Blake

I see the Aoraki Boulders and Payne's Ford tropical limestone... nice! Anything destroyed by the Kea?

Why is this garment so popular? Every third person walking around town is wearing one! http://www.patagonia.com/web/us/product/product_focus.jsp?OPTION=PRODUCT_FOCUS_DISPLAY_HANDLER&style_color=84673-133&patcatcode=MAIN_FA07_US.CLOTHING_GEAR.MENS.JACKETS.DOWN/SYNTHETIC It weighs 13 ounces and is extremely thin compared to a down jacket you can get from Mtn Hardware or Western Mountaineering, Feathered Friends, etc which would have much more loft and be just a few ounces heavier. My understanding is that once you factor in the necessary 'fixed' costs (in weight) of shell fabric and a zipper, adding more insulation will keep you a whole lot warmer without adding much more weight, so why get a down jacket that is designed to create such little loft. (and thereby trap such little warm air) If the whole idea is to keep you warm, why carry around the weight of that zipper and shell material if you don't put in more of the lofting feathers and actually increase its utility? maybe one of the gear gurus from Feathered Friends can comment... I know Patagonia sells lots of item as "fashion pieces" but this is being marketed as coat with actual utility and appeal to climbers. To those folks who have got one, is it for Fashion or Function? Do you wearing it while you are being active, or throw it on at belays etc like a traditional puffy coat?

Wasn't there a cool overhsnging boulder problem start at the base of that thing?

There's an Ice Route on the S Twin that Jason MArtin did, and I'm sure lots of other stuff in the area that would be icy/snow/mixed not too extremo. Secdond Post here: http://www.cascadeclimbers.com/ubb/Forum1/HTML/001047.html

I did this Mirazyme treatment to my shoes too and it worked. This was after AviTripp and I drove back from Indian Creek to Seattle with my shoes strapped to his roof because they smelled so bad. Just don't use it on a shoe with a weak cardboard sole which might be damaged by being submerged in water!

P.S. If a boot does not have a Gore-Tex liner and you are worried about waterproofness... try this stuff. http://www.backcountry.com/store/MCN0020/c/s/McNett-ReviveX-Leather-Gel-Water-Repellent-and-Conditioner.html Specifically designed to penetrate the material and be abrasion resistant, where NixWax and others just coat the surface and are quickly scraped off when kicking steps, hiking, etc.

This fire covered just 315 acres! One could hardly say that this whole area, serviced by 12 miles of road, is now burned and less fire prone. What budget are you talking about? The Federal Gov's? NPS? Either way, I wouldn't make a "road-by-road" allowance, because that would be so inefficient and unproductive. Splitting up a transportation network into "road units" and viewing each as an autonomous entity to receive up to, and no more than "X" dollars per year, and setting each budget at the year's beginning, makes no sense to me. Does any gov agency currently divide and fix each road such a budget per year? I doubt it. If that's not what you were asking, then I misunderstood the question. If your intent was to have folks realize the difficulty of making these decisions, then I agree, they are very complicated. Criteria for me would include, but not be limited to: Legal obligations to provide for transportation/access, visitors per year, cars per year, historical precendence, possibilities of a substitute, associated effects of non-repair, environmental impacts of repair and non-repair, projected costs of repair and non-repair, chance of future repairs, expected future maintenance costs....

Obviously budgets for the military/farm subsidies/etc are separate from those to repair remote roads. I was just pointing out that those who create and divy up these budgets find enough taxpayer money to destroy and rebuild roads in foreign countries, so its hard to believe they can't repair the existing ones here. (obviously these types of budgetary decisions are made at levels far above the NCNP) In regards to nit-picking the NCCC statement: I agree, I picked every nit right out of that thing! It wasn't because each individual point was important to refute, it was to demonstrate the broader picture of factual innacuracies, oversimplifications, and misleading rhetoric. (techniques used by many groups, of which the NCCC is one) In regards to "bang for the buck".... during a span of several weeks last summer, the NPS spent more money ferrying loads of fire-fighting equipment across the road washout via helicopters than it would have cost to just repair the road to its traditional capacity and drive! (and obviously had it been repaired, it would have been repaired for future use of fire-fighting, S&R uses, and climbers/hikers/fishers/skiers/whiners-like-me.)

I carried on a full rack with big cams from Bellingham-> Vegas a year ago no problems, but this month I was told by a different airline and different employees at SEATAC that I could NOT carry on cams or nuts or carabiners. I'd say plan on not being allowed to take any of it.

In B-ham I thought the selection was great. Those Norwegian Kite skiers looked like they were having a blast. I could have done without Dean Potter's cliched cosmic rambling, but his climbing footage was inspiring too. It's quite a stretch calling the B.C. Mtn Bike course a "trail" but watching that guy was amazing!

