selkirk

Layla from Unplugged or Wonderful Tonight gotta love EC

I don't like projecting so probably no more than 2 or 3 goes before getting a route clean. I always thought I learned more by climbing a variety of stuff than long term projecting.

That made my day!

Ok, that doesn't count. I have to work monday too

Is anybody else working today? I'm sick and tired of working weekends god damnit!!!!

What he said. The Quark Ergo's are great tools

Is there any way to correct those electronic body fat scales?

It will be interesting to see how she does in the debates.

the book "How to climb 5.12" has some similar comments. For me it boiled down to the best training for climbing is climbing. Climb lots, climb variety, climb near your limit. Projecting to submission at or above your upper limit is not as effective for overall improvement as getting mileage on a greater variety at or near your limit. Strength training wasn't even recommended until your trying to push into 5.11+ range, and even then your better off with focused training (to work on your weaknesses). Bulk strength also has little do with good footwork or creative resting/problem solving which always seems to get me further than pulling harder.

5'10" 156 butt naked 2 min even 12+3/4 (no kipping) WI-3 (but I've probably only led 6 pitches of ice )

Ok, now that's just not fair to the rest of us stuck in Seattle for the week

Fun climb, with surprisingly good gear

not to be a pill but Mark, does your wife lead everything she climbs? I know mine doesn't. She loves to get out climbing, but would much rather belay and follow or TR routes. After some rough experiences during her first few leads her headspace is very poor, though she's slowly working on it. Does that mean that She shouldn't have the opportunity to climb? I guess one of the basic questions is, "Is leading more valuable than top roping?" such that everyone should only climb what they can lead? Or does the individual who loves climbing but doesn't lead, have less right to a route than someone who will lead it? Sieging climbs and not letting others in in BS though I don't mind people stringing a TR, but at least be willing to pull it to let other parties climb.

I think I see where you're going with this one, but I would posit that warm chocolate and/or caramel sauces would work better than frosting in this regard... well someone has to fill in during Archie's hiatus

Seriously! How did Mr. Selkirk make it out of the 2nd grade without knowing that? For a true frosting connoisseur Candles are horribly inefficient vehicle for frosting delivery! Mrs. Selkirk swears by two spoons, one for the frosting, one for the peanut butter And if your going to be inefficient, then you should probably have more fun with your frosting than candles could provide.

Why would you put frosting on candles? Seems like a waste Happy b-day Mel!

linky linky

Today started out as one of those days where you contemplate throwing yourself out the window. Then you remember your only 1 story up. That's just far enough to break a leg or an ankle and ruin your climbing season, but only far enough to get you out of a day or two's worth work. Dammnit, they gave me a laptop and I could work from hospital. bugger all. However after 10 yr old Single Malt Irish Whiskey My day is vastly improved :tup: warm, sweet, smooth. Just doesn't get much better

exactly Moron, Thanks for clarifying my point. If the Mounties taught improvisation that would be great....but they often teach outdated attitudes which rely on dogma as opposed to sound judgement and self reliance/knowledge. You seem to get the idea that the Mountains are a dynamic environment and approaching them with a flexible attitude and a broad range of skills often serves one best. You should go teach for the Mounties, you could stir things up a bit. First off you might want to seperate the "Mountaineers" from the basic course students, there are lots and lots and lots of mountaineers floating around doing lots and lots of climbs that aren't under the mountie formal umbrella. Usually you would just call the climbers. As for the Basic course..."We" teach "a" set of skills that won't get you killed. It may not be the most modern. It may not help you climb 5.12 this year, or help you free El Cap. It may not help you climb a Himalayan or Patagonian peak. They will keep you from killing yourself in the near future and give you enough grounding to teach yourself and continue to learn and of course not kill yourself. For a lot of the students getting their first exposure to technical climbing of any sort a single safe way of doing it is about the maximum amount of information that they can absorb. Every time I teach I get lot of "what if" questions, and like teaching in any field I try and provide more detail, understanding, and choices to the students who are capable of absorbing it. And no, they don't teach the dulfersitz anymore (though I've used it on occasion, and shown it to a few people), they don't teach wrapping the rope around your foot or leg to lock the rope off when tying off a fallen climber. They also aren't doing 50 person field trips anymore. Teaching is a balancing act of giving the student enough information without overloading them. The instructors I've worked with always do there best to be flexible with what information is passed on to students, and tuning things to individuals. With the shift from large classes to small instructional groups (6 to 10 people I think) things are becoming progressively more flexible, and the students are also being allowed to leverage previous experience and knowledge to bypass some of the courses. I know mounties who have been up plenty of respectable climbs (Washington Column, Liberty Crack, 20k+ first ascents in China, yada, yada, yada, yada) in good (safe, not hindering other climbers, not scarring the rock) but not groundbreaking style. On the other hand during his first two climbs as a "climb leader" one of my climbing mentors, ended up having his entire basic climbing glacier groups participate in rescues of other parties that were both guided by "professionals". Go figure... So basically STFU noob. If your going to be talking like a "expert" you might want to be aware of current practice. Besides it's been my experience that the most vocal detractors of anything are the most likely to be angry arm-chair enthusiasts.

Some of the info on the Mounties is recently outdated. The Seattle Branch (which takes most of the head), has recently shifted from large single course (200+ students) to smaller groups, and are breaking apart alpine skills, rock, and glaciers a little more so that you don't necessarily have to go through all of them, or all of them at once. There are also some much more brief courses, like intro to rock climbing sort of things, with the goal of getting you ready to lead 5.7ish sport safely. The Mounties are a bit rigid, but the basic courses mostly start with the assumption that the students have never done anything technical. It's also rather common to start there with a climbing course, develop a few basic skills, and more importantly develope a network of climbing partners to get out with.

Let them carry their own gear, but make sure they get some "group gear" you know, chocolate, marshmallows and graham cracker On my first backpacking trip, our stove turned into a fireball and melted into a little puddle of aluminum It was cool!

Friction is Stranger than Truth

Tieton: Bolted Belay's Good Pro Soft Grades You are very mean individual. Tieton is the only place I have ever heard comments like: "That's the only 5.4 I've ever climbed with a crux!" "That 5.5 has a 5.7 crux" "Fist crack" used to describe a crack that I can comfortable knee bar Grades seem to normalize around 5.9+ and up, but the stuff below 5.9 there is consistently stiff for the grade (compared to other local climbs) The cracks have a lot of undulations and can also be a bit funky on cam's, but take truly bomber hexe's Not a good place for tenative new leader IMHO

I still like having a cubicle with a window that looks across the Boeing Field runway The A-10 kicked but too!

someone from Oregon?