denalidave

Who wants some koolaid? I do, I do. More koolaid please. Tastes kinda funky though.

I was on the black velvet wall some years back, cant remember which route, I think it was Sour Mash. Anyway, this guy on Fiddler On The Roof next to us is going on and on about what an awesome route it is... Best route on the wall, best route in Red Rocks, on and on. Few pitches later, when it gets really thin and run out on manky rp's & small nuts, his tune changes to way gripped out of his mind and he is freaking out. Next thing I know, I hear all this scraping and jingle jangling. I look over just as his is about half way through a huge ride. The dude took at least a 60-70+ footer and some small nut held. Much to his credit, he re-led and finished the pitch. We all finished rapping off at the same time and happen to meet up at the base of the routes and this guy looked worked. Kinda had that vacant thousand yard stare thing. Good on him for him sacking up and redoing it though.

So Bill, if you were to buy just one set of small cams, it would be the new Master Cams? I'm updating my original Aliens soon and think the Master Cams are the ones I'm getting but have yet to actually fondle one, let alone place any. The one thing I really hate about the original aliens is the way the trigger would get all twisted around but I'm guessing they fixed that flaw on the later versions?

I bet they already have a few guitars in Mexico, if you are that concerned about it.

You are the only Bug I've never met...

I did not read the entire thread but you may want to consider your reason for wanting to buy. Are you doing this as an investment opportunity or because you want to have your own home? If it is the latter, you might want to put less emphasis on all the nitty gritty analysis (crystal balling) of what the market is going to do. Sure, many markets are in a slide now, but chances are if you hang on to it for at least the 3 years you should do alright, statistically speaking anyway. I sell real estate for a living and what I find is people tend to know the right home when they find it. It just seems to "click". If you are have a S.O. involved in the decision, it can be a challenge to find the home that meets both/all of the criteria though. If it as investment home, all this is out the window. Of course, you will want to do your homework on the area and it really does boil down to location, location, location. As far as resale is concerned, I would be more inlined in selecting a location that has all the right assets for resale (quiet st, close to major freeways/amenities but out of earshot of them, overall quality of surrounding neighborhood, etc) with the least amount of bad selling points (on a busy st, next to loud freeway or industrial/commercial area, etc) rather than trying to micro analyze who is going to default on the loan in the future. If you buy the right house, IN THE RIGHT LOCATION, resale should be much easier regardless of where the market heads in the future. Sure, there is always risk but it sure beats paying someone else's mortgage, IMO.

Well that's pretty cool, thanks.

Two incomplete sentences? A non working linky? Possibly both?

MGD, oh the horror! I'm calling the humane society. Animal cruelty at it's worst.

Actually, Arch, I like metal. I like a variety of styles, and for several years I shunned rock in favor of jazz because it is more interesting, but I've always had a soft spot for crude and loud rock music that can only be called metal. My heroes? Jimi, of course. I'm 50. And I like freaks: Snakefinger, Zappa, and Sun Ra. Tad is my favorite from the Seattle sound, and I thnk Bad Motorfinger is the best album to come from that scene. I think that fits the "metal" mold. I like Metallica and Rage Against the Machine. But my post was really more about cc.com: we have lots of talk about metal bands kicking ass, and lots of links to heavy metal videos. I suspect that the average Joe poster, and even the average Joe sprayer, is not so fond of Slayer that they don't listen to anything else. Some of today's posts would support this hypothesis. Nobody "likes" metal. It's not like someone says, "Yeah, I was into that Slayer band for that one summer." People who are into metal fucking love it. They feel it in their very souls. And Slayer, Metallica et al is generally their jumping off point. Anyone who only mentions classic thrash bands is a poseur. But hey, to each his own. And Soundgarden is Grunge. They are not even close to metal. Same with Rage (except they suck). Oh, and I'll be at the Agalloch concert Friday. Hope to see you ambient metal fans there... I guess that makes me a nobody cause I "like" metal in varied doses. Sometimes a little bit goes a long way, and sometimes I like it more frequently. Don't think I would say I love it in general though. When I'm gripped on lead, I usually sing the song from the Brady Bunch or Green Acres. Not sure why, but it seems to keep my mind off of a whipper.

Thanks Bill, I think I see a set in my future soon! But I really want to get my hands on them first.

