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Knowing that this thing has anything to do with city government it brings a whole new meaning to Glacial erratic. Do you supose the law ever would get changed?

REI sells condoms?!? Sure, but I'd like to see you take it back and claim "I wasn't satisfied with the performance."

Why petition for a permit when you can competition for how many pepes on the same route?

Ya can't hide from use Dru. We can just watch for the next avatar with a rocketing post count.... Guess Who

I'm with Bronco on that. Try contacting the Audubon Society. A year or so back I got a 18x birding scope that they had for some promotion. It weighs just under 2 oz including it's case. Good deal for just checkin the line in advance. I like it as they spent less effort on the pretty side and lots on the optics so that you can see clearly.

I'm not Joseph but I do solo with a GriGri often enough. I believe that I use the same modified device he does. I have no difficulties with crossloading, the modification serves to keep the device correctly oriented which by default keeps the biner correct also. I do tie back ups when climbing with that setup. I find that if I tie in frequently I have to manualy feed rope through the device, if I leave a little more space the device feeds itself a bit better. For me it is my constantly adapting style. If I am worried about the moves and want a short backup I have to stop frequently and feed rope. If my head lets me run it out a bit the rope takes care of itself. Sort of backwards from how you would really like it. On the other hand I have never taken a fall where the GriGri slipped and the backups ended up loaded.

I just wanted to throw a quick note on this. I recently wanted to change beacons. I found a better deal than these guys but when I asked them they jumped right in with the match. Then after the order (I added more gear as I got such a good deal) some of it was out of stock. They sent the next better model for the same price and I had the whole lot in two days. Excellant folks to work with and quick shipping.

I do some rope solo alpine stuff and here is a couple things I have learned. (1)skinny ropes are not really worth it.....Floss is great for the light and fast school. Since you will be doing some variation on climb,rap, jug in order to progress the skinny rope handling challenges don't overcome the increase in speed. (2) self tending systems are worth it..... I use a modified GriGri. if you leave enough slack in your back up it will almost self feed. This leaves you open for a bigger fall if you tumble in an awkward position but for me not having to tend one more thing is a benifit. (3) Use a running protection system to speed things up if you are close to comfortable.... if I am somewhat comfy I will use a walking pro system where I set a picket at a slightly higher angle, and tie in to it on a short (10ish feet) line. Drive it at higher that normal angle. At the end of the line drive another, tie in, and jerk the last one out. Not real great pro but better than none. This setup has worked good in my trial falls when I attempt them. (4) After any mistake be real about the cause. If it is due to not having your head in the game turn around and go home. If it was a simple mistake then get your head in the game.

What is a Debbie Downer? Is it like a Doggy Downer? Are we going to have them at Sausagefest? Oly, your makin my brain hurt

No, but you might win if you could do a back 360 poop.

I do not know of any true walls that are local. Sonsations or Sonsational (something like that) is the name of a special event place that I believe is in Des Moines or close that has some of those inflatable walls. I won't be were I have there contact info until later tonight. I will try and post it up tonight or tommorow.

I've not seen the device you mention. I would think it not much help. True ridgid crampons help for front pointing as they give you a more stable platform. If you are trying to use flexible crampons with a clamp to make soft boots ridgid that sounds kinda hoky. If your boots are plastic with little inherit flex than the clamp is not going to help much either. Just my .02

I do not know if this is why but I do know that rechargables tend to lower voltages. An alkaline battery will be strong of it's listed volts and slowly decline. A rechargable (nicad being the worse) will be weak of the posted voltage and stay fairly constant. I can't use nicads in the Microphones I run (similar electronic device to beacons) as the nicad 9 volts are actually 8.4 volt and you only get 1-2 hours of battery life before the transmitter frequency starts to vary from low voltage. With an alkaline the same mic gets 25-30 hours of life.

I used to camp quite a bit. To use our time we used to toss a small rock at a 15' topo of the area. Wherever it hit that's where we tried to go that day. After a bit we found that climbing up the walls was easier than trying to navigate around and it was alot more fun. I'm still into the mountains but pretty much fell in love with the process of getting there.

This is old school now. I recently read an anouncement from a town that was opening their new piece of art. it was two bronze men continuously peeing in a pond. Both statues are automated and the pond has a phone number posted. You can text message your note to the statue and it will pee it for you. Creative thinkin and somebody got paid outrageous money for it.

I don't care much. I will be making one of my rare appearences but again need to leave pretty early on tues morning to get there. Just make up the collective mind before tommorow or somebody PM me a phone # I can hook up with in the afternoon to find out where.

At least we know the motocrossers are not engineers. I watched a bit the other day and got a brief chuckle when the comentator was discussing the weather. He said that it was 18 degrees or -7 uhh ... Canadian.

where's the 3rd. i think you're underestimating her shopping prowess. she only missed two. Right next to Sears, where else do they put the boys room?

Josh, Just a little input that may not help the solo bit. I have a partner that has one. We have used it in pretty stiff winds (50-60ish best guess) in a couple winter trips. The fly was pitched with low snoblock walls to help shield. It worked well both times, my only thought is the pita of building block walls when solo.

If you get the Nike be ready for a minor hassle. The altimeter program has a problem in that if the altitude falls below 0 then in goes into an error lockout. Not usually a prob once you are up but at home if the barometer changes then your altimeter goes on the fritz. Another thought, look around on e-bay. Now that Suunto is raising the baseline models it is not unusual to find old school Suunto's new from a shop in their clearance.

Oleg, I would concur with most of the stuff stated about positive reinforcement and personal choice. My own story goes... I was pretty much the same when I was a kid. A teacher (my parents didn't see it) pointed out that I was actually bored with much of what was being presented to me (didn't you say he was a bright kid?) So they found something that I was interested in doing that I was excited about. My parents cut me a deal if I kept up on their expectations -I already knew what they were- then I could pursue my own thing with their blessing. It wasn't until I was all growed up that I realized they were forceing me to take responsibilty for my own actions. On a related note you may look into some of the learning style stuff that is out there. I like Cindy Tobias's stuff but most any of it has some relation to life outside just learning.

Thanks for the help. Fern, good job at keeping a guy humble. Now I'm thinking "of course, why didn't I think of that." My Arctis Epeditions don't offer the option of lifting my heels or flexing inappropritly. I chose the Scarpas because I wanted that flex in the climb. I'll just have to experiment with a little more stomping. Matt, I will definatley experiment with adding pads. I like the boots in a normal application but maybe they will be even better.

Close kioti, Thanks for the reply but I don't know that it applies here. I have Silveretta 404 bindings on the skis. they allow me to release the heels IE telemark stuff or lock them down for the downhill. The binding accepts standard mountaineering boots so they work nice for approach. The heel lift that I was having challenges with is while I had the heels of the bindings released and was skinning up. My own heels were lifting inside the boots. I don't usually have this challenge when hiking or climbing. I don't notice challenges when it is a bit colder and I am wearing my plastics either. Hope that is a better explanation of the trouble.

So with Baker closed and a day out already in the works I opted to hit the other side of the valley. We skined up to Haneegan pass and then climbed a bit and came out. I decided to try using my Scarpa Freney XT's and make use of the bindings. Usually these boots fit quite well and I wear them often. With the heels unlocked especially on the trail I had real problems with heel lift. It took a lots of fussing just to make things a bit better. Whats up with that? Any of you more experienced AT folk have any ideas as to why the increased problems? and even more important what can I do to remedy?