wfinley

According to this site since '97 only 17 out of 286 deaths were snowshoers. That's 6% - certainly not a large percentage; I fail to see where it's the dumb snowshoer getting into trouble.

You can rent boots, crampons and an ice axe from REI; what's the difference?

I feel for the people who been involved and are friends / family with the victim. That said... every time someone is caught in or dies in an avalanche there this call for "increased education" and the need to inform more people about ave potentials. When compared to climbers, skiers seem to think that the burden of responsibility falls upon the retailer, the pubic or even the government when it comes to avalanches - NOT upon the skier. According to the website referenced above there have been 500 avalanche deaths since 1985. A quick look through the latest Accident in NA Mountaineering (ANAM) list 578 deaths since 1985. Granted a portion of these deaths are due to aves (I can't separate them out since ANAM lumps all ave deaths from '59--06 in one table) but the majority of deaths are not due to avalanches but from other factors. The number of climbers deaths is almost equal to the number of skier ave deaths -- and I'm going to guess that there are far more skiers (especially since ave death statistics include ave deaths within resorts) -- yet you rarely, if ever, hear climbers saying we need more government funding for a program to educate climbers about potential risks. The reality is the average skier is more likely to die skiing without a helmet then in an avalanche - yet any ski helmet discussion usually brings about a 'personal responsibility' response - whereas an ave discussion talks about how we should fund centers. Why is it skiers continually preach education and ask for public funding? Is it a money thing (in that many of the skiers pushing this will actually benefit from it) - or is it that skiers tend to have less personal responsibility then climbers?

http://christianity.about.com/od/newchristians/a/proofgodexists.htm Nice... Christianity explained by About.com. That site has all the answers. It even told me how to put down bamboo floors.

Packrafting in Virginia. It's been Zero all week here... I'm ready for 40 degrees and rain. The Denali thread will die when Seahawks IT dept puts an internal filter on CC.com.

Funny - I recently finished re-reading The Odyssey and was thinking about re-reading The Inferno. Thanks for the reminder to check it out again!

Answersingenesis.org? Is this what they tell you to turn to when the questions get tough? http://www.answersingenesis.org/tj/v8/i1/whale.asp

After reading these comments I've decided it would be rather fun to camp next to the CFC team. Of course you'd have to bait them occasionally to get them wound up. This could easily be done with some prayer flags and an ACLU sticker strategically placed somewhere in camp. Dropping a BoA credit card might work too!

No no -- they won't give loans to Christians. It's all part of the vast "Cut God out of America and kill Christmas" conspiracy that's going on right now.

They really miss you.

What part of the West Butt is "festooned with Budhist [sic] prayer flags"?

They sued to stop federal funding to the boy scouts.

Please see the tin foil hat post above.

Seahawks - how do explain their list of cases defending Christian rights? Do they take these cases to help with the vast conspiracy cover-up?

Read before you rant: http://www.aclu.org/religion/govtfunding/26526res20060824.html

MoveOn is a Political Action Committees and thus donations are not tax deductible. Churches are tax except and donations a tax deductible. If a church starts telling it's congregation how to vote then they should lose their tax exempt status and donations should not be tax deductible.

According to Guide Star they are at 501©3 with an NTEE code of O99—Other Youth Development N.E.C.. CLIMBERS FOR CHRIST INC PO BOX 2528 BIG BEAR CITY, CA 92314 Unfortunately they are not required to file any 990s either due to religious affiliations. Thus we don't know how much VH is raking in to climb Denali.

So was the bad rendition of Hotel California that drove you out or what?

I used to climb at the New where half the sport routes were bolted by a 6'4" giant named Doug Reed. It seemed that all the crux clips were above good ledges with the bolt just out of reach (if you were under 6'). So we dealt with it by taking a 12 inch runner and taping a stick inside it and using the stick clip to clip all the hard to reach bolts. We named it Jesus because "Jesus saves you from heinous whippers". Being on a ledge without Jesus after a good run-out and with the bolt just out of reach was as close to God as I've ever gotten... If a Christian climber had been there to remind me to always climb with Jesus I might have clipped that bolt and redpointed the route. Unfortunately Jesus was down on the ground so I tried to clip off a crimper and whipped.

I have no issues if this guy wants to put together a Christian team for Denali... but if I were on the West Butt and these guys approached me and started preaching I would go off on them. Do what you want --- but leave everyone else alone. It's bad enough being belittled by the light and fast denomination when you're hauling up wheels of cheese and enough whiskey to last 3 weeks. But being stuck in 14 camp with a crew holding religious gatherings would drive me mad!

I likewise suffer from Reynauds. I've found that one solution is to carry two pairs of gloves - one well fitting glove that you use for most purposes -- but to also carry another pair of gloves that are 1 size too big. Once my fingers go numb there is nothing I can do to return the feeling until I switch out my gloves for my larger pair. I usually leave the larger pair on for 30 minutes to an hour before the numbness goes away and then I switch back. Mitts work well for skiing - but if you need to do any rope-work you need gloves and the larger size seems to enable me to still do things like clip biners and tie knots. I wear size medium and carry one pair of M tight fitting whatever gloves (I seem to trash gloves easily so I go through 2-3 pairs a season) and 1 pair of L Patagonia gloves that I've had for about 4 seasons. The larger pair doesn't see much use so they've lasted for a while.

Thailand is pretty kid friendly; we saw numerous families with kids of all ages out climbing. You just toss your kids in the water and climb - there is no current or surf and it's quite safe. There are also a bunch of moderate kids routes. That said I think that the summer months are Thailand's rainy season. When I was a kid my parents dragged me all over Asia and South America... it was a wonderful experience that I still remember vividly.

The last time I went on an internet blind date we ended up $#@%^$% biving. I have met Sobo and Rumr... but it was before they became CC.com incarnations. In person they are as scary as they appear online.

“The original is huge and inspiring, depicting the glory of God's creation. I chose to honor it by re-interpreting it from a modern perspective. We all love such places and they have a special place in our hearts, but they can be intimidating in their vastness. What better way to calm our fears than by including something homey and familiar, which is what I did in this painting.”

Who is Howard Roark? ...oh wait wrong book. Besides Roark was an architect.