ken4ord

I thought that the Aminitas weren't ones to mess with? Am I wrong, anyone have any experience with them?

Well I probably don't need to, I am exposed enough to virus strains used in the flu vaccine forulation enough where I have probably already developed antibodies to the three strains that are predicted to be responsible for most flu cases this year. Just because you get a flu vaccine doesn't mean you can't get the flu. Flu vaccines are formulated with 2-4 (usually 3) of the most likely strains that will be most prevalent. There are several other strains that could be present in any population. Some people do have a reaction to the flu vaccine, from injection site soreness to flu like symtoms, hardly ever does someone contract one of the strains that they are vaccinated for. The vaccination can either be a subunit of the virus or can be "killed" virus. There are several techniques that are used to do this, Dru the use of mercury is one that I have not heard of, and if it was I am sure that the amount of mercury that one is exposed to is so minute it is pointless to even think about it. I'll to look into that, though. Most deaths from the flu are because of people who have a compromised immune system, or they either ignore the symtoms in hopes that they will get better soon. Most of the hype is created by the media, just to have something to scare people with. Americans who watch the news are entertained by threats.

Does any of you know about finding the right kind and want to take a newbie hunter and gather out? Please PM me, it is driving me crazy seeing all over the place and not knowing which ones are the fun ones.

Here is one for all you that like to go back forth about politics. Slap the hell out them fools.

Yo, I am in the same boat, just started running, been doing short loops like in Discovery and St. Eds, but want to start doing some longer runs. With this rain upon us, I am up for going for a run, when I can't climb or ride.

I'll sell the two axes for $125 I have some beat spare picks and extra hammer head to go with them. The picks on them right now are in all right condition. There the yellow ones with the original shitty leashes on them. PM me if any of you are interested.

So true. Then if it is raining there is Hell Hole and Bridge Wall, the Bridge Wall sucks though, staying dry is what it has going for it. Endless Wall is really nice, but Summerville it is my favorite.

If I had one I'd loan it to you. Definitely hit up the Summerville Lake area, that is by far one of my favorite places there. Have fun.

I got a set of straight shaft Pulsar, I'll get rid of. PM me if you are interested.

Yeah damn right, good news, good news!!!!!

Dude, it was lot more than that, actually, at one point in less than one month more than 500,000 were brutally slaughtered. Still the UN didn't think that was a genocide for some reason. Luckily thing are quite a bit more mellow and there isn't any fighting going on in Rwanda right now. The ROC is a different story.

Ok, ok, ok, ok.....for all you guys don't know your geography (actually I had to look it up too), it is in Eastern Africa right below the equator (about as you can get from the Poles). It small country about the size of Conn. It is near Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzinia which all have good climbing from what I understand. Also while I am out there I would like to get to South Africa and Morroco. BTW good one Dru, especially since my name is K K K k ken.

I am moving to Rwanda in January. I don't think it was in a tread of any sorts, I think most of the Seattle PC crew know just from me talking about it.

I couldn't cause couldn't get over my fear of heights. Took two years, but I did it. I had a hard time even getting my ass up a 6 when I first started. My first 8, on the N.shore out here took me probly 1 1/2hrs to claw up 80 some feet. I hated rock climbing after that. Vowed to never do it again. Didnt touch it for a little over a year. Ice was best anyway! My grades increased as I began climbing with people who I had fun with, helped me challenge myself, but never let me get in over my head. Btw, Ken, THAT ROCKS! You know its not the fear of heights, its the fear of falling. My 73yr old neighbor kept insisting he was afraid of heights until one day I saw him literally hanging out his 3rd story window to clean it. The only thing keeping him from hitting the ground were his arms holding onto the side of the house. "Didnt that scare you?", I asked. "No...because I felt safe that I wouldnt lose my grip or strength". So it WASNT about the heights. it was all about falling. As soon as you were ready to trust the gear, your partners, and yourself the fear went away. Wow, that felt deep! I every once and a while I look back and laugh cause I still can't believe that I would freeze ten feet up and now I sometime feel more comfortable on a cliff than I do on flat ground. It really did change though when I started believing that the gear works the way it suppose to.

Yeah good idea, thanks Dave. I know I am getting a camera soon and will continue posting TR's and photos too. There seems to be a lot of travel to other places too like South America, Europe, Thailand, that doesn't have home and ends up lost in no time in the Climber's Forum.

Hey it all about appearances, right? Also, I still don't believe you stayed dry in those rain pants, ha. Either way good day in da hillz. We still go to do the renactment photo shot sometime.

Wow that is the most useful piece of information I have seen on this website. Man you are so helpful you should charge for your services.

....Or, what happened to me when I was following a semi once....I was probably behind it for about 30 minutes, it was kicking up all kinds of snow, then my car died. I pulled over to see if I could get it started again. It wouldn't start so I decided to check under the hood, not that I would be able to much with out any tools or a manual. When I opened the hood and looked in I was shocked to see every little space inside the compartment was packed with snow. Live and learn, I guess. Hey does anyone have any suggestions for places to stay in Canmore with a kitchenette and reasonably priced? Thanks for any help.

