Skeezix

I don't know if it is currently posted not to camp on the meadow. It's difficult to post signage for the Sulfide because the trailhead is in National Forest. One doesn't enter the park until Shannon Ridge, and the only sign there is a small National Park boundary sign. Usually information about restrictions on camping are provided at the point where the camping permit is issued. And now that you press the question, I'm not sure I'm recalling this right... I know I issued the guy a citation and lectured him for sleeping on the heather and providing such a poor example for his students, but the infraction that resulted in the citation might have been something else, like camping w/o a permit. It's been at least fifteen years since I was a Tool of the Man, and my memory is notoriously unreliable.

Camping w/o a permit...illegal campfire...dog in a no dog area... I once got cited for an illegal campfire in Whiteoak Canyon in Shenandoah N.P. I worked as a mountaineering ranger in N. Cascades National Park for ten summers and wrote less than a dozen citations. And the problem with sleeping on heather is that heather is particularly fragile. Camping on it kills it, and leads to a spot of bare dirt in the meadow in about one season. Surfaces resilient to damage from most to least durable: Snow, rock, bare ground or sand, sedge/grassy, heather meadow. Choose your campsite accordingly.

Was the tool. He deserved it.

Hmmm. I'm a liberal progressive, and I value self-reliance and independence. I'm also conservative, in that I believe in conserving resources such as clean air and water --recycling, energy conservation, and all that. I tend to think of political conservatives as very materialistic and resistant to policies that discourage consumption of developable land --and therefore not conservative in an economic sense.

This thread has focused on criticizing the Mtnrs training program in terms of safety. Another issue is how well the club trains beginners to travel and camp in the mountains with minimal impact on the resource. After I issued a citation to a Mountie leader for sleeping on heather on Sulfide Ridge, the Mounties invited me to give a presentation to their climbing course leaders at the Seattle clubhouse. I showed slides of climbs and climber impact in the North Cascades and reviewed the NPS expectations regarding minimum-impact camping and travel. They were quite interested and willing to admit that their instruction in minimum-impact was, well... minimal. My message to them was that they have a high responsibility to ensure that their newbies are receiving adequate instruction in the philosophy and skills underlying no-trace camping because they are introducing so many new recreational users. I don't know if this resulted in them beefing up the curriculum in this area or not, but I left the meeting hopeful.

It's Webb in Virginia. Cheney is neutered in Senate. The rebuke is almost complete.

Cinnamon Imperials!

Mike the Mover

The Cook the Thief His Wife and Her Lover drove me crazy. By the end of the movie I realized the narrator's voice was making me really edgy. I kept hearing it long after the film ended.

I'm taking December 4th.

Hey. Lighten up on old FW. He's hung in there with us when all the others bailed to ascension... Fairweather is a cc.commer. Show some respect. Cut the guy some slack. The republicans are in a tailspin, enjoy watching them cannibalize each other.

Nanook of the North

From today's Seattle Times: Among social conservative activists in Washington on Monday, there was intense anger and calls for House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., to resign. Even the editorially conservative Washington Times joined the calls. "Either he was grossly negligent for not taking the red flags fully into account and ordering a swift investigation ... or he deliberately looked the other way in hopes that a brewing scandal would simply blow away," said an editorial posted on the newspaper's Web site.

Can someone resize this TR so it's easier to read?

Post 'em!

Because the Republians are in free fall.

I did Outer Space in 3:25 car-to-car w/o a windshirt.

Here's a photo taken at the atomic bomb museum in Hiroshima:

Partied with Mos Chillin at Kids Rope Up. Phew!

Here's some pix from this weekend: Doping w/ Gu and PBJs at the base of the Fish Wall. Picture him in about two years... Sean belays one of the twins at Barney's Rubble. Lopez epicures. Kill the pig!

The weather forecast is less than optimal...

I'm packin'! Bringing the grill and sausages. Let the stoke begin!!

Does anyone have any Paul Boving cartoons scanned that they can post? I have an almost complete set of Off Belays, so I could probably scan some...

I'm sorry, but the Grateful Dead suck. Guns and Roses suck too. The Stones were pretty good at one time... Keith Richards played some cool rhythm guitar parts.