marylou

I had a two-ear a day habit last week for several days before the corn all went away. Melted, I'm guessing.

I happen to be reading a book called Backyard Wilderness: The Alpine Lakes Story. It documents the formation of the ALW as a Wilderness from the late 60s through the mid 70s. The ALPS was probably the single biggest driving force in getting the Wilderness to be what it is today. It's compromised in size from what they wanted, but their proposal was the biggest and most ambitious, and they ultimately got everyone (except the FS and the timber industry) behind their proposal. They fought aggressively for years to establish the boundaries, stop logging within the proposed Wilderness, to educate the public about the benefits of this large wilderness at the very height of the FS logging boom, to bring together public officials in the face of this, and a lot more stuff. The reason I bring this up is that the ALPS has a long and fairly successful history of preserving and protecting the places that you speak of, esp. in the MfK and the Icicle. Their opinions are highly respected with regard to the area in question, and in order to get anything done to allow development of this kind to be tolerated, it's my opinion that it's going to take their blessings. Like it or not, the ALPS is about preserving the ALW for future generations, even if that means not "using" it fully. Forgive me if this seems too off-topic, but I think knowing a bit about the ALPS is helpful in understanding how such a trail and climb might stick in the craw of the interested parties. Edit: There is a whole 'nother piece of the equation here that deserves some research. I have this hazy understanding of the creation of a new trail possibly requiring the decommissioning of another trail. I wish I knew more about this process, but it's something that you folks who are attending the meetings might want to look into. New trails are problematic on many levels. That's going to be more of a FS issue than an ALPS issue. I wish I could be more specific, but I don't fully understand the trail inventory issue myself.

That spring corn they had at the Greenwood Market sure was good. I hope they get more of it soon.

I'd laugh, but it's actually true!

Good, looking forward to getting my piece o' House Wrap in the mail. Apparently there is a lighter kind of Tyvek out there, used for kites, you can buy it here if you are interested.

You will need to do a bit of reinforcing to put grommets in. Plus in order to do it right, you're going to need to get your hands on a grommet kit. With the hassle factor of dealing with the sil fabric and reinforcing the corners for the tie-off points, buying one might not be a bad option. They do get the used ones in at 2nd Ascent from time to time, and always have the new ID ones there.

I have one here I'm going to return in a few days. It's brand new, and 110$ is what I paid for it. If you want to take it off my hands, shoot me a PM. It has all the warantee stuff and box, instructions, all of that.

That might work. I have a sil tent I have considered doing that to. Not sure if it will work, and of course it adds weight. If you do that, and it works, let us know.

Cracked, why not try and contribute something to the conversation!

It is MAJOR slippery. Thing is even if your pad were to not slip too bad on the sil, the sil's slick on both sides. It is so not a good floor fabric. Ketch, why did you put duct tape on the corners of your Tyvek?? Did you then grommet? I think that would work for grommets, but otherwise it seems like extra you-know-what....

Totally.

Anyone game for the Seattle Vert World later today? I could go any time after, say 4.

Michael, I think the key is subtlety and coolness. IMO hitting-on can be done in any of the above-mentioned places as long as it's not too in-your-face, more friendly and nice than working hard to get the digits. And if the chica in question is busy actually doing something, like climbing, you gotta make your focus on that rather than on her, or her fineness, or her gender. Also women are sensitive to what seems to be, to the guy, helpful information, and to her, condescension. I think that's a common trap WRT beta and whatnot. That make sense?

Oh, dude, silnylon is so not what you want to make a floor out of. You ever sleep on a silnylon floor? It's slicker than cat snot on a wet silk scarf! If you are on ground that is even *slightly* tilted, you're sliding that way. Send the sil back, and then I can put you in touch with a guy who has a roll of Tyvek House Wrap he's selling for a buck a linear foot. The roll is 9' wide, so with shipping we're probably talking 12 bucks for your new floor. No sewing, less slippery, wonderfully low-tech.

I had one of these for testing for a few months. It's the real deal (Gore-Tex XCR) with a super duper light shell fabric. Hood, big chest vents, no handwarmer pockets, 11.8 ounces for a Mens M. Very nice piece. I don't ice climb, but I think the cut would be nice for that. Wore it in lots of diff weather. Unfortunately MB only has it in Mens, and it is cut for the athletic male body, so, well, it didn't fit me very well. If they ever make a Wns version of that jacket, I'd buy one for sure. One Caveat on the jacket, which BTW is called the Torrent Flier. It's $289. EDIT: I thought PMS had this one, but I don't see it on the website.

Easy, boys, moonrover's just making her points here.

Josh, let us know how you fare with sewing the sil. I haven't tried it yet, hear it's very hard to work with due to how slippry it is.

Just a warning, those 2.5 layer thingies like the Precip and others work really well if you are not being too active, but don't breathe as well as good ol' Gore-tex. Still, they don't cost or weigh a lot, and work pretty good.

The vest version of that Moonstone puffer is going for 25 or 30 bucks at Second Ascent right now. There are a bunch of them there, and if you are lucky, you might be able to buy one from an actual real-live mountain guide.

Dan Schorr I think he just does op-ed stuff nowadays though, which is sposta be slanted.

We could chat now!

High Fidelity, and all of the other movies directed by Stephen Frears

I'm returning my Highgear. I think it has too much drift. Bought one of the Nike Ascents at the North Bend outlet for $100 on Saturday. With just a bit of preliminary testing, it seems to have less drift than the Highgear. The non-compass Ascent is $70 at the outlet, but they only have it in brown. Easy to lose, and a bit ugly too, but cheap. Other colors for the version with the compass, and $100, which is half off of retail.

Big Bend Boulders just outside of Moab are a lot of fun and worth checking out if you are in that neighborhood.

Opera is not just nice music, it's a nice browser too.