tanstaafl

And here I thought the new keeping it real was posturing online about how much everyone but you sucks.

Two books that haven't been mentioned yet: A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush by Eric Newby Summary: Friend says to Newby, an ex-Black Watch soldier in WWII working in high fashion post-war: "Hey want to go climb a mountain in Afghanistan?" Newby says, "But we don't know how to climb mountains." Friend says, "That's ok, we'll go to Wales for the weekend first and learn how." So they do, although Newby says he “..was filled with profound misgiving. In cold print 20,000 feet does not seem very much. Every year more and more expeditions climb peaks of 25,000 feet, and over. In the Himalayas a mountain of this size is regarded as an absolute pimple, unworthy of serious consideration. But I had never climbed anything. It was true that I had done some hill walking and a certain amount of scrambling in the Dolomites with my wife, but nowhere had we failed to encounter ladies twice our age armed with umbrellas.” Hilarious book, with the best final sentence of any book I have ever read. Two For the Summit: My Daughter, the Mountains, and Me by Geoffrey Norman Summary: 50-year-old sports writer decides to climb the Grand Teton to prove he's not over the hill and is taken aback when his 15-year-old daughter wants to do it with him. Initially says, "No, no this is my manly man thing and you can't come" but then realizes he's nuts to decline when his teenage daughter actually wants to spend time with him and changes his tune. Focused around that climb and a subsequent Aconcagua climb but mainly about how climbing helped him discover what it meant to be a good father and develop a special bond with his child.

Did you spend a night out Wayne? brrr! It was cold enough in the Chiwaukum that my contacts froze into two tiny blocks of ice in their case overnight. I'm glad I took the big puffy sleeping bag this weekend.

While I've heard lots of people express dps's view that the DAS is overkill for the Cascades, being a princess (aka whiny little bitch) I tend to run cold and have been cold at times even in the DAS. So know yourself and buy accordingly. That said, even I also have a lighter weight jacket for spring conditions.

well at least now you're not going to have to buy a treadmill.

Where do you think our medicines, and our doctors and nurses come from? Sociology majors? Communications? Keep telling yourself you are studying something important Prole. But be sure you can afford to pay your loans back while flipping burgers. Well, actually, a good friend of mine who went on to become an MD/PhD and is now a genetics researcher at the NIH majored in English Literature in college. And another former English major friend is just finishing up her nursing degree.

Open reduction means you make an incision in the skin to set a fracture, usually with screws/plates/rods. Closed reduction is done "by feel" or using an xray machine and a cast applied, but no incision is made.

sweet TR, thanks. very inspiring. ooh! my first

As long as the traffic carries a chainsaw, why yes, yes it will.

Nice pics, Team A. If you want I can direct you to an even brushier unfinished line Eric. I think it's just your style.

so, what, yer gonna figure out the answer to a rydberg formula whilst climbing W/O having to write nothing down?!? sport vs trad is like fake tits vs regular tits - does it really matter that much so long as yer balls deep in the whore? Dear Partner, Just to let you know I have screwed a dame that weighs 300 lbs. Your pal, Jim That was a *great* story, but I thought USFS 1919: The Ranger, the Cook, and a Hole in the Sky was even better.

Just a wild guess, but probably because he was 64 years old in 1987, when the BD Camalot was first marketed.

Torment Basin is a different permit zone than Boston Basin. If you bivy *on* Torment, you're in the Torment Basin zone. Nothing to say you can't approach and descend through Boston Basin though; the permit is for camping, not for walking. However, if you bivy along the ridge between Torment and Forbidden, you're in the Boston Basin zone. At least this is my understanding from conversations I've had at the ranger station. We were asked for our permits once walking out from Boston Basin and we stuck to our (true) story that we'd bivied on Torment, and the ranger did not try to cite us or anything, although he clearly thought we were lying. Not to blame him, only an idiot would bivy on Torment.

sweet. Thanks for posting that. I have always wished that I could climb with my dad.

I ended up making the move more shapp's way; facing the other direction didn't work for me at all. I used one sloper and a little crimper for my left; and had to rock over and THEN stand up. Perhaps having done it once I would be more inclined next time to just go for rocking over and standing up in one motion and believing I would not take a backwards header, but trying it first time I wasn't at all sure. Funny how differently people do the same thing. I onsighted p3 and felt really solid on it despite a few "watch me's" but that easier move....not so much.

R and I stopped there yesterday after failing on our alpine objective (which was totally my fault; I suuuck). Scampered up Other Side of the Tracks; it was a fun route and pitches 2 and 3 were stellar. We both found the 5.9+ move on the first pitch to be the hardest thing on the route though! Another pair were out there too climbing...something to the right; I't not sure what.

