pdawg

Thanks, shortstow. Having never been on Hood, I'll do the approach regardless and post details tomorrow.

I'm cooling my heels in Portland this week and hope to break free for some snow clomping. Has anyone been on the Hogsback recently?

My first visit to Squamish. Oh, my. The big wall was wet, so we climbed mostly at Smoke Bluffs. Two days of perfect splitters and shitty beer.

This is not intended as another charge Serenity must answer. I just saw it and thought, "I know the perfect fire for that gasoline..." "Oct. 15, 2007 issue - The colonel was furious. "Can you believe it? They actually drew their weapons on U.S. soldiers." He was describing a 2006 car accident, in which an SUV full of Blackwater operatives had crashed into a U.S. Army Humvee on a street in Baghdad's Green Zone. The colonel, who was involved in a follow-up investigation and spoke on the condition he not be named, said the Blackwater guards disarmed the U.S. Army soldiers and made them lie on the ground at gunpoint until they could disentangle the SUV. His account was confirmed by the head of another private security company. Asked to address this and other allegations in this story, Blackwater spokesperson Anne Tyrrell said, "This type of gossip has led to many soap operas in the press." Like most people- and all of the anti-war crowd I know- I have nothing but respect for our military personnel. What angers me is the collision of private interest and public good. While any number of factors could have led to the story above, I find the mindset of the policy behind it to be most troubling. Rome's Praetorian Guard comes to mind. The Praetorians began as a cadre of private bodyguards and evolved into a political cancer that helped destroy Rome. Is the analogy stretched? Sure. On the other hand, I still don't understand the humbrage taken over the use of the word "mercenary". To my mind, being a mercenary is as noble a profession as any number of other jobs- they just have no place in American government. And I'll defend that at length, after I go climbing. The rest of the piece is here: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21163806/site/newsweek

Looking to shed some weight. Trek 2200 alpha series roadbike. $650 Prijon Seayak 16' kayak w/rudder, skirt, PFD, pump and paddle float $1100 Farmer John medium wetsuit (used twice) $60 photos to follow...on Monday.

What's not to get about the neocons? Throughout Clinton's second term, they clamored for the invasion of Iraq, claiming it was our time to revel in military supremacy. Failing to sell boldface imperialism, they sidled into the Whitehouse in 2001, claimed themselves experts and proceeded to turn everything to shit. They failed to prevent 9-11. They didn't prosecute the war in Afghanistan to its end. They began the disaster that is Iraq. What, exactly, did they do well? Oh, yeah, they made a killing. In arms, in consultations, in "delayed compensation packages", they made out like bandits. And when they leave their jobs, seconds ahead of subpoenas, investigations, charges of serial perjury, they'll find comfort in the loving arms of the oil-and-arms funded think tanks that first shat them out upon the stage.

Thanks, Fred!

Has anybody been up in the Liberty Bell area recently? I was wondering what conditions are like...

I can't say I miss the lightning. I had two experiences- one atop Spearhead- where my gear was actually humming. Turns out, it's surprisingly difficult to run screaming from your own harness loops. On the other hand, I don't remember many trips getting rained out. Actually, I'm headed back to west Colorado for the winter. Good turns, good ice and stultifying poverty are sure to follow, but I'll be sure to hit the Smokehouse when I'm in Ned. cheers.

Indeed, Jay, indeed... The East Ridge is it. For the pure of heart, there are also several north-facing couloirs you can take off the top. They were well-iced and thin when I was up- and I was glad for the excuse to ski that big east bowl.

Your photos of Arapahoe made me nostalgic enough, but the mention of Backcountry Pizza had me going all misty. It's been sixteen months since I last chowed there and I still don't know if the pie is good. Every visit there followed epic days of biking or teleing- goddamn, I miss the Front Range! Jay made some excellent suggestions. I'll add a few of my own. Hike Glacier Gorge from the Bear Lake road trailhead in RMNP to the Spearhead (located just behind/west of Longs). There's nothing remotely technical about the hike, but you end up in a pristine high valley, surrounded by great stone. (It's late season, but the North Ridge of the Spearhead is one of the best 5.6/7 multi-pitch scampers in Colorado. If you want harder fare Sykes Sickle is a phenominal 5.9.) If you were to wait six to eight weeks, you'd be able to ski the west ridge on Quandary. Depends on the lenght of your trip... No trip to the Front Range would be complete without a run up the Third Flatiron in Boulder. 1500-1000 feet of five-easy sandstone- and excellent bouldering on the approach.

I have trouble giving a shit about Blackwater personnel when I read stuff like this. This is the MBA leadership at its worst. "MINNEAPOLIS, MN (NBC) -- When they came home from Iraq, 2,600 members of the Minnesota National Guard had been deployed longer than any other ground combat unit. The tour lasted 22 months and had been extended as part of President Bush's surge. 1st Lt. Jon Anderson said he never expected to come home to this: A government refusing to pay education benefits he says he should have earned under the GI bill. "It's pretty much a slap in the face," Anderson said. "I think it was a scheme to save money, personally. I think it was a leadership failure by the senior Washington leadership... once again failing the soldiers." Anderson's orders, and the orders of 1,161 other Minnesota guard members, were written for 729 days. Had they been written for 730 days, just one day more, the soldiers would receive those benefits to pay for school. "Which would be allowing the soldiers an extra $500 to $800 a month," Anderson said. That money would help him pay for his master's degree in public administration. It would help Anderson's fellow platoon leader, John Hobot, pay for a degree in law enforcement. "I would assume, and I would hope, that when I get back from a deployment of 22 months, my senior leadership in Washington, the leadership that extended us in the first place, would take care of us once we got home," Hobot said. Both Hobot and Anderson believe the Pentagon deliberately wrote orders for 729 days instead of 730."

Scott, I agree with you. The world is a savage place and we are an appallingly fat, spoiled and decadent culture. I also understand that our day-to-day wealth derives largely from military power and, to a point, I am grateful for that. That said, when defining the blinders that prevent us from doing the right thing in Iraq, I'm wondering what your vision of success is. Does it concern democracy, or does it concern oil? The people who began this war were fond of recounting how Saddam had killed 300,000 of his countrymen. That was over, what, a thirty year period? By most accounts, in the last five years upwards of half a million Iraqis have died. While a majority of them were not killed by our troops, we were the force that set the slaughter in motion. Is that the fault of American troops? Hell, no. In the highly hypothetical presumption that I was walking a Blackwater beat in Baghdad, would I hold my fire if I was unsure of an approaching car? I doubt it. The morality of warfare is not at question, nor are the actions of any combatants. The problem is the perverse melding of government and private sector. The problem is the naked greed of the entire class of people who sent Americans to die in a third world country over what amounted to little more than bedtime stories. And they're making millions off it. Maybe the men of Blackwater are all deeply patriotic. But they're making a lot of money even as they choose to be there. The ordinary troops aren't- so in my mind, they're the guys making the sacrifice. The Blackwater guys are just making a profit. This could probably be more articulate, but I work with my hands and daylight's fading. I look forward to reading your definition of success.

You're right, Sherri, and we should all be outraged: outraged, shocked and dismayed. If you were taken in by that blatantly misleading copy and purchased a calendar by mistake, I want you to know that you can send it to me. For God's sake, don't throw it into the garbage. That's exactly the sort of sexist filth that could blind an unsuspecting sanitation worker.

Cause the ladies have the pleasing forms.