ivan

i've self-arrested w/ an ice-tool plenty before - though not because a partner went into a crevasse - you thinking the narrower pick would make that much a difference in holding the extra weight?

why not ask the gunman how he's feeling? perhaps he just needs a hug?

we seem so willing to accomodate our other rights contained in the first ten amendments in times of national crisis, why not at least be equal opportunity and shit on the second as well, for like continuity or something? or better yet, we'll trade! you can have you guns if i can have my drugs? fine by me, the gun violence thing might go down if you can buy meth from minimum wage employees at 7-11 instead of street thugs

mikey sees all

free lunch on the picnic wall - it was most chossily goodtimes highlight of the weekend was still non-climbing - layton gave me a copy of luther wright and the wrong's remodulation of pink floyd's "the wall" - fawking brilliant!

yeah, some asshole kills a couple dozen people and you get all the credit

i'm from a military family and grew up my whole life around guns - i don't see what's so nutty about reformulating a freedom which, when granted 2 centuries ago, didn't carry with it the same deadly weight as today? i'm all for the cops and the army having the most modern guns - you guys who wanna plug deer and baby-bunnies, sure why not leave you those muzzle-loading contraptions that worked fine back when the spirit of '76 was so powerful? but you don't need semi-automatic anything. and no amount of personal firearms will allow folks to form militias capable of resisting a goverment gun crazy, ala the bush paranoia line of though - you gotta find a way to do that the democratic way

the devil's in the details and there always seem to be plenty of you statistic-junkies out there - what is the per capita murder rate of the usa (or an index of countries that have widely available firearms) vs the united kingdom (or a similiar index)? it's seems insanely obvious that having easy access to lethal weapons would lead to a higher murder rate but maybe the numbers speak a different truth? and yes, of course there will always be murder, but it does it have to be so goddamn easy? how many of the folks who advocated the original 2nd amendment would approve of the current situation i wonder?

I'll pass on the TR Bill (hijacking is so much more fun!)... if peeps have questions they can send me a pm. I'll post a few more pics later... Marcus's girl took a few from the ground. The 1st pitch bolts are great/new... after 4 cut left and follow them across to the belay. The 1st pitch belay shared the belay bolts for Highway 97 so they are super fat new ones. A little choss on the first pitch... nothing too bad but if peeps are hanging out for Teddy Bear's picnic give them a heads up before you launch off. And p1 is 10-... some might try to call it an "a"... some a "b"... whatever... 10- is good enough for me... How loose is it? I have a hard time answering this as everyone has a different opinion... my teenage years were spent at smith or around the OR casacades so my idea of loose might be a little more liberal than most... How about this? All the belays are protected/out of the line of fire from rock fall (as the route never really goes straight up) so as long as you have a healthy set of lungs to yell rock at the hikers below and a fine selection of small to mid sized cams to sew with you should be fine. For reference if you have done the farmers route this one is significantly less choss. I will say for what it is or isn't worth for the aspiring alpine climber (especially those interested in first ascents) this is a great alpine trainer/sampler... face climbing on p1, traverse/downclimbing on p2, pigeon poop wallowing on p3, sustained 5.9 on some loose rock on p4 and an offwidth for p5... basically a little bit of everything. Plus it will make you bring a back pack or at least climb with your shoes on your harness as you wouldn't be able to easily rap it. This will ensure good times on p5 So yeah... a little alpine sampler. Pro: set of nuts, blue - red alien, 0.4 - 3.5 c4 singles (if you sew you might want doubles in 0.5 - 2). Mileage will vary. Now I just need to con someone into climbing shiprock with me 50' loops of 1" webbing? check. did this y-day w/ layton - much fun - quite alpinesque, as john indicates, except w/ the bonus feature of being able to kill a large number of tourons and hardman sportos simultaneously my fav moment on the traversing was going to put all my weight on a block at my feet when it made a tremendous crrrrraaaaack sound like a cedar coming down and got all good n' wobbly as i gently tried to detach myself from it while figuring out how i could push it away from me so i wouldn't get crushed

now that's funny! and a bit hypocritical too? hasn't putin gained quite the name for himself for siliencing independent media in russia?

