JoshK

I second the Thom Yorke album. Very very good stuff! If you've never heard Sigur Rós, it may be worth a listen. Definitely not for everybody, but chill and interesting. Finally - it's not chill out by any means, but I will throw in "10,000 days", the latest Tool album out there. It's definitely my favorite album of the moment, but if you are looking to avoid audio-fueled rage at construction traffic, it may not be the best of bets.

FWIW, no positive test for a benzo would get you fired or not hired. It's a giant class of drugs which contains a great number of commonly perscribed medications. Assuming you are legally taking them they can't take issue with it. -josh

I know it's asking a lot, but does anybody have a recommendation for a moderately easy hike in the alpine lakes area that won't be infested by hordes of humans? Lake would be cool, but anything is good as long as it isn't packed like the standard rachel lake, snow lake, etc. hikes.

It is fucking hilarious how many people are stupid enough to decide that carrying a gun is nescessary in the woods after reading something like this. Yeah, it's totally fucked up, but in no way is it a comment on the overall threats on the backcountry. I think i'm gonna keep on taking my chances...

It will certainly involve blame of liberals, calls for fiscal irresponsibility and the drinking of the GWB special sauce.

very nice! I got my summer's base laid down by a lazy shirtless day up on the neve glacier. Much better than lying on the beach!

The north ridge was a very fun climb, but descending that south (west?) side and going up and back over the sherpa-stuart col and down the glacier was just brutal. that was one of the longer days I have had.

Here is the beta: follow the trail.

No, but it's still an unsatisfactory end to a complete game - a game that involves way more than taking set up kicks at a goal. I think of it this way - if the entire game was a penalty kick contest would it be interesting? No. A championship game should be played until completion, be it an extra 30 minutes or 3 hours.

I have no fundamental problems with soccer, i just don't find it very exciting. It's like blue balls - plenty of excitment but then the constant dissapointment of not actually scoring. Maybe that makes winning on penalty kicks the sporting equivilent of getting a handjob?

http://francefighter.ytmnd.com/ I liked the headbutt - it added excitement to a game that I otherwise just can't find entertainment in. Too many 1-0 and 1-1 games. Any sport where you can play the entire world finals match to a tie then have the game decided by stupid penalty kicks doesn't sit well with me. It's as bad as the regular season NFL overtime rules where winning a coinflip essentially gives you a 2-1 advantage in winning the game.

We could hear the G&D perfectly from our house - it was pretty funny. We noticed the cheering theme for soccer is several big build ups of excitment when the ball nears the goal, almost always followed by a groaning sigh when they don't actually score. I could tell the score of the game by simply listening for the rare continued cheers after an actual score. It was thrilling. No really, it was.

I wonder who Bush is rooting for in the battle of "Old Europe"??

Great TR, i really enjoyed reading it! Thanks! -josh

CBS, the last two times up there I realized how lame this is. the NPS feels the need to permit us to use the area but not to maintain a trail that is obviously pseudo-official. If they are going to abandon the trail then it's not fair to permit us. Otherwise, if they are going to permit, then spend the few hundred bucks to cut the brush down low. Yes, very Coloradian of me to complain about some brush, but it seems like a very inconsistent policy.

Great to here she lived. Best of luck with recovery.

Wow, if he actually ran the rope over that is pretty damn dick. Unfortunately, you'd have no way to catch him.

For those of us familiar with the area can we find out the specifics of where and what S&R has searched? This information would be useful to anybody heading in to the area and interested in keeping an extra eye out for Roger. -josh

There were 4 or 5 "US government" vehicles parked or driving on the road when I was there the other day. They all looked like standard civilian cars with gvmt plates. They were doing no maintenance or anything of the sort. Most of the people in the vehicles looked like your standard touron sorts. If I didn't know any better it was what somebody suggested above - people using their gvmt hookup for a personal trip. Lame.

Dude, 40 pounds is NOT light. You should be at 40 WITH the skis, boots, etc.

Those glacial ponds are one of the weirder things i have seen in the mountains I must say...

Who's done it this early in the year? I would imagine that the icy traverse would be easier this time of year. What about the rock? Is there anything on there really hard enough to worry about with possible lingering snow. Also, anybody here done the thing in the opposite direction - from forbidden to torment. Does the natural ridge flow make this less pleasant? thanks, -josh

Honestly, it's a bit more fair to the rest of us if rescuers and the news were MORE critical of climbers in accidents. I'd rather they exaplin that, in this case, somebody probably did make a very poor judgement call, rather than allow the "climbing is randomly dangerous" perception to linger.

zo, i highly recommend trying the other direction as well. The gentle approach through the ever chaning scenery you get from the snow lakes approach is very nice. After that you drop down and get out real quick via assmaster, which is great. The bike is HIGHLY recommended!! The snow makes things very easy to get up to prusik right now, IMHO. I found travel efficient with only boots.

Awesome stuff. Was just listening to some about 20 minutes ago. Ivan, i've got a couple of great albums i recently picked up. You can, um - listen to them, next time we climb.