JayB

Slogging:slogging is the penalty for a couple miles of really fun narrows slogging is often part of the program slogging is the word they feel describes their progress slogging is probably good for the soul if not for the ego slogging is accumulation of solid residues on parts of the combustion system slogging is necessary to show how various scenarios affect portfolio risk slogging is no longer an option slogging is c per person slogging is also a favorite activity slogging is there because of unrealistic assumptions at the time of striking the project deal" slogging is done slogging is inevitable" slogging is taking its toll now slogging is worth it when you finally catch sight of the towering western red cedars that anchor the mountain slope above the lake slogging is important slogging is the recording of your observations and feelings about the natural world slogging is yet to come slogging is the only way to get around slogging is still the most reliable slogging is my normal game slogging is not billable slogging is where the bridgestone scrambler lets you know it really isn'ta scrambler at all slogging is behind them slogging is any better slogging is hardly the right word slogging is that my daily caffeine intake has increased massively and my sleeping pattern has skewed towards falling slogging is for slogging is merely a slogging is a perfect word slogging is not yet over slogging is required slogging is the major factor gilchrist is such a dominant batsman slogging is the best policy slogging is not for them; they become outstanding among their fellow men because of natural intellect and sheer inspiration slogging is more often slogging is just awesome to watch slogging is not for them slogging is what makes the goal worth achieving slogging is to be expected slogging is a new kind of warfare to us fellows slogging is essential slogging is needed before victories occur slogging is funny slogging is bliss" and i had to be contented with the fact the results were not at all disappointing slogging is all you're capable of slogging is in remarkable contrast to the readability of dick's valis slogging is not enough; you need perserverance slogging is not going to make the news slogging is slogging is over slogging is pure soliloquy slogging is condusive to happiness slogging is very slow in this gear slogging is very rewarding slogging is synonymous with training slogging is ok for normal government r&d but not for programs that claim high slogging is a thing of past for him slogging is wild hitting and blind slogging is great when you have no attachments slogging is over for now and we can start to enjoy some off the wind sailing slogging is the operative word slogging is involved at the northwest arm

Here's some information on the route for folks pondering a trip up the Kautz this summer. Route Conditions as of 6/1/03. Nisqually Glacier Crossing. Everything is still pretty tight, with only a few cracks opening up here and there. In fact, most of the crevasses on the way to "The Fan" are so narrow at this point that even Karen Carpenter could not fall all the way in them at this point. The Fan: The Chute on the opposite side of the Nisqually Glacier. There was ample evidence of recent wet-slide activity on the way in on 5/30, and there were a couple of fridge sized rocks that rolled through it between 5/30 and our exit on 6/1. Top of of the Fan to the Base of the Turtle. Wet, granular, isothermal snow beneath a thin frozen crust. There's a good spot to camp on a broad, flat snowfield atop the ridgeline at about 8500', and a rocky camp on the ridge at 9,000 feet that can accomodate about 4-5 tents. Turtle Snowfield. More slush beneath a relatively firm crust. The best campsites we found were at around 10,500 feet. The three platforms we dug out here should last for at least another couple of weeks. The Chute: Mellow kick-stepping at this point, a condition that will probably persist for at least another couple of weeks. I've heard people estimate the pitch of the upper chute at anywhere from 30 to 60 degrees, but after having been on it somewhere in the mid-to-high 40 degree range sounds about right. If you are at all comfortable with your ice axe, a single piolet will be more than adequate at this point, but later in the season a third-tool would probably be nice for extra security. There were a wide range of experience and comfort levels in our group, but everyone was extremely comfortable with a running belay consisting of one picket per rope length (3-4 total) under the conditions we encountered. Upper Mountain. Firm neve' above the chute to the top, after last weekend there should be a pretty distinct boot-pack all of the way to the top. Very few open crevasses (1-2 tops) on the upper Kautz at this point. Other Routes: -The Kautz Headwall, Wilson Glacier Headwall, Fuhrer Finger and Fuhrer Thumb all looked like they were in pretty good shape at this point. We saw evidence of a pretty large slide at the base of the Finger on 5/30, and a couple of fellows who had done the route the previous day said that it cut loose on the 28th, the day before their climb, so hopefully things should be nice and stable now. Wilson Headwall (Left), Fuher Thumb (Right) Kautz Headwall Other Notes: If you do this route, make sure that the nighttime temps get below freezing before you contemplate wandering underneath the Kautz Ice cliff. Also - consider getting a very early start and/or setting a fairly early turn-around time on this route if you will be coming back down the route as opposed to carrying over. We passed back under the cliff at about noon, but if I come back and do the route again I'd like to have passed under the cliff before 10:00 rolls around.

