Uncle_Tricky

Hi, I'm lacking access to any guidebooks at the moment (house arrest sucks) and was hoping to get some info on this route. Nice climb? Easiest to approach from the Blue Lake side? Is there a loose gully on the approach like the Beckey route? Descend via S. arete or SW Col? General opinions of the route? Thanks. ~Uncle Tricky

Speaking of bolts on Castle Rock, I was wondering what folks out there think of the unnecessary bolts on the second pitch on Canary? There's some old mangled ones and now there's also some bright shiny ones right next to them as well. Since there's plenty of gear placements available, why aren't these bolts controversial--or are they? ~Uncle Tricky

I was working on a construction site with a collection of characters. Of course the biggest guy there (6'6", 300+) goes by the name of Tiny. The second biggest guy there is a grizzled old gray haired black guy named Big John. He had 13 children and used to be a professional boxer back in the 70s. From a lifetime of labor and fighting, his hands were knarled and twisted like the roots of some old tree. I was busy digging a trench, while he was using a chop saw to cut blocks. I heard the chop saw stop and Big John say "shit." Not SHIT!!! or HOLY F*&KING SHIT!!! Just a casual, calm "shit" like he made a wrong cut or something. I didn't pay it any attention and kept digging. Then he ambles over to me and says in a normal conversational voice "Hey man, do you think you could grab my fingers?" I then noticed the waterfall of blood pouring from his one hand which he is holding with the other. I gathered up his pinky, his ring finger and the tip of his middle finger and drove the old guy to the hospital. Never showed any sign that it hurt in the slightest. Never saw him again.

"Nature demands a return for every gift received." I don't litter indiscriminately, and I never leave non-biodegradeables or stuff that should be recycled by people such as metal, plastic, glass, etc. out in the woods. But when it comes to organic matter, I don't believe the best place for all of our organic waste is in a toxic landfill or an incinerator. I think there's a time and a place for leaving organic matter out there in the broader environment where it can be efficiently recycled into beneficial organic matter. Are we really better served in the big picture by having those sun flower seeds trucked dozens or hundreds of miles to a distant landfill, where the energy, biomass and nutrients embodied in the apple are then mixed with the most toxic concentrations of our society's waste? When we take from the earth, whether it be in the form of trees or fish or apples or sunflower seeds, we are removing a living store of nutrients, biomass and energy from a certain locality. Over time, this impoverishes the soil. We need to do a better job or returning energy, organic matter and nutrients to where they came, instead of flushing them into the ocean or polluting our organic waste with the more toxic products of our society. This is part of the reason modern agriculture needs ever-increasing amounts of fertilizer--to make up for what we've taken and not returned to the soil. This ain't filosofi kids, its simple observable biological reality. That said, I still think there are important aesthetic considerations to where and how we dispose of our organic waste in the world. I also would be pissed to see someone spitting sunflower seeds all over a favorite climb or leaving apple cores around a wilderness campsite--not because it bad biologically or ecologically, but because aesthetically its rude and offensive. It intrudes on the reason many of us are out there in the first place: to expeience wildness and nature and feel removed from the the constant reminders of (un)civilization. To me, the whole question of where we put our stuff is a balance between what is ecologically ok for and area, and aesthetically appropriate for an area. ~Uncle Tricky PS. A hearty "F*#k You!" to whoever left Powerbar wrappers on the fifth belay of Total Soul last week!

I'm not sure what all those WTO protestors are riled up about. What's good for transnational corporations is good for America! Global corporate rule would be totally way more efficient and less bothersome than the slow, messy process rife with compromise and dialogue otherwise known as democracy. Think about it: things would be so much simpler and easier if there were just one corporation for each kind of stuff. Walmart for retail stuff, McDonalds for food, the GAP for clothes, CNN/AOL/Time Warner for information and culture, Microsoft for software and REI for outdoor gear and climbing stuff. Once we eliminate contrived and unnecessary national barriers for money, goods, services, regulations and labor, everything will operate way more efficiently and profitably which will benefit everyone! This rising tide will lift all boats! ~Uncle Tricky