crackers

yeah. My best friend found a woman's hands on top of a building across the street in early october. They were under an air conditioning unit. My dad's partner was among the thousands of people who watched the planes go one and then two into the building. Its pretty hard to believe that people believe that kind of crap. From omfg, you can fly remote control airplanes to the put option crap. ugh. you'd think that people would actually get busy organizing and participating in politics, but instead they want to hide in their closets with their aluminum foil hats.

well, they will do that at DEN and JFK. I thought that was pretty normal. In the new climbing (?) there is this moronic article about how you should keep your rack as a check in. There is no way in hell you'd keep it if you were flying out of JFK, LHR or CDG... I check all of my climbing gear.

a) $25 Canadian b) No. Dru, or any other friendly canadian, will make sure they look 'used' before he sends them. He'll write "your forgotten ice tools" on the label. c) It'll take him about six months to make them look right. d) Don't you want to make sure that they're not going to recall them by having them tested out first?

i've been to both places and climbed extensively. what do you want to know?

I'm not exhibiting, but i am walking the show. I have to meet some folks. of course, i do have packs with me, including a wierd prototype...if you want to see them, just send me a pm or email me. I'll try to grab a shirt for you AE, just so long as you don't go on and on about what a wonderful vacation you're having!

for sure! i'm picking up my b/c hummer shirt from a friend at bc.com tommorrow...looking forward to it. in case you don't know, Hummer is sponsoring part of the 'outdoor industry' tradeshow... GoBlog's rant is pretty funny

Before or after the show? Good things about OR: free coffee and free beer. Bad things: ... if there is anything cool, i'll take pictures...

Anybody else going to OR? Wanna get a beer?

BTW, they're super cool and throw the best parties in the world. They burn couches at their parties!

Frank McCourt was my high school english sub teacher. He was a great teacher, much better than he was a writer! Everybody should read eric hoffer's True Believer and anybody working with economics, banking or foreign exchange should read the second edition of Fooled by Randomness by Nicholas Nassim Taleb. If it's winter and you don't ice climb and like ships and war, consider the esteemable fiction of Patrick O'Brian. The Aubrey-Maturin series are a highlight of historical fiction. Plus, there are 20 of them. BTW, he translated Papillon into English. patrick leigh fermour's travelogues are pretty damn good. neil gershenfeld's the nature of mathematical modeling is one of my favorite books to curl up with. It covers analytical, observational and numerical models in clear concise form with a minimum of bs. If you work with numbers, you really should have a copy lying around for inspiration. It's like schaum's outline for mathematical modeling, but written well and beautifully made. Its a work of art. I also like the Grammar of Graphics and any book by Tukey or Cleveland for graphics. Tufte is a tool.

I'll talk to Matt and Jim at Sterling on Thursday and ask them what diff's they use...

I've given a few hundred bucks to the site this year... But I've also sold more than a few packs. cc.com

Clean fall onto rusty piton palced god knows when, all I know is that I found a placement for my WC zero bout 15 feet above that rusty piton, and my belayer could almost see the shit running down my leg. No offense powderhound, but why in hell did you clip that piton? It's historical color, not protection! It wiggles! Never EVER trust a pin in the gunks... Next to the pin, you can put a red or orange metolius. In the roof you can put yellow metolius or red alien. You could put nuts in the dihedral. You can slot a HB green brassie as you exit the roof. You can rig a pair of #2 WC nuts in a seam under opposing tension about four feet past that. You can throw in a 00 or a black alien about a body length after that, probably where you threw in your WC Zero. Gear in the gunks tends to be much smaller than what I've seen out west. The rock is so hard that you don't have to worry about the gear pulling -- broken gear is far more common than gear pulling out in the gunks. At 185 pounds, I've taken numerous 20 to 30 foot above my gear falls on 00 metolius and black aliens. I wouldn't do it elsewhere.

that should be right around the roof and bear right...straight up is 10 and it's run out twenty feet. It's a clean fall though...

Do you want Uber Climb? do P1 of MF to P2 of Birdie Party to the Dangler (highE variant). 5.9 all the way, and what a combo route...Each pitch is a three star route by itself. Or do something interesting in one pitch to the GT ledge and then do the dangler...

I'm assuming it's your first time. Take small gear for the 8 and up routes. directissima variation of High Exposure. first two pitches of High E blow, so do the 9 variant up to the money pitch of high E. modern times is what gunks climbing is all about. 5.8 hawk is a 5.4 that will have you wondering how 5.4 can be so hard. So is Sixish. Arch/Wrist is a linkup of the best parts of the two climbs. Neat climbing. First pitch of erect direction is 5.8 and then do the last pitch in one of CCK. Take the direct for some spice. madame g's wulst in one pitch is awesome. lots of long runners since the route goes in an S kinda shape. 5.6 try again is a good first 10 in the gunks. lots of gear and pretty easy. the section of the cliff it's on is great. Bonnie's roof and Ant's Line shouldn't be missed when you're down at the HighE end of the cliff. i really like grand central 5.9 and disney point. P-38 is another good starter 5.10. Traverse of the Clods is one interesting 5.9. Easy moves, but what a whimper... Do the first pitch of Bird Land. Gelsa. Yellow Ridge is another neat climb. Do it in two pitches, combining p1 and p2. that should get you started...

Who will be there to rescue you My super girl in extrem alpism of course

its safer to read mark twights book and go mountaineering than to go mountaineering after reading freedom of the hills. i know this because i've never read a 400 page book and neither has you. it is impossible to read such heavy fire log cover to cover. since you can read all of mark twights book, you will be safer. there. i refute oly's lame statement that it is safer to use mountaineers. it is apparently 104 across the street from my office. hmm. 85% humidity too! whee fun fun!

airport names explained here... oly: you suck at provoking arguments. really.

how hard you gonna climb? need any route recommendations? I'd offer to show you around and about, but I'll be in utah... but a warning: if this heat continues, you'll only be climbing very early or very late in the day.

R290LC-7A I think the snopes picture is the best one...it looks nice at night.

They don't necessarily work in the Caucasus and SE Turkey. If you're going someplace far afield I highly recommend talking to people who've used them in the area you're going to. Various military organizations have been known to use jammers to degrade or eliminate their functionality. I leave the morality of it up to you, but I think msr fromage summarized my views pretty well...

Also one of my all time favorites: spacemen3: dreamweapon an evening of contemporary sitar music

Moricone 03 the remixes of the classic moricone tracks. Gotan Project 122 and 123 my favs K&D Sessions Eno Ambient Music for Airports D1. Cafe Drechsler Morcheeba Live from Brixton to Beijing Sigur Ros Ryoksopp Goldfarbb Felt Mountain The Aphex Twin stuff from the early 90s bit heavier: S.U.N. Project Statistic Oliver Lieb Espania Elektro guitar etcetera: willie nelson ralph stanley skatalites esp guns of navarone... finally: Eric B and Rakim Don't Sweat the Technique

well congrats john, I'm glad to hear that you've managed to overcome your world going to absolute shit. And as I said in pm's to gapertimmy and to jon, i forgot the eBay prohibition, apologized and erased all that I could. Since you mention fern, i'll pm fern too. I would like to remind everybody that when I'm actually advertising something I do it totally upfront as I did early this year and that I gave a substantial amount of the proceeds of any such sale to cascadeclimbers.