fern

I don't mean for this to sound like an admonition of people who genuinely HAVE lost everything. But to own a home and live in the Okanagan (to own a home anywhere for that matter) and not carry insurance to cover fire losses displays questionable judgement to me. I suspect that actually most of these 250 unfortunate families do carry insurance and in the end have only lost irreplaceables like photos, sentimental things. I heard that with the donations pouring in, the benefit concerts etc. that the home losses due the Kelowna fire are already covered with surplus. Contrast to people getting car-burgled. I have looked into getting insurance to cover my gear since so often I am carrying several thousand dollars worth in my vehicle at once. I found that I could be covered up to $1500 under a household policy, with something like a $500 deductible, but a rider beyond that had premiums of something like 15% a year. I am sure there are other policies out there, but put in terms proportional to insurance coverage for a house that is pretty steep? In any case, most people don't insure their camping equipment, and if it gets stolen I don't think Cher will hold a benefit concert ... so it's gone and no recompense. My ultimate point? ... it's apples and oranges. BRING ON THE RAIN!!!!!

shark jump:

To me the most fundamental level of credibility comes from being up front about your name, rather than anonymous. I am not implying any generalities about who should pay for bolts. The site specifically lists sport crags in Cheakamus canyon and indicates it concerns new sport routes. I don't see the connection to re-fitting remote multipitches in Darrington. I don't know about WA but in Vancouver and Squamish there are well established bolt funds that have sponsored re-fitting of bad bolts, the credibility of these funds comes from their association with the businesses and organizations that collect the money, MEC, Valhalla Pure, Climbers Access Society etc. I have heard of one person, who has done lots of re-bolting in addition to new routes, who was denied bolts from the fund because it was suspected that he was using them to put up new routes rather than re-fit pre-existing ones. The distinction between new sport routes and pre-existing routes with bad bolts is pretty clear I think? I have never heard of people soliciting funding for their new route activity before, so it caught my interest and I thought maybe some people on this board might have some funny or thoughtful rants about the topic, but obviously from the number of responses it is the big So What? ... so what.

You have hit on exactly what struck me matt, the self-indulgence. This "Meingh.com New Bolt Fund" is not a maintenance or bolt-replacement fund. Essentially they appear to be asking to be sponsored to put up new sport climbs. I have read the figure of $50(CDN) to properly kit a typical 25m sport route. The cost to some extent forces people establishing new routes to be more thoughtful about how many bolts they will put in. Whether sport or non-sport you can usually tell when a first-ascentionist has put some thought into how they have developed the route and usually the well planned routes provide a better climbing experience. (speaking of local routes in particular that require lots of scrubbing and pruning in addition to possibly fixing hardware). I looked around to see if they had any names of this "...group of individuals responsible for a good portion of the new route development in Squamish." and found nothing. So to me it reads no different than the guy on the side of the highway with the "Need money or job" cardboard sign. There's no background credibility to the request and I am stunned and amused by the egotism of it.

no these are private individuals putting up sport routes. Murray's fund pays for replacement of existing bad bolts and also more importantly Murray's Valhalla Pure 'bolt' fund pays for the toilets in the Smoke Bluffs parking lot.

I don't know whether to or "New Route Fund"

first aid section of the drugstore. iodine tincture.

chemicals from the Army? probably had saltpeter and speed in it too

Arnold quote-of-the-day: "Gay marriage is something between a man and a woman" I hope this guy wins ... he is fun.

There was a short paragraph in the Province today (print version). The driver of the car crossed the centre and was killed. The occupants of the semi were uninjured.

you could look into the pole for the Mountain Hardware Kiva too ... it's infinitely adjustable with a little camming washer widget system so I think it would probably work with the 'Mid. Maybe they sell a replacement for cheeper than BD is offering?

you're gonna be famous!

dude, it is not 'nothing'. Every accident is something. Every accident sucks. And every accident warrants sympathy for the victims and those who were on scene and shocked by what they have seen. this isn't a topic to chestbeat about who has seen the most carnage.

hangover? it's 5:30! time to start again. hair of the dog

bye dru and AplineK. I hate you both and I hope it starts raining in one hour and continues for 10 days straight.

It used to be with Air Canada that not only did they not care too much if you had a stove, if they asked and you did tell them you had a stove they wouldn't charge you any excess baggage if your luggage was overweight ... something about camping equipment being exempt.

I visited one of David Hik's field camps in YT in 2001, there was like a 2:1 ratio of biologists to pikas due to so many colonies dying in the winter. Sad but also

heh ... a study on rodents by a guy named Beever.

Convenience bolted stations in the mountains are usually suck, but in the Bugaboos the pikas will harvest rap slings to make their nests. The nest usually provides a food source in winter, so the pika ends up with a gut full of nylon and starves.

i just got this email from a german friend:

Grouse Grind, Baden Powell Trail, Cypress Provincial Park, Mt Seymour Provincial Park are all closed to hikers (and climbers) due to fire hazard. I think Lion's Bay also although that may only be on weekends. Violation warrants a $2000 fine. Alpine climbs affected include The Camel, Widowmaker Arete, East and West Lions, Pup Buttress, etc.

Global Historical Climate Network your tax dollars have paid for this nifty time wasting site where you can plot graphs of precipitation and temperature data from weather stations all around the world, even your Cascades backyard I plotted up some for Winthrop that look like the late '60s early '70s had some high precip years, but it was drier in the '80s ... if this was a general trend across the cascades then you would expect glaciers to have suffered.

one squamish local tough guy told me that he encountered some fellows breaking in cars in the Shannon Falls parking, and so grabbed a large bar from his truck to confront them and they pulled a gun on him. So all you keener vigilantes may want to exercise some 'situational awareness'.

google is your friend. dru is not correct. no chicken wings. climb those nasty cracks "For overhanging offwidths, Randy Leavitt and Tony Yaniro developed a brilliant technique called Leavittation -- prerequisites for using it are washboard abdominals and aerobic fitness. First stack the hands -- you can place them back-to-palm (the back of one and the palm of the other press against the sides of the crack) or with your wrists crossed (hands placed back-to-back with palms pressed against opposite sides of the crack; see figure 12). Jam either arrangement, the place one foot waist-high or higher by setting a heel-toe jam deep inside the crack. As an alternative, jam your knee inside the crack, then draw your heel toward your crotch; that action expands the knee against the walls of the crack (figure 13). The other foot pushes off the edge of the crack or face holds below you. Using your abs to pull your torso in and up, reach higher and restack your hands. If the crack is too wide forstacked hands, either make a fist and place it against the palm of the other hand (figure 13), or jam both fists side by side (figure 11). " ponytail and diaper are advanced technique