Billygoat

Change is good though. My son is still young enough to learn Mandarin easily and I have some friends over there...Lots of FAs to be had in Western China

I'm just worried about the fast approaching day when we have lost our abundant crop of middle class consumers and the corporations have all moved away and we become irrelevant like the British and the Romans before them. A relic of power with a strong tourist industry...

If Ray is Trask then who is Necronomicon

Just the opposite, we may have the problem with China. They want to reunite their country (Taiwan), they have great need for raw materials and are going to try to secure much of southeast Asia to feed that need (Malaysia, The Phillipines, Indonesia....), They are interested in taking territory (Hong Kong, Tibet, what's next) They have a long cultural memory and are still pissed at the Japanese for world war II atrocities and the Brits for taking territory and forcing opium on their people and taking their silver, and They are friendly with Pakistan and have a border dispute with India and their relationship with Russia (which backs India) is ever so tenuous leaving us with a four way intersection where everyone is armed with tactical nuclear weapons and different visions on how the world should be. The Chinese Will can have a much bigger impact on our lives here in the "West" than a bunch of fractous, tribal muslim countries with cheap oil. I think that the best they can pull off is random acts of violence and their ability to pull off bigs ones on our soil is greatly diminished since 9/11

Exactly Slothrop. What are we, two or three days down wind from Korea?! What really takes balls is repairing our economy thru corporate reform and taking on the thieves undermining our "way of life". So we invade Iraq, kick ass, take over, secure some cheap oil, stock market goes up a blip, but we still have terrorism and insecurity. When are we going to go after the Saudis who have way more to do with 9/11 than the Iraqis !?! I am not the least bit worried about Iraq. I'm worried about China. They have weapons of mass destruction and the means to deliver coupled with the needs of a growing economic powerhouse.

Does any body else think that we are a bunch of pussies for going after the littlest punk in the school yard because we are too afraid to take on the big guys!?!

Do you mean overall or just lately? About 80% of what I did the eleven years I lived in Colorado was tour. Now that I have been out here for the last seven plus it is reversed; 80% on piste (too hard to match kick wax to this cascade concrete). I just did some on and off piste all last week up at Sun Peaks in BC but that was like being back in Colo. This year has been poor condition wise and I have been busy but I did Inter-Glacier (two laps) in a day this past July and one day I was up doing numerous, epic early season powder shots on the far back of Table Mountain this past December before everything turned manky. Other than that, just some on piste at Bakehead and Whistler last season. My usual the last couple years have been overnighters out to Coleman Pinnacle and various overnighters up and off hwy20 including Silver Star which we dubbed "the Marquis du Ski" for the heinous approach. The long and short, I have all the gear and know how to use it, I'm just not in bomber shape. I might be at the back of the pack but I suffer well. I'll start cranking out the work and hopefully free up the weekend. Fri/Sat would be better for me but if it doesn't work out this time I would still be interested in going soon. You seem serious about backcountry touring which sounds good to me. How often do you get out...?

Beer Bong gremlin please...

Skisports and I want a beer bong gremlin How do you make them?

Definitely! Without a doubt. Where's Timmy?!

He should replace the pagetop snaffle

Skisports, put down that beer bong when you are composing.

Congrats I have a ways to go. I remember that guy now, Armand Dubuque. Anybody use his binding? How is it? Has anyone tried the crampon feature?

How steep do you reckon it is? 45* 50*? I climbed it once in '95 but wasn't concerned with that. What's his name's UTB is the only one (tele) with a crampon right...?

This is funny Lisa, I was just wondering where you were today. I wasn't sure why I have not often seen you here. I figured you had better things to do like go skiing. Sounds good. I wonder if I could get away. Kinda short notice for me. Fri/sat or sat/sun? It is supposed to get sunny and stay that way all week. probably won't be good for the snow. If it warms up tho it might corn up for the descent. How would that affect the crevasse danger and is there a potential for icefall this time of year in these conditions? Is it possible to skin all the way on Baker or would you put on crampons at the Roman Wall?

It is supposed to get sunny and dry out this week up here. I'll be heading down to the local crag to put up some new routes

Same same, but different! True

Trask, I didn't catch that bumper sticker on your back pack " Ass Grass or Gas, no one rides for free"

Plus Aussies are Brit outcasts. Same Same.

You remember awhile back someone claiming to be him posting in search of partners. Who went with him and was it him?

Trask, I want to be your belay slave!

Done with the willis wall so soon?

You got me there. Of course, James Bond has always been played by an American.... Actually, expatriate POMs, the lot of them

He's only the greatest sufferfest master of the world behind Shakleton, another Brit

Doug Scott is British...