catbirdseat

Okay, I'll bite. I was a skinny college kid on a 10 day backpacking trip with my buddy Flint (even skinnier). We made a day trip up to some high mountain lakes by scrambling up a dry gully about a couple thousand feet. There were many lakes in the basin which my friend soon discovered had trout in them. Since he had brought his rod, fishing was what he was going to do. I spotted a cool looking series of rocky summits called The Pinnacles. I couldn't talk Flint into joining me for the scramble to the top, so I went by myself, agreeing to meet at a certain lake at 6 pm. I got to the summit and the view was wonderful. I knew then and there it was what I wanted to do more of. I then surfed some scree slopes down to the lake where I arrived at the meeting place early. Only problem was my cotton clothes were completely soaked in sweat and the sun had just gone behind the mountain. I was getting really cold fast. I had nothing with which to leave a note. I looked around at some of the nearby lakes but couldn't find my friend. I was stiff and sore and getting cold and made a bad decision to descend to camp by myself. At about 10 pm, my friend arrived at camp to find me after having searched for me for hours and throat hoarse from yelling. He was so mad he almost punched me out. He eventually forgave me. I learned a hell of a lesson about being prepared with better clothes and sticking to a plan.

That is a memorable story. I could have sworn I heard it before and sure enough, I found it (unusable link deleted by Off White because it messed up the page format)

Training from a book only counts if you actually went out and practiced the material.

So has anyone been using these dyneema slings long enough to comment on their abrasion resistance? I'd hazard to guess they would cut more easily over an edge, but maybe not.

The water bottles are lined with enamel, no contact between aluminum and beverage. I used one of their fuel bottles for years, and it never got crushed. It had some dents, but never leaked. Freezing might be an issue. Maybe cbs can figure out the relative pressures of water freezing vs. white gas being warmed up... There is no question that water freezing creates much more pressure in an inelastic container, such those made of aluminum than elevated vapor pressure of gasoline (modest temperatures ~120F).

Here are the facts. "Based on research by the California Air Resources Board, operating a jet ski with a two-stroke motor for one day produces as much smog-forming pollution as driving a car 100,000 miles." Jet skis and snowmobiles have similar engines. Suppose a day is 8 hours and the snowmobile travels an average of 30 mph. It will have travelled 240 miles. 100,000/240 = ~400 x as much pollution. Sorry, I was off a little. I do think that the snowmobiles have bigger displacement engines than jet skis, so they may indeed put out 1000 times the pollution of a car. This source says 100 times.

You'll only break a picket set as deadmen in very hard snow using powerful tackles and heavy loads. It is not really something to worry about.

People are figuring out more and more ways to dodge sales taxes, such as going to Canada and Mexico. The wealthy are more able to do this, by the way. The other thing that needs to be clarified is that all sales tax would not be eliminated under the Sims proposal. Only the state portion would go. Local and county portions would remain. I do not recall what is the breakdown.

Each sled puts out at least 1000 times as much pollution as an automobile or snow cat. The phase in of four strokes will take TEN YEARS.

Like on Dark Rhythm, for example?

Chumstick Snag, West Face(?), 5.7, A1, and that is dryad climbing. Mattp has the connections, if you want to climb it, but my curiosity is already sated.

There are "lumpers" and "splitters". Creighton is a lumper. He has one conception of what environmentalism is and everyone must fit into it.

What else can one say? The Bush Administration doesn't give a shit what scientists, Park employees or the American people think. It listens to those who have money and influence. How would you like it if I put a smudge pot of engine oil in Yosemite and lit it off- no how about thousands of them? That is what each snomobile is to Yellowstone. It sucks big time.

The Yates are not nearly as strong as the MSR. I'd want to have at least one MSR on my pack for crevasse rescue.

In this situation there was no way to avoid the meadow and there were numerous equally good ways across it. The best solution is for each to go their own way and not follow a dumbass line of orange tape.

The Tooth has many different boot tracks leading to it. It is an example of a climb that would better off with a trail, or at least a flagged route. Mt. Stickney scramble route is flagged. The route starts out through trees and appears as a trail, but then crosses meadows with no trail. Without the flagging people will go many different ways and the meadow will remain pristine, but with the flagging that is there now, everyone will follow it and wear in a rut. Damn, I am ashamed that I didn't take the time to pull it down.

What exactly is "hyped up mytique"? You must be referring to the concepts of solitude and wilderness. I prefer NOT to see trails. Having said that, there are certain popular destinations where a single trail decreases the total impact, but in other, less used areas, more dispersed travel makes more sense.

Have fun and be safe.

So where is the remaining 1/4 of the permanent ice? Do they mean ice caps that don't count as glaciers?

We never made it to Middle East Wall, but went to Sunshine Wall and Millennium Wall instead. Climbed Crossing the Threshold, Air Guitar, Steel Grill and Pony Keg, and several other sport climbs including Higher Heel Crescent . I want to thank the older couple we met on Tangled Up In Blue. We were going climb it, but they were already gearing up to do it. They said, "why don't you do Air Guitar". I said, "I've never lead a 5.10a trad route before". They said, "It's easier than TUIB". "Really?", I said, "I've done TUIB before and it wasn't all that hard". So I went and led Air Guitar and they were absolutely right, it wasn't that hard. We saw Lucky and his crew cleaning up after the DMB mess. He da Man!

I saw you guys. A big thumbs up to all of you. We took out some trash ourselves.

My best advice is to play less soccer and go climbing more.

Okay, Orwell was only off by twenty years.

Okay, okay, so now we know voter fraud is punishable by God. satisfied? God isn't fair because He is punishing everyone for the transgressions of the few. He should have sent tornados. They can be targeted more accurately.

"Chickens are inquisitive and interesting animals and are thought to be as intelligent as mammals like cats and dogs and even primates. When in natural surroundings, not on factory farms, they form friendships and social hierarchies, recognize one another, love their young, and enjoy a full life, dust-bathing, making nests, roosting in trees, and more."