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Everything posted by JayB
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Words to live by: "Never try to reason a man out of something that he wasn't reasoned into."
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This reminds me of a day I spent at Turkey Rocks a couple of years ago. A group of climbers hitched their dog to a tree near the path that everyone had to follow on their way out, and - without fail - the dog reared back, growled, and lunged at each and every person unfortunate enough to pass by. Sometimes it actually lept off of the ground and got whipped around by the kneck when the leash came tight. Yet, the owners continued to insist that the dog was "friendly" and would "never just bite someone ." Perhaps they meant that it would never merely bite someone, preferring instead to latch onto their flesh and whip its head back and forth like a Moray eel on crank. This continued until one fellow decided it was time to go home. He was a very pleasant and affable guy, despite being built like a cross between Howie Long and George 'The Animal' Steel. He had been climbing elsewhere and had yet to see the dog in action, and obliviously strolled towards the lunge zone on his way back to the car. What followed was only noteworthy for the sheer spectacle of watching scores of millenia worth of evolution reverse directions in a millisecond. The guy didn't seem to take much notice of the low rumble emmanating from behind the bush, but when the dog hurled itself towards its next target, this guy turned the predator-prey dynamic squarely on its head and lunged towards the dog with one choking-hand extended towards its throat and one spam-block sized fist cocked atop an arm purpose built for skull-crushing, all the while bellowing out a roar that sounded like a silverback gorilla's kill signal amplfied by a speaker tower at a Motorhead concert for the deaf. In the same instant, the dog that was playing the part of the untamed Ur-canine just a few minutes before recoiled in mid-leap, let out a yelp that would shame a show-poodle in a grooming salon, and attained the head-down-with-fully-tucked-tail cower position before even hitting the ground. Upon arriving on the soil, the dog scuttled behind a tree and continued cowering and yelping incessantly while intermittently pissing itself as the primate looming several feet away continued to alternate between -literally - pounding its chest and roaring out some inspired, theat-laden profanity "I - (POUND) - WILL - (POUND) - RIP - (POUND) - YOUR - (POUND) -MOTHER- (POUND) -F&^%ing - (POUND) - HEAD -(POUND)- OFF (POUND) -AND - (POUND) *&^%ING (POUND) EAT (POUND) - IT - (POUND) RAW (POUND)...[etc]" This carried on for at least 20 seconds. It must be true what they say about dogs and their owners sharing a common psychological profile, as the blase indifference, casual dismissals and occaisional snicker (seriously) that had characterized while their previous responses evaporated, and they looked on in mute shock when the tables were turned, and it was they who were worried about their companion being injured by a violent animal. After they had finished cowering, pissing themselves, and yelping to one another they finally moved their dog away from the main pedestrian throughfare, and the other climbers were able to hike out without any further incident.
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I have the cloudveil jacket and have been very pleased with it thus far. A good choice if you are looking for a survival piece/belay jacket for full conditions in the Northwest. I would advise against relying upon a down jacket as a survival piece, unless you have a shell that fits comfortably over your jacket. Even with that, though, after getting hammered by wet, driving snow , digging a snow cave, and spending the night inside there's a pretty good chance you will have soaked quite a bit of your down jackets' insulating properties into oblivion.
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Hey George: This is a perennial topic, and there has been a fair amount of discussion devoted to this topic here in the past that you should be able to dig up using the search function. The general consensus is that the better an AT Boot climbs, the worse it will ski, and vice versa. If you have Silveretta bindings with wire bails up front you can use mountaineering boots to cover moderate terrain, but trying to ski down anything resembling a real slope while carrying a pack with only climbing boots on is a nightmare (really) as you have very little lateral support and no rear support whatsoever, which is what will really kill you. You can improve the performance of this setup a bit with a couple of modifications like inserts for the back of your boots, and by attaching screws with eye bolts to the front of your skis and attaching cord/runner material to them that runs behing your knees for more protection against falling over backwards, but I gave up on skiing in mountaineering boots long before I resorted to any of these mods because I am not a masochist. Amongst the various boots out there, there are apparently some that climb better than others, and some other folks that peruse the site could probably give you the scoop on those. I just carry my climbing boots now if am going to do any real climbing unless the approach is low angle.
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I am sure that everyone who was close to him will miss him terribly, but I think his is a case where those most affected by the loss of his life could actually console themselves a bit by reflecting on the manner in which he lived it.
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Word. I guess we'll have to start a betting pool for that. My prediction is that the Muir Snowfield will be in good shape by the last week in October if present trends continue. You should still hit those lines on Quandary, especially the South Couloir if you are still there in late May/early June though. That might very well be the only continuously steep run with over 1500 feet of vert in all of Summit County!
