mkporwit
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Posts posted by mkporwit
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This vid from yesterday now becomes stunningly apropos...
Well, and for those of you wanting to brush up on the Polish equivalent, "kurwa":
8r3Sq694kg4
What makes this extra funny for a select few on this site that speak Polish well enough is that the guy delivering the talk is a well-known professor of the Polish language and etymology known for his erudite fireside chats on linguistic curios.
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Not tonight, 5K. Gotta give the ol' liver a reprieve sometime, ya know...
You know, sobo, there's research out there that drinking coffee strongly reduces the risk of getting cirrhosis. Perhaps instead of abstinence you should drink (more?) coffee.
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je t'aime moi petite choux
That should probably be "mon petite chou"... if yer gonna use dem furner words, git'em right!
Cabbage?
Yes, literally it means "my little cabbage", but that's just a cheese-eating surrender monkey way of saying "sweetheart" or "love"
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je t'aime moi petite choux
That should probably be "mon petite chou"... if yer gonna use dem furner words, git'em right!
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Checked Januik's website and it appears they're out of the '04 Petit Verdot. They're a fine wine maker, so I'm sure whatever they bottled is well made... if you're not in a hurry you can ask when/if they'll have an '05.
BTW, Januik's Petit Verdot is from Ciel Du Cheval Vineyard (as was Spring Valley's), so it is most definitely grown in Washington.
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Spring Valley Vineyards used to have splits of Petit Verdot that I collected. You can check their website. If they still make it, Pete's was a good source of it. I also picked up some Australian Petit Verdot at Pete's in Eastlake. It was made by Pirramimma.
Other good places to try besides Esquin are:
Pete's (either Eastlake or Bellevue)
Redmond Fine Wine & Cigar (Redmond)
Having said that, Petit Verdot is not known for great taste. The wine is always a fantastically dark color, and the taste almost never lives up to it. The varietal is typically used to add weight to the color of Bordeaux blends. Even well-made examples of it such as Spring Valley are merely OK. I collected it more out of curiosity.
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DMM makes the Shield, not the Helium, which is made by Wild Country (Well, ok, they're both made by the same company in the UK, methinks)...
The Helium is great for draws -- nice wide gate opening, works well when ice climbing and you're clipping with gloves on. I've not had a problem with the gates freezing up. Plus it comes in silver or red, so you know which end goes to the rope and which to the pro. It is a tad cheaper than the Shield, and even cheaper if you buy in five-packs.
I use the Shield for racking. Also an excellent 'biner. From my limited experimentation with it, its shape makes it very difficult if not impossible to crossload. The Shield comes in two anodized colors, but they're too close together to be useful as two ends of a draw.
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Child abuse
in Spray
The real truth is I deserved every goddamned one of those whippings, and if I had not gotten them, I would either be dead or in prison today.Absolutely agree. I got a whipping on maybe fifteen or twenty occasions in my life, and I know (and knew then) why I got each one of those beatings. They were definitely well deserved and got important points across.
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I'll represent for the bigger boys out there
7/18- 262lbs.
Ball sports throughout high school are not conducive to endurance and power to weight activities like climbing and skiing. Newly stated goal is 230lbs. by October 3rd. Feel free to PM me shit to remind me.
Will do... 7/18 -- 244lbs. Down from 254 5 weeks earlier.
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The coldest temperature I experienced was the stare I got when I told my wife that despite having a three month old at home I was planning on going climbing pretty much every weekend in August...
You tend to live life on the edge, don't you? Crazy mutha...
I tried to live on the edge... but as her icy stare chilled me to the bone my balls withered and I cancelled my climbs...
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The coldest temperature I experienced was the stare I got when I told my wife that despite having a three month old at home I was planning on going climbing pretty much every weekend in August...
Beyond that... -30 plus some crazy windchill on a winter climb of Mt. Washington, NH.
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do they have that in the middle of nowhere?
Minx, I think that's all they have in the middle of nowhere... think about it... you, the open road, the faint crackle of static on the am, some looney telling you to come to Jesus in spanish... it will be a life-changing experience. I'm sure of it.
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skip the tunes, minx... just listen to AM talk radio
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Nicely done. Wish I could have come along on that one. Instead all I got was an aborted attempt at Thompson...
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Ha ha ! He got 9000 but had to chalk up for it! Wow, looking at your registration date Kev (and being math challenged), is that a post every 16 min.! Actually, I think it's a post every ~3.5 hours approximately:
bohun[~]% bc
bc 1.06
Copyright 1991-1994, 1997, 1998, 2000 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
This is free software with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY.
For details type `warranty'.
365*24*60
525600
525600 * 3.5
1839600.0
1839600.0/9006.0
204
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Trip: Mt. Thompson (Thomson) - West Ridge
Date: 7/13/2008
Trip Report:
A few of us decided to make a one-day attempt at the West Ridge of Thompson. The peak had eluded me last year when a friend and I got to the base of the climb and then decided we didn't feel like climbing after all, so I was psyched to go back and try again.
We left the trailhead via the PCT at 5:05am and made very good time. We were at the Kendall Katwalk by 7. The trail was largely snow-free, and what little was there was pretty soft and melting fast. After the Katwalk the problems began. There is still a lot of snow on the trail. Steep, hard sections with unpleasant runouts abound. After stopping at Ridge Lake to filter some water, we made it to the top of Bumblebee pass at 10am. Our initial schedule had called for us to be at the base of the climb by this time. The basin below Thompson is still largely full of snow, and the descent from Bumblebee Pass looked very steep. Parts of the final talus approach were melted out. We figured it would take us another 1.5 or 2 hours to get to the base of the route, by which point this would start to smell like a mini epic in the making, so we called the climb and headed back.
