ivan

dunno...you can't see any mangled pieces of bird feather - and it doesn't appear to be sweltering - also jim doesn't appear to be cursing

woulda been cooler if they'd cloned 'em like 148 times and hung them all in some sorta show-tunes review bathing-suit-clad dominoe style kinda-thing

speaking of bacon - learned a valuable lesson today - don't buy bacon that comes in a package labeled in espanol

billa is currently my hero hanging out w/ the truly immortal is uninspiring

of all the people i have ever met, you are one of them

there is only one cool way to die - and it has been shown in film - dr. stranglove - slim pickens - dig it - you have been notified

all will be well if only you'll remember to Bring Your Damn Tauntaun!

dieng iz kwel

good i love evolution

i love it when wives make out!...kinda reminds me of the annual xmas party at the old frat - mmmm, liquer and stupid chicks w/ limited inhibitions... edited to add a picture that comes right before a particularily lovely memory

castle crags is the formation immediately above illumination rock we didn't do the route proper, but went off right at the base of the lower wall - think we shoulda gone left but by then we were too amotivated to care the gully was great fun - volcanic mud is actually fun to climb when frozen solid oleg, how could you leave out the best part? attempting to talk both our families and recalcitrant, pissed off wives into a half-assed planned dinner while fumbling around like drunken losers from sleep deprivation how was the take-home chicken by the way? spaced on given you the herbed butter for it all...

right click, set as background "sure dad, you can use my computer..."

hell no, next time we're taking the nitro!

nice write-up there moi tovarisch - i am everyday training to be able to write like greatest russian climbers wierd day - when the hell will i ever climb yocum? seemed like a great forecast - crazy cold at night w/ day time temp supposed to be freezing - it was 40 by the time we were heaidng down and all the cliffs were crumbling like mad healthy avi danger all aroudn the reid bowl - luetholds still hadn't slid out yet and appeared a stupid place to be

as the author of one of the terrible things said that came to pass, i'd remind you to re-read what he wrote too - he asked for advice on something that was dumb, he was told it was dumb, than got angry that he was told his idea was dumb. harsh language is fun, especially on the inter-web b/c it truly doesn't matter here - if you're from nyc you're skin oughta be plenty thick. obviously no one actually wanted him to die. do you really want a totally shiny happy cc.com?

jeez, i stop reading the hood shenanigans thread for a couple of days and it blows up like a spaghetti-pinata - can anyone give me the highlights so i can not die during my next hike?

god i hate that fucking clown! when my parents had the good sense to show me that flick when i was 8 i immediately came to understand eddie murphy's deep contempt for white people ("why do white people stay in the house when there's a ghost? in poltergeist, not only did the white people stay, they invited more white-people over! and come on, the girl was like 5 years old, how attached could you really be to her anyway?" the boy was total choad too - for fucks sake, the clown tried killing you - what the fuck was he doing in any sort of recognizable shape a couple of days later?!?

then you might be interested in buying this fine publication every year - imagine stripping this thread down to the quintessential facts and lessons - you'd get about 3-4 paragraphs - available in fine bookstores everywhere

kinda like a car accident though - i can't NOT look!

the times about come to stop worrying about details - it's over folks - time to let the folks who have the grieving to do to get to it w/o the temptation to continue to follow endless speculation over crap that truly does not matter. no amount of reconstruction reverses that fact that 3 men are gone. so what if you had a play-by-play, minute-by-minute transcript of the events? - unless you're a relative or friend it's just morbid curiosity - and if you did know the deceased, the search to understand what happened will never end, no matter how many more details you acquire. start healing. start remembering the good times. turn the tv off. make your last thank-yous and go back to the bosum of your diminshed family. if you've the blood of a good irish-man like me, it's time to tie one on nice and tight, and please let other people do all the buying. there is no concievable lesson to be learned here beyond the fact that mountaineering is indeed dangerous, especially in winter, regardless of training or equipment. and that death for young men in good health is not cool.

i don't know how to put words to what i'm feeling mt hood has always felt like an extra room in my house - a great big playroom - intimate, familiar...home. i feel as if a crime has now happened inside my demense - a murder, a rape, an unspeakable act of violence - i fear that it will be a long time before i will be able to walk on that hill i love so much without seeing the ghastly fingerprints of the tragedy. i want to go back now very soon - as soon as the mountain clears again i will return, if only to excorcise the demon that has temporarily claimed it. i don't need to look like some voyoeur on the crime scene. i need to forgive the mountain, and try too to forgive myself for the things i am inexorably drawn to do to those who love me. perhaps it's best not to anthropomorphize the mountain? - it is afterall only an immense piece of frozen lava thrust high up into the rarified and stormy pacific airflow - it doesn't care about me or you or anyone - it has no sense of self, no spirit - it is rather for we humans, especially we climbers, to infuse that lifeless mass of rock and snow with the charity and warmth of human endeavor, with a soul of memories from countless excursions up its graceful flanks - undboutedly that glow will dim for awhile, but it will not die - as long as men and women feel the nebolous desire to test themselves in tempestous places it will be a home - i hope for all of us, most particurarily the families of the lost (a band of the bereaved that includes many more than just the families from this most recent tragedy), that the seasons will renew in us the love of nature that was our birth-right, that time will erase the memories of the horror and confusion and agony of this terrible theft, and leave us in the end with only the cherished memories of happier times and the people we shared them with, when the fate that hangs over all our heads was not known to us, when it seemed that the smiles could never die. the mountain will live longer than all of us. longer than our children. longer than our race. it will last longer than any tombstone. it is therefore a fitting and appropriate memorial for all who have left their lives there. please don't look towards it with hate. let that go. go there again soon, with me if you want, or alone which is often much better - go there and look up from timberline, or make tracks up the long slope - go there and remember it is a place of dreams, even if sometimes they turn to nightmares - in the morning we will all wake and it will better - believe it.

no, the descent down the cooper spur or sunshine route on the north isn't as hard and just requires careful downclimbing (no rappeling) - there is more exposure to deadly falls on the north side though, also more avalanche potential, plus there's no immediate civilization at timberline on the north, but 2500 feet more of snowy trails to reach a parking lot edit - oops, kinda misread your question. from the summit, to drop off onto the north side isn't as hard as to climb the entire north side - no rappeling is required but you certainly must be very careful as falling there will be fatal

climbers w/ experience crave more difficult routes to test themeselves against- that's not a shame, that's normal - barry bonds prefers to play ball against professionals, not kids i too hope no one is hurt looking for them - they wouldn't want that either of course

i like the indian explanations better... "big mountain make cloud angry! death to go up there, pale-face!"

and with your intellect you = 0, so it all evens out. now that's fawk'n funny!