billcoe

If there's no pictures it didn't happen Dave:-) LOL! Should be good weather bout everywhere this weekend! Enjoy the last of it - Woot! I was going to do some laps on beacon maybe YW and got invited to Smith.....(insert old and out of shape whine here:-) Dude invited me is great company, fun, smart, ..the whole package, but uber sick strong....I'm sure I can belay that level, but don't know what I'm going to be climbing.... should be interesting. Haven't been to Smith for a long while.

teenage speak..."WHATevar!" OMG!

This was interesting.....

Nice Dave!! Hey, hold old is that lil one? Wes's lil girl is like 6 or something and is turning into a climbing fanatic:-). I think that I use to be able to outclimb most 3rd graders, not so sure any more. Climbing gyms are making these lil guys sickly strong before they even see real rock. I know that Stan and Rudys kids are climbing circles around me, Rudy posted some pics of his son TR'ing City Park, so whats one more? She'll be able to ropegun those hard cracks out there for us when we get old. It's always nice to be able to hang with your family though, congrats!

Thanks Mikel! I'll print them out and bring them along for folks. I have a couple of Splitter cams on the rack. Their claim to fame is that they say that they are optimized for just 2 cams in placements like in the Totem drawings. Anyone want to join in, the more the merrier, the ground is flat and there's lots of room for everyone. http://cascadeclimbers.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/982933/GEAR_WHORE_ALERT_PDX_after_wor#Post982933

The "government", or what passes for it -the many "governments" or those seeking political power via military means, in Somalia is huge in comparison to their GDP. Furthermore, their system of commerce, which jayb is rallying about, is even less free and open than here in the states. That's what you get with more gov't regulation like you continually espouse. Jayb doesn't want that, you do. So YOU move there. CYA!

Jayb, you really raised some great points. Yet until we achieve that dream of a perfect tax situation you describe, one that I've been hearing of all my life but have never seen yet, I'd want to see who's buying whom and who is paying for what. There should be a dollar limit of who reports what. No one cares if little Jimmy puts .50 cents in Barak Obamas cookie jar for advertising. Sure, this reporting limit will be arbitrary. But congress is there to regulate commerce -that is their job, and they will always have lobbyists coming around to suck the bread off the table. Always. Even if you change the tax situation for corporations. Shine a light on them all like cockroaches in the dark is all most of us ask. Whats wrong with transparency and honesty? It's all most of us really need or want. Regards to all

http://cascadeclimbers.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/982932#Post982932 Top of the Butte after work Tuesday 10/19. I'm bringing a bunch of minuscule (this means small) cams and my shoes. All are welcome to shoe up, LOL, or SHOW up I mean...hrk hrk hrk.... If anyone needs directions, let me know, but I'll be at the upper easy wall off and just below the front road where it enters the loop on top. There is a stairwell of railroad ties which drops you down out of sight, I'll be there. Daylight is getting to be a premium, so roping up on the cliffs ain't happening for me, but a lap or 2 on the traverse wall is. Just bouldering, no belaying or ropes although you certainly can as I see people rope up there. See you there if you are interested and you can plug and yank on it to your hearts content. We're really interested in seeing which of these small cams work the best in flaring, shallow, irregular and shitassed placements - bring the favs off your own rack to compare and contrast against these. 7/16-1" size range. Blue and Yellow Totem cam size, 13.8-27.7.

True. I think that has been due to a mindset many of us have carried which was that offsets were for Yos pin scars. I've found that is not true around here in basalt. Once I started carrying offsets out at the Farside in the Gorge and other spots, I realized that they really worked better than anything else most of the time. Better even than regular Aliens. Sadly - of the 30 some odd routes I fa'ed out there, I had these damn Alien offsets on my rack many many times, which kind of screws any bros who might not have a set of them. That's why I am of the mind that anyone who follows one of those routes, if they think it needs a bolt, talk it over with those who are active at the area, those who have done the route in question, and if you get agreement -just put the %$#* bolt in. Make sure you don't piss off the regulars or someone who feels that the Metolius offset is a bomber piece and would be offended, and don't screw it up, do a good job and put in a solid stainless steel bolt(s) and hanger(s). In either case, as said above, I want to put the Yellow to the test. I have the blue and yellow Totem, which gets it in the range of the Black Diamond C3's which I'll include the #2 c3 (14.2-22.6 mm, 0.56-0.89 vs 13.8-22.5 for the smallest Blue Totem)- some 16 cams total - on a biner that I cam haul out and folks can try every combo in any placement that they find. 1 caveat, I got old and fat and I really need a high mileage day where I get some laps in and I don't want to be screwing with stuff like this till I am totally yoinked and beat. If not, or better yet, lets plan to all go bouldering up at the top of Rocky Butte Tuesday after work and play around with the stuff in the shallow placements on top, looking at how different cams fit in different placements. Lets plan on that. Anyone want to see all this and stuff them in the cracks yourself, come up to the top of the Butte after work Tuesday. Bring your shoes and do the traverse too. Don't need chalk, it's easy climbing so leave it at home. If anyone I know, especially any 250 lb giants *cough* Kenny* cough* Ivan* cough * Benny* cough, wants to aid any steep shallow Indian Creek or Beacon type of cracks in the 3/8"-1" range, let me know, I have your rack right here:-) I'd really want to hear that feedback as well. Want the cams back by Tuesday is all, we can meet at the Butte after work.

Ammon McNeely on the first one day ascent of Horse Chute. Photo Chris Mac

Steel bolts up there...someone's gonna have to replace them with stainless at some point as it's wet up there on Garfield. Any nominees for the job? LOL!

