tanstaafl

You guys are way core and badass. And so handsome and fashionable! Although I must admit the half man/half monkey thing is news to me. Nice work; looks fun.

Nice job, Pete. You missed a good night at the Twisp brewpub though.

When I went in there the first time there was a mini Cooper in the parking lot, completely engulfed in chicken wire. You'll be fine.

I have a pentax Optio M20; don't know how that compares to the w60 but it stopped working on a bus ride from Chile to Argentina just a month after the one-year warranty expired. It turns on but then makes an unpleasant noise a couple of times and turns itself back off. I took it to a camera shop and they said it would cost more to repair than to buy a new one. Don't know if it's a general Pentax issue or not but that's been my experience.

sweet TR Will; thanks.

Well, as long as we're all being total language geeks, Mr. Rad, the instance of "it's" in your first example: "Its my lead, you wanker!" is a contraction of "it is" and thus should be "it's." Its as a possessive would be, say: "West McMillan is pretty but its summit is unsuitable for a bivy, according to some douchebags."

The word I got was they traversed from Little Mac to Terror-Rake col and then tagged Chopping Block on the way out. Someone had to be at the airport by 9 pm sunday so there wasn't time for any more. Damn, I wish I was that fast.

I had the Reid and Falkenstein book when I was there and I liked it a lot. If you like lots of beta though you might not be all that happy with it. Eric what's on your hit list?

We did four 30m raps down the west ridge and then down the south face from there. We added two slings for the last raps to get back to the toe of the buttress so that we didn't have to downclimb steepish snow above gaping crevasses in rock shoes. I didn't take my pointy stick up the route with me so I was chicken. I'll be happy to make you a good deal on a pointy stick anytime, GB.

Trip: Inspiration - South Face Date: 7/19/2008 Trip Report: Rat and I climbed the South Face of Inspiration this weekend. Beautiful setting and a fun route. We realized after doing the entire approach that the SCA volunteer at the Marblemount Ranger Station had given us a permit for Torment Basin instead of Terror Basin. Oopsy. I guess that explains why she was asking if we were going to park at the Eldorado trailhead. Fortunately we were never accosted by anyone asking for our permit. I forgot my ice ax but the glacier is mellow enough right now that a pointy stick worked just fine. We started from the very toe of the buttress which adds a pitch or so to the route as described in Beckey. The gash pitches are just way cool. We took only one rope and had no problem rapping right back to our packs. Ran into tough guys Dylan and Chad on the summit doing the traverse. They were moving fast, no surprise. No photos; my camera broke in Chile this winter but Rat took some pics on a disposable grocery store camera. Maybe he’ll scan them in and post them. Yeah, right. Gear Notes: aluminum crampons pointy stick one 60m rope rack to 2.5 inches Approach Notes: steep

I'm always impressed at how the old school guys were simultaneously carefully mentored and yet completely self taught. Talk about a scary claim -- anyone who has managed to climb for years without ever learning a thing from anybody else is not someone I want to tie in with. Mark, thanks for some interesting observations. In response to your question why not go directly to the mountains: I learned to climb in a gym, because although I knew exactly what I wanted to do -- alpine trad climbing -- I knew no one who actually did it. I did, however, know one guy who knew how to belay and would go to the gym with me. Since it seemed obvious that the mountains were far more likely than the gym to kill someone who didn't know how to lead, follow, place or clean gear, I started with the safer option. Perhaps this makes me a big pansy. I don't really care. It was a starting point and I met people that I could get out with. Now I only wish I could get to the gym more often since if I did I know I'd be climbing harder.

feliz cumpleanos!

Nice one, Davide. Reminds me I need to get back in there. Thanks for the pretty pictures.

Nice Rockettes action from the guy bringing up the rear!

The view from Formidable this weekend was of a lot of very soft snow. We went in via the Middle Fork rather than Cache Col so I can't give you specifics on skiing down to Kool Aid Lake or anything but there is definitely still a load of snow back there.

Andy -- I spent that same hike down stopping at all the little huts to see if anyone had found the rock shoe I'd lost on the hike in. No one had found it, but we got some really nice oranges from one of the farmers. Most amazing of all, the shoe was lying in the trail next to the watering hole we'd stopped at for a ten-minute rest about an hour from the kraal where we left the car three days ago; not eaten by a cow or picked up by a schoolchild or anything. And I got to have the memorable experience of climbing Blouberg wearing one Mythos and one Trango S Evo. The Trangos climb astoundingly well; I only had to aid like three moves on the route. Such an amazing place.

According to Rob Kelman's Epic Rating Scale, you're at E4: E1. Delay in completing route resulting in being an hour late for dinner with your significant other. E2. Same as E1 except that climbing partner is of opposite sex. E3. Same as E1 except that bivouac is required. E4. Same as E2 except that bivouac is required. E5. Hung up on short route requiring rescue. E6. Same as E5 except injury is involved. E7. Same as E5 except route is isolated and elaborate rescue required. E8. Same as E7 except that injury is involved. E9. Some, but not all, members of the party are killed. E10. Same as E8 except a major, dangerous effort is needed to rescue the injured and recover bodies. E11. All members of the party are killed. E12. The entire party vanishes. Congratulations! Sounds like a great time.

I looked at those routes a few weeks ago. Then I went away and flailed up Rattletale instead.

Mark Trombold at Proformance Rehab is awesome.

I took six months off in 1995 to backpack around Europe, was laid off upon my return and got a better job in a better location for more pay. Worked there for five years, then quit and took an 18-month road trip to climb, came back and they hired me back. I made slightly less money at first but they let me work four days a week, gave me my seniority back so I get four weeks of vacation, and let me take ridiculous amounts of time off without pay, which I care about a lot more than I care about money. I have no debt or dependents though.

I did get on that route. I remember joking with my partner that "It's 5.8 plus, how hard could it be?" She came off following and had to prusik up the rope to get to the belay. That was entertaining.

Roommate wanted for large 2BR apartment on 47th Street and Fremont Ave. Third floor, huge south and west facing windows, lots of light, view of Rainier, laundry, deck, dishwasher, garage. Easy walk to Greenlake, the zoo, MarketTime, restaurants; easy bus to downtown, Ballard, U District. The rent is $587.50/month plus ½ utilities, which run about $50/month in winter and about $10/month in summer. Share with F climber/skier who is frequently away on the weekends. I am pretty clean but don’t freak out about a little mess occasionally. No smoking. $40 credit check and $550 deposit. Available June 1. PM me if interested.

Modern Times crux. Not my picture, I grabbed it off the web a while back and don't even remember where I got it.

Paddle Flake Direct

It's in Cashmere.