beecher

Hey Manimal, I think it's great that you want to get into skiing without visiting a resort. Don't let anybody tell you it's too hard for you. There are plenty of very easy "backcountry" slopes to practice on, if that's what you need. Skiing did not begin with chairlifts, and with today's equipment you should be able to learn without riding one, unless your legs and ass are made of jell-o puddin'. You'll want a mid-fat ski that is not ridiculously stiff (alpine ski marketed as "all-mountain", or something sold as a touring ski). I would recommend avoiding foam core skis. You will most likely be happy with fairly short skis to get started on, probably no longer than 170 or 175cm. With midfats this should still offer enough surface area to float your 150lbs. It will be well worth your while to borrow, rent, or demo a few pairs before investing in your own gear. Trouble with demo days is they'll be trying to sell you the newest most expensive stuff. Skis I can recommend are K2 Shuksan & Fisher Big Stix. There are lots of other good ones available that I've never tried.

I agree, all these other things in life are treasures, and I personally care about them more than climbing. Therefore I try not to expose myself to much risk in my climbing life. Charlie Brown is great, but for me it's a Sesame Street pillow case.

Because if you survive one day, you can survive them all. Because the rock that whizzed past your head is no longer a real danger, the serac that collapsed after you walked past is something you are lucky to have seen. Because these are moments we will remember all our lives, that come to us as we toil away in the everyday.. these moments become the record of our life. Because the consequences are real and immediate. Because it requires living action NOW and not at a hypothetical future date. Because we are not cattle. Because I have seen a loved one suffer death by disease in a hospital. It is nice to be able to say goodbye, but accidental death borne of adventure is preferable to me. I do not want to risk getting cancer before I die. Because it's a good excuse not to worry about retirement. Most of all, because it doesn't have to be that dangerous. Skill and judgement can adequately reduce the risk for most people.

do you have any further information about signal degradation, what causes it, how bad it gets, what mfrs do to tune it back up?

Maybe someone has a spare they'd be willing to lend for your trip? In way of an attempt to offer useful info, I thought the Tracker worked well when I practiced with a friend's. Seems tried and true at this point, but a long way from obsolete. A lot of people seem to have them. Also, I swear that they receive each other's signals better than they receive from an F1, that's just my own observation from my fuzzy memory banks a number of years ago. I like to give new technology a little while for the kinks to be ironed out before buying something. If you have a really difficult time deciding, I would purchase the same unit most of your partners have. Anyone have any actual useful information about the latest generation stuff? I wouldn't mind hearing it either.

It will not be long before someone will tell you what you have is outdated and try to get you to buy a newer, safer one. I think you will be able to use whatever you get effectively for a while, as long as frequency remains consistent into the future. I am still loving the dark ages of the Orto F1. The more I've practiced, the less concerned I've become with updating to the latest technology. As long as you're confident with what you've got and it's compatible with your partner's units, why start fresh with a new unit with more features? If you're not going to practice, I would stick with the unit you're used to using until it's absolutely obsolete.

the bong! my 1st ever gear lead, yeah! exorcist bird of fire rt baskerville

boycotting films that document history you don't agree with is kind of ignorant. how do you really know what it's about or what you may have learned if you don't see it? does the event poster tell you everything you need to know? If you weren't witness to the events, I don't see how avoiding an opportunity to learn something about what happened is going to make your arguments more effective. If you did witness the events, seeing the film would allow you to comment on the accuracy of it's representation.

Saw a couple older gentlemen climbing in the owens river gorge a few years ago, they stick-clipped all the way up the arete on the gorgeous pillar. My first thought was "that's lame!", but then I realized I was stuck climbing the low quality 8's & 9's there while these guys were enjoying a classic I wasn't ready to lead. It would have been harder to watch if someone was waiting to get on the route, but then they probably would have offered it up so they wouldn't have to lead it. I'll add "a time and a place for everything" to the already popularized "to each his own". My solution has been to work on improving my climbing, since I don't want to make myself a target for crag bullies by being seen with a stick clip.

323.5 and you got me fired

nice to see some people willing to admit they skied something that isn't a climbing route, now that looks like fun! hard to beat night skiing.

