Ben Beckerich

Are most avi classes, or at least level 1 classes, classroom only?

Howdy Looking for some intro peaks in the North Cascades... never been up there, and want to solo a line or two before a bigger trip later this winter. I'm starting my investigations with the peaks that are closest to the east and west ends of the highway. My Green doesn't have a lot of peaks I'm looking at on the topo and googearth. Are the names different, or are they really not in there? My copy is copywrite 1971... how much has been added since then? And if anyone has any suggestions for good soloable routes on peaks with shorter approaches, I'm all ears- half day's skin on the road, couple hours from the road, or less, ideally. Easier technical climbing - Thanks -Ben

Howdy Where to get some really good avi instruction? I'm primarily a climber, live in NW Oregon, and for the time being, splitboard is my alpine vehicle of choice. I have the basics down- I know about aspect and wind direction, bonding, identifying slabs and digging pits... But would like to take a class that'll offer solid instruction on efficiently and accurately applying these things in the field to decrease risk. In other words, I really hoping to not have to waste a bunch of time covering the book stuff, so to speak. Thanks -Ben

I found it! Let's try this.. Fuck... still didn't blow up. It is a hell of a lot higher res, though... so if you like it, let me know and I'll email it in full res to you. benjaminbeckerich@gmail.com

Hmm.... that didn't come out very big, did it? Just checked my climbing album- it's a really low res pic... Must be one I emailed to myself. I'll post it again if I can find the original

This one would probably work fine, appropriately cropped and zoomed. I guess the question will be whether or not the resolution is good enough - Will find out as soon as I click "Submit"

iRock is one of my favorite places. For all the southern and western lines, the traverse over to the summit block is tedious and needlessly dangerous... but you must do it at least once. It's the most exclusive summit in Oregon, it's said, and entering your name in the summit register is a proud moment. After that, fap it. Steep choss traversing isn't climbing- once the line is done, the climb is done. I've only gone all the way to the block once, and until I do one of the N/E lines that top out right there, I have no intention of dealing with that traverse again.

Let's go FA that shit, dude.

Righteous... did you climb it??

Well??

Has anyone gotten on 'er yet?

I would love to learn to ski, but I plain do not have time. Not now, not for a while. I just barely get out for resort boarding once or twice a season, how the fap am I going to learn to ski? I tried to teach myself AT skiing last year. I put together an AT setup with Silvretta 505s and just started going up on them, then having to come down with them. What better way to learn to ski, and do it in climbing boots, then to just go climb stuff and have to get back down? Not sure how many times I went up, trying different boots (to include Invernos, which just made it suck both up AND down), different methods.. but always on shit variable snow and usually in the crap weather a winter climber usually climbs in FAIL FAIL FAIL FAIL FAIL, FAIL. Horrible, awful, exhausting, painful, pride-wounding, demoralizing. I suspected it would be, as all my skiing friends told me I was destined for failure. But I have one of these personality types that just can't take peoples' word for things. Then I discovered splitboarding. Already being a competent snowboarder, this has become my winter mobility solution, and it's totally rad. Do you board??

Yup... My now-9, then-8 year old sported Contact Straps on his snowboard boots on Hood last year, and I didn't even have to size them all the way down. Teaching them how to not get their 'pons snagged on their own accessory loop at 8 instead of 24 = good parenting.

You guys are adept at baiting, but suck at DEbating.

I'm afraid it's worse than that. Those who ARE calling John Wayne gay think it's an insult. And that's why they're doing it.

You obviously care enough to put it on a public form for discussion. Just say'n. I thought you guys were quicker than this. What's my "point?"

So your hero was a shade of gay, so what? Why is that so bad? Calm down there sailor! I'm not sure why you blame others for wreaking your childhood delusions. The facts are always stranger than fiction, most people learn that with age. He can still be an image of toughness and masculinity for ya...those can be gay too. You're missing the point entirely. I already said I don't care if he screwed dudes, or even if he would have called himself "gay."

And I think it's fairly rare for people who engage in homosexual activity to "be gay" to begin with... Just as hardly anyone can be classified as entirely heterosexual, just as few can be classified as entirely homosexual. You have people who generally prefer heterosexual sex, people who generally prefer homosexual sex, and then everyone else somewhere in between. It's not at all uncommon for men claiming to be heterosexual in lifestyle to like to engage in homo sexual activity. So even if he did once, sometimes, or even frequently screw dudes, he might still not have been "gay." Calling John Wayne "gay" is nothing more than a deliberate attempt to smear him, to shatter the contemptible hero-image we have of our boyhood icon of American toughness and masculinity... "haha, dumb American (says the croc-wearing, ear-gaged anti-American American)- your straight, tough hero is a dick eating fag." That's how it feels, anyway. I couldn't care less what or who he did in the sack. Or all my other dead boyhood heroes so many spitefully antiestablishment types have tried to do the same thing to. It's the nature of the attack I don't care for.

Or, maybe he was gay. This is totally irrelevant to my question. I'm sure all sorts of people we'd never suspect have all sorts of varying sexual proclivities. People chose to keep that stuff private for their own reasons. You don't "out" someone because they're gay, you out them for your own agenda.

Is it that gay people love him too and want to claim him, or that antiestablishment-for-spite types can't stand the rest of us having any kind of classic America childhood hero?

Pah.. Too quick for me, Rob.

Nevermind. Off topic.

Super small scale?? I'm going with Pete on this one. Say what you want about the NPS ranger corps., but parks like Rainier are WAY cleaner/less messed with than nearby FS land. As someone who spends a lot of time on FS land outside of Granite Falls/Concrete/Darrington, Pete is not off the mark. If you can get near it in a truck or dirtbike, the methheads/rednecks aren't to be underestimated. I don't know, man. I just don't see it. I haven't yet spent much time in WA wilderness areas, but I've spent a LOT of time in Waldo, Jefferson, Sisters, wilderness areas, as well as Hood Natl Forest, and all up and down the Willamette Natl. You occasionally find trash and trashy people on the roads, but step 10 feet off and you're in unmolested, pristine wild. Tweekers and rednecks do their mething and dumping and shooting on the road.

While these things happen on a super small scale, they just don't really happen in wilderness areas. There're still laws, and you can still have Forest Service patrols... they're enough to keep our wilderness areas wild, I'm sure they'd be plenty enough to keep Rainier wild too.

Pretty funny that they can close a mountain. I get the "shutdown," but actually barring access to a mountain most of us would surely prefer unserviced to begin with is absolutely nothing other than spite. Walk away from the mountain... No service, no rescue, no guiding... And leave the gate open.