Cairns

Boy Howdy, and how! Heard the flavelle-howe blows. How was Clarke? Worth the mega approach/descent? TNF direct supposedly had fixed gear and anchors added but I call b.s. Look unbelievably run-out at the slabby part above the 1st buttres/snowpatch. All I really wanted to do was the 1000' of 5.6/7 summit slabs! dont believe everything you hear. viennese 1 layton 0. Chehalis 2 Cairns 0

Climbing on the North Shore sounds good. What I did: Saturday - Memorial Pillar to the base of wide crack Sunday - Sunblessed and Exasperator Monday - Angel's Crest Tuesday - Another North Shore

I would intend to give it back in case Karma is real.

Howsabout Crap Crags, NW Passage, NN Arete?

i led that this weekend. the crack itself was sweet, but the top out made that the hardest f'ing 5.9 i've ever been on. as e-rock said when he followed my rope up, "5.9 my ass!" (first time i've ever been on a squeeze ledge, too. ) F'ing care-not Yanks, next time look out for 30-40 gray haired members of the Access Committee droning at you. If that doesn't work Dru will come down and belay off tracks for Sagittarius or proceed directly to concreting of City Park. Or is Lower Malemute open?

Dru said: cairns is who you think he is. a good climber who left washington! DCramer said: Ya you say that as if good footwork and a pleasant personality mattered! He had to move to balance out EW and NY! Wow, what footwork! I'm pleasant and mysterious. Andy de Klerk is pleasant, too. Climbers that stay in one place stagnate. Unless it's Yos. Sagittarius is okay but small change to Dru. Genius Loci is hard for 12b. Don't neglect the first 2 pitches. Russ Clune, candidate for world's best travelled rock climber, says Grand Wall is his favorite. How do you know who's good if you don't know them? Sean McColl and Mike Doyle are pretty good. Didn't Mike Orr move on to golf? See attached for a world class destination.

At 729 posts you must like writing something! As for useful information, and doing that route, I have far less important things to do. That was a good TR.

"It was like climbing Everest. I knew it could never get any better." ---Richard Nixon after a golf score in the low 80s "I have an appointment in some ER." ---Death

I for one applaud Dru's raising the warning, but how many giant blobs or giant squid were found next to dead humpback whales as this one apparently was? Sounded newsworthy to me.

Yumpin' yiminee, that's a bad one! The loose rock traffic directors of Marble Canyon are fickle! Glad you weren't too hurt. I heard Don Serl did that route just recently. Are the ropes in your pic the same diameter?

Suicide: of course it's an option. If the person loses hope, aren't they hopeless, regardless of their situation? Some people worry about growing old and helpless. It can be grim lying in a bed, in your shit, in pain, with close to no prospect for improvement. I work in a nursing home where 75 yrs is young and we have people over 100. One guy was born in 1898. A lot of the residents tell me not to grow old. Some people who dread becoming old and dependent join the Hemlock Society. There is still a problem with taking your own life, because it's very hard to define the line at which to take action as your life slides into poor physical or mental health. You may gradually lose the wherewithal to make the decision. For Mr. Trask, and others, I propose the following solution. We have an alarm clock that you set each night to kill you in the morning if you forget to disarm it. As you get into bed it says, "I'll most likely kill you in the morning, Trask." Once your brain goes to the extent that you forget the alarm clock, it's time for the rest of you to follow. Not that we don't have some apparently contented vegetables. Free introductory offer for Trask.

I don't think the Grim Reaper is repeatable. I keep asking Neil where it went and the story changes. I climbed with Gordie too last year, on Teetering on the Brink, and that will have to do for me. I could see him and the vicinity of the Reaper in the same view and I could see a lot of talent, still. There are just too many bolts already in the area now which change the psychology of the climb. What kind of idiot does a long runout on one route when a few meters to one side there are plenty of bolts on a different route on very similar terrain? I didn't like seeing the Jeff Thompson route go in, but Neil didn't seem to mind and Jeff moved a bolt placement for him to not encroach on Reaper. Thanks for pointing out that that was Mikey on Squamish Buttress. Now I have my own pics of him. I'd have some of Travis, too, if the battery hadn't failed. Well, I do probably have one of Travis, sitting on the ledge. I've been worried about Wall of Attrition, the pitch that the guidebook calls bold, but someone said it isn't that bad. That's all it takes to turn a not-yet into a tomorrow. Well, and a partner.

