ivan

before writing more, please digest the entirety of this monstrosity please in the meantime and while you're wading through the muck therein contained, contemplate the foolishness of looking for logic in the minds of extremely scared people in a very scary setting, then meditate on what you might make of this macabre moment, even if you could master its intricacies - the only real lesson to take from it is a simple one: don't get yourself killed - it upsets your family and looks poor in the papers!

i'm not sure how you'd fit politics into a nutshell, but i did just notice a fine anagram for "politics son!" is "clit is poison!"

2002 (my first year) - mostly bullshit 2003-present - mostly bullshit i'm left to assume 2001 was a golden year though where are the snowdens of yesteryear?

i doubt he'd be sober enough to think anything sensible of it at all! sky n' company's antics impress me far more than proto-hippie-hedonism

sounds like the "nose in a day" didn't happen? dammit geoff n' mike, couldn't ya'll have totally hosed it so i don't have to ride down there all worried about letting down the side?!?

a cool camp fo'shizzle - in proper storm conditions the little notch where you begin the descent to the reid takes on a life of its own, blowing like a locomotive, hard enough to blast you to your knees - in storms like that, even if you're down in the calm of the bowl, spindrift catchingon i-rock and sloughing down onto you makes waking up to dig yourself out every 2 hours or so mandatory, unless you like being in a collapsing coffin!

the average # of grammitical retardations has dropped, if only b/c erik eventually got bored and stop posting when he'd fallen asleep w/ his eyes open

i'm glad to be cast as the anti-socialite, probably explains why i end up climbing in a team of 1 so often 3 fat ass clueless bumbling bastards will always climb slower than 2 equal retards - twight, blitz & house don't quite qualify as such - i didn't know these guys, but it sounded like they were more like the former and less like the later - a bigger group bumps n bangs up on itself, each person's 1 minute break adds to the collective lag - decisionmaking by consenus building takes longer - confidence in the power of the large team overcomes reallity - might explain why they got a later start on the route? i wasn't there so i don't know and don't represent myself as some sort of expert - from experience, all things equal, my climbs go faster the fewer folks are around, and the longer the smokes and beers survive! at any rate, we argue over details - everyone can agree the most capital mistake was not their party size - were i to arrange my list of problems above, i'd put it at the bottom

yes, several routes - there's info on the board here if you poke around for it - a bit of beta in olson portland rock guide as well - more mixed kinda ground at this moment though i'd reckon

wish i could - if my children were older i was sell them to you as temporary slaves for the evenign, but at the moment they're more liabilities than anything will be thinking of ya'll on that interminable drive though...then falling asleep at the wheel

i prefer climbing w/ 3 b/c then i can usually weasel my way out of having to drive and/or buying the beer

have you climbed the n face gullies fox? not an attack mind you, just wondering if you'd applied your ideas to that route particularily - the ice steps are thin and narrow and 2 seconds are not going to be able to climb simulataneously - of course having a 3 set of hands around is better in case of injury, but that route, which is generally alwasy done in the dark days of late fall/early winter, demands speed. 3 experienced climbers who've done a lot of such climbs togetehr i agree could be as fast as two, but that doesn't describe this bunch as i recollect. hey, aren't there 200 pages of this kinda speculation in the endless tauntaun thread for years back? i agree too this was not their worst mistake - the decision to make a late start in the face of a grim forecast was probably the most telling

climbing w/ 3 is generally slower than w/ 2 - the n face gullies w/ 3 doubly so - speed was what they needed - if it had been just 2 climbers, their odds of survivial in this case would have been greater.

on a side note, if the government would like to work on evening out the budget deficit and can't sink to the level of a bake-sale for the cause, i'm quite sure they could waterboard cheney on pay-per-view for $49.99/set and make enough to buy a whole wing of b-2 bombers!

