rob

Man dies after being headbutted by armless man

but he has a bucket.

duh. he was a lolrus

yes, finding it is easy -- it's visible from the parking lot and from the hike. Bring water. Definitely check out Loaves of Fun and No Room For Squares for two good .8s

so, a socialized health care system, existing in tandem with a private one, which requires mandatory payroll deductions (in the absense of a private plan supplied either by you or your employer) would be acceptable to you? Would the payroll deductions be flat, or proportional? How would you insure the unemployed and homeless?

Hillary is proposing that health care be mandatory, like car insurance -- but not government run. She also supports tax credits to help low income families afford private insurance. Do you simply object to the government requiring health insurance on civil liberty grounds? Or do you object to the idea simply because it came from Hillary, ala argumentum ad hominem?

KK, if you disagree with universal health care, what's your solution to the health care crisis? Or do you contend there is no crisis?

or below you

In related news....

thx Yeah, there was one fucker with a missing horn who kept bluff charging my partner. I think he was trying to distract us while his buddies tried to chew my pack straps off. They were pretty much impossible to scare off. Oh, and there were tons of berries. I don't even know how many pounds of those jucy black hucks I ate. I was dropping turds like a bear all week.

too bad, it's a super fun route

Got back from a week in the Olympics. I was looking for Olyclimber, but I could not find him

As long as I don't have to watch Gary Busey eat the penis off a dead racoon again.

I'm glad he thought of asking the advice of a bunch of anonymous internet posters before undertaking a potentially life-threatening exercise with somebody else's children. He sounds like a straight-shooter.

Poor OJ, he's clearly the target of more police racism

sounds like she is making that choice - not to get the money for this surgery. Yeah, she is "choosing" to suffer a life of disability rather than trot on down to the magic money tree and pick a few $10k bills off the low-hanging branches. If I was in that position I'd find a way to pay for the surgery. Actually, I'd never let myself get into that position in the first place. Wow, I never realized you were such a cockhead. I thought maybe people just had you figured wrong, but you really are a shitheel. Huh.

