Thinker

If I were the 2nd I'd like to know the anchor was sketchy before I started climbing so that I climbed conservatively. When I 2nd easy pitches I sometimes like to make them and bit more challenging and interesting....and this would be a case where I'd rather not add any excitement to the situation. Case in point, when I followed the '2nd' pitch of Nutcracker in Yos (I break it up into 2 pitches to get to the first big ledge and the 2nd pitch is a rising 'gulley' rated in very low 5's, if that), I found my belayer happily sitting on the big ledge---unanchored, but feet braced on a good sized bolder! I'd been very close to getting out of the gully and playing on the face for fun, but chose not to as we were racing some Russians nearing the ledge on an alt start. I made a strong point to my partner and never faced that problem again.

rent the boots, then, from either RMI or REI...cheaper than buying.

was that Sat or Sun?

Praise the LORD!...it works now. Thank you, too, Jon!

Can YOU see the 'Events Forum' if you're not logged in? I sent the cc.com link to a friend I was trying to get interested in checking out the pub club, but he can't see it....neither can I unless I'm logged in. What's up with that?

I like to get SOMETHING in there just to keep the ropes from fully raking across the 'sharp' edge of the ledge in the event I fall.

MY thermos knows stuff.....it talks to me when it's sad.

Hell if I know. Why don't you enlighten us?

Wow! All the brain power going into figure out how mirrors work astounds me. Maybe you'all can tackle the wheel next. How does a wheel go around and around without running over itself? And then, FIRE! How DOES a fire sustain itself as it burns the logs in your fireplace? Why doesn't it blow itself out? If you get those worked out, try your hand at string theory, though that skips a millenium of scientific knowledge.

Shoot, I'll be looking for you at the Hen tonight, Squid. Your dentist was kind enough to forward a photo so we'll recognize you in your new form

Washington Alpine Club Sat, March 27th Mt. Si Sat, April 3rd Spire Rock Sat, April 10th Spire Rock Sat, April 17th Mt. Erie Sat & Sun, May 1st-2nd Snoqualmie Pass Fri/Sat/Sun, May 7/8/9th Tooth and Commonwealth Basin Fri/Sat/Sun, May 14/15/16th Tooth and Commonwealth Basin Sat/Sun, May 22nd-23rd Nisqually Glacier Sat & Sun, June 5-6th Mt. Baker-Easton Gl Route Sat & Sun, June 12th-13th Mt. Baker-Easton Gl Route

I like to mix in some roasted red peppers or even occasionally some feta cheese when I'm feeling decadent.

Mr Drool-little, since you're obviously such a purist, why don't you bring the nuts and cams that you've made in your home made forge to pub club sometime. I'm sure lots of us would like to see them. While you're at it, bring along your rope too. In my opinion, buying gear made by someone else is just a step lower than using a guide service to help with the logistics and planning of a climb or expedition.....but we all do it.

I don't think I'd be a very happy camper if I was trippin and saw the horsemen of the apocalypse bearing down upon me, angels holding back the four winds of destruction, or hordes of people being executed in the battle of Armageddon. I prefer the gnostic feeling of celebratory ritual mixed with the paganistic mysticism it evolved from....a true celebration of life. In my opinion, the literalists who standardized the gospels and burnt the gnostics (and their texts) are just a bit oppressive.

a great alternative, and very probably closer to the true roots of real Christianity, would be The Gnostic Gospels. They're filled with mysticism, acid trip-like visions, rituals, and a sense of freedom that are noticeably lacking in the 'approved' version.

Do you think they used a US made helicopter and a US made missile to assassinate the guy?

Nope, not Ryan. I PM'd you.

Here's a link to more another thread with more info about Hell's Canyon. The photo is from Kevin Pogue's website. old thread http://people.whitman.edu/~pogue/climbing_areas.html see #12---Hell's Canyon Shapp, you probably haven't made the connection yet, but you provided me enough secondhand info to find a few of the climbs in Hells Canyon 4 or so years ago. We had no idea what we were climbing, nor did we care...it was great to climb in a place where there wasn't ANYONE or anything around but rattlesnakes, quail, and a few deer. I owe you one.

