Off_White

This sounds like a good idea to me.

Its worse than you think, but you should consider donating to the North Polar Inner Earth Expedition, due to set out in 2012, they may uncover ancient knowledge that will save us all, possibly from Inner Earth inhabitants who have mostly achieved the fifth level of consciousness. [video:youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NR1GqtXoKVo

Kodachrome was my favorite slide film, I liked that color balance. Unfortunately, it's not very friendly for slide scanning and any attempt at digital cleaning in the scan phase (a must for slovenly sorts to tend to store slides in brown paper bags ) can make for really weird scans. That said, I haven't shot Kodachrome in years, but I am slipping back into black & white.

It's heartwarming to see Pope's clan close ranks around him. Even Manuel Noriega had buddies who'd stand up for him.

Yeah, it's funny: the Cafe started as a joke, but it fact it seems to fill a need just as described. Off topic spray, but assholery not allowed. I don't think anyone would miss the Pirate Forum though.

Dawg, that ski descent TR is a damned gem, I missed it before, thanks for the link. Spamming every forum with the same topic and getting your buddy to plead that you should suffer no consequences because you were drunk? That's weaksauce my friend. Did you ever try floating that line past your parents? Whatever happened to the old fashioned tradition of taking personal responsibility for one's actions? Funny thing is, I think there's some support for the idea of a MTB forum, its a pity the idea wasn't put forth with a little respect.

Hey, if you guys keep spraying on Jake's poor lil TR he may never post another one! No no no, I didn't mean that as encouragement.

Yep, there's the rub: intentionally wasting admin time. Pope's due a time out for sure, I'd expect to receive that same treatment myself if I spammed every forum. I understand...I kind of like Pope, I even kind of like Raindawg too. What the hell is wrong with me? Oh, I kind of like those guys too. Dawg hasn't gone anywhere, and I think Pope is merely on sabbatical. I don't really have an opinion on an MTB forum, seems like a different subculture with some overlap, but whatever. I don't think a separate sport climbing forum is called for either, though I wouldn't mind seeing a little more self-applied tolerance in the rock climbing forum around the subject.

I don't think the joke is as funny as the author thinks it is, but everyone needs a hobby. edit: I mean the website author, not Bill

Hey intolerant pseudo-hippie...they're as much entitled to their own view of truth and love as you are. Most that come by my house are quite pleasant and as far as Starbucks is concerned, their money is as green as any other customers. Lighten up. (And guess what...some of them look pretty darn slick/lovely in the "fancy clothes" you seem to mock. Yeah? But what if they were pleasant foreign sport climbers in fancy clothes?

Yep, there's the rub: intentionally wasting admin time. Pope's due a time out for sure, I'd expect to receive that same treatment myself if I spammed every forum.

If Pope had wanted to discuss a MTB forum, he should have posted it in Climbers Board or maybe the CC.news forum and gotten some input. Since he posted the question in every forum one can only conclude he wanted to get booted from the board.

Good to see you cheated death again

I knew there was a reason I liked you.

Oh, right, it's Looking Glass that's closer, I've always wanted to check out those eyebrow features. I'm considerably older than sport climbing and experienced at playing with my nuts, so I'd love to check out a bunch of stuff in NC, it looks great.

Building gear anchors only, it's way too much goofy stuff for bolted anchors. As noted by others it's only a quasi-equalized anchor set up for gear belays, better for pieces horizontally spread rather than all in the same vertical crack, but it's fast compared to dinking around with several slings. It's an okay tool, but there are a lot of ways to accomplish the same thing. I rather like Bill's approach, but would prefer to use mine when we go climbing together...

Its a poor choice of sport for us big guys

aye, and a mighty mighty prominence it is!

I had a pretty wild conversation with a climber friend who does mineral collecting in abandoned mines, mostly in Arizona. He does all kinds of whack things (and recently bought the aforementioned diamond chainsaw) to extract specimens from the walls, including using his aid get to get to things 50' off the deck in the ceiling of big rooms and such. I'll wager he's one of the target markets. I don't think cavers engage in much cutting or blasting in natural caves, that stuff isn't any more widely accepted than chipping in the climbing world.

Gimme a break--and go back to your MSNBC pab. Given that the repeated "yes Ma'am" is the punchline of the whole schtick, I'd say getting it right would have been a big difference, but as has been noted, one should never let the truth get in the way of a good story. That sounds like Twain, but I'm not really sure of the pedigree on that homily.

Having once bailed on scary 1/2" cheap flat accessory webbing we brought for that eventuality, I've vowed to never really care about what I have to leave behind if I need to retreat safely. As selkirk noted, it's good to have a few tied 9/16" runners mixed into your quiver of dyneema dental floss runners. I've recently added a web-o-lette to my kit, inspired by the anchor building speed it allowed on some long routes in Red Rocks last fall, and I've liked it the few times I've used it. Still, that or a cordolette is still a bunch of new age gizmo gimcrackery to an old fart who's used to slings & clove hitches, so take my endorsement with a grain of salt.

That's funny, I was looking at that site yesterday and wondering the same thing. What's "micro" or "controlled" about an explosive charge in a variable medium? If you're looking to do a little hold sculpting you'd be better off with a compressor and an air chisel or perhaps a diamond chainsaw...

Hey Tony, put some lines on that thing!

Yes Bill, I was really struck by those two paragraphs as well. It sounds like Curt is pretty messed up but going to come out alright, best of luck to him. As I posted elsewhere, the four other climbers who came to the rescue deserve kudos for their quick response, I'm sure they tipped the balance towards a good outcome from a terrible accident.

Its looking like my daughter will be going to college in Asheville in fall 2010, I can see I'll want to time my visits to coincide with the optimum weather. Thanks for the pics & story.