eldiente

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/money/tax/article1996735.ece "Mr Buffett said that he was taxed at 17.7 per cent on the $46 million he made last year, without trying to avoid paying higher taxes, while his secretary, who earned $60,000, was taxed at 30 per cent" Fairweather can you please help explain why Buffet pays 17 percent and his middle income secretary pays 30 percent? What's this about the rich paying more than the middle class? Forget taxing the rich, how about they just pay the same as I do? (I'm around 27 percent at last check) Fairweather, I would guess you're not rich, doesn't it bother you just a tiny little bit that the most wealthy among us pay the least in taxes? Note that for people in that 1% bracket of the world (Buffet, Jobs, Gates etc etc) they usually don't pay any tax at all. Jobs for instance reports an income of $1 per year, the rest is all done through stock options which thanks to Bush are no longer taxed.(Thankfully for Jobs, Apple stock is going up) No capital gains tax is rad if you are paid in stock options, but how many folks on this board are paid in stock though? Not me. -Nate

Indeed it looks like Ted is dead. Oddly enough this was the second plane crash he was in, the first one killed his wife and he survived. http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/08/10/alaska.plane.crash/index.html?hpt=T1&iref=BN1

Climbed up there today for the first time this year. I noticed mounds (enough to fill a dump truck) of plants, grass, moss and dirt at the base of main wall that had come down during the cleaning. Very large pile below "takes fist." What's up with the heavy-handed cleaning going on up there? There isn't any well traveled routes in that area, why scrub a patch of rock 100x100 feet of all vegetation ? Nobody likes to climb dirty routes, but this cleaning is excessive and very much an eye sore. I always thought the point of a park was to observe nature, not demolish it. We complain about that tourist trail to the summit, but the people doing that hike aren't leaving a huge pile of dead plants behind when they do their hike. The trundling is no good either. Trees and bushes at the base of the wall are taking a beating from all the trundling. I don't see why their needs to be any trundling, the rocks will come down when they are good and ready without any need for a crow bar. Lose rock is part of every crag, if lose rock makes you uncomfortable, perhaps the gym is a better place for you? In many parks, doing this type of cleaning or trundling would get the whole place closed to climbers. This whole process is the opposite of leave no trace, instead walking around you can clearly tell that people have been at work and it looks awful. Even a handful of tightly bolted sport lines would have less of a visual impact on the area than the mess of dead vegetation that is there now. -Nate

I am. Can you please send a URL?

Fuck yeah, I stopped using chalk on my projects years ago, now I just carry a roll of duct tape and tape up certain holds cause it helps so much with the send That's actually not a bad idea! Forget tapping up for the cracks, just line the inside of them with tape. If the crack is too wide, just add a few layers for a more secure jam.

Just came down yesterday. The snow up there is really good right now, easy walking on soft slush. Some of the routes still have snow and ice on the summits, with the upcoming hot weather I would expect this will start to melt out. Walking into East creak is chill, no ax required. Rock climbs around hut (Crescent, Bugaboo etc) are dry and in good shape and dry. The hut is now full, bring a tent and join the party at the campground. [img:center]http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_XNueStDVX8c/TEtd8zoXb3I/AAAAAAAAKdg/4xz7xPwP3Y0/s1600/P1010548.jpg[/img] Nate

So you like climbing steep roofs, me too. I hate climbing slabs. But the steep roof can't have any cracks in it as this is "boring." Got it, you just described really fun sport climbing at Rifle or Mt Charleston. There is also a crag near Portland that overhangs something awful with no cracks to jam, just upside-down power monkeying. You'd like it, it is open all year, close to Portland and there is no hand jamming required. PM me for more beta. -Nate

Has anyone ever taken a look at this site ? I'm curious as to what people think about their forecasting methodology. On paper it seems to good to be true, forecast at different elevations for popular peaks. I'm wondering if this site is doing any of their own forecasting, or if they are just pulling data down from NOAA and putting on some fancy graphics. (?) Has anyone had any experience using this site? Also for the Canadian weather forecasts, is there any group aside from the Environment Canada that does forecasting? This site provides forecasts for areas that the Environment Canada doesn't cover (high elevation) Is this site just taking a guess or is there some part of Environment Canada that does a forecast for high elevation that this site is tapping into? -Nate

What counts as a wall? Throw a can of beer from the top, the first thing it hits is where you measure from to determine the height of the wall.

