Billygoat

Dwayner, in that first picture, the guy bears a resemblance to Lowell Skoog. Are you saying trask and Skoog are one and the same

The Macallan 12 year at $38. MMMM Good

I predict thursday to be the best this week.....

oooo that brings back memories

I'm going to touch myself....

It can never be a "free" market with a few rich guys manipulating it Summer dresses are coming....

You are right Greg as long as you keep that money in a jar but then inflation is going to wither it...Geez, I get gas there too, maybe we have a lot more in common that I thought.

I feel like that too sometimes Trask. I'm not trying to save the world. I just don't like it when our economy gets fucked up and we go after some two time, rinky dink dictator instead of the friends of the powers that be who actually caused the economic collaspe thru their greed. And poor people will fight and die in the war and middle class people will finance it, and the economy will still suck and the rich will keep getting richer....

I just know from experience that once you get past a certain point the money you have makes money for you in a snowball effect and when you start hangin' out with the people that have access to real power you start influencing policy and that most of the real power and money is concentrated in the hands of the very few. It cost rich people far less to build a house than poor or middle class people. Greg, even if you make $500,00 a year, you are still only upper middle class and you are being taxed to hell, and you don't do your banking off shore, and you have very little real influence over your congressman. Damn thread drift! Will bite you in the ass everytime...

I'm a little bit of both. I am a business man and I have liberal leaning. I build things out of wood but I want to save the old growth. I build mansions for rich corporate people and low income housing. I own guns, shoot animals and eat them, and drive a big American truck, but I also think there should be gun control, I shop at the Co-op, and think Big Fat Americans should not be driving SUVs if all they are doing is commuting to a desk job. They should have a toyota hybrid. I guess that makes me a progressive

Exactly. I try not to shop at REI. I've just noticed that when people are either poor or middle class, it doesn't matter whether they claim to be right or left wing, the common issues bind them together and that usually involves rich people trying to take money from them. That's why at the WTO, we had blue collar workers protesting alongside hippies. I think it benefits those few in power to have the working class, right and left masses (mobs in their parlance) to have us fighting about abortion, gun control, welfare etc. rather than focusing on corporate welfare, corporate criminals, bad foreign policy, and taxation.

Oops! I lost my head. Geez Greg you are kinda liberal in some ways.

Well, maybe REI is going to discontinue carrying the hardware because they don't move fast enough. Shelf space is $. And REI definitley figured out that soft goods move and the profit margin is huge. Face it, aid and true alpine climbers are a small demographic averaging little disposable income when compared to the pile wearing, latte swilling masses... All I know is, she was surprised I was buying pitons and warned me about an internal company memo stating Black Diamond pitons would no longer be available... Maybe this reflects REI transitioning from hardware to software and goes along with an earlier thread about sales clerks there not knowing the difference between static and dynamic ropes.

I can bring firewood or the implements to make some if there is a wood lot nearby, and I will definitely contribute $$ for a portapotty and beer. I will also bring a bunch of local, grillable meats. Is there a grill there or should I come prepared?

AlpineK, I don't think beer will be a problem... I have always wanted to try that Terminal Gravity everyone sprays about.

I know that I like 'em! That's why I started this thread...

I never did the 10th mountain. I mostly made up my own traverses. I would definitely be into doing more hut trips. Jules, have you checked out British Columbia?! Super sweet I see a lot of potential up there. Chris, we're looking at April when hwy 20 opens. Corn Camp... Holey snafflehounds Batman

BTW I would be totally psyched to do some touring lessons for a day. I love turning people on to back country turns...

Pete, Sign me up Matt, I like freezin' my ass off as well anybody, let's go! Alpine k and Dave P, Mazama in the spring, here I come

Well, I had no problems leaving because of the crowds, squids and flatlanders. Plus the cost of living there was getting ridiculous. However, I loved the cool people I met there and the mountain town scene. It was so cold in the Butte that I never used skins because I could climb quite well with kick wax. I didn't own a tent cause it mostly never rained and if it did you just had to wait 15 minutes, I lived above 7000 feet for almost eight years. When I first came out here, I walked up Baker like it was a warmup. Because it is so high and dry there, you could hike in any direction and not have to fear the bushwack, the undergrowth is minimal. The San Juan mountains by Telluride and Silverton are more like here terrain wise, rugged. The snow in colorado especially in the San Juans and just west of Boulder can certainly be crap, but sometimes it is the best in the world. I just appreciated the blast of cool Colorado air from Jules

Couldn't have said it better myself It snows a bit, doesn't stick to anything steep, blows away, and slides and kills people. There are plenty of better places to see than CO. CO is great if you want to look like a good skier and schmooze with rich pricks who brag to everybody about their so called amazing snow. Sour Grapes

is this like paint by the numbers? HWY 20, Mazama, Cabin, Long weekend, Corn skiing and Corn squeezin's

She made it sound like they would not be available any more. Yeah, I agree with you Iain, they will be just like Sears. I could not believe it when they bought ascension and then lately they fucked up those Skye bindings...what's next ? BTW, are the Camp pitons made by the same Italian manufacturer as the BD ones?

I was just buying some pitons at REI and the sales clerk told me that she read in an internal company memo that BD is no longer making any pitons. Can any one else verify this?