billcoe

Link "By REGAN E. DOHERTY, Associated Press Writer 31 minutes ago JERUSALEM - A wall mentioned in the Bible's Book of Nehemiah and long sought by archaeologists apparently has been found, an Israeli archaeologist says. A team of archaeologists discovered the wall in Jerusalem's ancient City of David during a rescue attempt on a tower that was in danger of collapse, said Eilat Mazar, head of the Institute of Archaeology at the Shalem Center, a Jerusalem-based research and educational institute, and leader of the dig. Artifacts including pottery shards and arrowheads found under the tower suggested that both the tower and the nearby wall are from the 5th century B.C., the time of Nehemiah, Mazar said this week. Scholars previously thought the wall dated to the Hasmonean period from about 142 B.C. to 37 B.C. The findings suggest that the structure was actually part of the same city wall the Bible says Nehemiah rebuilt, Mazar said. The Book of Nehemiah gives a detailed description of construction of the walls, destroyed earlier by the Babylonians. "We were amazed," she said, noting that the discovery was made at a time when many scholars argued that the wall did not exist. "This was a great surprise. It was something we didn't plan," Mazar said. The first phase of the dig, completed in 2005, uncovered what Mazar believes to be the remains of King David's palace, built by King Hiram of Tyre, and also mentioned in the Bible. Ephraim Stern, professor emeritus of archaeology at Hebrew University and chairman of the state of Israel archaeological council, offered support for Mazar's claim. "The material she showed me is from the Persian period," the period of Nehemiah, he said. "I can sign on the date of the material she found." However, another scholar disputed the significance of the discovery. Israel Finkelstein, professor of archaeology at Tel Aviv University, called the discovery "an interesting find," but said the pottery and other artifacts do not indicate that the wall was built in the time of Nehemiah. Because the debris was not connected to a floor or other structural part of the wall, the wall could have been built later, Finkelstein said. "The wall could have been built, theoretically, in the Ottoman period," he said. "It's not later than the pottery — that's all we know."

I don't know for gyms too much, the Portland Rock Gym was the second rock gym in the country. There is one more called club sport as well that is a converted Costco and very trendy and expensive as well. Now...the local scene is pretty good for climbers running around...given how shitty the weather tends to be. There tends to be good local real climbing. Maybe Broughtons is the best for close to town, Beacon is if the weather is good and its a weekend, you've probably heard of Smith Rocks, and sometimes mid-week, this group of hosers gets out after work at Rocky Butte too which is right inside the city with all the attendant issues that brings: you can read this thread to see how that went last year... PDX climber after work link Course these are primarily crack routes. Here's PRG Link to Portland Rock Gym Welcome to Portland.

I'm sorry, but I have that phrase patented. Welcome Sherri! That Lyons link esp. has some good stuff.

More like this: Tappit brothers at a recent Giardia taste testing. Kyle dipping the giardia Geoff with the post taste hesitation. Yes Pink, the man himself: T-man (AKA Testoserone man), is also known as Mike the Logger. Good Great dude! Once I swung by Jimmies house and T-man was there stripped to the waist picking Jims pears off the tree. Wife was all like, "hey, thats the way you use to look, if he's in his 60's and looks like a built like a brick-shithouse 20 year old kid, why can't you?" Another Kyle shot below.

Kyle On the left. The rest is Mike the logger and Runt the dog (on the right).

ha ha! Tappit bros rule!

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Yes I am not only both but fat as well. However, as I am still alive, I take that to heart as an indication that I have been smart enough to avoid the chop yet this far. Drew, Rock and Ice did tests which surprisingly was able to develop up to 1300 lbs on a belayed Toprope fall. If you have any Canadian math handy, please note that the low rating on the Ushba can be exceeded by that figure. Now, I've been a good sport and provided links to shit which has shown me to be correct. I have only done this to contribute to your knowledge, safety and well being. You can find this info online, it is not a secret. I have children, and like you, they often choose to ignore my wisdom. I'm saying no worries there, I'm use to being relagated to the shitheap, but yet I still want you to have the info, despite the fact that you are but a lowly Canadian. And a bit of an obnoxious one at that. I'm trying to say, in my way: "you're welcome".