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Just make sure you are fluent in at least one Asian language by the time you finish if you want to use the degree to make a living or to gain admission into a graduate program. Shouldn't be too tough with all of the travelling.
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How about we get back to the nuclear question.
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With respect to climbing in Darrington, if it weren't for the actions of mattp and his friends - eg the other folks actively developing routes out there - the road that provides access to all of the climbing out there would have been decomissioned a long time ago.
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Hey Jennie: In my experience, during the average winter in Colorado the good snow in Colorado comes in late November/early December and in late March/early April. There'll be a storm or two in between these times, but it's anyone's guess as to how long it'll last and how much it'll dump. If you are looking for good early season stuff, Wolf Creek usually gets hosed in a big way in late October/early November. But you probably already know all of this. If you are in Breck you should definitely check out the South Couloir on Quandary and the runs on the mountain on the south side of the ravine across the valley from Quandary in spring when the avy conditions chill out, and/or the East Ridge of Quandary during winter conditions.
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Count me as one of the folks that's a bit confused by your conduct Matt. I've been on the same side as you in a number of disputes in the past, and have always appreciated your contributions with respect to ice climbing in the Rockies, have admired the way that you've helped out beginning climbers on a number of occaisions, and am still gratefull for the beta on the routes in Cody. Leaving the matter of the personal message aside for the moment, I have no idea why you would attack mattp and anyone else associated with the WCC, or what you hope to achieve by doing so. The organization's central goal is preserving access to the rock, and I can't imagine why any climber would take exception to that, or what one could hope to achieve by mocking its accomplishments two months after its inception. We've never met, but your tone and targets here seem very inconsistent with what I have observed over the course of three years of interacting online.
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Interesting stuff about the isotopes. And speaking of isotopes... What about nuclear fuel? No greenhouse gasses and the technology employed today uses passive, negative feedback mechanisms to squelch the reactor if it overheats to a dangerous level and won't go critical even if the engineer falls alseep at his desk, the computer controlling it crashes, and an earthquake hits all at once. They produce power that is free of atmospheric emission, and our European friends are currenly generating up to 1/2 of their power with them. They would also help reduce the annual payments to the mullahs. The reintroduction of nuclear power would also require a rational public capable ofasessing the pros and cons in a reasonable manner, so I am not holding my breath, but I am surprised that the folks ringing the alarm bells on climate change aren't at least willing to consider this option.
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Interesting stuff about the isotopes. What about nuclear fuel? No greenhouse gasses and the technology employed today uses passive, negative feedback mechanisms to squelch the reactor if it overheats to a dangerous lever.
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Hey Crutch/Rollo: Thanks for sharing your story here, and I hope that you will continue to do so in the future , even after the reception you got. I am with Chuck in that while I think that people who seem to be boasting about a climb that could have ended in disaster had luck not worked in their favor deserve to be ripped on a bit unless they drop the triumphalist tone. The best example of this phenomenon that I can think of is the novice climber who had to be rescued off of the lower third of the Kennedy Glacier due to extreme errors in judgement and rank incompetence - then had the gall to start spewing about how rad the copter ride was, how he was destined become one of the top 5 percent of climbers - whatever that means - because he, in whatever he chose to do, was always a "5 percenter." Anyhow - the tone that you and Rollo used was totally different. You told the tale of a potentially life threatening cluster with the right mix of humility and dark humor. This brings to light one of my critiques of the typical TR posted here, in that seldom does anyone share their entire experience within one. No matter how desperate things were on the route, it seems that the only acceptable tone to recall the event in is one of ironic detatchment coupled with a hefty dose of understatement and reserve. While I appreciate that anything that hints of drama can veer into the realm of breathy self-parody pretty quickly "At this altitude even lacing my boots required an act of will that delivered me into the chasm that exists between sublime euphoria and otherwordly despair..." I can attest to the fact that in truly dire circumstances ironic detatchment is not the emotion that best characterizes the situation. What I have felt in the situations where I thought that my life was genuinely at risk were emotions more along the lines of terror, doubt, remorse, grief, anger, guilt, self-pity, and every combination thereof. I have been climbing with quite a few people, and I know that I am not unique in this respect - yet very few people include these feelings when they recall the event on the barstool or the website. I think I understand why this sort of editing takes place after the fact. The first is that exposing one's vulnerabilities to strangers - and what fits that definition better than a bunch of avatars on a website - is both scary and thankless. No one is really into sharing their deepest feelings if all that they can expect in terms of a reward for exposing them is a barrage of mockery and armchair quarterbacking. Another reason is that it's difficult to translate such things into words, and doing so requires a significant investment of time and energy. A third is that it goes against the standard model of what seems to be acceptable content in a TR. Anyhow - while I am a big fan of ironic detachment and understatement, I think that limiting the range of acceptable expression to them fundamentally distorts the nature of climbing, and eliminates many of the things that make it such a compelling pasttime from the picture. It's those moments of doubt, and terror, and remorse, and regret, and misery that make that authenticate the positive experiences.* So I hope that we see more TR's that include them now and then, and that when they do show up the folks that post here will think a bit more carefully about their own experience in the mountains, and remember the times when they felt the same way before hitting the "submit reply" button. *For my own part, I think I will fucking weep when I make it to the summit of Ranier after getting shut down three times and counting - even though I was expecting it to be hike - and to recall letting fly with anything more than a shrug upon reaching the summit is to invite several years worth of ridicule.
