route was in...it was fully capable of going clean at a C3F NTB rating. Even the C3 sections that didn't rely on fixed gear to go clean, sections that I cam hooked, offset aliened, two cam aliened, or hooked through, this guy was nailing. Also sounds like he was using gear the Hubers left in place while working on the Nipple after we passed...I distincly remember one inverted cam hook move as well as placing several pieces before the tit.

Re: the Draft Board This is not exactly new...it's been going on since 2001, here's a link to a Houston Chronicle Article that addresses the same thing...notice this article ran in Sept '01. I don't think the administration is dumb enough to use the draft. It'd be politcal suicide, especially since the core voters (boomers) saw Vietnam draft era firsthand.

While we were on Zodiac there was a soloist below us who was doing the route for his first wall. I thought that was pretty ballsy, soloing El Cap for your first wall route. My first wall route was also a solo, but not quite in the same league (Prodigal Son) . Well after seeing and hearing (ping-ping-ping) the guy climb pitches 5-8 my admiration began to dissipate. We placed one pin on the whole route on pitch 7 (and could have gotten by without that one). By the time he'd finished pitch 8, he'd probably placed 15 pins. In my mind, he was clearly in over his head and had no business being on the route. We didn't clean any fixed gear, and I know he had a comprehensive rack (I passed the rack hangin off the p2 anchors when we jugged our fixed lines). He claimed to have done a couple of practice routes (first two pitches of a couple of El Cap routes that start clean) and admitted to me when he go to belay 6 that he'd never placed any pins prior to that. After that was the bootied cam incident where he cleaned a cam I had to leave under a roof...a cam I absolutely expected him to booty. Well, when we went back to the summit to retrieve our gear a couple of days after finishing, he was topping out. We hooked him up with some food and a little water . He mentioned the cam and said he would get it back to me in camp. I thought that was cool because by all rights it was his cam. Later that night I heard him on the radio talking to the soloist on South Seas. He said he'd bootied this #2 and was going to give it back, but now thought he'd keep it. Needless to say, I couldn't believe what I was hearing. I came very, very close to drilling him in the grill when I found him on the ground , but got the cam back first while acting friendly then told him I'd heard him on the radio and he was a phucking prick. He made a hasty exit. So I don't want to name the guy, but if you're curious go over to rc.com and you'll see him getting props for his "ballsy" solo. You might look in the Aid Climbing Forum over there. So aside from being a prick liar, whadya think...hero for El Cap solo for a first wall, or zero for being in over his head and nailing the shit out of everything?

Last few times in the gym I've jumped in the steam room for a while before working out to try to combat residual soreness. Is there any reason (besides dehydration from sweating) not to use steam/hot tub/sauna as a warm-up method before a workout? It seems most people use these after a workout.

Two pitches up Touchstone: Somehow both our .75s were clipper onto the same biner. I was rearranging the rack and dropped the two cams ...they straddled my left foot, one hanging on each side. I gingerly scraped my foot up the wall and grabbed them before my partner could see my dumb-ass. Half a pitch later it started to rain, then sleet, then snow....we were in the Bit and Spur drinking weak stout within two hours.

Yosemite Free Climbs - Don Reid Yosemite Climbs: Big Walls - Don Reid Yosemite Big Walls - Supertopos - Chris McNamara Camp 4: Recollections of a Yosemite Rock Climber - Steve Roper Crystal Horizon - Reinhold Messner The Breach - Rob Taylor (just read this last week) On "The Breach"- Anyone know why Taylor used a fake name for his partner? He called him Harley Warner in the book when it was clearly Henry Barber from the description. Mt. Analogue - Rene' Daumal (finally got ahold of this after two years of looking through the local library)

Sorry Dru, but I'm still further north!! North Pole, Alaska is about 15 miles southeast of Fairbanks. This is the town where the volunteers answer letters to Santa and where the PO will postmark your x-mas cards. Three of my co-workers commute from North Pole.

I didn't vote for either of the jokers (I voted for Nader), but get your facts straight man...mainstream America didn't vote for Gore? Seeing how MORE PEOPLE VOTED FOR GORE THAN VOTED FOR BUSH, how do you back up that statement? I may be wrong, but hadn't that only happened once before in US Presidential elections? As for Clark...only time will tell. I don't think any of the dems have a snowball chance in hell with the possible exception of Dean (but I don't think he can pull it off either).

RAW POWER!!

