Mtguide

"Bouldering and sport climbing are valuable,but they are not legitimate forms of climbing." -Yvon Chouinard But yeah,not a bad looking website.

The only section I described as bulletproof is the 3rd pitch,the huge chimney;and it really is perfectly sound basalt,nothing loose there that i can recall.I just did this about a year ago in the fall.I totally agree,the rest is a chossdancer's waking fright.Also Alpenjaeger refers just to the 50 ft. pinnacle on the right side of the main big chimney.This is the last pitch,and it is indeed,as I said,mossy,chossy and poorly protected.Sphincter-squinchin',all right.Hell,let's do it again sometime,we can compare our memories to reality.

You bet;it's a fun climb well worth doing.West Chimney:First pitch is the only really manky one,poorly protected but easy(5.2)choss/grass.You can sling some pretty solid bushes and should be able to get a couple of good pins in.There's a bolt at the first belay.Second pitch is a more easily protected and more solid crack going into an off-width and then a chimney,maybe 5.5-5.6.There's a good belay at the top of this pitch.The next pitch is a huge,very solid,and very amazing chimney that climbs right thru the very middle of the formation,fairly low angle,the bottom of this huge chimney is full of loose dirt,rocks and dead leaves.But the walls on either side are clean bulletproof basalt;classic stemming all the way.At the end you come out on the backside of Crown Point.Final pitch to the top of the Alpenjaeger is mossy,chossy,poorly protected but not difficult scramble.See the route description in "A Climbing Guide to Oregon" by Nicholas A. Dodge.It's out of print,but the Mazamas library will have it,and sometimes you can find old copies at Powell's.

Eastwood did the actual climbing on the So.Utah footage(which was shot on Castleton Tower,I believe)and the Eiger footage included some pretty famous top climbers of the era: Scots Dougal Haston and Ian Clough and American Beat expat Gary Hemming.And Eastwood did the actual footage on the Eiger as well,with off-camera rigging by Clough,Haston,and Jim Bridwell.Pretty good company.Eastwood also still does some recreational rock climbing. The movie itself wasn't much,but the climbing scenes are pretty true to 70's era technique,especially the So.Utah footage.Worst technical gaffe in the Eiger footage was Clint wearing a construction-type hardhat instead of a regular mountaineering helmet,as well as soft,bendy boots suited more for a hike in the Columbia Gorge than for the Eiger.They certainly had far more advanced boots for ice climbing,even back then.Also they shot some of the Eiger scenes using goldline ropes instead of perlon,and there was no reason to be that outdated unless they were trying to portray an earlier period.Gold line was still around in 1970,but no serious climbers were still using it,and hadn't for about 5 or 6 years.

"Class Six",old school terminology, refers to direct aid.

Yep; there's tough,and then there's stupid.Any avalanche I've ever seen doesn't give you much time to "read" fuckall.

Conditions such as this are pretty common on the upper Muir this time of year.That's one hell of an exposed,windy place up there,and it seldom gets any heavy show buildup to last long before it gets windpacked or is completely blown off.Boilerplate is more the rule rather than the exception,and I've almost always carried crampons;the few times I left them home,the slowed travel time wasn't worth the weight saved. Prevailing storm winds come sailing across the Wilson and Nisqually and are really cooking by the time they hit the Muir,which is higher.Any cloud or precip bashes up against the west face of Gibraltar and Cathedral Rocks,backs up down over the upper Muir,and it makes that whole pocket up there a dandy little cauldron. It's well worth taking some time to study and observe over time,the localized behavior of weather in places like this.Not only does the entire mountain make its own weather,but the ridges and glacial troughs and headwalls intensify local conditions with all sorts of eddies and whorls as the winds come piling into the mountain.The Muir hut is where it is for some very good reasons besides the fact that it's convenient to the continuation of routes to the upper mountain.These conditions have been very consistent over many years of observation on the mountain.Muir looks very simple and close,and in fine weather,it is.But it can be one of the worst places to get caught out,and in very short order,too.Absolutely nothing on Rainier should ever be taken for granted.

