catbirdseat

That's using your head in a completely new fashion. Grate enough noggin and you've got yourself head cheese.

Today it was dry but cold at Vantage, with overcast skies pretty much all day. All the tradsters were out in force. Puffy jackets were the fashion statement of the day. Hands stayed tolerably warm for most of a pitch if it was a crack climb, but the crimpy routes were not much fun.

I'm curious, why do you think camalots are safer than friends? I'm convinced the reason so many people like Camalots is that they can be placed badly and still work okay. Other cams have to be placed well. So basically Camalots are ideal when you are sketched out of your mind and don't have the time to place a cam perfectly.

Today I led my first 5.10c trad route. I'd top roped it two years previously, so I knew it had rests. I just couldn't remember exactly where they were. Leading the thing I had the good sense to not stop until it felt like I had most of the weight off my arms and onto my legs, even if that meant I was stemmed way out with one foot smeared on the rock (rest is all relative). I figured going into this, there was a good chance I'd pump out and have to call for a take, but I found enough rests to put in good gear, shake out and catch my breath.

Doh!

The Captain gave orders to set phasers to stun. There will be a courts marshall.

There is a spot in the sacral area of my lower back that is still rather tender. I'm not sure whether it was bruise by impact or strained.

I made a visit this time last year with MCash. We climbed at Middle East Wall where it was dry, even though it was wet at Sunshine Wall.

They are safer and more reliable than the ones they replace. In order for Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) to work in practice, the other country must believe that your weapons would work when you launch them. They are not going to test them, so no underground nuclear explosions.

Hey, it's hard for her to type with her mouth full.

It's good form to spell correctly when you call someone retarded.

Tom, I think just about everybody has experienced the partner who wants to make a bee line home after the climb. All you want is to sit down to a nice dinner and have a couple beers to celebrate a fine day out in the mountains, tell a few stories, and savor the moment. But no, we have to rush home. For me it ruins the whole trip.

Hey, I'm getting back into it after a foot injury. Cut me some slack.

I remember that story by Bronco quite well, but why did faust repost it, rather than just including a link to the original?

JayB edited it. JayB, I think you should at least state what it was you did and why.

Here is a link to that other story I mentioned. Rampage in 2000

At noon today I took the dog and went for my usual 3 mile run. I headed north on 10th Avenue NE and noticed news media vans when I approached 195th St. I had wanted to take the foot bridge over I-5 but couldn't get to it because the area had police tape across it. I came up to some people milling about who looked like reporters (from the good hair) and asked what was going on. I was told that a neighbor had heard gun shots the night before, but didn't check on it because he figured it was from the freeway. When he walked out to the driveway to go to work, he found a dead body. They asked me if I'd heard the shots- I had not, as I live two blocks away. This was the same area where about five years ago police arrested a young man who had gone berserck and attacked a woman with a hoe in her front yard. So in the end my run ended up being longer, since I had to run down to 185th to get across the freeway. Story

There are numerous threads comparing the two cam types, but the consensus is that you should avoid the Forged Friends in the smaller sizes. If you are pressed for cash, you can buy used Camalots, but the new design is so much better in my opinion, it would be worth it to buy them new. You could buy Purple and Green Camalots and then complete your set with the corresponding larger Friends. Later, you can work to complete the set of Camalots up above Green, a cam at a time until you have a complete set plus extras in the form of Forged Friends.

Red Foxx also once said, "Beauty is only skin deep, but UGLY goes clear to the BONE." Something said a couple pages back reminded me of a woman I climbed with a couple times a few years back. She was really enthusiastic about climbing. She bought the best gear, trained hard. She aspired to climb K2. Then I never saw her around any more. I asked someone who knew her well what happened to her. "Oh, she met some guy and fell in love with him. He doesn't climb. They moved to L.A." K2, huh?

Keep the stories coming. This is quite entertaining. Memory pills. I could use some pills that help me remember. You know, sometimes, you get out on a really scary lead and you can't remember why the hell you thought it was a good idea to take that pitch. I think perhaps the best climbers are the ones with the worst memories for things like pain and fear.

It's snowing a little here in Maple Leaf (I just got home). It was snowing like a sumabitch in the E-V-T. I had about 8 inches on top of my car. I just returned from rescuing my daughter from the hill out front of our house. She couldn't go up and was afraid to go down and risk sliding into traffic.

I found a lonesome ski at Stevens a few years back and never did find its owner.

They need to show the before and after pictures of the computer monitors.

Dru is channelling Dale Earnhart.

But for the grace of God go I. I'm glad I wasn't there. You can go as slow as you like, but if everyone else is flying past you and the pileup is in front of you, you will become part of it whether you can stop or not.