glacier_dup1

I had a nissan 2wd for several years before totalling it, and now drive a mazda 2wd club cab - I like the mazda's club cab space better, and the truck drives better than the nissan, however the engine (2.2L) has much less power than the comparable Nissan engine. The engine's the main issue I have with the mazda - less power, and generally less reliable- mine's rebuilt and still uses oil. The nissan engine, from what I can tell, and from friends' experiences, is pretty much bulletproof. I like the twin sparkplug setup on it, as well. So between those two, I'll probably replace my mazda with a nissan when I go shopping again, unless someone can give me a better reference elsewhere. Sorry, don't care for GM or Mopar products.

Not sure - a friend of mine who takes her dogs up often camps out on The Spit, or at the 'Next Best Place' (near the rec center) so she doesn't have to keep them leashed as much.

"My god! What happened to you?" the bartender asked Kelly as he hobbled in on a crutch, one arm in a cast. "I got in a tiff with Riley." "Riley? He's just a wee fellow," the barkeep said, surprised. "He must have had something in his hand." "That he did," Kelly said. "A shovel it was." "Dear Lord. Didn't you have anything in your hand?" "Aye, that I did -- Mrs. Riley's tit." Kelly said. "And a beautiful thing it was, but not much use in a fight."

quote: (and do you really kill people for pay?) I like to think of it as 'consulting.' I love working with people...

quote: Dr. Flash Amazing will trump all of you fools with a winter ascent of the remote and daunting 5 Gallon Buckets face of the awe-inspiring Morning Glory Wall of Smith Rock. Located deep in the wilderness of central Oregon, the intimidating and rarely attempted 5-GB Wall has never seen a winter ascent, and has seen few ascents in other seasons as well, due to the hellishly arduous approach and complete lack of solid protection options. Sorry, Doc, but friends poached the FWA at midnight on 1/1/2000 in full conditions. Although losing their way on the obscure approach numerous times, and daunted by the final headwall crux, all members of the party did eventually summit, fortified by appropriate high-performance supplements, such as 12 year old single-malt. However, much to our regret, one party member was believed lost in a crevasse on the descent, and an epic retreat to the base camp ensued, with a reported marathon 15-minute death march from the base of the high camp near the final summit. Much to the surprise of the climbing party, the 'lost' climber reappeared several minutes later, having reportedly lost his way in the series of steps cut by the Sherpa team, and then taking a leak in the bushes before reorienting himself for the arduous crawl back to base camp (which you may read about in his upcoming book, 'Fingering the Void.').

I'll be up there this weekend with a couple of friends - but the weather forecast currently looks pretty spotty for doing long route - was looking forward to Sq. Buttress or Ultimate Everything. Hey, LG, did you make the Spankers show? I got there for the 2nd half.

Yeah, but mine also keeps the beer cold at the same time... multi-purpose stove

Two debutantes are sitting on the porch, and one is bragging to the other – “My daddy is throwing my a huge graduation party at the country club, and we’re inviting 250 people.” “Oh, nice, how very nice,” says the second. “And then he’s giving me a BMW convertible for a graduation gift.” “Oh, nice, how very nice,” says the second. “And then he’s paying my way through Tulane.” “Oh, nice, how very nice,” says the second. “And what did your daddy get you for graduation?” asks the first. “He sent me to finishing school,” says the second. “And what good was that?” asks the first. “Well, instead of saying ‘Fuck you,’ we’re taught to say ‘oh, nice, how very nice’.”

A man walks into a bar and orders a dozen shots of Jagermeister. The bartender asks, "What's with the big order?" The man replies, "I'm celebrating my first blowjob." "Well," says the bartender, "congratulations - I'll throw in an extra shot on the house." "Nah, if a dozen shots doesn't get the taste out of my mouth, one extra won't help."

nothing worse than a woman on the wrong end of a minigun.

quote: I love the story in the recent book on 50 climbers and their favorite routes on Galen traveling to Circue of the Unclimbables with two sport climbers who bolt a huge line up most of the wall until they get to 3 nasty .10c off-width pitches. They decided to scrap it and go home, but Galen put away the camera and the led the last pitches and then forced them into a bunch of 5.9 traverses to the summit. Classic. I believe that was Skinner and Piana, if I remember the article correctly. I think they were dogging/freeing some old aid line and challenged/offered Rowell to take that pitch(es), which he essentially soloed due to a lack of big protection. Skinner stopped taking shots with Rowell's camera because he didn't want to take a picture of the whipper if Galen sketched. But enough of that. Stopped by Rowell's gallery in Bishop last year and saw some of the breadth of his work.

Oops, Darius just moved back up from CA, and will be in Bend for the forseeable future - he and his wife were just going on vacation. That's what you get for relying on information on a bulliten board, now isn't it?...

