ericb

I check all my insurance--it is my second largest expense behind mortgages. I was pissed when people who did not get earthquake insurance here in Seattle got money from the gov't when their chimneys fell off their homes during the last quake. That's fucked. You want someone else to pay to fix your house? Buy insurance. Don't charge the taxpayers--we are not responsible for your home's upkeep. I DON'T HAVE ANY EARTHQUAKE INSURANCE AND WILL BE VERY HAPPY WHEN THE STATE FIXES MY HOME. WHY ARE YOU WORRIED? THE GOVERNMENT PAYS FOR IT - IT'S FREEEEEEE! even if you have earthquake insurance, an earthquake here will be complete cluster. Think about all the townhomes sprouting up around town.....what happens when there's major structural damage to a block of townhomes, and a couple in the middle are underinsured or insured by a crappy company.....

I've seen good reviews on WC zeroes, although I dumped mine after the first outing....too short to get to trigger in deep cracks on the smaller ones - I think they fixed it the next year with "long stem" version. Also rumors of single stem metolius coming out.

former civil engineer, now corporate finance - tech company

Oh...and Boyne is taking over the Summit as well....nowhere to run

can't you read??....he would appreciate answers to his question from people who have climbed those routes....apparently Ivan is only "person" and therefore doesn't qualify

Marty....my mom now lives up on 395 north past kettle falls about 5 miles south of the Laurier border crossing, and I had no idea there was any climbing up there....sounds like this might only be ~ 30-40 minutes away +/-???

Bug - Good climbers are not necessarily good teachers That said, I think you are an example of a very experienced alpinist who likes to take Noobs out and show them the ropes....a lot of great climbers are not so inclined. If they had the choice between spending a Saturday creeping up the R&D route, or sending a tough 5.9/5.10 grade IV alpine route, they'd choose the latter. If you have an experienced climber buddy whose willing to show you the ropes, go for it, but I think many folks would not feel comfortable asking an experienced climber to sacrifice their own ambitions to teach them. The nice thing about a guide is you pay them the bucks, and they are literally at your service. You don't have to feel bad about bogging them down with questions and skills teaching. I've taken two classes from North Cascades Mountain Guides and one from Mountain Madness. I've also tried to climb with more experienced people than I. By taking the classes, I felt more confident to commit to climbs with folks as I didn't feel like I'd be a liability.

I've taken a couple classes with North Cascades Mountain Guides, and really like them....the guides and the classes. They are very amenable to doing small custom trips. That said, I'm not sure how much they get involved with big mountain expedition type climbing. They mostly work out of the Washington Pass areas I think. Last I talked to them over there, they were hoping to get a permit under the new Rainier system....not sure how that shook out.

aren't spouses off limits?.....even in spray?

Mine goes up to 11. And when all else fails, pepper a virulent rant with expletives and references to coping mechanisms to deal with unfortunate consequences of oral s*x....right KKK? Why do you use an asterisk as if oral sex is a bad word? Strange. It's complicated AE

Mine goes up to 11. And when all else fails, pepper a virulent rant with expletives and references to coping mechanisms to deal with unfortunate consequences of oral s*x....right KKK?

noobs, take note - and bow to the master

pun intended?

or saying you are when you are actually assistant TO the night manager

sigh....not so sure about that, but It's Friday afternoon..... To the extent that Jesus spoke to this, he seemed to condemn retaliation for the sake of retaliation....."turning the other cheek" and such. I don't seem to recall him being faced with a situation where one could make the argument that violence (whether preemptive or revenge) might serve to prevent further, more extensive violence, so it may be difficult to apply the WWJD card directly here - or at least back it up with any direct scriptural parallels. This might perhaps explain why, even within the Christian community, there doesn't seem to be clear consensus. To the extent that anybody can say with surety what our true motivations for this war are, one might be able to draw on the New Testament for answers. Unfortunately, I don't know that this is possible.

Who is pretending? I know I am not…..nor is his approval rating….. I suppose you can pretend that he is a good president…… Kevbone...IMO, rejecting the demonization of a president and calling BS on claims that he's chiefly to blame for all the worlds problems is very different from pretending he's a good president. I'm not a huge fan to be honest, but I think it's not only unproductive but downright dangerous to blame him for everything that he's being blamed for. In doing so, we fail to ask honest questions that get to the root causes, and basically delay any real action for 2 to 3 years when we see that the problems persist despite who's in the oval office. It's the same issue I have with Gun Control. I have no desire to have a handgun, and I see the danger in dipshits owning one, but I also don't think that they are to blame for the upsurge of violence in this country. Perhaps we can spend another 10 year working on legislation to ban handguns....I don't think we'd see a big impact on violent crime....and then we'd realized that we've wasted 20 years failing to address the real root cause....poverty, absent fathers, glorification of violence in movies/TV/video games, etc.....

I've had lots of low back pain, and about 8 years ago, I was trying to figure out what was causing it. I had some bulging disks, and I had what appeared to be a congenitally misshapen facet joint. The physiatrist wasn't sure which if either things was causing the pain, so he used cortizone as a diagnostic tool. The epidural injection didn't help, ruling out the disk (supposedly), and a follow-up injection in the facet joint didn't help, ruling that out.....hmmmm. Basically two injections of cortizone, and no relief. Now the disk is officially herniated, but my pain is less (thanks to stretching, stengthening, ice, and inversion) than when it was "bulging". There are probably many more knowledgeable about the medical effects, buy my understanding is that cortizone can weaken connective tissue. Ask your doctor if they are sure of what is causing the pain, or using it more as a diagnostic tool to eliminate possible causes. If they are pretty sure of what's causing the pain and that this will help, it might be worth it. If not, the side effects of cortizone may not be worth it. Also, if you can manage the pain without it (stretching, ice, etc.) it might not be worth it. In my experience pain is one of the symptoms of nerve impingement - another impact is the interference with nerve signals and associated muscle weakness. In my case this caused a deficit in my glutes/hips muscles (external rotators), leading to poor knee mechanics, and according to my PT was very likely to be a contributing factor to my torn ACL. With that in mind, I like the fact that I have some pain to tell me when I need to step up the maintenance.

As long as we are airing our dirty laundry, I just want you ("bug") to know that those eggs you gave me Sunday morning gave me the red-ass somethin fierce. Thanks for nothin

I've got both Volken's guide and this one http://www.amazon.com/Classic-Backcountry-Snowboard-Routes-Washington/dp/0898866618 It's pretty good, but not as much beta as Volken gives on the individual routes. Great to use for ideas with a larger coverage area, and then perhaps gather additional beta from here or TAY.

Do you know if his problem is disk related - have they had an MRI?

who has time for that?

To that point, I don't recall seeing many vehicles at Rope-up that would get better than 30mpg, or really 25mpg for that matter (outbacks included)

Arcteryx fits my wife...she's ~ 5'9 and pretty narrow waist. I'd give another no vote to OR in our experience

Interesting stereotypes....does it make life more manageable to keep your people buckets large....I don't recall making any pro-war statements

What a bunch of BS.....none of these will do a bit of good unless we can get the Chinese to fart less