That's absurd. The person did the killing with a gun . You can fairly argue that an individual's (and society's) libery interest in unfettered gun ownership outweigh the burden of the occassional massacre, but don't deny that guns were an integral piece of this event. word - a guy walking around w/ his finger pointed out yelling "bang" wouldn't kill anybody except maybe folks w/ real bad hearts

again - here's the solution while keeping the 2nd amendment folks happy - all firearms using post 18th century technology are to be banned - don't think this shooting woulda been so bad if homeslice had a musket

some emperor palpatine you'd make! i like taking my crampons off and throwing myself down icy slopes like a demented tobogan

being 6'7", it pisses me off not having an axe on low-angle stuff b/c the tools are just too short - my little kid trekking pole works nice though - you shouldn't fall on easy shit, and if you're worried about having to arrest, you might as well just face into the hill and use both tools so you don't fall in the first place

Conservatives also defended Bill Maher when he was fired for his comments about the American military being "cowardly" in comparison to the 9/11 hijackers - and he's no friend of conservatism. Maher is a progressive liberal ass wipe. I'm not foaming mouth conservative, but I am a former Marine and I found his comments offensive to me and others in the service. he is the kind of liberal you find in Berkeley, CA. And believe me most of those fucks pay lip service to telerance and diversity, but would never want a non-white to marry their daughter. Oh My! you obviously don't know bill maher - that man would never have a daughter to begin with - and i'd bet'ya dollars to donuts he's done the nasty w/ more than a few dark-hued mamas while lounging about The Mansion maher and imus are exactly what we want in america - people who can speak their minds without being shot for it - if folks don't like 'em, feel free to use your powers as consumers to get 'em shut down by pressuring their advertisers, but don't debate their right to say it - but frankly, who gives a shit? if you don't like 'em, don't listen to 'em. i ignore easily 99% of the world. perhaps a little voltaire is in order?

don't matter what color your horse is, they're all pink on the inside! :puke:

anyone quoted monty python yet? what's wrong w/ the world? people aren't wearing enough hats or maybe if we just had more digital watches...

not what you'd think unless you're immersed in it - i was one of a handful of white teachers in a 90% black school for many years in the south - i kinda miss it - i felt like i never really understood what the hell was going on - big puffy avirex jackets and the word "shah" were a big part though

nothing beats boredom like adventure

i feel so proud - poverty is the mother of all invention

You never listen to PE? "Like I guess you Could play some jigaboo Off the plantation What else can a * do? A black woman in this profession Playing a lawyer? Out of the question For what they play Aunt Jemima is the perfect term Even if now she got a perm So lets make out own movies like Spike Lee Cause the roles being offered don't strike me As something that the black man can use to earn- Burn, Hollywood, Burn" i loved how that song predicted the la riots 2 years 'fore they happened such a tough one to pick the best track off that album - pollywannacracker? welcome to the goddamn terror-dome? war at 33 1/3? fear of a black planet? shit - dem was da dayz!

a couple of years ago i faced a similiar situation in anchorage - me and the crew discovered the cheapest thing to do was to rent a u-haul truck - you could sleep in it, it holds a shitload of gear, and if you don't put too many miles on it it's damn cheap

i think it's basically a winter/spring rock route - the original ascent was in april and was mostly on rock - would love to hear from anyone else who's done it as i've never seen a tr on it - we bivied in a cool snow cave formed by a huge flake and guarded by a big tree, just above the lower snow/ice field - climbing a pithc above that the next day to a point a pithc or so below the crux (which is that wide crack/chimney looking thing well left of the ice drip) - my partner didn't have any experience with dry-tooling and wasn't jazzed about the prospect of having to bail higher up if need be, so that was that - just getting back into the hidden coulior and downclimbing the ice there was entertaining though

i didn't think either of the honkey hoes in the team photo were particularily knappy-looking

right next door to tc, pat and i tried dragontail madness last week - fun route, and if you like dry-tooling (having honed yer skillz on the non-existent ice of tc) try moving one coulior over here's the crux (big ass crack left of center - looks like it'll take a #6 though the beckey guide said 'chocks to 2 inches') and pat on the snowfield traversing over to it