JGowans

You can thank me for that boot trail...that was my postholing up and down cos my snowshoes were so crap

guessing: Further Furthermost Furthermore Thaw

Pinnacle North Face: Pinnacle

Post deleted by mattp

I just finished reading a sad vignette about a 30-year-old Oregonian who died of a heart attack while climbing. He left behind a 24 year old wife whom I’m sure didn’t expect to be a widow before she was 30. I don’t know about you, but that’s just a bit too close to home. I am also 30 and consider myself to be in top shape. Like everyone regardless of age, I live each day with a certain amount of risk. Sometimes it’s driving fast. Other times it’s climbing. It doesn’t matter how active or sedentary one is. At 30 years old, we all live with risk and we expect our mortality to be punctured by a direct consequence of the probability of risk somehow catching up with us – some freak, unforeseen accident. I certainly don’t sit on the sofa at night and think about ailments that are plotting my downfall. No, I sit on the sofa and I am the one in control plotting the next adventure. How trite and naive I still am. Over the past couple of years, I’ve begun to reluctantly acknowledge mortality. I am begrudgingly aware that I’m not going to live forever and as much as I’d like to believe that cryogenic freezing will preserve me for a time when it’s feasible to bring me back, I’m not exactly holding my breath. A 30, some of us are recently married, some of us are having kids and starting a family. These are all events that force us to reconcile with death. Is my life insurance up to date? Is it worth the few extra bucks to get the maximum accidental death and dismemberment insurance? Should I buy that mortgage insurance in case of my death? I think those thoughts, and while I now realize that I am indeed aging and I am going to die, I am still thinking that it’s an event far off in the future. What if I don’t make it to next week though? What have I done with my life? What have I learned? Beyond insurance, what have I given to my wife and those close to me? What other questions should I be exploring? I admit that aging and death confuses me. I clearly remember being an 8-year-old kid in Scotland and I don’t feel much different now than I did then except that I know I’m going to die. I just hope it isn’t soon because for most of my life I was asking the wrong questions and chasing the wrong goals. Only recently am I beginning to understand what seemingly simple concepts like success really looks like. If you’re around 30, I imagine you’re grappling with the same questions as most other 30 year olds. If you’re past 30 and pushing 40, or 50, or even 60, why don’t you impart some sage advice on us youngsters? People die around us all the time. Banal comments like, “It puts everything else in perspective” just doesn’t do it for me. What is the perspective? How the f**k do you live with the specter of death and what the f**k is life all about?

I'm just going to point out that it's already in the vernacular.

Hey, I just want to point out that a punter at least where I come from is a customer or a gambler. I don't know in what context you fellas are using this word. Is it going to morph into another misused fanny, wanker, or shag?

Nice job mate! Looks like you guys had some pretty decent weather.

thanks for the feedback fellas. given that i'll most likely be either with novices or worse by myself, i'd rather steer well clear of any sketchy decisions.

I'm heading out to Twisp this weekend and would like to take in some back-country freshies. I see that Silverstar looks like a good climb but with considerable avy danger. Is there anything else out there that you would recommend? Anyone going to be out that way this weekend? Btw, what's the Looploop ski area like? cheers.

Splitboard...totally agree, but I'm a cheap Scotsman. As for not posting Josh...yeah, I started a new job last August. Not much time for spraying anymore. Too bad really cos I actually liked it quite a bit. Now, If I could only get paid to spray?! Btw, me and the missus did go to Europe last summer. We were supposed to attempt Elbrus but long story short, the French screwed everything up and we ended up climbing in the Tatras on the Slovakian border instead. Makes sense right?

Nice stuff man! What happened to your Hood trip? I opted for some backcountry freshies adventures yesterday.

I think everyone and their granny was up Arrowhead yesterday. It was a decent day though. Still plenty of freshies. Btw, I had my snowshoes on and rode down on my snowboard. I agree with the track comment but breaking trail all the way gets old especially when my buddies are on their skis and cruising ahead of me. I admit to using the trail once in a while to catch up. Btw, one tip...some folks left their skis near the top of the ridge and then hiked up to the summit. Not sure why cos the snow was decent all the way to the top. If you head up there...keep your skis on to the summit. The good day was finished off with some Steven's Pass Amber and plentiful Nachos at one of the Steven's Pass bars.

