fear_and_greed

Canadians beat U.S. Army to New Orleans suburb BATON ROUGE, Louisiana (Reuters) - A Canadian search-and-rescue team reached a flooded New Orleans suburb to help save trapped residents five days before the U.S. military, a Louisiana state senator said on Wednesday. The Canadians beat both the Army and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the U.S. disaster response department, to St. Bernard Parish east of New Orleans, where flood waters are still 8 feet deep in places, Sen. Walter Boasso said. "Fabulous, fabulous guys," Boasso said. "They started rolling with us and got in boats to save people." "We've got Canadian flags flying everywhere." The stricken parish of 68,000 people was largely ignored by U.S. authorities who scrambled to get aid to New Orleans, a few miles (km) away. Boasso said residents of the outlying parishes had to mount their own rescue and relief efforts when Hurricane Katrina roared ashore on August 29. The U.S. government response to the disaster has been widely criticized. Politicians and editorial writers have called for the resignation of top Bush administration officials. Boasso said U.S. authorities began airdropping relief supplies to St. Bernard last Wednesday, the same day the Canadian rescue team of about 50 members arrived from Vancouver, nearly 2,200 miles away. "They chartered a plane and flew down," he said. Two FEMA officials reached the parish on Sunday and the U.S. Army arrived on Monday, he said. "Why does it take them seven days to get the Army in?" Boasso asked. He speculated that the smaller parishes suffered because the focus was on New Orleans, the famous home of jazz and Mardi Gras. As for the Canadians, Boasso gave thanks for their quick work. "They were so glad to be here," he said. "They're still here. They are actually going door-to-door looking in the attics" for people to rescue, he said.

That white chick is not too smart, dragging that loaf of bread through fecal matter, toxic waste and other flotsam and jetsam.

Great, thanks.

Anybody know what the conditions are like on the glacier and route?

Having been an entrepreneur for most of my life and starting businesses with me as the sole employee to one that had 30 employees, I can tell you that the best business is the one I've done for the past 5 yrs., daytrading in the stockmarket. No employees, no products, no inventory, no advertising/marketing, no licenses, no leases to sign, no payroll taxes, no accounts receivables. All these things are a hassle and you will be held captive to them at some point. I can work from home in my underwear if I want and the profits dwarf anything a small business can generate. I can go on vacation whenenver I want and it'll still be there when I return.If you can control your fear and greed it's the perfect way of life.

When your so called elected leader invades Iran("All options are on the table") and/or N.Korea and institutes the draft in a vain attempt to get more cannon fodder for his war machine, your "little buddy" Canada will open its arms and welcome you in. You can then get a job at Tim Hortons slinging donuts and light up some BC Bud without fear of spending the rest of your life in jail due to archaic and drachonian drug laws. As you travel this fine, energy self sufficient country in pursuit of life, liberty and happiness, marvelling at abundant natural resources that have not been plundered and polluted by corporations backed by idoitic special interest groups, you'll realize what a unique place this land really is. As you settle down to a good nights sleep uninterrupted by a "Homeland Security" police raid or riot induced by an oppressed racial group spurred on by a fear mongering media, you'll wonder why you didn't apply for Canadian citizenship sooner. And besides those little Canadian flags that you sew on to your pack so you wont be mistaken for an American are easier to buy up here.

I have a CFBP bent shaft hammer with leash if you're interested. NEVER used. $125

Anyone have current road conditions and is it still worthwhile to bring mountainbikes?

Climb: Wedge Mt. -Northeast Arete Date of Climb: 7/3/2005 Trip Report: Yet another Wedge Mt. trip report. See my blog http://hydrogenplusstupidity.blogspot.com/ for some great photos tho. Gear Notes: Shoulda had a helicopter instead of hiking that brutal trail.

I have a never used Carbon Fiber Black Prophet hammer bent shaft with lockdown leash. I live in Vancouver area and want $130. Contact me at farnhamscott@hotmail.com

I posted a picture of my shovel on my blog. http://hydrogenplusstupidity.blogspot.com/ As you can see I used a 1 1/4" hole saw to lighten it up. The shovelling performance is unaffected in any snow conditions. It works great to level tent platforms as the holes act like a cheese grator, or use as a dead man, stove platform and is easy to strap onto your pack. It is lighter than any shovel I've picked up. Keep the holes away from the edges and spaced out or the blade will lose too much rigidity.

Climb: Mt. Matier N.W. face, foiled again.- Date of Climb: 4/10/2005 Trip Report: see my blog for photos http://hydrogenplusstupidity.blogspot.com/

Climb: Wedge Mt.-N.E. Arete Date of Climb: 2/22/2005 Trip Report: see my blog for details and photos. http://hydrogenplusstupidity.blogspot.com/ Gear Notes: Shoulda had snowshoes.

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Post photos showing the biggest change to your appearance.

Excellent response Michael. It really seems like they have lost sight of the original premise that MEC was established for and now are looking at the almighty dollar as their purpose to exist. Let us all vote for what is right at the next AGM and get some fresh, young blood in.

I use a Patagonia DAS. It has served me well in a wide variety of conditions and has a brilliant hood design.

C limbing is great A nd we speak english N o patriot act A nd we signed the kyoto accord D rive on the same side of the road A nd we don't have that idiot bush as president

The plastic boxes are the new anti-rodent containers stored in a bomb/bear proof metal enclosure. We went up Joffre lakes trail because all the new snow that had dumped made the Cerise creek road impassable in my non 4 x 4 truck.

1122.2 and just a beak length to another landmine. That little fucker was full of blood!

Climb: Mt.Matier-Not much Date of Climb: 11/2/2004 Trip Report: Had planned to do the North Face but Kumar was moving at the speed of my grandmother so we just took it easy, enjoyed ourselves and didn't make it further than the upper lake. About 1 ft. of fresh snow had fallen, in fact we had to shovel a space in the parking lot directly off the road. Temperature dipped to -18 C that night which is as cold as I've ever around here. The tent poles took two people to pull them apart as they were frozen. We'll try it again in a few weeks.

Thinking of attempting this route the week after x-mas. Anybody have information?

I use a Granite Gear Alpine Light. Has a lot of brilliant features and no useless ones. The tool tubes, crampon or other storage area with voile straps works great. Has a special little slot for your file as well. Super comfortable with enough adjustment to get it just right. The removeable z-rest foamy back support helps you trim weight from you sleeping pad as well. To make things carry better I just stuff my sleeping bag, parka and other things in so they fill up the voids and don't use stuff sacks. It's big enough for a 4 day winter trip or light enough for a day. It was also the only pack I used for 3 weeks on Aconcagua. The only feature it lacks is ski straps.

sent you a PM

Thanks for the advice Don. We didn't try over that way but when we had gained a bit of height cold see that it was deeply crevassed over that way as well. Maybe next time we'd try to go diagonally up Weart south flank towards the Weart / Wedge col and onto the arete that way. We didn't watch the other parties name but he had a european accent so that was probably Janez. He ended up rapping off the west side of the arete I believe.