tvashtarkatena

The pitch per hour ratio may be less in the mountains, but you don't get to piss on a goat's head or wake up with a wood rat on your chest at the crag quite as often. Cragging is a sport, alpinism is a journey, and love means never having to say you're sorry.

Houston, we are venting something into space...

fkn floating rugrat kilt d Europan whales.

Apollo was incredible, inspirational, and a product of a different era. given the choice of camping on Mars v flyby, orbital, surface and subsurface robotic missions to nearly every body in our solar system (the latter still the cheaper option), anyone truly interested in discovery would go with the robots. machines will be smarter than humans across the board within a decade, with the possible exceptions of fingerpainting and jokes, without all the piss, shit, moods, and sketchy judgement of hairless monkeys. some astronauts did help design their missions...on the ground, not in space ( A 13 excepted, perhaps). after launch, they did nothing that couldnt b done much more reliably, comprehensively, and cheaply by tinker toys.

Fox now has several pieces on why you shouldn't trust the main stream media and how the national polls are rigged by the Democrats. Gallup is so last week. Its all Fifth column sleeper cells all the time, baby. That, and Obama's hiding a Big Secret About Libya cuz he's flippity floppin on his story about Da Movie. You know how black guys are after they be out doin sumtin baaad.

Mygyn Kylly's a sporto.

One of his best. I was going to enlist the Dawg to help decipher it.

The limitations on free speech in the USA are numerous. It's a pretty complicated subject. Offense has been used many times to limit speech, - pornography, flag burning, blasphemy, etc. but it hasn't fared well in court in recent years because of its obvious slippery slope and inherent subjective nature. We actually have the "God Hates Fags" folks, the American Nazi Party, and other helpful groups to thank for bolstering our right to offend.

I'd prefer if the president had shot from the hip and invaded Libya in response. The last one didn't seem to have a problem manning up. The news is slow, every time Romney gets in front of a mike he loses a percentage point, and Obama's playing rope a dope. Romney's "Gallup convergence", which lasted all of one day, has gone very stinky. Hence, this 'story' and other pieces no one could care less about (Bone excepted, of course) from FOX. Also on FOX within the last 3 weeks: "Madonna calls Obama a black muslim", and "Scientists close to developing warp drive" (recycled from a brief blurb published elsewhere in 2008) Basically, FOX is flailing in its attempt to come up with a distracting narrative while its pet candidate plummets earthward with all four engines on fire. Republican voter suppression laws may help him a percent or two come election day, but it's starting to look like a landslide for the Kenyan this time around. On the enlightened side, the news is pretty good across the board. MJ legalization and gay marriage are looking good in WA, hell, even Inslee's got a lead over dickhead, now. Obama's rolling in SuperPAC money from big donors these days...and guess who isn't? The one thing the 1% hates most is a loser. Maybe we'll survive this seemingly chronic neocon/teabagger/Kristian fungal infection after all.

Poo dipped chocolate doth not a Valentine make.

My diagram would be a Rorchach blot that crudely spells "thrutch" when viewed upside down by someone with Asberger's.

Sweet beJebus they shrunk it!

PM Ivan. I'm tired of lookin at his gnarly toes stickin out of this Trangos.

Looks like I will be getting a Discovery Pass after all.

Fox had an article earlier this morning about how Washington state needs to hire more private companies to advertise what our park system offers more effectively and run our parks like businesses, with more concessions, etc. They provided a photo of the Lost Arrow as an example of what our state parks have to offer. A piece about a man how shot a police dog has already replaced it, unfortunately. Anyone know where are park system moved that thing to?

XTREME SAFETY

Some suggestions: Have a pair of tiblocs and associated footloops for ascending a stuck rope. Fast enough to go all the way up if need be and free it, even on vertical terrain. Anchor the the bottom of the rope that isn't passed through the rap ring next time and ascend the other. Safer than assuming you won't pull the knot through the rap ring. If its a beautiful starry night, bivvy rather than SPOT. 3 guys + homo huddle = I LOVE TO PARTY.

I hear those who have pissed off Putin haven't fared well. Boots or rock shoes on the ridge line?

It's called being considerate of both the instructor (who, if a Mountie, is volunteering their time) and of your fellow students.

Oleg, you do kinda have that Putin eye thing going on. Looks like a hell of a nice trip - complete with creative bivvy architecture.

Say what you want about Bone, but he's pretty good at getting a bunch of folks wrapped around an axle. Given that tens of millions of Americans believe the world will end within their lifetimes and such, it seems to me that Kev is just exercising his patriotic duty to make the world a more interesting place.

Might making switching tools a little confusing at first, but they'll probably swing a lot more like each other than two different models of matched length.

According to each manufacturers specs, the JB Sumo is about 10% more fuel efficient than the Reactor. The Reactor does better in the wind, so, depending on how much effort you put in making a windbreak, that could negate the advertised advantage in the field. Apples to apples weight difference (Ti Sumo sans cup and universale pot adaptor v Reactor) is 6 oz, weighed side by side at REI. The JB is poorly designed and delicate for sure. The folding tripod is fun to play with, though. I like mine, have had no probs with it (Ti version), but I've also benefited from the previous experience of Mr. Kaplan, so I treat it gently. I'm wondering if the plastic melted when a windscreen was used, or did it just achieve critical mass?

A puffy would certainly have been redundant. Good instruction comes in all kinds of forms and packages. There are a lot of slow old fogues who have a thing or two to teach, particularly regarding the value of humility and the ability to understand that such a broad sport values a wide variety of skills and attributes, not just your VO2 Max. The best way to learn the most as a student is to STFU, listen, then ask questions relating to the material being presented, not test whether or not your instructor is worthy of your hyper-valuable time. Those who can't grok this are better of avoiding classes altogether: that way the rest of the students don't have to waste their time watching you cock fight with the prof.

I've never understood why the ten essentials never included shoes.