JoshK

I was reading that thread where Lowell included some old emails between climbers at Microsoft and thought to myself "Wow, Microsoft actually used to be a cool place to work... :P" That got me thinking...I wonder why so many climbers come from geek-professions?? Anybody have insight? -josh

Those must be some crap climbing boots to be less comfortable than AT boots. That said, I agree, my AT boots are really comfortable. I can hike a ways in them. Volcanoes are pretty lame without skis, IMHO.

Dru, where did you get that? It freaks me out.

Josh, are you saying you wont want to do all three Entiat 9ers in a day again? Lowell, very germaine quote from Gaston! Hehe...yeah, actually that was fun. Way easier than I expected. A camp in Leroy basin would be sweet tho! It's really nice up thar.

Yeah, seriously, I hear that. Nothing like getting down from a climbing and taking advantage of the one beer buzz!

Yeah, it is still pretty cool to top out tho, even after climbing a technical feature. The thing I would have found most interesting would be if there was a summit register, and, if so, what kind of stuff was in it. That is always kind of neat to check out when you are on mountains that get climbed much less often. Looks like even walking up that thing would be a bitch. All and all, it's hard to question a decision to just get off and go enjoy some .

I guess I still don't undestand the distinction between it being legally mandatory to stop when you see a car crash with nobody attending to it, versus somebody bleeding all over the place. I don't buy the "he could have been a murderer" bullshit. A guy in a crashed car on the side of the road just as easily could have murdered somebody five seconds earlier. They could have pulled up at a safe distance and asked what was wrong. I'll conceed it shouldn't be illegal since we don't need a law covering everything - that was just my initial disgust talking. However, those people should be ashamed of themselves. Another take on GS laws: They had to implement a GS act here in Boulder, CO (not sure if it has passed or it was just talked about?) to cut down on the instances of people not calling in incredibly drunk people at parties that may have alcohol poisoning. Of course a bunch of drunk people are more worried about the cops showing up and busting the party, issuing drinking tickets, etc. (which is a legit fear with the asshole cops here). So the law/proposal allows somebody to call it in and they basically send the meat wagon, drag the person off, and leave. I'm not so sure how they could cover the tactic of the cops simply coming back five minutes later tho.

"Nearby others were trying, without much success, to strip down one of the plane's motors, still stuck in the swampy ground" The plane's "motor"? An interesting choice of words for certain.

Anybody else think that not stopping for a person in obvious need of medical attention should be as unacceptable/illegal as passing by a car wreck with injured people and not stopping? I can hardly see the difference.

No, but THIS is idiocy: "Upon reaching the highway I immediately flagged down a car which slowed, looked me over, and drove on"

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9048817/ To add a typical cc.com political spin into this discussion...it is amazing how many state-by-state maps like these (scroll down) coincide very closely with the "red state" south, be it obesity, poor education, poverty, religious observence, etc. Must be god (and the republican party) rewarding them for their dedication... When somebody can figure out why the people down there vote like they do, it will be the biggest discovery since fire.

"Ten percent of Portland residents pedal to the office on a system of bike paths that crisscross the city like arteries, just as they do in Boulder, Colorado -- another bike-friendly metropolis, located in the leanest state in the nation. Only 16.4 percent of Coloradans are obese, according to the study." I have noticed there aren't many fatasses in Boulder, but it is funny they call it a "metropolis". It is a large sized college town. Denver is more than a bike ride away. They also don't mention that the altitude is the single largest factor in keeping the state a few % lower than others.

Do people actually carry nuts specifically for rapping off them? I guess that is news to me. I carry non-lead strength tat for rapping off (that 5kn stuff) but dont ever bring gear specifically intented to rap off. In other words, 6kn pro does seem to have pretty limited utility.

That is the most ridiculously stupid looking thing!

OK, you can't leave us hanging...you need to tell that story!

""I have been in this lady's shoes. I've been angry and left his practice. I mean, in-my-car-taking-off angry," Haney said. "But once you think about it, you're angry at yourself, not Dr. Bennett. He's the messenger. He's telling you what you already know." " It is sad that a doctor is being "investigated" for doing exactly what his job entails. If the doctor told me that heavy drinking or smoking was killing me it is his right, no, duty, to tell me, even if I don't want to listen. On a side note, I think something needs to be done about health care costs being passed on to the rest of us to treat obesity-related health problems. We all pay higher premiums (and in some cases our tax dollars go towards it) to treat people's health problems that they have caused themselves. The same goes with smoking. People need to take personal resonsibility for things they do to themselves that are intentionally harmful. Obviously there are exceptions for people who genuinely have medical reasons for their condition, but that is almost never the case and never the case for smokers. -josh

LOL, i was reading down this list planning on adding that as my contribution. You beat me too it. Now, to be more specific, george bush FOR president didn't flop, but clearly george bush AS president has. A big distinction.

What? The giant, extremely annoying talus cone pictured below?? :-) Holy moly!

And they use callgirls or random bar hookups, not those climbing-time-cutting-into girlfriends or wives.

I'm going to go back and not rope burn my entire hand some time...god that sucked. For something 45 minutes from Seattle it really is pretty neat.

Lowell, that is a great quote. That is exactly how I feel. I think I moved myself too far to the "do everything one way" side and didn't allow myself to realize there are plenty of ways to accomplish the same goal. The quote also highlites a great quality of the cascades...so many types of climbing, often in one single climb. Can anything beat great rock with some sections of alpine ice, accessed via a great glacier approach and some good old steep schwacking??

Berries are the best. The abundent blueberries were the only thing that kept me sane during the day of hellish thirst on Index and the hungry walk out. It is actually pretty surprising how much moisture those things contain if you eat them in a large enough quantity.

Cool. That sounds much more pleasent than dropping down, ascending snow, and skipping part of the ridge. I never thought that sounded very "pure".

It's not the age thing, I am certainly not near the age of "physiological" slow down. But most of the reasons people have listed are the tradeoffs I think of too. One nice thing is that an overnight for me generally requires only the addition of a 1 pound sleeping bag and an 8 oz stove kit if I feel like it. Throw in 8oz worth of overnight random essentials and it is an extra 2 pounds or so, which is a tiny difference. But I definitely agree, there are times when I want to go car-to-car (or need to) but I guess I just consider that second option of not going day-to-day more now. Overnight or not, one thing is for sure - light and fast is the only way to go. I can't believe the heavy crap I carried early on.