flyingkiwi1

They were in a Kelty Kids day pack - somehow it didn't make it into the car. Please contact me if you got em. Thanks, Ian

Local boy bergs with the best. http://www.arcteryx.com/blog.aspx?blogfile=roger_strong

Yeah... And perhaps you would further account for the absence of a bottom end on my route-rating scale to the fact that I more or less learned to climb at Vantage. For a long time, even after I acquired the skills to make Index my home crag, a year wasn't complete until I'd climbed the face variation of Satan's Wagon in those horrible Feathers. But the first couple years I climbed, there was nothing better in this world than getting up early on a cold, wet, winter morning, driving out of Seattle rain and into desert sunshine, climbing non-abrasive cracks, aretes, and faces in shorts all day long, making the return trip exhausted, satiated, and that much closer to leading a 5-whatever. I thought I was in Heaven. Okay, it's dangerous to run around the base of a Vantage crag sans helmet. But the worst? Come on.

...followed by five pages of route-dissing. I fail to see the point, unless you find that structured complaining is more satisfying than freeform. Would any of you have rather stayed home than do the routes you cite as "the worst"? Okay, my point of view is biased by the fact that a sprained knee is holding me hostage. But, really. I don't believe so much in luck, but I do feel lucky to be able to climb in the awesome, rugged landscape of the Pacific Northwest. To me, "worst" and "routes" don't belong in the same sentence. Climbing f*cking rocks. Although I can see how hiking up the Cascadian with no snow would suck. But can you really call that a climb?

Yeah, I know. People can treat Bali as Disneyland. And it's sad that Kuta-Bali is the way it is. There are many more arguments to be made on both sides. The Crusades weren't great for many of the Crusaded and so on. Still, I think cross-pollination is, at the end of the day, a good thing. I understand that you don't and I understand why you don't. You're right about India. My statement was specific to the states. But then, we were talking about Chris Sharma, not Leo Houlding. Who, at the risk of weakening my thesis, has also been to Hampi.

CJ: You don't find vacation and India in the same sentence very often. And it's not like he was going to get big publicity for climbing a Himalayan peak. You seem to think that people should pass some litmus test of motivation, presumably of your design, before they're allowed to enter another culture. Then we'd have a nice bunch of accredited travelers cruising the world and saying "Namaste" whenever they meet, or whatever you would have them say? People have rough edges. The more they get out, the more likelier they are to become aware of those edges. If the only knowledge transmitted is that Joe and his buds are jackasses, it probably isn't a one-way transmission. And that's not a bad thing.

I think most people who travel learn something about other places, and about themselves, whether they set out to or not. Even prototypical Ugly Americans. Hampi, a junket? Have you been there?

Well, let's assume for a moment that a potential traveler doesn't have access to a healthier model of transmitting knowledge and ideas across cultural boundaries than slumming. Would you rather she stay home?

Give Sharma some credit - he got the climbing industry to subsidize a trip to a destination off the beaten path, in which his objective was more than just to climb. Yeah, maybe the photos aren't what you and I (and, probably, he) would like them to be, but they're more interesting than another spread from the Buttermilks. It's not clear to me whether you think "post-colonial slumming" is a healthy thing or not, but I don't see how it can hurt. It's like white suburban hip-hop kids - they may have a very limited sense of the culture behind the music, and the exposure they get from the music may be distorted, but it's better than no exposure at all.

The out-of-bounds terrain to climber's right of Southern Cross Tuesday afternoon would have given every skier and every boarder I know pause. I went down it about half an hour before the guy for whom this thread is named went down. The first few hundred feet were deluxe, but after that, when I realized how deep the snow in the trees was, I was petrified. All I could think was, don't, don't, don't fall forward. I appreciate the debate over the relative merits of sliding technologies, but I think that at the time in question you would've been scared over there no matter what you were on.

New York Super Fudge Chunk.

I can't think of anything to which the experience of climbing a true OW (fist<x<body width, where x=the width of the crack) for the first time compares. For most, it's among the most frustrating experiences they'll ever have. For a few, it's among the most exhilirating. There doesn't seem to be much middle ground. fk

Teeth Biffing Story #1 When I was seven I held a globe in my hands and estimated that if I dug long and hard enough in the backyard I would pop out in China. I was intent. The red clay was soft. Soon I was chest deep, throwing shovelfulls of dirt over my head and behind me. You can see where I'm going with this: Teeth Biffing #1, the first of many encounters between my front teeth and objects of greater hardness, velocity, or both. It all started with a shovel handle, deep in the heart of Georgia.

"It is understandable that a place with such clean cracks and beauty would eventually have a guidebook." Sharp End published "Indian Creek Climbs" in 1998. It was largely based on Marco Cornacchione's "200 Select Indian Creek" guidebook.

Meditating on "Doubting the Millenium" from East Creek Basin camp, Bugaboos. Effect courtesy of fading camera battery.