Dr_Flash_Amazing

Don't be a knob, get a fawking Subaru, dude. Vroom.

Ya learn something new every day, good buddy; every day.

Haw haw haw! Trask must've missed that day in school. Dude, everybody knows the moon landings were faked! It even says so on the back of the dollar bill, right on one of the arrows the eagle is holding. Boy, you probably feel really, really dumb right about now. Whoooo!

And where's the damn DFA shrine, fercryin'outloud?!

Gahhh! It's unavoidable! This place will corrupt you like like Bill Clinton at an intern hiring fair! Must ... resist ... the smut ... it's ... too much ... resistance ... fading ...

You gotta be kidding.

Man, you said that about your little sister, too, you stingy bastard!

What? The land was stolen from them in the first place, and we can't respect their wish that we stay the hell off of it? An admittedly so-so crag? A compromise is always nice, of course, but it seems like bringing the beef with Native Americans is not the best use of the Access Fund's clout.

But ... but ... Pepsi Blue is extreme, and, and, and alternative, and, and "the kids" just loved it in the focus group! Bleah! Regular Coca Cola on ice, with a lemon wedge or two is the only way to go.

Like this:

How much for the John Holmes penis pump and pocket rocket vibrator?

*frantically searching for puking emoticon* Hell of a time to have no loudspeakers or headphones ... sigh.

Eat plenty of Dramamine or equivalent if you're prone to motion sickness. There's nothing like being in a little Cessna bouncing around over mountains to bring your breakfast back up in an unprecedented hurry, and it's not like being in a car where you can just pull over if you feel like hurling. Enjoy yourself, though!

Gateway, HP, and Dell all have laptops all over the price range, and some, if not all of the aforementioned have refurbished computers on their websites. They also give you the option of adding or removing things from the computer you want, so you can tweak for price and features. You might also try ebay or ubid.com, both places one can snag a good deal if one is diligent.

It seems there's a certain mindset among a lot of trad climbers, too, that they are more out enjoying nature, using their skills to get up off the deck more than 50', and immersing themselves in the more technical side of climbing, as opposed to most sport climbers, who are more into chasing grades and getting the send. The low-pressure trad mindset doesn't exactly contribute, in most people, to a big need to push the grades up, and, as you point out, the bulk of the classics you might climb are in the 10s, so there is no practical reason to be working harder and harder routes. All the same, if more people took the sport mindset to the trad environment, you can bet that you'd see more trad climbers hitting higher grades. Ropegun200(2) comes to mind as someone who has applied that, as well as folks like Tommy Caldwell, Tomas and Alex Huber, and Stefan Glowacz.

Heh heh, that's a good point. There was a cat here in PDX a while ago who was trying to do The Burl Master, which is up, up, up at the top of Aggro Gully. It took him two or three seasons to do it, and he had a hell of a time convincing people to trudge up the hill with him and sit in the freezing shade while he sessioned the route. Didn't help that he weighed around 200 pounds, either, and most of the folks he climbed with had either done the route already or were nowhere near climbing that hard. Nothing like having a climbing partner of similar ability and with similar goals so you can work the same routes.

True, if you can pull it off. Although DFA usually finds himself getting too pumped and falling off in that situation, but that's where more endurance training and learning how to rest well comes into play.

Hey, DFA is part of the white tide gentrifying the formerly mostly black NE Portland area, and he was bumping Jurassic 5 in the Sub' this morning. Yo, all the Gs in PDX be rollin in Subies, homie. On the real tip; peep game, yo. Uh, yeah ... back on topic, the visualization can be a very effective key to advancing. A lot of beginning or intermediate climbers don't learn or take advantage of this skill, and waste a lot of time bumbling on moves that are within their ability, because they simply haven't taken the time to plan out the climb beforehand. Hell, climbing's hard enough without having to try and remember what you did last time every time you get to a crux. Taking this kind of analytical approach can help you with on-sighting as well, since you're looking at the rock and the holds and visualizing what the moves will look like. By committing sequences to memory, you can recall a sequence you used on another route when you see a similar configuration of holds, and cut out the guessing game.

Greg, that may well be the case. DFA has only led trad routes he was pretty sure he wouldn't fall off of, so it's hard to say. The Doctor would guess, though, that if one was working to redpoint a trad line, one might commit to memory any rests, the gear placements, any key crux beta such as foot placement or specific jams, etc. And your comment on "basic positive thinking shit" is good, too; keeping those strong leads in your head. That's one of the best things about ticking a route that you've been working on, or getting a good onsight, is banking that feeling in your head, and replaying it afterwards. Great entertainment when you're ass-bored at work, stuck in traffic, trying to sleep, or whatever. And it gives you some confidence and stoke to draw on next time you need to get biz on some shiz, to use the ghetto idiom.

The whole visualization thing is a very effective tool, also; good point. It seems silly as hell (much like talking to yourself), especially for anyone who has seen Masters of Stone, watching Todd Skinner sit there miming out moves with his eyes closed. But guess what? It works. Once you get the sequences on a route pretty well worked out, taking the time to step back so you can see the whole route, and go through every move, either in your head or in the air in front of you, really helps cement the thing in your head. DFA even stops for rests and chalk (not literally chalking up, of course), does the clips, goes through the verbal cues ("lock off here," "footwork," "stay focused," "relax," that sort of thing -- whatever you need to do to keep yourself dialed in), etc. all the way to clipping the anchors, and being stoked at clipping the anchors. If you catch yourself forgetting sequences on the ground, you can bet you would have blown it on the route, too. In that case, look at the sequence, remember what you were supposed to do, then start at the bottom and go through it in your head again. You want the whole route correctly committed to memory. This can dramatically shorten the amount of time it takes to send a route. Now when you get on your route, you know and remember exactly what to do, and you can move a lot more confidently. If you've done a good job picking all the rests and crux areas out, you'll find yourself flowing much better, and as you complete one section, you'll know exactly what to do next. End of lesson two, go send something now.

Work bad, too. Internet goooood.

The above are all good considerations. Unless the area is under the influence of a hardcore trad ethic, though, it's your route, so do whatcha want with it. And bugger the piton idea. If you're going to place something meant as a permanent piece, place something that's going to be bomber, i.e. a bolt. It's kind of silly to try and keep the route more "trad" by adding old-school gear that's going to be permanent anyway. Fixed gear is fixed gear, so make it stonker.

Just for the potential future edification of any interested parties, there is a special about Islam airing on PBS December 18th. You know, if you want to, like, learn some stuff about Muslims without, like, reading, you know, uh, like, like books and stuff or whatever. Yeah. Oh, and Ramadan is over, so you can all eat today! Salaam alekum!

Since you boys are getting along so well, why don't you take this back-patting syrup-fest into another room, hmm? Happy Friday, jingus jerkwadz.

Trask doesn't seem to be arguing with this assertion, sadly.