This yuppie didn't go to work. I went riding outside my house instead. Queen Anne freshies baby!

I went last week at the Mounties building in Seattle...won an old movie ("Further") and got a ticket for Alpental. Great film for sure.

Crossed the North Cacades Hwy yesterday. The snow was coming down pretty heavy at Washington Pass and Rainy Pass. Not long now...

Fuck off you gaping cunt. I'm no pot-bellied trustafarian. Rather, I'm just a pleb earning my way - putting food on the table every day. You think we're all just like you - Silver spoon up your arse and license to spew. If I'm akin to Michael Moore without the bankroll, does that make you like Rush Limbaugh without your little chemical friends? The only revolution you'll ever experience is when you're fucked up, you're praying to the porcelain gods and accidentally flush while your head's still in the bowl. That should be good for a few free spins.

By the way, I made this entire story up. I thought it might elicit a greater reaction, but I suppose the apathy should have been expected - much like the general ambivalence exhibited by the sheep watching the telly each night and gorging on a fecal feast of homeland vernacular spewed forth by none other than G.W. himself and his supporting cast.

You are all a bunch of Cum Guzzling- Pock Marked - Ron Jeremies loving in a curious "I wonder what it'd feel like up the butt" kind of way - Rope-up groupie beeaatches and I've missed not trading insults with you the past few weeks. May you all snigger as you realize that in reading this post, you've wasted a good 30 seconds of your work day. Given that some of you are less than minimum wage earners, while others are high flying yuppie bastards, I'd conservateively guestimate the average wage of this site to be about $20 an hour. That's a good 17 cents in lost productivity for your employer. If 200 people read this post, that's $34 in lost productivity. That's sticking it to the man (thank you school of rock). Power to the People! You slackers are making a political statement no less. You should be proud of yourselves.

What’s up you choads? Well, it has taken me a while to come to a definitive conclusion, but something I’ve suspected for a long time is now more than a mere hypothesis. Last week, I was sitting on a plane from Seattle to D.C. On board, I sat next to a guy from NY who now lives in Seattle, but spent the first half of his career working in the financial sector in NY, and latterly as a lobbyist for special interest groups. He’s now writing a book about his experiences. Anyway, he told me about a special interest group called the Coalition for Advancement of Credit. This is a little known group that apparently has some unprecedented access to high level government officials. It represents pretty much all industries, but most importantly, it focuses on promoting the accessibility of credit to consumers. A seemingly benign activity yes? Well, it’s but a part of a larger effort. One of its members apparently wrote a manifesto entitled “The Credit Conundrum – A Vehicle for Prosperity.” This manifesto goes into great detail on the need to further “bind” the middle and working class to the corporate world through the use of extending credit while at the same time, using other fiscal tools at their disposal (including policy) to increase the cost of living. An example is the fact that even adjusting for inflation, housing is 75 times more expensive today than in the ‘50s while salaries are less (inflation adjusted), and worker productivity is at an all time high. So, we have a situation where we now have most 2 parent families working, and heavily leveraged to afford the mortgage. It goes on to describe how this could be achieved by systematically reducing the quality of education in most school districts within a given metropolis, such that there are perhaps one or two decent ones with everyone clamoring to live in that area, and thus drive up housing costs. This is but one example of a broader master plan being implemented by the government designed to not only maintain the status quo of an elite band of “haves” but to actually increase the critical mass of “have nots” and thus further enrich the “haves.” I’m not quite sure what the end game is, or whether there even is one. I suspect it’s more about preserving an unwritten class system and ensuring a legacy for future generation of “haves.” I always suspected that there was a conspiracy preventing me from becoming a millionaire. Now I know that it’s true. The problem is that this manifesto is being pursued in several flavors in many other Westernized nations. I suppose it’s time to just pack it all in and live in a wee peat bog in Scotland. You capitalist arses on this site are all sheep. You libs are black sheep but sheep nonetheless. Enjoy rope-up this year because next year, Beck will team up with Trendwest to offer timeshare tents with zero down and nothing to pay until 2005. Visa, Mastercard, and Discover accepted. Sorry, no American Express.