On the way back we took the Commonwealth Basin trail. About 200 yards after the fork with the PCT we promptly lost it in the snow and did not regain it until the part where the alternate approach for Guye heads off across the creek. The rest of the trail was relatively easy to follow, largely snow free.
Gear Notes:
We brought ice axes and made heavy use of them. We should have brought crampons for all that firm snow. The rack did not even leave the pack this time.
Approach Notes:
Lots of snow beyond the Kendall Katwalk.
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I've had friends head up to the summit of Pilchuk precisely for this, and they've said it was good.
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Bill, so any advice on procuring one of these mythical hammers? Should I just be watching eBay like a hawk, or are there alternate/better sources?
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the Strom Thurman school of cosmology
Is that closer to string theory or quantum mechanics?
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As for the implications for Polish security with the ABMs being stationed there... I would say that enough people hopefully remember Versailles, 1939 and Yalta to realize that the western powers will time and time again sell Poland down the river... those missiles will contribute somewhere between jack and shit...
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new threat? oh, please- give me a brake! just in the past century poland was invaded 3 times by soviets. 1919, 1939 and 1944/45. we had over 500k soviet troops stationed for almost 50 years! now you tell me who is a threat! we are always a target, so were the baltic countries. i see a strategic alliance with the us as an only possible way to avoid being invaded in the future.
Not to mention that large parts of Poland were under continuous Russian/Soviet occupation for nearly 200 years. The Poles haven't been a threat to Russia since (I think) 1608, when we claimed the dubious honor of being the only european nation to capture and hold Moscow...
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Trip: Mt. Daniel - Lynch Glacier
Date: 6/28/2008
Trip Report:
A few of us climbed Mt. Daniel via Lynch glacier June 28-29. We went up via Hyas Lake and down past Peggy's Pond.
We started off with a bushwhack. 4 miles in, having crossed the Cle Elum river, we rapidly lost the trail. Rumor has it there is flagging tape in those trees somewhere, but we never found any. We were aiming for the PCT at 4000', but instead climbed up into a cliff band and had to traverse north. Slide alder, devil's club and fir trees abound. From the Cle Elum river the section of the PCT is actually pretty easy to locate -- it is just above a confluence of two streams on the SE face of the ridge.
After 10' on the PCT we climbed up the right of those two streams. There was a good snow lid over it, which made for fast going up. Traversed left at ~4400', picked up another ridge and took that all the way up to the gap just below Pea Soup Lake. Camped by a stand of trees just east of the gap at ~5900'.
Sunday morning we headed up to Pea Soup Lake. It is frozen and easily crossable. Must be at least a foot of snow over the ice, and very few puddles of meltwater on it. The Lynch glacier is also in good shape -- saw a couple of minor crevasses at ~6500' and that is it. The bergschrund at the top is starting to yawn wide where it pulls away from the summit block, but there is a great snow ramp to the saddle. A couple of hundred feet of easy scrambling got us to the summit and some fantastic views.
The descent started off easy, with part of the trail melted out. Then came a traverse on steep, hard snow over the face plunging down to Circle lake. It did not see much sun and was very firm. Some plunge stepping and glissading brought us down to Peggy's Pond. It is still mostly frozen over and there is lots of snow everywhere. Ran into a couple of telemarkers looking for turns on the south faces above us.
The traverse around Cathedral Peak over the steep snow field dropping down to Deep Lake was spicy at times. We gained the ridge and followed the skin tracks down, eventually loosing them and cliffing out above Squaw Lake. Another traverse and bushwhack brought us back on route. There are a couple of camping sites melted out at the lake. The trail from Squaw Lake is mostly snow-covered and we lost it repeatedly, having another bushwhacking session between 4600' and 4200'. We finally found the switchbacks and headed down to the cars, looking forward to beers and burgers at the Old #3.
Scrambling up to the PCT -- out of the brush, into the cliffs:
Pea Soup Lake at dawn
Looking down at Pea Soup Lake, with Glacier peak in the background:
Traversing above Circle and Venus Lakes on the descent:
Descending to Peggy's Pond:
Peggy's Pond is still mostly frozen:
Gian crossing the logjam at Squaw Lake:
All photos courtesy of Darrel Robertson
Gear Notes:
The usual glacier acoutrements. Also of interest, turns out AT&T has a strong signal at the summit of Mt. Daniel. Kinda surprised me...
Approach Notes:
Fish Creek road is snow-free to the trail head. It was regraded on June 28. Scatter Creek was easily fordable in my 4x4 at 10am on Saturday and 7pm on Sunday.
Blue Angels
in Spray
Posted
From the official Blue Angels web site FAQ:
** What is the difference between a Blue Angel Hornet and the new F/A-18 E/F Super Hornet?
The Super Hornet is 25% larger, can fly 40% further, remain on station 80% longer and carry more weapons than its predecessors. The Super Hornet F/A-18 E/F models have deployed with battle groups since 2001. This aircraft is the Navy’s newest acquisition and its advanced technology will be used to carry the fleet into the 21st century.
** Will the Blue Angels fly the Super Hornet?
The decision to transition to the Super Hornet has yet to be determined.