tanstaafl

Nothing like a little skykilo pornography...see you guys there.

I heard a rumor that ya'll were coming back so I was saving them to share over beers, bru. But here's a shot of the first pitch of the route I did on Blouberg. That place is fucking rad; if you ever get the chance to climb out there, grab it. Next time you're going to Joburg and want to climb lemme know. I now know a couple of nice local climber boys there; maybe I can hook you up.

You mean Rolf wasn't already rolling in babes? Unbelievable.

That'll be me this weekend. Check yer email for some pics, bud.

Climbed beautiful sandstone cracks and intimidating roofs in the kloofs at Magaliesberg, an hour and a half outside Johannesburg, South Africa, where there were a total of four climbers all weekend.

1) Drove home from Bugaboos, arriving 2 am to message from Sky on answering machine: "We're getting fucked up at College Inn! Come join us!" Calculated that even if message was from Friday they all had a six-hour head start on me and wisely went to bed instead. 2) Dried out shit from Bugs and repacked it for South Africa. 3) Drank.

AND then nobody called me for bar-closing-down activities. sheesh! I was home from my earlier drinking engagement at least a half hour before closing. I could have made it out.

Thanks for the Bugs beta, I'm headed up there tomorrow.

Hey, tell Ken to go see if my biner of stoppers is up by the inner wall!

-I have no dependents

Kurt is scheduled to be discharged from the hospital tomorrow. He'll stay at his parent's place temporarily until the floors in his house are done. Highlights of the meeting with the doctors: they advised no alcohol consumption for a year ; and the expression on Kurt's face when the doc suggested that upon his return to rock climbing "you might want to let someone else lead for a while" was pretty amusing.

Sent you a pm.

Just got this email this morning that went out a few days ago from one of the arborist crew and thought I'd post it as it seems like a pretty good summary of Kurt's current situation. k Hi there everyone. It’s all for the most part, good news. About three days ago now, Kurt just came around. His memory seems to be intact, except concerning the accident itself and the two weeks after. He also doesn’t seem to have any major physical impairments from this either, at least as far as we can tell. Phew!!! What a long strange trip it’s been. He is still in Harborview and will be for at least another week undergoing what they call occupational therapy. From what I understand, it is to determine whether he truly is ok and can function on his own. They may or may not let him go home upon getting out of the hospital. He may need to go to a facility for a time until they determine his capability. Anyway, the worst is over, but there is a long way to go. He still is ‘missing’ part of the bone in his head and must still wear a helmet when up and about. I don’t have a clear time frame as to when the bone will be put back. At first I heard September, but that might be moved up now. So this brings me to the ever present part two of the update. It is clear Kurt won’t be working for some time and it is also becoming clearer as to what the insurance will and won’t pay for. For instance, it doesn’t appear to pay for much of this occupational therapy. In short, the bills are piling up. So please consider a donation the trust fund to help him pay for some of this. We all appreciate it.

Then how in the hell do you manage to climb with me? Nice work guys; sounds like a great trip.

I can't this weekend but I could after work any time next week. I'm better at destruction than construction, but I'll do my best.

What was the lie you were telling over in the photo thread about 10b at Squamish? Way to go and nice writeup too!

Fern rocks. Lookit the GUNS in that pic of Pente! That was my favorite climb at IC, btw. Good to see you this weekend and glad you're back to ropegun me once or twice this summer!

Fuck yeah Jens. Nice going! I wasn't at all surprised to hear from Fern this weekend in Squish that you'd gone and done it. Congrats! Now when are we going to the Pickets?

Whenever I see him he doesn't seem to understand that he's hurt, he's just obsessed with getting the hell out of the hospital. When I walked in last night there were two nurses trying to keep him in his wheelchair, and when I arrived, they were like, "oh, cool, we can just leave you with him." Spent a great deal of time rebuckling the straps and trying to put the wrist restraint he'd snaked out of back on. His plan was clear: we were going to leave and go get drunk. I'm sure it's a good sign that he's so eager to go and still strong enough that it's a lot of work to prevent him from doing so, but it sure is exhausting. Great to see him coming back though.

Another option for camping is Ralph's Gristmill. Just type that into google and it's the first hit.

Kurt moved out of ICU last night and is feeling good enough he's making passes at girls, so that's all excellent.

I call the 28th - 30th. We'll uncage your soul again.

and ruffians. don't forget the ruffians.

Thanks. Full disclosure though; Jens belayed me twice, so not all that core. But whatever.

Yep. With those weather and conditions it would be hard not to make it up. I was happy with Liberty Cap; I let Jens run up and tag the true summit while I napped in the sun. Couldn't believe how calm and nice it was that high; I didn't even pull out the puffy jacket. Lots of stuff was falling off Willis Wall and Ptarmigan Ridge and we saw a massive avy thundering down Thermogenesis on Saturday evening; that was cool.