Roger

speaking of gay marriage, what's up with DFA and iain these days? things just seem a little too cozy....

are you hoping for a little more Mountie in you?

where are you? PM me if you're checking in.

almost non-existent. It's pretty grim around here in the mexi-department... but a recently discovered gem is "Ole Ole" on east burnside around 21st. It's the genuine shit and cheap cheap cheap... just like it should be.

Mars needs guitars!

trailhead shithead leaves some trash on my windshield but I don't pay to climb

you might be surprised how many people would agree with mr. conzasshole... I'm fortunate enough to work with some of them. anyway, I'd love to talk more about this, but I'm going cragging in Renton with this hot chick named Amber...

Please feel free to flame this idiot sports columnist at the Oregonian, who believes that you are only an "athlete" if you play with balls... By: John Canzano: 503-294-5065; JohnCanzano@aol.com HEART, COURAGE DON'T MAKE HIM GREATEST ATHLETE 7-25-03 Why do we always do this to ourselves? Here he is, cancer survivor, father, good citizen and four-time Tour de France winner, leading this year's event and, still, a voice cries out from my television trying to turn him into something more. "Lance Armstrong, world's greatest athlete, maybe the greatest of all time, still leads the Tour de France," the voice said. Lance Armstrong? The cyclist? World's greatest . . . athlete? Fingernails, meet chalkboard. Now, Armstrong is a wonderful athlete. And he is a spectacular competitor who would pedal a unicycle up the side of a skyscraper if someone told him it couldn't be done. Armstrong is intelligent. He has courage, guts and brains. Armstrong has the X-factor that George Plimpton wrote about. He's an animal. But he's not the world's greatest athlete. He can't be. He rides a bicycle. This requires the use of his legs and lungs. It requires stamina. It uses little hand-eye coordination. There is no jumping or running. So until Armstrong plays point guard for the Blazers or shortstop for the Mariners, the greatest cyclist in the world should never be mistaken for the greatest athlete. Part of me knows the voice on television, coming from a national sports network, was just trying to get my attention. Maybe I'm a sucker for waiting through a commercial, thinking I was about to see Armstrong hop off his bicycle in the French Alps, catch a football in stride, plow over a safety and outrun 10 other athletes 65 yards for a touchdown. So I watched. Armstrong pedaled. Then, Armstrong pedaled faster. That's it. Armstrong didn't have to throw, catch, run, jump, dive, tackle, dribble a ball or hit a 92-mph slider. If Armstrong wins a record-tying fifth consecutive Tour de France, it will be because he fares well in Saturday's final time trial. Since his winning streak began in 1999, Armstrong is undefeated in the final time trial of the event. This means Armstrong is clutch, but it doesn't make him a better athlete than Barry Bonds, Ricky Williams, Michael Vick, Tracy McGrady, Tim Duncan, Kevin Garnett and many others. And if you want to talk world's greatest all-time athletes, Armstrong isn't close to Jackie Robinson, Babe Ruth, Jim Thorpe, Michael Jordan and Muhammad Ali. A rmstrong is a world-class cyclist. You can call him a great athlete because he's a champion. But his athleticism competes on a different scale. He rides a bicycle. Trying to compare him to great athletes in major sports isn't fair to anyone. In 1999, ESPN named its 100 greatest athletes of the 20th century. And although three race horses, Secretariat, Man O' War and Citation, made the list, Armstrong, who had one Tour de France victory, did not. Is Armstrong really now a better athlete than Bonds? If the ESPN list came out in 2003 would Armstrong really already have leapfrogged Willie Mays, Babe Ruth and Jackie Joyner-Kersee and three horses? Or was the voice trying to make Armstrong into more than he actually is (as if that really needed doing)? We should take caution, even while touting Armstrong and his bicycle, because, well, this is sort of the same hype machine that led us to believe we knew Kobe Bryant when we didn't. It's a small leap from good athlete to great athlete to hero to superhero. And we do it all the time, without a thought. Armstrong's is an inspirational comeback story. Isn't that enough? On a summer day in which a couple of the top sports stories are early reviews of the movie "Seabiscuit" and word from New York that Sean "P. Diddy" Combs wants to buy a stake in the Knicks, calling Armstrong "world's greatest athlete" isn't just a stretch. It has to be one for the ages.

careful, your heel might follow.

