Roger

sorry, that weekend I'm busy not training to not climb Cho Oyu in the spring.

GJ - if you could provide a larger version of your avatar image it might help us think more about spring.

no doubt. I'm usually sick of Meadows after my second trip in a season. Every year I'm glad I didn't buy into one of those 10-ticket things that someone is always emailing me about in October. Bachelor was actually better on Sunday. Saturday was just wet wet wet... one of those rivulets-of-water-running-down-your-back days. Didn't get the rime ice treatment like iain, probably because it's +/- 1000 feet higher than Meadows...?

slow-roasted snaffle with steaksauce... mmmmm....

Snyder will be speaking in Portland on the 25th anniversary of the St. Helens eruption as part of this year's Illahee lecture series. Here's the link (scroll most of the way down).

sounds like you may have missed a few of those evolushun classes yourself. okay, so what is your theory?

The impact on your boots is definitely not a problem - sounds like just normal wear. The pitbull binding has a troubled history, but if they work for you, so what... I guess a lot of people like 'em. BD has not had much luck with bindings in the past, but it sounds like they've turned that around a bit.

wow. I'll bet some of those guys own parrots. Here's something from their faq sheet, which includes definitions and descriptions of various posters. Turns out climbing geeks and computer geeks have at least one thing in common: "Nattie" -- Natalie 'Nattie' Mayer appeared via a crosspost to alt.fan.pratchett and is a real girl. Yes, with breasts and everything! Just about the last thing you'd expect in comp.sys.sinclair. Has a number of CSSfiances in the newsgroup.

Most of my charitable contributions last year went to mountainspeedclimbing.org. I really appreciate their objective and unbiased reporting of what is going on in the speedclimbing community. You can ask to have your donations earmarked for special projects, like "office equipment" -- apparently they only have one computer for all of the people working there, which I guess has caused some confusion in the past.

I think your friends are glue sniffers. Bachelor might be the best area we've got in Oregon, but terrain-wise it's a freakin' pimple next to some of the places you mentioned (I've never been to Baker).

aka "sauce-making...?"

so the two primary topics in spray this morning have been sharing soup recipes and kissing and hugging. who says cc.com has gotten soft?

I love it - when faced with a statement that our current president is an "unelected moron," the best that bushies can do is say "he was too elected…" It must be hard work supporting that guy. "whiny little bitch?" You've really become quite the big tough guy on the internet, haven't you FistWedger? Why so quick with the personal attacks lately? Maybe it's related to your candidate's consistent inability to poll higher than 48 percent in any swing state? Because my time is too valuable to be wasted on a vitriolic windbag like yourself, I'll refrain from addressing in detail the substantive portion of your characteristically pompous post, except to say that I am very familiar with our system of government, thanks, and I recognize the legitimacy of the electoral college. However, shrub's "victory" in his brother's state was anything but legitimate. It was the result of the kind of reprehensible republican tactics we are currently seeing in Ohio, where the GOP is doing everything it can to prevent people from voting. No matter, because the shrubster is very clearly going down tomorrow, with Kerry winning 300+ electoral votes.

whoops.... yet another beautiful quote from a bush supporter in denial. So, who exactly is being manipulated? Believe everything you read on fox? You typically seem smarter than that. Just think - only three days until our unelected moron-in-chief is shipped back to dumb-ass redneckville, and we can wake up from this four-year nightmare. The champagne is on ice.

where do you come from?

The Bush camp finally issued a denial, but for some reason didn't explain what the thing on his back is. I can't find a photo of Kerry's back from the debate - Will, can you post this photo? I recognize that it will be hard work, so thanks in advance...

If you did, why did you vote for Clinton, Dukakis, or Carter? Each had limited experience in the world, had communication problems, and had their share of gaffs. are you fucking kidding me? damn it's sweet to hear bush supporters getting this desperate...

