ivan

joshk's n' me's TR of the saharan index traverse has got a # of index pix in it my favorite captures the "how the fuck do we get off this thing again" moment after the clouds had rolled in... wierd - looking back at the tr, a bunch of pix from my gallery, taken much later, have somehow found their way into the index one?

i remember a trip me and a bunch of friends did in the blue ridge mtns back east in a similiar state - about 2 hrs in a massive thunderstorm rattled the hell out of us, and we ended up hiking in a strait line for the next half day, completly convinced we were walking in a circles, but eventually emerging into the parking lot on the far end of our section only to realize, "holy shit! we're supposed to DRIVE now?"

they're to remind dru what avatar he needs to respond with - duh!

maybe he was just overwrought at the recent demise of poor doc hoffman?

i agree - the pain at the pump compells conservation and, as you say, drives innovation

Here's how we'll be paying for the rebates...

5 pages ain't shit - come now john, tell us of your opinions on: a. smoking in the muir hut b. evolution vs evilution c. christianity d. obama vs. billary vs mccain e. titanium sporks f. coke vs pepsi and of course g. bolting n' sport climbing if you can't generate 20 more pages you are merely a "moderate" sprayer

sweet - now if they can just get cracking on that cold fusion thing next...

a line from stephen king's short story "survivor type" in which a morphine-addicted doctor, stranded on a desert island, resorts to auto-cannibalism: "if you are what you eat, then i haven't changed a bit!"

odd - where then? liberty ridge? kautz? and if you were doing an alpine start, why weren't you up at 3 am anyhow? sounds like the dude was just being your friendly alarmclock! i only sleep at muir when i'm armed - so i can be me w/ impunity...

wait - i thought you were a honkey?

back for another shot on the west face aid route?

was it carrots for everybody, the .10 to the left of the big tree that's right against the wall (there was an old shirt there up till last weekend)? saw a big rock scar there last thursday. i don't know that it's freeze/thaw - just that the rock at ozone is oft questionable - most of the trad lines there are damn heady given the block, craptacular nature of what the pro's resting on - i felt giblets and gravy in my drawers the other day when doing kevbone's methrage - the climbings not all that hard, but the possibilty of a tragedy as a result of a fall palpable...

strange - i wrecked my windshirt while climbing hyperspace last year...

it got weird, didn't it? look, we told ourselves - we wouldn't let it get wierd...

ballsy - how much time/space do they need for the chutes to work?

oh, i thought it more anabell lee'ish, ya know - wanna to shack up w/ a dead chick? It was many and many a year ago, In a kingdom by the sea, That a maiden there lived whom you may know By the name of ANNABEL LEE; And this maiden she lived with no other thought Than to love and be loved by me. I was a child and she was a child, In this kingdom by the sea; But we loved with a love that was more than love- I and my Annabel Lee; With a love that the winged seraphs of heaven Coveted her and me. And this was the reason that, long ago, In this kingdom by the sea, A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling My beautiful Annabel Lee; So that her highborn kinsman came And bore her away from me, To shut her up in a sepulchre In this kingdom by the sea. The angels, not half so happy in heaven, Went envying her and me- Yes!- that was the reason (as all men know, In this kingdom by the sea) That the wind came out of the cloud by night, Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee. But our love it was stronger by far than the love Of those who were older than we- Of many far wiser than we- And neither the angels in heaven above, Nor the demons down under the sea, Can ever dissever my soul from the soul Of the beautiful Annabel Lee. For the moon never beams without bringing me dreams Of the beautiful Annabel Lee; And the stars never rise but I feel the bright eyes Of the beautiful Annabel Lee; And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side Of my darling- my darling- my life and my bride, In the sepulchre there by the sea, In her tomb by the sounding sea.

is that like an edgar allan poe kinda thing?

Just start a "what did you do last weekend" thread! Those are great! actually, been doing most of my climbing during the week lately - it's nice only being 20 minutes away, and that most of routes are overhanging enough to stay dryish - maybe i need a "what the fuck i've been doing at 3 in the afternoon while you bastards are still in your cube" thread?

awesome - hope to be up there this weekend! anyone else gonna make the hajj?

I think my mom would have dragged my sorry ass there by a chain behind the truck, regardless. ah, today is nothing - the great halo 3 sick-out from a couple years ago though...wow, there was an epic educational day...

should i post on my recent epics trips to the o-o-o-o-o-gawd zone? if sport climbing is like having gay sex, sport climbing in the rain is at least like having gay sex w/ a rock star

it seems like, by your own admission, you just need to get the hell away from work. i seem to recall both of us are father-types now, which make us all the more pissed off at these independent bastards who have the time and finances necessary to jet-set across the damned world in search of ice and adventure. me, i'm currently going through the cracks in my couch trying to scrap us gas money for a n cascades jaunt this weekend...if i can't find enough i'll have to settle for rainier for christ's sake!

naw - he still climbs (and to my limited knowledge, at a higher grade on rock than you - come climb both pitches of flying swallow and flying dutchman w/ me this summer and we can both see how we measure up to what he's done) but he doesn't have the same alpine ambitions as you, john - he doesn't do big mtns/ice/extreme adventure stuff. similiar to you, i don't understand how anyone can love and be so good at one part of the equation and be so lackadasical about the other, but that's the way it is. at any rate, jim opdyke considers him as a son, and that's good enough for me to stick up for him, regardless of him climbing el cap or anything else, 10 years ago or 10 minute. i think well of you too, so let's just talk about climbing, which we all love in one form or another, in whatever shape we find ourselves in, from the depths of our slothful torpor or the zenith of our driven training routine. i'd add, i generally like chestbeating - for fucks sake, what's the point of doing something if you can't get a crowd of nameless/faceless fucks to salute you for it? does anyone really think we've evolved away from our simian, primitive need to vindicate our preternatural excursions (our meaningless combats, far from the eyes of the world, as terray put it?)

Yes. I think Clyde Minaret should be probably be included on any definitive list of cool moderate climbs. Also, for diversity sake, some boulders. holy shit, is that in the green zone?