iain

It would be interesting to know how this tech holds up in a natural disaster of some kind (earthquake in seattle, etc) relative to the cell network. My guess is it would go down pretty quickly, but who knows. I guess loss of power would tak out anything.

oh shit, I forgot about my stint in Minnesota. I tried to run stairs in the college stadium in February. Just about killed myself and the cushioning in my running shoes cracked from the cold. This was after putting some bolts in the shoe soles to stay upright on the ice. Skied in Minneapolis traffic periodically. Not advised.

When I was little and got my first "real" rain jacket I'd go out and sit on the picnic table in the pouring rain for hours and boil water with my also-new msr whisperlite. I mean I'd just boil water, pour it out, then boil some more. I was so psyched when it was snowing and I could boil snow. I had a strange childhood but I am a f'ing wizard with the whisperlite stove. Still use that stove all the time. ripped off a door frame at work hanging on it. difficult to explain to maintenance. got busted again climbing the outside of my work building.

please don't bomb me

Thumbs up to the Mountain Shop for skiing. They know their stuff. They do a great job on mounts as well. And now Climbmax is right next door for your spending pleasure.

oh the humanity

pretty cliche, but:

Jean-Paul Sartre

I remember wishing I had a spectre or two on that climb a few years back in nov. That or about 80 feet of sling to lasso some boulders.

Any town on that interstate through nebraska. I remember taking a trip through there on the way to Escalante, UT from Minneapolis, MN with a friend from NYC. He gets out of the van at a desolate gas station, looks around at the sea of corn fields in every direction, then fires out, "Yo, this is the heartland."

by "tele gear" I'm talking Jaks/T1's/H-heads, which push the limit of what can be called tele gear. Just don't crash cause you ain't coming out of that setup. Billybillybilly let me fix your first image for you: oooww richard

If you want keylock biners, there's only one wiregate that offers such a mechanism and at retail it is pretty expensive (last I checked). Just throwing that out there. Pretty sure your biners are not going to make or break your climbs. Unless they suck, of course. In which case you might die. Which is bad.

Meanwhile the skiing in the cascades is spectacular.

super jealous sounds/looks engaging and I spent the weekend learning to land switch on tele gear

Is this guy boarding or falling over on a lake?

probably the upper station of Vista at MHM

uh, sorry dude....uh, sorry dude.....uh, sorry brah didn't see you...uh, sorry...

It must have been an awesome hike down that sweet corn. Jus' kidding, good to see folks out there today.

The plastic and polycarbonate shovels will work too, but are often smaller than the metal ones so they don't move as much snow. They are nice, however, if you have limited room in a pack. A nice large scoop makes it easier to build a camp with a megamid, etc. As for probes, most models out there are good enough. I like having alternating colored sections or measurement gradations on the probe so I can see how far I'm sinking the probe in relative to previous probes. This can help you identify what you are probing, and it also can be used for doing pit work (though if you get more involved with pit analysis you might want a folding ruler). The carbon probes are nice, but they will get thrashed by a rutschblock cord if you bother to use those things. Be sure you practice setting up your probe quickly and correctly. It seems like almost every probe has a different trick for assembling.

no. skiskiskiskiskiskiskiskiski

I thought you were talking about a new discovery of some dangerous organically-grown bacteria that lives off hemp and pretends to be a dirtbag bacteria but actually lives in the nice upscale part of the sinuses.

anyways, climbing, shlimbing, it's time to ski.

Dammit, they fixed it. Before the overnight low was -30000°F with 30000% chance of precip.

It's looking a little cold and wet at Smith this weekend. Check out the overnight lows! http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/total_forecast/i...;lon=-121.16625

Next time I'm at smith I'm definitely going to say to my partner "do you want point?"