JosephH

Yes, I freed the stretch from the Pipeline anchor up to the base of Silver Crow and have spent a bit of time in the realm at the top of Jensen's. I thought the aid renaissance did constitute 'access' and I'm not sure quite how rapping routes relates to opening climbing on them in this case. Now I'm not clearly not opposed to anchors, but in this case I'm just trying to connect the dots between rapping from the railing and standing in the arena looking up.

Exactly where are you talking about? Seems like some poison ivy work would be a more productive use of the time - especially now while it's down. I'm a bit confused here. I thought we were climbers?

I remember climbing one day in Giant City, a lovely park in SoIll with lawns up right up to the cliff face, when along comes a troop of drunken partiers, prancing hand in hand in a chain along the base going to town on Pink Floyd's 'Another Brick In The Wall'. They got to "We don't need no education..." just as they passed us. Mark, the more sardonic and wry among us, looks up from whatever he was doing at the moment and comments, "yeah, give us disease instead...!". It kind of put education into perspective for me in a nutshell. That, and it's not for everyone. All in all I'd say it's a matter of appreciation and, at the risk of plagiarizing the witless - 'worthless is as worthless does'.

Good story on the FA. Yeah, given the couple I've set I can imagine heads are a pretty iffy proposition out there in real small basalt flares. McGown's old, Chouinard bashies I tested seemed bomb enough, but you're definitely gambling with small heads on an FA or other not-well-traveled, dirty route out there. Were you using copper or aluminum for the small? I should think you'd want aluminum to paste and smear around as well as possible, but then you're gambling on it holding at all. And yeah, the soft eurotrash pins do worm their way around (limited) bends which is why they're so good out out there - you just wouldn't want to fall on the baby paddle blades and getting the big ones out if really sunk around bends is not really going to happen without busting up some rock (i.e. are better left fixed if used).

Hmmm, I guess I personally wouldn't consider that list as being "all the clean tools necessary". Add doubles #1-#3 ball nuts and variety of peckers / toucans / beaks /camhooks and then I might consider it that. I'll have to take a look at it this coming year some time and check it out. I can't remember anything in the way of specifics about it from when I did the anchoring and pin checks. You'd have to get your speed up a bit, but you'll be ready for Baffin, Greenland, or winter ascents in the Valley if you guys keep this up. P.S. you might want to consider bottom-anchoring your ledge if you're in a really exposed location.

I can't say for sure in every case, but aiding through (as opposed to protecting) most baby angle placements seems to me a matter of being equipped right and being able to hold onto a Cn frame of reference instead of just reaching for the pin, even if that means committing to a C3ish move. I've made moves like this on loweballs, hooks, hand-placed beaks/toucans, and one side of small cams. But sometimes you just have to reach for the iron and an arrow, bug, or blade for sure, but angles - even baby angles - seem like you're starting to drift into expediency if it's the rule instead of an exception to it.

You sawed-off arrows? Couldn't these be Cn placements of some sort?

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"Place thine protection well, lest the ground rise up to smite thee..." Devils Lake Trial and Error School of Climbing, c1976

Climbing is a matter of a combination of subjective and objective risk. In rock climbing the objective risks are basically rock fall, unexpected loose holds, and sharp edges. Most of the time on rock 95-99% or the risk is subjective and based entirely on the choices you make for yourself. In the mountains, the role of objective risk grows exponentially with weather, snow, and ice conditions playing heavily into your chances of success or failure. You could be the most skilled climber on earth and still get augured in bad conditions or an avalanche. When climbing in the mountains a far higher percentage of the subjective risk is based in judgment of external factors and some of the time it's just unavoidably an act of weighing the odds and gambling.

Not yet...

It's a pretty upside world when Apple has the prospect of the largest market cap. Solid prospects, but the market cap is bubbling way out past the any reality of the underlying value of the company.

And as we speak - the announcement: the Mac appstore is here. Just a matter of time before you'll have to jailbreak your Macbook to do what you want with it. http://apple.slashdot.org/story/11/01/06/1534233/Mac-OS-X-1066-Introduces-App-Store?from=rss

Have never seen a blue screen on Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 and I've been running a bunch of both for a couple of years.

Not easy, not particularly speedy or reliable, nor legal.

Sure it does - pop an OSX in the dvd of a Dell, install and you're set - righty mate.

Component-for-component (apple is still light on the full component list even in this matchup) Price-for-price (apple is way light on components in this matchup) And the day OSX runs on the above Dells is the day Apple stops being on the wrong end of this sledgehammer: Also, Jobs has learned the content side of the business on the boards at Pixar / Disney and the company is turning utterly totalitarian, if not demonic, from that experience. Apple's explicit and implicit future plans for hardware / app / boot all speaking to their board working very, very hard at a strategy of tethering, if not outright chaining, their users to their new data centers (which are not filled with Macs) and partner CDNs. As 'evil empires' go, they're just warming up and are poised to make MS, IBM, and Starbucks look like chumps. Getting too carried away with apple idolatry is sort of like being an early Mao or Stalin fanboy. Great stuff for shareholders, though, so can't complain from that perspective. And now that Apple is on course to surpass Exxon Mobil as the company with the highest market cap in the world there's virtually no telling what Jobs and his board have lurking in the back of their mind to go along with all that mounting cash, but as a group they are big thinkers. It's a long way to 2020, but you can bet they're thinking ahead relative to investing and simpatico interests in the representation of partner company boards. Apple Board of Directors: Bill Campbell / Chairman and former CEO, Intuit Corp. Millard Drexler / Chairman and CEO, J. Crew Albert Gore Jr. / Former Vice President of the United States Andrea Jung / Chairman and CEO, Avon Products Arthur D. Levinson, Ph. D. / Chairman, Genentech (former google director) Ronald D. Sugar, Ph. D. / Former Chairman and CEO, Northrop Grumman Corporation (new, big systems and infrastructure guy)

Short memory or young...

Haven't seen it come in that good in all the years I've been going out there or driving by when I lived in HR.

Of course on a $1999 Macbook you are getting the exact same components as a similarly configured $600 PC - a bit of a heavy Apple tax. And given Steve is now going to move Mac applications to the AppStore and just filed a patent for a cloud-booting Mac I'd say you're about to experience the digital equivalent of Devil's Island (no evil empire there, and of course Steve and Apple care deeply about you and your sense of individuality). Shit, other than that Macs are great. Sent from my iPhone. [ P.S. All computers - regardless of make - suck. But what do I know? I just write software for a living... ]

Well, I'd say set aside 280k to buy a more than adequate house in Eugene, put 40k in the bank, and then take a 40k and a couple of years to climb your face off in style around the world, Then if you still want to live in Eugene when you get back you'll be all set.

There you go, it's a franchise! Plenty of cash to be made ridding the world of fixed draws...

Monday it is, then. Don't think a threesome would be a good idea though, you just stretch out the pain at the belay with each person you add...

I might be able to rearrange my schedule for Monday instead of tomorrow...

Speaking of apparelTech, just scored a cold-weather hoodie of remarkable design and construction for $35 (retail $115) at the Columbia outlet shop in Sellwood. It's called a 'Galaxy Hoodie' and is ridiculously stout with a great neck/hood system. Possibly the clothing deal of the year. One note,though, the arms run a tad short for climbing so I got a large vs the medium I'd normally wear. I'd say run and grab one and tell the ever frugal O-man to make the trip.