Geek_the_Greek

I'll go if someone can pick me up (UW, near the hospital). I could use a , meet some other local wierdos... Won't change the sausage-fest, though. In greek there's a term for a bar full of guys called something like "archidokampo" - translates to "a field of balls". Sounds like the scene!

Oops - sorry to thread-creed your post to death, fern! Happy mountain climbing! [This guy is just too cheerful-looking. He needs a swift kick in the nuts.]

Dude, it's coming together. Parts are spendy though. Never mind the 500 , but I will buy you a beer (or three) if you wanna come over and help sometime... I'm aiming at having it all back together before Prez's day.

Yeah, I would if my bus wasn't still up on blocks in my driveway, with the engine in little pieces in my bedroom...

It must be the same script hidden deep in the old crag.com - the old Redpoint bbs where DFA apparently spent the past few years before cc.com....same dry wit, sarcasm, sporto talk (and name) we've all come to love/hate.

Man - I miss squish so much! Want to come pick me up in Seattle, fern?? I'll be a good belay slave... Wednesday or Thursday are both coolio!

Dru that's pretty frickin hilarious!

Ok, Dru, I admire your honesty! I read that article too, thought it was totally lame, but, you know, I read the whole thing... I think it's funny that you can get the whole Base Camp/Hot flashes thing online now (tech tips too). You actually have to pay for the stories though. You'd think with a setup like that there's be more stories - more incentive for people to pay.

I have been getting the Canadian mag Explore recently (comes free with ACC membership), and find it quite entertaining. It's kind of like a Canadian Outside, but with less hype (still has some) and more humour. It seems to have a decent ratio of content:ads, which is my main criteria in a magazine (to see how bad it can get, check out Vogue sometime - 250 pages or so, with a content:ads ratio of about 1:20, I'd guess!) The other mags have never gotten over the fact that people aren't that interested in hearing about hard climbing grades from professional climbers (especially sport, but equally true with bouldering and mixice routes now). Ok, maybe once a year it's interesting to hear about so and so repeating Musashi and Dreamtime and whatever, but it's so dull every month. It gets totally silly once you figure out that there are plenty of equally good climbers out there whom you don't hear about. The alpine journals are better, but tackling the AAJ feels like work to me (obscure, thick, academic-sounding, reference-laden, etc.). I personally learn the most from reading ANAM...

Funny that everyone is against Into Thin Air. I thought it was a pretty good read, actually. He painted a pretty harsh image of the commercial guiding operations, which seems to be on the same level as what a lot of cc.com'ers feel. And he didn't mince his words in saying that what he wrote was just his opinion based on what he observed. I guess if a book, just like a band, gets really popular it gets disowned by the original purist fans....

Not that anyone gives a shit, I'm sure, but here in yank-land it's called serviceberry (the generic name for any Amelanchier genus shrub). ....thus ends this brief foray into spray...

Mmmm.. I was more thinking that you probably drink more urine by gettin down (call it what you want) than from a bleached out nalgene.... I guess I was setting myself up for some quality replies!

Whatever - wipe off the skull and crossbones and you're good to go! It's just piss.... Think of it as a cultural experience (didn't Ghandi drink his first piss every morning?). If you're not worried about the effects of crypto, then a little urine residue shouldn't hurt ya one bit. Ok, wash it out until it doesn't smell any more. (Come on people, doesn't anyone practice oral sex?)

Proski on Aurora (or in N. Bend), owned by Martin Volken is a good bet. They know their shit when it comes to skiing way better than any "general" outdoor shop, were super friendly the 2 times I was there (totally no sales push), and have good stuff. Only downside is that they don't have quite as much selection of backcountry boards, bindings, etc. as some places (they do a lot of downhill stuff), but they do stock everything - beacons, shovels, probes, etc. They also rent beacons for cheap. Check 'em out.

Filters are handy, but when I'm going for light weight I bring the Pristine stuff (chlorine dioxide, sold in Canada at MEC, not yet approved in US). Apparently effective against crypto as well. Used for decades in European community water supplies. Check it out here The only pain in the ass is it's a two-part solution that you have to prepare, and then wait 5 minutes before adding to your water (and then wait 15 minutes before drinking).

