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College Inn!

I hope not. Happy to see deadguy dead and buried though.

Duh. Society has already decided that you can't buy a car that doesn't meet emission standards, that you have to have your car tested for emissions every other year, that you can't drive faster than an arbitrary speed limit, etc etc blah blah blah. Pretty much everything in your daily life is regulated.

There is a 4-year study that got kicked off in March that some of you might like. It's a joint project of the University of Iceland, Reykjavík Public Transport, Shell Iceland (in Iceland) and Daimler-Chrysler, Shell Hydrogen and Norsk Hydro (internationally), and a few other companies and research institutions in Scandinavia. The objective is to gradually replace Reykjavík's busses with hydro-powered ones. The first two years will be focussed on infrastructure (refueling station etc) and then they'll start by replacing three busses. Here's a short article from the BBC. One of the incentives for the study is mentioned in the article - the greenhouse gas emissions per capita in Iceland is greater than anywhere else in the industrialized world. Another incentive is that (just like in the rest of Europe) gasoline is four times as expensive as it is in the US. To find out more try googling for hydrogen and Reykjavik.

Parking in various on-campus parking lots is free from 9 pm to 6 am weekdays, and $3 for parking from 4 pm to 9 pm. I don't know how diligently the UW police check for parking permits in the 7-9 pm period. The parking lot by the Burke Museum is super convenient for the ave. Get on 45th Str. and turn south on 17th Ave to enter the campus. If you buy a parking permit at the gatehouse you can just ask for the Burke Museum parking lot. Otherwise turn right (west) at the first opportunity (about a ropelength from the gatehouse...), and then the parking lot is on your right hand. It's basically at the SE corner of 15th Ave and 45th Str. Pretty easy. The College Inn is great! Let's go there. Big Time is OK (if you can stand hippie hippie fuck fuck people, otherwise you're probably better off not coming anywhere close to the U District at all, heh). I don't like Schultzy's very much but guess I don't really care.

There is a BD test report out there somewhere, about simulated falls on screws in a somewhat controlled setting, that shows short screws to be every bit as reliable in good ice - and followed by the usual disclaimers about "good" ice. I'm sure most of you have seen this. Anyway it makes perfect sense - if the ice is good enough for a downwards slanting screw to be stronger than an upwards slanting one, then the threads provide the stick mostly, and a short screw has as much thread surface as a longer one. If on the other hand the ice isn't "good" then the screw needs to be angled more upwards and effectively starts working more like a picket or something

I bought the last Grivel stubby on sale at Feathered Friends (nyah nyah nyah ) but they still had two or three BD Express stubby ones left at 20% off, and a bunch of longer simple hanger BD ones, also 20% off. Also had Charlet Moser 18 cm screws with a simple hanger for $18, that's a pretty good price...

Bit early for the final consensus right? I'm thinking we've got 3-4 places to rule out before settling on the first idea as usual Any place with Fat Tire and an easy busride from the U District sounds good to me. How about Big Time, it might be a bit less busy now that most of the students are either doing exams or gone away for Xmas.

Wow, not a lot of climbing happening eh? I just went for a jog and a little buildering. Maybe tomorrow there will be a bunch of ski stories...

New apartment with tons of buildering for Wayne VW van with an engine for Geek the Greek Soap for washing mouth for Bolt Clipper 10 feet powder for Ned Flanders with his new skis

I have odd-shaped feet and the Kaylands fit me well so maybe they fit people with odd-shaped feet (uh, where's the logic in that?). But they're grrreat boots. Hike great, climb better than they hike, but since the sole is fairly thin custom insoles would probably help a lot.

Lots of routes at my gym are out of condition because crucial footholds keep falling off. What's up with that???

Hayshaker, not all climbers are ignorant and thankless. I was at Vantage during one of the four accidents you mention and my climbing partner made the 911 call. I remember the firefighters and EMTs that showed up as being competent and entirely in control of the situation, and myself as being neither. And Bolt Clipper, that was an extremely stupid post, apology notwithstanding. Pissing over the usual suspects on this board is an accepted pastime and all in good fun but WTF? Pissing over the people that drag our asses from the crags when we screw up and get injured? Learn some respect.

Wow, really? Why?

The Seattle Mountaineers singles program is probably just the right thing for you

OK, somebody enlighten me, besides skiing and biking (broke grad student can't afford lift tickets), and partying (why drive all the way up there for that), is there anything else to do in Whistler?

Fuhgeddaboud the silly sticks, how many of you guys saw the Banff movie fest short film with the unicyclist doing ski slopes? The prize goes to whoever takes on that Thermos route strapped into this thing , arfarfarf

Coolest unicycle I ever saw!