Here's another link bubba: Link The Yates or Troll rocker in the link is Sherri's Singing Rock device above. I hear of folks climbing with the 2 Petzl Traxions devices, it's not uncommon at all (Mini and Pro), but there is evidence of them failing while hauling as well, so pick and choose what you want from that. I've never heard of one failing while climbing, maybe someone has, but soloists rarely fall. How about just borrowing people stuff to try it out?

Best put the beer down eh and break out the reading glasses to read the fine print on "Her Majesties stationary" also known as ("Her supreme parasite") in the link below you hoser! You can thank me later. LINK TO REAL TESTING CLICK ON THIS "Test performance: The Ushba Stop-Lock fared very badly in the dynamic tests. Only two devices were available for the dynamic tests and both of these cut the rope completely, without any slippage, at a peak force of 5.5 kN. The devices were too distorted and damaged to test again. This would appear to be a serious design fault and the Stop-Lock cannot be recommended for use as a back-up device. No further tests were carried out."

You are making the right decision (assuming you looked at the job situation first). It will never be easier to move, and in fact as time goes on, you will find more and more things that glue your feet to the ground. So good on ya for doing it now while you are still young and living your dream. Good luck Mike, you only get 1 go round in life, and once the merry-go-round ends thats it bubba, so you might as well sit on a pretty horse while the rides still happenin'! BTW, the solution to that Mormon visit thing noted up there is to leave a couple of empty wine bottles next to your front door.

Jim's house would be great with me assuming we can co-opt the rest of these folks. Cliffhanger....well, maybe we can migrate to the kitchen again and ignore it. Hey, I have some real climbing movie around here I've been meaning to watch I could bring over. Maybe it's Masters of Stone 1 and 2.

2 of the worst choices although people get them to work. For TR I'd rather just drop a knotted rope and clip it as I climb. I hate all that stuff. But in order of likeability or not as much hate: Soloist (ROUTE DEPENDANT) Silent Partner Edelrid Eddy tie with Modified Grigri and knotted rope. (I think that Joseph likes the Eddy best for leading BTW) The Ushba shouldn't be on the list.

I direct my energies to a more agrarian form of leisure activity... Plowing and sowing I think that means just sitting around eating cereals.

Also: lets get the Silverman bros and John Freih to show up too, they all seem to be avoiding this thread. I'll buy the first round.

I talked to Jim last night about this very function and he's in as long as someone reminds him closer to the date. Saw Joseph too as we were doing a rope hostage exchange thing before he leaves town again, but as he's all over the nets and most likely saw this I didn't bring it up. I suspect he is in Vegas/Alburqurque. - guessing we won't see him. It will be good to see Ivan too, since he's now going to be there. I can counsel the lad on relationships....NOT. . Well, after my 5th pint maybe. BTW, old F* reminder (moi and Jim for sure), dress warm, that place is cold....brrrr. HEY HEY, GOOD IDEA, LETS GET ONE OF THE ROOMS THERE!

It's pretty damn current too: it has Joseph and Larry's new route (just done Mar 07?), and a bunch of new Karsten routes too.

Wisely spoken all the way through JH. ____________________________________________________________ John: I heard a post children survey of parents had 77% of them NOT choosing to have children again if they could do it over. And they were non-climbers...wonder what those numbers would look like with this group?

Absolutely. Risk can be mitigated in many many stages as well in the Mt's. A 2 team FA of a steep route deep in the Wallows in late winter/early spring is radically different and dangerous on so many more levels than a spring jaunt up the South Side of Hood with 3000 other (working) cell phone carrying individuals. It is what we chose to do, vs what we believe are the risks.