You're all cheating - we only get 3 routes total! (oops- maybe not....anyway) my picks: -Rainier: Gib ledges -Squamish: Grand wall -Smith: Wartley's revenge

Yeah, but scorpion's point may have been that this (guidebook ratings) is a subject that was beaten to a messy death long ago, and continues to be beaten some more every couple of months or so. Of course hand size matters for crack climbing. Of course it matter for sport climbing too (check out those 11-year olds sticking their whole hand into a "2-finger pocket"). Of course height matters (good for reachy moves, bad for underclings or crunched-up moves). It's not science, for crying out loud, it's opinion, just like judging music or art or something. So whatever, man, rate your guidebook however you want - just be consistent, and we will all appreciate it.

There's a funny article in the 2002 CAJ about the circumstances surrounding the birth of his son. It seems to have been....something of a surprise! You should read it - it's funny, and says something about John. I should stop posting about this, because I don't want to speculate about what I don't know.

You know, that's a good question. I think he was in his sixties. His "mad scientist" shock of white hair showed his age, but his enthusiasm made him seem like he might well have been in his thirties. He'd been doing first ascents since the '60s, so he's been around a bit. Dru or Fern could probably answer this better than I.

Legendary BC mountaineer John Clarke passed away yesterday, apparently peacefully with his family. For those who didn't know him, John was responsible for hundreds of first ascents and ski traverses, mostly in BC's coast range. Lately he had been working with several environmental groups doing talks and slide shows and raising awereness for wilderness issues in BC and elsewhere. John has a wife, Annette, and recently had a son, Nicholas. John was the subject of a great Tami Knight cartoon in the late nineties. In the strip, John is giving a slide show to the BCMC "Beautiful granite walls, easy 26-day approach..." I hadn't seen him for a couple years, but will miss his ageless, cheerful joking and energy.

Six inches? Twelve inches? We're talkin' big boulders here, folks!

Uh, yeah, hey I agree it's kind of silly. I reckon the best bouldering *potential* is up in the alpine (talus slopes and the like), where all those nice clean boulders fall as they erode. But, like cragging areas, potential does not a climbing area make! No one wants to go climbing on moss-filled, weed-choked cliffs with the crumbly rock still there - unless you're going for a summit, that is, in which case anything goes. Likewise, boulderers need a modicum of development into cleaning and establishing problems and the like. It's just like cragging - a classic area has loads of developed routes/problems of high quality, good rock, it's scenic, there's good access without being trashy (no areas beside malls or landfills or anything), etc. Good free camping nearby always helps, as does year-round sunshine, but these aren't total requirements. I'm just theorizing here, so maybe someone who boulders more than a few times a year (although every week at the gym!) could say more...

Well, I've seen stuff that's decent, and Larrabee sounds fun and all, but world class? I'm thinking Hueco, Bishop, Rocklands, Fontainebleau here - which I haven't seen or heard of. I suppose you could make a case that Smith is in the cascades, and it does have good bouldering, but it's a stretch... So what am I missing? 100!

Well, the bouldering here isn't exactly all that hot(Squamish doesn't count - coast range, not cascades) [triple digits, here we come...]

Sport climbers get way more practice catching hard falls than alpine climbers do. They also deal with real groundfall potential way more than alpine climbers. That's why good belaying takes a lot of work on a hard (note - term is relative to climber ability!) sport climb. It's the proper payout of slack for clipping vs a tight belay to avoid groundfalls that makes it so active. Of course falls on mountain routes, when they do happen, are way more serious, but they're rare, so belayers are sloppier (and all the stuff about the lack of good anchors and trying to save time using quick hip belays and all that too). As a big generalization: Crag climbing (especially sport): high probability of falling, low consequences if we do (assuming a good belay) Alpine climbing: low probability of falling (usually because we don't push ourselves as much), high consequences if we do (assuming a good belay)