HappyCamper

Piling on to the positive reviews for the Feathered Friends Vireo. Versatile.

New fav: [video:youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08SmHntCQe4

The workout mix is getting a bit stale, how about a little crowd sourcing? My semi-random contribution: - Misfits, "Hybrid Moments" - Metric, "Monster Hospital - Helmet, "Unsung" - Los Straightjackets, "Caveman" - NIN, "March of the Pigs" - Diamond Rings, "Runaway Love" - Dead Prez, "Hip-Hop" - Van Halen, "D.O.A." - Wolfmother, "White Unicorn" - Monster Magnet, "Powertrip" - Muse, "Hysteria" - Melvins, "Revolve" - QOTSA, "Regular John"

Have you checked out splitboard.com yet? Great knowledge base on splitboarding and adapting systems to mountaineering. There are a number of mountaineering\snowboard hybrid boots now on the market - either Spark R&D has them (check Mountaingear.com - they carry a couple models). I'd ditch the Sims - find a board with a rockered nose - while the rocker's selling point is powder I think it also helps power through the mixed conditions that you might encounter. Go longer too IMHO - I started a bit short (161cm - 5'11") and am happier with a longer board: 164cm - Prior Spearhead Split, best board I have ever owned - though the Jones splits are pretty sweet looking. But regarding skiing...I have been snowboarding for 20 years, splitting for 6 years, but skiing for the last 2-3 years - though still split/board depending on the days. I think that most take up splitboarding because they are good boarders and want to access the BC. But if you aren't a ripping boarder - it does remove a reason for splitting - skiing is my preferred weapon when there is lots of sidehilling, traversing, etc. I tried skiing an AT set up years ago and absolutely hated it and bought a splitboard. My problem though was that I went straight to the BC without a good skiing base. Not saying this would work for all, but years later during a lame spell with no new snow I busted out that old AT set up in-bounds and kind of liked it on the bunny hills (humility is good once in a while), then moved up to the intermediates, then the diamond runs. It probably took 40-50 ski days to get comfortable, but with a ski pass and a commitment to go up after work night skiing made it happen. Now I feel I can take either the AT set up or the split depending on the mission\conditions. But either way, if you have time - grab a pass and hit up the local resort - especially on crappy days and log the hours. It'll help your boarding\skiing. For the amount of time and money invested in an alpine mission - its worth it in the long run to have the basic skills to make the descent more enjoyable. As someone cooler than me once said, "It's all about the down, yo."

Thumbs up on the Alt-j recommendation. Good chill stuff - check out "Something Good".

Two Gallants John Mayer (really - his new album is good and I wasn't a fan of him before - summery music).

Classic! Took me a bit to get the 4:33 reference. That guy sure can emote with the best of them.

You can find the other ship with the Maddox during the incident, the USS Turner Joy berthed right in Bremerton as a tourist destination.

Thanks a lot for the reply. I hadn't really looked at the side effects before and just spent 20 minutes researching the prescription. I was only using it on semi-rare ocassion, but it sure does seem like my mild issues don't warrant something so strong - especially with some fairly negative side effects.

I have patches of skin under my eyes that are sensitive to cold. I end up with dry, peeling skin usually the next day after exposure to even moderate cold temps. My dermatologist gave me a steroid cream that works well as a remedy for the dry skin, but I am really looking for something preventative. I use sunblock even on cloudy days in the hopes that it will help insulate the skin, but haven't found anything really effective yet. I was thinking about maybe trying the 70's era zink oxide topical (Zinka!), but wondered if anyone has similar issues and something that maybe works?

The only group I know is this one (no forum, but they might have a yahoo group): http://wrrr.org/ For local kayaking there is professorpaddle.com, but there are some rafters on there as well. You can also try the gearswap page on the NRS website, fair amount of rafting gear on there.

Mesmerizing. Raquel certainly makes it to the top 10 on the "All time hotties" list.

iclimb - if you have an extra day, try and add a trip up to St. Helens. Its similar to Adams in terms of technical challenges (or lack thereof), but a much shorter day and its a reasonably close trip from Portland. As mentioned before - Adams (and Helens) can be pretty fun on skis\snowboard - especially if its sunny and the snow corns up. I don't know if it was mentioned elsewhere, but either have a flexible ticket in case the weather sucks (Adams isn't a lot of fun in bad weather) or a lower elevation back-up plan.

