TyClimber

Really? My buddy knew the area so I just kind of went where he said and never even looked at the guide. Thats pretty funny though. I obviously have limited experience as I was only climbing there a couple times, but I don't remember the routes we did as being particularly sketchy.

I went to Red Rocks and did Olive Oil in January a couple years back and climbed almost the whole thing without a shirt on. Definitely a good winter option. Sedona, AZ is also a good place to check out in the winter. I had a friend who was living in Flagstaff and I would go visit him every December and hang out to climb. Only once in three years did the weather turn on us. The only downside of Sedona is that there isn't much under 5.8 if you are looking for something moderate.

I completely agree we must have a standing military, only someone suffering from extreme naivete would think otherwise. Not for wars of aggression fought for purely financial reasons or questionable ideology, but for national defense. I appreciate and admire those who choose to enlist. Without them the US would be in trouble. However, I think the way the army goes after kids the second they step into a high school is seriously wrong. If someone makes an informed decision to join up that is one thing, if they are pushed into it by a recruiter looking to meet his quotas that is another. What cracks me is the fact that my 17 year old brother gets between 10 and 20 emails a week from the recruiter who hounds his school. He has repeatedly said he is not interested but the guy will not leave him alone. Its borderline harrasment. Personally I think the armed forces should have a recruitment office in every town. If someone chooses to walk in and volunteer then more power to them. But I don't think recruiters should be allowed anywhere near high schools nor should they be allowed target children with free video games and manipulative advertising. That said, I think the vast majority of those who frequent this site should be mature enough to make a decision without beind swayed by a free video game. Advertising directed at adults is fair game when it comes to raising a standing army, when those banner show up on myspace and other websites geared towards teens then I think we have a right to bitch about it.

If anyone can actually poke a hole in this argument I would love to hear it.

Also, Bush wasn't exactly Mr. Straight Shooter in his younger days. What with cocaine usage, DUI, etc? Eric, are you serious that you really think a lie about marital infidelity is worse than a lie which led to a war? Or that someone with questionable morals in regard to sex is worse than someone with questionable morals in regard to torture?

Again, we aren't saying that Clinton or any other president's pardons were ok. If you can make a coherent argument about this specific case please do so. Simply repeating the fact that other presidents have also passed down some shady pardons doesn't really add anything to the debate. Do you automatically support and Bush decision simply because he is a "conservative"? I generally vote Democrat, but I don't think the Democratic leaders are always right. I try and look at each issue and make my own decision about it, not simply follow the party line.

I am not saying that the other presidents who pardonned people were right or wrong. I am talking about the current president and this pardon. Can anyone make a valid argument that it was the right thing to do? Like I said, I am a liberal but if it was a Democratic president who had done the same thing I would have been just as pissed.

I have never done it myself, but zippering out your gear must be scary as hell. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74Hng-H0qNM&mode=related&search

I am not trying to look at this from a partisan perspective, I would have been just as outraged if was the Dems doing this. The way I see it, this was a flagrant disregard of the legal process.

Ok seriously, nobody could look at the Libby case and say that justice was done. It is pathetic and proves once again that the Bush administration simply feels that the law doesn't apply to them. I hope that everyone, including conservatives, will have a problem with this. If you claim to be a proponent of law and order then you cannot support Bush's decision.

Thanks for the link, looks like it should go!

My bro and I want to head up to do the north side of the northwest ridge of Adams in about 2 or 3 weeks. I know that a lot of the parks sustained quite a bit of damage with the rain events last fall. Does anyone have some up to date info on the trailhead access for the north side? We were hoping to do it in one long day, but if we have to tack on a couple miles of road walking we are probably hosed for that idea. Thanks in advance.

My friend had the first two seasons on DVD and we laughed our asses off. "The shit apple doesn't fall far from the shit tree Randy."

How many of the people who have come out against abortion on this thread have adopted a kid? Just curious who would be taking care of the 40 million unwanted babies?

I would add Flagstaff, AZ to the list. I had a friend who moved there about 5 years ago, I thought he was crazy until I went to visit him. It has a lifetimes worth of mind blowing rock climbing less than and hour away in Sedona, easy access to the Grand Canyon, and good skiing up to 12,000ft on the San Francisco mountains. The one thing it is lacking is real mountains for alpine climbing, but it is a reasonable drive to colorado or the Sierras. Plus being a college town there is a lot going on in the community to keep you busy.

