Off_White

Well, Merv is not a fan of boulderers, sport climbers, hippies, or women who don't shave, but it's a fabulous rant and does a nice job of skewering the whole "wild and crazy guys" posture that runs through the sport as a whole. It's not literature, but it has a voice I can hear in my head.

umm, yeah, the type that's sedimentary.

Pope, that first paragraph is a thing of beauty.

According to Hoyle, big housecat always trumps snaffle.

Do you think that the Cadillac "Escalade" says "bad motherfucker" enough to keep those Canadian backwoods hooligans from breaking in?

No, I never got caught. It's my friends who have problems...

I don't doubt it, I was just being hypothetical about what I would like to do with 4 days on my hands, but not necessarily the next 4.

If it were me, I'd head farther north, go do something like the Tantalus traverse or a couple routes in the Chehalis range. But then again, I've been spending more time with McLane's guidebook lately rather than Beckey.

Friends don't let drunk friends sleep on their backs.

Yah, can't hardly miss that thing from Easy Pass, can you? Seems like there was a route reported, must be in a recent Beckey, that refers to bad and scary rock, but there's a lot of stone there and it doesn't look alarming, there must be something worthwhile. You won't be raising your glass to me though, I'm not heading in there in the winter.

As I understand it, Dragonfly takes in the obvious white sunlit headwall along the sun/shade line in your photo. There's a roof in there somewhere. Above that section it takes the ridge for lots of enjoyable moderate climbing. Dunno about the start, I scanned it a couple years ago, looked like there was something ledgy that you'd head right on from the bottom of the NE Face. I provided a rasta hiking boost for Yoder and McGowan on their way out after the FA, and they were positively giddy about the whole route, I think it's long overdue for a repeat.

I'll second Winter's endorsment, I've got one of those too. The printer is one cost, but in the long haul the ink is more of an issue. The six separate ink tanks, which can be found online for less than $2 each, let you get the most out of your consumables. It's not a serious document printer though, so don't expect it to do everything.

This is the myth about war that leads the well intentioned to sacrifice their lives for someone's agenda. Both sides in a war use mythology to make the unthinkable palatable. For the vast majority of people who are not sociopaths, killing other humans is repugnant. Through the use of myth and story we can reduce the humanity of the opponent and make their killing both imperative and justified. In fact, it's essential that we do that, since the other side will too, and without the desensitization the ability to respond to threat is hampered. This is part of what makes reintegration into a peacetime society difficult for soldiers who may have seen or done awful things, the jarring disconnect between the myth they lived and the life most of us as humans want. Similiarly, the story of the nobility of combat, a test to the death between equals, is one of the tools to enable people to discard self-interest and give up their lives for the sake of a fiction spun to inspire them. I think the stories are wearing thin for you GD, and it's a good time to pay close attention to that voice inside you that's trying to tell you how to come out of this alive.

So I said to her, "Gawd, I didn't think that was physically possible, show me that again?"

It's the system favored by the parties, but not by the general populace. While some party loyalists like that sabotage tactic you describe FW (the Republican shenannigans to try and get Nader on the ballot come to mind, but I'm sure both sides do it), there are more valid reasons why some of us voters would like to have that choice. For instance, I live in the 20th legislative district and I'm registered Democrat. This district takes in large swaths of Lewis county as well as some of Thurston county, and historically by default tends to go Republican. Not all Republicans are the same, and since I'm likely to be represented by a Republican no matter what my affiliation, I'd like to be able to choose a moderate over a right wing extreme, and that decision happens in the primary. The imposition of this system is pretty damn fishy too. The population in general selected, via the initiative process, a "top two" primary, but Gov. Locke acted unilaterally to veto that choice and install the system favored by the two main political parties rather than the people. That's one of the reasons a lefty friend of mine has vowed to vote for an Eastern Wa Republican governor candidate before he'll vote for another "goddamned King county administrator."

I belive it was Eisenhower, as in President and General, who put that term into the common vernacular.

I tried the "for religious purposes" on the Teanaway a few years ago headed into Stuart, got a ticket for my trouble. I argued via snail mail with the ranger for about three rounds, bitching about subsidized logging and subsidized mainstream religion, and in the end we agreed I'd buy a $5 pass for that day. Ranger argued that in his district (Cle Elum) they didn't have any money losing timber sales, but I never did the research to refute him. He also said the "religious purposes" thing was not a valid exemption. One thing to note, if you park before the "entering a fee use area" sign, you don't need the pass. Usually it means you'll walk an extra 1/4 mile, ain't no big thing. With my "Northwest Forest Pass: Don't Buy It" bumperstickers on everything I drive, I don't expect I'll get away with parking in the lot w/o a permit. The fucking permits piss me off no end. Fight the power indeed.

Do you mean routes as in established, or as in potential? Do you have any photos?

Stellar Eclipse on Silver Star. Probably takes in the same subsummit, Whine Spire, as Gato Negro, then continues to the top.

I've got one that size 50 feet from my front door. When they get too rambunctious around the house I figure they just need a project, so I go stir the pile with a (long) stick, give them something to do. Those little suckers do bite. There was an awesome/horrible ant tree belay on the E. Butt of El Cap, it may still be there for all I know.

Yeah, but for those of us who live in Olympia, Tenino is much more convenient.

Drinking Lucky Lager and Driving in my car. Driving round from town to town Wondering where you are. -- from Lucky Lager by Naked Prey, a great tale of homeless love from the bars of Tucson.

DRU said: Surely you jest, you mean you really don't know? And I thought I was the last person to figure that out...