Thanks Fairweather, below is the NCCC statement, with my factual corrections/clarifications present. I worked for the NCNP maintenance division in Stehekin during 2006 when this was decided. The Upper Stehekin Valley Road In late 2006, the National Park Service issued a decision to permanently close the upper ten miles of Stehekin Valley Road above Car Wash Falls. The decision was made by July, and during Aug and/or Sept (while a fire burned and the Stehekin Landing was threatened) crews were helicoptered in to remove existing road culverts The lower 12.8 miles are not affected and will continue to serve all of the sites and amenities that the vast majority of visitors to Stehekin have enjoyed for many years. The shuttle now stops at the 10.9 mile point, leaving the remaining ~2 miles of existing road BEFORE the washout without shuttle service. The upper Stehekin Valley Road, however, is extremely isolated and could only be reached from Stehekin, which itself requires a 50-mile boat ride up Lake Chelan to reach. A 30-mile boat ride from Field's Point, a float plane or conventional small land plane, as well as hiking/horse riding also work. When the road was in place, it was a flat 12 mile jaunt from Rainy Pass to the Upper Stehekin Road. There is no car ferry. Severe flood damage in 2003 (and many times previously) had made this one of the nation's most expensive roads to repair and maintain for the benefit of just a few dozen vehicles. The most recent upper road damage before 2003 occurred in 1995. Calling it "one of the nation's most expensive roads" is too vague to be constructive to the issue. Most expensive per mile? Per driver? Without actual facts/comparisons, this assertion is meaningless. The road isn't there to "benefit vehicles" it was there for climbers/hikers/mt. bikers to enjoy, and for fire-fighting, S&R,and other Gov. uses. The NCCC has always favored closing the road due to its impacts on wildlife, the Stehekin River, and other wilderness values. We were delighted that the issue was finally put to rest by the Park Service--that is, until Congressman Doc Hastings introduced, in August 2007, a bill (HR 3408) that would allow the road to be rebuilt by changing the boundary of the Stephen Mather Wilderness. The first part of this statement is a direct lie. The NCCC was founded in 1957 with the goal of creating the NCNP and did not make closing roads a goal. This road was administered by Chelan County, and remained as such until ~1990. Many Stehekin residents and NW climbers were early members of the NCCC, including NoCa First Ascentionists Duke Watson and Grant McConnell. In fact, founding member and arguable catalyst for the group's inception was Grant McConell, who took part in FAs of the area including the East Ridge of Buckner.... accessed via the Park Creek trail and upper Stehekin Road. To say that the NCCC has always favored this road's closing is either disturbingly ignorant or an intentional lie. The rest of the statement is not necessarily false, but is vague and/or intentionally misleading. The issue was not "put to rest" and the Superintendant of the NPS stated in a meeting during the summer of 2006 that the practical reality was: the washout could not be repaired within the existing corridor/right-of-way because the river changed courses to occupy this corridor. It was stated that the NCNP would follow directives of the people, through their reps in Congress,and if Congress Authorized a repair by moving the road right-of-way, then those directives would be followed. This short-sighted legislation is not only damaging to the recovery of this spectacular wilderness valley, it is a threat to wilderness everywhere and should be vigorously opposed. Without quantifying or explaining HOW the river negatively impacted wildlife, or explaining what road-induced impacts the valley is recovering from this is just more rhetoric. If there was ANY data showing negative impacts of the road to back up their assertions, they would be valuable inputs to this discussion source: http://www.northcascades.org/ I don't think that the NCCC really serves any community well by fabrications and vague assertions not grounded in facts. As mentioned above, its hard to swallow the excuse of "not enough funds" when we see how much the federal government spends on any-number of multi-billion dollar boon-doggles.

Climb steep overhanging limestone 5 mins from your car at American Fork.

I'm still not convinced that national park service repairs in the NCNP would directly compete for funds out of some given pool of money with other Forest Service repairs dear Darrington, or elsewhere on the west side. These are different departments of government, from a cabinet-level appointed executive on down. (interior vs agriculture) At the WCC meeting Marylou/Allison Woods asserted that these WERE directly competing uses of funds, but I was unable to see that explained, listed, or proven anywhere on the website she referred me to, and neither was she. http://appropriations.house.gov/Subcommittees/sub_ienv.shtml Maybe I am just blind and missing it, and Marylou could be 100% right, but I'd just like to know one way or the other. Anyone have evidence to suggest that National park road repairs would be conducted at the literal "expense" of National Forest repairs, both taking money from the same specific budget?

How did these all work out?

Pax is an intelligent human. He knows that one can purchase a brand new book for retail price. He knows that Daryl Cramer posts here, and wrote the guide. His guide was stolen, and he wants to replace it (a used guide) the cheapest way possible (with another used guide). Telling him that REI sells guidebooks, or the author sells guidebooks, is not particularly helpfull. Thank You for allow rational human to make post! High Five!

dDJrppHfpLA

Hwy is open now, and nice weather this week! Get after it.

1 liter per meter-squared of fabric? I'm curious on the area of gore-tex that this stat refers to. Also, this figure probably assumes conditions where heat/water vapor (simulated sweat) is evenly dispersed on one side of the membrane to begin with, meaning not realistic to a human body. (think arm pit vs shoulder)

Grab a tube of Seam Grip and those things will last a LOT longer. Good way to prevent having to spend a few hundred $$ more on new boots.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/connelly/340182_joel19.html

Ericb chooses to commute Seattle<--->Issaquah during rush hour. Random Issaquah/Bellevue drivers slow down to view political signs being waved during Rush hour. ie... Ron Paul and his supporters are dipshits.

Anyone else paying attention to this candidate? http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/politics/chi-1113ronpaulnov13,1,4407214.story Zogby polls predict him to get about 15-18% of the New Hampshire vote and he'll remain in the top-3 GOP candidates for fundraising. I think his support is due partly to his consistent beliefs, and partly due to how he presents them... no BS or political game playing, even if he knows his ideas are not popular or good in focus-groups. I wish that the candor with which he expresses his philosophy and ideas would be taken up by any of the other candidates. Listening to him sounds like a real person, not a robot. I'm really curious to know what others might think of him, particularly the manner/style in which he operates and speaks. I know this is spray, but I was hoping for a few semi-serious responses at least. It's also interesting that the most anti-Iraq-War candidate out there has received the most donations from military members. Might make one reconsider the concept of "supporting our troops."

I've met Jim and Bill coe, climbed with Joseph, and would climb with any of them again for sure. You must be referencing one of the three.

Anyone want to go out to Beacon on Friday or Saturday of next week? I've done a few routes out there but I am no local veteran, so I'm up for just about anything except Young Warriors. Weather looks dry and sunny.

Go through some of this: Get to some of this And enjoy some nice clean rock