chelle

Hope you didn't have to wake the homeless in B'ham to get that shot... It's too early in the morning. Or did you just take your stash outside. I expected a lineup of fine single malts.

Congrats. Kurt. That's exciting. And Catbird...I hope your wife doesn't read this site.

True...true..or have plastic corks (at least the NZ and Aussie ones do). For a great screwtop wine check out something from Bonnie Doon winery down in Santa Cruz. Their Cardinal Zin is awesome!

You live way too close to the Boone's Farm and Thunderbird manufacturer to weigh in on this issue. Just push said cork into said bottle and enjoy!

Lummox -Was that four or just for? What about the escape of Heinrich Harrier and his buddy (can't recall the name) from India to Tibet? I think it was 15 months of wandering before they reached Lhasa.

Holy cow that's a big machine. I don't see any rivers or barges around it. How the heck do they transport it around?

Agreed!

I believe Built to Spill/Delusions is a 21+ show. There's an all ages thing happening at the Showbox. Death Cab for Cutie is playing.

Ahh. Haven't seen it. Have fun.

You outfitting a new house there Xternal? Saturday night Built to Spill is playing at the Pyramid Alehouse. Check it out and look for a few of us hanging out.

Good one Bug. Have you been to a pub club? Don't think we've met yet.

I'm heading south to my CA roots. Spend time with family and friends, and maybe check in on one of my favorite places...Yosemite Valley!

WoooHoo!

and Dru - I think your attitude in these two posts sums up how you tend to interact on this board. It's tiring too have to skip over so much criticism and sarcasm. Like others have suggested, what keeps you from just skipping over people's TR posts if you don't like them? Or sending them some constructive criticism via a pm? This might actually have a more positive effect than flaming them in public for not writing a TR that reflects your prefered style, spelling and grammar usage. Overall my point was that I think there would be more TRs if people didn't have concern that what they wanted to post was going to be called dumb, too easy, uninteresting, or poorly written. Or be called a bragging chestbeater. Why haven't I written more TRs? Well this year I haven't had that many days out there because of my shoulder. And last year I didn't write TRs because I figured I'd get flamed for the climbs I was doing. And when I talked to another cc.comer about how my climbing had progressed and I was really psyched to be leading 5.8 solidly in the Valley, I was told I was chestbeating. Considering the hardest trad pitches I had lead before my trip last spring were on the Becky route, I was really proud of myself. And after this crowd's reception of my TR about my climb on Green Drag-on that was trolled out of me by a skilled troller, why would I want to post about my climbing trips and adventures on this site. I got a lot of "you didn't belong there" "you suck" and "go back to top roping and gym climbing" attitude. Rather than the "way to try to push youself" or "Wow sounds like you were really scared and had an intense experience" or "Hey, let's go aid climbing and I'll teach you a few tricks." But whatever. It hardened my skin a bit and taught me not to care about what a lot of people on this site think. And it's easier to stay quiet and avoid public criticsm... The unfortunate thing is that if too many people do this then we don't have many posts about people's climbing trips and this just becomes a sprayground for political discussions and personal arguments... maybe that's what Jon and Timm@y wanted, but I doubt it.

Dru (and anyone else who loves to just post b.s. and dis on everyone else)- do you get away with your attitude in your everyday life? Is this how you interact with your family and co-workers? How about people you call close friends? I hope not. If you don't behave the way you do on this board in all aspects of you life, I'd like to know why you reserve your negative arrogant attitude for this board? Were you the school yard bully back in elementary school too? While this is a virtual community, it is a community and a lot of us spend several hours a week hanging out talking with each other via the board. Lately there has been very little talk about climbing and most halfway decent discussions we get started quickly get trashed by you or one of the other avatars that behaves fairly negatively or someone who is in a bad mood that day. Honestly, I worry that it brings down the quality of the content on the board and believe the negativity DOES discourage people from posting here. Whether it is a TR, a request for beta, or a cool thing from their life they want to share or challenge us to think about. What do you get out of criticizing someone else's writing style or grammar or spelling? Does it make you feel better about yourself? Or are you really a closet English teacher who hasn't bothered to change professions? As a community cc.com has had some really great face-to-face get togethers in the past few months. My personal hope was that it would help cut down on some of the b.s. and pettyness on the site, and also bring people out of the woodwork and encourage them to participate. cc.com is a great site most of the time, and I have met a lot of really cool people who I now call friends. I was talking to another cc.com poster a few weeks ago after a slide show. We saw a lot of other cc.comer's at the show. More than half the room was filled with people that were fit and looked like they were more than casual gapers, and quite a few seemed to know eachother. We were wondering who they were. Where did they get to know eachother? Do they hang out on cc.com? I have no idea. There is a fairly large climbing community in the NW. I bet some of them post or lurk on this board, some people have probably checked it out and thought it pretty juvenile and stay away. Where are the rest? I used to almost always ask people if they posted on this board when I met them at the crags or in the mountains. I realized that I don't do that anymore. I still don't have an answer to that one, but sometimes I'm a little embarrased that I spend so much time here...particularly when the board is in one of its more juvenile or nasty periods.

Don't really know what you're referencing there PP. His shows were of his trip up Mt. Bradly in winter (the gift that keeps on giving), the Czec Direct on McKinley in 2000, and a tribute to climbers he has known who are now dead. It was all really well done.

Here's a question I posted on another thread. I am hoping to get more people discussing the issue and would love to see some more TRs... Why does this crowd seem to think that someone sharing their trip and what they learned is cheastbeating? No wonder few people want to put their trip reports on this board. I for one think it is cool to hear what people learned and how they challenged their own limits. That's one of the reasons I read mountaineering books periodically. It would be so incredibly boring to just get the facts about distance, elevation gain, grade, and time. Kinda like reading a guidebook. Come on people, what are you so bothered about?

Would be great, but the clause in the legislation that said people who knowingly defrauded the American public will face up to 20 years jail time was removed at the request of the White House. They're finally starting to think ahead...just not about the right issues

Yeah...just look at his nominees for the head of the EPA.

This makes me sick : puking gremlin: The Army Corps has and always will be IMO a corrupt organization of engineers who are so enamored with building dams that they have no concern for the environment, wildlife, or the people who live on rivers. For more angering info read "Cadillac Desert" It talks about how the waters of the west were tamed and the deserts settled. It also details some of the competitive political wars between the Corps and the Bureau of Reclaimation. The guys running those organizations in the mid 1900s had egos bigger than tanker trucks and had political clout to push their agendas through. Many of the dams built in the west were the result of a "race" between the two organizations.

Classic. I hope you had a bunch of posers standing around telling you how to climb it. The beta wolf posse.

Or the president and the rest of his cabinet for that matter.

It was a great show. I likes how he's talk a bit and then show us the multimedia bit. His pictures are really beautiful. Unlike other presenters I've seen (except maybe Scott Backes) I got a sense that he was really sharing his experience rather than clicking through slides and telling us what was done and when. Didn't expect almost 3 full hours of entertainment since most shows are about an hour. Definately an evening well spent.

Why does this crowd seem to think that someone sharing their trip and what they learned is cheastbeating? No wonder few people want to put their trip reports on this board. I for one think it is cool to hear what people learned and how they challenged their own limits. That's one of the reasons I read mountaineering books periodically. It would be so incredibly boring to just get the facts about distance, elevation gain, grade, and time. Kinda like reading a guidebook. Come on people, what are you so bothered about?

March seems kinda late season for Aconcagua. What route were you thinking of?