catbirdseat

Chatter is broken. What happened?

Limit might be 15, but some of those guys are doing up to 30 mph. Jon, I wonder if you had more time to think about it would you have made the same decision?

"If we are talking about a 200kg squid, this is an animal with a 20g brain," he told New Scientist. "It's not very bright and it is trying to coordinate a metre-long penis. "He's going to get a bit confused." Trask, take comfort. You're not alone.

I've used my BD Moonlight for a year now on Rainier in winter, in the pouring rain, after dropping in the stream, etc. I bought it after I decided my Petzl Zoom felt like a brick. The BD has never turned on accidentally in my pack. The LEDs dim gradually as the batteries age, giving you fair warning and time to get to a good place to change batteries. The light is bright enough for just about all climbing, including glacier travel. It is much more uniform than any halogen bulb and because of that it doesn't need to be so bright. The features of the ground are easily distinguished and are not confused with the light and shadow cast by the halogens. I'd buy another one any time. The problems with shorting may possibly result from mistreatment. If you wad the thing into a very tight pocket or jam stuff on top of it, it could very well torque the wires and cause them to break. All I can say is mine hasn't shorted after use on a couple dozen climbs.

Who doesn't like free stuff? Talk about making a mountain out of a mole hill.

Those little guys have saved MY bacon on one occasion. Gotta love 'em. Necro, a dubious honor to be sure. Tell us why your hands weren't working right. Too much pre climb wanking?

The Big Snow approach is hard on the car and the brush is hard on the body, or so I've heard. I'd like to try it though.

Could be that someone had an epic and only wanted to get the hell out of Dodge.

If you could get your hands on an ultrasonic bath, that would be ideal. Just some water with a little detergent would clean them out.

It has got to be sailing.

I agree that what Beck is planning is worthwhile, it is different from what a lot of people are looking for in Rope Up. There ought to be two separate events on different weekends so that people could go to both if they wished. Sometimes you don't mind structure and other times you just want to party. I think the sponsored even ought to be much earlier in the season, such as early September and the unsponsored event at the original October time slot. Spring might even be a better time for the sponsored event with gear demos, because that is when people are in a "buying mood" anyway.

Mary, Welcome to alpine climbing! I'm pretty sure that you will need to get a more comfortable pair of shoes for long alpine climbins such as Dreamer. They can't be two sizes too small the way many sport climbers wear them. You need to be comfortable for several hours. The ones you have are fine for cragging where you can slip them off between climbs, but they are going to kill your feet if you keep wearing them in the mountains.

Who wrote that TR anyway. Whoever it was is a professional. That is quality writing.

My feeling is I don't ever want to be without my altimeter. GPS is good but not a replacement. My altimeter is analog and doesn't require batteries. It always works.

So is someone going to tell the story associated with the carcass photo? It appears to have been skinned.

DPS, why is you location given as Issaquah? That's not where you live or work. How's the house project coming along?

Mention of Larry the Tool in the Fall Rope Up thread led me to dredge up this old thread. I have some questions about Larry. Seems to me that almost all of the complaints with the exception of MattP's are related to failure to display a valid parking permit. There was one in another thread where he hassled two guys coming off Stuart for drinking beer. Has the Tool been sighted this year? Has he hassled people for reasons other than Fee Demo violations at trailhead parking lots? Has anyone been hassled at road side crag parking? Has anyone been hassled for avoiding Snow Creek Parking lot by parking down the street for Careno and Purina Crag access? Has anyone been hassled for failure to carry a Wilderness Backcountry Permit? Has Larry ever set foot in the backcountry? I think it hightly unlikely.

I think that we should do some informal trail maintenance as well as the official FS kind. A trail is a trail. People are going to use it, it might as well be well-built to reduce erosion. The FS is never going to sanction the informal trails to the crags. To do so would mean they are responsible for them and they can't afford it. As long as no one tells them, we can do as we please. I think someone has done a marvelous job on the trails at Castle Rock. That is what we should emulate at Careno Crags.

Anyone up for a chat tonight. Now.

As we were hiking up the Emmons Glacier, one of the guys on my rope team looks up and says, "Hey, I see another rope team coming down". I thought, WTF, we were the first team out of camp that morning. I can't be. I looked up and said, "Dude, it's just Mars". "Oh, duh". The planet was just above the skyline of Rainier and it was as bright as I'd ever seen it.

Iain packs as much thought as anyone can into a single sentence. As long as the post doesn't exceed one line, he's golden.

Danger, Will Robinson, Danger, Danger. Loose daisychain. Secure it.

Beck, tell us more about the trail project. I'm into that kind of thing. Are we talking about FS trails or unofficial climber's trails to various crags? Is it one trail or several?

Congratulations all three of you. Wayne, now I am really, really looking forward to your upcoming slideshow. I can't wait.

Doc, what's there to get? Maybe some of us don't want to get it. I find myself siding with Fairweather on this issue. Oh the horror, the horror.