According to research stated in the book Optimum Sports Nutrition by Michael Colgan,the Twinlab brand of supplements has consistently been shown to be the most reputable and trustworthy maker of supplements.If the label says that their Joint Fuel contains 750 mg of glucosamine sulfate per capsule,that's what is actually found in the analysis,time after time. I've used Twinlab's Joint Fuel for over 10 yrs,and it's definitely made a difference for me(shoulder and knee joints).At times I've tried other brands,and have actually noticed that many were not as effective.Nature's Way and Nature's Life are two other brands that seem to be full strength,or accurate regarding what they claim the content of their products to be.Natural Factors is one brand I have found not to be trusted. I've also heard about glucosamine sulfate being tied to elevated cholesterol levels.Anyone else have any personal experience or further info on this?

There's a great scene in one of the Wayan's brothers' films of two gang bangers leaning up against a brick wall,right next to each other.One gets out his cell phone and punches in a number.In a few seconds the other guy's phone rings,and they carry on a cell phone conversation standing about a foot apart.Very well done scene,funny as hell.

Hmmm;sounds just like the Clinton-haters,no? ---------------------------------------------------- "When Clinton lied,no one died..."

Cinema 21 is an old vintage 40's theater similar to the Alladin on SE Powell& 13th,if you've ever been there for the Banff Mt. film festival,about the same size,spongy funky old foldup seats.Not sure just how many it seats.Your worst problem will be to find parking;it's a mess.Come early for that reason as well as getting tickets.Sellout is hard to say;TTV has already been showing at the Hollywood here in PDX,and getting great response from everyone I've talked to.If it gets anything like the Banff show,yes,it will sell out.

Fantastic;stunning photo.Good on ya,mate.

Sounds very interesting;any chance you'd be including the trek on the Inca Trail to Macchu Picchu? I've wanted to do that one for years.Great pic,BTW.

That boy needs reminding that the worst day in the mountains is better than the best day at work.And maybe he ought to see the Warren Miller film clip of the kids in Northern India having the time of their lives skiing on dirty lousy crap snow on skis made from old lumber mill bandsaw blades nailed to slats of crate wood,and tied on with wire.Gratitude,bucko,not attitude,for every sweet and glorious day of life in the mountains,no matter what the skis,the weather or the miles. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ "Joy,shipmates,joy..." -Edward Abbey

At Scout camp one summer we waited for a particularly hated,overbearing and nerdy counselor,and a "city boy" to boot (we called him "Pearshape") to enter the old outhouse,then snuck up behind and threw a bomb made of a half-dozen M-80's wired together through a hole in the siding,then sat back to watch.When it exploded,the resident nest of yellowjackets under the roof were,to put it mildly, aroused, and within seconds, Pearshape came bursting out the door,screaming(he was too religious to swear),his pants around his ankles,his ass and legs plastered with well-seasoned shit, and covered with dozens of angry,stinging yellowjackets,as he hopped,stumbled,rolled and thrashed and flailed on his way to the nearby Brazos River.Every time he slapped at the yellowjackets on his legs and ass,he just got more shit on his hands,and then of course he had to slap at the ones on his face and neck and in his hair,and well,you get the picture.We had hell for weeks after that,but were the camp heroes for years,even among some of the Scoutmasters,who didn't care much for Pearshape either.Nowdays you'd get sued bigtime for something like that.But those ol' Texas country boys did play a little rough. We also used to draw straws to see who would climb out on the hood to clean the windshield while a carload of us went tooling down the freeway in Ft.Worth at 60 MPH in our '53 ford coupe.If it took you more than a minute you had to do the rear window,too,or they wouldn't let you back in the car; and they might not anyway if you didn't do a good enough job. Lesson learned: Give 'er hell!

We should be due for the yearly seasonal "weather window" of 10 days to two weeks that occurs almost every year,anywhere from end of Jan. to end of Feb.When I was first new to the Pac NW in the mid 60's it was pretty dependable within that time period, but it's been more sporadic of late.Maybe this being a more normal kind of NW winter,it'll be on time with sustained clear,cold,calm weather.Keep an eye on this: N.Pacific weather

Hmmm,now that would be a nice long rappel...