Ok, as someone who lived in France for a year I think I should chime in. France is a nice place to visit, it just sucks to live there. Yes they have easy access to some mind blowing mountains but unless you are going to spend 300 days a year in the hills you are screwed. That is unless you are such a gifted linguist that you can speak French with a perfect accent and convince them you are not an outsider. I am fluent and they still act like bastards to me everytime I go to a restaurant and order with an American accent. You talk about places being culturally and politically stale, France is the top of the list. They want nothing to do with anything non French. Just because their culture is different from ours doesn't make it special or cool. I would highly recommend anywhere in the Austrian, German, or Swiss Alps, the people there are far more friendly. Chamonix will always be there for the long weekends.

My bro and I had a few free hours this morning and set out for some zero approach ice climbing around Leavenworth. We ended up at Icicle Buttress and climbed a pretty fun route, starting on the large, steep flow which starts in the same place as the Another Roadside Attraction rock route. We climbed the steep flow and then followed a rightward break for another pitch and a half or so of lower angled (varying between 45*-60*) mixed ground. I would say the route was probably WI 3ish with some class 4 mixed climbing on the upper sections. The steep ice at the start was nice and fat, but after that it was sweet, delaminating verglas with the odd turf stick thrown in. So what did we climb, is this an established route? I can't imagine we were the first to head up it, considering the lack of approach, etc.

I've spent quite a bit of time on top of N Twin Sister and staring at the N face of South Twin and thought I would see if anyone knew anything about it. I have been wanting to explore the Twin Sisters range a bit more and thought this might be a fun idea. I haven't been able to find much online and Beckeys guide is fairly nebulous, "climb a short, quite steep face". It looks to me like it would be long enough to be interesting. Anyone been on it? How steep is "quite steep"? Any info is appreciated Thanks.

Two years ago I spent the first week of November climbing in the Sun Valley area. There is a couple cool lines that freeze in across the valley from Trail Creek road just out of town. There is a bit of avy threat, but in early season it was plenty cold and there was only about 4 inches of snow on the ground. Also if you are looking for alpine ice, the north face of Borah Peak is really fun. Its something like 2500ft of 50* snow/ice. Its a bit remote as we spent a full day approaching and another full day walking out, but well worth it in the end. I think there is a lot of other possibilities in the Lost River range, but the downside is that its a fairly big undertaking to get to them.

Anyone interested in getting out Wednesday in Leavenworth, assuming the forcast is good?

I would be up for trying to get out this season. I am a bit hit or miss when it comes to fitting climbing into my schedule during the winter, but I usueally manage to get out a couple times a month. I don't have a standard 9-5 m-f job so I can climb mid-week as well. I don't have a ton of ice experience but I can lead WI3 and follow harder.

Another one you might want to check out is the north face of Observation Rock down by Ranier. Its on a glacier but it normally isn't super broken up. Plus, this time of year all the slots will be so opened up it shouldn't be too hard to spot them.

I've been in the out of competition testing pool for the US olympic comitee the last three years so I have had to learn a lot about drug tests, false positives, etc. Although it sounds like you have already gotten to the bottom of what caused the poz, here is a bit of insight that might help others. False positives are not really the major problem when it comes to drug testing, while they do happen it is usually pretty easy to track down what medication you took that caused the false poz. The FDA is fairly good about figuring that kind of stuff out before they allow it to be sold and you doctor should be able to tell you if something you are taking could cause a false positive on a drug test. As yours seems to have done. The big problem is contaminated supplements, you would be amazed/horrified at some of the shit that can get into seemingly innocous health supplements. I know of several athletes who have been suspended from competition because they were taking a legal supplement which had been contaminated by an illegal substance(by olympic drug testing standards) without their knowledge. Basically, there is no regulation of the supplement industry in the US, so a company can put whatever they want in a supplement and tell you it is something else. Usually this means the supposedly hot new muscle building supplement you just bought is actually a sugar pill. However, where you get in trouble is that many companies process all their supplements on the same machines without properly cleaning them between different batches. So when they are processing the amino acid supplent(legal) you are taking, there are still traces of androsteindione(illegal) on the machinery from the batch of pills they processed before yours. I have also heard of supplement companies using the same machines as those making knock offs of prescription drugs, which could lead to traces of some pretty bad shit being in you vitamins. The only real solution is to do some serious research before you start taking something, call the company talk to them about what products they make in addition to the one you want to take, what their quality control is, if they share their processing machinery with other companies, etc. I know I ended up getting a bit away from the thread here, but I figure it might be useful to someone.

Thanks for the input man. We are aiming at going to Rjukan, it sounds incredible. Hopefully we'll have as much fun as you did.

I may have an opportunity to head up to way northern europe and do some ice climbing this fall. My buddy and I are looking at either Iceland or Norway, we are currently leaning towards Norway because its cheaper. Our window of opportunity is in mid November, which is a bit on the early side of things, but from what I have been able to find on the internet we might still be ok. Anyone have input on this idea? Personal experience?