gnibmilc

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hey what's up with guys running the tail back through a nice figure eight anyhow? i've seen that knot come untied over the course of a long day, but, wonder why the fascination with the practice of running the tail back through the knot...does this come from the Seattle Mountaineers or the REI climbing pinnacle certification course or something?

unfourtunately in my world i don't have to use photoshop.

with a moniker like yours, it shouldn't be difficult for you to guess what this guy's intentions were.

while not officially sanctioned by headquarters, skinning a snafflehound with your bare hands is the latest in the new wave of intermediate course graduation requirments.

so i am not allowed to post what i feel or think? that is dumb. this seems to be personal error on one or the others part. thats too bad. we can always work harder to protect ourselves and others. i do not pity the dead. Erik, You need to take the Mountaineers Basic Mountaineering Course.

didn't see that. need a hair cut.

this thread reminded me...i need to rejoin and help out next year with the Tacoma mountaineering courses and see if i can get a few more through to graduation!

i just picked up a near mint vinyl copy of SRV's Texas Flood on my way back to work from the dentist for 2.98$US! the tube amplifier driven sound of that might be good, i'm not sure. TUBES!

i looked into tickets to Chile and have ended up seriously thinking about driving. any ideas on how to get that road trip laid out? obviously it's an extra month each way...

that is a fun story...that after el cap camping trip feeling... this ONE is 1125x1687, 96 pixels/inch, and as a .jpg is 226kb I think i can see your line!

stretches of climbing everyday for a week or more at a time.

the shoe US Size 11. Near Mint, new smell and look, $50

You can read all about the history of how exactly hydrogenated oils got into the american food supply in "Fatland" Depressing. Did you mean "Fatlands: A Hannah Wolfe Mystery," by Sarah Dunant?

John, is this another oddity in Beckey's seeming legacy of renaming peaks or was Himmelgeister Horn shortened before the publishing of the CAG? I seem to remember that the Chopping Block (Pinnacle Peak) was another peak that originally had a different name, but through the CAG was renamed? Am I making this up or was there a story to this peaks name(s) also? BTW - To those reading this incredible thread, I don't mean to bring up or dwell on the topic of Beckey changing names. I've never met him, yet believe he has left the cascades an incredible legacy of exploration and documentation that we all will forever be indebted to. My reason for dwelling on his tendancy to rename peaks is that it seems like the original names have great importance in the history and legacy of the original exploration and ascents. Beckey's legacy may be more important as a whole, but these significant details (the original names) may be lost if they are not preserved and are important to the documentation of the original exploration and climbs of the North Cascades. In a similar vein, I am fascinated by the transition of published route difficulty from Class 6 to Class 5 in the series of CAGs as a function of time. I'll bet I'm not the only guy that has run into an old aid bolts or pins that don't seem to have been considered when the change from the Tahquitz system (Class 1 to 6)to the Class 5 decimal system occured. It is really interesting to me to speculate as to how Mr. Beckey made the transition...to Class 5. Has that ever been discussed (besides the technical transition in the 70s CAGs)? How the heck did he figure out what the new free grades should be for all those now seemingly moderate climbs that were once listed as Class 6? Did competition for 5.x first ascents get involved in the text? I wonder if and/or what Harry might know or think about that.

no food with hydrogenated oils = no super fat people read the labels

I had one bout of fear this last February on a warm afternoon while descending Gibralter Wall near Golden, BC, on what was supposed to be a casual warm up climb for a week of Canadian waterfall ice climbing. We were a party of three. I was rappelling from the top of the third pitch with double ropes, no knots in the ends of the ropes or prussik or auto-block knot backup. We’d just had a bad argument about the location of the belay. About twenty feet down, just out of site of my partners, I heard and felt a throaty CRACK! and looked up to see a huge part of the former ice pitch above break loose above the belay. It hit above me on the ledge where I imagined my partners to be standing, both of them dads whom I instantly assumed just got killed. I heard a primal whimper from one of them. Then I saw the debris come my way on the bounce…then felt it hit me and the rope buzzed through my gloved hand and ATC from the overload. I felt repeated medium but moderate hits and ricochets and saw some stars and then it stopped and I felt like my head was really heavy and was hanging to one side and I was unable to hold it up right without effort…then I notice I had a huge dunce cap of compress ice and snow stuck on top of my helmet. The stuff had hit just behind my partners. They’d gotten knocked off their feet and to end of their tethers…one got a bruised shoulder the other got a badly sprained ankle. Anyone want to buy some Cobras and BD ice screws?

Matt, that one bothered me too...mostly because it was avoidable...bummer on the work related effort.

Tell me more. Saw a couple of nice slabs on the east side of the lake hiking into the enchantments. Wonder if there were any routes established. I've not visited those slabs. The stuff I climbed is on the other side of the lake. If you look above the boulder field (hikers right from icicle, west side) you'll see a prominent roof. the horizontal crack in a kind of sound room is the highlight. Mr. Beckey wrote about it in the book on the area and I think mentions the slabs that you photographed.

the Nada Crags are a pretty cool couple of pitches above...Nada Lake. Lighthouse Tower is a pain in the ass to not finish...Temple Peak...not too much climbing but qualifies as alpine and good for 5.4. the High Priest has a good name.

Either just clip your daisy/aider set-up directly into the bolt or if you want to be real fast put a fifi hook on your setup and just hook 'em! ...and just leave suitable "protection" as required...

yep. have you managed to get up to the top of Lighthouse? The last 20 feet is tough from any side...I circled it...could NOT free the old thin aid line (where the picture was taken) but ended up with an old piton in hand while trying. someone used sawed tree limbs at some point in time to protect or aid the wide crack above the huge platform on the eastish side. hemp rope still hanging in the off width. i talked to John Marts about it once...all he said was it took some aid.

Can you guess where this one was taken from?

Can't seem to post anymore pictures. I'll take a look tonight and see if I can find some of those pig pictures. Which reminds me of that bear at the base of el cap that was slobbering all over the Aussie's pig right as the haul line was drawing tight. I can't help but imagine the whole thing...with a few modifications of fact...like say we didn't stone and chase the bear away from the pig...either the bear shreads the pig and the Aussies haul up nothing but rope and the top end of the pig...or they haul up a HEAVY pig with an angry bear mounted on top...those were the crazy guys that did one big haul from the ground up to the third or fourth belay...same guys I saw antagonizing Kurt Smith down in Mexico by swimming in his bird bath/swimming pool. I think we should have let the bear have it just to see how things would have turned out.

I've got a picture of that lizard somewhere...btw...that guy that we met there at the base of Reed's, Rolo? Ran into him again...he was kicking back again...this time at the base of Daff Dome....except he's a little different since our rant about the Walt Shipley route on LCS. he went up there and got chased down the rappel route by a huge boulder (which topped the landmark tree on the descent). pretty funny story from a teller like that guy Rolo.