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Sounds good. I have kids so I need a few days advance notice to set up a babysitter if it is a weekend that my wife works.

There is room for twenty at Thumb rock. If you have a shovel. If there are twenty there, someone will. I went straight up also. But we had a block to use as a ramp and only had about 10 ft of vertical neve. The route some people take goes way right and skirts around the crevasses and the vertical snow. But then you miss the incredible snowfield at the top of Liberty Cap. When you look down between your toes, you see the edge of the cliff and below that, the Carbon river 7000' below.

Thank you for sharing your research and experiences. One for Frank!

"Hey look at that pictograph. It must have been there a thousand years. Lets screw it up!" Frigin ignorant idiots.

Nice composite. I have taken a similar composite with the same results. I want that shot with a wide angle lens.

Crystal was nice today. A little sloggy on the bottom half but nearly powder on the upper half. My girls had a blast. Olivia even got to ride a sled down. She hit a "SLOW" sign and hurt her leg. By the time we got to a restaraunt on 169 she had forgotten to limp.

Is that in Canada?

.........and Ronald Reagan and George Bush Sr. and Jr were saints. Wake up dude. They all lied to get where they were and then lied out of habit. Move on. Jr. is full of shit like that for you to grouse about and you still have a chance to do something about his next term.

1. Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants (100%) 2. Bahá'í Faith (98%) 3. Orthodox Quaker (92%) 4. Liberal Quakers (84%) 5. Mainline to Conservative Christian/Protestant (82%) 6. Seventh Day Adventist (75%) 7. Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) (73%) 8. Eastern Orthodox (68%) 9. Orthodox Judaism (68%) 10. Roman Catholic (68%) 11. Unitarian Universalism (67%) 12. Jehovah's Witness (67%) 13. Sikhism (61%) 14. Christian Science (Church of Christ, Scientist) (59%) 15. Reform Judaism (56%) 16. Islam (56%) 17. Hinduism (50%) 18. Jainism (49%) 19. Neo-Pagan (43%) 20. Mahayana Buddhism (41%) 21. Theravada Buddhism (41%) 22. New Age (40%) 23. New Thought (38%) 24. Secular Humanism (37%) 25. Taoism (36%) 26. Scientology (27%) 27. Nontheist (23%) Who can tell me about my Bahá'í Faith ?

Shameless. Lowell, do you know what became of Frank Hill?

I consider myself an environmentalist but that does not make me an extremist any more than being a republican makes someone a hard core, right wing, christian fundamentalist, war mongerer. Gross generalities are shallow and polarizing by nature. I like seeing roads closed off simply for the sake of increasing habitat. Valley bottoms are where 90% of the food is and unfortunately, where a lot of roads go. I have hiked many long trails to get to long climbs in the Bitterroot. Now that I am older and trying to be more careful with my joints, I would consider having a packer haul my gear in. It does not close an area off. It just makes it more wild and conducive to a healthy ecosystem that can support a broad genepool of all species.

Thank you for this excellent account of Mt Index climbing history. I look forward to reading your book. What became of Frank Hill? Did you attempt to find him?

In 82, a friend and I were pulling out our driveway pointing west when we saw a huge flaming purple group of space junk flying east. It seemed to move in slow motion and we were both coming off a long party ( ) so it took us a couple seconds to realize, this is real, we are not that high anymore. The sherrif in East Missoula called his deputies and they drove all over the mountains to the north looking for the space invaders. Meanwhile, way up north on the Yukon, two friends of a friend of mine were hangin after almost a month on the river. They still had another month to go and had no particular plans. When they woke up the next morning, it was to the sound of large helicopters. They were the US military kind. Upon spotting these two luckless saps, the helicopters landed and cuffed them and put all of their belongings in a helicopter and took them to a military base along the radar line that detects incoming nukes and interrogated them for three days. The purple ball was a Russian satellite and the military suspected the conoers to be Russian spies timing the response time of the military. They never saw their belongings again.

did you sell 0.8 of a child to michael jackson to pay off your gambling bills I don't gamble and I would never sell my kids to Michael Jackson. For climbing gear and to a good family might get my attention but only because one is a teenager. He thinks climbers are whack. We have three but one is from my wife's previous life. I meant to put 2.2.

Apart from weather, the only part of the route I worry about is the Carbon glacier. It can be pretty cut up with gapers. One picket per person would be my suggestion. When I did the route, we crossed two bridges that we did not expect to hold. As for the 20 degree bag, that is light for that time of year but it would depend on what you had for clothes. Down coat? What's on the legs? It also depends on how warm you are in general but at 12K plus on Rainier in May you could get any kind of weather. If it looks like a solid high pressure ridge, you'll probably be OK. Otherwise, what would you do for winter camping minimum?

Big snow. Big cold.

Get my 8 year old to the top of a peak. Solo the N face of N Index.

I lived with them in 92. They couldn't cook worth a damn but there was very little wear and tear on the laundry facilities.

The groupings were subjective. A kangaroo certainly does not look like a horse but a mule is unable to reproduce and usually has to be artificially inseminated. Maybe I'm just bitter about getting 131. I scored 147 on another test that took 3 hours. But it seemed culturally biased and I am a white middle class male with 1.2 children.

I have done the Enchantment loop in a day from the Stuart lake side. I took a leisurly pace starting at 5AM and hitch-hiking to the Family Fun center about 2:30. It is a great way to spend the day. One thing I noticed going down the Snow creek side was that I did not see the big peeks in the Enchantments unless I turned around. For that reason I can see why some might want to go up the Snow creek side for the views. On the other hand, you have to hump an extra 1500 feet or so. Not that big of a deal on that trail.

Mainly becasue it's so scary looking!!! If I do climb it this year, look for a very long cheastbeater trip report! You're climbing that bitch this summer if I have to drag your ass!!! Summer, man that doesn't look scary, just looks like work. I wanted to get on it this last summer so I could try figure out what is the best way to get off that damn thing during the winter. On Monday someone had told me it suppose to stay like it was for the rest of the week, it got me all worked up instantly thought 'Index'. Pray for cold and clear down low. I have been trying to solo the NF of N Index for two years now. Summer only so far. I have only had a day each time and keep running out of time. But what I do know is that there are rapell routes all over the face. Slings etc. Just be careful toward the bottom. If you go down the middle, you end up on a couple funky wire placements that are probably older than you are. Take the route down the east side of the face so you end up going down the route before the traverse near the bottom. You will have to work at cutting over there if you do not tend that way from the start. Take some long leaver slings and pins (short KB's). I have heard that the west ridge is a safe way off but you end up in a long bushwhack down Anderson creek. A winter ascent would be worth a good chest beating. That is a very big face.

There is clear statistical proof that crime rates go up during a full moon. Maybe the additional avalanches are being triggered by criminals. That would explain all the chewed through food bags and the little turds in my gorp too.

As a former political strategist, I quickly learned that the demographics of voters is weighted heavily on the older side. The younger the voter, the less likely they are to execise the right. This changes a little during a presidential election but is still clearly weighted to the advantage of the elderly. The most popular excuse I hear is, "My one vote is not going to make a difference". Which is only true as long as millions of you continue to think that way. The FS is under the executive branch. Local variations of the executive plan can be influenced by local politicians but that is subject to executive approval. Basically, if you don't vote, you don't matter. That is just a political reality, not my judgement.

Redmond. Sounds good. Name your favorite.