Bill_Simpkins

At first I thought these were silly, but now you can leave your pulleys at home (I do anyways) for glacier travel saving weight and space. Discuss. Click Here for picture.

I like to pack super light. For years, my system was the standard poly-pro, gortex and warm jacket(down or synthetic) method. I've been using soft shells for the last year and a half or so and have done ok in summer and winter. However, I want to streamline my system. My goal is to have a sytem thats light as humanly possible and still stay warm and relatively dry (staying home and watching tv is not an option!). Right now for winter I use a polyester T-shirt, a long sleeve half zip stretchy base layer top and bottom (powersheild?), patagonia Guide Pants, REI Minstral Jacket, and a primaloft jacket. Sometimes I throw in the pack a little plastic parka. Weighs like 1 ounce or somthing. I usually just wear the the T-shirt and the Shells and everything else sits in the pack until camp. I have summer down. I just wear my Shells and have the longsleeve base layer in my pack. Experience, tricks and thoughts are appreciated. Again, I'm a minimalist and want to keep it simple and light. Thanks!

I think re-contructing a path that goes to Boot Lake pass from FSR 12/Elbow Lake TH, is the best long term option. The distance isn't bad and it avoids any contact with private lands. How does one bring potential trail projects to the Forest Service?

"In addition he laughed at the 7 year thing Bill mentioned. He said that was quite funny--and of course not true. " My dad told me of this law. He's not a total idiot. He was in the FS until 1980, so it could of course be an old law.

You can climb in the shade if you plan your routes right. Just work around counter-clockwise as the sun moves. The problem can be finding open routes in the shade, if its busy.

The Amber thread was pretty funny.

I've never had a problem with the different thicknesses. Make sure your static line is as long as your dynamic line stretched out.

Pride Greed Envy Anger lust Gluttony Sloth

It seems to me that most people who are secularist, atheist, or anti-religious define Christianity and other religions to be whatever allows them to most conveniently attack it. What a joke. So if you are NOT a Chrisitian, you are more moral, more ethical, and more consistent in your implementation. I will not claim that Christians are intrinsically better people than anybody else - that would be ridiculuous. Just as is your claim. And again I point out how easy it is to succeed with lower standards, and how easy it is to overlook the faults of your "friend" (he who agrees with your philosophical and moral worldview) as opposed to your "enemy" (he who does not). You utterly misunderstand and misrepresent the conservative viewpoint. Conservatives believe that it is not the ROLE of government to be in the business of providing social services to the populace. Fiscal conservatives and libertarians further argue that said services are often inefficient, wasteful, corrupt (with little accountability and oversight), and have a sole purpose of buying votes and shoring up POWER in a big government. All Americans are in general very generous people - whether they are Christian or not, whether they are Republicans or Democrats, conservatives or liberals. A primary differentiation between the latter are that conservatives prefer to donate to private charities and churches, liberals prefer to implement charities through the public coffers of government. I apologize for not being more clear. I didn't mean that Christians mess up more than anyone else. That would be a silly statement! I meant that you are not Christian if you mess up every day and do nothing about it. You can call yourself Christian, but obviously are not, and obviously don't live like one should. Many Christians (and most people) knowingly do daily activities that are not "Christian-like" and do nothing about it. My big idea is, that it is my opinion that to have a meaning existence with your religion, you have to live by it or your not in it, period. For example: a said Christian that owns a gun, is not a Christian. I work in a recording studio. And most christian bands that come in are totally into themselves. I don't view them as christians either. There have been a few exceptions. I went out with this one girl who was a hardcore christian, and her family was too. She did everything every other 20 year old did. She just found ways to justify it for her religion and felt super guilty every time she "sinned". I have another group of christian friends who get drunk together every month and play video games. How christian is that? Its not. They screw their Christian girlfriends and feel guilty about it at church. I have another said christian friend who cheated on his wife with a 16 year old whore in Canada. He goes to church every Sunday and sends his kid to a religious school. Dark little secrets. Christians don't do anything worse than any other person. But they do do the same things just as much. They just call themselves something they are not. These same people vote for GWB because of moral values. People are so full of shit.

Additionally, if people were trully generous and caring, there wouldn't be a need for Goverment assistance and a repulican system might be ideal. But the fact is, and shown by the goverment programs in place, that people generally don't help each other enough, and thats why the goverment has to do it.

Its seems many people define Christianity to whatever allows them to do what they would do if they were religious or not. I'm sure this happens with all religions. Yes, everybody messes up a little. But most Christians in the U.S. mess up on a daily basis, in a BIG way, and don't do anything about it and still call themselves Christians. Many Christians are repulicans. But republicans are, for the most part, against socialism, which is a bit closer to being a democrat. Republicanism is more on the side of letting people take care of themselves. However Jesus helped people when they where hungry, whether they had a job or not! He helped the sick even if there pain was self inflicted, right? He didn't say "Get a job and Ill feed you" or "if you didn't eat that curry yesterday you wouldn't be sick". Christianity sounds more like socialism to me. Yet these people, who are supposed to believe in helping others, believe in a party that belives in helping yourself. Go Figure.

