wfinley

Wow! Any problems with mosquitoes and the mega-mid? We're headed there in August and can't decide on the tent. Also any special gear other than the usual alpine rock rack?

When we were living in the dorms in college (O'Shag hall) John Logan used to impress the resident muscle-heads by jumping up in the hallway and slapping the overhead concrete beams with his palms. He'd then hang on and do pull ups.

Any web geeks here played around with the Google Maps API? If so care to show your work? I've just started messing around with it and this morning did the basics like link in pix / html and I'm curious to see how others have used it. Here's what I've done; just basic image embed and link etc..

I once took my 13 year old nephew up the Grand. While hiking up to the Lower Saddle the evening before (6ish) I had 3 parties walk over to me and ask me if I knew that it was almost dark and to say that walking up to the Lower Saddle in low light with a child was dangerous. The next day while going up to he Upper Saddle I had 3 climbers go out of their way to tell me that I was being irresponsible and that the Grand was no place for a child. The ironic thing is these climbers were middle aged fat guys who had turned back from the summit due to fatigue.

That guy is a certified freak.

Also check out O'Connor's "The Trekking Peaks of Nepal". http://books.google.com/books?id=HLSNGzzP82gC&dq=bill+connor+trekking+peaks&pg=PP1&ots=EqOmjQ2ADC&sig=qAL1o1y4mvVw8N0cbsFuN8VulgU&hl=en&prev=http://www.google.com/search%3Fhl%3Den%26rlz%3D%26q%3Dbill%2Bconnor%2Btrekking%2Bpeaks%26btnG%3DGoogle%2BSearch&sa=X&oi=print&ct=title&cad=one-book-with-thumbnail As for Chessler -- it is one person. But out of a barn, not a garage. I've never had a problem with shipping.

The books you want are written by Jan Kielkowski. There are 5 of them and you can literally spend days thumbing through them. http://www.chesslerbooks.com/eCart/searchItem.asp?strSearch=Kielkowski&=GO

When I first got my Comforts the toepiece was really hard to lock. I found I actually had to put my ski pole under the toe and pull up; after a season they loosened up to where I could lock them with my fingers.

What kind of Dynafit's are these? I've been skiing Comforts for 5 years now and have had no problems. However - I am super anal about always cleaning the toe-piece and my boots before using them. I use leashes and leave a piece of wire tied to the leash to clean with. The leash system I have uses fastex buckles to secure the leash to my foot. These buckles fail with minimal force (I've broken them many times) so they would release in the event of an ave. That said - if I'm skiing something steeper sans leashes I lock my toe.

YMMV but the few nights I've spent at at Gunks campground have all been very quiet enjoyable nights. It was not dirty and definitely not a party scene.

I thought the blink tag had been banned. Thanks for bringing it to our attention. How'd you do that?

The Peters glacier is north of 14 camp; to get to 17 camp you go up the headwall then up the ridge that is in-between the 14 basin and the Peters. A number of people have fallen (and died) there - including an RMI guide and an NPS ranger in 1998. The NPS keeps 2000' of rope at 17 camp for rescues since they often have to lower people down the rescue gully to 14 camp. I don't know if they were able to use them though.

It snows in Cville every now and then... I used to actually ice climb when I lived there! Incidentally it must be a slow news day in Anchorage. Some pit bulls killed a cat and they got elevated to front page status. (Obama who?) http://www.adn.com/front/story/425938.html

Man... nothing that exciting ever happens in my office.

I said it fluctuated - thats all. Regardless -- the likelihood of being mauled by a pit bull is very slim. You're more likely to get gang raped in the park or die from eating too many hamburgers. People get so worked up over loose dogs - what happens when they travel out of suburban USA?

Rottweilers responsible for most fatal dog attacks on humans - 9/15/00

Fish

The bull ("Debo") was actually a pet we raised from a bottle. He used to come up and stick his head in the car window when you pulled up - scared visitors to death. Pharaoh used to run circles around Debo trying to get him riled up but Debo never got excited about anything. (BTW this was taken at my parent's farm outside of Cville VA.)

My mother-in-law has a pit bull she rescued from a shelter. It came from a larger city and it has issues. She has to work continually with the dog and it has already bitten one person. She talks to a pet psychic (I'm not kidding), sees a personal dog trainer and has a doggie masseuse come by once a week for stress relief. If you get a pit bull you might get lucky... or you might get a dog you have to work with all the time just to keep it under control. Once your dog shows signs of aggression either your life changes drastically to make sure it never bites anyone - or you chain the dog up in the back yard the rest of it's life. Either way it would suck. Personally I want a dog I can take out around strangers not have to worry about growling and nips. PS... I always have to like my favorite dog photo... this is my old dog Pharaoh. He died last spring - World's best dog. He was not really aggressive... honest!

Historically dog attacks fluctuate by breed. Right now pit bulls rank highest for fatal mauling - but in the past German Shepherds, Rottweilers and Dobermans have been in the lead. For most of the 90's Rottweilers ranked highest - and only recently have pit bulls taken the lead again. I'm of the mindset that any dog will bite under the right circumstances so one should always be aware of the consequences in case of a bite. That said - I have a pit bull / lab mutt and he's a pretty nice dog. Unless you're a squirrel.

Nice photos! The conditions look excellent! I saw your post about the NSB / Whaling Commission; my wife and I are friends with Layla Hughes and we've been watching the developments up there. Good work.

Excellent! Do you suppose they have wireless?

In the Guardian this morning. Hard to believe that there are still places like this left. "Aerial images prove existence of remote Amazon tribe"

May they RIP.

Way to go Marc! It's cool to see kids out climbing routes like this. When I was your age mom was still driving me to soccer practice. Next time the old guys pick on you, tell them where they can stick their ice axe.