rob

At 9? 8D From birth

I'm sorry. Did you say something? Didn't think so. Shuffle on, dirtbag. "Hey, you! Yeah You! That's right, I'm ignoring you!"

I thought this was going to be like Planet Unicorn, only cooler.

I've never had problems with freezing in my bladder (blowing the tube out works great!) but I've had a bladder burst in my sleeping bag after adding hot water (from melting snow). Apparently the hot water melted the glue on a couple of the seams. I'll never trust one again. They're useless to me if I can't put hot water in them. I've never had a nalgene leak, so the choice is obvious to me. I bought a bottle belt for my nalgene and I keep it strapped to the hip belt on my pack, to encourage me to drink often. http://www.rockclimbing.com/gear/Detailed/1200.html

I'm there for the $12 beer

Porter, you were personally responsible for pushing this story with the NY Times, weren't you? Admit it!

What's next for him after PM? Ceasar?

Porter, why are you threatening them??!

Upon completion of the mission. I thought we already did that.

don't they have pills for people with "performance" problems? I remember Palmeiro did some commercials....

Putin learned that sort of social consciousness from the KGB, I bet. Speaking of Putin, is that guy still the PM? Hasn't he been there, for like, ever? I thought he was out, or does that not happen yet?

Nice job, Tvash I can't wait to read the next TRs

the cooler is for keeping the poop warm. Duh

Move quickly. * Help the leader pull rope up to the next belay by ensuring there are no snags and it feeds free. * While he's pulling the rope, you should also be getting ready to go: put yr pack on, shoes on, etc. so that when you're on belay you have nothing left to do but break the anchor and start climbing. Sometimes, depending on the situation, I will start to break the anchor down before I am even on belay, or partially break it down. * Do what you can to make gear-transfers between pitches go quickly and efficiently. Rack gear well while cleaning, and help organize while handing stuff to the new leader. * When following, CLIMB FAST! You're on a top rope. * Corollary: Be sure to tell your second when he must not fall (i.e. marginal belay, etc.) * Learn how to simul-climb easier portions of the route. Practice simul-climbing so that you can do it efficiently. * When rappelling, get off rappel as quickly as possible. I pull a long arm-lengths of rope through my device and yell "off rappel" and THEN actually remove my device from the rope. Often, you can start setting up the next rap while your buddy comes down. Communicate and plan effectively: * When you can't hear each other, there are obvious ways to devine what's happening. Example: You're feeding rope out. The rope stops moving for a bit. Suddenly the leader is pulling lots of rope through (make sure you feed it through the belay device!). The rope pulls tight. You wait a bit and climb up a little bit -- does the leader pull in the slack? You're probably on belay. * If using rope tugs to communicate, really TUG -- a tug is not a short little jerk. It's a looooong, deliberate pull. You've got to really yank on it to get the energy to communicate through all that rope and friction. * Use some of your "alone time" to work through escape scenarios. If something goes wrong on this pitch or the ones following immediately, how will you bail? What will you do if the leader gets hurt? * When reaching spots on the route from which escape is easy, consider your options. How are you on time? How's the weather? Constantly reevaluate conditions when opportunities present themselves -- don't just blindly press on. * Learn and practice self-rescue techniques

Someday a history professor will dig this quote up and think we were a bunch of cavemen.

Last!

In soviet russia, cement rains YOU

Trip: Alpental - Date: 6/18/2008 Trip Report: I'm sick of jogging and I had a hankering for skiing, so I woke up early and drove out to Alpental. There's still a fair amount of snow up there; I was able to ski from the car. I skinned up to the top of whatever that area is called kinda climber's right of Denny (International? I don't know alpental very well) and was able to ski all the way back to the base. Lapped Sessel a few times and called it a morning. Pretty nice for June 18th, no?

if same-sex partners are allowed to adopt, then the kids might catch their gay! Quite recently (in the grand scheme of things), it was generally accepted that african-americans were inferior to whites. A century and a half ago, they were slaves! Should the courts not lightly conclude that everyone who held this belief was irrational, ignorant or bigoted? (I don't even know who that quote came from, cause I'm too lazy to wade through the many pages of quasi-intellectual diarrhea on this thread) Thank god we have the courts, to ensure that the majority can't take away rights from the minority. We're not a purely democratic nation, you know, and fucking thank god for that, since we're all a bunch of fucking morons. Oh, and in closing, I just wanted to say you're all a bunch of wankers. HAND!

I thought this war was all about oil? When do we get the oil?

yeah, and the death rattle

Wow. I haven't seen that article yet. Can you please give me your source?

nice job, marc, looks like a fun day

missed ya, tvash let's go to california

I can feel it coming in the air tonight