lancegranite

So is this like when a aid climb get free climbed?

Ed: Mrs G, a Leavenworth native, sent me this email today, The Leavenworth Barbie: She only works 6 months out of the year but never considers herself unemployed. While travelling in the off-season, she forwards the unemployment checks to her parents address. In the winter, you are most likely to spot her hiking at the Pass for powder on a good day or staying at home and spooning untill noon when it rains. In the summer, you will find L-Town Barbie hanging out "down by the river" with two or three of her friends, a couple of black labs, and a stray long-haired hippy dude. After a long day rafting, riding bikes, and swimming in the river, you can most likely spot the L-town Barbie drinking a pint of dark beer as thick as a milkshake at the local pub, Uncle Uli's. Bonus if a local jam band happens to be playing. She owns shoes and a rack, but only climbs every once in a while. She'll point and laugh at a bike without full suspension, or for that matter, a car without a rack. She claims that she dosen't wear make-up, dosen't care about her appearance, and couldn't be bothered with material goods, but manages to look super cute in a pair of prana pants and worn out flip flops. There are a limited number of vehicles the Leavenworth Barbie will consider driving and they include (in this order): Toyota 4Runner, Subaru Station Wagon, Volkswagen Jetta. She comes complete with: avy beacon, champion juicer, and yoga dvd's If you want to scerenade this rare Barbie, you could go the safe route with classics from Ben Harper or Jack Johnson. For the risk-taker, try pulling the wild card and bust out with a freestyle rap or some old-school punk-rock and appeal to her rebellious tendencies Her favorite phrases are: "duuuuuuudde" "I just worked out for five hours!" "suuuuuper stoked!" and "what's a 401k?" If she sees you drive through town, she's likely to call you a "citiod" "west-sider" "coaster" "city person" "stupid tourist" or, if she's over 25 maybe "206er" She's already had eight dudes tell her she's the woman of his dreams, so don't blow things by getting drunk and professing your love at 3 in the morning. She never puts out on a first date, unless of course you happen to catch her at the Pimp and Ho. Speaking of dates, she's never been on one because Leavenworth Ken dosen't have a job and spends all of his money on pot, so if you ask her out for a fancy dinner, she'll either think you are super romantic or super cheesy. Single varieties of this Barbie are extremely hard to come by due to supply and demand, and it is highly reccomended that if you find one, you snatch her up as quickly as possible. Ed: done and done

Hmmmm...I might be closer than you think. It's only 4 hours to the serrias, 20 from the cascades, 20 hours from the rockies. Charleston? it's good in a pinch, but Index is better, see you there.

Dude, don't talk about my wife like that, she would never drive a jeep.

Sure, it's all pow pow kisses right now, but how about sunny april, may and june?....oh so sunny june!

You can have your 8 months a year of "character", let me know how it works out for you.

The hillside you speak of is covered in madrona trees, a strange sight so far from the ocean. The cliffs that surrond Eagle Lake are total shite, but some fine, but totally off limits, bouldering exists. Eagle Lake used to form the eastern end of the Love Isreal family's property, they sold the ranch a couple years ago. I grew up with the ranch kids, and many fine hikes were taken to the top of those cliffs, where a fine view was enjoyed by all.

When riding a long( for you) board, setting the bindings "all the way back" is a total mistake. That is something you do to make a little board work in deep snow. I am 5' 5'' and I have rode boards from 165- 180 for years. A longboard works best with a no or only a slight setback.... Here's why: A freestyle board's holepacks are usually centered on the board, a longboard's are usually aready set back from center. Take a tape measure and measure the distance from the nose to the center of the front set of inserts, then do the same for the tail/ rear set. This gives you the factory setback, where, if propery designed, also happens to be the center of the sidecut. This is where the board should be mounted. Make equal adjustments in/ out from this point to accomidate your stance width. Your stance width should be slightly wider than your shoulders, a comfortable, "action pose" width.

Nevermind, all is better...anybody want to do load calcs for me so I can climb this weekend?

Good job, that climb is quite the departure from the 10's at the gallery. Nice to climb with you guys, come down anytime. I realize now that I should have given you the gnome!

I belayed John the Gambler on Desert Gold... the headwall crack is overhanging and so haaard. the roof is pretty easy. I deftly pulled on nearly every piece following the first part, managed to follow the roof with little trouble. Those with big fingers might do better, as the hard part is mostly 1 - 1.5"

I left my business card on his pack that afternoon...

You beat me to it... she's a real nice lady, and stronger than all of us.

March has proven to be cold and wet here in the great basin, causing the unprepared to search for suitable clothing long forgotten. I had to wear a jacket to my car today, I considered taking the day off. Would you be so kind to take your rain, sleet, snice, fog, wind and assorted nastiness back to the PNW? Thanks.

The stranger voices his opinion...

Sounds like the magic roommate I once had.

You can only count FAs on boulders if they have a prominence of at least 10 feet.

I like the taste of moss...

The wedgewood thing got me buzzing. It sounds like there are many small outcrops and strange little areas. Anybody ever been to these obscure haunts: Van Zandt? Lake Cavanaugh/ Split Rock? Granite Falls area? Name your terra obscura!

Lake Stevens was one of my first times climbing. It really was a fun spot, I had friends who climbed there quite a bit. The Lake Stevens rock would be a good Access Fund or WCC project, and I'm sure that the local fire department or SAR would like a place to rap/ rescue practice... LINK

Let me put it this way... I work as a rigger, we swage wire rope in our shop all day long. If this happened, there would be a company wide roundtable meeting and the person responsible would be fired. I've seen it happen. Everyone makes mistakes, you just don't get to make THAT one twice. Sad, because I love their products.

Anything bolted by guys taller than 6'2"

Wow, I was pretty pissed. It was a total bullshit move to abandon all that junk. My pop said "well, that's just the law of the deep... are the tools any good?"

That nicosleeve was never pressed! The person who QC'd the piece should be fired. It does not take much imagination to see how this could have turned out....bad, very bad.

Congratulations on a fine ascent, now how about that line to the left?....