catbirdseat

Satire, to be effective, requires more subtlety than that. Sometimes the Onion just clouts you over the head with a sledgehammer.

I could see it now as the "cloud (or is it sheep) bleeding out its anus" cartoon is going on. "Eeeeeeewwwwwwww". What were you thinking?

D00d! you gotta try it. They have beer there and it comes out of a hose! You can still get it in bottles, but Oh, my God! Beer from a hose!

Pretty lame, if you ask me. Some things you just don't joke about.

Scott your post was entirely out of character for this site: detailed, thoughtful, and considerate.

Ten or twelve draws is plenty.

I just watched the movie about Edward R. Murrow, Good Night and Good Luck. The parallels between then and now are striking. Bush needs to be taken down just as Joe McCarthy was taken down. He was censured by Congress. But that is unlikely to happen until the Republicans lose their majority. We can only hope for this to happen in the next election.

I'll keep my eyes open for it. My condolences.

Underage bear sex is not a laughing matter.

Pictures can be deceiving. Most of the climbing was about 40-45 degrees. The first pitch was 60-70 degrees with a couple of vertical bulges.

I tried to place the pink once but gave up. The crack was the right size, but it was too smooth. There was no recess for the stinger. By the way. I just added some pictures to the report above.

You happen to be a lot more responsible and resourceful than some people, which is good.

If I were them, I'd do the same thing. People need to be protected from themselves.

I have a suggestion that will send all your followers packing. Just start a conversation about the chemical composition of your essential oil. Throw in works like "vapor pressure" and "molecular weight". That'll do it. Trust me.

We tried to follow your advice, but oh, well...

The Omega Pacific may be dandy for rock climbing, but they are too small for ice climbing. They are difficult to manipulate with a gloved hand.

Ever hear of the Mighty Casey?

I brought the helmet cam, but unfortunately, the batteries died, so no joy in Mudville.

