catbirdseat

You get credit for having the word segue in your vocabulary. The only reason I know it is I'm a musician.

I got them from a fellow lab rat.

I knew all along that Boulder Boy would prevail!

The $85 pass is not required. It's an option available to those who don't want to hassle with the pay as you go routine. One pass for everything. If you are a heavy user of National Parks like Olympic or Rainier, AND FS, BLM and State lands, you might use this pass and come out ahead, but I'd doubt it. It's more a matter of convenience. You could also buy a pass specific to the National Parks for $50 if I am not mistaken.

And good counsel is even better! You got me.

I guess mother in law jokes aren't funny until you have a mother in law.

You soon won't need it for FS land, hopefully. You could still use it for BLM, National Park and Wildlife areas. It's a bit over priced for that, I'd say.

Hi sisu!

Straight shaft tools work fine for alpine ice and cost less too. I don't think there is a tool that is ideal for both steep water ice and alpine use, though I am sure some would disagree. If you bought one straight shaft tool you could use that with a good technical axe on steep alpine ice up to 50 degrees. If you added one bent shaft tool, you could get started on water ice. As you graduate to harder WI, you'll want two bent shaft tools. Long term you may end up with four or more tools. Short term, try to put off buying and borrow or rent as long as you can until you determine what you like in a tool and what you like to do- alpine or water ice.

Here's another one. What with the Passion out and Easter coming up, it seems appropriate. A guy goes on vacation in the Holy Land with his wife and mother-in-law. The mother-in-law dies. So the couple go to an undertaker who explains that they can ship the body home, but it will cost over $5,000, whereas burying her in the Holy Land would cost only $150. "We'll ship her home," says the guy. The undertaker asks, "Are you sure? That's an awfully big expense and we can do a very nice burial here." The guy says, "Look, 2000 years ago they buried a guy here and three days later he rose from the dead. I just can't take that chance."

Northbound I-5 from Lynnwood to South Everett is the most heavily patrolled stretch of highway anywhere. Another baddie is southbound I-405 from I-5 to Swamp Creek.

The church gossip and self-appointed arbiter of the church's morals kept sticking her nose into other people's business. Several church members were unappreciative of her activities, but feared her enough to maintain their silence. She made a mistake, however, when she accused George, a new member, of being drunk after she saw his pickup truck parked in front of the town's only bar one afternoon. She commented to George and others that everyone seeing it there would know what he was doing. George, a man of few words, stared at her for a moment and just walked away. He didn't explain, defend, or deny; he said nothing. Later that evening, George quietly parked his pickup in front of her house... and left it there all night.

Why would you want to eat white rice when brown tastes so much better?

Iain, you're just pining for the good 'ol days of socks and D-cell batteries, ain't ya?

India used to complain about a "brain drain" because its universities cranked out more highly trained people than they could employ. We may be faced with the same before long. We're looking at continued immigration of unskilled workers and adding on emmigration of skilled workers. Its a race to bottom.

You are speaking of the former Yugoslav Republic.

One could argue that the reason jobs are being exported at such an alarming rate is the rise in political stability and democracy throughout the world. Low wages have always been prevalent overseas, but instability and risk have inhibited US companies from taking advantage of it.

There is a phrase that applies here and that is "necessary but not sufficient". And I would argue about the word necessary too. Not ALL liberations have come through violent means. Look at the Czech and Slovak Republics for example.

New York Times had a photograph from Norway in which two monstrous boulders slid down a mountainside, smashing a garage and coming to rest on either side of a house. Accolades to whoever can come up with the photo.

You didn't say, nor did anyone ask you, what sort of ice climbing you planned to do. Your experience level and involvement in the sport also would influence your choice of tools. Everyone is assuming you are into steep water ice.

Every day this thread continues I am amazed.

Bleaghhhckkkk!

I submit that freedom to own guns and liberty are two entirely separate things. One should not be equated with the other.

Just checking in. Is it a poo thread yet?

Who was it that said that before a digital camera is sold the buyer should be made to present a valid photographer's license? You can do a lot of damage in a hurry with one of those babies!