chelle

Pathetic. I'll be watching the snow fall and sipping champagne.

One of the best TRs I've read all year. Happy New Year! The countdown is on!

Where do you guys get this stuff? Been hanging out with 8 year olds?

Props to you Stone. I'm still looking for my ropegun.

Goes back to that partner issue. Maybe I should have used the word "concept"

RobBob - I went through the same thing a couple years ago when my mom had a stroke and this year Dad had a little battle with cancer. I'm just glad that I figured out how important my parents are before it was too late. I squandered so much time I could have spent with them when I was in my 20s cause I was "too busy". For the first time this fall I actually had no desire to head to Yosemite and climb for a couple days during my 2 weeks at home. I figure the rocks are going to be around for a long time. Howie and Trask - you guys are so jaded. Marriage as an institution is a great thing. The problem is dealing with the other person involved.

The pics were in a stack of photos from his trip, who knows though. Maybe they sell stacks of 4x6 photos on kodak paper so you can just slip them in between your own pics. Not really that guy's style, but who cares.

Ever heard the song "Black Tongue" by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs?

That's one big snake. My ex's cousin is a big surfer and heads to Indonesia every summer to surf. In the mid 90s he brought home some pics of the trip and one was of a snake that the locals had killed and it had eaten a teenager. There were before and after (they cut the snake open) photos. Pretty gross.

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...