billcoe

Hot damn, looks like they're gonna give Playboy a run for it's money.

On Supertopo the other day, John Middendorf said that hands down, the Wild Things bivy was the best he'd ever tried and he'd tried a lot of them. I suspect that the IR is better based just on what folks say, you might hunt that thread down and see if he'd ever tried one of theirs. I would tend to believe it based only on some of the extreme stuff he use to do. Later someone mentions design, I'd read the whole thing to get started. Link

Ha ha! Well I did have the whole Gorge almost to myself till you folks cruised in! Surprised to see anyone myself. It's just how I roll, some day I'm gonna be Cougar food for sure as I'm almost always alone. Wife was studying for a test so I hauled the pups out of the house to romp the woods this time. I think of them as cougar appetizers. Hank the Dog Sadie May the Trailer park Floozie Both were rescue dogs, Jack Russell Terrierors

Me too. Great stuff, hope things go well for your wife. To your health--->

Pulled Trout Creek directions. I'd like to thank everyone for being so civil. I got like 6 PM's on this. There were 3 that supported leaving them, 2 that were like "sure, OK, fine, whatever it doesn't matter either way", and 1 that said probably shouldn't post them. The deciding factor was just talking it over with Ujhan as we rode up to put some tracks in the snow. He wouldn't commit one way or the other, and the discussion basically dissected the entire issue both ways to Sunday. The place is nice just the way it is. I suspect that the climbing artical will see folks showing up on road trips, hopefully, as there are 2 gov't agencies and private folks leasing as well there, any crowding which might occur gets handled OK. Risking the area going through a Gov't intervention is more than I want to be a part of even if it's a 1% possibility. If someone else chooses to put them online, I'll say "whatever", it's all good either way. ps, the mt is in prime shape right now! Better than my knee anyway!

Nate cares. Promise to carry the gear?

.....if we get a consensus....... You bet Nate, if its consensus! I'm going skiing soon, I'll check in later.

Classic TR Sobo! You guys rule! That canyon is amazing in the summer as well.

Bad Doug no biscuit! I don't think I have the skills, time or inclination to herd cats! Besides - Bills' going to be selfish this year!

It's a small place, and things generally get worked out by various folks to everyones satisfaction eventually. That climbing plan was hammer out by Jim and a group of climbers 3 generations ago. As the place was close to climbed out 20 years ago, there isn't much of a reason for a committee meeting to review new routes. Generally the ranger is OK as long as we care take the place and treat it with respect. It is a public park after all. I think Josephs extension of an existing route (which he will be pushing further up a crack system this year) was it for new stuff last year and probably next year as well. Climbers are lucky in that there is currently very professional ranger out there who gets along with everyone and is highly skilled at what he does. The birds are a Washington Fish and Wildlife issue. Until they decide to move along (like the nesting pair on El Cap that moved across the valley to a new scrape for no apparent reason) that issue is stasis. The access fund hasn't had any presence at Beacon. I think that the bolt issue you refer too is that a former AF rep showed up and put in a chain anchor at the oldest, easiest most classic route out there without asking or talking to anyone, something which most active climbers out there felt was piss-poor form. As far as Raindawg goes, I have a long rant I'll save for later. However, it boils down to the fact that to archive his sense of STYLE he would close any area that is predominantly bolted LIKE Railay in Thaland, Caeuse in Switzerland, Broux in France, Smith Rocks at Smith. Beacon is a crack filled place where bolts are not common. An addition of single one like the one Joseph popped in without talking it over much can create quite a needless stir. I thought Jim Anglin pretty much nailed it when in the middle of one of the classic Beacon Rock mud slinging wars online he said something to the effect of: "You folks need to lighten up and go do a road trip" or something like that. Edited to add, thanks for the compliment Kellie!

Thank you Jeff, I knew all that already, maybe everyone else did as well although it's nice to hear again, but there are some other issues as well which dovetail nicely. I'll PM (send a private message to) you.