Great KEXP video. Johnette Napolitano from Concrete Blonde. Sort of an off-beat choice for me. I wandered into a Concrete Blonde show at Bumbershoot years ago and didn't realize what an amazing voice she has - she can belt it out. [video:youtube]

That was awesome!

Fascinating, in a train-wreck kind of way. The Seattle Times did an article on a Scientology church opening. The comments to the article made for an entertaining read (if you are a little bored on a Sunday morning like I was): Seattle Times article

Been a nice option when the lift-served hasn't been serving.

[img:center]http://echosphere.net/star_trek_insp/insp_captkirk.jpg[/img]

School officials in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., reprimanded a mother and her 12-year-old son for riding their bicycles to school on national Bike to Work day and confiscated the boy's bike, according to a story in The Saratogian. Janette Kaddo Marino and her son, Adam, 12, pedaled the seven miles from their home to Maple Avenue Middle School. "After they arrived, mother and son were approached first by school security and then school administrators, who informed Marino that students are not permitted to ride their bikes to school," the story said. "School officials took her son's bike and stored it in the boiler room. They told her she would have to return with a car to retrieve the bike later in the day." It's a matter of safety, Principal Stuart Byrne told the paper. "I would be a nervous wreck every day if kids were riding to school," he said. "Traffic isn't bumper to bumper, but it's non-stop." Byrne said he also worries about children traveling unsupervised through the community. The Saratoga Springs school district did not apply for any of the $2 million that the New York State Department of Transportation awarded through its Safe Routes to School program, which awards money to districts to improve pedestrian and bicycle access. "I personally encouraged them to apply, but I was told that the school board policy considered it unsafe to walk or bike, and the policy is only to bus (kids to and from school)," Raj Malhotra, the DOT's program coordinator for the Capital Region, told the paper. Seattle PI article

I could see the concern about "diluting" the core mission of the board, but if enough people that post here also MTB, I don't see it really stunting climbing conversations and trip reports. I think its more about quantity of people that do both rather than catering to each unique, however small, subset. Apparently, there were a lot of pirates out there with a need for a place to post. Not saying it is a perfect comparison to cc.com, but TGR seems to thrive despite having a pretty big variety of sports.

I think it would be pretty cool to have a MTB forum. Seems like a benie in having all the old logging roads criss-crossing the hills is that you can ride them and get a nice workout and decent scenery. I don't necessarily need a bunch of single-track to have fun - just a remote MTB ride somewhere would be great and having some beta from those in the know would be helpful. My experience is that climbers don't just climb - they MTB, ski\board, kayak, etc. If there are enough MTB'ers out there - why not keep them on this board.

Sound Mind and Body used to have one at their now-defunct gym in the Zymo building. Novel to use the first few times, but it got a little lame after a while - you turn the wheel to control the resistance - basically your body weight pulls the wall down - either there was not enough resistance and you had to climb real fast and got sloppy or it was too slow and you had to wait it out. Found that consistent bouldering or top-roping-till-you-puke provided a much more satisfying burn. That being said - the fact that it was in the gym I went to anyway was nice for that extra 5-10 minutes of burn - but not worth making it the point of your trip.

The law on "booty" in Washington: RCW 63.21.010 (1) Any person who finds property that is not unlawful to possess, the owner of which is unknown, and who wishes to claim the found property, shall: (a) Within seven days of the finding acquire a signed statement setting forth an appraisal of the current market value of the property prepared by a qualified person engaged in buying or selling like items or by a district court judge, unless the found property is cash; and (b) Within seven days report the find of property and surrender, if requested, the property and a copy of the evidence of the value of the property to the chief law enforcement officer, or his or her designated representative, of the governmental entity where the property was found, and serve written notice upon the officer of the finder's intent to claim the property if the owner does not make out his or her right to it under this chapter. (2) Within thirty days of the report the governmental entity shall cause notice of the finding to be published at least once a week for two successive weeks in a newspaper of general circulation in the county where the property was found, unless the appraised value of the property is less than the cost of publishing notice. If the value is less than the cost of publishing notice, the governmental entity may cause notice to be posted or published in other media or formats that do not incur expense to the governmental entity.

"...your brain will fall out."

Uh....so, the women who are labeled "hot chicks" filed the complaint, not the douche? They didn't like being called "hot chicks"? Not to be too crass, but if I were them, I would take the compliment and call it good.