jordop

Yes, it was a good example for me to see the way that runouts and the nature of the terrain below the slide can greatly impact the severity of the slide. You can't so much look at the angle of the slope without looking at the what is going to happen if it does go. If the slope kept going at 40 degrees or went over a cliff, it would obviously be another matter altogether. Yes, such a realization is a no brainer, but I had never seen it so plain until today.

So based on Serl's timelines, the guide should be ready, what, some time in 2006?

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Low down in the canyon bit ?

Got caught in a good slab today at Marriot Basin. Skiing a 500 ft 40 degree run, I caught an edge, fell and triggered a slab about 100' across. I managed to swim out of it to watch it run for about three hundred feet. Crown was about 12'', but the runout progressively decreased in angle so that the deposition was only about four feet deep. I would've been fine , but stupid and damn scary. We had made the decision to ski only "microterrain" and no north facers as winds were high, but this slope was SE facing (if you know the area, it's the run directly west of th hut where it's steepest. Stupid, stupid, stupid

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In the oven right now: experimental breakfast bars for the Duffey drive in eight hours: Molasses Olive Oil Cocoa powder sesame seeds (Flighty Twighty warns of the acid in most nuts ) instant coffee vanilla pudding (a last minute impulse) as Stuey says," yes, well, I'll be crapping double for you tonight!"

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One thing I do find ironic is the fact that the mountain environment (climbing/hiking) is less regulated in Canada and western europe than it is in the USA. No permits/fees/helicopter access/etc, in most areas. Nice huts too. I guess in this one case, Canada is less regulatory than we are. Strange. Pure speculation here, but it might have something to do with the comparatively low gaper to square kilometre of mountain environment ratio in BC? Or maybe our government just really likes climbers

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MEC now carries a 60m single pick dry 9.7 rope for $150 CDN. Too bad it's made by Maxim. Mohawks in a week or your money back

Postscript: Cham3s refunded my money toaday, but because of exchange rate fluctuations I end up owing $40 CDN for the wonderful experience of doing business with such a fine organization. I then spent a good 30 minutes on the phone with Visa trying to find out if a web merchant can actually charge you money without knowing if they have the merchandise, and whether said company is responsible for the difference in exchange rates once $$ is refunded: 1. Visa will not inform its customers of the demands and rules it makes upon its web merchants. Such information can only be obtained once ones' own personal lawyer sues Visa. 2. Once you give your Visa ## out over the Internet, you have already entered into agreement with the merchant and if they screw you, well, it's your fault for not inquiring about their practices before you conducted business with them. I know where I'll be crapping on an upcoming trip to Chamonix!

Vladomir Beefchub

Funny, they explained that the reason this all happened is because they are just a "small" chain of stores that concentrates on customer service (!) rather than on having an huge stockpile. How many things wrong with that statement? 1. If you don't have the stock, what the hell you doin sellin on the net? 2. If you're concentrating on cust. service, where's mine? 3. If you know stock is a problem for you, why are you charging customers before you know if you even have the shit? So I checked with Visa and web merchants CAN charge you before they know if they have the stuff. They also have up to 30 days to refund an international order and can screw the customer with exchange rates I'm just gonna stick to abusing MEC from now on! Full money back on a pair of shoes I didn't like (they hurt, booo hooo!) AFTER they had been resoled. Show me a fromage monkey that'll do that for ya!

yeah, I love the Holden brand name they got in Oz. I always think Caufield and wonder if I would really want a car that depressed Now, I'd buy a Bruce Robertson instantly

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Sweet action suit! you know those bibs are Schoeller!

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Yeah, I think Fern put it best. Zut! What was I thinking? Mind you, I did make sure only to order stuff that I had already tried on and that the CO-OP sells I think I'm gonna continue to be a dick on this one until I get all my $$ back. An ethical web company will never let you order something they don't have IMO and it's just bad stock keeping to not know how much you've got on hand at any given moment.

Where's the Arc'teryx factory store? .

MEC Composite dies not stretch at all and is a waste of time. MEC Pamir is the deal of the century. You could always go to the new Arc'Teryx factory store and get 35% off for crap with missing velcro or stiching that goes two inches over the seam and back. But then there's no warranty

In Vertical Limit, the producers approached MtnH and asked for $$ for product placement. MtnH laughed and the producers used the logo liberally anyway, just caused it looked so damn hard I haven't found the detail workmanship any better than most companies. My Epic jacket had a couple stitching fubars; the only comany that seems spot on for this sort of stuff is ArcTeryx; you'll pay for it too.

1. A month ago Jordo orders a pair of Trangos and a pair of Lhotses from Cham3s.com. They bill my Visa the next day, but I don't hear from them or see the boots for three weeks. 2. I get impatient and email them asking what's up. The last time I ordered from them I got my shit in ten days. Turns out they only process the order once they get an email from their online banking system telling them the $$ has gone through, and for some reason they didn't this time. They apologize and promise to get the order out the next day. I suggest they refund my shipping $ (another company did this for me when a similar thing happened) but they decline, saying it's not their fault 3. I get an email from them a day later saying they no longer have the Lhotses and nobody in Cham does either for the next month, would I still like the Trangos? I tell them they can either send the Trangos with no shipping or go stuff themselves. Once again, they say this was not their fault and they elect to refund my entire order rather than pay for shipping. End result=due to exchange rate changes, I will probably end up paying for the priviledge of being screwed by them a.) Can they legally charge me $$ without ever knowing whether they have the right sizes or not? They say that this is their standard procedure, what's up with that?