ivan

The gobment should not be in the business of rescuing people. If you are going to ask for help when you screw up or get in trouble, and they have to pay, then they get to dictate what, when and where you will go. It's that simple. So they should be out of the rescue business so we can be free. That simple. if they're using state resources that i paid for in my taxes though, can't i argue that i'm owed - for example, the coast guard has those cool helicopters that i helped fund, so arne't i within my rights to expect them to come get me if a rip-tide drags me out to sea?

but the irish did expect the english to rescue them after the potato blight caused a famine, no?

an EQ isn't exactly a disaster you can avoid though by not going cilmbing or staying behind after an evacuation order

you mean, why can't we just all get along?

wrong gull (2nd pitch) - beacon rock - you'll still shit yerself- my fav moment was being 10 feet above the 6, looking down at ken: "dude, i'm fucking wasted! i'm gonna jump" "what?!? "i can't do this - i can't get up or down - i'm gonna fucking jump" "wait - what?!?" "faaaaalling!" the 6 is good for backbone ridge on dragontail too

so you gonna give mike and e back their rack?

i'd like to climb after school at least once this week - anyone up for getting out tuesday-thursday? i can be there by 330 usually...

so who'll likely be picking up the slack?

i'm looking forward to climbing w/ my kids, but i think i'll likely have to wack the wife out on thorazine in order to keep her out of the way of the door

so, in hindsight, whatcha think about ditching the bivy sack in favor of a 1 lb sleeping bag?

fresh squeeze!

here's the one bolt, kevin - it was way more inspiring than those fucking relics on stephenwolf

"how steep is this mother-fucker again?"

what, you can't see a crack here?

true that, at least the first half, but the upper part is a beautiful set of finger cracks and probably only mid 10ish still, if the FA'ists only saw the need for 1 bolt and i could get my fat ass up it in its current state, why change it? if folks want to free it, it's not hard to set up a TR once you're on big ledge. get it wired and you could probably lead it free - the major problem is that it's thiniest at the start w/ a very real danger of crashing onto the belay ledge - it wouldn't be nearly as cool and intimdating a line w/ a bunch of new hardware.

da'lright - when ya wanna go? i was looking to get out tomorrow after school....

i meant those beefy leeper cam hooks, bill (my knowledge of aid widgetery is still quite infantile) - they worked really well, especially up high - i haven't quite gotten used to top-stepping w/ them (but the skyhook guys are waaay sketchier once you're above them!) kev, there's a bolt on the route already (a cheater stick there woulda let me skip the first nail i used too) - there's really no need for more, at least as an aid climb - at 11d, i'm not so worried about trying to free it anyhow a variation to the line could be created w/ 1-2 bolts above the #3 placement, where it's all overgrown now and would probably be pretty fun - the topo does show the original route going right where i did though...

naw, doing'em twice is fine - and if i climb w/ you, you'll like, wanna lead n'stuff i seem to have collected an assortment of kind fools who prefer to let me do all the fun shit! you wanna do flight time sometime soon? there are several in the book too that look more mysterious - "edge of fear"'s got the best name and the vaunted grade iv rating