Looks pretty dead to me, what there is a whopping 7 or 8 posts.

Hey Carolyn, It was good meeting you. Awesome TR, you hit the weather just right. Cheers Just so you know there is a dry tooling area over at X38, I haven't been there yet, probably soon since my winter will be short. There is also another one up in Snoqualmie Pass on the way to Das Toof.

A couple of years ago I had an ACL triage (acl, mcl, and 3 meniscul tear), that happened in September. I opted for surgery rather than having to wear a brace for activities. By the time Feb. rolled around I had been doing PT 3 days a week, hitting the gym 5 days a week. I came back stronger than when I went in under the knife. I did everything they told to do and not over do it. First day off the couch so to speak, (first day out) I lead several 4+ ice climbs, that is where I finished at the end of last season. Now-a-days I do everything I use to do without any problem. It took a lot of work, but it was well worth it. It sucked but it was worth it. The hardest part was the first couple months where my activities were down to smoking plenty of dope and lifting in the gym (used to get some funny looks crutching myself into the gym while I was on crutches). A big thanks to Orthopedic Associates and Health South for setting up right.

I couldn't cause couldn't get over my fear of heights. Took two years, but I did it.

I was up on Das Toof on Sunday and flakes (or I should say wanna be flakes) were a flying. w00t w00t!!!!

Damn dude, that sucks. At one point I thought of you when I was out on Sunday, because you mentioned that you were going to get out and try climbing too. Too bad you guys didn't get on anything and the ticket to boot. WTF they didn't drop the ticket after showing them the current pass? That shit pisses me off.

Climb: Das Toof- Date of Climb: 10/17/2004 Trip Report: Well on Saturday my friend (one time poster lylabob) and I talked about getting out and doing something if the weather looked ok, maybe even climb the Tooth. Hell there was, what, 100% chance of showers, could it really rain the whole time, no way. Well then, before I knew I sucked down a couple glasses of wine with my roommate and I was back on the phone saying we should go even if it was raining. How bad could it be? Well we got a urban alpine start leaving Seattle somewhere around 8am. As we were driving across the floating bridge it was pouring out and I was beginning to wonder what I was thinking the night before, obviously, I wasn't thinking the night before. As we reached the pass though, the weather had cleared, well not really, but it wasn't raining. I definitely felt a little more optimistic, even though we couldn't see any of the mountains through the soup that surrounded us. After a little discussion on which way to go, we decided to go up the cat track trail, which is the only way I have ever gone. It also happens to be the only time I have ever climbed the Tooth was when there was snow all the way down to the parking lot. The trail was quite soupy, but wasn't bad. Within no time, sooner than I thought it would take, we were headed up hill. It was slicker than shit, and for the most part we were hand over handing our way up the vegatation. All of sudden we were off the trail and the bushwhacking began. I was having fun with it, some reason I like bushwhacking. Lylabob on the other hand wasn't too keen on it, but she is a trooper and continued uphill. Eventually we made it through all the thick vegatation onto some talus, what a relief. Looking around though, the drainage look much narrower than I remembered it, but I figured it was because I'd always seen it filled in with snow. We still couldn't see any mountains to orient ourselves. Eventually though, we got to where the talus levels a bit and the clouds started to break up a bit, things were not right. Where was the Tooth, why did the basin looked so small, where was that cliff band on the left? Well we realized that we had cut up hill too soon, oops my bad, oh well luckily for us we were up in the talus and it was much easier traveling. We traversed the slope across a couple of smaller drainages on talus. As we were hiking across, the weather kept improving, I kept thinking this awesome, we hit it just right. With 20 minutes or so we were standing in the right basin below the Tooth. Few more minutes hiking and a slight detour to climb the Pineapple, we were at the base of the Tooth. It was little more breezy in the pass between the Tooth and the Pineapple, but not too bad, though it started to drizzle. I started up the first pitch and reached the belay in no time, I was sopping wet at the time from our hike in, and now it was starting to really rain, I just had to laugh. I belayed lylabob up and she looked cold, but again no complaint, just went to work at getting her gloves on. I took off and climbed the next pitch. The higher we went the worse the weather got. By the time I reached the end of the second pitch the wind was blowing the rain sideways. I was shivering because it was cutting right through me, but kept up appearances, joking around on how humid it felt, singing Mr. Rodger's neighborhood song, and other types of insane things in the face of adversity. We eventually reached the last pitch and the weather didn't let up. We did a quick summit tag and prepared to rappel. The rappels went smooth, but man I was getting cold. At this point it was sleeting and still coming at us horizontal. All I could think about was getting to my pack and putting on my only other layer that I had left in my pack. I got to my pack and picked it up and it felt heavy, real heavy. I turned it upside down and poured out about 2 gallons of water. It turned out I had put my pack in a corner and it filled with runoff. Oh well, hiking was soon to come and that would warm me up. On the hike out, we opted for the normal summer approach/descent trail. In no time we were back at the car with the heat cranked. Good day even though it wasn't a good day out. Gear Notes: 6 cam, set-o-nuts, 7 slings and 8.8 mm rope. Should have brought snorkle, drysuit, and face mask.