Credence Clearwater Revival - it's on now. Heard it through the Grapevine. Great stuff. Saw them live in 1968 or 69.

7- 8 days on slopes, many more just wandering. But I had a long layoff as I popped out of my new ski bindings and slammed my knee, which is still in pain like 3 weeks later. As of today Edited by billcoe (02/13/08 08:20 PM) ________________________________________________________ 11 now as of today. Hit Anthony over the weekend and stayed in a cabin in the Elkhorns. Played Hookie from work this afternoon, headed up to the slopes with the lad and we turned and burned. As we were leaving, and the sluch was just starting to freeze into what was undoubtedly a hard icy bumpy horror-show, his former classmates of last week were just heading up for night skiing. Headed towards Hood River and to the Columbia Gorge Hotel for the scrupulous Prix Fixe dinner that started with Dungenous Crab soup, got better from there with the exception that they had run out of Black Butte Porter draft (Gasp, the Horror!) so I settled on an Alaskan Porter -bad idea, too heavy and smokie clashed with the Marscapone Strawberry cheesecake desert -the finish was as we left the hotel the lunar eclipse was starting, so we3 wandered on the basalt stone path next to the waterfall and hung out while the event occurred and the cold wind blew down river. And now you know.....the rest of the story.

I once went climbing with a fella who was using an 11mil rope someone has given him used, and at that time he had racked up over 200 lead falls on the thing. Not a UIAA lead fall, but going up 100 feet and falling with the pro at you knee kind of fall. He was freeing top end (now called trad) standards at the time. Ropes have gotten somewhat better, abiet thinner now. Someone on this site I still occasional go out with had bought one of his lead lines used off of ebay. Rope looks pretty good too. I tend to be over protective and climb within the Mfg recommended time frame, give or take a couple of years. According to the artical there, which seems to not make mention of true lead falls, if it the looks good, shrug your shoulders and soldier on. If the rock is share however, it might be prudent to use double rope technique, or just spend the $ and get a new rope, which is the safe and smart way to go IMO if you have the money.

She moved to Florida with ZimZam today.

Looking at Moofs sweet homemade hanging system has me wondering if any of you has seen or tried out this companies stuff? Link to Gear Storage Systems

I was thinking something along the same lines. In fact, if you will stop posting I will stop read your crap.

$3000 $5000.00 for the hand. It set the house record for most times wacking off.

I'm not Len, Zim Zam - I'm bill, I just saw the ad and thought you'd enjoy it. I do have some a couple of handfuls, almost 30 pieces, classic ancient gravel I could part with for a couple of hundred bucks $500.00 if you'd like. 2 different professors say that these rocks come from the igneous period, which was even before your ancestors were born. That old. yup. Price reduced to $450.00 as there is NO glitter, however, I have been assured it is in fact real old stuff.

prehistoric glacier rock - $2500 This rock has glitter in it. It has been inspected by two different scientist. One who works with the university downtown and one who actually works in the university downtown. Both have confirmed it is a prehistoric glacier rock due to the melting's of the rocks appearance. I have also called other scientist who work through out the united states and have seen pictures of the same type of rock in museums. The largest recorded glacier rock in the state of oregon is at a museum in salem maybe (it was a couple of years ago I checked) was only about 4 to 5 inches around. small enough to fit in your hand and was valued at 500.00 dollars. This rock is about a foot long. They wanted it but I wouldn't donate it. To a collector, this will be your prize. 2500.00 dollars is the firm price. Actually worth twice that. Girlfriend is ill and the copays are climbing. I've had this rock for some time and it is time to sell. Len 503 422 5320" On Craigslist now: better grab it quick before it's gone. Link to buy said rock

What is that?

The kids today are bringing extreme gymastics training to the game that the oldtimers rarely engaged in. I expect that they will be doing harder and tougher stuff than even some of these hard young pups are getting on in just a few short years. Hey Bob! Shit ...lighten up will ya.

