Bug

I have a bong somewhere. I'll dig through my pile.

I grew up there. Or was stunted there. Depends on how you look at it. Whenever I go back to the Bitterroots, I look around and see lines that I have done that are not recorded anywhere. Rick Torre has a lot of info but as was said above, there is a general reluctance to publish and attract attention. You will be happier in the Wind River range or the Tetons if you want topos and gear lists. Montana is wide open. Ain't no need for no books. You take yur gear an go climb somthin. Blodgett is well dicumented as well as Kootenai and the Lolo Domes. The rest of the Bitterroots are a giant playground just waiting for the adventurous climber. Ask a trad climber and you will get a flood of info. Ask a gym climber and you will get squat. True everywhere. I can list the best canyons to look in and give you some pointers to the obvious gulleys. There are endles lines to be done and a lot that have already been done but you will not know it if you go there. There is the occaisional soft pin or 1/4" bolt but mostly, you will find clean gneiss and granite with classic crack systems and incredible summit views of endless cracks.......Expect a little walking.

Gear up kids! Does anyone have a full sized griddle we ccan use to crank out pancakes in the morning? I will bring my two burner propane stove and I'm sure there will be others. I'll bring a big bag of Krusteaz mix. Let's have eggs and bacon too. That'll fuel em up for the long term better than empty carbs. We ran a little short of water last time too. Bring lots of water bottles/bags. Chatter Creek is way up the canyon. It could be cold so bring warm clothes. I will have a huge tarp or two. Some extra cord would be handy to tie it up.

Chill. I have the answers you seek. Check your PM's.

I think we have 12 cars paid for. After that, the price goes up alittle (if they check). All are welcome. I think my 10 yr old nephew and 9 yr old niece are coming too.

Wild Turkey is 101 proof. Good for "sippin" in the woods. I like the platypus bottles too. One for each flavor is a must.

I will be there. I'm easy to spot. I'll be wearing gators and shorts over capalene underwear.

ALWAYS do the right thing. NEVER fail. This will keep your wife from saying bad things about you at your funeral. It does not cover the reception.

Yup. It's them damn ethnics what done it.

Pulling out is our only reasonable action. Any further troops will only serve to prolong the killing. If we were willing, and I am not, to go in there with a truely overwhelming force and scortch any source of resistence, then we might win through respect but probably not even then with the jihad being global. No. Let the fundamentalists take over and run their course as they did in Iran. Eventually, the people of a nation that large will become uncontrolable and the resources (oil/money) too valuable to withhold. They will moderate themselves. It will not be a fun transition but I think it is inevitable. There is not enough political clout in the idealism of Bush/Cheney/Rumsfield/Ascroft to maintain such a horrific drain on our young adults nor our economy. The truely sad part is that so many have already died to an end that is not well thought out.

Dude. Put VP Cheney in leather boots, give him a mustache and viola! Mussolini lives!

Check your PM's for Silverettas

Yea. I guess so. That would allow me to finally use this 50 foot chunk of webbing I have stufffed in my gator too. Sorry but chopping established anchors is only done by assholes. Stap Vinink yur silf.

Looks like there's a bit of salad on the route.

I was up there a couple weeks ago and got hit on the back of my calf by what felt like stinging nettle but there wasn't any around. There were about ten welts too.

For belaying two partners and more importantly, so I can prussick on them without having to do the Clint Eastwood shoelace thing. Another advantage is the overall wear & tear that they will take. I have only retired one 9mm or 8.8 in 20 years due to sheath wear. All the others were retired due to age and/or leader-falls. I do have a 7mm X 60m now for those days when I solo and want to rap off but it does not see much use.

Pave tuolome meadows and park them there.

They will go the way of Iran. Radical fundamentalism followed by moderate groundswelling and a uneasy peace somewhere right of center. It will not change until free travel and communications open up.

I find that my Suunto is very good at predicting a change in the weather. It only works if I am stationary though. Like at camp or hangin for lunch etc. There are minor fluctuations but any trend lasting 30 minutes or more is worth noting.

I climbed on twin 50s for a couple decades. Now I have a 60 that is really nice. When it wears out, I will get another 60 but only because there are so many people using them and the anchors are getting spaced that way. I would rather have twin 8.8's at 50 for efficiency though. I have not ever had a problem getting up or getting down. But that was doing 1st ascents in remote places.

That's called a love glove turd.

If you do not always wear a helmet you are risking massive dangerous bad joo-joo. You are also fair game on this site to be called a turd, a reckless cowboy without spurs, and a Becky wanna-be who has no chance of living that long. Fess up. You know you should ALWAYS wear a helmet. You know it should be a rule enforced by gun totin, level four, FS cop wanna-bes. I am wearing mine now sitting at my desk because I am reading this post on CascadeClimbers.com.

I all but quit climbing when my first was born. I didn't really want to but it freaked my wife out totally. Then I figured out that she was freaked out anyway so I started climbing again. The girls are often on my mind as I climb. It has gotten easier now that they are 6 & 8 and past that magical 5 the doc's talk about. They are obviously part of my legacy now -poor things. But it is not really the kids who changed me. It was when Alex Lowe died and left his three kids behind. I remember when Alex decided to focus his life on climbing. I remember when our friend Marvin died on the Grand. There were a lot of discussions with close friends at those times and we all had to agree that if you are climbing with good equipment and using your well developed skills as best you can, you are more likely to die in a car wreck. Alex did die in the mountains but it was in a freakish sized avalanche. It was like getting taken out in your bed by a drunk driver who didn't see your house. Marvin on the other hand, died on the north face of the Grand rapping off in a storm. He always wore a helmet but didn't that day. He always tied knots in the end of his ropes but didn't that day. He got beaned by a rock, slid off the end of his ropes and bounced a thousand feet. Cover the basics-always. Develop a discerning eye and keep track of when you were wrong and when you were right and why. Never let your guard down. Do that and enjoy the sport and you will probably die on I-5. Unless you wear a seat belt and drive defensively. Then you will probably die of heart failure. Unless you keep in good shape, eat right and control your colesterol. Then you will probably die of ...........

There are too many rats in the cage. It has gotten worse in my 46 years and will continue to get worse as private lands become more inhabited and restrict access to public corridors and more people use the public lands. Eventually you will have to pay to enter lotteries to gain access to places like the Middlefork of the Snoqualmie. And then you will be in designated camp sites and sleeping in huts with strangers.

Maybe he needs to vist his friends with racks.