selkirk

For getting started camping / hiking / first aid, it's actually pretty hard to go wrong with a Boy Scout handbook. All kinds of usefull stuff in there. IMHO kind of like Freedom of the Hills for kids.

Love that climb The finger crack was cool, but I actually had more fun on the undercling traverse on P4 !

I've found that I was a pretty conservative climber before the little one (almost ones ) arrived. I've certainly dialed back the amount I was climbing, but not so much the technical difficulty. In fact my two biggest climbs to date came after Geneva was born. Nothing exceptionally dicey, but "challenging" for me. That said I was never drawn to the high risk ends of the game. Ice climbing is interesting, but I'll only go in good conditions. Winter, mixed alpine, and steep snow all seem too inherently unforgiving to be attractive to me. There's plenty of long, hard, challenging, but also reasonably safe routes that I find more attractive and am drawn to. I'm wiling to risk injury, but I'm naturally conservative enough to back off before I'm risking death, even if the chances are small. 5.12 at Index is damn hard but still reasonably "safe", the NE Butt on Chair Peak in winter is much easier but IMHO also less "safe".

hmmm... Passive: Blue DMM offset alloy nut Red DMM offset alloy nut Yellow WC curve Hex Active: Gold Link Cam / Silver Metolius Super Cam Yellow Metolius Master Cam Blue WC Zero Cam

Solid 5.8+ :fight: Heady/committing/greasy/technical 5.9 is about right. If you go into it with 5.10 footwork it's no problem and definitely 5.9 but it can't be muscled, must be finnessed. Also helps if you're flexible an can stretch to the good foothold

Exactly. I can think of several studies i've read looking at elderly care and medicares costs per person that have all shown that it's much less expensive to pay up front with prevention, monitoring, and support than to pay on the back end for acute cases. Even going locally I had a chance to talk to some folks who worked at Harborview and were well versed in the topic and some local work had shown the cost in ER visits for local homeless folks per year was more than 2x what the cost would be to house them. Right now these same folks are all getting healthcare, it's just a shell game of when, where and who picks up the tab. I'm not trying to pick on you in particular - but I'll respond to your post since you seem like a smart, reasonable guy and you seem to be sympathetic to the arguments put forward by everyone else who supports the mandate. Which studies are you referring to? Systematic reviews of the costs and benefits of "prevention" do not support any such generalization. "Our findings suggest that the broad generalizations made by many presidential candidates can be misleading. These statements convey the message that substantial resources can be saved through prevention. Although some preventive measures do save money, the vast majority reviewed in the health economics literature do not." http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp0708558 The notion that the uninsured are the primary driver of cost shifting that other payers have to bear is also false. That distinction belongs to medicare and medicaid, both of which systematically pay less than it costs to provide care for those covered by the programs, and the costs of the shortfall are passed onto private payers. Cost shifting from Medicare and Medicaid adds roughly 15% to private payer premiums(1). The uninsured add less than two percent(2). (1)http://publications.milliman.com/research/health-rr/pdfs/hospital-physician-cost-shift-RR12-01-08.pdf (2)http://www.kff.org/uninsured/upload/7809.pdf Finally - if you support mandating the purchase of health insurance on the grounds that those who do not do so are imposing costs on everyone else, how would you feel about the government mandating that everyone in the country maintain a healthy body weight and fining those who refuse to comply with the mandate on the basis that they are imposing costs on everyone else? It's not clear to me how a logically consistent person could support the former and not the latter. New Yorker article on Treatment approach Atlantic Article on more efficient medicare spending.

No offense intended to Crazy Polish Bob, but your girlfriend must be pretty ugly. You tell me Dude, she has a beard!

I'd add Infrastructure and planning, Incarceration, education, national mental health, diplomacy, healthcare, and I could probably keep going. That's not that private industry doesn't have a place in these, but IMHO they shouldn't be managed or directed by private industry.

I don't think that's true. People delay healthcare (and choose not purchase insurance) all the time and choose not to purchase insurance all the time. But if thing go acute, critical, or chronic than they will receive health care at some point on somebodies dime, and in a less efficient fashion (both cost-wise and out-come wise).

You only get to "choose" not to have health care, if the rest of us get to "choose" to let you die in the street like a rat. BS. Who dies in the street like a rat? Hyperbole does not make your argument, it just makes your argument stupid. Do you think that fellow who got his face chewed off was insured? Did he die like a rat? No, he was treated and is being treated and will undergo multiple surgeries. There are many valid arguments about what is wrong with our current health care system; your comment is not one of them. That's the whole point. As a society we aren't willing to let the uninsured NOT receive medical treatment if they need it. Which is why Kevbones "choice" not to be a healthcare consumer is an invalid one. Even if he doesn't want healthcare, the rest of us have decided he's going to get it if he needs it.

