cracked

Yes, HS is boring. Very boring. But a lot of time for climbing. I'm talking about COLLEGE, here.

Often when I'm climbing I get locked into tunnel vision. Examples: on alpine stuff, I'm swinging my tools. When the ice turns to snow, and daggering would be more efficient, I often fail to realize that a different technique would be better. On rock, when climbing a crack, I often don't look around for face holds especially ones that are pretty far away, instead just jamming the crack like I have been for 20 feet. How do you get out of a mindset? Maybe I just need to consciously think about what I'm doing...

Seems like most people hate their jobs. I'm glad I have so much to look forward to.

Not true for me.

I seem to get the impression that many peoples' jobs give weekends off....not the case with school.

I'm sick of it.

My biggest whipper was off of Chain Reaction at Smith. I missed the pocket around the arete below the roof, dynoed for the jug at the lip, missed it, and flew out. I smacked into the wall near the first bolt, and sprained my ankle. Pretty unimpressive compared to all the ones listed here.

I read a lot of TRs of people skiing routes like the Emmons on Rainier, Coleman-Deming on Baker, or Sitkum Glacier on Glacier Peak. Is this justifiable? When I did the Sitkum it was late season (August?) and there were many crevasses. The moat next to the cleaver was scary. My partner's leg punched through a snowbridge on the upper glacier. Other than probing, it would have been impossible to detect. On the Easton of Baker there were also plenty of crevasses. Personally, I would be reluctant to go up any of the big volcanoes without a rope. What do you think?

Pour water from the Dromedary into a Nalgene, add powdered Gatorate or the like. Good taste. Nalgenes are kinda heavy, though. Platypus' suck because: a. the hoses leak. My pack got drenched because of one of these things. b. the opening is too small unless you have a spigot. c. less durable.

I bought one at FF, but I can't find any info on whether they'll handle boiling water. Twight says they do, but what do the gear-heads out there say? BTW, these are great bladders. They last forever (my dad has some that are 12yrs old and going strong!), and have a nice large opening.

Fuck, 20 is OLD. I'm in the prime of life right now.

What I'm wondering is how did Colin get so damn good? Once he starts college he'll have to spend more time studying. And let some of us catch up.

Several times I have read that sleeping in a bivy bag in hard rain will make you wet. I wouldn't know, so I believe all who say this. But couldn't you use a tiny (say, 5 by 5 feet) pitched over the upper half of a bivy bag to protect the hood and zipper, thus reducing wetness? Just curious...

I flailed my way down Great Scott bowl yesterday. It was fun.

I've got em. The soles wear fast. They are soft, good hikers, good (easy) rock climber. They don't grip on snow much. They are too soft for good step-kicking in really hard snow. They are cold. I did some ice climbing in them this season (with G-12s, newmatic) and they are really way too soft for ice. Even on hard snow I was desperately wishing for stiffer boots. And the worst part: they are very flimsy, the many flaps of leather around the ankle are very weak, and I even ripped one of the instep eyelets out, making for even more insecure front-pointing. I'm not sure what they are good for, maybe easy snow, easy rock, many miles? They are NOT ice boots, no matter what Sportiva says. For hiking I'd get light hikers, and use them for alpine rock, too. For ice you want rigid. These might be a decent moderate snow, moderate rock, moderate hike type boot, but I'm not too happy with them. The falling apart really pisses me off.

You mean Integral Designs? I'll probably get some 3-layer Goretex, but the sleeves off of my Sierra Designs Peak Bagger, and replace them. I'll try to post pics if I do, should look pretty horrendous. I'm never happy...

I saw in Smoot's book that there are some hard juggy routes at the "cave". Anybody done them? What are they like?

I thought about cutting the cuffs off and sewing on some of my own, but that won't give me enough girth for my forearms. I'm thinking of cutting the entire sleeves off and replacing them with longers Gore-Tex ones, though the materials costs an arm and kidney. Oh well.

Well, the poor old chap's gone now. Good riddance to bad rubbish.

i already said "no beer for you" Hey, weren't you the guy that "discreetly" poured us a glass? -The other little minor that couldn't.

I hear you. I wanted to go to the gym to

no. only 8. but i gotta lotta try if you wanna ride. I have known 8 year olds with more maturity than lummox. He's an adult who's off his meds, I'll wager. Phew! So I'm more mature than at least ONE person on this board!