John Frieh

and buys some intel stock while you're at it! multi core is the future! all your processors are belonging to us!

I suspect so based on my conversations with Kellie. Then again any money donated to the Access Fund is money well spent.

I'm returning the gear. It's the right thing to do. I hope the owners follow suit and donate some money to the Access Fund.

Doing the right thing... So after a long winter of watching and waiting it appeared that the correct conditions needed to bring the black spider in were going to materialize on Sunday. Marcus and I headed up on Sat so we could get a high bivy and rest our legs for Sunday's attempt. We were cruising the ridge climbers left of the ski area when we saw something red under a large rock. Marcus pulled out his scope and we glassed it for a few minutes... too large to be a backpack. Fuck... do you think? It had to be one of the bodies from the first accident this year. So what do you do? The black spider comes in maybe once or twice a winter. More people have climbed yocum ridge than the spider. So what do you do? You do the right thing... you go check it out. You take care of your own. We descended 500' to find two red backpacks + a mini yard sale of gear. No bodies. The packs had been left end to end giving the appearance from a distance that it was a body in the fetal position. At first we thought it was abandoned gear from the north side accident... we started looking around for birds (old mountain rescue trick... where there are birds there is usually a body). No birds... We started looking for ID in the packs and I found this: Fuck. But relief. But still: fuck. We just wasted an hour and 1000' of travel to find someone's garbage. Fuck. So off we sped back up hill to try and make up for lost time. We made it to about 8.1k before the predicted storm rolled in so we settled in and hoped we could make up the lost distance in the morning. But you know how it turns out... the storm lasted till 6 am (as predicted) and we both knew our window had expired as we couldn't make up for lost time. No black spider. Again. Next year I guess. We rolled back down hill to the yard sale. Marcus and I were able to easily see the parking lot from the location of the jettisoned gear. Each balancing an expedition size backpack on our head in addition to each carrying our gear from our black spider attempt (30 lbs each) on our back we were able to cover the distance from the recovery spot to the parking lot in 45 minutes post holing the whole way. 45 minutes to the parking lot. It sucked... my neck still hurts... but it was the right thing to do. So the unpopular part... I don't know how to say this without making it sound like a personal attack... it's not my intention. But based on the larger ramifications (required MLUs) of this event + the north face triple fatality I feel the need to speak my piece. Based on: - the location of the found gear - the TR describing the ordeal - the contents of the gear - the presence of the gear on the mountain this long after the event it is apparent this team did not have the technical skill or knowledge to be on the mountain this time of year. - There are safer, more accessible locations than Illumination rock in winter that exist to learn the art of snow caving - Understand that when NOAA predicts 80% PoP that it translates loosely into "fucking nuking" - Map and compass skills are not optional or designated to just one person. Everyone should have taken a compass bearing and conferred as a team. - Everyone should have self arrest skills. Looking at the "cliff" the leader fell off it should have been easily caught/self arrested by the team... not the entire team going over. - Having a GPS coordinate marking the parking lot as well as at Silcox and the top of Magic Mile would have prevented all of this as well as told one how close one was to the parking lot. - Clean your garbage up off the mountain as quickly as humanly possible especially if other unrecovered bodies on the mountain still exist. I lost my attempt doing the right thing while you were busy drinking pints at the lucky lab. I hope anyone considering Hood anytime in the future makes sure they have the skill and knowledge to avoid making these same mistakes and not having to rely on a MLU or a cell phone. It would be the right thing to do. If you feel you need an MLU and/or cell phone for the "just in case" situation perhaps you should reevaluate your objective and skill set. I think it is awesome the group has been raising money for PMR. But what about the rest of us? What about the rest of the climbing community? What do we get out of the deal? As far as I can tell decreased access and new laws to adhere to. I would like to see some of the money raised be donated to the access fund so they can attempt to fight the proposed MLU requirement. I think it would be the right thing to do.

Just a guess but "Dod's jam" out a beacon might have some jamming on it... just a guess. If we tell you where the local crack problems in PDX are do you promise not to bitch about people using chalk on them?

+ 8D baa = Get better baller so you can get in line early for the new modest mouse album

make sure it is a core duo!

Call on it! Bill Coe is always looking for another rental...

How much? Did anybody call on it yet?

Do these pants make my butt look big? :laf: Does anybody have a req on a body fat monitor/scale? Certain brand and/or model? Seeing how fat my fellow cube farmers have grown from the daily grazing has me a little paranoid...

I'll pass on the TR Bill (hijacking is so much more fun!)... if peeps have questions they can send me a pm. I'll post a few more pics later... Marcus's girl took a few from the ground. The 1st pitch bolts are great/new... after 4 cut left and follow them across to the belay. The 1st pitch belay shared the belay bolts for Highway 97 so they are super fat new ones. A little choss on the first pitch... nothing too bad but if peeps are hanging out for Teddy Bear's picnic give them a heads up before you launch off. And p1 is 10-... some might try to call it an "a"... some a "b"... whatever... 10- is good enough for me... How loose is it? I have a hard time answering this as everyone has a different opinion... my teenage years were spent at smith or around the OR casacades so my idea of loose might be a little more liberal than most... How about this? All the belays are protected/out of the line of fire from rock fall (as the route never really goes straight up) so as long as you have a healthy set of lungs to yell rock at the hikers below and a fine selection of small to mid sized cams to sew with you should be fine. For reference if you have done the farmers route this one is significantly less choss. I will say for what it is or isn't worth for the aspiring alpine climber (especially those interested in first ascents) this is a great alpine trainer/sampler... face climbing on p1, traverse/downclimbing on p2, pigeon poop wallowing on p3, sustained 5.9 on some loose rock on p4 and an offwidth for p5... basically a little bit of everything. Plus it will make you bring a back pack or at least climb with your shoes on your harness as you wouldn't be able to easily rap it. This will ensure good times on p5 So yeah... a little alpine sampler. Pro: set of nuts, blue - red alien, 0.4 - 3.5 c4 singles (if you sew you might want doubles in 0.5 - 2). Mileage will vary. Now I just need to con someone into climbing shiprock with me 50' loops of 1" webbing? check.

sounds like I have been studying the wrong bible lately Bill: that is free lunch... my favorite route on PLW to date

I think it mentions the popularity and consequences of falling out of the top in the guidebook... Good to hear he is okay How soon can we go to the city?

Revelation 10a. People love falling out of the top and breaking their ankle. my new favorite smith route:

Nice work Tyler! Consider replacing the belay bolts on Free Lunch... the first pitch anchor is okay but top of 2, 3 and 4 could use an upgrade. Great route that would be even better with new hardware! Speaking of PLW I believe one of the two bolts at the top of pitch 2 is still missing on the farmer route also...

I'll be there unless my boss sends me to China At this point I am showing only sawtooth slides unless people are interested in seeing photos from either 3 fingers or ice climbing in CO, MT, UT, OR, etc.

Sorry... I'm a little overcapacity at the moment :laf: So many baa so little time

Ahhh... nice... now I understand why they call it "stumptown"

:brew:

granite in renton

Hope to see all you turds there

Praise jesus! http://www.espressomap.com/ Interesting findings when comparing SEA vs PDX

RB will always have some level of trash just like smith will always have crowds or broughton will always have poison oak or club sport will always have MILFs (not that I look at them or anything ). Every area has something... who cares? Climbing outside with cool people 30 minutes from work beats cube farming any day of the week. I don't know about the rest of you but the more I climb the better I get so I'm going to do it as much as possible even if it means spray paint, chopped bolts, freeway noise, trash, etc etc. Hope to see you all out there