catbirdseat

Substitute the word "Snowboard" for Harley. That is how I first heard that joke. Big Lou told it. How do you hide your rent money from your snowboarder roomies? Answer: under the bar of soap.

Just when it was becoming chic to be Canadian, along comes Conan O'Brien to ruffle the feathers of the Quebecois.

TIGHTER!!!!

Bob, you hit the nail on the head.

Did the ice form naturally, or did a pipe break somewhere? Do ice screw bite into stucco?

Arrrggghhh, a sailor ye be. I'm sure ye be a mighty fine one too.

I place three flukes on in one running belay of the exit chute of Gib Ledges. They were the only type of snow pro that might have held a fall and even then only one of them seemed really bomber to me. Still, I was glad to have them along.

You talkin' about that Russian gaper? He's so weak. He's probably had a coronary by now from that red meat diet of his.

If you climb in the morning, your fingers WILL get numb. If it isn't cloudy and if you wait until noon on a south facing wall, you will be quite comfortable.

A common complaint against flukes is related to the relatively stiff wire used on them. The wire makes the fluke harder to stow and eventually breakage of strands leads to the dreaded "meat hook" syndrome. The reason wire is used in the first place is its small diameter allows it to cut through snow so that the fluke will bite. Rather than wire, would 5.5 mm spectra cord be thin enough to work as a replacement? It's plenty strong enough. You might have to provide some sort of cover for abrasion resistance where the cord goes through the metal blade, such as the cover off of a piece of 7 mm cord, etc. A knot would serve both to hold the cover in place and to hold the bridle at the correct angle of attack. The SMC TAnchor is a fluke-like tent anchor that uses perlon. This is sort of what I'm talking about.

Does anyone ever bring fluke on climbs like that, or are they every bit as much of a joke as pickets under those conditions? I already know Iain's opinion of flukes.

Well sir, our beautiful weather window is just now slamming shut. A very few took advantage of it. I would have but for a bad cold. I now will wait for the next high pressure system, which I would expect might build in a little over a week. The next window will likely be smaller than this last one, but it it doesn't snow too much this week, it wouldn't need to be.

I concur, but I've begun to notice seasonal patterns, for example, early May often has really nice climbing weather, whereas mid to late May usually sucks. March almost always is too windy. April often has at least one good weather window, etc.

Middle Fork Snoqualmie Update Acting Forest Supervisor Rob Iwamoto has withdrawn the Sept. 26 decision for future management of recreation activities and travel access in the Middle Fork Snoqualmie River drainage in Eastern King County MBSNF Site Under the decision as it once stood FS plans to gate the road at two places, Dingford Creek (about five miles from Goldmyer) and at Taylor River (about 12 miles from Goldmyer). The Dingford Creek gate will be a permanent closure and the Taylor River gate will be closed from Nov. 1 to April 15 of each year. The Taylor River gate will be closed by a combination lock and Goldmyer patrons can be given the combination. The details of how this is going to be done is unclear and not resolved in the decision document. In holders such as Goldmyer Hot Springs, have been invited to enter into a road maintenance agreement with the Forest Service and there has been some preliminary negotiation about such an agreement. Goldmyer has to pay part of the maintenance and repair of the road and will be able to use the road for resupply and various other access. However, for most users of Goldmyer it will mean a minimum 5 mile hike or bike ride in to the springs and another 5 mile hike or bike ride out. Goldmyer hopes to have a bridge adjacent to the Hot Springs to make it easier.

Old harness are probably fine for top rope climbing when you want to take a bunch of newbie friends to Exit 38.

What were they? Poplars?

When I ran cross country in high school almost every workout there was some doofus who forgot his jock strap. In those days everyone wore short, baggy nylon running shorts. When everybody sat down to do their stretches, inevitably the call would go out that "so and so HAS A ROAD MAP!"

That's very good. There must be many more examples. Let's have 'em.

I count nine at least: Tom, Dru, Trask, Ray, MikeAdams, Scott Harpell, ChucK, Don and Justin. Don't know any more than that, and I am sure there are more in the list.

It has become so boring here, and I have sunk so low, that I have resorted to reading old SummitPost threads for amusement (Brando's voice: "the horror, the horror"). I read about a guy who got himself lost on a hike.

That's what we need, more disorganization. How can we get more disorganized than we already are?

Dru could amuse us all by bringing back some of his old avatars. Only a few of them have been actualy banned. How about that Chinese guy or that Russian guy?

Buy a Tracker as your second beacon. Give it to your girlfriend to carry.

Dustin is a good guy and he knows I'm kidding. He actually only has the barest of accents. He only turns on the drawl when he wants to.

I am becoming convinced that Oregon climbers know how to have more fun in winter.