perhaps you could scan them in or give us your condensded version? i imagine it'll be along the lines of: - starting too late/not turning around in time - too large a group - improperly supplied - lack of familiarity w/ descent path - weather

camp at i-rock gap - watch out for frozen poo

too early to say on the oak - i usually don't know how bad it'll be till a day or 2 - i took a shitload of benadyrl last night as i think maybe it helps prevent the cascade of crap that comes w/ a badcase? (and taking steroids makes me an angry camper) - it's hard to say what % of the jungle is oak, but i'd assume at least some of it is - wearing long pants when heading back there is highly recommended (advice whihc i myself failed to take and have the thousand nettle-burns to show for it), as is bringing some sorta tool to beat it all down w/ - the bit of effort just the 2 of us put in significantly improved the last part of the trail, but the wall itself would take an hour or so to get beat down good enough to let you walk along the base in general, the berlin wall and the jungle cliff are very cool places, but requiring a distinct breed to take advantage of (good lord, the berlin wall routes are ragingly overhung and all in .12-3 range i think)

i think my many misspelling are the best way to relate my sweet, 5 year-oldish mentality

so, only 2 placements up i realized the deriviation of this gross dedication to the deviant - after hammering in a big-beak and stretching to a decent, web-shrouded #3, i looked at myself - already i looked like this asshole... grossly spectacular - like a bitch so bigaround a hulu-hoop couldn't encompass her - already we'd endured a hateful hike past the bat wall, where the trail dwindles and dankens - nettles choking the path - my brushbroom more used as a shit-scyth then a staff - we hacked in a stance at the base - the crag is aptly named: jungle cliff - choked w/ stinging nettles, blackberry, poison oak - you can't traverse its base for most of it length - still, a stark and imposing wall, the most intimidating at broughtons by far - multipitch - the upper left of the wall massively overhangs and looms but the wall, especially the far right where muji is, is stupid dirty - scales of powderbrown, in fantastic rime formations i tried to care - maybe it was the extorted promise to be home early and the noonish arrival after warming up on the red wall? - all rigged up and off - after getting to the #3 i cleaned as well i could - already i was deeply gandified - touching the wall, cascades of dust poured off like minature avalanches on a hot day - looking even, i noticed my gaint cam had become invisible, shrouded in skank - above, ripples of mud and all the nailing you could wave a hammer at, but even the overhangs dirty, dirty, dirty - i failed to care - i'm gonna have to want it a lot more than today wayne! holy shit this route is butt nasty! i've never failed on a route b/c of my latent-racism in the face of arabization how's amazon man, it looked a tad cleaner?

the cooper spur has less of a problem of this kinda icefall i think - it involves bivying up high, but this time of year i think it's the cooler easy way to the top - descend the sunshine route for extra points!

if i hear anyone say "ad hominem attack" this cute little girl gets it! on a side note, i recommend against google image searching "cute little girl" w/ the filter turned off

Not everyone is into "big-rock-mountain clambering"... perhaps it was my interest in not getting smushed by decaying volcano slag that compelled me to the deviation? there are many fine moderate, non-volcano (and thus non-rime n' mud clad) mountaineering options to our north as well that folks should consider as alternatives on days like these - forbidden, sahale, stuart, shuksan, etc. i used to sneer at rock-clambering fools too till i went and did the fisher chimenys on shuksan in the depths of summer, and i haven't much looked back - join us! congrats on your climb though - certainly not trying to harsh on it, just reminding one and all that you can have similiar exotic fun this time of year w/ perhaps less risk

winter is the proper season for volcano climbing the good lord made summer for big rock-mountain clambering

there are no ethics on any popular route on any mountain, so don't expect them - assume its the mall at xxxxx feet my fav was taking the aforementioned ragdoll fall down the west crater rim a few years back while solo and the 30 some odd folks in the vicinity not even batting an eye or even asking if i was alive

naw, moof (seann of homemade russian aider fame) - geoff went down w/ my boy mike this past week and did wa column and somesuch...