Nicely put,Murray.There's absolutely no question that these kinds of considerations aforethought are necessary,no matter what cultural terms they're framed in.The lack of this kind of thinking has left us with urban sprawl,strip malls,dying city centers racked with decaying ghettoes and no affordable housing,the bulldozing of once-healthy neighborhoods for misplaced freeways,demolition of valuable historic buildings and the rawness and hardness of cities like Oakland,Denver,Houston and E. St. Louis,cities that have grown completely out of control based on the technology of the automobile.This is supposed to be prosperity?Yeah,for the greedy few at the top,while all the rest are mired in the rat-race.Anyone who works in a cubicle and commutes knows what this means.These are indeed problems in our society,which is only just barely still recognizable as a tattered shadow of a democracy,if indeed it ever was. Not that the societies in which feng shui originated were perfect,by any means.Chinese monarchies,iron rule, simply established centuries of relative civil stability that eventually produced the leisure classes who had the time and money for this kind of thing.These were feudal societies with plenty of brutally downtrodden peasantry.You can still see this desire for stability at all costs in the way the Chinese govern today.And I have a hard time seeing the feng shui in the destruction of ancient villages and the displacement of millions for the construction of the Three Gorges Dam,not to mention the strangling of the mighty Yangtze River and the inundation of its spectacular gorge.It's every bit the disaster of a Glen Canyon or Hetch Hetchy,and then some. But the basic principles of Taoism and feng shui are nonetheless very,very ancient,and are rooted in very practical,simple and useful ideas of respect for both the natural environment and for the most basic human needs,and how to bring the two into harmony.Some utilization of nature is necessary for people to live well.How to do that without eventually destroying the land base that provides food,fuel and materials is an original fundamental concern of feng shui; the book Farmers of Forty Centuries talks about this.What we're now seeing is a much later development,so that most people know of it,or think of it as a sort of psuedo-superstition appplied to interior design,architecture,or landscape design.Hey,it sells books,little hexagonal mirrors and Chinese-coin windchimes,right?

Yeah,ain't it cool?

Guys,Joe and Simon would be proud-in the true tradition of mad dogs and Englishmen.See you there.

Well,yeah,of course not.No.I'm not saying that all; my experience has simply been that instead of being wiped out for several days or a week,that muscle soreness/stiffness and general fatigue seem to be much reduced and much less long-lasting.How much is dependent on how strenuous the climb was,particularly duration as well as the intensity of total effort expended. Recovery drinks and supplements aren't magic powders;but they are concentrated amounts of electrolytes,aminos,complex carbs,etc.,that can make a definite difference,especially when you don't wait too long to use them once your effort is done.These things are simply the basics that the muscles need for recovery.Muscle tissue will take in these substances from whatever you ingest;doing it in the form of specific supplements simply hastens and enhances the process.Ideally,the muscles are in the optimum mode for uptake of glycogen for about about an hour after you stop your exertion.Eating or drinking the right things,in the right amount,within that time window, is simply going to give you the best recovery rate,very simple.It's certainly not going to perform miracles if you've just done the El Cap-Half Dome linkup or anything else of that level.But it will definitely shorten your recovery,and will sure as hell do you more good than plain water,donuts,beer,or nothing at all. I'm simply going on personal experience.Give it a try,see what you think before making a judgement. ----------------------------------------------------- "Better Living Through Chemistry"

For a number of years I've had good results from a combination of Twinlab Ultra Fuel recovery drink,and Branched Chain Amino supplements,both before and after climbing,bc skiing,etc. I've also rediscovered for myself the value of getting out of the gym for conditioning,doing as much as possible to replicate the conditions you'll be dealing with on the real thing-in other words,the best conditioning for climbing,is climbing.IMHO.

Nice closeup there;(gotcha).

Well,that'd be a good start;but you'd have to lose Wolfowitz,Rove,Gale Norton,pretty much the whole cabinet, plus neocons like Grover Norquist,to really turn things around.Quite a passel of skunks that need fumigating,all right.Wonder if we'll ever get our country back.