glen

Ask the guy who got taken away from the BG near the U on a stretcher how he feels about helmets (he wasn't wearing one). Life is a lot better when you don't drink every meal from a straw. Personally, I cracked my helmet during a fall on sunday that I didn't see coming. If I hadn't had a helmet on, a concussion would have been the best I'd have been looking at. You are an idiot if you don't wear a helmet when you are riding- especially on the BG. On the other hand, it is quite amazing how many laws it takes to protect us from ourselves- ie to protect our freedom. I'd have a hard time keeping my road bike under 15mph. Question: Is the 15mph speed limit chosen to coincide with the SNELL speed safety rating for bike helmets or is it just coincidence?

Gee MR. E, was that Harding show at UCSC? Many a nice rack in that show. Including the bottles of Christian Bros. brandy for the climbs. When he was talking about the FA of the wall of early morning light, he made a pretty telling comment about getting worried when they were getting low on booze- after they had already run out of water and were collecting it from drips off the wall! WH

Actually, we did do the car shuttle thing. I've done the full cicuit before and will do it again next time. I think I got an extra massochism gene and actually really enjoy climbs (actually a point of wonder amongst some of my friends). But, for the group we had going, it was a much better idea to car shuttle. The upshot is that we got two laps in totalling something like 26 miles of kick-ass single track. 5.7, short and unremarkable... doesn't sound so appealing. Maybe some of the steeper stuff higher up the road is better. It looked like there might be some interesting lines, provided that the rock quality is good enough.

Went to Devils Gulch on sunday. The temps were just fine and dandy. The trail was, well, sinfully good. Unfortuantely, I now need a new helmet after a nice single track 'out of nowhere' stack at ~20mph. Anyone know anything about the bolted sandstone slab lines along the dirt road above the lower trailhead? Didn't look like they'd be worth much of a drive, but if you're there anyways...

Wait a second.... do you mean this one?

This Landers EQ?

Free sex for returning troops... All you have to do is get to Nevada... this might be a solution to your 'no breasts' problem GD.

Actually, a reporter from the BBC has been following up on this for a while. He actually went to the public records and got ahold of the correct memos that document (implicate if you choose) Harris and Jeb Bush's involvement and direct knowledge of the inaccuracy and bias (anti-democrat) of the voter rolls. There are also issues of public access to public documents as the only way he was able to get the memos was when a person at the records office was sick and a fill-in worker who didn't know what to hide gave it to him. The reporter then put together a documentary including interviews and documents. Guess what? None of the major media outlets in the US would touch it. Not a one. I wonder why? Maybe Noam Chomsky is right.... As to telling people that politicians are crooked and just deal with it... THAT makes me want to puke. If patriotism is wanting what's best for your country, then accepting lies about something this important (fundamental tool of a voting republic is voting) as OK from leadership complacently, and even voting for them again is not patriotic. That applies equally to democrats and republicans. Integrity is not a partisan issue.

Seems like this implies that this guy actually bought pot from the US Marshalls at an auction. The side effects kinda bite, but the twist is kinda funny. That's a lot of pot.

I'll be down there for a week or two in late august if you want to climb then. The ditch (valley) will be hot, but TM will be nice. Conness, Matthes Crest are on the to-do list along with some other goodies. Also, try posting to supertopo.com. They are pretty valley-centric. There are also a number of NPS folks who climb if you ask around. There are some awesome swimming holes tucked away near ElPortal for those hot days after work... just make sure you know what poison oak looks like. You working for the National Parking Service?

I agree completely, and that is part of why it is a staple of the society. However, people usually think on a shorter time scale, ie the time scale of balancing a checkbook and that is why middle to upper class families are less likely to get in a twist about it.

I think that there may have been a tinge of sarcasm mixed in with some of chucK's comments... Ask people who will be on Social Security in 15 years what they think of this accounting. The tax cut applies most strongly to the upper economic ranks. It is classic Reganomics, aka trickle-down economics. The money has to come from somewhere to fund programs that are committed to. As we decrease income to the gov't, and increase military spending it seems that Bush will have an increasingly difficult time funding other programs including education. It is a bit difficult to swallow the increased demands on schools (read 'accountability' by standardized testing) by the feds in the face of decreased federal funding. Granted, most of K12 funding is from the state level. IMO, education is a staple of a successful society. I fear that with the direction that the fiscal structure of our gov't is taking, social programs, including education, will see a cut. If you can afford education independent of public schooling, this probably doesn't get you all in a twist. If you don't have parents that can afford it, this puts you at a serious disadvantage. I fear that the full impacts of the current fiscal policy will rear their heads long after Shrubya is gone and forgotten. I'll end the ramble session now...

