tvashtarkatena

Your GPS has tide tables, which will at least gives you level information, and your charts (on your GPS?) give you mean water level for the reefs (accuracy? Good question in some of the remoter areas), so you might be able to time your landings for some of the islands. As for the idiosynchrocies of local tide currents - ???. Is there a Captain Jack's for the South Pacific I wonder? A website? Will you have a sat phone? Perhaps you could call the local marina for advice prior to each attempted landing. Alternatively, get on Channel 16 and flag down a sailing cruiser already in harbor. You've probably thought of all this. Sorry if any of this is redundant.

Start PM ing people.

Uber beer? New joint? Wey dat?

Glissading with crampons is perfectly fine if you glissade head first on your back. If self arrest is required you'll need to drive your ice axe pick (preferably) below your crotch, then quickly cross your legs to keep it there. There may be other complications as well....

Perhaps it would be enough to hang him upside down from a tree stripped of his clothing, with the number "38" spray painted across his chest, surrounded by selection of idle pinata sticks.

Prost again. I'm a whore for convenience. Alternatively: Sully's Snow Goose on 62nd and Greenwood/Phinney ($1 surcharge on card purchases, though). Kind of a run down alpine hut with a fireplace. Are we talking Tue? Can't go Thu.

Checked out your boat on the site but couldn't figure out the rudder system. I assume it's somewhat fixed, like a sailboat. My kayak had a 'flip up' rudder, as do most, which minimizes damage in the event of a grounding. It also minimizes strength of the rudder axle too, of course. I'm curious how your boat surfs a following wave. Does it have a tendency to broach, or is it stable when surfing straight down the wave face? If the latter you might be able to surf in over reefs that are 4 or more feet below the surface, depending on conditions. I had a trimaran sailing rig, which luckily (not by design) turned out to be very stable while surfing. This afforded me more 'entry points' through reefs than the normal harbor entrances. On the flip side (no pun) my hull wasn't thick enough to take on much coral, so I had to be pretty careful. I'll try to make it to the bike expo to see your rig.

This thread has really touched my heart. I'm going to start a non-profit shelter for starving, homeless Spanish super models. Any volunteers out there?

The M7 above Source Lake.

Hey, Erden. We might a while ago (I'm the friend of Dimitri's that did the Caribbean kayak traverse). What's the draft of your boat? I would think with proper charts and aerial photos of you could gather a list of passages through the reefs on the leeward side of many of the islands enroute. Not something you should depend on, perhaps, particularly with your limited speed, but but certainly something that would provide some exit points and respite from the daily grind. I had good luck doing this, but then again my draft was only 4 inches and I could do up to 6 knots in favorable conditions. In any case, good luck, Pat

Didn't need any extra lube...

All South Island stuff: Wanaka is a great home base for cragging and trekking. The weather is pretty good. Forget the famous 'Big Walks'; expensive and overbooked. Just pick a route on a topo and get route advice from the Dept of Conservation (DOC) office and guide service offices in town. NZ has an extensive hut system, many of which are seldom used. You can fly or jet boat into and out of a surprising number of trailheads. Choppering up to the Aspiring hut (2 mile flat glacier traverse required) is an awesome trip and not expensive if shared by 4 people. You can walk the 2 day trek back out (downhill). The Copland track is nice; takes you over the crest. The Kepler track out of Te Anau is a great 2 to 3 day walk. Te Anau is also the base for kayak trips into Doubtful Sound: spectacular. Mt. Cook village: For a moderate but fantastically scenic trip, hike up to the Mueller Hut and watch massive avalanches come off of Mt. Sefton. From there you can scramble Ed Hillary's very first alpine climb. Mt. Cook's in full view from the deck. There are other quick trips in the area as well. A sea kayak trip (I know, you didn't request this, but here it is anyway) in Abel Tasman NP is great: Fine sunny weather, white sand beaches. Kind of a honeymoon setting. You can kayak out, drop off the boats, and trek back. Google 'Abel Tasman kayak'. PM me if you're local to Seattle and want to check out some maps... Cheers

Just an average week for a Super Zero.

Best New Years Eve paaaaty of all time.

Y, U missed 2 K s.

Seems like the stars in that video are all...black. Self hating blacks?

What's the verdict?

