Thinker

At the visitor's center at Devil's Tower, WY after a long day of splitter cracks and stemming, I was sitting on a bench in the shade behind a row of tourons with binoculars looking up at the climbers left on the rock. I kinda get a kick out of listening in on them there. One old guy pipes up and sez to another "I just don't see how they can climb like that with all those buzzards looking over the edge on top, just waiting for them to fall." I took the liberty of responding to him "It's not the buzzards that bother us, it's all you guys down here looking up, just waiting for us to fall." Needless to say, we didn't have much of a conversation after that.

I found a cool pair of sunnies at the bottom of a cliff in Idaho. the sunnies had this neat feature whereby one could take off the tinted lenses and switch them out with other colors (but of course I didn't have any of the other lenses.) As luck would have it , the lenses kept popping off several times a day. I eventually tired of the mess and tossed them over a cliff myself. Hope some other poor fool is struggling with them now.

Wasn't Thesenga the guy some new climber was posting on all the boards about awile back? Some climbing mag editor had pulled all the bolts on new climber's new route even though it sounded like the climber gone thru the normal local channels to make sure there were no objections. Anybody else recall that? As far as breaking the law vs doing something destructive, I wonder if his actions risked starting a wildfire, the fighting of which we all would have subsidized thru our taxes. Ed, I was just ribbing you about the "slimy-balls passive pro at City of Rocks" brew-haha awhile back. Peace.

communication: yeah....last time I simulrapped was on the tooth. We both weighted the rope and communicated that neither of us would unweight it until we were both at the next anchor and confirmed the event. I started down, partner who had never simulrapped before needed to make last minute adjustment to harness leg loops or something and suddenly found herself literally screaming toward the anchor. To her credit she didn't let go of the brakehand and I only dropped 4 or 5 feet. We tried it again on the next pitch down and it worked just fine...I still kinda chuckle about that one sometime.... There are some climbs in the South Dakota Needles that require a simulrap to get off....awesomely cool...that was my first simulrap.

the REAL Trask:

I say we invade the Cloud Room on top of the Camlin! Wear goretex and we can take over the outside deck without too much resistance.

WOW....sounds like you're a cccconnoisseur

love those film canisters. I can't pass one by in the bc without opening it up and checking inside.

I kinda like hippie chicks...in small doses....

Johnny Law sez (from here ): SECTION 2.13 - FIRES (a) (1) Open campfires are restricted to Government provided grills and are prohibited in backcountry or wilderness areas. Jeez ED, what kinda lawyer are you gonna make? If a simple guy like myself can type "joshua' and 'fire' into google and find the applicable CFR to answer your Q I really don't see much hope for you. And BTW, have you fixed that 'problem' we talked about last time? Climb on, Bro!

I'll be looking for that Bibler under the freeway bridge.....

damn, sounds like you're drunk already.....why wait for pub club?

a full can of Rainier beer at a bivy site on the Turtle. a pair of glacier glasses melting out of the side of the moat at the bottom of Chair Peak. a cool little Alien at the bottom of 3 Blind Dikes a tripped out hippie chick wandering around the netherlands at City of Rocks....asking if we'd seen her clothes.

damn straight....the women are stayin' home takin' care of the ranch whilst the men are out enjoying life and the goats....

Goat Packing, it's not just for Trask anymore...... folks I know in Idaho run this site. http://www.srv.net/~goatz/packgoat.html They seem to have much less impact than horses or llamas in the bc.

Hey Fejas, is this really where you live? map

yeah! bring it down. bring it on down.......

Don't forget the beer...

The WAC does not have an organized class outing to Leavenworth or Vantage (or Index) scheduled thru June. The WAC will be at Mt. Erie this Saturday (4/19). (30 students, plus instructors) The WAC 'Alpine Climbs' (Commonwealth Basin and The Tooth) are slated for 5/9-10-11 and 16-17-18 (usually groups of 8ish max) http://www.wacweb.org/Classes/ClimbingClass/default.view#schedule

http://www.owlnthistle.com/ Go to First and Columbia, head downhill (SW) 1/2 block to Post Alley or Post Ave, hang a right, go down a couple of doors and enter the nightmarish world of the Thistle.

It's on the rez..........

Thanks for the reminder, Al, some of the memories from those days are fading.........thankfully. RU going to head down there tonight?

The O&T was once affectionately called the Foul Ole Piss Hole by some former coworkers of mine.

If you REALLY want to see it again my 'homepage' in my profile is a link to it. edit: or better yet......

I thought this was humorous, no matter what your political stance is..... my transcription of the NPR audio file found here: web page (skip up to 1:10 to get to the good stuff right away if you're impatient) A Dozen Good Reasons why President Bush would feel at home as Iraq's next leader: 1 lots of guns...lots 2 plenty of oil in need of drilling 3 climate similar to Texas 4 many Iraqi people also speak English with an accent 5 changed name from Mesopotamia to the easier to pronounce Iraq 6 Unmarried daughters have to live at home to stay out of trouble 7 no problem defying international treaties 8 No Alcohol 9 No term limits 10 No annoying campaign finance rules 11 people will love faith base initiatives 12 Capital punishement, and then some