catbirdseat

We saw a balloon descending into Icicle Canyon from the top of Cashmere. It was a mere white dot. At first we thought it might have been a hang glider, but it turned out to be much closer (and smaller) than we had originally thought. Only could have been a balloon.

Hey, it's a beautiful day in the neighborhood...

Who can second guess the weather? I'd rather go on a good forecast than a bad one. I already know it sucks bad up there when its wet and I don't need that, as I can go any time. I had a great weekend at Vantage and have no regrets.

This topic came up in another thread actually. This is something they don't teach in climbing courses, but which is something people pick up, I guess. I haven't had to do it myself, but I have always been prepared for, especially on slab climbs where you have a little more time in a fall. Generally, I figure I can get at least an arm length of rope back through my belay device before locking off, but how does one get more than that without risk of losing the belay. Any advice?

The problem is the way in which you asked your question and the timing of it totally lacked sensitivity towards someone who just went through an ordeal. There is a time and place for analysis for everything, but the dude is still trying to get over it. Savvy?

We saw Figgereight at The Feathers Friday night. He said he climbed Air Guitar with Erdan at 1 pm that day. We just missed him. We hoped we would see him on the road on our drive back Saturday, but didn't encounter him.

Poor Dwayner. Too much gave him the worst set of beer goggles.

I was camping at the Feathers the other day. Being the first one up in the morning I headed for the privvies at the other camping area. There was a woman's purse lying right in the middle of the parking area. There was no one around. So I think to myself, do I leave it there and hope the owner finds it? If I leave it, probably some dirtbag will take the credit cards or at least the money. If I pick it up, I have to deal with the hassle of returning it. I picked it up. It belonged to a 21 year old from Spokane. After breakfast, I drove around asking anyone if they knew someone named Erica W----. No luck. So I left a note on the bulletin board with my cell number on it. It wasn't until late in the afternoon at Sunshine Wall after we'd completed our last climb of the day, that my phone rang. When I got back to my pack, I picked up the message and it was Erica. She was at the Concert (The Gorge). I called the number she left and she answered. She wanted me to drive up to the ampitheater with the purse! I told her we were tired and hungry and just wanted to go home to Seattle. If she wanted her purse she had better meet us in the parking lot where she lost it in 30 min. She finally said okay. So we arrived at the car and I spoke with a couple of different car loads of people, neither of which were Erica. I spread out a tarp and began sorting my gear from my partner's. After about ten minutes the phone rings again. It's Erica. She's breaking up and I can hardly tell what she is saying. My partner says, "turn around". She's standing like 50 paces away. "How long have you been there?", I asked. "Oh, about 20 minutes", she said. "How come you didn't just walk up and ask us if we were the ones with your purse?", I asked, as we were the only climbers in the entire lot. "Oh, I don't know", was her reply. I guess she was shy. I handed her her purse and she thanked me. She offered me some money, but I said no, and she was off to her concert, only a little late. I was just glad I didn't have to deal with hassle of mailing the purse.

Lummox, you ought to think just a little before you post.

Good 'ol Albert. Makes me think of trask.

Hear that everybody? Don't go to the Enchantments. It's butt ugly up there. Michael, glad to here you are out climbing again. No more gimp!

Erik, it sure is a hard burden being as smart as you are. I don't know how you manage to keep on with your towering intellect in a sea of insects. I can only imagine.

Does it feel good that you cheated to get there?

Here's to good samaritans.

Cancelled weekend plans because of weather. PM me if interested.

UC, Irvine Anteaters. Rallying Cry: ZOT!

Bug, sounds like you learned in the "Sink or Swim" school of climbing.

I can do midweek. The Park is the only glacier on Baker I haven't done yet.

Don't sell yourself short, girl.

Go eat some glacier worms.

The Feathers can be fun for farting around on when you arrive at FC late in the day and want to kill an hour. Pencil_Pusher and I ran into FiggerEight there on Friday night. He told us he had met Erdan there earlier in the day and they had climbed Air Guitar together. How cool is that? That night three fellows from Montana showed up with a guitar and one of them was really talented. He could make up lyrics as he went along. We sang around the campfire till the wee hours of the morning. Every once in awhile wild howling would come from the West side of the Feathers (concert goers). We figured there must have been chicks over there taking their tops off, but we never bothered to verify this. The concert crowd is really getting out of hand. There must have been several hundred. They fill the two privvies with their shit and cover the ground with their litter. They don't pay a nickel and don't give a damn.

I was never any good at sports in school. I tried all the usual ones and sucked. The only organized sport I ever loved was cross country running. Even though I didn't measure up to other competitors, I had a need to push myself and try to get better. In college I got very involved in competitive sailing. It seemed like the first sport I was every any good at. I could actually beat people who had been sailing for years. I found what made one good was passion. The more you think about the more focused you get, the better you get. When I started going up against the big boys, I had a nasty surprise. Money is what counts in sailing and it doesn't matter how good you are if you don't have the money to put into sails and hardware. The money factor really started to jade me to sailing. So where does climbing come in? I'd always loved hiking and backpacking. I loved climbing trees as a kid- dirtpiles, hills, rocks at Joshua Tree with Y Indian Guides. Sometimes I'd think it would be cool to get into climbing, but it seemed totally inaccessible. I didn't know anyone who climbed. It seemed ridiculously dangerous too. I lived many hours from the mountains and so climbing remained a dream, until I moved to the PNW in 1990. I bought my first house and it and my young kids took all my time for several years, but in 1997 I took the Mountaineers Alpine Scrambling Course. That got me on top of mountains with other like minded people. Some of those people were also technical climbers. I was good at it so I was encouraged to take the Mountaineers Basic Course in 1998. I was still doing a lot of sailing at the same time, so my attention was divided. I soon realized the climbing was much more engaging. Besides, the wind only blows in the PNW when it's raining. If the sun is out, it's usually dead calm. In 2000 I took the Intermediate Course because I thought Basic Climbs were pretty lame and I wanted to do harder stuff. Lead climbing in rock and ice I decided was really fun and challenging. It was also really scary, but I liked the feeling I'd get after topping out. It was almost drug-like. For some reason I never made any contacts outside the Mountaineers until 2002 when I joined CascadeClimbers.com. In one year I have probably learned as much as in all the previous years. Certainly unemployment has helped my climbing a lot too. I'll probably continue to do some climbs with the mountaineers because I like teaching other people and sharing my passion and joy with them. But it really is cool climbing with all sorts of different people from different backgrounds that I've met through cc.com. It's like a light went on for me. I still will never match the natural althleticism of many of my fellow climbers, but as long as I can measure my progress against my past performances and continue to improve, it will remain very gratifying to me.

Bear-Bird, you are being redundant. The fact has been established already.

Fine full-grain Austrian made mountaineering boots, old-school with Norwegian Welt. Almost new condition. Bought them for my son who promptly outgrew them. Yours for a beer at Pub Club. PM if interested and I'll meet you at Seattle PC so you can try them on.

Inspiring. Glad you had a good time.