chelle

Kurt, that is a great story. Glad it didn't turn out differently. Had your skis come off already when you tried self arresting? Is self arresting a typical response to being in an avy or was this just your mountaineering instincts kicking in? I don't know much about avalanches so these might be "dumb" questions, so don't rail me.

Klenke - Tim may think your "art" is classic, but I think you have waaaay too much time on your hands. You should seriously think about going back to work.

Trundle - so Mountain Madness sells gear. Big deal. They're a great local guide operation and a good place for beginners to get started.

Hey pup - If you're a woman you could check out THIS group.

If you look at the background it looks like the snow surface is flat and the whole thing is a camera tilt.

Naw. Dru's too tall to be petit.

Poor kid is going to be traumatized when that baby pic is shown to his girlfriend later in life.

I learned over the last couple years that they're not going to be around forever and you only get one set (of biological) parents in a lifetime. Thankfully mine are pretty cool.

You're welcome. BTW cracks in the gym generally suck, and the ones at VW really suck. SG has 3 good cracks to play on if you want to practice in the gym.

Hey Jim. The trick to becomming a better crack climber is to climb more cracks. If you're not ready for the Index steepness, spend a couple weeks at a lower angle place like Yosemite. Squamish is okay place to hone technique, the cracks tend to be a little flaring with cheater sections... Stay out of the bluffs and climb at the chief or on the really low angle cracks on the apron.

Don't be a joiner Iain! Resist the temptation to be a wallflower.

There will be an increase in the current PNW trend. Climbers will spend countless hours surfing, lurking, or spraying on CC.com while hiding under the "show up as anonymous" feature. There are currently 4x as many anonymous users on the site right now as people who are openly admitting to being here...Chickens all of you!

Nice TR. What's 'hard sauce'?

Interesting comment Murray, I never really thought it was a "the fish was this big" tale. Based on the facts of the accident it seems like an epic worth telling, not like some of the Krakauer bs fed to the public on media silver plated spoons.

I thought Lummox = Fred

Guess it was about time for the marriage discussion...

Jay - people aren't routinely eating cattle feed from what I understand. If you think BSE can't survive digestion how is it that the consumption of diseased beef (deer or elk) and CJD are linked?

Catbird. Thanks for clarifying that one for me. Maybe you could clear up the latest quote from Donald the great. "There are known knowns and known unknowns. And then there are unknown unknowns..."

No threat to the food supply because they "removed all diseased parts before they could enter the food supply." That's nuts in my opinion. Why not destroy the whole cow. They simply removed the brain, spinal cord, intestines, etc. before the sent the rest to be ground into hamburger. From what I know this is what they normally do to cows before grinding them up, so what was different from anyother processing day at the slaughterhouse? Also, BSE and CJD are not caused by viruses. They are caused by prions, an protein organism that is not well understood, and mimics naturally ocurring protiens in mammalian brains in it's chemical structure, it is just a different shape. And it causes the normal proteins to adopt the new shape, causing the disease. It's been compared to an enzyme.

Never done the Mensa thing, but my work sent me down to LA once for a day long evaluation as part of a training program. They give you all kinds of different tests and it takes 8 hours. The report was pretty interesting. No scores, but a compilation of your strengths, areas to watch out for, management style and an assessment of what types of roles/jobs other people with your profile do well in. About 6 pages of analysis...

Hey Trask...I traded my Honda Civic for a pick up truck. Nice 4WD one with a king cab and a high ceiling canopy equipped for car camping. It's a climber chick's dream. Still feeling inadequate? My truck ! Have fun in your 'lil econo car!

That would have been Pam Veneman. Don't know any Anne's. And what are you implying????

Finally out on video. You can rent it at Scarecrow.

I want to know more about this intrapersonal intelligence thing... Does that mean that you are completely self aware, or just self centered? The later fits most of the climbers I know.