JoshK

heifers at walmart...hmm...please, tell us more about them.

Wow, sounds like pretty idiotic decision making. I enjoyed a very peaceful 2 days east of the crest. scattered clouds and some snow flurries but nothing much more.

Gotta 2nd this one. I've got a pair of montrail something-er-other gore tex tennis shoes which I bought for approach shoes. I eventually found myself using them for more and more shit, including glacier slogs.

If you are quick, you may just want to think about bivying at your car in the lot and doing both NF buckner and NE face or E ridge of Eldo both as day climbs on seperate days. Both are very doable and will be a lot less horrific without overnight gear.

The Torre also featured a seam in the floor which really sucks.

Anna, agreed, Arizona has beautiful parts. We were all talking about phoenix specifically. It is the butthole of arizona and the nation.

martin, out of curiosity, is spider really the crumbling pile of crap that all the quotes in beckey, et al describe it as?

Damn right...people never seem to give enough credit to the guy who actually lives. Put simply..if you are an aplinist and you die, you are a complete failure. End of story. You lost, you failed, and it doesn't matter how good before you died, the guy who is still alive is better than you.

Yes, the pollution is horrible and the scenery is awful. Phoenix is the best example of the worst the desert southwest has to offer. It's Las Vegas without the sin, It's los angeles without the ocean and the celebs. THe heat is unbearable in the summer, and when it rains, everything floods. The crime is bad and it has a huge redneck population. To quote somebody else's expression (from this site, I believe), it should be used at the proving ground for the neutron bomb. -josh

"The Pakistani climber Nazir Sabir claims to have smoked hashish with him at high altitude"

All my family, for the most part, live in Phoenix. That place is the shithole to end all shitholes. It makes lovely los angeles look like heaven.

We all got $300 back and we get a huge fucking deficit to deal with down the road. Clinton's cabinent did their job and got the spending of this country on track and fuckin' dubya threw it in the shitter.

Yeah, the only time I was up on silver star I didn't see the point of roping up for the "glacier". Also, MattP is right, silver star is a relaxed day, but I do imagine the bivy up there is mighty pretty.

What is mount lemmon? If it's like most of the mountains in arizona it won't look much different after it's burned. I was down there for 4 july a few years back and a firework accident caught an entire hillside on fire. that was pretty exciting to watch.

LOL

going backpacking with the GF. Weather looks fucking great. I was thinking of whimping out to some far east of the crest location but I think I'm just going to resign myself to getting really fucking wet, bring some extra garbage bags and fuel and make the best out of it. With the snow levels at 5k it may even snow a bit. I figure this way she'll think we are being really hardcore and shit waiting out this major spring storm in the tent.

Shit, will they really replace broken poles? I snap a pole or two every season at least. I thought it was just part of being a pole...you break.

LOL. I dunno, unless I clean up all this laundry it's kind of lacking in the scenic department.

Wow, talk about bringing up a dead subject. FWIW, after doing the ptarmigan traverse on skis the other week, I wouldn't take a split board on that if somebody paid me. It would be a horrendous pain in the ass, considering the amount of up & down and traversing.

That's pretty sweet by Chad. Honestly, just under 5 hours going up and down hood doesn't sound that impressive at all. I think you could find a large group of people just physically fit that could do it.

yeah, the teanaway area is great. i've explored around navaho, earl, etc. and it's beautiful fairly gental country. very neat contrast to the rugged stuarts just across the ingalls valley.

great suggestions, everybody. a few are the ones I was thinking of too. I agree with Alex, prusik WR would make an awesome GF climb. I think that or ingalls will be the backup if the weather turns out worse than expected. I was thinking chiwawa as well, as I love that area and expect it wouldn't be too crowded this early in the year. anybody know if the spider meadow trailhead is accessible yet? I would assume it was.

Gonna take the girlfriend out for an overnight this weekend. weather looks pretty lame but not real stormy or anytihng. requirements are that it must be very scenic and needs to be a challenging, but not ass kicking 2 day trip. It would be a bonus to be able to climb something. She's not technical, but anything I could solo up and give her a rope if nescessary would be fine. I've got several ideas, now lemme here y'all's.

A reputable institution that gives so much back to society, such as the wonderful NRA would *never* lie. Fuck the NRA! Worthless fucks.