With regard to the recovered stolen climbing gear thread, the cops came about an hour after my initial call. I didn't expect anything faster; it wasn't an emergency. They called me again once they'd actually dispatched a car. Once there, they looked up the gear owner's name for a previous case number. They missed it the first time, but found it later, investigated the house, checked out the lady who sold me the gear (no rap sheet), then checked out her absent 'roommate' (big rap sheet). They then called me back. They've now linked my case number to the original victim's. Overall, a decent response and due diligence. To see how it turns out, follow the 'stolen gear recovered' thread. It could be a while, of course. One lesson here is personal responsibility. Law enforcement probably isn't going to stake out a remote parking lot; and if you think about it, given their other priorities, would you want them to? Personal, car, and home security, practically speaking, is the citizen's responsibility, much like climbing safety. Call 911 for sure, but you can't always depend on a rapid response for any situation. Having said that, when you witness any crime, file a report. Nothing may seem to happen, but those reports go into a statistical database that helps determine future law enforcement coverage for your area. In the very best case, you might actually get your gear back and be able to help nab the shitheel who took it...if you've marked your gear so that's it's traceable to you by a stranger, that is. As for exit 38, if one thief was found hanging upside down from a tree near the parking lot, missing his skin and balls, that might just send an effective message.

Actually, the pure ice pitch we yo yo'd to the far right before the 'incident' was in superb shape. Really nice. Not a drip. Might want to stay off mixed routes, though.

Vitriotic: Adj: A description of one who prioritizes the daily intake of vitamins above national allegiance.

Take it as a compliment. When they start calling you 'twig boys', I'd worry.

It's up to the cops at this point. Shitbag's got a record, so perhaps they'll use this to put him away for a while. Or, they might find a houseful of identifiable stolen goods and put him away for longer. Don't know. I'll keep you posted as to what happens, but it could be awhile before anything happens. In any case, I've agreed to be a witness, of course. Or one of us could drive 950 miles non-stop in a diaper and take him for a ride.

Ah don' know 'bout da Bone'z mama's ass, butt dat Serenuh's ass'll pinch yo dick off 'f yo not cauhful.

Ackshully, Ah'm gittin KKKKK fum yo av'tar. 'Fith o K', o 'full house K', o maybe 'Fahve Finga K' or 'K-Fist', o sumthin. Az fo 'street cred', whatthu Hail you talkin' bout? Ain' no av'tar live on no street; we jus ranum nural land-o-lincoln logs em'natin fum sum punkass't sprayuh's bung, thas awll. What kinna street cred you gonna fahn inna E-lectron? How 'bout hypahtex Prot'col; do it pimp along in cybahspace in its vey own 'Splanade wit da two fahn bitches fo hood orn'mints? 'Splain dat to me sumtahm.

My understanding is that the US military presence formerly in Saudi Arabia (after the 100 hour war was over) was primarily an airbase which has moved to Qatar. Iraq is a wholly new US presence altogether with vastly greater capabilities (than the post Desert Storm Saudi Arabian presence). The Saudis certainly wanted the Qatar move to appease their kooky population, but I'm not sure they wanted our invasion of Iraq. Saddam encapsulated and defanged? yes. But the US already did that 17 years ago. Iraq destabilized? no. After all, 10% of the Saudi's population is a troublemaking group of restless Shiites; it wouldn't be in the Saudi goverment's interests to poke a stick in their eye. Raising oil prices requires a seamproof cartel. Find a weak link in the cartel and the price controls pop. Destabilization and the inter-regional conficts it re-ignites can only lead to a weaker, not stronger cartel. Prices have shot up, no doubt, but that probably has more to do with rising global demand, perceived or real proven crude reserve shortages, Middle Eastern supply uncertainty due to destabilization (here, your argument might fly, but I think the Saudis would consider the risks of fomenting open conflict too great compared to this benefit...remember, these fuckers DEFINE the term conservative) and the loss of refinement capacity due to Katrina. As for bombing Mecca, I've already opined on that one. I tend to view the invasion of Iraq more on WYSIWYG terms. I really believe it was primarily an ideologically driven war (Middle Eastern stabilization and, in some people's minds, democratic liberation through US hegemony) as viewed by it's architects, and a mix of ideology and strategic (secure the pipeline, threaten Iran) for it's executors. I also think Bush Co thought the Iranians would follow the Libyan model of changing their tune once the bombs started dropping more than they have. Having said that, Iranians seem pretty tired of their leadership at this point, so a liberalization of that country from the bottom up (rather than top down, as in the case of Qaddafi), aided by the spector of US military action, is still possible. I believe most wars are ideologically driven from the top, particularly at first. Military high command rarely pesters a national leader to start another war. From lebensraum to 'let freedom reign, or ring, or whatever', most wars start with the big, and usually stupid, idea that only flies in a theoretical universe that remains so far undiscovered. What drags these wars into the mire are underestimated forces on the ground such as nationalism, religious cultural unity, tribal loyalties, and the like.