selkirk

Now that's efficient slacking!

Cold Coffee as well, but a nice chilled Limoncello sounds awfully nice at the moment! Is absinthe still illegal in the US?

If your looking for cheap, REI has 2 lb something tarp shelter and ground cloth combo that pitchs' with trecking poles, and looks like it should sleep 2 and definitely keep the rain off.

Any suggestions on how to clean cams? I've got a TCU with one sticky lobe that won't spring back into place properly. I'm thinking rubbing alcohol and a toothbrush right now but I was wondering if anyone had fabulous trick for it? Thanks in advance.

Such route recommendation!

I tried the pole/axe combo on Glacier Peak a couple of years ago (doing the Frostbite Ridge carryover). With just a summit pack i'm not sure if it would have made a difference but with the full overnight kit it helped a great deal with balance, and i'd certainly recommend it. Just be sure not to stick your hand through the keeper strap on the pole and be ready to ditch it in a hurry.

Don't know about this weekend but Orbit was great yesterday

Yep, Salmon berries. Not very tasty for my money though, and only in really wet areas. Though there are ripe Thimbleberries and native Blackberries from the top of the switchbacks all the way to the turn off for Snow Creek wall! Walking back to the cars took a littl while!

I actually got to sit through Hornbein's lecture on high altidude sicknesses, and aclimitazation that he gives to the UW Medical School class every year. 1 hr of Altitude stuff, 1 hr of slides and talk about the west ridge of Everest and climbing in general. It so Most of the Med. students have no idea who he is but a few were just in awe like me!

It wouldn't walk if your rapelling straight down, and very statically loading the cam. If there's any side to side wiggle though? It seems like everyone agrees though, use the cheapest but still reliable way down. Back up rappel anchor for the first peole, skinny person pulls the backup and raps last, possibly tying the tails of the rap rope into the new anchor for the next rap.

So how many hexes do you carry Dru?

What did I just say? I think unless you've informed him about the magic "two day" time limit, you probably shouldn't be too mad!

Deep breath, , it's ok. Did he have calls to respond to? Has he slept in the last 24 hrs? Are you sure he was coherent enough to justify calling and not either embarass himself or piss you off..... A little patience dear!

Don't you remember the whole "don't assume he's trying to be subtle discussion we just had?" What's the simplest reason you can think of for him not calling? So far it's only been 2 days? Likely he's just busy or on duty or something. Beyond that.... yep, that's right, he's straight, and therefore probably quite dense, and unaware that 2 days is a magic time. Speaking of which, why the hell is 2 days a magical time? And while you might not ever get any from "man interested in paint color", but he'd certainly call you back so that's not it. And women say men are dense

Is someone justifying the big hair mullet, and neon tights they still wear sport climbing?

could be worse. You could be paying to much to live N.J.

$30 compared to how much for boots, umpteen layers of moleskin, and sore arches to boot? Love mine to death.

oooh baby! Of course that could very well lead to being kept awake for other reasons

Go Ahead, Climb a Rock Statistics say mountaineering has actually gotten safer. by Brian Miller THIS MONTH'S TRAGIC climbing accident in the North Cascades, which claimed the lives of three people from the Mountaineers organization of Seattle, follows soon after three deaths on Mount Rainier. Add another casualty from McClellan's Butte near North Bend in March, and you might think the sport is undergoing some kind of lethal boom—more reckless daredevils exposing themselves to more needless risks. In fact, though rock climbing and mountaineering have grown steadily in participation since the 1960s, when baby boomers took up the sport, then saw a surge of interest following (ironically) Into Thin Air, the American Alpine Club just released a May report concluding the opposite is true. It states, "The fatality rate for climbing has dropped dramatically over the last several decades . . . refuting the commonly held perception that the rapid growth in the number of climbers has translated into more rescues and more fatalities." AAC Deputy Director Lloyd Athearn wrote that report, and he adds, "There's been a huge decrease in the rate of fatalities" even though the absolute numbers have been about the same since the '70s. Now, as then, around 20 to 40 people die each year in the U.S., as tracked by the club's annual Accidents in North American Mountaineering. One of the benchmarks Athearn uses is climbing registration on Mount Rainier, which leaves a statistical paper trail to follow. Though annual attempts on the mountain have surged upward from around 400 in the '50s to more than 11,000 today, the fatality-rate curve plunges steeply in the opposite direction (with the exception of the 1981 spike for the ice fall accident, the worst in U.S. history, that killed 11). Though not all climbing areas require permits, Athearn thinks the Rainier trend is "probably fairly representative" nationwide. Among the increased safety factors he points to are better gear (helmets, rock protection, stretchy and almost unbreakable ropes) and preparation—satellite weather forecasts, superdetailed guidebooks and route descriptions, and classes such as those taught by the Mountaineers. When fatalities occur in clusters, "They're just sometimes sort of flukes," statistically speaking, compressed by the Cascades' generally short climbing season. Speaking for the Mountaineers, Executive Director Steve Costie says participation in climbing classes has probably declined somewhat from the '70s (now hovering around 300 among all club branches), while climbing outings have increased—to around 150 per year, involving perhaps 600 to 700 people. "We have an accident here and there," he says, including fatalities in 1997, 1999, and 2001. Three at once is much worse, of course, but Costie calls the triple fatality at a North Cascades peak called Sharkfin Tower "an anomaly . . . such a huge jump off the scale." In other words, if you average all climbing fatalities and injuries for the Mountaineers—and for the sport as a whole—over a longer time frame, they're in line with the AAC's generally encouraging data. Since Sharkfin is not known as a particularly hard or dangerous climb, the fatal rock fall comes under the category of "objective hazards," like storms or spontaneous avalanches, that are essentially beyond a climber's control. (You can only minimize your exposure time in such zones.) "So often, the less technical area is the critical zone," says Costie. This is where improved gear and good training provide little if any buffer between the risks that always have been, and always will be, part of the challenge of mountaineering. Those numbers don't change. Cascades' generally short climbing season. Someone actually got it right this time

Woohoo!! Good to hear.

Provide good arch support, not quite custom insoles, but usually better than the stock ones that come with the boots.

Have you tried superfeet? Can sometimes make a world of difference.

Will just have to try harder next time.

It was great until about 2:00! Then I started to melt, and spent as much time as possible hiding in the shade! Lot's of friendly people though and poochs though.

OR used to make velcro on water bottle pouchs that have a little draw string top, and will attach to any belt or strap that's less that about 2 inchs wide