needtoclimb

Hey Matt, After reading your response, I did read too much into your initial post. It is a funny story, and I was feeling arguementative. So I apoligize for jumping on you.

I'm not here to jump on anyone, I just want people to understand that life goes on around them, and their actions affect other people whether they are aware of it or not. Plus, I have an hour to kill before heading to work, just spent all day climbing at Index (just led my first Index 5.10a!) and I'm bored.

Your right, not everyone is a criminal. Most are normal people like you and I. But keep this in mind. The guy who just shot the WSP trooper five times was also not a criminal. According to the news, had never been arrested before. Who knows what he was thinking, but for some reason he decided to go from average joe with no criminal history to a cop killer in one night. Here is the link to the news story Trooper shooting

So Chuck, you are driving down the street and don't know there is a cop behind you (not using your rearview mirror) and almost hit a pedestrian because you didn't see him until the very last minute. What the heck were you concentrating on? It certainly wasn't driving. But somehow all this is the cops fault. But wait, I hear it coming. You were distracted by the cop cars, thus you weren't paying attention to what was in front of you. You illustrate my above point perfectly, that a guy doing something suspicious on the Aurua bridge at noon is a distraction, which could lead to an accident. Then everybody screams "Why was this allowed! Why didn't the cops do something!"

Cops are dangerous? You are the one rappelling off a public structure with a rope so worn that you don't even trust. Now picture this. The rope breaks (or the people rappelling or idiots who saw it once on TV and have no idea what to do) and you go crashing down onto the street below. Fire crews show up to treat you, police come out to block traffic and investigate if this was a crime or accident. You get sent to the hospital (do you have insurance to cover your injuries, or do the taxpayers pay for it?) The street is blocked off for 30 minutes while this all happens, and ties up numerous resources that could be doing something else. Please use some common sense, and do not try to blame someone else when they have to force common sense onto you.

Just to make sure I have this right, you were up against the guard rail of the Auroa bridge during noon, so there was a lot of traffic. You weren't just enojoying the view or taking pictures, but instead dangling something over the edge and tying something to the guard rails. The police show up to see what you are doing (and probably have never climbed or even seen a climbing rope in real life.) You tell them "Untwisting my rope" and expect them to understand and leave you alone. Instead, not knowing if you are doing something criminal or are about to jump, want you to walk over to their patrol cars so they can go see what you were doing. Now the police are by their cars watching you stand near the railing and fiddle with something, while you argue that you don't want to go over to them. The police, whom being lied to is a daily routine and often deal with mental people and suicidal people, insist that you come over to them. Once you do and explain the situation, and they see that you were not committing a criminal act or trying to jump, let you go. But first they want to drive you off the bridge so they don't get more 911 calls about this, or have traffic back up watching you, or have an accident because someone is watching you and not the road. Seems to me that everything worked out just fine, and the cops did what they were supposed to do. You did not get beat up, arrested or thrown of the bridge. So what is your complaint again?

Still looking for a partner for Saturday. No one wants to get on the rock this weekend?

check your pm's

That's a fun little climb. I sent you a pm about aiding.

Looking for a partner this saturday. I'm open for just about anything: Town Crier at Index, Darrington, Leavenworth (would like to do Orbit or Outerspace.) Give me a shout.

I can't believe no one wants to go climb! Come on, someone wants to get on the rock. Anybody? I'll check this again in a couple of hours, and if no takers, guess I'll be doing yardwork tommorrow.

Anyone up for hitting Mt. Erie tommorrow? Give me a shout.

I'm up for climbing wherever it's not raining.

Anyone up for heading out to vantage Sat and Sunday? Give me a shout.

Since it is supposed to rain over here, anyone up to heading over to Vantage on Monday? Give me a shout.

pm sent

Where is this, and how do i get to it?

Come on now. No one wants to go climbing this week?

I have thur-friday off this week, and looking for a partner for trad, sport, aid, whatever. Can head to Vanatge, Index or wherever the weather takes us.

sent pm

Looking do get out and climb something Monday and/or Tuesday. Aid, Trad, Sport, I don't care, just need to get back on the rock.

Okay, after seeing Blake's pictures and report that there is no snow on the rocks, I'm ready to get out and do some climbing. Anyone care to join me on Monday and Tuesday (Jan 23rd and 24th)?

Great shots! Thanks, I've been looking for a first hand report of the conditions over there.

Not any different than most winters here. Where the fuck did you crawl out of? You having a bad day and feel like taking it out through a computer. Relax man. When was the last time we had eight feet of snow at Snoqualmie? When was the last time it rained 27 days straight? A couple years ago I cilmbed every other weekend in Vantage during the winter, and only saw snow on the ground once. This year, looking at the DOT cams (and they might be wrong) there has been snow on the ground over there for a week. If I am wrong about the current conditions, please correct me with facts and data, not epithets and curses.

After looking at the DOT cams and seeing snow on the ground, I'm not much up for climbing wet rock out there. I'll wait a couple of weeks until at least the snow melts. Jeesh, what a winter.