ken4ord

Holy shite, that is a sweet looking line, is the line on Siguniang always there or was it a freak thing?

Hey Jojo, For pure water ice routes, when I left the East Coast there was a lot of new activity going on up over in Newfoundland. Some big lines were getting pulled down. One monster line that come to mind was one in the Himalayas that Kitty Calhoon? and ???(can't remember who) climbed. Henery Barber did some long ice lines in Norway where they were spending multi-days on the routes, short days though.

Yeah right or that note showed that they were possibly thinking that they might get in over their head. I hope they are alright.

Bullshite it's my thread! Where were all you wankers, PC was down at the Novatel on Nirini Hill where there was three cover bands, warm , you had to buy a reciept to pay for your from the bar-tender (at least they are cheap 50 cents a pint), and absolutely no talk of climbing. When are you all going to show up to my PC night.

It's Marilyn toast with sideburns.

Alpinsuck, what the suck are sucking about. Why don't you suck the suck up, you suckin' suck suck. ______________Take your suckin' sock monkey's with ya and suck off!________________

Yeah, it still sux though.

Hey BM, For sport climbing just down the road in Oregon you got the birth place of sport climbing in the US, Smith Rocks. As for sport in Washington, in my opinion there is a bunch of bolted choss heaps all over the place and few isolated area with decent sport lines. The trad and alpine rock in Washington, damn I miss it.

Foam is sort of a pain in the ass to climb, picks really stick to it. It fun though every once and a while. Climbing in the gym though is more like dry tooling when they do patches of foam with hooking elements. Pure foam is not at all like real water ice climing.

That sucks!!! I was excited that they were closing the road a Dingford which was going to make the Springs more inaccessible, at least for the general population, now they are putting in a bridge. It takes the adventure out of going up to that place. I have several fond memories of going up there on a winters day by myself in shorts and tevas, fording the freezing cold river with water up to my waist, scared shitless that if I fell in that I would probably get pinned under some blow down that would inevetiably be down stream. Then relief would settle in once I had fired up my first and I was soaking in the hot water up there. Days like that I would have the place all to myself. That bums me that they are going to ruin that.

This sounds so typically PNW, let's sit in front of our computers and debate the PNW climbing issues with anonymous people who may have no climbing experince (except for climbing in a gym)......oh yeah and then ocassionally through in a little (or lot) of spray here and there to convolute the issues so that nothing is ever done and the issues are forgotten....

Well it not all fun and games, wish I got to go mountain biking every day, but alas gotta pay the bills, even all the way over here. The short of the long story, my gf moved out here and I came out, within two weeks I was working, I was actually thought it would take longer to find work and was looking forward to the time off. Oh well, still having a good time.

I'll let you all know how it goes with alluminum crampons on Mt. Kenya. It is the only type I brought and I hope to do one of the ice routes up on the mountain if they are in. My concern on Denali, would be the cold temps, aluminum is much more brittle than steel in colder temperature found on the mountain. As for climbing and purchase on icy slopes, as long as the points are sharp and they are fitted on the boot properly they are fine for climbing even techincal ice. Granted steel in my opinion is better, but if you wanted to shave some oz. it is a good option.

I always wanted to do that loop, just never got around to it. A bike ride back to the car all downhill is definitely the way to go so that it is a complete loop.

I had always wondered about that place, seemed like it would a scenic place to climb, to make up for the rock quality.

That is quite an approach to the climbing still.

It wasn't on a summit but I managed to talk my gf into going at in the middle of an rambly 5 pitch ice climb. I figured out the full crotch zips found on gortex pants are for relieving yourself in more ways than I had originally thought.

No lions Dru, just a shit load of people everywhere. I did get to see my first monkey out in the wild, that is the wild street of Kigali. Getting ready for a 100k ride, just a few people came out to see what was going on. This what we see normally out on the trails around here. We basically go mountain biking in neighborhoods. Rwanda is just one giant village there are people and houses everywhere, even where you least expect. In this picture you do not see all of the rice fields on both sides of the bridge with 20-30 people on each side working away. One of the quietest places and least populated areas that I have been to in the country is the tea plantations on the western side of the country.

