Off_White

Oh, things look okay now, it's the chance of precip tomorrow that's the bugger. Keep an eye peeled, but I choose to believe Wednesday is on.

See, and bacon goes well with peanut butter too. Full circle, like, unity man. A lot o' people don't realize what's really going on. They view life as a bunch of unconnected incidents 'n things. They don't realize that there's this, like, lattice o' coincidence that lays on top of everything. Give you an example; show you what I mean: suppose you're thinkin' about peanut butter. Suddenly someone'll say, like, PB&J, or bacon, or peanut butter and bacon out of the blue, no explanation. No point in lookin' for one, either. It's all part of a cosmic unconciousness. I think about these things a lot.

Who invited the adult to the party?

Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches are the foundation of good nutrition.

That all sounds highly speculative and made up to me Joseph. Does any of your scenario come from contact you have had with the Baker Snoqualmie National Forest? Has anyone there called for the route to be chopped? With regards to IB, my sense was that ALPS was the force behind the tizzy, that it was one person in particular in that organization, and the big issue was the trail, not how the bolts were placed. There is a fringe deep ecology segment of the environmental movement that is opposed to human presence in designated wilderness, and they work against repairing damaged roads, trail maintenance, and the public's right to access public land. They don't care how the bolts were placed, anymore than snowmobile opponents care whether it's a two stroke or four stroke machine. The core issue is whether people belong in the wilderness. What you're on about is an internal disagreement between climbers, not something of import to how the world at large perceives what we do. Stating that IB and the Delicate Arch incident are equivalent is dramatic hyperbole of the first water. There is no general public outcry about Infinite Bliss, it's just another skirmish in efforts to keep people out of the middle fork of the Snoqualmie. It seems to me that the issue for you, Raindawg, and Pope is a general opposition to sport climbing as a branch of climbing. This handwaving over wilderness is really just a tool to further the underlying agenda. At it's core lies the belief that what you do is valid, and what others choose to do is invalid: only the one thing is real climbing and people like boulderers, mixed climbers, and sport climbers are infidels to be purged from the one true religion. The core philosophy is fascist in nature, and that's what repeatedly gets my hackles up. Despite what some may assume, I am not a fan of overbolted routes and guaranteed risk free climbing, but I am a die hard believer in plurality and individual freedom.

Hey, visors are set to make a big comeback. You should get on the front end of the curve and start printing some up with clever lingo for the youth.

Thanks for providing the hip and wack modern translation, that's exactly what I meant.

It's journalistic hyperbole to characterize Hitchens as a neo-con. Sure, he had a falling out with his colleagues over at The Nation over his embrace of broad anti-terror warfare, but he is self described as a contrarian. Just as my pro-drug legalization opinion does not make me a libertarian, neither does his pro war stance make him a full fledged neo-con. Hitchens has long been an anti-religion sort, he's the guy who called Mother Theresa a "twisted Albanian dwarf."

Pfft, I outweigh any two boulderers added together, bring 'em on.

Ooh, one more, I just can't help myself.

Yes, you can tell by the rack of brake bars that he's a professional.

Joe, try searching some of the trip reports in this forum, the route is relatively popular and there have been a number of TR's. I believe the entire slab is somewhat protection deficient, but it's not the hard part of the climbing either, and I haven't heard of anyone, mere mortals included, who was terrified by the route. Dry conditions are desirable though.

You know, for kids.

Hey, check it out, we're opening some new routes at the quarry. It's all good, innit? Private property and all...

Alpine experience doesn't necessarily have to include knowledge of the Canadian Rockies or being on the inside of that little joke, though without understanding the reference you'd never get the snicker buried inside Mike & Erik's rating of their Mox route at 5.9+ A2+. Kev, what Kurt's alluding to is that some of the most fearsome climbs in the Rockies have that grade, which bears no actual resemblance to what you might encounter on the route. Sort of like 5.9 was a scary scary rating back in the Joshua Tree day, you'd never know how hard the route actually was until you'd climbed it.

You hit the nail right on the head. You'll see, tricouni nails will make a comeback, just like retro nerds who are proud to use 300 baud modems.

The cordelette is one of those new fangled things I just haven't gotten around to checking out. I get stuck in the rut of what seems to work for me, and just don't make the time to add new things to the repertoire. I still tie in with a figure 8, tie my rappel ropes together with a double fishermans, have never used a GPS, and appreciate the value of a good hip belay. That's not to say that old ways are necessarily better, maybe it's just that I'm a little simple, but I do like having some things hardwired into my system that I can do intuitively without thinking about it much.

Well, I thought they called it 10b back when I did it maybe 25 years ago, but I wouldn't argue with 10c as a grade for the route either. The crux is the 15' boulder problem to get established in the crack, which is strenuous but solid, and substantially easier than the lower bit. I bet the pin in the bottom part is long gone? I've had a little history with that route. My friend Alan tried to free solo it, had a little meltdown in the chimney rest pod up towards the top and had to have a rope lowered to him. You can imagine that led to a little hilarity after he was safe on the ground. Last year a fellow I used to know committed suicide by taking a running header off the top of that crag, no one has found anything entertaining about that event. I don't think you'll find a lot of support out there in the world for calling it 11a, and even if it was that hard, onsighting at a grade first climbed over 40 years ago is not the stuff of legend. If it was your first lead at that grade, well hell, that's well done. It's a great route and highly recommended. To be on the safe side though, it's best to avoid referring to anything that's 5.10c as relentless or the ghost of crazypolishbob may rise up to smite thee.

Start of Clean and Jerk, innit?

You mean climb 5.10b? Even I can climb 5.10b.

I love the first pic, "John, this doesn't look like Serpentine Arete, are you sure about this?"

thanks for the update, silly as it may seem, I have been wondering.

This is not spray. Yes, it is.