billcoe

LOL! Nice! Buds lookin' ancient there:-)

Here's my wifes Puddin' Jack Russell Terrier borrowing this very nice yet accommodating German Shepard's ball. God she's fun. But I don't take her out to public cliffs. I have a pic of her with some Mt Goats, she ignores them....unlike all the worlds mice/rats/rodents that she feels compelled to dispatch.

This sounds like the start of the "Flyin' Ivan" story. Geoff and he are out now, but I suspect we'll get a recap of it when he gets back. Probably your 2nd biggest surprise watching Ivan fly unroped? Ivan tells that pretty good. Dude used up at least 2 maybe 3 lives right there. Most recent of note: Just got back from RR couple days back, some ladies first lead in RR crack right next to us...she gets up a bit and says "there's a snake in the crack here"...."Yeah? Whats it look like"? She describes a rattle snake, so several of us tell her. Then she proceeds to just climb out on the face and around that part of the crack and on up! He partner follows and sure as shit: rattler he said. Never rattled, nor did it other them. 74 degree day, shade.

Says it's 2lb 8 oz too.... I like the awesome side zip access of the BD, but this looks like it would do better in high winds. Anyone know? 2 lbs 8 oz? That a misprint? Sick. I have underwear that weight more....not when they are clean of course.

I'd suspect that Dane knows more about metals than the rest of us combined, but till he shows up: I'd never really thought of it before. Aluminum definatly will work harden and break. Take a pop can and wiggle it back and forth a bit...you'll see. But there is a lot of Al configurations, as I'm sure some Boeing engineer will soon step up to describe for us:-) However, I suspect that the reason al. doesn't get the crap SS does for pons is cause the al tend to be made for non-technical stuff...ie, walking on glaciers. Thus, it tends to not be subjected to the same forces, and when it breaks, is generally on less technical (and less fatal) ground. I've heard of the al center bars breaking (often when stepping on rocks, but also just due to fatigue and age), but not the al front points falling off. I'd avoid al for front pointing too. Anyone have any thoughts? hmmm, something new to consider.

I wonder what Jesse Jackson would say about this? It was, after all, a BLACK nut tool that fucked up a (incredibly pale, clearly a sun deprived Northwesterner or a Minnesota lad) white boy....hmmmm....Yeah, didn't think he'd speak on this one. Jesse? Where are ya babe???? .......WAIT! HERE HE IS HERE HE IS!!!! Thats all you need to know. If you need to borrow Buddy the bong hitting bears imaginary bong to recoup, maybe we could work something out. You could do a nut tool hooking seminar for us. Here is is drawing too deep, again, and trying to stifle a cough. Again. BTW, Steve Byrne related that he got 3/4 of the way up Mescalito on his first solo one winter long time back and needed to make 2 hook moves in a row. Tragically, (over used word, it wasn't really a tragedy:-) he was standing on his only hook. So he swapped out his hook for his fifi..... ....then took a 40 footer when it slipped. Might have already passed the statute of limitations for a lawsuit though. Way to be creative bra! Maybe ya need some gore pics of the bone sticking out 4 inches to troll a few more in. A for effort still. Nice. What else is happening on Minnesota climbing.com these days? Long winters up there eh?? LOL!

You don't say what kind of climb....lots of variety there, or where it will be (conditions like wet, freezing butt-assed cold and otherwise dry, lots of rough rock, etc etc). So with that lack of info for a start, I'll add to the good advice above: I had read Danes stoke on the First Ascent (Eddie Bauer) Frontpoint Jacket a while back and wound up buying 2. (I bought the 2nd when they discontinued it). While I understand his stokage, I'd say that the Mountain Hardware Kepler I just got the bro deal on outperforms it as a rain jacket, and it's a "soft"(er) shell. http://www.mountainhardwear.com/Men%27s-Kepler%E2%84%A2-Jacket/OM4151,default,pd.html If it was me and I was starting again, I'd touch base and most likely 99% believe that I'd buy one of BillA's NW Alpine quality US made products, pay full price, which seems damned reasonable given that Mt hardware is made in China and NW Alpines stuff is US made. (it's a long story why I got the MThardware jacket) I'll be heading his way for a pair of pants soon. Email them per link below and ask the question. Let us know what you choose to do, I'm curious. Click here or the ad to the right Good luck on the climb.

Climbed yesterday am and we drove straight thru getting into the sack at 4am. My youngest Same on first gear lead. Damned good times. Most of it was cause these kids can belay perfect, and were soooooo Stoked!!!

I'm heading back in the Car now from red rocks. Utah They have the fr rendeview ramping up right. Now. The campsite pretty much is totally full. But the weather and the. Companionship is still world class! Lol Have fun!

Sobo, it sounds like an awesome opportunity and big time challenge which I'm sure you will handle with aplump and elan. (if those words don't work just make up a couple, you know what I mean) Congrats all the way around.

Whats a slider aider? Like a Metolius Easy Aider ?