Thanks Mikel, I just saw your response. The Silver/Red Alien and Totem Purple visually appear to be close in size. The CCH web site shows the range for the Silver/Red cam (I converted they had listed in inches .61-1.3") to be 15.5 - 33.00mm which compares to the purple Totem at 20.9 - 34.2mm. When If I get them back from Bryan I will check the Alien and the Yellow Totem head to head/placement to placement. Actually, Plaidman (Scott Peterson) appears totally enamored with them, and it looks like he's going to pick mine up from Bryan and take them over to the local climbing shop Climbmax, so they can evaluate if they want to carry them. At some point I want it remembered that these are my cams though. Anyone wants to join in this comparison trek to the rock to see for themselves first hand how the Silver/Red stacks up against the Yellow Totem cam (Totems published range of the Yellow 17-27.7mm), let me know and we'll organize something or a time and make a parade out of it. Scott's review can be read here: http://blog.oregonlive.com/climbing/2010/10/climbing_gear_review_totem_cam.html

What law ever made it through congress without having 20 more paragraphs tacked on? In fact, litigation, for the sole purpose of interpreting and determining what a lot of these numerous and onerous laws say; is a thriving and massive industry in this country. Of course that benefits the big money people, no matter if they are big unions or big business. Yet despite this and the recent supreme court decisions as it relates to the first amendment: how many of us believe that campaign contributions should be able to be made in a dark back alley with no reporting or visibility to the end user...us, the citizens.

Great Robert Reich article jb. Well done and thanks for posting it. Reich didn't mention it but some of these assholes are waging a jihad against the inheritance tax too. (currently for anything over a million dollars on estates over $3.5 million) Claiming that eliminating it will allow family farms to stay in the family...uhh, bullshit, I'd tell mr family farmer -who probably only makes up 1% of those super rich involved: just go get a loan and pay brother bubba off or sell the farm if it's not profitable enough to get a loan on. Mostly it would give the rich an even better chance to pass on the scratch. Like Steinbrenners heirs lucked out on. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/07/13/taxwise-steinbrenner-pick_n_645163.html I'm sure that Leona Helmsly's dog would disagree though...

How was Infinite Bliss?

Yeah, in a more remote spot than just sliding off Glacier Point apron too. That could have gone bad, congrats on only a hip bruise Steve!

SICK!!! Dolphins vs Narwhals.........who knew? I bet Narwhals. They have spikes. Dolphins are smart though.

What the story on the 40 footer Steve? BTW, I was down a few years back and I got to the campground late, but one of the guys, old Beacon/PDX climber had peeled off a route and "sprained" his ankle. I just saw him last month and he's still limping. When asked, he mentioned that he found out later that it had broken that trip.

Ditto: If this keeps up you're going to get old. I'd stop now if I were you.

+1

Guard dolphins:-) http://animaltales.info/blog/dolphins-save-man-from-shark "SWIMMERS have told how a pod of dolphins protected them from a great white shark off the northeastern coast of New Zealand. Rob Howes and three other lifeguards were on a training swim about 100 metres offshore at Ocean Beach, near Whangarei, when the dolphins raced in and herded the group together. “They started to herd us up, they pushed all four of us together by doing tight circles around us,” Mr Howe said. When he tried to drift away from the group, two of the bigger dolphins herded him back. He then saw why. A three metre great white shark was cruising toward the group about two metres below the surface. “I just recoiled. It was only about two metres away from me, the water was crystal clear and it was as clear as the nose on my face,” he said, adding he then realised the dolphins had moved in to protect the swimmers. The group were surrounded by the dolphins for 40 minutes before they were able to reach the shore. Another lifeguard, Matt Fleet, was patrolling nearby in a rescue boat when he saw the dolphins’ unusual behaviour. When he dived out of the boat to join the group he also saw the great white. Mr Fleet said he was keen to get out of the water after the sighting, but didn’t panic. “I just kept looking around to see where it was.” The incident happened about three weeks ago, but Mr Howes and Mr Fleet said they had kept the story to themselves until they had a chance to catch up and confirm what they had seen. Auckland University marine mammal research scientist Doctor Rochelle Constantine said dolphins were normally vigilant in the presence of sharks. The altruistic response of the dolphins was normal, she said. “They like to help the helpless.”"

Then pay Larry's fine jackass. Or STFU.

The government isn't making money at this. Oh no. The money is all going for the maintenance of the program. I suspect that over time they will just lose more and more money and use that as the excuse to increase the fees. See, I pay more in income taxes than Larry makes in salary. I don't complain about the tax system as it is relatively fair. The more I make, the more I pay. I don't complain about that although I do dislike that my country is spending more than it makes and we are going to shaft the next generation with this debt load needlessly. No, it's not the $5 that pisses me off, I got $5 coming out my ass and I wake up in the morning flushing them down the toilet. It's not the $5 or the $30, $100 or any amount of money at all. Shit, I had a season ski pass for many years, you should price one of those out sometime. Its the stupidity and unfairness of the thing that angers and outrages me - put it in the budget and pull it out of my income taxes so it can be fair, or stop doing the trail maintenance and let volunteers do it all or the trails can disappear. I am for smaller government, and if it means your ass gets fired and you have to go get a real job wherein you are productive and you can't be a parasite anymore sucking poor peoples blood, I'm all for it. Screw you and screw this program and screw the forest service. Pricks. Oh, and screw your $75 tickets to poor people who can barely feed themselves and want to enjoy the lands that they own you motherfucking parasites should be ashamed.

I love that route. Wish it was 500' long. Good luck with getting it back, you might post it on Smithrock.com too.

Ask this question again in 40 years:-) Enjoy Marc!