Trip: Bailey Range Traverse Date: 9/10/2007 - 9/15/2007 Trip Report: Kyle and I spent 6 days in the Bailey range, entering via Sol Duc and the High Divide and exiting via the Skyline trail into the North Fork Quinault ranger station. The Baileys had been on my list for a while and I'd never spent any real time in the Olympics, so I was pretty excited when we hit the Sol Duc trail early on Monday morning, September 10th. The hike up to Heart Lake was uneventful. We passed a surprising number of people, considering it was a post-Labor Day Monday. Old growth along the Sol Duc trail At Heart Lake, we stopped and had a quick lunch and then hiked up to the High Divide and got our first look at the Baileys. View near the High Divide, on the way towards Cat Peak Our first view of Olympus, which would watch over our progress for the next week We followed the way trail onto Cat Peak and the "catwalk", a small part of the ridge connecting Cat Peak and Mount Carrie. We passed a group of hikers who admonished us to "be extremely careful" on the catwalk and that it was "very exposed and difficult." In reality, it was mostly class 2, and not particularly exposed or difficult. We had run out of water at this point, but the group that passed us assured us there was good water on the other side of the catwalk at a flat camp called Boston Charlie's. However, when we got there we found a small, brackish and stagnant pond filled with black water. Lacking a filter, we decided to wait until we could find a cleaner source of water. Kyle ponders his choices: Pond scum, or bourbon What followed next were a series of the driest, hottest most miserable miles I've ever travelled. My tongue was dry and my legs were trembling when we finally found a small snow finger along the slopes of Mt. Carrie. Despite having found water, I had badly dehydrated myself and was bonking hard. I was unable to keep water down and vomited several times as we marched on, looking for a good bivy. Kyle spotted a flat meadow on the slopes of Carrie, where I collapsed. Our bivy was shared by a herd of goats, which showed absolutely no fear of us. They bothered us all night long, chewing our packs and molesting us. It was a sleepless night. Goats make poor neighbors Watching the sunset, trying not to vomit again I spent a few hours lying down and sipping water, feeling nauseous. By nightfall, I had recovered my thirst and my appetite, and wolfed down a huge dinner and several liters of water. I felt much better! I was much more careful throughout the rest of the trip. We awoke the next morning to the largest black bear I had ever seen in my life foraging along the slopes above us. We anxiously ate breakfast, while Kyle concerned me with his unusual affection for goats. Kyle just wants to touch it Waterfalls along Mt. Carrie We scrambled up to the snowfields above the Carrie glacier, where Kyle practiced boot glissades. Kyle lording over his domain Kyle starting his run At the bottom We descended from the Carrie ridge and stopped for a snack at a boulder field, watching two more black bears on the slopes above us. We waited for another party behind us that we saw from Carrie, but they never showed up, so we moved on. Near Mt. Stephen, we ran into teh suck, getting stuck into a horrible ascending schwack through dead snags and pine forests. We both ran out of water again, and eventually reached an open meadow high on the shoulder of Stephen. We could see Cream Lake below us, beckoning with its watery goodness. We found a drainage and a game trail and dropped down into the valley in short order, descending upon Cream Lake like monsters, filling our bellies with cold water and having an early dinner. Looking back up at Stephen, we decided to avoid climbing back up and instead forged a path along the Cream Lake inlet towards Ferry Basin, where we discovered Shangri La. We set up camp here and explored the basin. Waterfall at Ferry Basin Room with a view The next morning we ascended snow slopes and scree to the top of Mt. Ferry and got a look around. There was a gorgeous glacier lake below which was not visible from Ferry Basin. Glacier lake from the summit of Ferry (yes, those are 'bergs in the lake) Kyle gets in some more boot ski practice descending from Ferry Next, we climbed to the top of Mt. Childs to get a peek of Bear Pass. From the summit, we saw what we thought was Bear Pass, as well as some great Olympus views. We were making good progress and had time to lay in the sun for an hour or so before booting up and moving on. Ascending snow to the summit of Childs Our route into Bear Pass Getting up into the pass Can we stop yet? We dropped down from Bear Pass into Dodwell-Rixon pass, and set up a great camp, where we dropped packs and scrambled up Barnes for more views and navigation. Camp in Dodwell-Rixon Terrible shot from the top of Barnes Sunset from camp The next morning we dropped down from Dodwell-Rixon onto the Elwha snow finger. The first half of the finger was still in great shape, but we soon found several questionable bridges which will probably collapse within the week. There were only a few spots where we had to climb up onto the rocks along the side to avoid collapses, and shortly made it past the "snow hump" at the bottom of the snow finger and into the headwaters of the Elwha. Standing underneath the Elwha snow finger Waterfalls Below the snow finger, there is apparently a faint climbers trail on the west side of the Elwha drainage, which bypasses the narrow, steep gorge via open meadows down to the Elwha Basin and Low Divide. We did not travel this way. Instead, we travelled down the drainage, crossing the river countless times to avoid obstacles until the way became too impeded -- at which point we picked a ridiculous schwack along the steep east side of the drainage. After suffering for 30 minutes high above the drainage, we decided we needed to get back to the drainage before one of us broke an ankle. We accomplished this by basically hand-rappelling through slide alder down a steep (~45 degree) dirt cliff covered with several inches of forest duff. Several tense moments ensued. Back in the drainage, we schwacked along the other side, finding the open meadow, climber's trail and found our way down to Happy Hollow, where we were promptly stung by yellow jackets. Eventually, we made it to Low Divide, where we dried our soaked boots with a fire and ate too much food. The next morning, tired wet and exhausted, we made the obvious decision to avoid the boring, yet easy, 16 mile trek out via the North Fork Quinault trail, choosing instead to exit via the Skyline trail -- a much more grueling proposition. We quickly found out that the Skyline Trail was apparently forged by early pioneers of LSD, as we made seemingly insane switchbacks and U-turns high above the Quinault Valley. We needed to rock a ~20-mile day in order to make our Sunday morning pick-up. We were able to do this, despite the insane trail and inspite of being benighted while a heavy mist crept in. We hiked by headlamp deep into the night until a suitable bivy spot was found near Three Prunes, roughly 17 miles up the Skyline. Four more bear encounters also slowed our progress. We set up a ridiculous shelter using a tarp (to try and keep the mist off us) and spent the night by not sleeping, and by cursing. Mist moving in along the Skyline trail Kyle wiping his ass. This was a common sight. More mist coming in God beams coming through the trees The next morning, we took a short (~5 mile) junction on the Skyline which returned us to the North Fork Quinault trail, where we finished off an easy 6.5 miles to the trailhead. What a trip! We hung around the trailhead, trying to hitch a ride to Quinault (13 miles down the road). We finally tricked a couple into driving us -- a super nice guy out for a day hike with his girlfriend. They had no idea what they were in store for -- she had her nose covered with her shirt the entire ride, and was not afraid to tell us how much we stunk. She had to speak loudly, however, as it was hard to hear her -- every window had been opened, including the sunroof. We hit up the Quinault general store, where we ate junk food and drank beer on the grass for hours, wondering if we would be arrested before my wife could get out to pick us up. Good times! Gear Notes: Axe Crampons (not needed) 3 liters of water would have been better than 2

great route, I bailed off that earlier due to a rockfall injury, and aborted several other attempts because of weather. I still want to go up and finish it. It's been on my list all year!

glad you're OK. Did the crevasse fall happen because of a bad bridge, or did he slip and fall into an open one?

thx for the link, I've wondered about "sawing" leg loops, I've noticed something similar on my harness.

OMG, I remember those toys. What were those called?

fuck that. What is "our" agenda? Fortunately, I doubt very much the climbing community is cohesive enough for this to work. The last thing I want is some fucking group to decides what "our agenda" is. Climbing is a way of communing with the very nature of existance. Standing atop a remote summit, viewing the world, I am reminded of the complete and utter insignifigance of humanity, and I am awed by the beautiful, but simple fact, that the universe even exists at all. Humans and all the bullshit emotions and rules and laws and definitions that we cling to completely ruin that emptiness. Climbing as a religion must be equally without formal rules, organization or dogma, lest you destroy the very thing that makes it special.

One day cilogear packs will be lighter than a klean kanteen.

My wife has one. They're heavier than nalgenes.

partner found Alex, we'll take pictures for you