Wow Toast! Sorry to see what should have been a healthy guy check out so soon. I'd never heard of that before, a bit of research showed that 1.3 million folks suffer from it. http://www.lbda.org/content/learn-about-lbd From the obit Doug sounds like the kind of guy I'd love to meet and hang out with, he sure lived what sounded like a full life with extra gusto though.

Well done video Bob....like +++professional. Love your narration overlay. Suggest entering it into some film festivals. The climbing gyms are certainly bringing some serious changes to the world. Some of these lil kids .....wow. Not just one or 2, there's a lot of them outclimbing the old guys x 10. Sweet that Rudy has a rope gun. Thanks for sharing it too!

Wow...that must be nothing short of amazing to fly over everything....to make such speed and distance so effortlessly....wow. When he was around, Mike Jackson use to do that too. Thanks for sharing that.

Oh joy:-) Hey, it's only money, right:-) Some of these guys must be able to somehow conjure it out of thin air it seems as they don't seem worried at all. Drew, I made a mistake and denominated into Yuan a large hunk of my cash in a Federally insured bank account. Sure, it's gone up, but I've sat and watch some other currencies roar even further ahead. I would have been wiser to grab a misc market basket of currencies. The Yuan looked like a sure thing at the time. You joke,but I'm sure that they have looked at devaluing the dollar to pay off the debt. But the time to do that is only AFTER you have stopped borrowing:-) Warm regards to all, remember that capitol preservation is the game that's afoot!

Nassim? Greek AND Lebanese ancestory? Clearly a nutjob who spent too much time working on his PhD worrying over minor matters that don't involve critical things like spending trillions on crap we don't need. LOL (for the obtuse, I joke make) Thanks for that link Jayb. Check out what this former USA cheerleader says. And remember, despite the fact that he's the former budget director under Reagan, it's not about repub-dem. Not at all. No LOL. Too serious. This is the former Budget Director of the United States talking. http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/story/2012-03-03/david-stockman-says-economic-disaster-lurks/53339644/1 Wow! Whope-de do, right Rob? Just keep spending, no one will ever need to pay it back? We need to actually hear the money flushing to nothingness or it doesn't really matter? We neeed th egovernment to spend a few trillion more here or there on stupid ased shit to get us out of this hole? Stockman is just another nutjob on the full retard train? Gary Johnson is another candidate who also doesn't stand a chance in hell who is looking at the major structural issues we as a country MUST address. Now or later. He also rates very high on personal liberties by the ACLU. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/01/01/MNND1MJ7UO.DTL

No one is even talking about tapering off. It's speeding up. OK, it doesn't matter: lets just keep noshing away then - heading the wrong direction....can stay heading in this direction forever! NOT Bring on some more debt and a side of fried chicken! Woot!

......15 min rates and mirrored ceilings?

http://news.yahoo.com/why-ron-paul-may-cut-deal-mitt-romney-092118733.html What the dangerous nutcase wants now that he's out of the running for sure - from link above, negotiating with Romney, the current leader for the nomination. He hasn't even gotten people discussing those ideas and when he brings them up he's called a nutcase. God help us all. hmmmm Homie the Clown says that we should check in with the debt clock lil childrens! Hmm,says that it's $136,980, up $2000 from quote below, which means your share, assuming you are a taxpayer, is only ... wait, nevermind - that is exactly what YOU owe. $136,980 IS YOUR SHARE. We'll, it's even higher now by the time you are reading this, with no end in sight. Does any rational thinking citizen (of course you are excluded here Rob) really believe that they will not have to pay that money or incure any pain to turn that around? BTW, Looks like it's shaping up to be the classic borrow and spend Repub (Romeny -crazy tax ideas including no estate tax and even more tax cuts) vs a Borrow and spend run us into hell just as fast Dem(Obama). Either way,we're still heading towards hell faster and faster. Enjoy the ride brobhams! From 12-12-11

In case anyone heads to the corner of 12th and Broadway to get BillAs custom beauties - they moved - the Mountain Shop's new address is: 1510 NE 37th Avenue : Portland, OR 97232 : 503.288.6768 In fact they are having an in store inventory reduction right now with some stuff 25-50% off. Bill, please tell us when they get your stuff in. Thanks

I suspect you'll come back with a whole new appreciation of the lush verdant country we call Texas. I was going to go through there once (not Texas,Asscrackistan) to Nepal @40 years or so back but was dissuaded by a stern lecture from a couple of your overpaid goverment CID types who claimed that I'd be in trouble if I did. (Land masses on the way were controlled by the USSR and I was prohibited from any travel to a Soviet Block country) That trip turned into an amazing European vacation so I can't complain. ...stay away from any camels that have unusual drips or sores back there and remember, HAVE FUN!

Sobo, is this a suburb of Kandahar, Asscrackistan?

Curious how you see them comparing to NW Alpines pants. The REI stuff on sale at $117.93 is still costlier than these made in America pants at $110: http://nwalpine.com/fastlight-pant

Hi Bill, can you advise Jeff on this, I'm curious as well. Thanks

The perfect Alpine bag has been done and folks on this board already buy them and regularly use them. Save yourself the trouble and just buy one of these. http://www.cilogear.com/ You did say "all comments are welcome". You're welcome.