catbirdseat

My favorite character, hands down, was Quark from Deep Space Nine. He was hilarious.

What is that you are eating? Klingon blood worms (Gahhhhkk)?

People like you confuse circumspection with a lack of principles. Our current crop of conservatives like to oversimplify issues and cast them in black and white when, in reality, they are quite complex. Bush is hardly a man of principle. He is a man who is too lazy to study the issues and develop a careful and rational foreign policy.

I would have to say that nalo is on the right track. Those shapes are about what you'd expect for a splash. When supercooled water freezes, it does so almost instantly.

Now I gotta go give it a try for sure. So what rack do you recommend? A small one? I would want to get gear in if there are places to put it, although I can run it out if less than 5.6.

It is possible he is supporting his weight by using his left hand against the pole, but then what is supporting the bicycle? It's leaning towards the background.

I take it you guys are referring to the obvious sandstone formations visible to the South from downtown Cle Elum. They look like the ubiquitous Swak Sandstone found in such places as Peshastin Pinnacles. Without ever having gone there, it looks as though you'd have to put up linse of bolts to do much of anything.

Jon, I think this topic, while not fit for this TR related forum it is not spray. I'd say the Climbers Board may be appropriate.

RIP Hogzilla. You're off to ( where else?) Hog Heaven.

"Oh, God, send me some RightGuard".

Definitely a cougar.

Don't you mean subliminable? I say real.

I would suggest that at this point in time, icegirl, you need to expose your proteges to trad climbing. They need to learn how to clean gear, that is follow on trad routes. For this I suggest Exit 32. You'll need about two or three trad leaders. There are about two or three easy trad routes there. After that, you'll need to go to Leavenworth.

I think Shrikes are a great alpine ice tool for the beginner. They aren't great, but the price is right. I'd get a straight hammer and a bent shaft adze. The hammer is useful for placing pickets and pitons. The adze for chopping belay platforms and clearing surface crud when placing screws. Then, if you want to graduate to frozen waterfalls, you can pick up a curved shaft tool, like the Viper or Rage, to use with the bent shaft Shrike and you are ready to start. If you find you really dig waterfalls, you can buy a fourth tool with curved shaft. Now you have an alpine set and a frozen waterfall set.

All hail Bronco, the Great Thread Resurrector!

Source is (where else?) Fox News.

"I am very sorry, but my karma just ran over your dogma." "Illigitimi non carborundum", bastardized latin for "don't let the bastards wear you down".

Gritscone is a very good choice. The only thing I might add is to bring a tarp to put your gear on. There is a lot of pine duff that will get all over everything. You might want to bring a nylon brush to clean your shoes before setting off. This is a good place to learn to lead. It is very safe. Have fun girls.

Anyone ever climbed the East Face? I'm considering it, but if it is like the rest of the peak, there is little opportunity for protection.

That route has so much potential for rockfall, you were wise to go elsewhere. Is the screw any good?

Climb: Chair Peak-Northeast Buttress Date of Climb: 7/25/2004 Trip Report: My partner and I car camped at the Alpental parking lot because we wanted an early start to beat the heat. After a couple of Mac and Jacks at the local Pancake House we turned in as soon as it got dark. It was wonderfully cool there and we both slept soundly. We hit the trail at 6 am and took the Source Lake overlook to where it hit the talus, turned and went straight up and into a gully. The gully ended below some minor cliff bands. We found a third class way through slightly to the right that put us in the basin below the Thumb Tack. Mosquitoes were bad. After scrambling some more rock to the notch in the ridge, we were at the base of the route by 8:20 and it was already pretty warm. There was a pleasant breeze coming from the North. We roped up for the first two pitches up the rightward slanting gully, which we managed to do as one pitch on a 55 m rope with just a little bit of simulclimbing. I got in about three pieces of gear and clipped a couple of rap stations on the way up to a nice shady belay with a nice place to sit in some trees. From the trees we scrambled fourth class in rock shoes, but should have put our boots back on as the rock is sharp. We slanted leftward below the place where the ice bulge forms in winter up easy, mostly solid rock with some heather. We made for a minor ridge feature that led to a tree with a rap sling. I gave my partner a little hip belay up this last steep section. From the gnarled tree the scrambling is third class up two or three unroped pitches to a false summit, which is skirted to the right, after which you drop into a gully and ascend back up and to the right to the true summit, which we reached at 10:15. For some reason, I was ravenously hungry. PBJ never tasted so good. Switched to boots for the descent. My partner elected to wear his rock shoes as this was his first climb in two years. He found it a bit challenging. After a rock missed my head by a foot or so, I had to lecture him about not kicking rocks off and he settled down and stopped doing it for the most part. Downclimbed to gnarled tree, did a single rope rap from it and downclimbed some more to the group of trees. Encountered a party of three on their way up making the climb harder than it needed to be by going too far right. Climbed down into the gully a short ways to a rap station on a tree. It was two single rope raps to the base of the climb. Hiking down the basin, we noticed two pairs of climbers on the East Face route. Could have helped noticing them, as they were yelling, excessively. This didn't instill a lot of confidence, especially when I hear one yell "Rock!" and heard a big one coming down. Decided to try a different way back, so we traversed left past the Thumb Tack and pick up the abandoned trail which leads up the ridge and intersects the new Snow Lake trail at the saddle. Ran into a solo hiker who used to climb but lost his partner. I told him to check out CC.com and he said he might. There must have been 200 people hiking that trail. They are doing work on it at present including dynamiting in places through August. Cold Tecates and a short nap awaited at the car.

It happened at the former, that is just below the false summit. The snow was already melted out from the place where you turn right. So this has turned into a cell phone thread. Why don't you just ressurect the last cell phone thread?

It's not just the weather. The days are longer in September so we can get in more climbing. Of course, the other way of looking at it is longer nights mean more time to party.

The Patriot Act was pushed through in a hurry while the public was still in a panic about 9-11. To oppose it would have been political suicide. It was a case of "we need to do something, NOW!". Now that we have calmed down a little it is time to reexamine the provisions of the Act. I believe that some provisions should be repealed and others preserved. I don't think anyone is advocating a wholesale repeal of the entire act.

Where have you been these past 13 months, sweetheart?