catbirdseat

Dude, you go climb the gendarme on N. Ridge Stuart in boots and Sphinx and I will each buy you one of those 32 oz Sloop flagons of ale.

Greg, you should try for an appointment as a foreign diplomat under the Bush administration. You have such a flair for words. And so persuasive too.

I climbed in my mountain boots just to see what it would be like. No surprise that the first moves up the chimney seemed a little harder.

Dryad leading the third pitch of the Beckey Route. Photo This was her first multipitch alpine trad lead and she did very well. Gear was good and so was the route finding. Good job.

Nichole, if you are put off by the wolves, you can try contacting the gals of cc.com: maryk, minx, adventuregal, climbingirl33, thelawgoddess, ehmic, muffy_the_wanker_sprayer, ChrisT, or dryad. There are others too. I may have mispelled some of the names but you can look them up. You can climb with them and they can also tell you which guys are safe and which aren't.

It means he has reached the emotional age of two. "No"; "I don't wanna"; "Make me"; "sppppppfffff"

The owners found me. They live in Tacoma. A gal named Jen and her fiancee. Apparently they were usind double ropes and one rope got around a horn or something and she couldn't reach the cam so left it. They were doing some sort of variation on the Beckey Route that involves going up the arete to the right of the tunnel. I'll have to try that next time.

From Liberty Bell, we could see one fire to the south and four fires to the north and northeast. I sure hope we get some rain soon.

I would agree with you that few persons forced to use a gun for defense in their own home are charged. Outside of the home the statistics are different. I should point out that the article I cited has many statistics friendly to your point if view, if you should happen to read it. There is the one for example that in England more burglaries occur in occupied homes because people aren't allowed to have guns there.

I'm not full of crap. I have data. There were on average about 400 police and 300 civilian justified homicides from 1993 to 1997. During the same period there were about 21,000 murders. Who is full of crap? Source

You said it. I didn't. Listen, I could come up with ten times the number of unjustified shootings in the same time interval, but I would be boring.

On this we agree, but perhaps for different reasons.

You've got it all twisted around in your mind, man. Most shootings by those other than peace officers are unjustified. Shootings in self defense are rare, which is why the media make a bid deal about it when it happens.

I think it could be the first documented case of cc.com induced personality change.

Hmmm... who said, "beck's the man! and i have work at 5:00 pizdec... i should go to bed...but spray takes precedence! g'night kids... good times! " Oh, that was Fence_Sitter. My bad.

Guy gets hit over the head with a bottle at a drunken party. Goes out to car gets gun returns to house and shoots guy. Calls it "self defense" because he was able to claim he was "protecting" his cousin who he thought was still in the house. Washington State: no "duty to retreat" = self defense. Other states: murder. Self Defense? Guy shoots another guy to death who he thought molested his son. Turns out the son made up the story. Oops, sorry dude. Not Self Defense Trask, you should thank God every day that you live in the great State of Washington.

A number of people have commented that they don't like the Neutrino for winter use because they are so small that it is difficult to clip the rope into them with gloved hands. How about on the other side of the draw? If you are clipping a screw or a wired stopper, does it matter so much where you don't have to open the gate with your fingers? I have only a few Neutrinos so I tend to use them in that manner.

Babnik, you sound very bitter, lately. What happened? Girlfriend left you? Dog died? Pickup truck broke down? Broken ankle? You sure ain't climbing.

I don't know about that: Payrolls Slashed for 7th Straight Month. I was fortunate enough to find a job after getting laid off, unlike many of the people that were laid off with me. There was an economist last year who was predicting a 1930's style depression for this year. Perhaps it's a reality. We should call it the Bush Depression.

Babnik, finally a thinking man.

The name was "Dil Doe". Look at it again. You've been had.

I get the sense that hiring is picking up. If you are job hunting or have stopped looking, now is the time to get serious and make some contacts.

Sounds pretty ballsy to lead the 5.8-5.9 crux pitch on a first trad lead. Good for her! You should have gone down the rap route that Toast and I described. Much less hassle involved.

Trask, as you know, self-respect is highly over-rated.

The bastards! Of all the gall. When I've got climbing to do.