Interesting that Greenspan has been saying some of the same things as the 'Crackpot' on PP's page as of late...

Oops! He left it out again... I guess it's just 'Fuzzy Math'. Another for the american people.

Anyone have any info on another slide up in BC this weekend? I saw the tail end of a snippet about one over the weekend on the new last night. From the photo, it looked like a fairly large slide that took everything down to turf. I took a quick look around on the komo website, but didn't see anything on avalanches within the last week.

I've used it on old quarter inchers and on Star Dryvens where it worked beautifully. Any of the 5 piece expansion bolts are going to be more diffucult to pull out because the sleeve cams more as it is pulled out along its axis. I've never had to pull one, but it seems that it may work well to pull it out a bit, tap it back a bit to decouple the expansion sleeve and then pull again and repeat until it's out. Regardless, the fork offers more controlled mechanical advantage than crowbars (etc) and is less likely to come loose and hurt you. I wonder how hooking a funkness device up to an 8lb sledge would work? You can break clean pieces of hard granite off with a sledge that big (field tested often), so it may be a feasible way to improve on finishing the job once the bolt is far enough out that the fork no longer engages the bottom of the hanger- or from the get go, for that matter. A bit heavy to get up, but may be just what the doctor ordered. Regardless, once you start messing with the bolt, finish the job! Also, for those unfamiliar with which bolts are scary, etc... , please go see ASCA Bolt information

The uber-tool for bolt extraction is a ball-joint tool, available at any auto shop. Slot the tongs of the 'fork' under the hanger and drive them under with a few quick blows from a wall hammer. The mechanical advantage is awesome, and works amazingly well. I've also tried working with crowbars, etc, but this works waaay better. A pic of the tool

How about a different end to the metaphor... Instead of looking for a discount/laziness and getting a subscription, why not step up to the plate, spend a few more bucks and get a guidebook? More interactive, and like any relationship, you only get out of it what you put into it. Besides, that way you get out climbing, and stop sitting around looking at the superficial stuff you can't do anyways. So, would borrowing friend's magazines be a metaphor for 'swapping' then? Glen

Sizing your rock climbing shoes: tight or comfy? Okay, so this is a topic which has been hashed out by everyone at some point, and most people seem to come up with a different set of standards. Obviously it will depend on the type of climbing, how long the shoes are to be worm, experience level of climber and and any number of other hyper-detail-oriented specifics (like heel fit for overhang specific shoes). Obviously sport shoes and slippers should be pretty tight and that all-day shoes should be more to the comfortable side, but never overtly sloppy. The question comes into the details... on slippers what is too tight vs. not tight enough and what are the indicators you use? What about for board lasted shoes? I generally try to size them so that the seams leave imprints, are on the tight side of snug, but not painful or making my toes curl to the point that they can't be moved. This seems to offer a good combination of dexterity, sensitivity and allows me to keep them on my feet long enough to lace them up. For board lasted shoes, I go maybe a half size up. This allows no slop, but is comfortable. I figure the last is doing the edge work, and havn't noticed any significant improvement when going tighter. Of course, I also don't throw down super-hard stuff either. There's a joke in here about boxers vs briefs, but the sportos probably wouldn't like it Discuss.

I'm more concerned by the fact that he has a pic of Chris Sharma on his avatar than that he got out and got some post-season turns. Good on him for getting out. If you really didn't like his post, why read it? Maybe he's trying to pick up TLG who's always intimating that she thinks Sharma is a hunk?

Heck, I'm a weekend warrior and don't really care if it's derogatory or not- it just doesn't matter. I usually work 6 days a week (and love what I do), but get out and do something good on my time off. It's not always climbing because I also get off on bikes, hikes, freshiez and the like. I think a better measure might be how hard a person applies themselves to what they do. I'm wayyy too lazy to look up the post, but at some point some number of months ago chucK said something along the lines of not caring what people do, as long as they are pushing themselves. If a 'livin the life' person is pushed by a 5.9, they are still 'living the life' as long as they are out there doing it. If a person is climbing hard, enjoying it, and also has other interests, it really doesn't matter if they are a WW or not. I've also got friends who've held down full time jobs and hit 30 different climbing destinations over 23 road trips in a single year. In other words- avoid the pigeon-hole, it misses the point.

For that matter, anyone know if the Devils Gulch ride near Cashmere is clear of snow yet? the access road tops out at ~5600'. It was hard to tell from local webcams and area info. It's that top 1000' of elevation that are the tough ones to figure out. How sweet would it be to have a combo mtn bike and climbing adventure race?

Heck, if it's in Ballard, I might even show... after bouldering on plastic that is...