hmmm What Rad says certainly strikes a cord. Jim Anglin passed away 2 weeks ago by falling off of the descent trail. Not on a burley dangerous climb, of which he had FA's on many. I was with another well known Oregon Climbing pioneer whom almost died after slipping on the mud at the Butte at the bottom of the easy downclimb by Blackberry jam (he had finished the downclimb and was standing on the wet dirt when he slipped, several surgeries and 4 weeks or so in the hospital...). My statement on the other thread was for me: and I see many other parents putting it way out there further than I want too on a regular basis. Here's a reworked version. ....... Speaking only for myself, it was considered and acted on. I had summited Hood well over 30 times before my (now 21 year old) daughter was born. I have not been there to climb except once since, (COUGH*outofshape*COUGH*fatbastard*COUGH) and that was only to fulfill a guide contract for a friend. We got off the summit 20 min before a major lightning storm hit. We stopped below the cloudcap and started back up when it passed to go help some highly skilled, highly experienced, very savvy Portland Mt. Rescue folks who were still going up as we were going down. They were fine as it turned out, but not by much. Proving you can be the very best Mt climber in the world and end up dead. I can name some names and circumstances if you would like. The loudness of a lighting strike near you is not something you can communicate on a computer. An unexpected avalanche, crevasse bridge collapse or humoungous rock whizzing right by your head can be equally shocking. As far as answering your first question, I bumped my life insurance and stopped what I consider the high risk things. I don't do the mountains and ice. Stopped drugs and toned down the partying. I do not ride a motorcycle now as well, although my wife does: go figure eh? Kids made a huge impact on us both, yet we draw our own lines, with our eyes wide open knowing both the risks and the consequences. I still rock climb, which I consider a lower risk activity. I do not make judgments for or about others who still climb ice or Mt's and have children, this is my choice. They make their own choices. I understand those parents still mountain climbing, I sometimes ache to run up Rainer or jump on the ice in the gorge when it hits, but I can easily get a quick pump in the rock gym, where it's warm and safe all winter, and spend the evening with my family, which makes it worth writing off the mts. As a family we do things together as well. A hike up dog mountain gets talked about for months, and your son would most likely love doing that with you as well. He doesn't give a shit about Mt Hood, he wants to be with you. You came on the board asking advice, and got good advice in my opinion. These guys have seen people come on this board asking advice whom later wound up dead in what some would say is a tragedy. It is something these cascadeclimber folks take seriously (generally). My dad died when I was 18 months old, due to no fault of his own, I take my responsibility as a parent pretty seriously, it is my prime job, and all else is secondary. But, I can see a time - where we kick the lil boy out soon as he's 17 now, where this will be changing. My son and I have gotten season passes the last 2 years, and it's pretty safe (and fun) to burn some fast runs at Meadows all winter. Great fun. So I'm ON the Mt, but not really ON the Mt. in a serious way. If the weather turns we head for the bar and a couple of hot buttered rums, and the lad has a hot chocolate and then drives me home while we discuss the highlight reel of the days events: prime jumps, runs where dad got left in the dust, major crashes, turns missed, etc etc :-) Sweet deal! Good luck with whatever you choose. I feel you have already taken a very responsible and intelligent path gathering as much info BEFORE you jumped in, something not everyone does. Your son is lucky to have such a committed and caring parent. Regards; Bill ps, read this trip report of Ivans day on the Mt. Keep in the back of your mind as your read this that this horror show was during great weather in PDX today.

Are any of you folks hiking around in the woods carrying a weapon after being stalked by a Mountain Lion or a bear? Or just carrying them preemptively in case you might be?

Ouch!

I've owned both the Bose 901s and 501s back when vinyl ruled Brittania. When compared to the Sansui speakers my buddy had, the Bose 501's paled, so I sold them and got the Sansui's. The Sansuis we better than the 901's as well - but not by a wide margin. Love the Klipsh I have hooked up to my computer now. I put a Revolution 7.1 sound card and plugged in the Klipsh speakers, which fill the room with great sound. If the familys home, I put on a pair of Sennheiser 595s or some old school lookin' Grado Presige series headphones. I like the Bose, but thought I could do better on the phones as well. Good stuff!

MOUNTAIN GEAR ROCKS IS A HUGE UNDERSTATEMENT!!!! I love the fact that when all that Alien cam failure stuff started, with the CCH folks totally denying that they had an issue and just sitting with their thumbs up their asses picking their noses, Paul Fish of Mountain Gear just grabbed a bunch and paid to have them independently pull tested. Shitloads failed at shockingly low foot lbs. and CCH was BITCHSLAPPED UPSIDE THE HEAD and FORCED to recall and fix all the dimpled ones. Paul Fish alone may have saved many lives by his actions. We need to support and encourage folks like this every chance we have. Thank yew Mountain gear! Mountain Gear site for internet sales link

Do you have - or can you borrow - an electric soldering iron?