Ben Beckerich

I just feel like if I was a G... a real, hardcore, gat-packing, shit-ending, flag wearing, gang-banging, don't-smile-for-pictures, anti-social G.... I wouldn't care about marches.

Hmm.. is it gonna be real Gs? Or just wanna-Gs? 'Cause I'm not sure real Gs do stuff like this. I'm pretty sure they just sleep till 3 pm, slang dope all night, and dont GAF about marches and stuff.

What exactly separates "black" from "not black?"

On one hand, I'm really glad no one broke it up, so I could watch... but then, after watching, I'm just kinda left with this disgust with everyone standing around, nobody breaking it up. When I was in school, and then military academy, and then the Army, and then in bars as a young adult, fights started all the time, but you had mofos diving in to break up fights almost as fast as they started. You never had winners or losers - nothing was ever resolved. But apparently in Walmart you can hold a bitch down while your 6 year old curb stomps her head till your heart's content. I'll remember to shout, "take it to Walmart" next time I see two unreasonable adults about to engage in mutual combat

Tough to say, but I know it's been muy caliente, windy, and bright as a mofo for most of that time, and the prominent rock features melt out first (like the pinnacle). But - if you could get within visual distance of the mountain, you'd be able to tell with a decent pair of binos.... I personally have never laid eyes on the west face of Jefferson from farther away than standing on it... hard aspect to catch a look at for some reason.

I wonder if there's even any snow left on the pinnacle

Road bike in the hills..... nothing has ever come close to gving me the lungs and legs in the alpine that the bike has, and that includes the alpine itself (going up almost every weekend).

Funny Not buying it, though.

This is, of course, the best course of action... Not that there's anything wrong with soliciting help. Hope you find it!

Volcanoes are slag heaps.. literally just big piles of broken volcanic crap, and gravity is always trying to level out the pile. Once there's no ice/snow holding everything together, it starts coming apart. But people do climb it all year round. I've climbed every month except September. Up to you!

Hear, hear. Just climb, bros. Annd don't forget pix of your hawt GFs

OK.... new time frame... little more notice for ya Wife is taking the kids out of town last week in May, Mon-Fri, and I plan on playing alpine hooky ALL FING WEEK. Weather permitting, I wanna get up Jeffy Headwall while it still has some snow on it

A decade ago, I had to take a mandatory LE class called Tactical Communications in Critical Incidents for my CJ degree, due to the then-"rash" of cop-on-citizen deaths. Nope... this shit's been going on forever. Is it getting worse? No.. it's actually probably getting a little better... but coverage and attention are skyrocketing. Just like violent crime rates - perception of increase increases when media coverage increases, even if rates have actually plummeted. I'm not saying there isn't a problem in LE. There is. I'm not a fan of the entire system. But let's be honest about shit.

Thursday night/Friday morning... let's do it

Thursday night/friday morning looks great... who's down?

Actually weather looks kinda junky.. so maybe later in the week, possibly even next week I should probably add that I'm very fit, experienced, and have climbed the route in summer/bare condition (wanna do it with some frozen water on it this time)

Very fun route... legit alpine experience. They say the North Face is Hood's great, one-true alpine line- I say BS, Reid is way better, especially if you follow the headwall all the way up to the ridge - which is sounds like you did. I'm not sure why "the book" has the route exiting the towers to the left, at the top, when there's still stellar climbing to do if you just continue straight up... that last bit is my favoritest part of the climb.

Edit - See below

Thanks for the conditions update - I'm getting up there this week for sure, now. How many pitches are those north face lines? Seems like you ought to be able to climb up the base a bit and nab pretty much all of them with a 70m...?

Howdy Lookin for a good price on a used set of either of these - newer gen quarks only, please. Thanks! -Ben

I think I heard someone say they're asking people not to sleep in their cars in the parking lot? I have plenty times, and I would again with no reservation, regardless of this. Just park over in the gravel overflow lot if you're paranoid about it - it's usually quieter over there anyway. Unless bubba comes and tries to drive his un-muffled injin truck up onto the snow at 2 in the fuckin mornin.

When was the last time you climbed it? I've done the route in both fat and thin conditions, and when it's thin, it's fucked up.

www.mountainproject.com, the classifieds here, ebay, geartrade can be useful... have to be diligent and check all these sources regularly - MP in particular is super active. Tons of new stuff posted every day. You can also post "WTB" (want to buy) threads, and, especially on MP, you'd be surprised how often someone has the piece you need in your size just taking up space in the closet.

Used climbing kit! Don't buy new! This is actually an ethic, for me.. but it just makes huge economical sense also. $600 for a shell? Hell no.. how about the same level jacket for more like $150 or $200? Yea. I go back and forth on down vs. synthetic... if synthetic was as compressible as down, I'd accept the weight sacrifice.. but my biggest problem with synthetic has always been the space it takes up in the pack. You just cannot get near the compression with synthetic stuff. And if you're not going to be climbing IN your down (and I don't know why you would) and it's definitely going to be cold and dry... all my stuff is down, right now. Maybe I'll go synthetic again at some point in the future, as technology gets better "Light is right" has always been my mantra, but this falls on it's face when light starts to encroach on function and comfort. Do not sacrifice basic comfort or critical kit necessities for light weight. Who cares if you get up and down 15 minutes faster if you're uncomfortable the whole time? And those 15 minutes, or even 2 hours, saved won't be worth much when your ultra light shit fails in the field because it's too light and can't even hold up to normal use. Dynafit, anyone? There's some really expensive, extremely cheap ass shit out there. You'll experience it. (Where you at, Astrov) Hooah, BTW. I did an extremely short, non-combat stint as an 11B, long, long ago.. but I still think of myself as Infantry. Let me know if you want to take a run up Hood sometime... I'm very familiar with the mountain, and could lend you some hard-earned alpine knowledge.