"I'd like to cut your head off, so I can weigh it, whadya say?? Five pounds....six pounds....seven pounds" -from "Weigh" by Phish

Actually, Katie started climbing again.....

Subway is rad , but in March a wetsuit might be advisable as it can be a wee bit COLD

The Narrows in Zion is a classic (and crowded in season) hike that's really cool. There's a couple of rim hikes in Zion that are nice and give you plenty of options for mileage. These are way less crowded than the std hikes. The stuff in the Kolob section of Zion is usually deviod of people too. Most people at Bryce stay at the car-pullout viewpoints so if you hike down, especially that time of year, you're likely to be alone. Escalante/Grand Staircase is also really close and it's serious wilderness. Even in peak season there aren't many foks down there.

Same for me. Also can't access hotmail, espn, SportsIllustrated, streaming audio/web radio, or just about anything else fun...and they wonder why they have trouble retaining a skilled workforce while they babysit. At least I get to use the gym and other facilities on the base (except the PX...whas up with that?)

All the more reason to do it...confront your irrational fears and overcome them. I thought I'd freak from claustrophobia, but I didn't. You'd be surprised by the lifeforms in caves, very few of the creepy-crawly things you'd expect but definitely some weird stuff...blind fish, colorless creatures. It's also the best place for the wintergreen breath mint experiment. The ones (I forget the brand) with the green section in the middle of a white life-saver type breath mint will "spark" when you crunch them, it's pretty wild. Besides, when you live in the TAG region (where Tenn/Alabama/Georgia meet, one of the best caving areas on the continent) there's nothing much else to do when the days get short and it's cold and rainy(Atlanta gets more annual volume of rain than Seattle, just spread over fewer days). We would get out of classes on Friday, jump in a cave around 10pm, pop back out sometime in the middle of the following day, catch a nap, drive to another cave and do it all over again. Bats are just part of the trippy landscape down there.

You folks should spend a little time caving...after having them flying around your head or coming face to face with them in tight passages for a day or two, you'll get used to 'em. On a side note, my first night spent underground was probably scarier and stranger than the first night on a wall.

Special, You're not a monk are you?

Bootying gear Bootying gear from the party in front of you and returning it on top Waiting for a party below you to top out with a bowl packed and ready Coming to a stop after a long fall and realizing you are not hurt. Bomber pin after a string of sketchy hooks Rock gear on an ice climb First trips to new areas Desert towers!!! Alien Hybrids Used gear for cheap Sharing beers, single malt, and pedigreed weed around a fire with climbers from six countries in C4 Having enough water Having a climbing partner who owns the local brewery Demanding Terminal Gravity IPA when with non-climbing friends and having them become instant converts A climb you've dreamed about and worked up to for your whole climbing careera that is at your mental and physical limits, with one of your best friends as a partner, in a beautiful alpine setting, with perfect weather and two hotties waiting in camp when you return with a picnic table full of Thai food, a packed bowl, a cooler ful of beer, and a bottle of single malt scotch.

I'm praying for the clouds to move out up here so I can get some good slides. The Fairbanks News-Miner newspaper has an aurora forecast in it all the time and UAF has a dept focused on studying the aurora and associated phenomena...worth checking out if you're into that kind of thing. We had a pretty impressive display a few nights ago (a regular occurence in Fairbanks, especially in the winter when there's only a few hours of daylight). My favorite northern light is #5, or maybe #5 x haze, #5 x matanuska is good, as is #5 x blueberry

Just a heads up...Next Adventure in PDX has GoLite synthetic full-zip pants (basically a copy of the Mtn Hardwear Chugach pants or Marmot Belay Pant) for $70. I picked up a pair on my way through town (around 10/3) and there were a few pairs left including 2 XLs.

Temps are around 10-20 lows and 25-35 highs depending on where you are in the valley...get pretty regular temp inversions here. Only ice to scope around here is the stuff floating down the river in front of my place. Closest ice I know of is about a 2 hour drive. I actually took an air boat up the Salcha river last weekend and after dodging ice for 20 miles upriver got to where it was completely bridged and stacked with ice. I scoped some river bluffs the guy who owned the boat told me about, but they won't form. Always down for drinking pints with fellow climbers, as well as meeting crazy waitresses (particularly if they're hot, single, rich, and waitress in a dive bar for the entertainment value) give me a ring when you're headed this way. BTW, I'm Dept of Army civilian employee, but not on Ft Wainwright, my office is in town.

Duuuuudddddddddeeee, If spent my time check out that long ass list of sites where would I find time to spray around here? Geez!