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Not involved but maybe it was a "not what you say but how you said it kind of a thing." I agree with your thoughts though - everything about that ascent sounded like a cautionary tale to me. I am glad the guys made it down okay - and I applaud them for toughing it out - but I would imagine that neither they nor anyone they climb with will head into the hills with will tackle a such a route in anything other than textbook fashion for quite a while.
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Nice Pics! Glad you had a good time over there. I never expected Mongolia to look so much like Wyoming. You could probably fool some people by claiming that the photo with the pile of rocks in it is a long distance shot of Vedauwoo...
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I always liked "Soluble Fish" at Shelf Road. Sort of the same odd adjective-noun combo that you find in All Purpose Duck...
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Under the current structure the poor get hit the hardest relative to their income, and commerce is discouraged in a manner that is directly proportional to the tax. I would support the plan, but only if the state sales tax goes and can never be reimposed. As an additional sweetener, I would also like to see a permanent, irrevocable ceiling put on city and county taxes to insure that they do not simply fill the sales-tax void by increasing their taxe rates, thus restoring the regressive effects of the sales tax, discouraging commerce, and increasing the tax burden still more.
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I would be interested in hearing what people propose to do about the problem in light of the fact that a wholesale abandonment of fossil fuels would immediately result in a massive global depression that would make the Great Depression look benign in comparison.
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I think the data extends quite a bit further back than you think, as is the case with the ice-core samples from antartica I mentioned. I am sure that there are others that people actually in the field could toss out there as well. But I agree with your point in that documenting climate change and understanding the precise mechanisms that govern it are two entirely different things.
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Gotta love the internet where everyone is an expert. I am not sure why you are slamming me over this as I am in agreement with your camp on this particular piece of data. The fit between global temperatures and CO2 in the ice-core data is pretty tight. However, as you suggest, I am not the least bit informed when it comes to the precise manner in which ice-core samples are used to asses historical temperatures. Is it merely the thickness of each ice layer that serves as a proxy for temperature in each data point? Anyhow - my main point was that the Paul Ehrlich style missives from the Deep Ecology folks aren't going to do anything to wean the masses off of central heating et al. Gotta tether your agenda to concrete measures that will benefit the general public in some tangible way if you are going to achieve anything.
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I don't think there's any real scientific debate about the connection between increasing CO2 concentration in the atmosphere and increasing global temperatures. However, there also no real debate about the fact that there are clearly other factors - none of which humans have any control over - that also play a critical role in regulating climate change. Moreover, no scientist that I am aware of would contend that we understand all of the factors that influence climate change, much less their interaction. In light of these facts, and the reality that viable alternatives to fossil fuels are not availabe yet, it seems like it would be prudent to focus on modest, attainable lifestyle changes that appeal to the average person's self interest first, like turning off lights, buying energy efficient appliances, going a bit easier on the heater in the summer and the AC in the winter, sealing windows and doors, making it easier for people to bike to work, improving mass transit, using monetary incentives to encourage recycling, etc, etc, etc. None of this is sexy or new - most of this stuff has been around since the oil embargo in the 70's - bit it's a hell of a lot more effective than the usual enviromarxist critiques of capitalism and its concommitant demands for massive changes in human behavior and social structure and/or dark rumblings about the corporate state, etc, etc, etc. Incorporating realism and attainability into the agenda have never set-back any political movement that I am aware of. While we are weeping for the glaciers, let us tip a 40 of OE for the massive ice sheets that once cloaked a significant portion of the North American Continent, and have a moment of silence for all of Colorado's once' proud glaciers, the only trace of which that remains is the pitiful scrap near St. Mary's.
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So is the final date on this thing the 8-10th of October or what? 6 pages of random shiznit and no consensus date besides what Timmay posted. Let's close the deal....
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Non-issue. If you leave the state, take the draws with you.
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Ament's Piece on Eldo in Climbing 2-4 years ago was undoubtedly the worst ever.