Jake_Gano

A climber from Peoria? I can't even pretend to miss Illinois.

Pyramid Snow Cap...yum. Drinking one right now...

Our first stop is in Bogota To check Colombian fields The natives smile and pass along A sample of their yield Sweet Jamaican pipe dreams Golden Acapulco nights Then Morocco, and the East, Fly by morning light

Yeah, just got back from the show. A-fucking-amazing. This guy is 80 and call still climb circles around me. He made some comment about climbing a 10c in Mexico a couple weeks ago. I'm a quarter of his age and couldn't do a 10c to save my life. First rates slides of his ascents all over the continent. I hung around afterwards and got him to sign a book. Felt like when you see a mountain for the first time after seeing pictures of it forever. Really a amazing man.

I'm looking for anyone interested in getting out and doing some climbing that lives around the Moscow/Pullman area. I'm new to the area and want to get out and meet some other climbers in the area. I'm pretty solid in glacier mountaineering and alpine snow and ice climbing stuff. Doing Baker/Rainier/etc, and any lesser known(and less crowded) peaks is what I'm all about. Also I'm interested in trad climbing. I've only done verry little of it, but I would gladly belay slave/carry the rope/whatever for a ride and the chance to get out and learn about trad climbing from someone more experienced. PM me or email (jgano2@yahoo.com) if you're interested.

I worked under for the Olympic NF over this summer. I had an internship with the SCA and worked under the rec 'office.' Here are some impressions: We busted ass to please every possible group of trail users. There were two full-time workers under the rec department, and two or more fulltime 'volunteers,' myself included. Along with a variety of groups not directly affliated with the FS, we handled all the trail-related work that came through our office. Every time some user group complained about the condition of the trail, we were right on it. The backcountry horsemen seemed to bitch more than anyone else. We would always go out there and try to improve the condition of the trail, however in some cases the erosion that happens is unavoidable, and a few years down the line someone else will be there doing the same thing over again. Alot of solutions are temporary. That's to say that we were just working to shut up the user groups, even if it's just for a moment. We always had one hand busy trying to jerk off the public. Some trails aren't meant for the type of use they see. The FS is stuck in an identity crisis. There didn't seem to be a big goal we were all collectively working for. Maintaining the forest yes, but for what? Recreation? Agriculture? A little of each, yes, but where do we stand in the sprectrum of things? Nobody has a big picture of what they want the forest to look like in 10, 20, 50 years. Maybe some man at the top of the chain of things has some idea what he wants, but if that's the case it doesn't seem to trickel down through the ranks to those who actually take the action. There is also very little communications between different offices. Everyone was working towards there own little aspect. Working in recreation, I dealt very little with the ecological side of things, but I was suprised to find out that very little focused is placed on things like removal of exotic weeds. Why? I can only guess to say it's because not very many people understand there impact, and even fewer complain, especially compared to the number of complaints they get when a road is damaged or a trail needs maintanence. In the end you really feel like you're working for a big inefficient beurocracy. One hand is jerking off the public, the other's jerking off your boss, and noone really knows what's going on. I don't have all the answers, actually very few, but I know that someone needs to come along with some bright new plan for the FS.

When I was doing my long endurance training stuff, I found that the powerade they sold at the gym left my stomach too upset from the sweetness, but water lacked electrolytes and I cramped pretty bad. So I got online, looked around, and bought samples of some different brands of sports drink powders. Here are some thoughts: Cytomax : I tried the apple berry and the citrus. These both tasted great and very sweet, but unlike the the generic sports drinks they didn't overuse the high fructose corn syrup like the generics do for their sweetness. It didn't upset my stomach like generics, and didn't give my throat that sticky feeling that drinking very sweet drinks do, but the flavor was a lot too sweet, and that made it hard to make myself drink it in big increments when I was really pushing it. GU2O: I was pretty impressed with this. Not as sweet as the cytomax but still had a very fresh pleasent taste. I'm gonna buy some more the next time I'm up for ordering. Gookinaid: This was the one that I was completely sold on. It tastes like salt water with a hint of lime. This very mild flavor makes it easy to drink when you're really pushing it. According to their web site, it's absorbed more quickly than water. I don't know about this, but I can drink much more of it without my stomach getting upset or cramping. When I'm really getting on it and downing lots of water I would cramp up pretty quickly and my stomach would feel heavy with the liquid. Not with this. It get my two thumbs up. And if it's all just the placebo effect, well damnit as cheap as gookinaid is, it's worth getting the effect if it's real or really in my head.

Hey all Anyone have any info about climbing in the Olympics? I'm moving to Washington from Illinois (big change) in a couple of weeks to take up a job for the FS on the penninsula. What are some recommended climbs? Any good guidebooks? As the season gets later do some of the glaciated climbs open up to make some alpine ice climbs like in other parts of the range? Also is there anywhere in the area with big/open icefalls, for say serac ice climbing? Transportation for awhile will be pretty limited, so the penninsula will be the only place I'll be climbing for awhile. Thanks, Jake