olyclimber

I was in REI Seattle the other day, and one of the clerks there (some older guy) was trying to get me to sign up for another membership even though I already have one. You can get 20%, and for a bigger ticket item, that can be quite a bit... I just thought it was odd that he was pushing it. Do they get some sort of pay based on how many people the sign up (even if they're signing up people more than once)?

Just in posting (not including reading)...lets estimate 1 minute per post....that is 16 2/3 hours of your life that can't be recovered. And it is probably 10 times that at least in reading. Solid hours of your life, down the tube. Good work, here is to 1000 more!

Good god, you've pegged it! I was wondering what the hell was wrong with me when I was soloing the Mt. Si trail and was surrounded by people with trekking poles! I was puking in the bushes after some spandex wearing fellow with trekking poles brushed by me on the way to his Porsche Cayenne in the parking lot. I felt like I totally screwed up my gear selection in not purchasing a set of titanium trekking poles and a Sat phone so I can chat with Sandy Hill Pittman where ever. It is now common knowledge at those are required uniform for Mt. Si. I just need to work over my allergy to them.

Ya, that is weird. Usually when there is a conversation, it is two people talking. Must be something about cell phones. It must be a Luddite tendenancy in my subconscious.

[quote that would be John Belushi whoops, duh. yes, jim isn't near as funny as john was.

Cable Arch (in the middle of the night)

It is just surreal to be hiking along, and hear a loud conversation on the trail ahead...and it turns out to be some guy arguing with his girlfriend on his cell phone. I kind of makes you want to pull a Jim Belushi, like what he did with the guitar in Animal House.

I second this. Great jacket.

Norwegian Memorial

This issue I personally find disgusting. I mean, go behind a tree if you have to do that!

The current Climbing magazine has a comparison of alpine packs, though they might be smaller than what you're looking for (3000>4000ci). The Wild Things Icesac or the Cold Cold World Chernobyl get my vote. Alpine pack comparison

I lugged a Nikon F4 up there, so I will have some pictures when I get the film developed. I'll have them developed as prints and digital. Will post them in a day or two.

Congratulations! Let me know who bought them, I have a bridge I need to sell. Seriously, I was joking because there was a big sale at TNF, and some people decided to profiteer by reselling the stuff on ebay and this board. If it wasn't the case for you, then I will piss off, thanks. If it was, well then you're a shag-eared pignut.

Climb: Mt. Baker-Coleman-Deming [April 17-18] Date of Climb: 4/17/2004 Trip Report: Me, my little bro, and a friend went up on the Coleman glacier for alpine hijinx this past weekend. We had some specific goals related to the trip, mainly to see if we could survive 2 days together without killing each other, but also to see if it is possible subsist solely off of horsecock and moose goo. The road is still closed at 6.6 miles up Road 39, so we drove up from Seattle and hiked up and bivvied at the trailhead late Friday night. The next day we hiked up to a little less than half way up the Coleman glacier, seeing only one other group, a gaggle of Canucks on their way out. They had spent the night right about where the hiking trail ends on Heliotrope ridge. We started directly up the Coleman, but visiblity was almost zero (clouds/fog), and due to our lack of familiarity with the route we decided to wait to see if it would lift. In the meantime, we built a snow castle. Finally, around 6pm, the clouds lifted. My friend had plowed snow for us the whole way up, so while he rested in our Snow Kastle, me and my little bro decided to go up and figure out the route. We got as far as just below the pass between the Coleman and the Deming (just under 9000 feet) when we had to turn around because the sun went down and we had no flashlights. We witnessed some nice icefall off the glacier hanging off of Colfax Peak as we went by. We made it back down to Kamp Snow Kastle on the Coleman, and I spent a chilly night in my REI sleeping bag, which I believe must be rated at 75 degrees. That night was crystal clear, and probably we should have gone up to the summit then because the next day it was clouded over again. Our steps were competely erased from the previous day, and after heading up hoping it would clear, we decided to bag it because we couldn't see 10 feet ahead, and none of us were familiar with the route. As we headed down, there was a brief window of clearing, and we wondered if we had made the right choice. However, after drinking beer and eating pizza in Bellingham, and sunning and swimming out at Larrabee, we knew we had. Gear Notes: 75 degree sleeping bag, HC, Moose Goo, crampons (didn't use). Could have used some skis or snowshoes. Approach Notes: Road 39 is still closed at 6.6 miles, though with chains you could probably make it further. Followed tracks up to Heliotrope ridge, and then plenty of postholing from there up...

I just finished that book 'Feeding the Rat'. Pretty good!

- had that thing wrapped up anyway....

sticky buns?

steaksauce?

I heard about those. Beckey tagged them already... OK, OK, I'm full of shite. Where, however, did you come up with the definition of a "real" peak as being a ">400 foot prominence"? I'm not challenging you, just wonder where that definition came from....

Yum, I just made up a big batch of the Moose Goo stuff for this weekend. Tasty.

Well, then. Sorry you missed out on the sale. Good luck selling them at that price... There are a glut of them that were sold for $105.

I think you're talking about Harold Pinsch who wrote the forward to the first edition of the Climbers Guide to the Olympics. He climbed them in 1971. And no, I'm not Rainman. I was researching them a couple of weeks ago and book marked a link I found through Google. Harold Pinsch's obit...

In the Olympics, the Valhallas come to mind. That's probably just because I've never been there, and I hardly ever hear of anyone going out there . But you can count on them being lesser peaks with no close trail or road and a nice bushwack to get to them, where ever those summits might be.

For a rock climbing gumby such as myself, it is pretty good. Nice pictures and descriptions of each area. If you know the area already you don't need it, but it is nice to have some one's opinion as to the ratings of each route. If you don't know the area, it can definitely point you directly to the fun stuff for your skill level... If you haven't seen that guys website, here it is: http://www.deceptioncrags.com/

If you're talking about the Lil Mt Si (Exit 32 Climbing) book, I picked it up at REI month or two ago. I saw it at Second Ascent too. From the title, I thought you were asking to hire guide to climb Mt. Si...