catbirdseat

Kevbone, if they could put your brain in a matchbox, it would bounce around like a BB in a boxcar. If you had half a brain it would be lonesome. Actually, your not such a bad fellow. I take back all the lousy, rotten, nasty things I told your girlfriends about you.

Leno had a bunch of Paris jokes going last night. One of them went something like, "Paris has been home for about 12 hours with her new ankle monitor. That monitor must be up around her ears by now!"

At 40% power transmission the efficiency leaves something to be desired. The idea here is to convert alternating electric current into magnetic flux, then collecting the energy by capturing that flux and converting it back into alternating current. It works something like your avalanche transceiver but at higher power. People now worry about the magnetic flux produced by high voltage electric wires. There are studies which show effects on animals. This system would put far higher flux right into the home. It radiates 5 watts to transmit 60 watts. We already know that cell phones can cause brain cancer. They say they can improve the efficiency. Let us hope so.

You got it right. I said I had it bass ackwards, didn't I? After that it was mentioned that it is not always very practical to insist on having the fat rope through the anchor.

Even Smith has a chance of rain this weekend.

Exit 32/32 for sport climbing, Index and Leavenworth for trad climbing. Vantage if its raining in Seattle.

That quote is destined to be a classic. It's damn funny. Of course I remember how that ball player was demonized for what he said, but you know there isn't a single racial slur in that quote.

So red carabiners are in are they? How about rhodium? It has a pretty red color and you don't have to worry about the anodizing wearing off. Only a few problems, though, its density is about five times that of aluminum. Oh, and there is the issue of price...and you thought Helium biners were expensive. Wait till you get a load of these.

Setting aside that fact that we are talking about knots and not splices, Ketch has provided us with the procedure for splicing twisted strand ropes. There is an entirely different method for splicing kernmantle ropes. The standard method and the easiest results in a splice that is bulkier than the rope and would jam in a belay device other than a figure eight. The splice is very strong however. There may be splices that are less bulky than the one I am thinking of but I'd worry about strength. If I had a brand-new rope get chopped like MCash, I'd be sorely tempted to try splicing it, but there is zero data on this in climbing ropes. Or is there... Constant Diameter Splice "Constant diameter splices, which reduce the diameter of the crossover area to approximate the ropes actual diameter, will significantly reduce strength performance. Please contact a qualified rigger for assistance."

Sounds worse than Johanesburg.

Yes you are right, I had it backwards. If the knot is moving while the knot is under load and there happens to be a convenient crack waiting, it could jam. But if the knot moves very much you've got other things to worry about, like rapping off the end of your rope. Anyway, if you are doing multiple rappels, it is most convenient to alternate which rope is through the anchor. To always have to put the fat one through, would be a pain in the neck.

No mosquitoes or ticks observed and no rattlesnakes either, to my utter surprise. This was the first trip where we did not see any snakes. There are lots of mountain sheep coming down to the road in the mornings, so watch out. They are very slow to get out of the way sometimes. The river is running high.

I think what he is talking about is that more of the skinny rope passes through the belay device than the fat rope, so the knot moves, unless it happens that the skinny rope is through the anchor, then it is stopped by the sling or rap ring. This has nothing to do with a particular knot. If one is aware of this slippage potential, it is possible to avoid it by the way one handles the tails on rappel, that is by pinching them together.

What does II F4 mean? From the description it is a Grade III, low fifth class.

Well, there's Dirty Harry's Peak and Bessamer.

I wish I could remember some of the stuff when I was first in the hospital, but by all accounts I was saying some pretty funny stuff. They say people with such injuries are quite "uninhibited" at that point in their recoveries.

That website is damn hard on the eyes. Maybe it's just my monitor, who knows.

Chew dat. Hey catbirdseat! Fancy some rat hunting? Whatever floats your boat, dude. I keep the rats under control with poison. What else would a self-respecting chemist use?

My guess is they became aware of the enormity of the job and that to ever finish they'd have to limit the number of bolts.

I'll bet that beer tasted pretty damn good.

Peter, wishful thinking. People started buying SUVs again in the first quarter of 06 because gas prices had gone back down. They were not convinced that high prices were here to stay. Having said that I'll add that people often piss and moan about gas prices, saying they'll switch to a more fuel efficent car, but when they go shopping end up buying the same old hog they always been driving. I mean the fat f---s of America need a car their asses will fit into.

It's a longer knot but the diameter is the same. An EDK can stick in cracks too! The reason it's a good knot is that it doesn't catch on edges the way other knots do.

Didn't Snowbyrd have that same avatar image at one time? I keep thinking it's her.

One thing to consider is that while some of the smaller towns are quite nice and close to great climbing, it can be actually harder to hook up with partners. People from such places often rely on a small cadre of partners. In a big place like Seattle, even though it's a bit of a drive to the rock, you can almost always find a like-minded partner for whatever it is strikes your fancy.

Actually this is starting to come to pass. The nice thing about roundabouts is that you can't run a red light in a roundabout. And with Gas prices now reaching nearly 1/2 of Euro levels (gasp), people aren't buying American made SUV's anymore.