KaskadskyjKozak

Right now Ptarmigan Ridge looks... scary, but earlier season, it would be tough to resist climbing once you get this far. :-)

Trip: Observation Rock - North Face Date: 9/30/2012 Trip Report: My friend JP and I climbed Observation Rock yesterday. We camped at the walk-in at Mowich Lake and started out with headlamps at about 5:30 am. It was cold at night (about 40) and we walked on some ground hoar frost on the upper part of Spray Park trail. This boded well for nice firm snow on the route. A stream was even frozen on the ridge below the route, coming off the snow fields below the glacier: My partner has not done a steep snow climb yet, so I led out first. I wanted to simulclimb if possible as the slope is pretty mellow at the bottom. JP was cool with that. I ended up placing 3 pickets then set up an anchor that seemed just over a rope length from the top, and brought up JP: To my surprise JP wanted to lead the second pitch, so I pointed out a spot to shoot for that seemed to be a good belay. When he got there though, there was about 40 feet of rope left and I encouraged him to just top out. He was about 6 feet short, so we just simulclimbed that bit and he hip belayed me from the top. It is worth noting that rockfall was minimal. At the top it was sunny and surprisingly warm, even hot with convection waves visibly rising from the volcanic, mooonscape rock. We scrambled to the summit, where one solo hiker was just heading out. Summit view of the Nordwand of Rainier: We then headed down, passing a few more hikers on the scramble route. I'm sure the NPS does not approve of rock walls, bivy sites, etc, especially the one below, which is one of the most impressive and elaborate sites I have ever seen anywhere: The hike out was quite pleasant, as it always is in summer and fall in Spray Park. Here is a parting shot, with our route the obvious snow ramp on the right. Gear Notes: 4 pickets, ice axe, 2nd tool, helmet. Approach Notes: Dry and dusty.

+1

plain-flying musilm speach?

My advice would be to not underestimate how long it takes to get up Torment and down to the rap (and plan a turnaround time if you are way off on your guess).

Musilms flying plains?

We had two awesome back-to-back ski years that blew chunks for climbing. Now we get the inverse. Go with the flow.

Winter ascent of Rainier, anyone?

ah poor kev. you ARE special. Yes, he is very thpethal

I'd rather drink them

oly oly oly, you know dumbbone is just trolling you, no?

could point out that hood's in oregon but then, hey, they got a similiar thign going this year! (and i can't think of a time i've ever been in the timberline p-lot and NOT seen some snowboarders toking up) holy shit, this article from a couple days ago says 58% in support of 502 in the state! http://redmond.patch.com/articles/poll-should-i-502-go-up-in-smoke-cfbc176a duh... I've been drinking too... let's pretend it's in WA, then ;-)

If it's legal and I don't have to worry about my shit getting confiscated, I'll smoke a bowl with you somewhere - top of the Palmer's mayhap? ;-)

My premise is essentially that I abhor those that have the bumper sticker AND those who loose their shit over them. One is a pretentious fuck and the other an ignorant troglodyte. It's an annoyance - "let's wish away people's profoundly different belief systems and human nature to squabble with each other over anything"

You've got your symbol: nothing. Quite a propos. ;-)

please tell me you're voting for i502 in november then? Of course I am.

0.01 pounds. $10K bail. Arraignment, blah blah blah. Waste of f-ing time and money.

Morons, find something better to do...

Well prejudice usually goes hand in hand with closed mindedness. You can blame the mexicans for coming here trying to make a better life for themselves, but they wouldn't come if farmers didn't give them jobs without a valid greencard. The problem is employers. It's no different then Indians coming to Redmond and Seattle to work (legally). You can jump up and down and say "they are stealing our jobs!", you can jump up and down at Amazon "you are giving our jobs away!". In reality our kids would rather play DS something and dream of being the next red bull guy then get smart, have some fucking foresight, and invest in themselves. So we are giving those jobs away. You can blame "the blacks", and opening this up to all races really in any poor region, what kind of expectations do you have of people that are offered a shit education where the parents aren't educated so they can help, shit jobs after their education if there is even a job. Do these people really see a future for themselves? Mr. Romney is for lower corporations taxes, and lowering the taxes of the beneficiaries of those companies (Bush tax cuts on dividends). In doing so, he says that will decrease unemployment. Well guess what? Corporations, especially public ones exist to make money for their shareholders, not create job. They employ as few people as they can to make money. If Amazon could run on 10 employees they would. The problem in this country is two fold. Our tax system is slanted towards helping corporations and the "1%" get richer, and at the same time is prohibiting the middle class entrepreneur of getting into the 5% (I call 5% Romney middle class, those making close to $250k) because not only of a large tax burden for operating a small business, but as I've stated before large risk. The biggest risk is health coverage. How many people over thirty with a family and mortgage are going to go out on their own knowing that if things don't go hell they will not be able to provide health coverage? If we had universal health coverage in this country you will see a huge increase in the number of people going into business for themselves and increasing innovation. You see the 5%'ers on the right stomping up and down and they should be they are paying an unfair amount of taxes compared to large corporations. Their corporate taxes aren't 18% they are closer to 35%. It's like this enormous speed bump for most middle class people, and any corporation you go up against whether it is a restaurant or a widget has a huge, huge advantage. But you never see this as part of the discussion with Republicans, the only thing you hear come out of their mouths is talking about tax holidays for large corporations and such. They don't give a shit about middle class business owners. I don't mean to be prejudiced or anything, but you know that you are talking to a dog? A YELLOW dog!

This is it in a nutshell. We could make up a lot of the costs by just moving end-of-life care out of the hospital to hospice. Yes, bring on the Death Panels!!

Except he never said it.

And Obamacare fixes that how? You first. Start somewhere with a lot of fat fucks, like the deep South. We'll eagerly await hearing how that goes for you.

Yep, onionesque

Something like that

Nail in the coffin? I think a sports analogy would be more appropriate. Romney just threw an interception that was run back for a touchdown. His team is down 14 points and there's 14 minutes left on the clock...