catbirdseat

I have nothing but good things to say about Snohomish County Search and Rescue. If it weren't for them, my son wouldn't be alive. Last week they found a lost hiker on Pugh who would have died, if they hadn't found him when they did.

Last night I dreamt I was out in the desert climbing with a group of friends. It might have been Joshua Tree. We were just chatting when off to my left I see this mushroom cloud go up way over the horizon to the west. Then to the north, several more go up. San Diego, Pendelton, Los Angeles, Vandenberg- basically every major coastal city or military base. It's armageddon, out of the clear blue sky. What now? Our homes are probably already incinerated. This is the end. There is nowhere to go. In a few hours the fallout will begin and we'll die of radiation sickness. What do we do now? In the end, we decided to go climbing.

Nice work, guys. Great photos, too. They would be easier to view if you resized them to medium.

It was a running belay and we used three flukes. Pickets would have been absolutely useless, even as deadmen. This was winter conditions. I hear ya.

Feed me, Seymour, feed me!

Something like that, but the leaves more closely resembled nodules or scales. They weren't as fat as those.

Like really early. Missiles start coming down as soon as the rising sun hits it.

There is a dwarf pine at the top of XY Crag in Icicle Canyon. This plant is infected with some sort of parasitic plant that I've never seen before. The plant doesn't have leaves per se. I believe the pine was a Ponderosa pine. Before now, I'd never actually seen a conifer infected. Any idea what species it might be?

You won't see that until hell freezes over, which won't be soon, given current trends. Damn, does hell get even hotter under Global Warming, or is hell insulated by sufficient thickness of the earth's crust? This is definitely a question for Dru.

This from the voice of experience.

In profile they both might not.

I was teaching all weekend, so I was a glorified belay slave, but I did get to top rope Bo Derek 10. That was really fun.

What about Champagne?

No comment, but amusing premise.

It's getting a bit late in the season to climb Cooper Spur, but then, it's been a cool spring. What say you, Iain?

Yates are lighter than the MSR, but perhaps not as strong. Given what Don Serl said, perhaps that isn't an issue. They'll all pull out before they break. I've made improvements to my Coyote pickets by making one of the ends sharp so that it pounds in easier when the snow is super hard.

Go ahead and say it, Bill. You think they are more prone to taking unreasonable risks.

I thought we were maybe sissies at the time for placing flukes on the exit chute. I feel better now about that decision.

Last year I told Garth about thin metal on cold shuts on Block Head. He went and replaced them with chain. After one season, they were worn half-way through. That's a lot of lowering!

If you like Nevermind Wall, anytime is a good time. But if you are talking Deception Crags, my guess is it will be wet by evening (50% chance).

I use neutrinos for the gear side of a sling, rather than for clipping the rope. I think that their small size is an asset. They take up less room in your pack. Also, Neutrinos are sometimes the only carabiner whos nose is small enough to fit through some chains.

I thought so too.

Sounds like it was the exit chute. Climbers have fallen of the Ledges/ Chute and survived, but it's a long way down.

You totally hit the nail on the head! It's ALL about wasting time.

There you go, Larry, just blame the victim. I'm sure he'll be more careful next time. We were at that same camping area about three weeks ago. We arrived Friday afternoon and set up a couple of tents to claim a nice site, after which we went climbing. When we came back we were approached by a gentleman who had been staying in his motor home. He had seen some guys in a red pickup truck park near out camp. He noticed them approaching our tents so he walked over to see what they were up to. They quickly got into their truck and hightailed it out of there. All we had left were our tents and they were both inexpensive car camping tents. Glad we didn't leave anything else.