catbirdseat

A billion here, a billion there, pretty soon we're talking about real money.

True you need some fiddling room to work with passive gear, but I disagree on leaving them at home. Nuts in many situations are easier to place (sometimes the only placement), are light, and offer very secure pro if placed correctly. Now if you are just talking about hexes, sure leave them behind. There is plenty of better pro. Nuts, though, bring em'. Yesterday, I placed a hex, in the major camming mode, in a spot that would not have taken a nut. A cam would have worked, but would have been an inferior placement, and more likely to shift. That was the only placement for the last 20 ft of the route. I'll always take along a few medium hexes. They don't weigh much.

I'm only willing to comment on things that I have seen (and smelled) first hand. I have seen piles of rubbish at Mt. Adams and other places. I have seen riders launch thier vehicles over the heads of people practicing ice axe arrest at Stevens. I have seen small trees scarred or destroyed by having been driven over at Schreiber's Meadows. One must ask the question why this behavior exists. Is it because the adrenaline rush overcomes rational thought and a sense of responsibility, or is it simple ignorance? I think it is a little bit of both. Backcountry skiers learn their low-impact ethic by associating with experienced mentors who share their concern for the environment. The long learning period involved helps ensure that responsibility is taugh along with the hard skills. I think that because less skill is involved in snowmobiling, people are going out there without being exposed to low-impact ethics (some operators are highly skilled, but I am talking about the skill needed to just get out on a trail or road). So what would change the situation? Snowmobile clubs can and do teach low-impact use. What other ways are there?

The Mountaineers do not oppose the reconstruction of the road. However, the club takes the position that an full Environmental Impact Study be completed prior to making a final decision. In addition to the 4 acres of late successional forest, at risk is an unnamed tributary channel that is occupied Coho salmon rearing habitat.

I believe it was Dwayner. If not it was a great imitation.

I think it must have something to do with the hacker.

After the new Brad Pitt movie, Troy, comes out the women are going to be clamoring for the guys in skirts. Better get yours now.

The event should definitely be earlier than last year. Rain really throws a damper on things. September- not October. If we have to pay to rent the group site, fine, I'll contribute.

You're my hero.

I have the Black and Blue Aliens as well as a Camalot 0.2 and I want to add some BallNutz to round out my rack from thin cracks. Which sizes make the most sense for free climbing? Any advice on when and when not to use BallNutz vs. small cams or wired stoppers? Tricks on placing and removing, etc? Ball Nutz Specs

I've been told that the Kalalau Trail on Kauai at least used to be popular for naked hiking. People still like to go swimming there nude. Found the following web site . I know the guy. He's a climber.

What a nightmare we find ourselves in today. It's unreal.

We had this very conversation this weekend at Vantage, how Shrubs core supporters are the very people he is hurting the most with his policies. They are people who live by their emotions and not with their minds.

In other words, don't climb anything you can't free solo? There is a difference between runout and unprotected. A route can be run out and still protect you from ground fall.

I'm not saying I WOULD use a pad. There are some routes where you aren't quite sure what you are in for until you head up the thing. At vantage, I started up a route that was very thin at the bottom. It was supposed to have three fixed pins. It was only when I got on it that I discovered that the two lowest ones had been removed. I did, in fact, get in some small wired stoppers and finished climbing the route, but the start was a bit intimidating. Binoculars would have been nice, I suppose.

You have to consider the time you might save also. But, I agree with you though, it's probably more of an expedition tool.

You've seen them with sport climbers? A stick clip is a lot easier to carry than a pad.

Perhaps I should have posted this in Newbies, but here goes. On some harder single pitch trad routes, it is sometimes difficult to get pro in to protect the first moves of a climb, or the pro you do get in might be unreliable. Do climbers ever bring along pads to protect against ground fall on roped lead climbs at cragging areas? It seems like it might be cheap insurance.

Scary eh? Yeah it is That's the biggest crock of shit you've foisted on us yet, Martlet.

Yes they will. Of course they will. Can there be any doubt?

This one paragraph from the Slate article stands out for me as the single most important reason why Shrub is such a poor president. He doesn't carefully consider his decisions before he makes them. He'd serve the public just as well by rolling a pair of dice. "A fourth and final quality of Bush's mind is that it does not think. The president can't tolerate debate about issues. Offered an option, he makes up his mind quickly and never reconsiders. At an elementary school, a child once asked him whether it was hard to make decisions as president. "Most of the decisions come pretty easily for me, to be frank with you." By leaping to conclusions based on what he "believes," Bush avoids contemplating even the most obvious basic contradictions: between his policy of tax cuts and reducing the deficit; between his call for a humble foreign policy based on alliances and his unilateral assertion of American power; between his support for in-vitro fertilization (which destroys embryos) and his opposition to fetal stem-cell research (because it destroys embryos). "

Olyclimber, are you a Scientologist? You must have somehow reached level OT III. http://www.xenu.net/archive/leaflet/xenuleaf.htm

Mmmmm... waffles. Yep, that's what I had for breakfast this morning with home made quince syrup. Yummy!

Interesting article on Lewis and Clark in last Sunday's PI

Images are getting swapped, for one thing.