Yes, it would be easy to link this into 4 pitches, Jaime gave me good beta for linking it into 4 and it sounds good. I elected to break it up into smaller pitches so I could keep a close on eye on my partner, she's new to alpine rock climbing. -Nate

Trip: Prusik Peak - Stanley-Burgner Date: 6/27/2010 Trip Report: My first time in the Snow Lake permit area, they aren't lying when say this one of the most beautiful backpacking destinations in the lower 48. I don't really enjoy hiking very much, but going up there makes me want to give up this whole climbing thing and take-up backpacking. The scenery up there is incredible, especially with the half-frozen lakes. Wow! Here is what we found conditions wise. Hike-in. It is indeed long. We hit snow and mud as soon as we got around Snow Lake. There is a lot of snow up there, everywhere that isn't covered in snow is a running river. Following the trail was difficult above snow lake, we missed it and went post holing and river wadding for the last 2 hours to the camp at the base of Prusik. There are dry bivy spots above vivian lake. Beta online and in the guidebook is spot on. Despite having good beta, I still got us lost around P3 and ended up doing two pitches of "der sportsman, 5.11+" before realizing I was off-route. Did 2x raps and some down-climbing to get us back on the route. How I messed that up I don't know, I guess I was getting tired of thrashing around in this dirty gully and got lured in by these lovely cracks to the left. Lovely indeed, but not 5.9. P1. Did the fist crack start. Hardish climbing with flared fist jams. Start of route has a snow-cone on it, shoes will get wet. P2. Link with P1. Easy to link, stop at tree belay. P3. Short finger crack (can we have more of this please!) Move way right on slab and nobs with no pro. Easy climbing but falling here would ruin your day. Move up through short bulge double crack and onto dirty gully system. Do not go left. P4. Climb nice crack below chockstone that you tunnel under. Trick beta here is to drop a loop of rope down to partner to haul pack through chockstone. P5. OW flare, not real long but hard thrashing in there. Good pro though, takes C3s on the right-side and #4 BD higher up. Again, have leader drop a loop of rope down and haul pack or drag it under harness. P6. Finally some good climbing. Crux is a wide OW that you stem around. The stem section was a bit wet on the right side. Save a few C3s for this part, they fit well on the pin scars on the right side. Descent. 5 raps to the snow. Did not need crampons but we got soaked wadding through knee deep snow gaining the ridge on the North side. [img:center]http://lh5.ggpht.com/_XNueStDVX8c/TCuKFSHw5SI/AAAAAAAAKTk/L58uCOs_zhI/s640/P1010385.JPG[/img] [img:center]http://lh6.ggpht.com/_XNueStDVX8c/TCuKTyp3jmI/AAAAAAAAKVE/w1apv_NKPcE/s640/P1010411.JPG[/img] [img:center]http://lh6.ggpht.com/_XNueStDVX8c/TCuKWIrydfI/AAAAAAAAKVU/6nARucAO90E/s640/P1010413.JPG[/img] [img:center]http://lh6.ggpht.com/_XNueStDVX8c/TCuKYrXsGjI/AAAAAAAAKVo/cMlo6ckZlZQ/s640/P1010415.JPG[/img] [img:center]http://lh4.ggpht.com/_XNueStDVX8c/TCuKcZCTYXI/AAAAAAAAKWQ/pvQzt7p9gBQ/s640/P1010420.JPG[/img] [img:center]http://lh5.ggpht.com/_XNueStDVX8c/TCuKOSrMVeI/AAAAAAAAKUg/yo2T6rZhaac/s640/P1010404.JPG[/img] [img:center]http://lh6.ggpht.com/_XNueStDVX8c/TCuKo6KHEDI/AAAAAAAAKX8/rTOIjDVzFH4/s640/P1010439.JPG[/img] Gear Notes: Single Red C3-#4 BD. Double on .75-#2BD. Nuts. Many long slings. Approach Notes: 9 miles, 5,000 feet of gain. Snow above snow lakes.