I'm hoping to climb at Ozone Sat if it's dry and I can find a partner.

Also, if you mark your food stash with wands, be sure to put the wand 4-6 feet AWAY from the actual stash. From a ridge above, I watched the ravens below us at about 13,000 ft., fly straight to our wands and start digging to get to the food that was buried 3-4 foot down in the snow. Crafty little bastards got away with over 100 power bars/candy bars and entire 2lb loaf of pepper jack cheese (among other delicacies) before we got back to salvage the rest of the stash. So much for the best quesadilla in the world at altitude.

i learned from my master, Lord Layton. coupled w/ smokes and the aforementioned happy pills and there's no epic that can't be laughed at, even while in progress quarter-pounders w/ cheese. take the box too. nothing better than being many miles from nowhere and "loving it!" tvash's tip from nelson about toe-straps was critical in fixing a severely mangled snow-shoe and sparing me epic insanity in the sawtooth this past winter - duck tape and ghetto-mindedness woulda worked, but the toe strap was much better. Along with the usually duct tape, carry a handfull of zip ties for emergency repairs.

So 1 cup of lard per day? Or 1 stick o butter... mmm butter. I've heard of high altitude climbers eating whole sticks of butter but could not imagine doing it myself.

I'm guessing all this is in your 5,000 sq. ft. storage unit you need to stash all that gear?

Bummer.

Wombats are aid.

Thank you for placing your order with Mountain Gear. Oh who am I kidding, serious impulse control issues here: after looking at the pics and panting like a dog staring at a bone, I just bought the 1,2, and 3 - which correspond to the most common Alien sizes I stuff in cracks. Bought them from Mountain Gear too, it's well deserved as Paul Fish of Mt Gear pull tested the Aliens and confirmed that they had some huge quality issues which led to the recall when CCH earlier had it's head stuck in the sand, you just got to love a guy like that. Anyhow Dave, if you ever wander by where I happen to be, say hi and feel free to borrow and fondle. Kevbone had a handful of my small Alien offsets in use last weekend (the very ones Archenemy sold), so I don't get too touchy if you want to use some as long as I'm around and you don't hangdog on the stuff. :lmao:Oh, who's yer gear Ho, Billcoe... I love it when you put a bit a lube on my cams and wedge it up that crack, oh, please just one more nut, just gotta have it, ya baby I work for gear anytime, anywhere... Thanks for the offer to fondle your gear but I have some aliens, just time to update them. Mine are the very first, original ones. Have taken many falls and have always held up well. Not sure now if I want the new metolius set, c3s or the aliens but am anxious to hear how you like these once you get to actually use them.

Use your nut tool hook to get your rock shoe laces nice and tight at the toe end for those really hard footwork routes.

Use the thin produce bags as a vapor barrier in your boots. They are very light but work great. I usually bring one pair per day of the trip. When belaying on multi-pitch routes where you are swapping leads, stack the rope over your girth hitch with about 3-6 foot lengths on each side, this will keep the clusterfuk from happening, or at least minimize it. This should leave you with a nice pre-stacked rope for the next leader.

Extension of the above thought: After you've threaded the rope through the anchor and started the pull, have your partner coil the rope for the toss as you're pulling it down from the upper anchor. On multi-rap descents, this multi-tasking can end up saving a lot of time over the course of the descent. coiling and tossing = knotting the gravity feed is faster and better Coil up the rope in 2 sections and toss the middle section (section coming off rap anchor first). Right before that section is all out toss the second/end half coil and you will have much less chance of knotting.

Also, if you have a blister on your foot, you can run a thread through it with a needle from your mini sewing kit in your first aid bag. This allows the blister to drain but hopefully it won't fully rip off leaving you with a worse ouwie. It works great. Course, best if you can sterilize the needle and thread with your 100% alcohol that you smuggled into your partner's pack. You may have to get creative and pull "oh look at the eagle over there" and sneak the bottle out/back in partner's pack. That same distraction technique works great for poaching your partner's enviable dinner too.

I like how when I get one of these supposed inheritance or some such scam from what is reported to be a large banking firm but has an address from yahoo or hotmail. I wonder how many suckers they get a day?

I've got a great bridge I can sell you when all your "winnings" get here.