I met him briefly at Vertical World. He seemed like a very nice, easy-going guy, and it's a terrible loss. My condolences to his friends and family.

I'll be part of a 9-man megacluster on the Kautz Glacier route from Friday-Sunday. We'll be camped at around 9,000 feet tomorrow afternoon, and somewhere between 10,500 and 11,000 feet the following day.

Mattp: From what I can remember the inspectors never did get access to any of the presidential palace complexes. There were somehting like 40 of these sites, most of which were quite large. Kurt: I think a condition of holding such an office is that one has to divest oneself of any sizable holdings in a company, or have submitted an irrevocable plan to do so. This policy is in place to eliminate this very type of conflict. Moreover, Cheney was a millionaire many times over prior to taking office, and has in fact lost quite a bit of money by serving as VP, as he could easily be earning seven figures plus stock options in the private sector. There's also the fact that as a lifelong Washington insider he had no need to serve as VP in order to secure influence there. And there's also the fact that if a cabal of oilmen were behind the war and even a shred evidence ever got out, it would be the end of them, their companies, and the administration. Not a risk any of them are likely to take, given that the President can't even get a hummer in the oval office without the secret coming out eventually.

I'm sure that the man means well, and will grant him a certain measure of respect for taking unpopular stands, but I when I read some of the stuff he writes I can't help but hear the voice of the long-haired, acoustic guitar-strumming, VW mini-bus driving, tye-dye wearing teacher from Beavis and Butthead . I think his name was Mr. Van Driesen. This is true of far too many folks on the far left, which is one of the many factors that is leading to an exodus of the blue collar folks out if the party and into the ranks of the Republicans. Exhibit A - The South. If they ever want to reclaim the oval office and win back any of that constituency the Democrats would be well advised to reclaim the legacy of folks like FDR, Harry Truman, and JFK - all of whom successfully integrated policies that resonated with their traditional domestic constituencies AND championed vigorous, strategically coherent foreign policy to address threats to the US's strategic interests when they arose, all of which were underpinned by a degree of intellectual seriousness and moral clarity that has no counterpart in the modern Democratic Party.

Heading up there this Friday. Any info on the condition of the route, good bivy sites, etc. would be appreciated.

Mitch: What do you use for the spacer?

Glen: Has this worked for you with 3/8th expansion bolts? I've used this set-up for old 1/4"ers but wondered if it would work on the burlier 3/8th types......

I'm not sure how what the administration did with respect to WMD constitutes lying. The Iraqi's failed to account for all of the WMD in the inventory compiled by the UN prior to Hussein kicking the inspectors out of Iraq. Since they could not account for them, the regime had an established history of using every means possible to conceal such materials in the past, and the lengths they went to in the past to conceal them suggest that they considered such weapons vital vital to securing their strategic interests in the future. Given these facts it was much more logical to conclude that the Iraqis were hiding the materials that they could not account for in any of the scores of sites that the inspectors were denied access to. In the absence of complete access to any site in Iraq that could contain such items in order to verify their absence, the alternative was to take Saddam Hussein at his word. The administration made decisions based upon incomplete intelligence, but most decision makers are not fortunate enough to have the luxury of perfect information prior to making such decisions. If you have a credible source through which you can prove that the decision makers in the administration had concrete evidence proving that Iraq had no WMD at the time of the invasion, then the term "lying" would be warranted. Even if they had no such weapons at the time, given the regime's history, well documented posession of such items in the past, and their strategic value as a deterrent - as per North Korea - it stands to reason that at they would undertake efforts to aquire them as soon as they were able to which, in practice, would be as soon as the world let its guard down. Keeping 250,00 troops on the border indefinitely in order to force them to accept ongoing inspections was untenable for several reasons, as were the ongoing sanctions against Iraq. Even if there were no weapons in Iraq at the time, anyone who says that would be the case several years down the road if the Hussein regime remained in power has an enviable talent for unwarranted optimism in the face of contrary evidence.

I think that this weekend spring will equal massive climax slides as the meltwater percolates down through all of the snow we've had since late March and hits the interface with the frozen springlike snowpack underneath it. Good weekend for cragging IMO.