Climb: Mount Kent-North Face Date of Climb: 4/5/2006 Trip Report: North Face of Mount Kent, April 5, 2006 Summary: Mount Kent is located off I-90, about 3 miles to the south of Exit 42. We climbed the main snow couloir to the right center, except for a WI3 variation on the first pitch after which the main couloir was joined about three pitches up. Easy, but long descent was via the East Ridge. Conditions were marginal, as it was too warm, with either wet snow or water running on rock beneath thin ice. Except for the first pitch, most of the climbing was 45 degree firm snow with running belays using trees as anchors. Detailed Report: My partner bailed on a cragging trip with another partner, so I agreed not to publish this person’s name because a lame excuse was used. We hit the McClellan Butte Trail at 6:30 am with the first light and hiked up to the last logging road crossed by that trail. We turned left on this logging road and found a pickup truck parked there. No sign of its driver. This is the furthest you could drive in (via Exit 38) with a high clearance vehicle. After crossing Alice Creek, we took the spur that branches off to the right. After a short distance, we started punching through the crusty snow and elected to don snowshoes. We reached a switchback in the road that seemed pretty close to the face, so we removed snowshoes and booted through the woods, crossing a couple tributary streams on the way. We learned later that we should have stayed on the road and that the switchback was not shown on the map. Emerging from the woods we descended through a clearing with views of the face and we chose a couple of lines we thought we might try. We still had to cross the SE fork of Alice creek which was guarded by a dense stand of young spruce trees. We took a sinuous course through these trees and found out later that, had we stayed on the road, we would have bypassed these completely. Just before we emerged, we heard a rumble of a small avalanche, but we weren’t able to ascertain where the slide was. There was ample evidence of two or three day old slide activity, but nothing new we could see. To play it safe, we stayed to the right below trees as we ascended, again using snowshoes. We cached our snowshoes and poles at the last trees below our chosen route. My partner argued in favor of carrying everything over, but I didn’t want the extra weight. It would later be proven later that was the way to go. Since it was decided I would lead the first pitch, I got to chose, so I picked a steep start that looked like WI3. We chose to belay from a big root that emerged from a crack in the rock. The naturalist in me noted that the root must have been in soil when it first grew, but now about 10ft of it is exposed. That means a tremendous amount of soil must have weathered away and that the tree that grew that root could be quite ancient. Considering that I am not much of an ice climber, this 60-70 degree ice pitch was the most serious thing I had yet done. Protection was mighty sparse. There was no ice good enough for a screw, so I had to make do with what was available, which was a fluke at the top of the snow cone, a tied off root, a so-so angle piton (w/ screamer), and a picket at the top where it eased off. It was about 15 meters more of 45 degree snow to a nice tree belay. We were forced to simulclimb the last 20 meters or so. When I looked at my watch I discovered it had taken me an entire hour. My partner got the next pitch, which was two pitches of simulclimbing on more 45 degree hard snow with several tree tie-offs. I was brought up on belay to the edge of a large couloir. We could see several more direct and steeper routes to the summit to the right of the main couloir, but we felt that as the conditions weren’t optimum and our skill set was limited, it would be best to take the couloir and just get to the top by the easiest way. After a short, but wet and sloppy traverse I was in the couloir. This next pitch was a long one- about three pitches of simulclimbing. It was easy climbing on firm snow, if I stayed to the middle. I was able to dodge the occasional ice chunk that came down the chute. It was possible to keep at least one tree tie-off between us at all times, and when that wasn’t available, a fluke. Eventually, I ran out of slings and also needed to eats something, so I brought my partner up to a tree belay after which we polished off the last pitch and-a-half to the ridge. This featured a bit of 50-60 degree “snice” with tree tie-offs at the end. I thought one of my partner’s tie-offs was pretty resourceful. It was this long springy branch, tied off using a Kleimheist, so the sling would not slide off. It was 4 pm, so we elected not to make the easy slog to the true summit. Instead we followed an old set of snowshoe prints down the East Ridge. This was easy plunge-stepping down soft snow. We knew that we needed to stay left as much as possible to make the traverse back to our snowshoes. We were so afraid of dropping down too much and having to slog back up through goopy, wet snow. We managed to avoid this, but even so, it was a seemingly endless, plodding traverse to get back to “home sweet snowshoes”. Had we carried over, the logical return route would have been the logging road, but we decided to follow Alice Creek back to the road directly. It wasn’t too bad, actually. There was one big slide gully, choked with debris, that forced us up hill a little. Then we plunged into dense forest where there was some log-hopping and some devil’s club to contend with, but not as bad as I expected. We followed some old ski and boot tracks most of the way. Having reached the road with daylight remaining, it felt really nice. We hiked the remaining trail back to the car, just as the first raindrops began to fall. Dinner at the North Bend Bar and Grille never tasted so good. It was beer for the partner and coffee for me, as I was driving. Gear Notes: Slings: 5 single and 5 double 3 pitons- used one baby angle 4 ice screws- didn't use 3 pickets, 2 flukes, used both 3 Screamers, used them(!) Brought a few nuts and a pink tricam but didn't use. Approach Notes: McClellan Butte Trail from Exit 42. Snow starts at last logging road that is crossed by MB trail. View of First Pitch, WI3 CBS coming up the belay on the second pitch

Consensus is that: Narrowest head on the market Not flexible like TCU's or Aliens Very expensive Durability ?????

The climb was successful. We completed the route. Damn I'm tired. TR to follow.

Whan that Aprille with his schoures swote. The drought of Marche hath perced to þe rote. And bathed euery veyne in suche licoure. Of whiche vertue engendrid ys the floure. And Zephirus eke with his swete breth. Enspired hath in euerie holt and heth. The tendre croppes and the yong sonne.

There's only so much one can say about, "hey it's going to be a nice day to go climbing tomorrow", so spray away.

Shhhh... I wasn't going to tell them.

Okay, got the day off, and it's okay with the boss. Yes!