ken4ord

Oh damn what kind of friend are you introducing her to this motley crew? Poor girl.

Nice man! Like someone else asked, how is mama and mutant baby? Well I guess you just answered. Congrats on the news, I guess our plan to create alpine/bouldering mutant grandchildren won't work. Oh well.

Oh come on dude, don't let the fuckin' nilist get the better of you.

Hey Muffy, good luck. I struggle with smokes too. I have quit too many times and know how hard it can be.

Very considerate of you to not leave any HACE or HAPE victims in your wake. Again I am jealous that there is no snow around here and that I don't have the mad skillz.

I wouldn't dis-credit your trip by refering to the mountaineers, hell they would have never taken on Das Toof with a single rope. Sounds like a great alpine intro. Like OW I was trying to figure out the pink halo effect, funny.

No. I have few peak experiences, but a true mile high club entry (no pun intended), I have not.

I would agree what has been said about the 1 inch unwriten rule, but the route will take any size. Getting on the route can be the most difficult part. When I did it, was late in the season and the most difficult rock moves of the day were the first 20 feet and required thin gear. Depending on your comfort level on that type of terrain and difficulty, should really be the determing factor on how much you bring. Cordelette are handy for sling big blocks along the way on the ridge. Enjoy that is one beautiful route.

I am glad not every bolting ethics case get's it own thread, otherwise......who knows. Really though any time a route is altered from it original state is an individual case. Each route is different even if it was put up in the same time, by the same people, in the same way, in the same area. I agree with what AlpineK it is stupid to think that you could choose not to clip the bolts in order to keep the same feel of the original route. That is not going to happen, you will always know in the back of your mind that if all else fails there is a bolt you can clip. I also liked what hanman said. If you really do want to improve the route cleaning the original line might be the best place to start. It was said by a couple of you the importance of contacting the original FA team before making any changing (rebolting, retrobolting or variation). To me this not like going to the teacher asking if you can go to the bathroom, but it is more less respect for the FA. They established a cool looking line or at least you are thinking so as well, otherwise you probably leave well enough alone, so why not give them the opportunity to give their 2 cents worth. Some of them might be egotistical assholes and say if you can't put your big boy pants on and do it in the same style then you shouldn't be on it. If that is the case there is plenty of other rock out there, so just wait for the old regime to kill over. I think most people will be pretty reasonable as long as you are reasonable how you want to alter the route they established and it is in line with the local ethics. So archenemy, here is my interpetations of what the differences are: Rebolting, is replacing the bolts in number and in the same places as the first ascentionist originally did. Changing the bolt type such as 1/4 to 3/8 is ok, though it does alter the mental feel of a route. On the east coast there was a lot of routes I remember doing that were 1/4 inch button head spinners that use to scare me, when they got rebolted with shiney 3/8 bolts it seemed to make them so much easier. Retrobolting, is placing bolts where you see fit on an established route. This may include placing the same number of bolts, but changing the location of the bolts or adding more bolts. Changing the location of bolts on a ground up route, and placing bolts in locations that was too difficult of location to place the bolt from can alter the route significantly, or as AK says, it dumbs it down. Variation is doing a line seperate from the original route. A variation can be a complete pitch on multipitch climb or a section. Again establishing a variation can alter a complete climb significantly. I think in this case where the variation is with fixed gear it is important that it does not change the aspect of the original route. So adding a variation bolt line, I would want to make sure you can't clip the first variation bolt unless you were commiting to the variation. A variation where there is extra gear that was not available in the original line, is a retrobolted route. In my mind an exception I think with doing a variation and contacting the first ascenionist, would be if you were uping the anty. If you doing harder or less protected variation, then to me it might not be so important to track down the first ascentionist, but it never is a bad thing to contact them or at least try.

Nope you have not entered the club. I agree in the mountains is probably way better. Yeah not the greastest place to get busy, but that is not the point of the mile high club. It is not a peak bagging club where you can take the easiest route of attaining your goal. Instead you have to rise to the challenge, in more ways than one. You need to accept the risk that you may come out a member, but with the rest of the cabin and crew knowing that you just became a member. Definitely not as easy as shagging on top of the Tooth, anyone can do that, I don't think that many people have been successful at joining the mile high club, I am guessing just an elite few.