I ran into Dave Bale once on the trail out after bailing on a solo attempt on the West Ridge of Argonaut and upon hearing what I'd been up to he squinted at me and opined, "A person bushwacking solo up Mountaineer Creek might never be seen or heard from again." Gave me a good laugh.

I have waited in line at Camp Four next to a Boy George lookalike (and this was in 2002, not in the 80s), and also watched a well-scrubbed black suburban family set up their four-room discount store tent while their adorable children played next to the shirtless tattooed 23-year-old going through the recycling and drinking the last few swallows of everyone's beer and vodka at 8:30 am. Camp 4 welcomes everyone.

Yeah Telemarker why don't you post some personal insults or political analysis or your opinion of what ought to done about health care or a picture of a fat housecat? That's the kind of thing that would really add some VALUE to this site!

Sounds like a great trip. Lost Marsupials is indeed a fun climb. We did some unnamed grovel on Little Arapiles; as I recall all the rock was nice but none of it was actually stuck together. Seems like you got a lot done despite the weather.

Hey now there was no bailout, I always led my 60 meters of dirt! I mean gnar. Even if it wasn't always pretty. It's true that it's always good to have a Rat in reserve, though. From my observations, I suggest only the finest of men's dress socks from Goodwill with your rock shoes for maximum sendage.

Hah, it's 20 years too late for me to quit school, although I suppose I could get laid off any day now. You have a point, although I kicked myself after spending a few trips looking more through the lens of a camera than at what was actually happening around me at the time, or spending the time I should have been staring at some wild creature in awe fumbling to get my camera out. But definitely some pics are nice. Maybe after I replace my rock shoes and the slings that have been left on alpine peaks or stolen by partners. thanks.

I regret to say that neither Rolf nor I actually own a camera, much to the irritation of our friends. Sorry 'bout that. I had one for almost a year but it broke on the bus ride from Chile to Argentina, just before the most photogenic parts of the trip. But allow me to say thanks for all your TRs from the Leavenworth area, Sol, they're very inspiring.

Not that this is really very interesting, but it seems like the climbing content has been way down lately so here's my effort to up it a bit. Somebody post something more interesting, please. On Saturday der Rat and I climbed up at Bridge Creek Wall. When we came down and were driving into Leavenworth, the road was friggin' *lined* with cars, but there wasn't a soul at BCW besides us and a couple of golden eagles. There isn't a trail up to BCW and while it's certainly not an approach I would describe as heinous, it took a bit of time and effort to get there. Rat moves fast enough that it was all – ok, more – than I could do to keep up; he had to stop and wait for me more than once. Once at the rock I gave him the first lead, largely because my Reynaud's had kicked in while we geared up in the shade and I figured I could coax circulation back into my fingers while he got up the first pitch. Our plan had been to do the CS Variation, but in the end we think we started somewhere else. He led up a somewhat mossy chimney and then I continued up a vegetation-choked gully. Someone had bailed from the top of the gully, so I bootied two wired hexes, four (!!!) biners, and a sunbleached sling. Rolf then led a sweet pitch up some left-facing corners and traversing under some roofs, digging out placements as he went, and belayed below a perfect hand crack, which I completely failed to climb. While the crack itself looked nice enough, getting into it looked tricky (to me; not to Rat I'm sure) and getting out of it did as well. What *was* up above that flake at the top anyway? When after mucho climbing of vegetation and shenanigans and back and forth and oh fuck why am I so stupid and why do I still suck so much after all these years, I finally got above the crack, I was actually just as happy I didn't suck it up and climb it; it looked like it ended in hairy slab moves. I'm probably wrong though. I proceeded up a nice wide crack in which you could get excellent thigh jams to a belay at a very large dead tree. Rolf led a fairly forgettable pitch from there and I scored the last beautiful ramp pitch, definitely on the route we intended to climb. It was nice and clean and easy, just my style. The descent was long. I read on someone's blog not too long ago that if you can speak, you aren't really working out. On the approach, and even more, on the descent, I just could not agree with this sentiment. I could speak, but damn I sure felt like I was getting a workout. Again, it was more than I could do to keep up, desperately sliding down through the dirt and rocks and grass and salal and stickery things. I slipped and fell on my ass five times on the descent, I do believe. Still, Rat got a worse deal as he took a stob to the shin…ouch. Heidelberger and ice cream concluded a lovely day. Gear: I wished I had worn socks with my rock shoes; I think I would have noticed the dirt in my shoes a lot less.

I first started leading 5.10 consistently during a six-week stay in JTree, just so I didn't have to get on any more 5.9s.