Dannible

If indeed the weather is delightful I'll be sleeping soundly under the stars, which are free for all of us to enjoy, and weigh less than a one person tent.

Bumpity bump.

I'm trying to sell some Voile Mountain Surf Skis 183cm with G3 Targa bindings and Black Diamond Ascension Skins. I bought them used a couple of winters ago to try to learn how to ski on, and only used them a couple of times before I decided to get ATs. Bindings and skins are in good shape, but the skis need tune up. I can wax them if you'd like. I tried to sell these last spring but there were no takers; I figured seeing as it's winter and all I'd give it another shot. I can drop them off anywhere along I-5 from Bellingham to Olympia, or in a couple of weeks anywhere along I-90 as far as Bozeman, MT. Otherwise you pay shipping.

Very cool. That actually looks like fun. I climbed some low 5th on the south ridge of Buckhorn a few years ago and to this day I'm shocked that I lived through it. Thanks for posting those.

A tad east of Larabee. It's a group of peaks along a ridge, on the far right in this picture: http://danhilden.smugmug.com/gallery/4602605_QEUuc#422250763_k4AYU-L-LB Sorry that I'm too lazy to post it here.

The problem with Salt Lake City is that it's in Utah. We have a lot of good alpine stuff in the summer here, and enough good local breweries to make it through the winter.

A mess indeed. I don't think that going back to the Taliban would work out so well at this point because there are so many warlord and northern alliance types that have been armed and funded by us for so long that they could keep a full on civil war going without our continued support. The Taliban were a pretty bad group live under and I don't think that the Afgan people would let themselves go back to living that way without a fight. Going back to the days of warlords seems like a better bet, but I would assume that the Taliban or whoever has the most guns would rise up and take everyone over. As for your third point, that's what we have been trying to do, but there is no end in sight. Afganistan has a long history of beating off foreign influence. It's a terrible situation. Hopefully someone who is smarter than most of us will come along with some better ideas. Another good book on the subject is "The Lion's Grave" written by a journalist named Jon Lee Anderson, who was in Afganistan in the late 80's, and went back just after 9/11. It talks about the assassination of Ahmed Shah Masood, a northern alliance leader who seemed to have more support than anyone else in the country. He was killed on 9/10/01.

I got hit by a big rock while rapping in the summer of 2007 and now have a hard time feeling good about climbing on loose rock (even if it's easy) and only in the last few weeks have been able to bring myself to climb more near my limits. Part of that is because I was in South America this summer and was sick when I was trying to go climbing, so I haven't had much of a chance to get back to it. I hope that by getting out a lot in the spring I'll be back up to par in the summer. Just take some time off and take it slow when you start up again. When your really ready you'll know.

http://www.skagitlandtrust.org/ I don't know much about this group other than that I donated a picture for use in their new book and also that there is apparently free wine at their book release party.

Yep, I've had good times running late night laps on that one popular top rope route. That was one of the first places I ever climbed, but it got old quick.

Nope. Dave tried to get time to head out there yesterday but wasn't able to in the end. I was gonna ask if I could join you today, but I made plans to head into the Olympics tommorrow so I'm leaving Portland soon. I'll be back at the beginning of November and should be more flexible. Hopefully the weather will hold out for a while longer.

I'm hanging out in Portland and have never been to Beacon. Anyone want to head out there for a few hours tommorrow afternoon? I'm thinking moderates.

Creamy chicken ramen and PBR. Breakfast of champions.

Do I get a prize for being the first to post a post rope up comment here? It was fun meeting people, you all know how to party right. There was even sun and and a bit of climbing too. And moonshine in the moonlight under classic crack. Thanks to the people who set the whole thing up. I'm hanging out in Lworth for a few days more. Does anyone know anywhere around here where someone can camp for free and not have to be in stealth mode (a fire would be nice). PM me if you know a place and don't want to tell the world. Thanks in advance.

I've spent the last couple of winters skiing in plastic boots, and have progressed very little since I started, and have often worried about breaking one of my ankles. I finally got used ski boots last spring.