I second Crystal.

nice! stokey stokey

is there a trick to watching the vids? - can't seem to get them to work. thx for posting

I believe you can find a helmet that will offer reasonable protection for both activities. check out BD HalfDome & Petzl Meteor. there are basically comfortable hard-hats and glorified bicycle helmets for sale. I have a Petzl hardhat and am always jealous of my buddy's petzl meteor, it seems more versatile considering protection during a fall (skiing or climbing), but the hardhat would be better for rockfall. safety equipment is a personal decision, do what you're comfortable with, just don't let your budget keep you from doing anything.

alert the media! why tarnish a noteworthy climbing resume and name with egotistical preemptive announcements like this? ALSO, go get it! don't let us get you down just because we're not impressed with hypothetical future achievements that the rest of us sissies are incapabable of.

i think it's bring your own babyoil

Climb: Hueco Tanks-Boulders Date of Climb: 11/11/2006 Trip Report: I know I know, Hueco Tanks is in Texas. Would some kind soul move this post, I couldn't put it where it should be. thx. I've been pretty bummed to log on to cc.com day after day to find mostly discussions of the non-trip-report variety. I found my pent up plastic-pulling rage manifesting itself in verbal backlashing on our glorious interwad. There was only one solution: get the f@#k out of town before I kill someone. Given the forecast, the rain, floods, and washouts, it was clear I would need to search far and wide to find the elusive 'trip' and stave off the SADness that was descending upon me. As fate would have it, my buddy Rob was being sent on a work run on the south side of the Rio Grande and thought he'd better visit Hueco Tanks before he made the walk over the bridge from El Paso. He managed to score the last two reservations for the North Mountain (only part of the park you can go without a guide). I think they allow 70 climbers in N. Mountain at any given time, and it covers a large enough area that this allows for plenty of solitude. Before you enter the park, you are required to watch an orientation video that explains what makes the park a unique, historic, and delicate part of the landscape. The video did a good job of increasing my appreciation for the place as more than a climbing destination. It served as a good reminder that the park is at least as important to several other "user groups" as it is to climbers. The greater, self-serving message of the video was clear: I gotta go out of my way to show respect to the public and private places we get to climb at, or access restrictions like this could happen here. I can't imagine living 1/2 hour from a place like Hueco, and not getting to climb there, or even walk around freely. We rolled in Friday night after dark and crashed in the lee of the barn at the Rock Ranch. It was blowing like the proverbial Mongolian dust storm was coming and we had no tent. Rob curled up on a crash pad with one of those plaid coleman summer sleeping bags and his 'extra layer' on, which consisted of one long-sleeved cotton tee. Good show old chap. Saturday morning we woke to the slamming door of the local port-o-let, found an eating implement from the toltec period to scoop our yogurt with, and entertained the locals by backing the rental car over a big firepit. "uh, Rob, we're in a fire pit". That's it, off to the park to get orientated! If you're not interested in easy to moderate bouldering and flatulent humor, stop here. That morning we groped the rock in our groggy post-sandstorm delirium, warming up on the warm up boulders: Rob enjoyed a classic crack problem on the split boulder, then we struggled with what must surely be a few sandbag V0+ problems on the mushroom boulder. some folks from Denver were troubling over some nearby V6 or another but were kind enough to offer beta, after which... I sent one but not the other. My apologies for my inability to "represent". I think I at least amused.. slightly: After a humbling morning intro to Hueco, we made a grave tactical error. Misreading the map in the guidebook, we hopped in the car to drive the 50' to our next bouldering destination, and proceeded to drive backwards over our cooler. Peering into the innards we witnessed what appeared to be a yogurt & tecate enema gone all wrong. We threw it all in the car and decided to deal later. After more wrestling with sharp and shifty-eyed huecos and ironflakes, we feasted on sandwiches, enjoyed some of the surviving Tecates and lay back on the pavement in the warm sun, ahhh, this is what I have been wanting to read about on the internet... After lunch we found an area on the west side where we could lap V0's and V1's till we were blue in the ____. Here's a picture of a nice problem known as the something "orifice" something, it was the gentle ego stroke my deprived body had been craving: We topped it off with a somewhat highball problem that maybe had a star or two, and were feeling the stoke. Called it a day on a good note. Enjoyed a mellow gathering in the barn that evening. Some kid was pounding beers like I couldn't believe. He'd pop 'em open with a big knife, one after another. Something for the Donny Baker files I swear. After a while I began to realize I just could not keep up, and lulled myself to sleep with the tasteful literary antics of John Sherman. Day two: we headed up through a pleasant slot to the gymnasium, a slightly overhung wall 15'-20' high strewn with a gracious supply of huecos and a few hours supply of juggy 0's and 1's. Rob had a good time on some scary problems that I avoided. This one traverses up to the large hueco on the upper right, and offers a terrific fall onto a healthy yucca plant: Here is an example of the tasty jug huecos the gymnasium offers. There are many easy classics like this here: And it's complete with a descent tree, cool: Birthing ourselves from the path to the gymnasium, we poked around the potatoe boulders until some kind folks turned us on to an excellent V2 known as 'no one gets out alive'. We worked it with some nice youngsters from New Mexico. It was delicious, and we managed to work all the moves, but alas, the glorious send was not to be. Still, go do this problem sometime: Pretty spent at that point we dabbled on the 'taters and later reconoitered with our new pals from NM to work a new problem Shane and his pal had concocted: We had lunch then wrapped things up with a quick trip to the morgue, a walk down mammary lane, and a cool-down at the warm-up, all fairly unremarkable in our wasted state, stars or no stars. So Hueco offers more than just the baddest ass new problems. There's lots for your everyday aspirant. Sure had fun and got worked pretty hard on the many many quality easy problems. There were a few people climbing routes, of which there seemed to be no shortage. sport and trad, some multipitch (at least 2 anyway). With the park at its max capacity we rarely encountered other people, even when napping in the middle of the road. I returned to my desk this morning to find an email from a buddy wondering if I can get out for a ski tour this weekend - looks like we've made it to the other side. Petroglyph notes: cool painted masks abound Food notes: G & R Mexican (formerly Gonzales, listed in the guidebook) is good. Entertainment: XXX drive-in appears to have closed Friday night lights at Eastside High Gear Notes: brought and used: socks, undies, toothbrush brought and used but did not necessarily need: socks, undies, toothbrush shoulda brought: knife, spoon didn't bring but were able to improvise: playing cards, jack daniels, girlfriend Approach Notes: Head east out of El Paso, pass world's largest auto salvage field, 12 dollar stores, and eight gentlemen's clubs (one advertising BYOB), turn left at sign.

