cluck

"The State Department delegation that came to meet with us did not include any females or people of color. Given the racial makeup of the people of Haiti, who are 95 percent of African descent, I felt the delegation and the delegation's position were callous and out of touch with the needs (cultural and otherwise) of the Haitian people," she wrote. JB, did you actually read the article or just automatically assume I was an idiot? Had you bothered to read the article, you would have also discovered that the delegation included a Cuban born American and was chaired by a Mexican American. You know, more callous "white men". I stand corrected, neither rep. Brown nor JB has a clue

Mt. Defiance Table Mountain Ruckle Ridge Defiance is about 5000 feet but Table and Ruckle Ridge are about 3000. All three in the Gorge.

[acceptance speech] Thank you! Oh! Thank you! Wow, I'm so excited! Lets see, I'd like to thank my partner for taking these pictures. I'd like to thank all the other photographers for their contributions. And to the academy for their nomination. Also, I wanna give a shout out to my boyz in B-town. I love you guys! Thank you, America. And goodnight! [/speech] Seriously though, it's pretty flattering gettin the silver medal and all. Thanks!

How were conditions on Leuthold's? Thought about it but thought avi was marginal. Forecast was for "considerable" and were concerned winds earlier in the week might have loaded it up with unstable stuff?

Wonder why she thought only people whose skin color is black could fully appreciate the situation in Haiti. Sure, I'm one of the non descript white guys, but just am not sure why anyone who lives in the US would have any kind of special knowledge or empathy into the plight of the average Haitian citizen. Just because you skin is a color is dark, you suddenly "get" what is going on in a country like Haiti????? Where, by the way, there is no ruling white majority oppressing any other racial minority. If anything, the guy who was from Cuba, regarless of his skin color, most likely had a better grasp on the situation than most african americans would. Poor lady doesn't have a clue.

On the easier end of the spectrum you might think about Unicorn Peak in the Tatoosh range. It's really short and in early summer it's a cool mixture of hiking, snow slogging, and short 4th/5th rock climbing on a cool pinnacle.

Slogged up slogs back on Hood with 2 other guys. One newbie with us got his 1st summit. Saw a couple of parties working different routes on Devil's Kitchen headwall... looked to be in fine shape. Not cold, no wind, view on top. Good workout and better than remodeling my bedroom. Talked to one Mazama who was completing his 70th Hood summit at age 62. Best was a group 6-8 from SFO bay area, climbing the mountain for a bach. party. Cool idea. Bad form though as they provided neither booze or strippers on the summit.

happy birthday to you happy birthday to you happy birthday dear Tim-may happy birthday to you

Damn that's funny!!!

Links work fine for me - Internet Explorer 6 SP1 Here are the URLs if you wanna paste into the address bar of your browser: Results: http://www.ef.uni-lj.si/spik/_intranet/vrv/vrv.asp?menu=1 Forum: http://www.ef.uni-lj.si/spik/_intranet/vrv/vrv.asp?menu=4&podstran=1

Climbing without beer???? Nice work guys... Certainly more exciting then my day at the office

The attachment method I use varies with the situation. When belaying at a crag I usually use the loop because it keeps things separated, away from the body, and I don't mind moving the biner to and from my gear loops all the time. It does put a half twist in the rope though which I find mildly annoying. When alpine or multipitch climbing, I tend to clip through both the leg loop and waist loop. This way I don't have to constantly be moving the biner to and from my gear loops (which already have tons of crap hanging from them) and I don't get thumped in the nards when I'm climbing. This way also keeps the biner in position to easily clip/unclip prussiks.

Wow, the two are amazingly similar...

Crikey! Yokum Ridge?

Rime ice and clouds on Mt. Hood combine for a pretty cool effect: Sunrise on the Fryingpan Glacier, Little Tahoma: Cluck the Climbing Chicken gets some snaffle love:

This is it here:

Yup. I've got the 2003 Sub Zero SL and the hood zips off. Its a nice coat - you'll like it.

My fiance had an interesting experience with frostbite/frostnip this weekend while we were hiking Ruckle Ridge in the Gorge. We spent 10 hours soaking wet and wading through knee deep slurpee snow. We stopped twice to attend to her cold feet and they showed early signs of frostbite (i.e. cold to the touch, waxy white appearance, don't change color when you squeeze them). When we got back down and warmed up, her feet looked pretty bad. There were black sploches in many places on the top of her foot, her toes were completely white, and there were a couple smaller black marks under some toenails. By Tuesday morning, the dark spots had spread and her toes were pink again but a bit swolen. No blisters or skin sluffing though. Our (and the doc's) consensus is that it was a mild case of frostbite. So my question is this: Is it really possible to get frostbite in temps above 32 degrees? Technically, frostbite is cellular damage caused by ice crystals forming in the flesh. How can ice crystals form in above-freezing conditions? Is there some other affliction that might cause that kind of damage?

This is exactly how Mult. Falls looked on the Saturday after the big freeze. The "straight parellel" lines from the top of the main falls to the next section of WI was indeed running water. Entire main flow could have been ice a few days earlier when it was colder, but I doubt the main falls could have been topped out. The stuff to the right of the falls looked much more climbable on 1/10, but as you can see in the pic, it didn't make the top either

give 'em up. We all need to see pics of that beauty.

OK W haters..... curious to see which other Presidential candidate wanker you are supporting. I have to tell you that the entire group is so unimpressive that it feels like time for a "none of the above" vote to communicate utter void of confidence in the Washington beuacrapsy. I've always been weary of the power hungry, ego maniacs that seem to be attracted to national politics, but these days the job title "politician" = sewer rat to me. Clinton = suck. W = suck. Honest politician = Oxymoron

Life-Link makes some sweet carbon fiber adjustable poles that can screw together to make a probe. They're spendy, but it's nice to always have a probe with you and none of the extra weight/space.

Was told about someone doing a "club" climb on Kautz route on Rainier that was cancelled at the trailhead because the leader had blown out a load-lifter strap on his pack and wouldn't commit to the climb with his broken pack. Now that is lame. Reason #599 why climbing with .... insert your mountaineering club name here.... is so suck

Excellent.... my SUV is causing the Greenhouse Affect and destroying the magnetic field! Finally, my diabolical scheme has come to fruition!!

South Side of Hood is easy and pretty nice in the winter if you can get a weather window. Great ski descent from the Hogsback on down. Broken Top has some nice couloirs but might be a bit harder. On the super-easy end, there are some Gorge hikes (Table Mtn, Mt. Defiance) that can be a good winter conditioning slog. No skiing, though.