Skeezix

Ouch!

Paulaner Hefeweizen! Mmmmmmm...

I dropped into the void on a crevasse once. My buddies didn't have any trouble catching me, but the rope cut way into the lip. That makes getting out awkward. It's usually pretty hard to fall in. I was being cheeky when I did it.

Rumsfeld's staying. Bush must want him because he's done such a great job prosecuting the war in Iraq. Mission accomplished! Can anyone say quagmire?

I second this.

I hate to be a spoiler, but Snoboy told this one wrong... It's not It's Doc! My buddy just got bit by a rattlesnake. What should I do?" He doesn't tell the doc where on the man the bite was...

Guy walks into a convenience store to buy a pack of condoms, but the clerk is a foreign man who speaks no English. The guy tries every way he can think of to ask for condoms, but is unable to get his message across. Finally, in an act of desperation, he drops five dollars on the counter, whips out his schlong and points to it. With a sudden look of understanding on his face, the clerk whips out his own schlong, which turns out to be longer, and then snatches up the guy's money and pockets it.

WTF. Oh for fuck's sake!

Mount Analogue by Rene Dumal any of Joe Tasker's books

What pass in the North Cascades is named after early trapper Gaspar Petta?

You can never get justice or revenge, but think of this: this loser has to go through life being a jerk who breaks into other people's cars. This is the best he has to offer in this world, and that's pretty pathetic.

PM me your address to send the photos to. They're illustrative, especially photos of the avalanche track. I'm sure Curt told you how the accident happened. On the day we flew in and rescued Curt, we used a basket slung on a long cable beneath the helo to pluck him off the ridge. The next day we flew in with some volunteers from Bellingham Mountain Rescue. We placed spotters with radios to watch for ice fall. Rex Myers and I traversed above the icefall and set some anchors, and I rappeled down to a col just above the accident site. I was able to walk down to the ice plug that covered Gary. The ice had broken up as it tumbled down the glacier, and Gary was putting his crampons on in a moat, which is a gap between the glacier and the rock ...sort of a deep trough. In fact, this moat was so deep that the surface of the glacier was over Gary's head, so he likely didn't hear the slide coming. The icefall tumbled into the moat and filled it up, burying Gary and, I'm assuming, killing him instantly. Curt was several yards below Gary, and the ice knocked him backwards and buried his lower body, but he was able to extricate himself. Over several days the ice, which had likely fractured into pieces as it tumbled down the glacier, froze solidly in place. I think it probably weighed several tons. I stood on top of this ice plug, directly above Gary, and whacked on it with my ice axe. It was frozen solidly in place, and I realized that there was no way we were going to be able to get to him. I briefly entertained the idea of calling for a chain saw because I've read of cases where chain saws have been used to cut ice in crevasse rescue operations in Europe... but Bill Lester was sounding nervous over the radio watching the ice fall and I knew we weren't going to get to him that day. We left and that was the end of it until Gary's remains melted out several years later. The following Fall I went over to Curt's house in Bellingham and we looked at slides and discussed the accident. There is really no clear lesson to be learned in terms of prevention. The accident site is not even really below the icefall... In one of the photos I took at the scene, you can clearly see the track the ice made as it slid down the glacier. It didn't fall straight down. For some odd reason, it curved to the right (facing downhill) and slid over into that moat. It was completely unpredictable. I don't remember the time of day the accident occurred. It's best to climb early as icefall occurs more often late in the day.

Take a fishing rod. We did it N to S.

FW is getting trounced in this thread.

What are "cheat sheets"?

Crab cakes and Oyster-Pumpkin Souffle

John ...see PM.

One can't really buy anything in Taholah anyway...

Remember when congress failed to vote for impeachment of Clinton? Who was the Republican congressmen with the penultimate whiny voice that said, "Of course he won, he always wins...?"

I can't remember the year Scott and John skied from Watson Lake to Beaver Pass via Jasper Pass, Pioneer Ridge, Crowder, Challenger, Wiley-Eiley. Scott worked as a climbing ranger in NOCA and wintered in the Sierra, ski bumming around Mammoth Lakes. I believe Scott's father was a career NPS ranger.

I worked with Scott at N. Cascades N.P. He was working in Alaska and was lost when a plane went down over water. Turnagain Arm, I believe?

Nice shade of yellow.

School cafeteria food, which at the Taholah School, is not bad. Way to go Ken!

I'm glad this family was able to recover Gary's property. I was with the NPS team that rescued Gary's partner, Curt. I also attempted to recover Gary's body the next day, but he was buried under a twelve foot thick plug of glacial ice. I'm sure he was killed instantly. He was known in Bellingham for his passion for mountains, environmentalism, and photography. R.I.P. Gary Gray and my sympathies to his family and friends.