NTM

I had the worst latte of my life at the Mazama store last week, but most of the time it's pretty good, and it's the only thing in town. 11worth's Alpine Coffee roasters is the best bet there. There are hundreds of coffee drive thoughs between Monroe and Index, all are decent (as far as I know), but my favorite is the bigfoot coffee stop along highway 2 a little ways past Index. Cle Elum has a roastery/coffee shop downtown near the bakery (which has awesome food, but the coffee is mediocre), but it's never open Anyone else been there? As for Bozeman, no matter how much you talk it up, the coffee is sub-par. After all this, though, I usually just bring my french press with me. John, how did you hear about Stumptown?

According to inside rumors, Stumptown is in the process of putting in a Seattle store...should give the local shops a run for their money! Others that I like: Firehouse in Ballard- when I'm at SG, it's 20X better than Karma. Herkimer's on Phinny Ridge- Fairly good coffee, even though I don't like Cafe Vita's espresso Cafe Verite/Cupcake Royale- Rock out with your cupcake out, plus the coffee is good (Umbria espresso) Cugini- Zoka coffee and cute baristas, what more can you ask for? Keep 'em comming! This is fun

These are next to each other in 11worth: Blood Transfusion Clean Love AIDS Victim

What are your favorite coffee shops in your neighborhood (Stumptown in PDX, Victrola in Seattle, etc...)? Least favorite? Why is it good/does it suck (service, coffee, whatever...)? Just curious, plus I think it would be cool to have a list of places to hit up near me or when I go to other towns. I personally like Vivace's coffee, but find most people who work there to be condescending. Victrola gets

I've always thought Aborigine would be a pretty burly onsight, but once you know where the holds are, it's a fun warmup

Fargo

http://us.st11.yimg.com/us.st.yimg.com/I/yhst-13261163027993_1923_404355 Her doll comes with a rope for route climbing...

The story I got with the pic was that the guy was driving his speedboat ~70mph (drunk of course), somehow the boat stopped and he went flying, only to be impaled by the log. He did survive though since the log was so tightly wedged, he had little to no bleeding.

What happened here?

"and if I stem like this, I can give myself the reach-around"

Who wants a body massage?

I really like SoIll holds and Voodoos. The Voodoos are more flexible and adapt to any features on the wall (nice for places like the UW climbing gym).

French trad rack

Man Man

The Bas Cuvier is where it's at. PM me if you want more info on how to get there, good problems, etc...

goober...

I heard observation was good 2 weeks ago. I did it last year on Sept 18th. Go have a look...

On a quick side-note (although slightly related) I haven't seen anything mentioning the American culture of sport v. trad compared to (please don't rip on me too much here) the French model. Everyone can gripe all they want about about bolted cracks, but the fact of the matter is that outdoor climbing is more of an accessible sport over there because of all the bolts. Although this complicates many things (over-crowding at belays) I found there to be many less accidents on multi-pitch sport routes simply because of how common they are. There were very few gumbies (in my experience) venturing from the "couenne" to "grandes-voies" without going up with a better-educated friend. If I wanted to do this here, it would either be CA or Infinite Clip. Since France is more or less littered with long routes, an afternoon could be spent on a short, easy route, going over the finer points of multi-pitching (anchors, rapelling, etc...). Just a thought...

oh man, there's TONS! of course the classics: The Eiger Sanction, Vertical Limit and Cliffhanger. One of the infinite ADD-type boulding videos (pumping techno and loud slaps on sloperz) or another climbing porn (Frequent Fliers is rad, so is Return to Sender). Then there are the movies that have short clips that climbers get to laugh at. Bringing out the Dead (with Nick Cage) isn't half bad on its own, but includes a wicked rescue of a guy impaled on an iron fence on the 3rd floor. The Fire Dept guys pound a piton into the mortar between two bricks which of course holds 2-3 people falling (outward pull nonetheless!). This should get you started.

http://www.piratesandemperors.com/

double thumbs up from the frenchies!

living in grenoble till mid-may, so it's not very difficult for me to go to cham. pm me if y'allz want to meet up.

I got some sarkens for last ice season and thanks to conditions i only got out on them twice, but they were schweet wheni did use em

quite a bit NE of tolouse, Grenoble's over in the alps. however, i'll be teaching english for only 12 hours/week, so keep in touch and i may be able to get some time off to head down that way.

I'm moving to Grenoble from mid-September to mid-May, anyone going to be around there and want to climb?