Not exactly - this morning even the pro-Bush papers are saying that Bush sucked. I thought he did a great job of showing us what he is - a brainless puppet who is lost without an advisor or a teleprompter at his side to tell him what he is supposed to say. Too bad it didn't go on for another half hour, because Bush was really unraveling toward the end. This from CNN: It was a good, meaty debate. Some heat, lots of illumination. Both candidates performed well, overall. Kerry won. If you don't believe us, or the CNN/USA Today/Gallup post-debate poll (more on that below), just ask the New York Post. Under the headline, "Bad Night for W," the country's most rabidly pro-Bush paper forgave Kerry for his New York subway faux pas to report that the president was "unusually off his game" last night in the University of Miami's basketball arena. Even that paper's most rabidly pro-Bush reporter, Deborah Orin, said Kerry "seemed far better prepared than Bush," who "often repeated himself and at times seemed at a loss for words or defensive. ... By the time the debate was over, it seemed clear that Kerry had given himself a new lease on life and guaranteed that the campaign has a long way to run." The New York Times called him "petulant." The Washington Post's Tom Shales said Bush appeared at times "anxious," "ill at ease" and "stammering." The Los Angeles Times editorial, under the headline "Kerry Won," said Bush "seemed tired." Just about everyone called him "defensive" and "apparently annoyed" at Kerry's gall, to dare to think he could be commander-in-chief. Clinching Kerry's win was this exchange, mid-way through the 90-minute face-off, which drove home his claim that Bush is "distracted" by Iraq and Saddam Hussein when the real target in the war on terrorism should be Osama and al Qaeda. Kerry seized on Bush's claim that "the enemy attacked us," saying, "Saddam Hussein didn't attack us. Osama bin Laden attacked us. Al Qaeda attacked us." Inexplicably, Bush shot back, "First of all, of course I know Osama bin Laden attacked us. I know that." (We breathed our own audible sigh here, visibly relieved that Bush is on top of that one. Phew!)

Bill Barilko disappeared that summer, he was on a fishing trip. The last goal he ever scored won the Leafs the cup They didn't win another until 1962, the year he was discovered. A tragic true story from the Tragically Hip.

Whatever man, the facts are that Kerry was out there getting shot at while Bush leveraged his family connections to avoid the war, and couldn't even be bothered to finish up his Guard duty. I don't understand how anyone, republican or democrat, can not bothered by the fact that Bush is once again turning his attack dogs loose on the war record of someone who served while he partied in Texas. Politics aside, the hypocricy is galling. I can't believe McCain still supports this jackass. -------------------------- In what is surely the most important election of the last half-century, we seem trapped in the politics of the madhouse. What is incredible is that these attacks on men who served not just honorably, but heroically, are coming from a hawkish party that is controlled by an astonishing number of men who sprinted as far from the front lines as they could when they were of fighting age and their country was at war. Among them: Mr. Bush himself, the nation's commander in chief and the biggest hawk of all. He revels in the accouterments of combat. The story was somewhat different when he was 22 years old and eligible for combat himself. He managed to get into the cushy confines of the Texas Air National Guard at the height of the Vietnam War in 1968 - a year in which more than a half-million American troops were in the war zone and more than 14,000 were killed. The story gets murky after that. We know the future president breezed off at some point to work on a political campaign in Alabama, skipped a required flight physical in 1972 and was suspended from flying. He supported the war in Vietnam but was never in any danger of being sent there. Vice President Dick Cheney, another fierce administration hawk. Mr. Cheney asked for and received five deferments when he was eligible for the draft. He told senators at a confirmation hearing in 1989, "I had other priorities in the 60's than military service." Many draft-age Americans had similar priorities - getting an education, getting married and starting a family. Attorney General John Ashcroft. He is reported to have said, "I would have served, if asked." But with the war raging in Vietnam, he received six student deferments and an "occupational deferment" based on the essential nature of a civilian job at Southwest Missouri State University - teaching business law to undergraduates. Paul Wolfowitz, the deputy defense secretary and a fanatical hawk on Iraq. He was not fanatical about Vietnam and escaped the draft with student deferments. There are many others. I would like to see at least some of these men, in keeping with their positions as leaders of a great nation, stand up and say it is wrong - just wrong - to try and reap a cheap political gain by defacing the sacrifices of individuals like John Kerry, John McCain and Max Cleland, who put themselves in mortal danger in the service of their country. It's one thing to decline to serve. It's quite another to throw mud at those who did serve - or to remain silent as allies hurl the mud.

probably as seriously as right-wingers take the swift boat veterans for "truth".

Alasdair: fuck off. Everyone else: thanks.

I'm going to be camping down in gapertimmy-land this weekend with a mixed group of climbers and non-climbers (but all strong hikers) - we're contemplating Broken Top as a day trip, and I'm looking for comments about whether people think this is a reasonable goal. From the couple of reports I have read, it sounds like there is one 10 or 15 foot semi-technical portion, but otherwise it's pretty much a scramble? Any chance of there being snow on the route this late? Thanks for any input.

not to mention failing to show up for his national guard duties.... oh wait, my bad, I'm somehow not entitled to mention our president's sketchy past, since I've never served in the armed forces.