i'm trying to post a TR but I keep getting a "all required fields are not filled" in error when I hit continue, but all tha fields are filled in. wassup?

I've owned an '84 Westie for a number of years (among the first of the water-cooled Vanagon). I've heard anecdotally that a slightly newer van is preferable because they worked some kinks out of the cooling system, but I haven't had any problems with mine. When I was looking to buy, it was readily apparent that most of the vans available for purchase had been 'resting' for quite some time in front of their owner's house, or neglected in some other way. I found one that had been properly maintained and have had a good experience with it. Easy to work on and very reliable. The biggest problem has been with peripheral plastic parts cracking and breaking, like any old VW. Even with truck tires on the rear wheels, the van is terrible in the snow though, although this can be improved slightly by asking passengers to ride in back on top of the engine while travelling uphill. Seriously, these things suck in the snow. I've never driven a synchro, but I think a converted 4WD Ford or Astrovan would be my pick if I planned on a lot of winter driving. My favorite part of vanagon travel is the novelty of riding on top of the front wheels, and that your body is the crumple zone.

Thanks Kevin, I love to read your piss and moan fit instead of relaxing and enjoying the stoke! errr, I mean stroke. No one cares about the point you're trying to make, it's just not relevant. So drop it. You'd be more successful at deleting the thread if you stopped posting to it. Can.. you... do it? bet you can't. Kevin's very clever retort follows:

gotta represent come get it big boy

i once rolled in a convertible 5.0 down A1A beach front avenue. 4 pasty white washingtonians on a business trip. one guy brought the vanilla ice cd and we blasted it. It was fun, in the sense that announcing you're a dorky white guy who doesn't know how to dress himself can be fun.

bluebadger balls, you're clearly new to the world of hairy, jealous, and bitter old men with poor hygene lurking on this motherfucking interweb. enjoy!

I disagree with you Mr_Phil. None of this is very interesting, but it can be kind of fun. I bet most of us would get along famously anywhere besides the internet. I didn't mean to disparage an entire organization, only to point out that a few negative personal encounters with a group's 'representatives' (aka leaders) will sour one's perspective of the group as a whole.