Both, please. For me, the key thing in shoes is having laces. I will never forget the day in Oklahoma City, in an empty lot turning over boards looking for horny toads, snakes, black widows, and scorpions, when my shoelaces came undone and I retied them myself, then ran all the way home to tell my parents I could tie my own shoelaces (approx 1954). The meditative process of cinching down the toes and snugging up the arch and especially tying the knot and dealing with the loose ends is a sort of gate through which I pass before a climb, leaving the mundane and trivial behind, smoothing any unhelpful wrinkles in my gray matter, and tapping into the profound energy of ascent. If a lace pops, I square knot the break and carry through. At the end of the process I'm calm and ready to go. Shoes are pretty much the only climbing technology I feel fully comfortable and familiar with. I shouldn't be a part of any train of logic but I'm happy to be an exception. A better choice would be Pete Cleveland doing 5.13 in stiff-soled shoes (and socks). I wear socks, usually just one pair, because I always have. I tried slippers when they first came out and they aren't for me. I don't climb to climb hard. I climb to avoid specialization and dead ends. I have done a 13 in my thick socks, a fantastic route left of Chromatic Suspension, since downrated to 12d I think, but I got it second try.

About Steel Pulse scrub/rebolt: Does it matter? Perhaps, to Jeff Kelly, Jeff Boucher, Matt Arksey. Perhaps to me if I compare before and after and have anything to say about it and the 2 guys have any interest in feedback. Does it really matter? Hell, no. I have to take responsibility for myself.

Steel Pulse: [/i][/b] The whole route got scrubbed this winter. and all of the bolts were replaced. Why so impersonal? By whom? Now I can get misty-eyed about doing it last spring. Nostalgia for skrot. I may not be willing to refurbish but I defend your right to do so. Thanks.

From the top looking down: "I think those snow fields connect." From Russian partner: "We will complete this climb." To cab driver in Saudi Arabia: "Can you get me to the airport in 2 hrs?" Cab driver looks grim but nods yes, get in car and realize we are going in wrong direction, arrive small hut and cabbie gets out and hugs several women and children then we start for airport; realize he was saying goodbye to family in case never see them again

Thanks, Plumbbob. I was Guy Edwards' 105th full-day climbing partner. When I got nervous about him he just said, "Maybe this is my day to die." IF he's gone we should all be a little tougher. Not that I could really take his example, but it is a good one.

student: But sir, I'm 17, at the peak of my sexual capacity. After this it's all downhill. teacher: Yes, but it's a lovely ride. - Summer School "I live, I think." - The Borrower "She's not a liar. She just prefers to use her imagination instead of her memory." - Beat the Devil "Why does he have a knife in his forehead?" - Montenegro "I have wrestled with reality for many years, and I'm glad to say that I have won." - Harvey social worker: Let's return to reality for a moment. uncle: Okay, but I'll only go as a tourist. - A Thousand Clowns "Nevertheless..." - African Queen climber after hauling the fallen leader back up to the ledge, then dropping him again: "It was 'orrible! 'Is 'ead was torn off!" - The Trollenberg Terror and to return to the original post, "It's not a motorcycle, baby, it's a chopper."

The bairnies cuddle doon at nicht Wi' mirth that's dear to me; But soon the big warl's cark an' care Will quaten doon their glee. Yet, come what will to ilka ane, May He who rules aboon Aye whisper, through their pows be bald, "Oh, bairnies cuddle doon!" Alexander Anderson

I usually stay out of the mountains. Considering the number of times I have walked up to a wall without thinking bergschrund (one fall into but only up to shoulders) or arrived at a notch to belatedly notice that I was only standing on cornice, I would figure God keeps me around for amusement value if Joe Simpson didn't already seem to have the honor. A slightly strange thing happened to us in Potrero a few weeks ago when we were given some beer by some Mexican guys who wanted to sell us mota. One of them asked for our guidebook to roll a cigarette on and later we noticed he hadn't given it back. The following evening we were walking through the streets of Hidalgo and a crowd of girls started yelling at us and we went over and they gave the guidebook back.

About Clean Corner: A #5 Camalot can be placed at about shoulder height from the ledge you start from. It isn't real secure but it gets you started and gives you something to worry about as you try to get past it so you don't try to look ahead too far. It won't be needed on the rest of the climb. Bolts have appeared in the area and may simplify things. It looks like this may become an exit pitch for new climbs under it.

This one continues on the other side. The variation is reachy.

See attachment Oh, you mean what do you do? Same as this one but eliminate the first rock.

See attachment

Argh, it was an old one.