Skeezix

N Side of Hidden Lake Peak is a snow slope that hangs around a long while. Great spring/early summer yo-yo ski slope.

Yeah ...war without end. Just like Orwell's 1984.

"I'm on the do-not-call list [click]"

More likely he's just that arrogant... No...I think he's stupid. He sounds stupid anyway.

Maybe you guys missed my intended irony. Bush said we were winning the war on terror ...using the earlier wrong numbers as evidence. He's quieter now. Just like "Mission Accomplished." Ha ha ...what a loser Bush is!

Didn't I see reports that one or more Iraqi detainees died at the the hands of their American captors in AGP? There's a contractor on trial for a death....

Bush crowed that we were winning the war on terror based on his administration's report that terror numbers were at a 30-year low. Now that they've admitted they were wrong and revised the numbers to show that terrorism is at a 20-year high, can we conclude that we're LOSING the war on terror under his leadership?

I can totally relate. Two buddies and I climbed into a storm on Lib Cap back in '82. The Ridge was a piece of cake. Navigating the top and finding our way down the Emmons was DUMB luck. In a whiteout at the top, I wanted to dig in and bivy, but my partners voted to keep going. We ended up doing the whole trip as an overnighter, car-to-car, from White R. Sounds like you danced right close to the edge... and made some new friends. Great post.

Way to go... I've been staring up at the Rat Creek Group since 1978. Some day I'd like to backpack up to the Lost World Plateau and just hang out up there for a week.

1. Get an early start before everything starts melting. 2. Every member of the party is a leader and keeps on top of the routefinding. 3. Pay attention. 4. Exceed your limitations in measured increments. 5. Plan for contingencies. 6. Always sign the climbing register --let someone know where you're going, where your vehicle is, and when you expect to be out. 7. Don't dawdle under overhanging ice and snow. Move quickly through the area. 8. Bail if it doesn't feel right (I know it has already been said...it bears repeating). 9. Don't let people talk to you while you're belaying. Pay attention! 10. Practice crevasse rescue in real crevasses. Make sure every member of your party can set up a z-pully extrication system. 11. Wear a helmet while climbing and travelling through areas where rockfall is a possibility.

The irony here...

Did you hear about the climber that locked his keys in his car? Called a locksmith and told him he'd better hurry --it looked like rain and he'd left the top down.

Fountains of Wayne, David Lindley, Dub Side of the Moon, Riley Baugus, Joseph Spence.

Damn, that's tough. I've got a little six-year-old boy with a big heart too. That's pure heroism for the boy to act in that circumstance, because he certainly lacked the experience to make much of a rational decision. He saw the situation and he acted without regard for himself.

Kidding!! I'm actually 48...

Kidding! I'm 49...

Sorry. I'm gay.

There used to be a carefully constructed stone chair ...kind of like a cross between a throne and a Barcalounger... on the slabs above the upper climber's camp in Boston Basin. It's gone now, but it was there for quite a few years. Anybody remember it? --or know who constructed it? It was so finely built that the climbing rangers left it in place for quite a few years even though the normal policy would be to deconstruct such installations. When one sat in it, you were facing Forbidden.

Hi God. I am one w/ the Universe.

Skeezix, where is Hidden Lakes Peak? The alpine bouldering at Cathedral Lake underneath Ampitheatre Mountain is unreal, real similar to Tuolomne Meadows, but more concentrated. Naturally clean w/ almost no lichen. Doesn't get any action so no chalk, it's onsighting every time you go! Amazing what 30 feet of snow all winter will do for some rocks. HLP is on the edge of N. Cascades N.P. in the Cascade River drainage. Low-angle ridge above and through the saddle between HLP and the bump on the ridge that has the fire lookout on it has exposed clean fractured granite with countless vertical cracks and other options. Short hike in.

Those days are behind me now, but I always thought bouldering was what you did at the end of the day when you were too stoned to belay.

Best alpine bouldering: Hidden Lakes Peak.

The Arab world is up in arms. Seems that a prisoner at Abu Ghraib was locked in a room for four hours with the Olsen twins. Inhuman torture.

The Peter Tosh theory.

Oops, right, I meant cragging:alpinism::playing catch:baseball