catbirdseat

Does anyone recall the scene in Seven Years in Tibet in which Heinrich Harrer is on Nanga Parbat and his partner, Peter Aufschnaiter, takes a fall. He's holding the guy hanging in mid air using a hib belay. The hemp rope was cutting into his leg. Now those were the good old days.

I did some research on flavors and fragrances for a toothpaste and mouthwash project I was working on. Much of what we regard as "taste" is actually smell. Our tongues can sense sweet, sour, salty and bitter and that's all. Our noses on the other hand, can detect thousands of different odors. When you swirl the brandy snifter around, you are increasing the surface area so as to volatilize more of the flavor components into the air. When you drink, some of the air in the snifter is inhaled. Some of the liquid you swallow gives rise to vapors that reach the olefactory receptors though a connection to the sinus cavity. When you let a bottle of wine "breath" you are letting acetaldehyde escape so you don't smell it. Acetaldehyde is a foul smelling, but very volatile compound with a low boiling point. Allowing the wine to sit a few minutes allows the acetaldehyde to escape but not the less volatile, but more desireable compounds. By chilling your vodka, you are reducing the volatility of all its components. So you smell it less, but you probably also taste it less because less alcohol and flavorants will be adsorbed by the tongue and mouth tissues. Incidentally, I like gin and club soda with a mexican lime. My folks have a tree in their yard that has limes on it almost all year round.

Trask, if you've ever been treated for giardiasis, you'll know that the cure is almost worse than the disease. Standard treatment is metronidazole, which is an antibiotic used to treat gram-negative, anaerobic and protozoal infections. It's been around a very long time. It makes you nauseous. So picture this: diarrhea, vomiting, nausea, gas, flatulence... not nice!

Chris, I too used to backpack in the Sierra range. I usually drank without filtering. I used to try to "evaluate" the water source and decide whether to treat with iodine or not. Then I realized that you can't tell where your water has been unless you watch it come out of the ground, or melt from a snow field. Now I always treat, or filter. The PUR filters are so fast that one filter can be shared between four-six people on a climb. I just say, "you carry the stove, I have the filter".

You have been lucky. I know two people who have gotten the "beaver fever" and they don't drink untreated water anymore. I have a PUR water filter that I like. If I don't want the extra weight, I'll use iodine tablets or boil, but I always treat.

That's very clever.

It's going to be very wet. Any precip will almost certainly be in the form of rain. There may be problems with brush at low evevation, because of lack of snow.

Why does not guy say not to use epoxy? I thought the whole idea of epoxy is to keep water OUT of the hole. The stainless steel bolt is not going to rust, but if a lot of water gets in there, it is going to freeze and thaw until it pops the bolt out. The epoxy, even if imperfect at excluding all the water will at least displace most fo the water.

I am seeing many posts that are going to the wrong threads. Either people are drunk or careless, or there is something wrong with the software. It most often is Cavey, so maybe I can answer my own question.

No, it is definitely not a walk in the park. It is also known to be quite brushy. I would be concerned whether the sparse snows of this year have covered all the devils club and slide alder. It sucks to punch through with snowshoes and get stuck in branches.

When I was around 7 years old I was in Y Indian Guides and we'd go to Joshua Tree- places like Indian Cove. We kids would climb all over those rocks in tennis shoes, without ropes or helmets, while the dads stayed in camp drinking beer. We'd go way the hell up those rocks. No one ever fell. The worst anyone ever got was a skinned knee.

To the tune of America the Beautiful: The carbonyl is polarized the carbon end is plus The nucleophile will thus attack the carbon nucleus. A Grigniard gives an alcohol of types there are but three. It makes a bonds to correspond From C to shining C. Is that nerdy enough for ya?

Yes. I firmly believe that the best way to avoid violence is to leave the bars well before they close. Seems like whenever you read about some guy getting stabbed or beaten at Pioneer Square its at 2 am. Always 2 am.

This reminds me of the Jay Leno Show the other night. They had this dude who could supposedly crush walnuts shells with his glutes. He put a mustard squeeze bottle between his cheeks and squirted a stream of mustard about 20 ft in the air. These two contestants had to try to catch as much of the mustard on hotdogs as they could in order to win Superbowl tickets. One guy got it right in the eye.

Thank you. I did not know that (guns were not allowed in bars). Just curious: do you spend a lot of time worrying about becoming the victim of a crime? Have you been a crime victim? Violent crime? About the only thing that has ever happened to me is that my car was stolen in the dead of night. Never been a victim of violent crime. I suppose I'd be differently disposed towards guns if I had.

This is what a debate would look like on the Senate floor:

Greg, you seem like a nice enough guy and all, but it would give me the willies being around you in a bar knowing you were packing heat. I've never touched a gun and only once even seen gun up close. I have no interest whatsoever.

Keerist! That was a long quote. That's a good way to kill a thread.

He said this with obvious relish.

I have nothing to brag about. A pokey four hours round trip and I was only carrying 25 lbs. I took the return trip REAL slow. I bailed on the haystack.

Don't forget your beer goggles.

If we could only transport those two dolts about two billion years in the future...

My guess is that he wouldn't climb at all. The concept of "leisure time" would not be invented for another 1,800 years. Even if it were, it wouldn't have been considered pleasureable. Climbing was somthing one did if a pack of wild dogs was chasing you. Credit the Brits, "mad dogs and Englishment in the noon day sun", sort of thing.

Here's the trip report. I got no "takers" so I went alone. About 15 minute after I began slogging up hill, my phone beeped. I saw that there was a new text message that brought a smile to my face. It said simply, "Take". Perhaps Captain_ Caveman? Met about five wet hikers and two wet dogs as they were coming down. They said it had been raining. About half way up, I was passed by a couple of guys who were going much lighter than I. One of them identified himself as a chiropractor after I mentioned how much my back hurt. I saw not a soul at the top as I settled down on a rock to eat. Two ravens were having a good time soaring above the cliffs. I noticed how they tucked their wings in a dive, much like a falcon does, when they are trying to lose altitude in a strong updraft. The sun was out and the views were great. On the way down, I pointed a confused hiker in the direction of the parking lot. It was otherwise uneventful. I didn't even get rained on.

I need to get excercise and the sun is out for a while. I'm headed out to do the old trail from the new Little Si parking lot. Call me on my cell phone if you would like to join me. 206-769-5627. I live in Shoreline and will go through Seattle, if you need a ride.