Actually Fence I think you got that backwards. Guys overinflate and girls underreport... Been awile since I saw that flick though. no. he's got it right. guys multiply their number by 3 and women divide theirs by 3. does it need professor catbirdseat to explain further? capiche? Someone once passed along this handy formula for dealing with the unwelcome question from your special new lady friend (which for some reason is almost always asked in a post-coital situation...): (1) take the number of women you've actually had sex with; (2) add the number of guys that you know she has had sex with; (3) add the number of women that she knows you have had sex with; (4) and divide by two. That's your answer. (5) if it's more than twelve, say twelve. What it pretty much boils down to, unless you're fairly young or fairly... um... chaste, is that the answer is likely to be twelve.

I assume you're also exploring partnerships with Pabst, Evinrude, and Hooters? You don't want to move too far from your product base.

hey, wait, you're right... I checked again, and it IS real... Bill of Rights Pared Down to a Manageable Six

just a cautionary note to make sure everyone understands that The Onion is satire. Brilliant satire, yes, but not real news... Giant Girl Weds Cheney and Rumsfeld

Our plan was to buy the $15 single-ride pass, but they won't sell you one if you're carrying boards of any kind. I guess their theory is that they don't want to sell even one run for $15. Also, for the single-ride pass you have to have an MLU. So we had to shell out the full $39.

July 5th, 7:45 am – alarm goes off, I instantly regret honoring the birth of our nation with several late-night rounds of kentucky bourbon. Hit snooze twice. 8:03 am – hit snooze again. 8:20 – breakfast of Advil and orange juice, start looking for gear. 9:10 – partner arrives to pick me up, characteristically late and annoyingly chipper. Typical snowboarder. A quick stop for coffee and solid food, and we're eastbound on I-84. 10:35 – rendezvous in the Timberline parking lot with the other two members of our party, who drove over from cloudcap after spending the Fourth on the snowdome. They've been waiting for us long enough to have picked up some unwelcome beta – Timberline won't sell a $15 single-ride lift ticket if you're carrying any sort of glisse devices. Also, you must have an MLU. Oh well. We throw super-light daypacks together and remind ourselves that despite our intent to summit, this is really a skiing trip and not a climbing trip. 11:05 – we grudgingly purchase tickets and board the chairlift. 11:30 – top of the Palmer, skins on, the actual work begins. I sweat a little whiskey and start feeling better. Weather is perfect. 12:35 pm – daunted by crappy looking dirt-covered and boot-cratered snow, two of our three snowboarders drop their gear somewhere around crater rock. Resolved to ski off the top regardless of how hard it will suck, Scott and I remove skins, and strap split-board and tele skis to our respective packs. 12:50 – we encounter a ranger just below the hogsback, who informs us that we're "getting a late start," and asks how high we are planning to go. I shrug, issue an evasive response, and we continue upward. Except for a guy on AT gear coming up behind us with an exasperated beagle, there is not another person to be seen. 1:35 – we are alone on the summit on a summer weekend, looking down to the north at our guys' tracks on the snowdome from yesterday. Blue sky, light wind. We take a couple of photos and eat some food. Life is good. 2:00 – enough stalling, it's time to go. We can't ski directly off the top, because it's completely melted out. Damn. Scott and I hike a little west to a likely looking chute and scope. It's melted out, rocky, and heavily tracked by climbers. I'm sure someone could probably ski it, but not us… I'm not very interested in tempting a fall at this point. We downclimb about 40 feet of the chute to a steep and somewhat sketchy location where we strap in and start down. The snow is actually pretty nice this high up, and only slightly suncupped. Several turns later, there is one thin crevasse to negotiate, then more decent turns, and a traverse back east to the upper hogsback, just below the 'schrund. 2:40 – after some good turns down the eastern side of the hogsback, we have to hike across a melted out area near crater rock. The other two boarders find their gear, strap in, and we head down, passing the guy with the beagle. The beagle is now completely fed up, and refusing to move. Snow is pretty wet, but still a lot of fun. 3:00 – big, fast GS turns on the Palmer. 3:30 – cold beers in the parking lot in the sunshine... life is really good. A four-hour tour.

"There are other in the lives of men." - M. Herzog

I'm not surprised at all. You crazy canucks have some weird-ass chip flavors... what's up with ketchup flavor??

"Don't bolt the coral" - trask

caveman = twight

money is aid.

ha! dru is busted at last... "I don't have any avatars on bivouac.com ..."

looks like my guess was off by about 45 peaks... I think I had mentally placed all of the rockies in alberta. typical american, eh? thanks!

hey dru, how hard would it be to find a list of all b.c. peaks over 3350 m. (+/- 11,000 ft.)...? I'm guessing there are only maybe 10 or 12?

Chixdiggit!! the fact that rush has only been mentioned once gives me hope for the world...

that was pretty much my point. cool avatar pic.