tvashtarkatena

How many bisexual people do you know?

If the snow is too mechanically weak (too cold and light, typically) to set up when compacted (make a snowball you can throw), your compacting it destroys what bonding it has already and weakens the stress cone that holds the picket in. This, as well as the finger test, is a standard that's been around since the 1950s. There are bunch of sites/reports on setting snow anchors - they all say pretty much the same thing. In that kind of snow you can deadman the picket deep with a really long sling or just forget about the anchor altogether and save the time.

Some rules of thumb for picket placement: Can you make a throwable snowball? Yes - compact the snow in front of the anchor. No - Deadman the anchor as deeply as possible, do not compact the snow. Mid clipped pickets are 2 to 3x stronger than top clipped. Deadmanned pickets buried at mid clip depth are similar in strength to midclipped. In firmer snow, vertical placement is best. In weaker snow, lean the picket back slightly. Dig a pit to check snow hardness. If you can insert your gloved finger gently into the snowpack anywhere along the wall of the pit, do not top clip it. 6 kN is the max expected strength of deadmanned or mid clipped picket 2 KN is the max expected strength for a top clipped picket.

Liberalism has finally succumbed to it's thousandth cut I see. Thanks, Bootzhaber. The real Ted Turner could have pulled it off. Sure, you were replaced by the nation's first openly bisexual woman governor, but she's obviously a GOP mole.

Don't burn out the guy who loans his canoe to climbers for the Tupshin approach.

I ate a bag of Dick's just the other night. Love that special sauce.

I'd be happy if my climbing partners would just stop trying to score some ass play every time I nod off. Especially when I'm belaying. All too familiar a problem to former Coasties, I'd wager.

On sustained icier steeper stuff I find it's worth taking Quarks instead of lighter tools. More secure - deeper shaft bend - less frozen knuckles = faster travel/more enjoyable. The lighter Aztarex vibrates a bit on harder stuff and the sticks are just a little less sweet.

My pal used a BD Raven as one tool on Lib Ridge in very icy conditions. Worked fine for him. That's a decent all around choice. I prefer a more curved shaft (baby!) too keep my knuckles off the ice/snow. Technical tools downclimb better than standard axes. Way better. More secure down steep chutes and your knuckles don't get as frozen. If you're on steep enough stuff to use two tools, you're not going to self arrest with anything. Self belay or see ya at the bottom. Technical tools self arrest just fine with a little practice. Shaft plunging (baby!) is the only hitch. The BD Raven's good for that, but my Petzl Aztarex works fine, too, even with little hand grip. I did add a little custom spike to the end of the shaft so I can use it as a walking stick on icy stuff - it doesn't skitter around that way.

I've been plinking away at the Cascade volcanoes. Given that there are hundreds of cinder cones and the like - I limit it to 'stuff that looks like a real mountain more or less': Lassen Shasta Mcloughlan Bailey Diamond Peak Scott Theilsen Newberry Bachelor (you can really cheat on this one) Broken Top 3 Sisters Washington 3 Finger Jack Jefferson Hood Adams St. Helens Gilbert Rainier Glacier Lincoln Baker Garibaldi Looks like Meager, Plinth, and Cayley easily make the cut. That makes 28

You know what's convenient about NCNP? Not having a herd of two ton Tillies blocking your view. Hey Jabba, want to slack-jaw some scenery? Grab your bucket-a-frogs and head on down to Rainier. Plenty mini marts along the way. It's Pierce County. You can't swing a dead foaty at yer Ole Lady without hitting a jalapeno popper. Don't be insulted if some other pie wagon mistakes your sloughing ass-ulite for the Nisqually. It's nothing that a double order of Moons Over My Hammy can't make right.

Omega 3 from iherb.com

well, theres media circuses and then theres douche circuses. Back to laughing at schizophrenic tutorials i reckon. good luck with that CC.

Pretty amazing.

Top out. That's that.

Jorgeson starting up.

No more bizarre than pro football. Great athletes doing their thing. Caldwell's leading the final pitch.

at the belay

Follower starting up the final dihedral - 2nd to the last pitch. .13a face move at the start.

2 more to go - a .13a move and a pitch of .12b 19 days on the wall.

Seconding a huge ow .12b overhung chimney t an .11d undercling falling traverse without a whole lotta hardware now: Live feed He's just took a little whipper. This guy's fingers are crazy glued together at this point. There's a little kicker move of .13 on the last pitch. No smooth sailing on this one. He's re-following the pitch to try to get it clean, but just fell again. This party ain't over.

Starting up p28 in the dark. Last .12c pitch. Looks like a top out tomorrow.

P26.

On pitch 24 now. Live video The team chose to climb the last 5.14 pitch (p 15) in the dark so that cooler temperatures would improve friction enough to make the send possible - even in mid winter.

Dave, my neighbor and good friend David also has gout - He's about your age and treats it with fasting and by other means. He's a researcher in the pharmaceutical industry. I can put you two together via email so you can share what works for each of you if you'd like.