selkirk

Any one care to put the numbers in perspective? Say... the number of people in the world killed by terrorists vs say the number killed in car accidents, or heart disease, or accidentally shooting your lawyer buddy in the face while duck hunting?

Please feel free to tell RUMR to fuck off whenever you like. He enjoys it in his own special way

Bite the bullet and go to Leavenworth. You're whole post just screams R&D. Besides, then you go out for good italian food afterwords, and what chick would'nt dig that?

Then you'd better be thorough. Seeing as no one is going to be left we might as well start dropping nukes. I have yet to see anyone with the stomach to actually do this, but I think it's been shown again and again that when fighting a a war against a resistance drawn from the entire local population, 1/2 measures dont' cut it. Israel's done a pretty good job of showing that killing 50% of them only pisses off the other 50% and you end up with the same number of suicide bombers and terrorists. So sure, keep blowing them..... It's done a bang up job of achieving peace in that area so far. I'm sure more and bigger bombs will scare them into settling down

Probably no need to post the full trip report but I thought I would update the conditions on Shuksan. High Camp: The rangers don't realy like you camping at the little saddle just past the official "high camp" as your too far away from the composting toilets. Even if you have blue bags.... Also, they don't like you sleeping anywhere but on the snow. Glacier: Cracks are starting to open up. Saw a reasonable number of 6 inch to 1 foot cracks last weekend mostly in the flat area below the summit, with a few larger ones off to climbers right on the ascent. Snow conditions were great, well consolidated snow, no post holing at all, and made for an easy climb/descent. Would have been nice to have a slightly lower freezing level as the snow was pretty soft (I had a little bit of balling), even at 3:00 am. The summit pyramid seemed easiest to access high and climbers right. The slightly shitty loose gully is of course slightly shitty and looze. Trail: Black flies galore, move fast or bring bug repelent. For some reason they like to fly into my ears. Are they that enamored with ear wax? Bugs cleared a bit once you get onto the ridge leading to the saddle, and cleared completely once on the snow. All in all it's in great shape to get!

for the exact same route, trying to climb it trad (placing your own gear on lead) requires more strength, and more endurance, as it takes longer to place your own gear than it does to clip a bolt (as you would in sport climbing). Trad also take more mental poise as you spend more energy placing gear, often spend longer above your last piece (while you place another one, or climb further to conserve strength by placing fewer pieces), and because placing your own gear is inherently less reliable than bolts. All said, it take more focus and attention to detail because mistakes tend to be much more dangerous.

Mostly... it's the size of the cahones it takes to do it. Hard sport climbing is hard. Hard trad climbing is hard and and f-ing scary

Was there any liquid water at the high camps (5,400-6,800ft) or just snow? I think I'll be heading up this weekend and as always would rather not melt water unless it's necessary Cheers and thanks ahead of time for any beta! Josh

Calamity certainly spanked me! That's the hardest move I've had to pull on lead. It made me wish my fingers were much smaller so I could actually lieback through the whole thing!!

Once you put in a power point and fix the lengths between each piece and the power point, then they're all the same. Equalized in only one direction but with no extension should a piece pull. Now I guess if you want to start tying individual knots in the strands running to different pieces to try and set up a sliding equalization with only minimal extension in case a piece falls, then maybe your right. That's way too damn much work for me though!

I've gone to using a web-o-lette almost exclusively. Seems to work great for slinging stuff, threading around blocks, and equalizing anchors just fine. I'm not often in a position to need to leave rap slings so that's not a big concern. I usually carry a couple of double length (4'?) sewn runners anyway for leavers and for slinging sap covered trees It all works so no worries.

Anyone been up there recently? Or even just been up there? What's reasonable to expect this time of year in the way of snow/ice conditions, steepness, how sustained etc. Any info at all would be appreciated! Thanks in advance!

true but this is no easy hand crack... it's all fingers such a dirty girl. hey i was actualy making a climbing reference you dirty minded cad What the hell is climbing? Isn't this spray?

true but this is no easy hand crack... it's all fingers such a dirty girl.

Good for you! How many days so far?

My thoughts exactly Inexpensive, very solid (full strength to the smallest size), nice and light, can clip short (either the stem, or the extended sling which can save you a draw on occasion). #1-#4 are fantastic! I don't care too much for the sizes smaller than #1 though, the action isn't quite stiff enough for my taste. All in all, DMM Shit

If you ever get to Spokane check out Mountain Gear. Great selection of technical gear, and cool people who know their shit and have personally abused most of the gear.

I've got a great grandfather who's 97 right now, and in the hospital On the upside he's smoked cigars and eaten raw sausage for 90 of those years And he's sicilian so he likes his wine and beer My great grandma is 94 and somehow still thinks that he doesn't know that she's smoked for the last 20 years If I can keep up with my great grandparents I'll be a seriously happy camper! (Actually had 5 at one point, and 40 of them lived well into their 90's ) One even punched a car salesman when he was 92

The nuts on the ends of the axles are a very nice touch. I wander if they are at least the type with the plastic core that don't wiggle themselves loose over time?

Will add another voice to the Metolius TCU's, but the rest of my rack are DMM's. Handle well, place nice, light weight, durable, and reasonably priced. If you pick up the 1/2 sizes then the range argument for the C-4's kind of get's diminshed. I tend to take cams based on the number of pieces I'll need for a pitch more than to simply cover a fixed range.

"scooted up a ladder he left leaning against the roof." Now that is truly frightening! Once they go airborne you never know where they might strike from!

The top 4 size of the WC's are sweet. I always seem to find a good place for the yellow one (#7 ?) and the others (6, 8, and 9) almost always find their way onto my rack and end up being useful. The smaller sizes are good, but not quite a useful IMHO.

In that case you must be 1 fat fucker My technique doesn't suck, and any time I start jamming forearms and throwing in arm-bars, it aint' no f-ing hand crack. I distinctly remember the topsection where I whish I knew how stack hands/fits, and throwing in a nice knee lock to rest on. I'll make you a deal... I'll belay you and you can take anything up to a 3.5 friend, which should be more than sufficient for "hands" I'd be fun to watch you try and stack cams or hexes to protect the top Mushmaker is perfect hands the whole way though!

I've only drytooled and been on ice a handful of times, but managed to lead M-4 on them, and they dragged my ass up Chair Peak this winter. They pretty much rock unless you are talking really technical stuff when you start to want mono-points. The nice aggressive 2nd points are good for steep stuff as you don't have to droop your heels as far to get the 2nd points in contact with the ice as you do with many others.

You should also check the school districts in the burbs. Shoreline, Lynwood, Everett. Anywhere but Seattle Proper. Or possibly look at private schools in the area?