Interesting that they Mayan (Central America) experts who made this video decided to have the opening clip be Incan ruins (Peru).

I'll be around, possibly with one or two others. Look forward to meeting people.

Spot worked 1 out of 10 times for me in Peru in completely open country (no trees) when I assume sat phones would work there.

Nice. That's a mighty perty place, and the rock on that route sounds better than I would have expected based on what I've seen on other parts of Tower.

Agree about the RP's, but I think just a couple would be fine to start. I used to use smaller tricams a lot, and still bring them to the mountains, but as you begin to climb harder stuff with fewer rests you will place them less and less. If money is a big issue and you are looking to get into alpine climbing I'd say get a couple. For cams start with doubles in whatever crack size you find really hard and can not protect well with nuts. For me that is .75 camalot size. Look for sales and used stuff.

Is there a shift away from alpine climbing? I have not been climbing long enough to say. It's not blowing up as fast as sport climbing and bouldering, but I can't imagine that our numbers are really dropping, and if they are I'd blame the price of gas.

I'd second the nuts if you don't have em yet. I'd say get even or odd sizes so you have 5 or 6, then you can still aford a pink tricam, a cam in whatever size you want, and have enough left over for a six pack.

I think a big part of that has to do with money. For people who go to school and have part time jobs or no job at all gear is bloody expensive. I've been building my rack for three or four years and still don't have doubles of cams in some sizes, and for really expensive stuff like plastic boots and skis I get the absolute cheapest used stuff I can, and still cringe at how much it costs. And now the price of gas is making it so I am much more selective about where and how often I go. I sold all of my winter gear this summer because I'm trying to get a business started that I hope will give me more time and money with which to climb in the future. I climb with a few people my age (I'm 21), but most of them don't have more than a harness, rope, shoes, and some draws. It comes down to priorities; some would rather have enough money to live more comfortably and spend their weekends partying or studying or whatever, and some of us go climbing instead. Compared to most non climbers I know I don't have much of a social life, but that's a choice I made. I also think that a lot of people would like to climb, but don't know how to get started. A lot of people my age ask me to take them climbing, and I like to take new people out sometimes, but setting up topropes on 5.7's gets old. I could see how finding someone to teach you how to safely climb multi pitch rock in the mountains would be hard. I pretty much learned as I went with help from books, but that's not the safest way to go. Both this and the money issue might be why bouldering and gym climbing is so popular because all you need is shoes, and you can just go and do it without having to know what you are doing. As for the original discussion, don't forget that a lot of the world's best climbers over the years have come from the PNW, and despite what the AAJ says, a lot is getting done here (now that I think about it I might even be in your AAJ!). Why don't more people talk about what they're doing online? Why should they? I like reading trip reports and looking at pictures, and have shared a couple of my trips that I thought were neat here, but for the most part when I get back from a climb I'm not thinking about rushing to the computer to download and shrink pictures to post here, I'm thinking about beer and food, and continue to think about those things until it's time to go back to work/school/climbing. Evidence of this is in the fact that my first TR came about 4 months after the climb, and my other one was when I hurt my leg and couldn't walk and was bored. I was been able to muster the motivation to write things up for the NWMJ last year, but some have been left out.

I have one that I was trying to use in some pretty remote places in Peru, and out of the 10 or so "I'm ok" messages that I tried to send only 1 worked. They say there is coverage down there, but I hope it's better up here.

Last winter I was walking down from hood with an ice tool in my hand, and the soft snow suddenly turned to an inch of soft snow with solid ice under it, and because I wasn´t wearing crampons I slipped. I have arrested before with no problems, but here the hard ice combined with the wrist loop not being tight enough around my wrist made the tool shoot out of my hands the second the pick went into the ice. I slid for a couple hundred feet with no good way to stop, just waiting to hit some rocks or go over a cliff or something, but I ended up just plowing harmlessly into a deep snowdrift. I looked for the tool (x-15) for an hour or so and never found it, but I didn´t really care because I was alive.