'This end up' arrows work well for me. But I occasionally need that reminder...

quote: isn't Darius Azin back down there now? Darius has been in Bend, but I think he's heading down to CA(?) - A friend of mine went down to see him and the wife last week before they take off. Too bad - he's a good guy.

If you boulder, and have a day or two, definitely check out Joe's Canyon - about 2.5 hours south of SLC on the San Rafael Swell.

Ok, so a buddy and I were climbing at Static several years ago, and we're swapping leads on On Line. He draws the crux pitch, and as he's a relatively new slab leader, I ask him if he really wants to take it - he says sure, and strikes off. So he makes it through the crux, and is just beginning to reach for that magical 3rd bolt, when I notice his legs begin to sewing-machine. Oops. Game over, and he's running backward like a madman trying to stay upright as I pull in about three-four armloads of rope through the belay device. He goes over backwards with a resounding coconut-like 'pop'. Spontaneously, from the bottom of the wall, I hear a unanimous, 'Ooooo.' from the other two pairs on the wall that day. So I'm trying to simultaneously worry about his condition and not laugh at the spontaneous respose. "You ok?" "My elbow hurts." "OK." "My head hurts." "OK." "Can I come down now?" "OK." Fortunately, he took most of the fall on his elbow, but still had a knot on his (unhelmeted) head. Nevertheless, we finished the route - I lead the crux - and we called it a day.

I like my blue Alien. I can find plenty of small slots and pin scars to place it in, and I've taken a number of falls on it. It holds just fine. You just need to know how to place gear...

Cribbed from the Underground Terrorist Motorcycle Cult page (http://www.blackletter.org/) Why Cars Need To Be More Dangerous by: Reverend Jon By now, most of you who are reading this have cars with antilock brake systems (ABS), a clever innovation which detects when the brakes have locked and modulates them automatically to prevent loss of traction. Truly a marvel of technological sophistication, the average ABS is a fantastically complicated bit of machinery, loaded with sensors & equipped with a microprocessor which can store literally hundreds of different error codes, should anything go wrong with the equipment. So, what effect has the widespread use of ABS had on accident statistics? Zippo. Nada. Big goose egg. OK, then, why the hell don't they take them out? Those of us in the engineering profession tend to want to believe that every problem can be solved with technology. We would like to think that we can make a car which is so sophisticated, so automatic, that it will make even the biggest numbnuts on earth drive like Mario Andretti. So we load cars up, to the tune of $10,000, with safety features like ABS, airbags, impact crumple zones and daytime running lights. Trouble is, the problem is not, nor has it ever been, the safety of the cars. The problem is still, as it has always been, the safety of the dickhead behind the wheel. In fact, all of these supposed safety features might be counterproductive, since they tend to give the driver a feeling of invulnerability. (Picture some yuppie moron who thinks that an SUV can corner like a sportscar, saying in a Superman-like voice, "I can drive like an asshole; I've got antilock brakes!") So, how do we make cars safer? Simple. First, take out all the seat belts, air bags, crumple zones and ABS crap. Next, put an eight inch steel spike in the center of the steering column. Maybe have the spike emit a faint humming sound at random intervals, just so you don't forget that it's there. This is also appealing from a Darwinian natural-selection viewpoint, since the chronic tailgaters/rear-enders would undoubtedly be the first ones to get spiked. Imagine the bloody horror show right on the 11:00 news; a young stockbroker-type in a spotless new Ford Explorer, slumped over the steering wheel with a razor-sharp steel tip protruding from his back, viscera and gore spattered all over the windshield and soaked into the upholstery... Now that would make cars safer!

He'd be a sport climber, but spray on bbs' like he was a high-ground ethical trad climber, then would deny everything or attack his critics when confronted.

www.sportextreme.com still sells Sportivas - $70-75, although they don't carry the Miura. An acquaintance just received a pair of Boreals from them -$8 shipping.

Lucky Lager, but only for the rebusses under the caps.

Hey all, mountain climbing discussion on Talk of the Nation right now. Usual gaper questions.

2 things - first - from my various health and safety and 1st aid trainings over the years, one of the things they always point out is that almost a third of injuries/fatalities in rescue situations are the rescuers - going in too fast, putting themselves into unstable positions, accumulating a chain of poor decisions - I don't know much about high altitude heli rescue, other than the generality that it is risky in and of itself. So while this is tragic, it is certainly not atypical, unfortunately. From the notes by other posters, it appears that the rescuers and crew were well qualfied for the situation, but that potentially something out of the heli crew's control occurred. Second - it looks like everyone up there could have benefitted from a belay lesson from Pete Schoening.

quote: Originally posted by lizard brain: FINALLY! REI has gone back to selling climbing gear! It's about time. Sweet! Something to put my Vortex camping blender in.

Oh boy! Just what I need for mixing margaritas at the crag! the eleventh essential?