rob

thanks ivan, I just downloaded it for my flight to PUERTO RICO, bitches! what's your problem with guns, nancy? I like guns -- I own a few. I just don't love em like Bill and the tea party love em.

Oh, and that smell on the summit is not farts, but if there are other people up there it's fun to blame them anyway

seems more an example of crazy people creating a church then a church creating crazy people - i'll grant you there's a chicken n' egg argument to be made there - my main point at least on mcveigh was that he doesn't appear to have been raised in a psycho-religious context, going to public schools, for example, or sitting a pew twice a week to have fire n' brimstone rained down upon him. true that, but I suppose that books like the turner diaries and programs like beck and rush serve as the new pulpit for extreme right-wing religion-based politics: anti-abortion, anti-gay, anti-woman, anti-minority, tea party & guns, etc. Almost all of these positions are really just loosely couched forms of a new kind of theocracy.

I assume you mean the south spur? Super non-technical. A strong climber can go car to car in a day, but some people like to camp at lunch counter to "acclimate," but personally I find that spending an extra 12 hours at altitude doesn't seem to help, it seems to make it worse -- so I'm more of a "get it over with quick" kind of guy. I hear lunch counter is the place to stay, so expect crowds. I brought a puffy but didn't use it. That's probably what everyone does. That stuff always depends on the weather. But in July with good weather don't expect to be wearing anything warm on the ascent. Wear sunscreen and bring shorts if the weather is nice. Obviously, I have no idea how much water you drink. I like to drink a lot. Luckily, snow is made of water. Remember not to wear crampons when you glissade back down. Also, it's easy to miss the trail back to the parking lot on the way down if you don't pay attention, especially when the trail is under snow. If you do that, you'll end up wandering around the woods. It happens. Just go back up if it does, and get back on the right path.

also a good reminder that crazies are almost always the product of religion. mcveigh's bio (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timothy_McVeigh) doesn't show him as being a church-grown crazy though - shiiiit, when you're from the south, you don't need much help at all to be pissed off all the goddamn time McVeigh was a huge fan of The Turner Diaries, basically the bible for the Christian Identity Movement.

also a good reminder that crazies are almost always the product of religion.

They can't be that bad, plenty of routes have been put up in similar shoes.

NOT IN MY NAME

They need a honey in the middle

lol, you're obviously not in the service anymore.

I have some spare keds I can send them. I want to see more kids outside.

ditto, my renter's insurance from state farm is DIRT CHEAP and covers full replacement value. $500 deductible is not bad when you're talking about thousands of dollars worth of shit with a super low premium

Goddamn you need more material, Raindawg. You're like an old man who just discovered the internet and keeps sending the same chain letter to his grandchildren over and over. Did you know they have LOTS more stuff out there?

Or for the price of 2 link cams you could probably buy 4 regular cams

That's cool, I used to do this stuff all the time. I'm assuming you're talking about actually rigging the anchor, not setting the pro, right? For practice setting protection, you should actually go find some rock. For practice with the ropecraft part and equalizing, etc. I found the best thing was to just walk around the house and use whatever I found -- this was most like real-life where sometimes things are not in optimum positions. For example, create a 3-point anchor using a couch-leg, the lamp post and the cat (or whatever). Creating a peg board is an interesting idea; I was way too lazy for anything like that. Are you tying knots in the dark with your gloves on yet? That's fun.

Joe Brown used to do friction climbs in plimsolls -- Keds, basically.

I'd bet you $10 there is way better hash in Seattle than in Afghanistan

Especially kids. I'd rather have kids scrambling all over the icicle hip-belaying each other in tennis shoes than not at all. As if an organization charging $185 can't afford to have ATC's and pear biners to loan to their students. No no no, go read the original post. They had proper belay devices (ATCs), they were just being taught the hip belay as a novelty backup option afterwards. Also, the $185 figure people are throwing around comes from their website. It's a 2 1/2 day program including white water rafting. Not a bad deal.

Especially kids. I'd rather have kids scrambling all over the icicle hip-belaying each other in tennis shoes than not at all.

hmm. You really think it's so dramatic that my children won't be able to enjoy leavenworth slab because a group of guys skidded over it with street shoes? Of course, ANY shoe will polish the rock, eventually -- just look at Midway. But you really think the difference between a climbing shoe and a street shoe is so dramatic? Sounds dubious. What about hiking boots, then? Or climbing boots?

Climbing in street shoes polishes the rock "into glass," and desecrates our resources? Correct me if I'm wrong, but that sounds ludicrous. I've never before heard anyone even suggest that climbing shoes were meant to protect the rock. Who told you this? I've never even heard anything similar.

I don't know how something that was presumably pasteurized and sealed could ferment unless it were damaged and wild yeast got in, and anyway, even if it some yeast was alive in there and it wasn't damaged, then it would probably pop from the C02 build-up -- or should at least be obviously bloated. I don't think sugar really goes bad. Protein and amino acids probably do?

You mean Smiff? That's what the cool kids say

they're OK, but the texture and taste might be weird. I've eaten 2-year old ones before and nothing bad happened. Was a bit grainy. P.S. if you decide you don't want them, I'll take em