The bivy site doesn't have a limit, you will always find a spot to sleep there. You can show up there late and still find a place to walk-in and camp. The grasslands (Skull Hallow) now has limits on the number of cars allowed in each spot but this time of year I would bet the campground would be empty. Not many folks want to climb Smith this time of year.

Winter's partner belaying on the last pitch of "Solid Gold."

I'm no expert with the camera, but I would guess that done in full color, the shadows would not be as distinct in these pictures. I think it works well.

Slowly learning it would seem. Also note that most boulder problems (this is a boulder problem from what the pictures show) don't distinguish between FA and FFA.

Can anyone give me a sense of how long it takes to hike from Snow Creek Wall to Prusik? We'll be carrying climbing kit and bivy gear. Trying to decide if it possible to climb Snow Creek Wall on the hike-in and make it up to base of Prusik before dark. I haven't been up to Prusik so I don't have a good feeling for a long the hike is. Thanks! -Nate

No deal on the Aliens. Unlike those things, the keel on my boat won't magically fall-off while sailing.

Trade you straight-up, 600 cams for my lovely boat, Lucille. [img:center]http://lh5.ggpht.com/_XNueStDVX8c/RkDsmb-jvcI/AAAAAAAAAS8/2O67fKmTBec/s640/IMG_0610.JPG[/img]

International waters, anything goes. "So you'd like us to tow you and your boat 1,000 miles to shore ey?"

A few pics here: http://natetack.blogspot.com/

The plane that went out and spotted her burned through full tank of gas to get there. (10,000+ gallons of fuel) That's a lot of gas to burn to find out that she lost her rig and was hanging out waiting for a rescue. All of this reminds me so much of the high profile rescues we see in the climbing world. Yes, if it were me (or my daughter) I'd want to be rescued in that situation. However, the conditions she encountered are normal for that area of the Southern Ocean. Maybe before going into such a place they should have thought how they were going to get themselves out if they lost the rig. (Somewhat common occurrence for Open boats racing in the area) Side note, a French fishing boat is going to go out and pick her up. How stoked are those guys going to be after being at sea for a long time. The first female they've seen in in months is a blond American bobbing around in a wrecked sailboat.

My armchair thinking says she lost all her systems during a knockdown. (com, autopilot etc) The boat is now "dark" and adrift with no way to speak to the outside word. Without access to her team ashore that is more our less guiding her across the world, she turns on the rescue beacons to call in the calvary. The boat is most likely afloat but the skipper is wrecked and doesn't feel up to the huge task of sailing the boat to safety without the assistance of electrical gadgets. (For our climbing friends this is like calling for a rescue on Hood because your iPhone stopped working and it is snowing hard. Of course now move Hood 1,000 miles offshore) That would be the best (and most likely) scenario. The worst case is that the boat was dismasted in a knock-down and is sinking and she's in a raft in cold water. Burly. Some really strong male sailors twice her age have died in similar circumstances.

Sucks about your rope and the close-call, but based on what you described it doesn't sound like this was malicious. The survey group may have used your line to tow their truck out of the mud, or maybe some dumb kids tried to use it for a rope swing before coiling it back up at the top. Either way, if this an urban crag with sketchy access issues, there is a probably 100 possible ways for a rope to become damaged without the person doing the damage knowing what the rope was used for. How's this for scary? Somehow I doubt it was East County Meth heads that stole his anchor. http://davemacleod.blogspot.com/2008/08/near-miss.html

Thanks!

Has anyone been up to WA Pass recently? Is there still snow on the rock? Thoughts? If anyone has pictures from this past week, please share. -Nate