No purchases yet. Sell! Sell! Sell!

I don't think most of us could help you out with those. Yeah - If anyone can hook me up with either of those two items for a reasonable price I'd be interested. As far as the boat is concerned, I bought Bug's Perception Overflow. Should work pretty well for the stuff that I'll be doing.

Word.

If you've got some kayaking stuff that you never use any more sitting around your place because you aren't into it anymore or you've upgraded. Sell it to me. I am looking for: -Paddle (around 205 cm +/- 5cm) -Dry top (long sleve, Lg) -Skirt. -Life Jacket. -Farmer-John style westsuit. Will gladly consider package deals. I've been looking around on the net and the bulletin boards for deals but haven't found much, and can't bear the thought of paying more for the dry-top than I did for the boat!

Hey Bronco: If you are just melting water the best way to keep the stove going after the evaporative cooling starts to diminish its output is to remove the pot from the stove for a moment or two, set it down, and dip the cannister in the warm/hot water that you are melting. The specific heat of water is so much higher than the fuel or the metal in the cannister that you'll be able to heat the stove back to the point where it's going full roar wihout noticeably cooling off the agua. If you are cooking a meal in the pot and you are a masochist you can warm the stove up pretty well just by placing your bare hands on the cannister. I like the peanut-butter lid as stove base idea.

Best ever - written on the wall above the urinal: "Why are you reading the graffiti? The joke is in your hand...."

Anyone else see this party/van? Which model/what color was the jacket that they took? Hopefully they thought that this jacket belonged to someone in their party and picked it up by mistake. If you don't get your jacket back soon post a wanted sign and a bounty here.........

I am putting four on my truck then, baby...

The Hungarian physicist Leo Tzilard convinced Einstein to present a letter to FDR imploring him (FDR) to undertake efforts to develop the atomic bomb before the Nazi's did. Einstein appreciated the strategic consequences of such an outcome (the Nazi's getting the bomb first) and agreed to submit the letter to FDR, but Tzilard was really the driving force behind the move. More in "The History of the Atomic Bomb" by Richard Rhodes. The book won the National Book Award, a specific award for history, and even a Pulitzer Prize (I think) when it was published. Those who have claimed that Einstein despised nationalism are correct, but he recognized that nationalism in its general form was less of an immediate threat to humanity than the National Socialist variety (e.g. the violent fusion of nationalism, totalitarianism errected upon a foundation of racial superiority and genocide) and ultimately concluded that the use of nationalism to neutralize the Nazi's was a necessary evil.

Clarification: In my mind, someone who can crank V5 = someone who has much greater finger strength, footwork, and body position than the average climber. By far. This is very likely someone who will be able to put these skills to use when climbing cracks if they choose to do so, and if they choose to do so they will most likely pick up the physical part of crack climbing fairly quickly. If they stick with it they will get the hang of placing gear, and will most likely climb harder crack routes than folks who cannot handle the average V3 boulder problem. Climbing alpine routes is a separate issue and obviously involves much more than just finger strength and technical climbing skills, but having said that I can't see how strength and skill will ever be a detriment to anyone, on any route, anywhere, at any time.

Reading through some of these posts made me think of a few lines that crazypolishbob wrote not too long ago: "Alpine climbing starts with good sport climbing background. Hey champ, if you can't hang on to a 5.10 or a 5.11 clip up at the crag, how can you hang-on on vertical mixed pitch? How fast can you send 5.11 or 12, have you ever done 5.13, how about 14? Sport climbing builds strength, strength gives confidence, confidence gives speed and speed IS safety. I don't say you'll be able to start cranking hard alpine routes right away, but it is the necessary step every climber has to take." I can't recall anyone taking issue with what he said on that particular thread. Of course that guy never does any hard alpine routes so what does he know? Say what you want about bouldering, but there's no denying that fact that it builds strength and technique, both of which come in handy on most rock routes. Even sit starts, as goofy and contrived as they seem, can pay off by adding a few new moves to your arsenal that'll come in handy sooner or later on roped routes. I'd be willing to bet that anyone that can crank out v5's will be able to shut down 80% of the folks that post here on trad routes if they ever decide to focus on cracks. I've seen it happen. Here's to sit starts

Distel: We gotta hit the UW wall sometime. Tons o' good boulder problems there.....

I want it. Mine! Mine! Mine! Mine!