catbirdseat

Those are some great ideas. I plan to implement the cam retract idea right away. Maybe I am short on coffee this morning, but it took me a few seconds to figure out you meant "leash".

Did you lead that one Catbird? I would have found the beginning chimney section a little spicy to lead, but I don't do wide cracks (wink wink nudge nudge) so I let the MisterE wide-crack machine tackle that one. That climb is incredible; chimney, hand crack, finger crack, layback, and slab all packed into one 40m package. Sweet. Success came as a result of having a Camalot #4 and not thinking about it too long before launch.

Puget Sound Tsunami Map showing the results of a "Hypothetical Tsunami Generated on the Seattle Fault"

Now there is a chap who KNOWS where his priorities lie.

Do you carry your slings around your shoulders frequently when you climb? Second, do you sweat a lot? The reason I ask is that, while aluminum is remarkably corrosion resistant, it is attacked quite avidly by ordinary salt. There may be enough salt saturating your slings to cause corrosion if the slings and biners lay in contact with one another for an extended period of time, such as in a bag left in a damp place. I suggest that you rinse all your slings and biners in fresh water and always store them in a dry place with good air circulation.

Um, no. There ARE anatomy texts available for the challenged.

That would suck if the ass were three sizes too big.

We got in one day of climbing at Intersection Rock on the 27th and it was great. We did Bat Crack, 5.5(MA), Mike's books, 5.6, and the Flake 5.8. It rained hard on the 28th, so we played tourist in town. On the 29th it was still too windy and cold for my likes, but we did get in some nice hikes and had fun all the same. Wish I could have stayed longer.

I met a fellow who said he climbed Rainier with Ed Viesturs and Peter Whittaker. Ed was working as a guide for RMI. The clients all paid triple the usual rate.

Seems like we've heard this story before.

It sure is starting to look like a "class effect" for the COX2 inhibitors. I plan to continue to take naproxyn for occasional pain. You'd have to take it every day for chronic pain to increase your risk of heart attack or stroke.

I agree it is cool belaying from column tops, but it isn't always practical. These things have to be considered on a case by case basis. In the example of Chips and Dips there is a very rubble-filled cleft at the top of the crack that you have to chimney up before you get to the column top. It isn't very good climbing at that point and it only risks dumping rocks on other climbers below. In my opinion, the chain anchors would be for safety and not just convenience. I'd have to look at it again. It might be possible, with a great deal of trundling, to clean up that cleft to make it safer.

Somehow I didn't notice this old post before, so I'll respond now. Lucky, I'd love to take you up on your offer. Let's get together is February perhaps at the Coulee and talk about it.

Dru, this is the sort of thing you dream about, eh? You top out on this great route on a big mountain and there in front of you is this huge bale waiting for you. You look for your pipe and you can't find it. You are looking for a scrap of paper, but none to be found. Ah, but there is the summit register! All is not lost...

Doesn't Barry Collins live out there? I can't remember his screen name.

I want one. Please?

I just tried out a pair of Cassin C10L aluminum step in crampons that I bought for $69 at the Pacific Coast Feather Company sale last month. They are great. Very quick to put on and they stay on with no balling up. I've never had aluminum crampons before. It is so nice not having all that weight on your feet! Cassin C10L Crampons

It was so nice on Pilchuck yesterday. The feeling of the sun's rays was incredibly welcome. Nice view up there. I met a guy at the trailhead who had just come off the mountain. I saw him again headed back up for a second go round with his family in tow. He said the weather was so nice he had to share it with them.

Dru, my two offspring are soon to leave the house. I am in no hurry to sire any more, thank you.

Did you see the other article about making sperm, no men necessary?

Ray is Zeus, I think. I don't know what else he is.

The idea that the Y-chromosome would disappear is preposterous. As was mentioned in the article, the Y has ways of correcting errors or replacing lost information. The use of palindromic sequences is one. There may be other mechanisms as yet undiscovered.

The head gasket on my wife's minivan once blew when we didn't have $700 to fix it. I became an mechanic overnight. It took me all weekend, and several trips for parts and tools, but I managed to do the job. I had a terrible sunburn on the gap between my pants and my tee shirt from leaning over the engine in the hot sun. The new gasket held and the car worked great after that.

First Vioxx and now Celebrex . Merck and Pfizer are taking it on the chin.

Trolling again, Dru?