bstach

A right wing party in Canada is still pretty left by US standards.

Dead bounce?

More sex is good, but will it make her want to *climb* more?

Congrats...I'll have a beer to celebrate

That will look great on my shelf sandwiched between "The White Spider" and "The Boardman Tasker Omnibus"

Why is the first bolt 20ft off the ground?

The Japanese stock market closed today at less than a quarter of its value from 1989. One of the problems there was hyperinflated property prices and bad mortgages used to pay them. Hmmm. The Japanese situation is materially different in a few key ways: 1) Their population is in decline 2) US is a country in debt to foreigners, while foreigners are in debt to Japan 3) Relative to the massive debt fueled consumer spending in the US, Japan is a country of savers I don't see the deflation that happened in Japaqn happening here...when liquidity is poured into the market it settles into hard assets. I'm waiting for the real estate crash to hit rock bottom, then its "buy, baby, buy". Its probably pretty close to bottom already in places like Florida and Las Vegas, but its hard to say. Commoditites will do well, too, but likely will be more volatile than real estate.

You mean like the 1929 crash? Oh, that bottom came in 1933 and the gains didn't return until the 1950s Yup, you have to go all the way back to 1929 to find a crash that didn't recover all the stock market losses within 2 years.

My condolances to your dad. But as its been said, retirement age folks should be light on equities, heavy on bonds and t-bills. For what its worth, look at the previous crashes. In most cases the market was back up a year later. The world isn't coming to an end.

OMG!! You have to put 20% down on your investment property!!! Its going to get tighter yet. If you are a real estate investor, get your financing pre-approved NOW...and *in writing*

Best suggestion. Placing less gear = carrying less gear, climbing faster and having more fun.

For the price of a large cam you can get 3 hexes. I'd suggest 8,9 and 10 Hexentrics which will cover approx. #1-#3 Camalot sizes. They are an inexpensive and lighweight way to double up on big sizes and cheap to leave behind if you ever have to bail (so especially good for an alpine rack). Plus, lots of people here don't seem to like them, so you can probably get a bunch in the gear swap section for super cheap. (Said people will probably chime in and trash-talk this suggestion).

The Canadian debate was actually pretty good for a change. Interesting format this year...when did we switch to a "everybody gang up on the Prime Minister"? They even put all the party leaders on one side of the table and Harper on the other...except for Elizabeth May...lol, wtf...where they trying to say she wasn't as important...lmao. Also, WTF was with the moderator...even HE was ganging up on the PM!! Isn't he supposed to be impartial. His low point was asking the question to the opposition parties if they thought the Conservatives were 'Barbarians' for making cuts to arts programs (yes he actually used the word 'Barbarians'. Personally I thought the PM held his own, while the only guy that actually has a chance of replacing him put in a very poor performance. Jack Layton put in a solid debate and seems to be gaining momentum. I wonder if the NDP is going to pass the Liberals in BC. Interestingly, I just saw and NDP attack ad on TV...sign of how the BC campaign is going for the Liberals?

Is there any precidence for a VP candidate being switched out mid-campaign?

That was bearly amusing

If TTK is correct about the nature of God, then McCain has got this election in the bag.

My mom is Santa...yes its true, Santa is a *woman*!!!!11! And the beard and red suit are just products of the corporate whores at Coke.

What would you do for a Klondyke Bar?

Who are you to question what The Potter has made with His clay? Dance little man, dance to the cosmic tune until your pitiful life turns back to dust.

Nice work, Marc, your tenacity has paid off. I'm totally jealous. I'll have to get back there next year as I am leaving Friday to PEI and Nova Scotia for 3 weeks. Just curious, how was the overnight tempurature? Bit better than when we were there? Surely we would have frozen our arses on the bivy ledge.

The fall weather is usually varies between "sunny with cloudy periods, chance of showers" and "showers with cloudy and sunny periods".

The train is pretty cheap...$20-$30 if I remember correctly.

He said "No fucking way!" Sorry.

Conditions as of Aug 31, 2008 There is still snow at the bottom of the notch, another patch about halfway up the couloir and right at the top. First two pics are from the base of the tree ledge (right beside the upper patch), the 3rd is taken from the top of the tree ledge. It is possible to run across the bottom in tennis shoes and then ascend to the tree ledge on the far side in relative safety. Note the upper portion seems to be sitting on somewhat of a ledge. Nothing slid while we were there, so it seems relatively stable. That said, be careful if you go, i'm sure it could still slide right off (especially the lower portion). Marc and I headed up Sunday morning and froze our asses. We retreated after a snow storm below the bivy ledge.

This should be more interesting to this crowd than Sherpa Robot