Well, then where is all the ice on the Mts and the glaciers going too? Full Artical: " Christopher Booker's Notebook By Christopher Booker Last Updated: 1:52am GMT 04/02/2008 So it appears that Arctic ice isn't vanishing after all There was some coverage of the chaos caused in central and southern China by their heaviest snowfalls for decades - but little attention was paid to the snow that last week carpeted Jerusalem, Damascus and Amman, none of them exactly used to Dickensian Christmas card weather. Similarly, Saudis last month expressed amazement at their heaviest snow for many years, in Afghanistan snow and freezing weather killed 120 people and large parts of the United States and Canada have been swept by unusually fierce blizzards. Polar bears on melting ice The biologist who took this picture says this pair were within easy swimming distance of the Alaskan coast If the northern hemisphere's chilliest winter in a long time was bad news for the propagandists of global warming, they also had to face serious questions about some of the most iconic images used to support the claims that the world is hotting up towards disaster. Last autumn the BBC and others could scarcely contain their excitement in reporting that the Arctic ice was melting so fast there would soon be none left. Sea ice cover had shrunk to the lowest level ever recorded. But for some reason the warmists are less keen on the latest satellite findings, reported by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) on the website Cryosphere Today by the University of Illinois. This body is committed to warmist orthodoxy and contributes to the work of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Yet its graph of northern hemisphere sea ice area, which shows the ice shrinking from 13,000 million sq km to just 4 million from the start of 2007 to October, also shows it now almost back to 13 million sq km. A second graph, "Global Ice Area", shows a similar pattern repeated every year since satellite records began in 1979; while a third, "Southern Hemisphere Ice", shows that sea ice has actually expanded in recent years, well above its 30-year mean. Still more inconvenient was the truth about an image that has been relentlessly exploited to promote this panic over the "vanishing" Arctic ice. It is the photograph of two polar bears standing forlornly on the fast-melting remains of an iceberg which has been reproduced thousands of times to show that there will soon be no bears left (ignoring evidence that their numbers have risen recently). Northern hemisphere sea ice area Now, thanks to a Canadian journalist, Carole Williams (on NewsWithViews.com), we can read the story behind this picture, which was taken in 2004 just off Alaska by a marine biologist, Amanda Byrd. As Ms Byrd is happy to point out, the bears were in no danger so close to the coast (they can swim 100 miles). She wanted a photograph more of the "wind-sculpted ice" than of the bears. The image was copied by another member of the crew and passed on to Environment Canada. Then it was eagerly adopted by the warmist propaganda machine - above all by Al Gore, who used it to powerful effect as an emotive backdrop to his highly lucrative lectures. "Their habitat is melting," he likes to declaim, "beautiful animals, literally being forced off the planet." As the old joke has it, it seems those famous bears were not drowning after all, they were just waving. But the BBC is no more likely to tell us that than it was to lead the news with last week's snow in Jerusalem. " EOM

Don topropes in Toulome, or Thailand, Broux and on 400' tall as yet unclimbed cliffs? WTF? Does Don use some special 800' long rope?

I don't understand why an area that has no cracks can't have bolts according to you Raindawg? Maybe you just need to get out and climb some more. (climb at all?) Have you been to Toulomne Meadows at all? Imagine a 400' high cliff that is crackless. You are advocating no climbing there. You are fine with them cutting a huge swath through the forest, blasting rocks and bulldozing massive amounts of dirt for a new road that can be seen from the next planet over, but a small f*ucking bolt that you cannot even see from 40 meters away.....(insert head shaking in angry disbelieve wide mouthed at the stupidity of your attitude emoticon here) I still don't get it, and it is truly most likely that you cannot explain it away, so you don't address my issue. (drifting off with the sound of lil Dawg warming up in the background, with 300 bolts in the basement next to her....raring to go) Edited to add couple of lil Dawg pic's