Not bored at all. Friday night Queens Day Party hosted by the UK ambassador, later that night sushi and spliffs until early in the morning, Saturday a Rwandan wedding in where 4 couples got married at the same time, then later that day off to Akagera game park to camp out and grill sausages over the fire with more spliffs and lots of bottles of wine, Sunday game drives viewing waterbuck, gazzelles, girrafe baboons followed with a picnic in the bush, later that night dinner with a friend who is now living in Bukavu, DRC. Pretty good weekend if I may say so myself. I can't say that I am bored, I can definitely say I am tired. On top of this busy weekend still getting up early riding my bike, working and bouldering on the wall at night. And Dave TR's of mine can be found in the international section. Been sort of slacking lately, with reports, mainly because I have been going back to the same area Little Switzerland and not going to new places. It will be a couple of weeks before I can get out again, we will be busy with traveling with family and going up to Uganda to do some safari's. Whew, I need a vacation, I'm tired.

You really are a lover.

I suggest the Belvedire, they have some Belgium beers instead of the usual Mutzig or Primus.

Looked like perfect conditions, damn I miss playing on snow!!!!!

I am super stoked to get out there this summer. I really miss everything about that area. When I first moved to Seattle about month after being there, I thought, 'this is it, this is where I want to spend the rest of my life'. Ha, funny how year and half down the road I am selling all my shit and moving to a country that I had to look up on a map. When we are back though we are going to look at buying something in the area, so that we can always go back. One great thing about that area is, it will always be there.

Core shots usually have a good story behind it. Put it up boys.

Yeah AK and tansnaffle, you both are the slackers I am talking about. Sounds like good trip drinking, smelly pants (ts sort of curious what you were doing smelling AK's pants I guess that is another TR in itself), stories about mom, and some climbing thrown into the mix. Sounds like times I miss from the PNW.

Oh I don't know, that step across really scares the shit out of me. Maybe after lots of training and siking myself up for it I would give it a go? That is a big maybe.

Ah, but kill shots are too much damn fun. Especially if they got in the way of the ball. As for drinking, I have never been good at monitoring my intake. I just make sure that I drink plenty of water before I go to bed. It doesn't always work though like the time my buddy came and picked me up a 6am to go ice climbing and the first thing out of his mouth was, "How much tequilla did you drink last night?" I guess I didn't drink enough water since he could smell my beverage of choice for the night before.

Yeah I know I know, I am just impatient. I know people are getting out on shit. They just don't seem to be putting up the purty pictures for us oogle over. Blake I do appreciate all the pictures you have put up, awesome . I can't wait to get to Mordor sometime.

"Necessary? Is it necessary for me to drink my own urine?" "Probably not." "No, but I do it anyway because it's sterile and I like the taste."

So what's the deal? Yeah reports are going up but lately it seems more sort of hikes than climbing. Where is all the climbing TR's? Not the "I went cragging on well established single pitch routes" or "It was a beautiful hike" reports, but I want the "Jeezus I thought we were gonna die" or the "that was the hardest shite I have gotten on" type reports. Come on where is the stoke?

Nice thing about all my project here in Rwanda there is no competition. Everybody here that I climb with is more than ready to hand me the pointy end of the rope.

I think this is the one that archenemy was talking about. If it is I agree this one is bad. I remember seeing this album when it first came out and I could figure out if they were girls or guys, I am still not sure. I really like all the pink mixed in with black, goes well with his complextion. It works for Dee just like it does for Alpinfox. Uber ghey, The name of the band is Accept, album name Balls to the Wall, do I need to say more. I am not sure what the deal was with glam(?) rock faze but damn it produced some stupid covers. I am so glad I missed out on this Christmas. Oh here is one from the media favorite freak, Jacko looking freakier as ever on this cover. Ah the 80's were such a ghey ole time. And who could forget Captain and Tennile, what a lovely couple. Also who can forget Barry Manilow, I wish I could. Ok this is the last one because I am starting to feel ill and disgusted that the general public would actually allow bad music like all of this be circulated.

It definitely fits you, you sensitivenewagemetrosexualpccaringfreak!!! Sorry about the 'freak' part, I got a little carried away, I take it back, since I do not want to hurt your feeling with my masculine slander.