Yeah I am working fulltime sometimes over time. It hard switching to working 5 days a weeks, it is the first time in over 8 years that I have had to work a five day work week, it sux. This weekend I had two great mountain bike rides. The first one was a 65k solo freeride. Solo cause I can't find anyone around here will ride the same shite I do. It was killer, this one local villager was totally freaking out when I came shooting down the hillside, he yelling to everyone in the valley, jumping around, and grabbing his head in disbelief, it was a funny scene. Sunday while everyone was at the Nigeria-Rwanda footbol match I was out on another recovery ride, no big hills just 30k of pedaling around at a moderate pace. Dave you would flip on the abundance of trails everywhere. There is a pretty good size group of us ex-pats that ride here, just nobody but me has a lighting system, so my night rides are solo.

Too much work to figure it all out. I just tell people I'm 100% mutt... GINA, your son is GINA.

I don't hate America, I just hate the dipshit who has been "leading" our country.

OUCH!

Doesn't sounds like it is as cheap as it is here Rwanda, usually a Coke or Fanta at one of the night clubs will buy you it for the night.............. Hmm, wait that is lovin' not love.

Wow, I can't believe that is the first time I have seen a picture of one of the "I love ewe" blow dolls. A friend of mine got one at his Bachelor party.

Damn what is up with this? This not the first time I have heard some chica talk about splitting from their bf (more than one meaning for bf, boy friend, but in this case I think butt fuck is more applicable, anyways sort of off the subjet) and having some or all of their gear kept by the bf. So what gives, why aren't you just going and getting your gear back? To me seems like it would be much easier go to his door when you know he is going to be there with your gear, knock on it and say, "Hey ass wipe, give me my gear back, no excuses, I want it back now!". Of course it helps to go with back-up and it help to stand firm and except no excuses. If you start hearing shit like, "uh, I don't have it here" or "I loaned it to so and so" ask to see his pack or where ever he keeps his gear or in this case your gear. If you were going out with him and climbed with him you know where he keeps the gear, it is not like he is going to start storing it in a different place. Do you realize if you let this happen to you this time, you'll probably let it happen another time, and he will probably try to do this shit to his next gf. And for you doods that do this shit, you wonder why women don't stay into climing or there aren't enough women who climb. Talk about climbing bum, man you are probably the same guys that steal people gear at the crags, lame. Wags, if you take the easy way out and just replace the gear for a smith sporto rack: *60m 9.# mm rope *rope bag is handy not necessary *Metolius qd sets are cheap and decent (15 draws you'll always have enough then) *Gri-gri *Two Lockers though normally just use one for belay device and never use the other unless on a multipitch route gear routes add: *Set of nuts, I like WC rocks *Set of cams 00 to fists, big ums if you like the wide grovel cracks (again there are a lot of multi cam pack, depends on what you like, I like camelots for larger size, WC for small sizes, and Metolius for tiny cams because that is what I climb with. If I was replacing I would stick with Camelots for larger sizes, though I am not sure what I would buy for smaller sizes maybe Metolius. Get what you like and comfortable with don't shop based on price, they'll last you a long time and if you break down the cost on use you are talking pennies in price difference.) *2 cordelettes or the cordelette sling things they make now-a-days. (I prefer cords they are so easy to use to set up a equalized multi-point anchor, cords can be cut down when need to bail, and they are cheap, on alpine climbs they offer a big loop to wrap around rocks for an anchor) *Reverso (such a slick device, my favorite belay device I have owned) *Small Tri-cams to pink to brown (these I hardly ever take with me only when I know the route has a pocket placement, so for the most part they take up space in the gear bag) *Buy hexs if you feel 5.9-11 is just not hard enough. (Blake, WC hex = shit = BD hex = shit = Metolius hex, basically a hex is a hex is a hex they all suck)