JoshK

How much of the last few day's rain made it up into the cascades? Anybody been up recently and noticed a reduction in the smoke n' shit?

I find this shit so hilarious. I love seeing the poser 16 year old snowboarders with shovels and packs and crap for riding in bounds or going 30 feet off a groomer.

babnik, I'm not sure who you are or what do (nor do I care), but I don't see the reason to rip on CBS. If you had to provide for yourself, you'd realize the job market is shit right now. It also ain't all about the money, pal...

I haven't done the west ridge, but the east ridge was really a lot of fun; a great route I thought. Based on descriptions of the west ridge from people I know, it sounds like less climbing challenge for your buck. The "east ledges" descent I really didn't think was that bad. The raps are all established and easy and after that it's easy scrambling. Just be careful if you are getting down and it's getting dark. The terrain is easy, but a fall could definitely be fatal or very f**king painful.

"specially created for latino atheletes"?!? WTF!? are they serious!?

This is why I got my Tourlite 4S'. 4lbs 12oz (for BOTH boots) with evolution liners, walk as well as a standard stiff mountaineering boot (not saying much, I know), and climb pretty much like them. With the ski spoilers they ski well enough to ski anything I would want to ski on a trip where a mix of skiing and climbing is the goal.

I use the mammut barryvox. I wanted a digital because I figured I'd be less likely to forget how to search should shit really hit the fan and I stressed out. I got that over the tracker since it starts in analog mode for greater range and it's much smaller and lighter

Ouch, that sucks...

Thanks, Matt, that is what I was looking for. By any 'real challenges' I simply met anything where I would expect them to hold a fall of mine should one happen. I dont think stepping over some cracks will be a problem.

How broken does the sulfide get this time of year? I've only been on it quite early in the season. I was considering it as a route to haul a 100% beginner up, so any sort of real crevasse challenges would have to be avoided. I guess another way to ask this question would be to ask if it's a reasonable solo this time of year. thanks, -josh

Is that mostly because it was such a shitty winter and a hot summer? I seem to remember people doing it this time of year normally and staying entirely on snow/ice save for a tad bit of choss here or there. Mabye my memory sucks...

I've been very happy with my MEC basic bivy. It weighs 16oz but is fully waterproof/breathable. It's made out of the waterproof wicking nexus fabric that the bibler and integral designs single wall tents are made of. It just lacks zippers and mesh to save weight. I trust it enough to use it in actual raining conditions, which I have, and it performed flawlessly. It's also quite cheap for what it is: $100.

Thanks to all!! Dru, I shall pass on your offer! David, yes, kids are in the plans but not for a bit. I definitely realize that they'll put a damper on climbing, but I think they come with their own advantages The coolest thing is completely out of the blue she asked me the other day if I would take her up and show her the outdoors and climbing. I've always dated very "city" girls and I've tried to force the outdoors and climbing on them in various ways. I decided to not do that ever again, and she actually came to me about it. Hopefully a good sign!

This weekend was a huge weekend for me. I don't know why I feel I need to post this on here, but I've climbed with several folks on here and have e-Met many more of you. Also, for selfish reasons, I am in the mood to tell anybody and everybody who will listen To make a long story short, the highlight of my weekend in San Francisco was asking my then-girlfriend to marry me. It was the best weekend of my life and I am so completely thrilled. Oddly enough, working up the courage to ask that question was quite similar to physcing one's self up before a crux on lead! I'm going to start needing to suck up some advice from the married folks on here on how to maintain both a relationship and a healthy climbing "career"!! I also finally found a way to treat my unhealthy condition of being a complete gear whore...buy a diamond ring. No more money...no more gear whore temptations!

Timmy, would you being willing to elaborate a little bit on *why* think anybody would be sending you a hate mail? Were specific reasons mentioned in the mail? It's just that I can't imagine why anybody would want to threaten you guys for anything involved with cc.com. Perhaps I am just niave. It really sucks. As others have said, we owe you guys a lot more than you'd ever owe us and it's horrible to think a few dipshits could undermine something that is otherwise very useful for a lot of us.

I'm a blonde haired, blue eyed jew for what's it worth. Or at least my parents raised me that way. Why is jesus always painted as a light skinned pasty white dude with long light brown or blonde hair? Because people tend to paint history how it best suits them. Jesus was undoubtadly a darker skinned middle eastern man who probably looked a lot like the "ragheads" that all the christian right wing fuckers insult these days. It is historically inaccurate to believe he looked like the scandanavian or western european dude he is always painted as, but since western euros wrote much of our modern history and the religious writings to back up their beliefs, that is how it came to be. I'm not sure why it matters what he looks like, tho. If you choose to believe in Jesus, or any other higher power, fine, do it, but keep it the fuck out of other people's lives. Also, I find it extremely ironic that so much strife is caused over religion considering judism, islan, christianity are all basically the same beliefs bent in different ways.

Whatever man, winter is great, but there are other things besides climbing. I would gladly take sunny 80 degree days, girls in nice summer outfits and climbing in shorts with light gear for quite a while longer. I always get anxious for the winter come October, but talk to me in February when I haven't seen the sun in 4 months.

Really nice pics!

long weekend in San Fran with the new GF and 4 good friends. Touron style baby!

I'd like to jump in and talk shit and try to ruin this thread if I might. The entire concept of a "First ascent" for boulder problems is just stupid. It doesn't make sense the way it does on an actually climbing goal. I am going to start using a ladder to ascend little boulders and claiming first ascents of shit. If somebody boulders up it later they can merely claim the first free ascent!

I probably would have done the same thing, FWIW. You were already out there, and it certainly doesn't seem like you took any sort of horrible risk. I'm not sure Jeff's comments towards erik were really called for, but I guess that's the nature of this site. For one thing, it certainly made your pictures from the approach much more interesting. I was on it in June and can't believe how much different it looks.

OK, honestly, while it's fair to say their is always risk, I'd have to agree that crossing a heavily crevassed glacier with obvious risks instead of simply going another, easier way to your route, is just stupid. I wasn't there and don't know what happened, so who knows if this was the case or not.

It's too bad the traverse seems to have gotten so popular. I'm really glad we did it early season and had the thing to ourselves now.

Wow, you guys managed to make that about as epic as possible!

This is exactly what I *asked* you and didn't attack you, ya' fucking idiot. I still haven't had my quesiton answered, which is exactly what is wrong with that piece of legislation. Any piece of legislation that removes guns from our society save legit hunting weapons (no, not Ak-47s) is good legislation. It may take a while but as our society evolves further from the caveman mentality you and your NRA brother's have, we'll rid ourselves of more and more guns.