Trip: Beacon Rawk - - Fresh Squeeze to Squeeze Box - 5.8A4 Date: 9/14/2008 Trip Report: the summers of good times continue - 2 strait summer seasons at the good stone, and haven't had to repeat a thing - today, following the theme of last week on stepphenwulf, looked for a place i'd been before and felt awe-struck at the prospect of defiling the mtn-god - my list of shit left to do is getting fun and thin, w/ no descriptions at all in the olson guide, and usually not even the godamn # illustrated! this time it was fresh squeeze, the intimidating, smooth face immediately above the windsurfer anchor (pipedream is just around the corner - i was eager to keep the pithc to less than the 5 goddamn hours i spent on that one, and made it, though it was closer than i woulda liked) - this pitch is fucking kewl, but like most of the beacon adventure climbs i've been doing of late, showing clear signs of the infrequency w/ which it's being climbed might should have my head examined - today conditions were far from optimal for an overgrown, aid-intensive line - so fucking windy that half the time i had to grab my etriers from ABOVE me, trying to hold the lower steps down long enough so i could get my foot in to get gravity working back the way it's supposed to go - sometimes a gust woudl come up strong enough that my trailing pair of etriers would get shot up from 5 feet beloew me, to 5 feet above, only to come crashing down on my helmet w/ a palpable THWACK! - heavy lichen and plenty of dirt and plants to clean from cracks, such that i spent several hours in a swirling maelstrom of occular pain-fuck, my skin sweating dust and pulverized paleolithic plant-fuck forms sooo - this is a serious aid line, though i'm still pretty inexperienced and entirely self-taught - A4 seems right, given olson's descriptions - i wish i'd had some birdpeaks, as those would likely have spared me from having to drive the 2 knive-blades i used (both which had to be tied off) - loweballs woulda been good too, and might could have taken the place of the dozen or so leeper placements that were not optional (a whole fucking colony, doctor!) - the route is a wierd one, passing through an old, solid pin, a similiarly archaic yet beefy bolt, and a fixed head only slightly less skethcy then the one on the 1st pithc of the dutchman - at least one mandatory hook placment that oozed slowly down, leaving shavings of basalt like brittle butter! - about 1/2 way up, above the head and at an odd but solid #3 cam placement, you are compelled to bail right onto a shitload of leepers into a solid crack system (the left is very, very bushy, and rightfully so as there's nothign fucking there for pro!) - this crack takes a lot of great ultra-thin to medium sized nuts, eventually leading to leap-frogging yellow aliens - a bit further and some big cams (used my #4, but coulda lived w/o it) and was at the anchor for squeeze box, which could use a joehealy replacment as it's an american death-sling situation which needs to be cut out if the old, giant pin is to be made usable - the extant bolt is exposed down to the threads - i backed it up w/ a 3 piece anchor (mike jugged on a convenient, solid bolt at the top of the line), but by the time mike had gotten up to me and my dry-heaves from the heat, dust and dehydration had failed to pass, i was sufficiently chagrined by the large brush above to bail over to big ledge for forbidden pleasures - johnny cash on the ipod shuffle w/ the giant speakers! returning to squeeze box is on the agenda for sure - (markd's?) arete route (devil's backbone?) is pretty clean, but the crack above the anchors for squeeze box is very attractive - i'll have to go back w/ heavy duty clippers though, as the crack, which'll take .5 inch cams easy, is currently cluster-fucked w/ beefy roots and branches that just can't be chopped w/ a nut tool\ on the postive side, the 2nd kneecap i was sprouting after whacking meself in the leg w/ a staub while showingh the kids how to fuck up a pinata-proper didn't slow me down Gear Notes: 2 medium kniveblades (tied off) (or a few birdbeaks) a leeper colony some species of skyhook 2-3 blue to red aliens brassies and 1 1/2 sets of nuts, small to large 2 .75 - 2 camalots 1 # 3 1 #4 20 draws Approach Notes: ninja creep

hey man, you can't ever feel shitty 'bout backing off on the big j-berg - that's what makes it such a cool mtn - 'cuz it's fawking scarey! a lot more bear sitings 'round cascade pass this year - josh and i saw just 1 bear on our trip, and i saw none on my sketchy solo (fuck you desolation slabs!) fucking balloons!

I think all rational people agree with this. I find it stunning that this debate and the balance the budget debate as well hasn't hit center stage in the US Presidential elections. how'd mondale do in '84 when he rightly said the only way to reverse the massive national debt reagan was creating would be to raise taxes? politicians can't talk about the budget or GCC or anything of that sort precisely b/c the only solutions will involve the electorate suffering, and we only hire leaders who reassure us that our shit smells like buttercups and our cocks are big as louisville sluggers

climb right in the heart of the middle section - climb up from that cool bench near the base of the snowdome and have at it - you get extra points if you can force your way through up tot he base of the n face gullies!

tvash - how is it htat you and i are so lame as to both be sitting in front of a goddamn computer on a beautiful saturday afternoon? ah well, at least i'm off for a 3 year old's b-day party! and listening to johnny cash along the way...

There's nothing about Iraq that isn't painfully familiar from the 60s and 70s. Since WWII, the executive branch has learned that the less the citizenry have to sacrifice for war, the less they'll give a shit about it. Rapid mobilization requires lots of civilian sacrifice, so the politicos figured out that if we just up the military budget permanently so that we're always mobilized for war, the citizenry hardly notices. Hell, they even support the war because it breaks up the monotony of dull suburban life. This gives the President a free hand to do whatever the fuck he wants militarily, and, lo and behold, he does. The formula kind of failed in Vietnam, but the White House figured out that an all volunteer military would solve that problem, and it did. Now, we really don't give a shit whether or not we're at war. No real difference at home, hell, who even notices? The result is that we're at war pretty much all the time somewhere, and have been since the 50s. 59% of our federal discresionary tax dollars go to this military corporate welfare system now. No politico even hints about cutting back on this cocaine party anymore. REDUCE THE MILITARY?!!! ARE YOU CRAZY???!!!! Billions of jihadist are mobilized along the Canadian and Mexican borders and you want to REDUCE THE MILITARY???? this was orwell's exact prediction, of course - war for no purpose but to control one's own population, and therefore, eternal war w/ no interest in winning

observe the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff last week testifying to congress and saying, regarding afghanistan, "we can't kill our way out of this"