Hugh Conway

He may say that, but he's the only one who's saying that. Touring gear is a niche market at best. Without the herd of once a year yuppies the seattle touring market would be even smaller than it is (and judging by the stores, it's pretty small right now)

oh, and a hotel room in thailand will cost less than a campground in the US

railay thailand, then a cheap flight to Hampi for some epic bouldering. if you are going to put up with hot and humid weather might as well have cute girls in bikinis and epic food

holy shit? you can do lots of stuff in good weather in Patagonia? who knew. stupid quotes about bad weather exhibit obliviousness to how bad the weather is. unless you habitually summit rainier in 100mph gusts or enjoy jerking off in a squalid shithole of a tentcamp or snowcave for weeks. the riffraff is sunning on the beach with hotties

You enjoy postholing with a board on your back? Only a snowboarder would say that. snowboards, splitboards, whatever the fuck. they suck for travelling without lifts in mountains.

what are the cantonal taxes in Lugano?

I'd actually put the flyfishing in NZ as kind of crappy. Too over run by fat faggots helifishing

I'm surprised JayB can post with that dick in his throat. The free marketer paying for bullshit. Who'd be surprised now? Of course he knows it. He's a faggot kissing ass for a better deal!

Since most of the world requires payment right after service and won't accept you8r insurance, the Austrian Alpine Club. $80 a year including emergency care insurance, evacuation, hut discount, and other shit like repatriation.

sucking with poor posture or being sucked with poor posture can be a very unpleasant experience.

Snow's not been so bad in my experience, it's a cold rain that'll really turn the inside condensing.

Some sweet canyoning there if you are looking to cool off: http://members.ozemail.com.au/~dnoble/canyoning.html "Canyons near Sydney" is the guidebook if I remember the title correctly

take it from me - that's a sure sign you've moved well past delusional and are straight on the way to Munchausen land

Random other suggestions: -Madagascar -Sri Lanka (some climbing in the Knuckles range, great food) -Southern India (Hampi bouldering, other random bits) great food -Southern China (Yunnan/Sichuan) Patagonia has the same shitty weather, much bigger distances, much much much much crappier roads and airlines. So yes, you may not be able to pick up and go climbing in NZ, but you can pick up and go surfing, in to a town, taste wine, etc. do something with your day, which if you are in Patagonia is pretty much impossible because going somewhere will take fucking forever. New Zealand also has far more variety in food than Argentina (where if you don't want cheap excellent steak and wine, the food pretty much sucks ass) And yes NZ has got to many fucking Americans/Poms/Eurofaggots thinking it's a great place.

They are the core of the attraction to "climbing"

It's a good thing BD and Charlet have never, ever, had to recall Ice Tools for material failures

trick question, the answer is always ewe

so catch one of the dozen flights a day across the Tasman and go Alpine in New Zealand. Patagonia's great and all but the shit weather coupled with the shit infrastructure can lead to alot of time sipping mate with your thumb up your ass. At least if the weather sucks in New Zealand you can drive to the beach for the day or go bouldering at Castle Hill, then go back to the Alpine.

what do you want to do

"pro form" gear and free gear is a statistically significant category and constitutes minor level sponsorship - the distortion of the retail market being especially irritating

needs more slutty victorian girls

Depends on how fat the chic that popped it is.

You are actually arguing that the advertising and promotion budget is small?

Miraculously they spend the money from thin air! Of course it comes out of the bottom line and costs more because of it dolt.

YOU and me, and every member of the gear buying public are that stupid SOB bill. From the climber paid cash (very rare) to the climber paid in gear (less rare) to the climber who gets proform (fairly common) there's tons of people getting money or discounts for doing jack shit. Why? If they've got interesting stories to tell and pictures to show why not give them money or kudos directly at a slide show, by buying a book or other means? Do you go out and buy a guitar to support a good artist?