Lunar mountain has eternal light story By Dr David Whitehouse BBC News Online science editor There are places on the Moon where the Sun always shines There is a "peak of eternal light" on the Moon - a region from which the Sun never sets, according to astronomers. A team led by Dr Ben Bussey of Johns Hopkins University in the US looked at images of the Moon's poles taken by the 1994 Clementine lunar spacecraft. The researchers produced a movie to show how illumination over the regions changed during a whole month. They found four areas on the rim of Peary, a 73k-wide crater, that appear to stay light for the entire Moon day. 'Peak of eternal light' The Moon's rotational axis is tilted about 1.5 degrees relative to the plane of the Earth's orbit around the Sun. As a consequence, the Moon has small but detectable seasons, and dramatic lighting conditions at its poles. The low axial tilt means there are crater floors and the poleward-facing sides of crater walls that never see the Sun at all. But are there mountains or the tops of crater rims, astronomers have long wondered, that always protrude into the sunlight? It had been thought that nowhere on the Moon was there a so-called peak of eternal light - although some research had identified a few north polar regions that stayed lit for 95% of the time. When one of these regions was dark another was illuminated, but it seemed there was no one spot that was lit permanently. The Johns Hopkins-led analysis suggests this conclusion may be premature. Unlike the lunar south pole, which has no mountains of eternal light, the north pole has peaks that are constantly illuminated - at least during the lunar summer. Speaking at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in Houston, Texas, Ben Bussey warned the continuous illumination could be a seasonal effect that disappears in winter (for which there is no data). Moonbase alpha Finding a permanently illuminated peak makes the lunar north pole an enticing region for exploration and for the site of the first Moonbase. A location near the north pole that was constantly lit would have a relatively benign environment. Daily temperature changes would be only about 20 degrees Celsius, making lunar base operations easier than at the lunar equator where the temperature can change by 250 degrees daily. Bussey's team has also identified extensive regions of permanent shadow. These regions may harbour ground ice. Trapped water-ice in permanently shadowed areas at the lunar poles is consistent with data from the Clementine and Lunar Prospector missions and radar measurements made with the Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico. Astronomers know that concentrations of hydrogen are associated with permanently shadowed craters. However, they do not know the total concentration of hydrogen or whether or not the hydrogen is in water-ice or some other form. ***************************************** edit: check out the 2nd photo. it looks like a team of first responders administering first aid to another moonwalker who has a leg splinted....kinda strange...

WASHINGTON - The House of Representatives, amid an intensifying hunt for leaders of the al-Qaida terrorist network, voted unanimously Thursday to double the reward for Osama bin Laden (news - web sites)'s capture to $50 million. ********************** sounds to me like VP Cheney's cousin Frank ( a Haliburton high up) will swing by the US military HQ the day after this is passed, point out Bin Laden's hideout on a map (where, in fact, Frank has been delivering ribeye steaks by the ton for the last 2 years), and walk away with a cool 50 million that he'll split with Dick. Of course all of this is just my unfounded speculation, but let's watch and see just who ends up with this reward!

re failure: If you set the summit as your ultimate goal, then not summiting IS a failure. If you set coming home alive as your ultimate goal, then you succeeded. If you hoped to give it your all, experience the rush of winter climbing, and push yourself a little further than the last time out, then it sounds like your weekend was ultimately fulfilling. If Mallory and Irvine really reached Everest's summit, then they did NOT fail according to the logic Gripped, Lummox, and Cracked are using. But they did ultimately fail by dying on the climb in the opinions of the greater and more conservative numbers of climbers.

I climbed there about 4 years ago. Great limestone, all bolted from what I could see. I suspect there's a lot more routes now compared to when I was there. Sounds like Vert has the updated scoop on the place. Please share!

looks like some 3rd graders made this one.

fyi, Thursday a the Hen is Rockabilly night... still kinda twangy, but a nice change from the usual venues.

this post is not addressed to anyone particular...but have you SEEN a map of the barrier route? The route planning was obviously done by politicians and not engineers. http://www.seamzone.mod.gov.il/Pages/ENG/map_eng.htm