NTM

There are a lot of B2s at the outdoor rock at UW

I think it's mostly the people who work there. They suck. I think you suck. My response to people who say that gyms leave "climbers" (indoor or other types) unprepared for the outdoors, is that (I can only speak for myself here) classes are alway prefaced with an emphasis that what will be taught that night is exclusive to that gym. I mention that other gyms have different poicies and that the out-of-doors is an entirely different arena because it is impossible to teach (in the gym) rock quality, bolt quality, bolt intervals, route-finding, anchor-building and all the difficulties assiciated therein. It is then in my mind that all the new folks fucking up out there (in assumption that they learned in a gym and run outside thinking it's the same) are doing it after being warned that it is different. I'm sure there are some instructors at some gyms who don't go over why learning in a gym doesn't prepare someone for climbing outdoors, but they're douches. Sorry, I take this part very personally because I take a lot of pride in the classes I teach. One of them is a long class (16 sessions) during which the students learn technique, indoor leading and get an intro to what makes a good anchor so they understand why a sport anchor is safe and an intro to rapelling. I recently ran into a former student of mine from this class climbing with another friend outside and the friend said the student was one of the most prepared folks to come out of a gym; she was asking interesting questions that were relevant to switching from the gym setting to the outdoor world like "this hanger is spinning, is that still safe?" and "Is this hold in?". It made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside knowing that I helped set this student up to do everything she could in a gym and then be a good partner for someone more experienced to climb outdoors with. holy shit that was longer than i meant it to be, and i haven't even had my coffee yet.

What is everyone's beef with gyms? I consistently hear people bitching about them, but I don't get it. It gives people who want to try the sport out a relatively safe place to try and classes to learn some of the basic skills. The people who want to claim they climb stay in there (every sport has lots o people like these, get used to it) and leave the rocks for the rest of us. It's also a fun place to hang out with like-minded folks during the "off" months (Sept-May) in the NW and even sometimes find partners. I've been teaching in gyms for while and think it's fantastic that we can weed people out so easily with such a low nOOb:death rate. I've taught everyone from the apprehensive gf/bf following their partner to the most enthusiastic new climber all on their own in a class. Climbing is cool because you only get out of it what you put into it. Those that want to climb find a way to make it happen and gyms can help them get going. Maybe I'm wierd, but I've only had positive experiences in the gym. Remember we were all dorks at some point wondering how they got those ropes up there and what the clippy things are for...

looks like choss to me...

i dig the metolius where's waldo persoanlly...

BLUE STEEL

nah, I think it's a compliment. Much better to hike a route in style than have your feet cutting all the time and pretending to be in a pull-up contest.

I knew an Erin Forbush...

i've been told that I climb like a girl b/c I'm shorter and weak so I use my feet/tech a lot to get up harder routes/problems. Eric8 said he can't tell the difference between me climbing a 5.8 and a 5.10 because I'm always doing goofy-ass shit with my feet (lots of hand-foot matches and the like).

i've never found her particularly attractive

I'm sure they do love you, but I just don't think you use protection when loving them....

What are the funniest names you'ver ever actually seen/heard? There was a girl in my HS named Muy Dung. A woman that came into the Coffee shop that I worked at was named Billy Jean Cummins (she actually went by BJ). Lastly was a guy my aunt was friends with named Harold Dick who went by Harry.

Zing!

rad.

more!!!!

this is too funny. it's super recent too, those problems just went up within 2 weeks, so they must have a fast turn-around on the editing

theres no good porn on teh interwebs

if you don't know I'm not going to tell you.

does kevbone-in-the-butt suck? he apparently loves posts about him, so here's another to fuel his ego. Kev, you're a douche. That's about all I have to say about that.

Coffee and OJ don't go so well together. I'm just figuring this one out.

Strongbad and Brak look alot alike, but which is your favorite? I personally think Strongbad is the shit and Brak is carried by his co-stars.

This is how most climber's love life is, as far as I can tell: http://dr1.com/photos/life.asf

how about colin? he spent quite some time there last year...

sorry, I lost track of the buying thread. what did you end up getting?

i've only bought stuff from them once, but they seemed cool at recycled cycles.