catbirdseat

A wise man once said, "a man's got to believe in something- I believe I'll have another beer".

It's a breed that can be safe but too often irresponsible people gravite towards it. It's a shame.

Ice tools aren't the best for self-arrest, depending on type. It's one of the reasons why I continue to use my funky old Scottish tool. It's not really the best for climbing water ice, but it is a good compromise between a traditional ice axe and a speciallized ice tool. I use that on the approach, as its shaft is long enough (and straight) for good plunging on moderate slopes. I pair it with a bent shaft shrike for technical terrain. Granted, it's not very good for anything harder than WI3.

Gotta remember, Pope was from a different generation, when homophobia was not only considered acceptable, but exemplary.

Strictly-speaking, "turf-toe" is an injury of the big toe is it not? I found a source for taping the big toe, but am not sure whether it can be applied to the small toe. There is no question that my gait was messed up. I expect that it will improve as the small toe injury heals. I asked Newell about the extracorporeal-shockwave therapy and he said that he has used it, and it works, but he puts it in the category of method of last resort, along with traditional surgery. These devices are so expensive that they don't actually own them, but arrange for them to be brought in. It requires local anaesthesia, etc. A question for you Michael, is that when I get the modified orthotic back, is there anything to be gained from continuing to tape for a while? Or does the orthotic completely fill the same role as the tape?

How can anyone answer your question when you haven't really described what sort of climbing you'll be doing. There are different dexterity/warmth requirements, depending on what you are doing. How likely is it that the gloves will get wet? Is quick-drying a requirement?

It's time for me to buy a new pair of glasses then.

Brown noser.

Yes, we probably stuck out like a couple of sore thumbs. So who was there?

Roboboy and I went over to Dante's at 9 pm after climbing at the gym. We couldn't find anyone we knew. The place was full of 20-something college guys and a handful of women.

There are a lot more old guys here. RC.com is mostly 20-something boulderers and sport climbers.

I saw the doc again yesterday. He tells me he looked at the x-ray again and decided that the little toe had been dislocated. Neither he nor the doctor in California had noticed this before. So I asked him what could be done, and he said it was too late to manipulate the joint. He just taped the toe to its neighbor. Now that joint is going to be prone to arthritis. I told him the left heel started hurting after going on a run three days ago. It was my first run in a month and was only two miles. He said it was a recurrence of plantar faciitis. I asked him if it might have been brought on because of artificially pronating the foot to avoid putting pressure on the little toe. He said definitely, but he still wanted to modify my orthotic device to raise the arch, so I surrendered it to him and was sent home with instructions to keep the foot taped using the Low Dye technique. I get the orthotic back on Monday. http://www.cise.ufl.edu/~jnw/PlantarFasciitis/low-dye.pdf

I think you just had an unlucky occurence. Shit happens. Sometmes ropes get cut over sharp edges and I suspect that any make of rope would have been damaged under the same conditions.

Sometimes a censored photo makes for a more racy image than the unmodified one.

Rush Limbaugh was nominated.

The Forest Service could, for example, use non-paid volunteers to monitor the caves. The caves could be opened up at certain times when volunteers are available. The FS doesn't really like working with volunteers, for some reason.

We are talking about tonight, Thursday, February 1st at Dante's?

I thought that the "horsey smell" was the big draw for Bridle Trails. People pay big money to smell horse shit.

At least Ted's gone on record opposing such measures. OK, Oregonians, make your voices heard, especially to the legislators not sponsoring this bill so they have some constituency feedback to back them up in opposing this. CBS, hypothetically, if this goes through, would you still be opposed to an initiative seeking to repeal it? Not that it would pass or anything. Are you talking to me? Did I come out in support of requiring signalling device? I don't think so. As far as what they are referring to, I would assume that either a cell phone, satellite phone or a locator unit would qualify, but an avalanche beacon would not.

More interesting was the guy who was stabbed from behind in the library by someone he did not know. http://www.katu.com/news/5422961.html Talk about an extreme sport. Libraries can be dangerous.

I had one that lasted a good long time. I was very happy with it. It was close to being retired when a friend wrecked it by falling off the same move three times in a row on top rope and penduluming the rope over the same sharp edge. Any rope would have been cut by that treatment.

sounds like a good option... it may be a big change, but that would be a temporary change, right (within a year you'd switch again anyways)? Sometimes unexpected change can be good too. best of luck! I'm hoping the experience will make me more employable, so I can stay in this area. I like it here. Lots of good places to go climbing.

Congratulations, Arch. Now it's your turn to help find me a job. I am trying to get a transfer to a unit within my company that is being retained after the merger. The unit will be sold to another company within a year. If it results in layoffs, I'll still get the nice severance package that I would have gotten had I not taken the transfer. It's a major career change though. A very different job in biopharmaceutical manufacturing.

I think the rating on Springboard should take into consideration the weight of the leader. A fat leader is unwilling to walk out as far on that rotten old snag before making the move onto the rock. Damn, I am starting to sound like Dru.

They could put more force on the rock if the camming angle were smaller than other cams. This is one way to make a cam that works in flares. So what IS the camming angle on these units? "We have analyzed all the variables carefully and we have designed all Totem Cams to ensure that the SLCD equivalent cam angle is less than 14.1º even in the worst case. In most placements, however, Totem Cams work with an SLCD equivalent cam angle of almost 12.85º, offering greater holding power." Apparently, the camming angle is variable? The most interesting thing about this design is that the cables bear directly on the inside of the lobes, rather than on the axle. This must increase the outward force regardless of the camming angle. This effect will vary depending on the degree of retraction, and be greatest when the lobes are most retracted.