Off_White

The weekly event is a happening thing, here's a few shots from 7/7/04

What, it's not enough you had to post that ad, but you had to link it to here too? Shameless hussy!

The Liberty biners look the same as the old Eiger ovals, and the ultralight ones TG refers to remind me of the Bonatti biners we favored for alpine games. Both can still be found somewhere in my piles of gear. I've probably got some other sketchy biners floating around, like an old hollow Robbins biner and some first generation Chouinard units.

Well, THIS time I gotta side with Lambone.

I would tend to dissuade you from trying Rainier in the winter with your experience level. Elevation is not that big an issue, most of us out here live close to sea level. You could easily spend ten days here and never get a clear day in the winter. Just going to Muir is pretty doable, though epics have resulted from that too, mostly due to whiteout complications. Hood is a very reasonable winter destination though.

I'm guessing he means there are no funky old hangers on it that might require one of the above discussed "noseless" biners. But I dunno, you speak "bp" better than I do.

I think it should be forward to 1,000,000.

I think its riding with just the seatpost that poses the most threat to your prostate.

Well, you know what the incumbent VP would say... "Go fuck yourself."

Hmmm, and is it part of your photo series "Great Climbing Photographers In Action" soon to appear as the center spread in Rock and Ice?

Yeah, what was that story.... City slicker heading into the Alaskan bush, takes the pilot aside and asks him what he thinks about his small caliber rifle for dealing with the bears. Pilot says, "Ayup, it maybe, but if I were you I'd file that sight off." City boy asks, "Why should I do that?" The bush veteran replies, "So it won't hurt so much when that bear shoves it up your ass."

Well, and I confess to doing quite a bit of toproping through the chains on the cliff at my place, but the total traffic is very low, and the chains are very burly. There isn't any discernable wear at this point in time...

I don't think the difference matters to the dog...

Oh pish, and I bet you don't believe there's any good granite crags in Renton either. Just ask Amber, she'll confirm both rumors.

Damn Chirp, you're walking away from Everquest? Isn't that like leaving your wife for a younger fresher model? All those hours you've spent building up your relationship? That's cold man, that's cold.

Hmmm, and I'm pretty sure that GD and GW actually work for someone else's companies, and while they may get defined as "independent contractors" that's really just a tax dodge, and unless their employer can't tell them how and when to do something, they're not really independent. As the IRS puts it, "A worker is an employee when the business has the right to direct and control the worker." I'm certain GD takes orders, but I haven't kept up with Greg's employment since he stopped working for that big concrete company. Since Robbob has actually declined definition, that makes 3 left, 1 fringe, and 1 undeclared.

Sounds like Girth Pillar to me.

We used to have one of those boxy Tercel Wagons, and it was splendid, had pretty good clearance and great gearing. What I've got now is a Corolla with AWD and an auto tranny, and while it's fine for snowy road stuff and steep gravel, the clearance is pretty low, less than a Subaru, so not up to what one is likely to encounter.

No, that's actually an assortment of partners of mine who've had border misadventures, I'm clean as a whistle. Alpine Select is a lovely little dream book with some good photos, and some day I'm coming up to get schooled. Damn but you folks have some great mountains. The logging roads do sound daunting though, my beater toyota awd wagon won't cut it.

Well, let's kick it up a notch. Perusing McLane's Alpine Select for BC alpine routes, it's stunning (and a little demoralizing) how many approaches call for 4wd-high clearance vehicles or an extra 75km of walking. There's lots of mention of approach times with and without mountain bikes. Why don't folks use motorcycles? Seems like even a cheap little dirt bike would speed you along better than crawling your big ass truck through huge water bars.

So, are you going to celebrate by joining some Squamish posse and burning some american tents?

I don't think many have claimed that hallucinogens are performance enhancing, it's more like getting points for working with a handicap, like a no-hands ascent of a boulder problem.

No silly, it's the one that's having the most fun.

Thurston County started doing this a number of years ago and got early kudus for being an innovator. I had a recent interesting encounter with the now widespread technology. I have a subscription to Reason magazine, a monthly libertarian publication. The June issue arrived in my mailbox with my name in bold print on the cover, the comment "They Know Where You Are" and an aerial photo of my property with a red circle around what they thought was my house (it was actually the hay barn in the front field). This was part of the lead article about the unsung benefits of a database nation, that we should get used to a loss of privacy, and really, it's all for the best. They did a special run of covers for the subscribers so that each got their own feature, including assorted tidbits about my neighborhood such as the average commute time, that only 22.88% have 4 year college degrees, and that 3% of the children in my zip code are raised by their grandparents. As a general contractor, I use these aerial photo databases all the time, whether for drawing up a quick site plan or checking to see if there are any wetland or easement problems with a given project. It's all pretty wild, and who knows where it will go in the next decade. One drawback though is that the crag in my front yard is invisible from the air, too vertical to make much of an impression. However, apply the 2' interval contour overlay, and there it is!

Well, it does raise the question, just what is the best guidebook ever?