Off_White

And I've got a brushcutter to put to use. I'm thinking middle of October, after the road is open again.

That Sir, is an inappropriate manner in which to refer to Archenemy's fun bags.

JT, stellar route too.

No, definitely not, sticking with the old road line is the way to go, just clear up the track. Chainsaws, brushcutters, and a little brute force. Sounds like the DNR is okay with volunteer maintenance, and it's not a wilderness area so we're not limited to handsaws & pruners. I'm thinking sometime in October might be good. My schedule is s little tight, but it'd be great to join forces and reclaim that approach. Road will be open after Oct 15th.

And what was Don Serl's reply?

Because its your parents who will sue us.

I believe Mr Noggin is ranting against the practice of leaving FA information out of guidebooks. This was a fashion developed awhile back to supposedly take the ego out of the first ascent game because you wouldn't get any fame out of it. Personally, I find FA information useful because it tells you things about what to expect: protection spacing, quality of cleaning, character of the line; all these things are affected by an individual's approach to climbing. Some folks routes, you know you've got to be feeling dialed in, others, you know you could skip the route and not miss much.

I'm recently back after bailing on a vacation so I could go help my oldest friend get into rehab for a second time after relapsing. He was back up to a fifth of Scotch a day and probably just weeks away from hospitalization. He could tell you on which day in 1993 that he discovered single malt Scotch. I'm not saying everyone goes down that path or anything, I've just had an aversion induced to something I used to like. Do be careful, its best not to love it too much. As far as a recommendation, try an 12 YO Macallan aged in the Sherry casks. You could go 18 YO at a substantial upcharge, but the 12 is pretty good. Glenlivet is sort of a gateway drug.

Mark, I was going to join in and give you some grief for being a clueless dolt, and I don't mean just for the anniversary thing, but then I realized that this was in The Gear Critic and I don't know a damned thing about treadmills. Best of luck.

Perhaps you mean he was using a hip belay? Dulfersitz is a rappel set up, not a particularly great way to belay, but I suppose you could work it that way. Personally, I've always wanted to engage in a little living theater along the dihedrals at Smith: knickers, little white cap, tricouni nailed boots, gold line, and a rack of pins, perhaps a new fangled machine nut on a piece of hemp rope. I think I'd have to work on an impenetrable quasiSscottish brogue.

40% chance of rain tonight, we'll see how it shakes out. I'll be up in Seattle until 4pm, so I'll be a late arrival and ya'll will have to make your own call on the weather. Here's hoping for a little Indian Summer goodness to support a late season.

I was always partial to this performance of that song... [video:youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUbnOFPud3M

Probably an old Keith Gunnar photo. Photo likely is flipped, isn't that Goat Rocks on the far right of the poster?

Kevbone, keep the spray out of this thread.

Yeah, that would be Squamish.

Uh, yeah, I'm really concerned about what my choice in vehicles says about my sexual orientation.

I've seen those tent-on-top Element conversions, its a pretty slick ride. Pity the Element doesn't get better mileage though.

So, I take it you haven't been to the Fire Wall yet Rudy? Good projects there for the offspring. Don't confuse it with Fun Rock or Goat Wall, its not the same thing.

That's pretty cool Wayne, I've been curious about your projects since we discussed your job at Ski-In, it's great to have some visuals to go with the conversation. So the guy stripping forms, dropped his 2x4 down between the wall and panel. Did that just fall out the bottom and plummet 14 floors? How often do things (tools and such) get dropped from up there?

Funny Fairweather, but I thought you'd be in perfect agreement - I bet you're glad he doesn't have your kids or your life either, right? So what's the big deal?

Here it is yesterday, cairn on the left. Strangely, this stretch of road bed was the best we'd seen since the old parking area. Here's the wash. As I said, not subtle. At least there's something fun on the far side of all that work.

I think you guys just didn't go quite far enough. The key seemed to be go as far as you can possibly stand it, then continue for five more minutes. Culvert schmulvert, the real identifier is the large white granite wash you cross just before the trail, there's nothing else like it on the approach and you get a clear view up the gully past some slabs to the top of Static Peak. Just 50' on the far side of it you'll find the culvert, cairn, and some flagging tape that will get you started up the trail. The lovely but steep trail up the hill has some blowdown issues down low, a few pieces of flagging, and seems to be slowly losing ground, but underneath the canopy things don't change nearly as fast as when you open things up like the old road bed. The bush thrash from the old parking boulders was pretty harsh, stunning to think I've driven that in the past. Using the Skoog bushwack rating system I'd give it a BW3+, and far worse than any other Washington crag approach I've done, including Comb Buttress and Dreamer in Darrington. I'll post a couple pics after I get them out of the little digital box.

They are distinctly smaller than a Vanagon, I can see it working as a Fern camper but two of me might find it a wee bit cramped. Under 10 grand though? There's a lot to like about that.

Ahh, I missed the line in your earlier post (which you graciously quoted for me) and now I understand the omission. I'm pretty much all those things you called Pope, and my charmingly antiquated ice gear reflects it. I'm afraid the last generation hummingbird (angled pick, never liked the tubular ones) and footfangs were the last tools I bought, and I don't think I've used either in well over a decade. I think I pretty much dropped the ice thing, which I was never very good at anyway, when I took up snowboarding, which makes me laugh as much as anything I do. I must confess though that your tales of an old guy with new toys does make me twitch just a little bit.