Just as fake an argument. Agreed. I never implied that Govt. was necessarily more efficient at everything, but it certainly is at some things.

You only get to "choose" not to have health care, if the rest of us get to "choose" to let you die in the street like a rat. Since the rest of us aren't willing to make choice (thank god), then you ARE going to consume health care whether you want to or not, and whether you can afford to pay or not. If you are willing to make that choice then maybe civilized society isn't the best place for you.

Exactly. I can think of several studies i've read looking at elderly care and medicares costs per person that have all shown that it's much less expensive to pay up front with prevention, monitoring, and support than to pay on the back end for acute cases. Even going locally I had a chance to talk to some folks who worked at Harborview and were well versed in the topic and some local work had shown the cost in ER visits for local homeless folks per year was more than 2x what the cost would be to house them. Right now these same folks are all getting healthcare, it's just a shell game of when, where and who picks up the tab.

Ding ding ding! We have a winner. Or would that be socialism? Like the Veterans Administration. THE FREE MARKET IS ALWAYS MORE EFFICIENT, INEXPENSIVE, AND MOST OF ALL MORAL! oh wait ....

As with almost every aspect of climbing that I can think of the answer is always "it depends". Lets save the arm-chair quarterbacking for a different thread.

The Beckey bible is great, but it's more bedtime reading for folks who have already climbed all the common routes in the area or enjoy the history (I have all three ) Nelson and Potterfield will keep you busy for a summer or two and their are a minimum of obvious gully's to be found. A few other for Introductory alpine: Shuksan, Sulphide Glacier - fun, easy, pretty, a little rock scramble at the end. Glacier Peak, Sitkum Glacier - long approach, remote setting, but a very benign glacier. It's more or less cragging, but the stuff up at Washington Pass is just fun (South Early Winter Spire, North Early Winter, Liberty Bell, Cutthroat etc.)

crap Condolences to all those who new him and to the Rangers, Your work is always appreciated.

Finally a little news. Kiro Article. Wenatchee News Info Sounds like the helicopters manage to squeeze into the weather window. Hoping everyone heals well.

The words of the SAR folks. I guess they had run into her before and she, and the group she was with were strong, hardy climbers. Lots of respect.

Not sure who the parties were but we ran into Kititas SAR at the Ingalls Trailhead. Apparently, there was a hard ass Ukranian lady who broke an arm on Stuart and needed some assistance crossing the river. There was also a separate accident on Ingalls, maybe the east ridge. Resulting in a broken hip. We heard the helo come in but due to the cloud layer couldn't see anything beyond a rope length. I hope everyone involved is improving and am hoping for good outcomes. And thanks again to the SAR folks out there busting their ass for us .

I was skeptical of trekking poles for years, then was faced with a long approach day for a carryover with a heavy pack so I borrowed my wifes and never looked back. My own preference is for light and rigid. None of that spring loaded damping shit. BD is great and had some flick locks that are still going strong after several years. Also have a pair of REI ultralights (made by Leki I think) Not sure why they would wear you out though. With a pack on, they are the bomb.

I was up there a couple years ago as a 5.10ish climber. We partially freed and french freed the 1st pitch. I believe it does goes 5.11, but at 5:30am with a pack on and no warm up pitches..... We opted for speed over grace since. On to and off the rotten block probably was 5.10+ ish, but with a pack on after several hours on route and some moderately strenuous free pitches below... we aided . Used a spot of french free getting up the 5.9 step above the block as well. We went in with packs large enough to handle a bivy if we needed to, and ended up hitting the summit at sunset. If we did it again (and were in similar shape/technical ability) I'd go in with much lighter packs and planning to suffer some dehydration on the walkout. Then evaluate at the rotten block and bail from there if time was against us. Would be a pretty easy retreat with a minimal loss of gear. We were both carrying ~20+ lbs between the aid rack, water, food, minimal bivy stuff etc. We were both solid 5.10+/low 5.11 crag climbers at the time. In the alpine, with a pack, uphill approach, alpine start, and some strenous pitches thrown in we consistently opted for a little french free and some hangdogging to maximise speed instead of pushing to free as much as possible. YMMV

Me too Any need for flotation or is there a boot pack?

Heading up to In galls this weekend. Looks like snow most of the way in. What's the snow pack like right now? Any need for flotation, or is there a boot pack on the way in? TIA