catbirdseat

All that stuff sucks, but I could deal with it right now because I need the money. Employment is better than the alternative, once the money runs out.

If you are telling us you actually did those things, you are one sick bastard.

Let it not be said that trask was not a good judge of material, whether or not it is his own creation.

People will sometimes put batteries in backwards deliberately to prevent them from being discharged accidentally if the device were to be turn on in the pack. Somehow I doubt that. He probably screwed up, putting them in the wrong way, said to himself, "damn thing doesn't work", and pitches it over his shoulder.

If I remember correctly, Gator says in his book that some climbers choose to go in via White River. It's very long, but you have the beaten boot path of those going to Liberty Ridge. Ipsut Creek is the other way early, or Mowich Lake later on.

Trask, you typify the "Ugly American". We should welcome foreign visitors and show them that Americans are friendly and kind.

I was out there and ran into JayB and ForrestM. Nice guys, both, and much harder climbers than I. Forrest was introducing a group of young hotties to their first day climbing out of doors. Way to go Forrest! Ran into some sheclimbs, too. Toast and I were polite and friendly but got some awful scowls in return. She: "Are you going to climb over there?". Me: "Yes, but there are at least six similar routes." She: "We don't want to climb there if you are there." They move about a mile down the cliff. On their way out, they walked way down the slope to avoid walking near us, like we had leprosy or something. Toast and I showered that morning, so that couldn't have been it.

There will be a book and a movie and it will lead to a resurgent interest in climbing, just as it happened after Krakaur wrote Into Thin Air. Just you watch.

30 ft on Barbed for Your Pleasure at Vantage. A cam pulled and I fell onto a solid hex. Despite what the "experts" say about cams being the best pro for vantage, I still like to get in a hex, where I can. I missed two broken ankles by about a foot. A hex might have saved Goran's bacon.

Here's a geek question. I have partitioned my hard drive into three virtual disks, C:, D:, and E:. They hold system software, applications, and data (files), respectively. If my OS get's screwed up and I have to reformat and reinstall, like Allison, can I reformat only the C: drive and leave D: and E: intact?

I just got an e-mail from Richard. He is definitely coming. He still needs a room to rent. At least a couple of you have mentioned you had rooms to let for a couple weeks. Please contact him so he can make his final arrangements: richard.fournier@generale-des-eaux.net He is still looking for a group to join. I'd take him up, but I have commitments already that week.

You have a lot of glacier to cross from White River. If your partner falls in a big crevasse how are you going to arrest without an ice axe? Are you going to use a technical tool for that?

Is this an AlpineK troll? Come on.

It's starting to look like Rainier weather soon. Still thinking of doing this one.

Start with the "Climbing Bible", Freedom of the Hills. Published by Mountaineers Books.

DFA, you are the biggest party pooper there ever was.

We were staying in a ski lodge at Mt. Baker once and someone said, "don't leave any food in your packs, there's a pine martin on the loose". This one gal ignored all the warnings and left some beef jerky in the top pocket of her pack. We were eating dinner together when someone said, offhandedly, "did you see the critter chewed into D___'s pack?" We thought he was joking and went down to look. There was a pile of nylon bits on the floor. We thought someone played a good joke on D by cutting up some cloth with some scissors. But no, it wasn't a joke. The snafflehound had chewed into the lid, but that wasn't all he did. He went through her new OR Seattle Sombrero to get to the jerky.

Richmond Beach Park. Listen to free concerts on the beach. It's great. Click here for info.

People are taking a couple of statements as fact that are simply not true. First the Everett Branch of the Mountaineers has been very conscientious about picking up trash. We pick up our own and any other trash we find. Second, we don't put up ropes we don't use. We keep the students busy climbing on those ropes all day long. There are two approaches to minimizing impact on the environment, dispersal and concentration. Sometimes dispersal is better and other times concentration is better. I think that in this case focusing a larger number of climbers in fewer areas that have already been heavily used will cause the lowest impact on the environment and on other climbers. Furthermore, the potential of trundling rocks on others is reduced because these crags have fewer rocks to trundle. I suspect that whatever we do we'll catch flak, and that there is no way to make everybody happy.

If you show up at Pub Club I don't doubt that you'll leave with a climbing partner.

You have to tell us more about what you want to learn. Are you interested in sport climbing? Trad climbing at crags mostly? Alpine? Glacier? Ice?

Thank you Bronco. I gotta admit, I'm a bit of a knot junky. I love knots. That is not what I was imagining for the super munter, but it makes sense. I haven't been able to figure out how to tie it in the bight yet. I still need an end.

Frenchmans's doesn't have enough easy climbs that can be done by a rank beginner in boots.

They probably will not be using any of the good cracks on Alphabet, just the unnamed 4th and low 5th class cracks on the right side.

No, Paul, but good guess. I know who he/she is though and he/she shall remain anonymous.