Sorry, had another conversation going on, about CJ couloir. Oops

I didn't read any accusation into Wayne's post - could just as well be praise for the board, depending on how you look at it. In fact I actually think Pub Club might have as much to do with the timely information dissemination as the posts on the board. I'd be willing to bet that most of the 11 people who approached the route Sunday morning got their info through the grapevine, by calling and meeting and exchanging email. You might not want to take that bet though since I know it's true for at least 5 of us Crowding isn't that big a deal either - 9 people got up without anything major coming down, and only Zee caught a bit of an ice pellet in his nose or lip. The other two guys who turned around didn't really need to. The three of us were second-to-last and we made it almost all the way down the boulder field before dark, at a fairly mellow pace. And cs (not CJ, heh, oops, nifty stuff this editing feature...) and his partner were last but still made it to their car through the Sibley Creek approach that same night. It's definitely not the same kind of alpine ambience, I'll give you that... But the previous day only two guys had the route to themselves! And they were coming through the boulder field at 10 am (somebody tell me when they started out from the parking lot, heh). And I bet there wasn't a soul up there last week. Too bad it's started snowing, guess it's time to get the skis out, but I wouldn't have minded one more week of high pressure!

1 - Buy a name brand. Microsoft, Intel and the UW computer science department buy Dell PCs almost exclusively, that's a good recommendation. I see a lot of students and faculty with brand new Apple machines these days, but usually sitting next to a PC. The Apple laptops look just great though and Macs have a reputation for being easy to use. 2 - Get the warranty. Considering for how long you've had your current machine think seriously about getting the extended warranty. However, if you won't use the new machine very much then it probably won't break down at all until after the extended warranty would expire. 3 - Go cheap. First pick a name brand (expensive) then look at the cheap end of the product line. PCs have become vastly overprovisioned for web browsing and word processing. Unless you are going to play the latest video games you will be more than happy with the cheaper machines. They are also smaller, lighter and more silent. 4 - Don't worry too much. The better companies have no-hassle satisfaction guarantees, which means you can buy a machine, use it heavily during hte first couple of weeks to run it through whatever you intend to use it for, and then decide to get your money back if you made a mistake. 5 - Batteries. Laptop batteries die easily. If no-cord usage is important to you then look at the price of replacement batteries. To prolong battery life make sure to only plug your new machine in when the battery is empty, and to unplug it as soon as the battery is fully charged. I have killed Sony and Gateway batteries by keeping laptops plugged in all the time. 6 - Networking. One USB port is all you need for DSL, which admittedly costs $$ per month. If you go to the UW then you can use the free Internet access but will want an internal modem in the machine. If you intend to use it in an environment with a wireless network then consider getting a machine with an internal wireless network interface card. If you want networking without a cord then you have to get the wireless NIC. 7 - Ergonomics. Continual use of a laptop keyboard and mouse will kill most people's wrists, elbows and shoulders. Thankfully you climb a whole lot so all you have to do is make sure you do something for the opposing muscles and you might be just fine - but if you want to be safe, and will spend hours and hours in front of the computer, then make sure you can easily plug in at least an external mouse. 8 - Form factor. The most important thing for me is that the machine is small, light and completely silent. You won't find a laptop that doesn't heat up a lot. 9 - I'd be looking at a Dell Latitude or an Apple iBook myself. Cheers/Stefan

Good: Challenger Cutthroat S Butt Prusik W Ridge 1st 5.9 trad leads, 1st 5.10 sport leads 1st year tele skiing Bad: Failed on Triumph NE Ridge - didn't give ourselves enough time, got stuck in traffic and lost on the approach in the darkness. Duh... Outer Space - climbed it, felt good, but not yet good enough to lead the cool pitches with the exposure. Next time!

OK where did the :wazzup: gremlin go? :wazzup: :wazzup: :wazzup:

I've been trying to figure this out too - the ones I've tried on are the Cloudveil Enclosure Mountain Parka, the Marmot one, the Wild Things Belay Jacket and the Arcteryx Fission-whichever-is-thicker. I liked the Arcteryx best, it's awesome but it costs a fortune, and the Cloudveil second best. The Wild Things Belay Jacket is cool except the fit wasn't great for me. I have no use for that Marmot thing, the cut is odd and the smallest size is good for a midsize Sasquatch. Wish MEC hadn't stopped making their Belay Parka :wazzup:

As far as I know BD doesn't make a modification kit for using the Cobras without leashes - that's pretty annoying considering how much a pair costs. Lambone could you post back when you get a reply? There are probably a bunch of people on this board alone that want to know.