Again I'll re-iterate. Just put it in your pack, closest to your back. Put Your extra clothing around it on the outside part and on top. Shouldn't freeze. Pu insulation on the tube if it is a water bladder. Maker sure you run the tube inder your armpit. You may even try puting the tube through your armpit vents and up through by your chest in the jacket.

Yeah! Where is that slacker?!

....or the cubical. I'm not made for a cubical.

Maybe your right. Too many computer games maybe.....

Rather than going to a shrink, Ill just utilize spray. Feel free to try and defend your psositions if you disagree. The recent speach given by our president has made me upset. GWB Evil. GWB Bush is not Christian. Christians don't pick fights. Any Christian that thinks Bush is for their religion is wrong. GWB is a liar. Christians don't lie. GWB showed nothing but a need for self success outside of Government. Christians don't do that. Anyone that can't see through his lies and manipulation is either a) stupid b) blinded by their faith c) scared d)think that he is a defender of the material world they live in. At least 90% of people that say they are Christian in this country are not. Christians don't shoot guns. Christians help those in need even if they are gay, on drugs, need a job, need health care, are democrats, this doesn't seem to be what I see going on. Christians don't go to war. Christians don't own corporations. Christians buy poor people food before they buy themselves a new car. Christians help the old reitred people pay for there prescription before they buy a new playstation. Christians don't own TV's. Any one that says they are a Christian that does any of these things, are not. You can say all you want, believe in anything, but actions speak louder than words folks! Do you think your God is going to be forgiving just because you believe in him. Dont be stupid. GWB is going to screw up this world. We do nothing about it. We sit and watch until its too late. If you are truly Christian, then you would not support this president. If you do, in my opinion, you are not what you say you are. Believing in your faith is not enough. You must live it, else you are not. I am not a Democrat, I am not a Christian. But I find it interesting when half the people in this country call themselves something they are not. I myself am guilty of this. GWB is weird. The Inaugeation speech was weird. I'm done. Thank you for your time.

-I believe the description for the second pitch of Zig Zag at Mt. Erie is incorrect. The true route never goes to the snag, it goes straight up into the corner, which is really nice! There have also been additional routes and bolts stations established at and above the second pitch. -The best trail to Givlers Dome basically head straight up to the route. The picture is misleading and sends people schwacking off right on an old trail. -Going from Three-O-Clock Rock over to the combs IS a nightmare. I wouldn't even mention this route in the book. -Please mention the parking fees at Vantage.

Sometimes I use a 60 m 9.6mm Edelweiss Laser in the hills. Pretty light and a good rope. Most of the time though I use a 30m or a 50m 8.3 mm Edelweiss. I'm more than content with a 50m rope. Everytime I've brough two ropes, I always rapped by a pair of slings or a tree half way down! There are 1000 ways to skin a duck. Best advice I can give: get a whole bunch of ropes, and do your research before the climb. Bring what you need. If I had to pick only one rope, it would be a 60m 9.5ish mm rope.

I use Final Cut Pro for the editing and DV Studio Pro 3 on A Mac G5. I edit all the Video and rough audio. Then I do all the audio detail mixing work on a PC using NUENDO and mastering with WaveLab and special audio plugins syncronized to the Mpeg 2 then export the audio back to the Mac, line it up , author and burn. You could also use the IDVD thats included with the Macs. IDVD would probably be sufficient. DV studio Pro 3 is good for setting up the menu and stuff.

I agree. Just get the hotties in there. No really, no slabs in the gym. Gyms are for getting strong. However,slab climbing isn't exactly a relaxing endeavor. Strong legs and knees with micro-pinching and pushing power are needed for the hard stuff. Unless they have real rock in the gym for slabs, I wouldn't be interested. The cool thing about slabs in the randomness. Putting set places to put your hands and feet wouldn't be the point would it? A gyms forte is steep routes.

I can Sing Neil Diamond like no ones business!

Sinkers and Floaters - V6

Takes no time at all to set up the tension. Use a clove hitch on each piece. Lossening and tightening clove hitches is super easy when you pull on the middle strand. As you know cloves can be tied and adjusted quickly with one hand. I could tension 2 pieces correctly with a sling and two clove hitchs in about the same amount of time it takes to throw on a piece of elastic. Plus you should tension the pieces with a full strength sling anyways in case one fails. So you have to tension a sling either way.

No indication. Hopefully this company will liquidate the land to the FS to regain some of their money, or just open it up. My father used to work in the FS, and told me, when he first got stiffed at the gate, that when private roads are open to the public for more than 7 years, then that road must remain open for future use to the public. People drove up the Middle Fork and Blue Mountain for years. I remember going up there with unrestricted access with my family to get XMAS trees for years. Anyone know more about this law? Is it dated?

No. But they told me that access wasgoing to be closed for good on Dec. 17th.