iain

nothing like bongos w/ no beat luring you to sleep at the grasslands...that and toxic firepit smell wafting in, making you search for your keys so you can make a quick exit when the entire field catches on fire.

I should revise the above to say the 505 has step-in ability, so support for all mountaineering boots would probably be questionable, but I have no first-hand info on it. The 500 definitely accepts a wide variety of boots, but the heel lock is manual. Unless you are hucking I think it is fine.

Sphinx not only are you abrasive and annoying here, you are incorrect as well. The 500 accepts mountaineering boots just fine. It is the carbon fiber/plastic version of the 404, and has recently been rev'd to the 505. All have wire bails in the front, all work with mountaineering boots. I have used the 500's with great success for awhile now. It is nothing like the Diamirs, and serves a different purpose.

how can you ever expect to drink beer at work if you carry a cell phone?

okay

that lycopodophyta thing is a pretty good, forgiving, nut-setting lesson

..but don't let that stop you

'cept if you fall on it and become a human crayon

cinnamon slab is the worst climb at smith.

160's. Usually w/ the modern skis, something a little shorter than you tall are does well. Obviously the ski experiences weight, not height though. 162 puts you right there. The mira/diamir/magic setup is a sweet setup if I may say so. In the end, I bet you adapt to whatever you have on your feet though. I've skied 175-192. I weigh 180ish. Hope that helps.

Hmm, not a bad idea. Maybe make some Rice Krispies Treats eh?

I ate an entire box of Kellogg's "Fruit Harvest" cereal today.

there sure are some surly canadians on the board this afternoon

hey that makes me feel great, thanks. I guess there's not much to do on lead on the pillar part except lasso those chockstones.

oh oh and the first 3 feet of Wedding Day

the last 5 feet of 5.9 jill's thrill, beacon the 10ish offwidth start to free for all, beacon the last 3 feet of any route at tieton.

fierce! how about classic crack at Broughton's. 5.9

and to have to look at those sweet powder spoons all day? sickening.

When I was looking up my next project I noticed White Wedding at Smith has a bolt placed specifically to work out the crux to avoid repeated whippers, then is usually skipped for the send. Not that Smith is a good place to turn to when answering bolting questions

only it wouldn't be running half the time and there'd be lines all the way to Parkdale.

if you look at the south side aerial photo in the climber's register, you can see the strip of snow from govy up to the lodge where that thing was traveling.

The lookup collapsed in the 40's from the extreme weather and just becoming run-down in general. I can only imagine the conditions it faced. The signs off the thing look like they've been sandblasted.

I came across this cool picture of when Silcox was the upper lift terminal for the Magic Mile too. I like hanging around Timberline looking at where things used to be. Be careful doing avalanche beacon practice around the Salmon River canyon area, there's a bunch of buried metal and cables from the lifts.