catbirdseat

Where's Norman_Clyde? He's an ER doc. Send him a PM and an E-mail. Doh, he just left for Antarctica.

A number of folks feel the same way about you, CBS. This whole episode has as much to do about me as it did about her. I was racking up to do a pitch that was close to my lead limit without some of the gear I would have preferred to have. I was trying to get my head in the game, trying to focus on what I was doing, get psyched up. I was having a hard time doing this with this constant stream of chatter. I'm a pretty polite guy most of the time. This was one of those times when I was sorely tested.

The GP's office is closed aready? You might be able to get a nurse on the line for advice. Try that.

I've already read some of Al Fortini's reports. This is what led me to rig my Coyote pickets with cable to the mid point, for use in the "vertical deadman" configuration. If the snow is soft enough to require a center attachment, the cable will cut itself through the snow. If the snow is too hard for the cable to cut, it's not needed, and the picket is used in the traditional fashion with a surface clip.

Well, you and I could get away with saying stuff like that, but damn, that's a pretty foolish thing for an elected official to say, even if it's true. My brother had a chance to go to Biloxi to serve his medical internship with the Air Force. He chose Seoul, South Korea instead.

Some flukes are designed to dive, while others are not. The ones that are not designed to dive must be set at the correct angle by you. The ability to dive can be a plus or it can be a minus, depending on how you look at it. If the surface has a crust over a soft layer, you have a situation where one could fall and slide if the slope is steep enough. Such a surface would not take a picket or an ordinary deadman because there is no firm snow within reach of the surface. A diving fluke can move until it digs deep enough to find firm snow. So when you trot out the well-worn argument about the fluke diving and running into a rock or ice layer you need to weigh that in terms of the alternative, which is no pro at all. I agree with you that sometimes, it is best not to place pro at all and rely on your skills to not fall.

We've had Leave No Trace lectures in every Mountaineers course with which I am familiar. The policy on Blue Bagging is usually to comply with whatever rules are in effect in the area. For example, the MRNP has a Blue bag policy is in effect on the Kautz route. I climbed the route with some visitors from Canada who did not comply and in fact I was ridiculed for following the rules. They ridiculed you for not polluting a wilderness area with their Canadian crap? F-ing unbelievable. These fellows were both Euros and old-school climbers, so I could understand where they were coming from.

That's the only way they could get him.

We've had Leave No Trace lectures in every Mountaineers course with which I am familiar. The policy on Blue Bagging is usually to comply with whatever rules are in effect in the area. For example, the MRNP has a Blue bag policy is in effect on the Kautz route. I climbed the route with some visitors from Canada who did not comply and in fact I was ridiculed for following the rules.

We do police our own. I once encountered an Intermediate student from a different branch of the Mountaineers camped on heather at Merkwood (Harrison Camp). I told him that he should know better than that, and that there were numerous developed camp sites available. He apologized and moved his bivy sack.

In winter conditions, pickets are absolutely useless in most situations. I can understand why people don't like deadman anchors. They are a pain in the ass to carry with their kinky wires and all. Ketch has been experimenting with use of high tech Vectran cord in place of steel wire that may make deadman anchors much more pleasant to carry and store, not to mention lighter.

Getting back to Richard Pombo. He was one of the major hurdles to getting the Wild Sky Wilderness bill passed. Murray tries again with Wild Sky wilderness bill "House Resources Committee Chairman Richard Pombo, R-Calif., said he would consider Wild Sky only if it is trimmed of roughly 13,000 acres that contain logging roads and other marks of modern intrusion. Pombo, a rancher backed by property rights advocates, opposes granting any federal land wilderness status unless it is untouched by humans -- a standard that the original Wild Sky proposal does not meet." Pombo says land doesn't qualify as wilderness (August 2005) Pombo's assertion is that the land must have always been wilderness and must have never have been disturbed by man. My reading of the Wilderness Act supports this. I'm not saying I agree with it. I think Wilderness should be a way of managing land, regardless of its former use.

It's not the machines that is the problem. There MUST be a paper record of how the citizen voted that can be counted by hand. It's the only way that fraud can be averted. If the machine produces a paper record that the voter can verify reflects the way he voted, the machine is acceptable.

It appears that they were not identified in the film by name, nor was their fraternity or school identified. The suit has no merit.

Middle Fork Snoqualmie washed out at Burntboot Creek. Trailbed is completely gone. We couldn't even find where it resumed after looking for a while. Good news is that there is now a large cedar log that will allow easy crossing of the Burntboot Creek. A trail will have to be built to it though. Also on the Middlefork Trail there is a large tree down on boardwalk about a mile east of Dingford Creek. A log bridge has rotted out and collapsed on a tributary just west of Wildcat Creek. The Middlefork Road is washed out about a mile or so past the hairpin turn below Hell Hill. Another mile in the roadbed is covered in rocks washed down from above. That one will take quite a bit of work to clear. Other than those two, the road is pretty good.

... and maybe even consider tying knots in the ends.

Eric Horst suggested in one of his training guides that creatine would add more bulk than strength. I don't think it's use is real common among climbers. I have a friend who says he uses it occasionally to speed recovery and reduce soreness after particularly hard workouts. I have not used it myself. The link below appears to support this. Creatine for Climbers Here's another link. It would seem that boulderers would stand to gain the most from creatine because it is a very short duration activity.

The Presidency has already been stained. Crippling it would be a good thing. It would shut the bastard down. At least he couldn't do any more harm.

Gosh, you sound like you are actually serious about this. As I see it, morality may come from God, but God is man's construct. Therefore, morality comes from man.

I enjoyed that one. There's no accounting for taste.

Indeed, flukes work much better. Also, don't forget lots of long slings for tying off trees.

Outdoor Educator Semestor- Cost $11,000. Yikes.

Hallelujah, praise the Lord! Oh, wait, I almost forgot that I am a godless heathen.