I'm alive and kicking dudes. It's been a crazy time since I got back from Europe - new job, wife just got back last week, brother had a wee bairn - the usual kinda family stuff. Admittedly I haven't been climbing much the last few weeks, but who has? It's the end of a fine season, and time to watch football all weekend every weekend and get plastered. One little story...My brother's wife (they both live in Scotland still) was told to cut back on the drinking and smoking during the pregnancy. She cut back to 6 Smirnoff Ice's each time she went out (about 3-4 times a week) and 1 pack of cigarettes a day. It's a miracle the wee bairn is healthy.

Nice one dude!

Gowans is back. Fear not mortals. Had a blast. Secretly wished I were a single lad again...those Slavic women are seriously hot. Russia didn't work out like I'd planned since my fucking backs didn't show up. So, it ended up being a massive booze fest for 3 weeks with my wife and her friends & family. $1 beers rule! Ready to climb.

What’s up fellas? Fucked up TRIP REPORT. Got to Berlin only to discover that two of our bags didn’t make it. Just so happens it was only the fucking climbing gear. We were told that the gear was in Paris and they’d get it to us the same day on another flight. I spent the night in some shitty B&B waiting for the bags to arrive. Whenever a car drove by, I’d jump out of bed, and rush to the decidedly dodgy balcony hoping to see the backpacks. No dice. By 4am, I realized the bags weren’t coming. So, we went to Tegel Airport in Berlin and tried talking to just about everybody. Of course, Euro bureaucracy prevailed and nobody gave a shit that it was 6am, our flight to Moscow was at 9am at another airport, and out FUCKING bags had done a disappearing act. At 7am, things started to pick up once the lazy bastards came to work. Still though, nobody could help, and teh bags weren’t there. At 7.30am, we finally found out that the bags were STILL in Paris, and they’d be arriving at 9am. At that point, we still thought we could make it to the other airport and head to Moscow. However, the airline had other ideas. They decided that our final destination of Mineralinye Vody was too dangerous and they would only send our bags as far as Moscow. This of course would have meant we’d miss our flight from Moscow to Mineralinye Vody while we waited for our bags to maybe show up in Moscow. At this point, Anna and I realized we were fucked. We therefore waited in Berlin for the bags to show up by which time we’d missed our flight to Moscow. The bags arrived and we just came to Poland instead. So, no Elbrus, no Russia, no highest peak in Europe. FUCKED UP is about the best way to describe the debacle. We’re out of pocket about $2K for a trip to Russia that never happened. When I get back I’ll of course write to the airline and they will undoubtedly empathise with our situation in a canned letter and maybe offer us the standard $50 flight voucher as a consolation from the benevolent bastards that they are. Crucially though, they will of course absolve themselves of all responsibility, and that will be the end of the matter. Whatever. Fucking cunts. So, we have 3 weeks now in Europe. We’re going to check out some major sites in Poland like Wraclaw, Karakov, Zakopane (hope to get some climbing in), and we’ll head up to the Baltic sea and chill out for a while on the beach. I’m. contemplating renting a car and driving to Holland to visit a buddy, but we’ve spent so much money already that it just seems too much. No worries though. It’s cool seeing where my wife grew up and meeting her family. Alright nutters, time to check out. By the way, it’s 3.30am and we can’t sleep. Jetlag sucks. Thank God for the Internet. I may spend the next 3 weeks porno surfing. Oh that reminds me. Highlight of the trip so far was driving down the main road from Berlin to Poland and seeing the road littered with Russian and Romanian (I have it on good authority that they are indeed of those nationalities) prostitutes waving their grubby hands scouting for business.

You make the assumption that I don't have another job lined up. Tsk Tsk Greg. I start my new gig when I return from Europe!!! How's about that?