mikeadam

It's going to be REALLY crowded. You should stay home. Mike

Erik, It IS a race you pussy whipped crag winer. Car to car death slog or nada! Mike P.S. NICE letter to Rock and Porn....darnit! ICE. We need more attitude free prose around here anyway [This message has been edited by mikeadam (edited 05-31-2001).]

Pope-You ATE the base of Damnation's Crack? Is that some kind of secret codeword?

jblakley---that's a GOOD one!

The Nose on El Cap is a choss heap!! Scott Burk didn't agree with me though...

we may never meet Cause Lou I don't know your tong Fred Beckey rules all

Dane, Actually the first time it was very severe (like it popped loud enough that the 4 people running closest to me heard it and we all thought it was broken), but at the time I was in a situation where malingering was highly frowned upon. IN other words if you weren't bleeding out your arse or missing a limb you were looked down upon like a leper. Dealing with pain was just part of the job and YES it was VERY painful trying to pretend that everything was OK while running 6 minute miles to avoid being ostracized by my cohorts. It was severly misdiagnosed due to poor medical care offered by the service. I was told after finally seeking medical in the sillyvillian world for the reoccurring injury that I should have initially been put in a cast for 6 weeks. My ankle, running, physical condition have never been the same since. The last 2 times were simply the icing on the cake that completely removed any remaining ligament structure that existed after the first time. Best to get it cared for, but surgery is pretty serious. I would see how it feels after getting your cast off and giving it some time to recover. Mike

You know I've been trying to get the webmaster to take down those stupid pictures for like eons now and he hasn't replied to me. It was a joke when I sent them in anyway. Glad someone finally called them what they are and they ARE pathetic, but there is a story behind them. I particulary like Fortiers stunning technique. Note the absence of front points in ice as left foot is splayed sideways. Only on grade1 eh? Take it easy ladies, I'm going to go admire my new sketch pad while I paint a circled target ring in the middle of it Toby Henson lives! Mike

In 3 seperate trail running incidents I tore ALL the ligaments in my left ankle, but opted to NOT have the surgery. By the way, I was RUNNING on those torn ligaments a week after it happened the 1st time. I was told by the doc after the last time that it would take up to a year to recover and that I would have to be in a cast for 6 months if I opted for surgery. He did however say that recovery would be about 100%, but a year is a darn long time to be sitting around. Good luck and sorry about your accident in April! Mike

West Pole Brand!! I get it! That was the most hilarious climbing cartoon ever. Nice reference Dru....

Mitch! Shouldn't we be climbing instead of spraying on this website???? I'll drive over right now if you're game. Mike

Pope, The legend of Donna Top Step grows with every posting Maybe someday I'll sorta kinda even maybe train to get buff and honed to be worthy of her comradery on a climb. Would she look down on me if I stick clipped my way up the new Dan's Dreadful Direct? Drederek-GOOD HUMOR!! Mike

Speaking of girls is Rock and Ice magazine on some kind of marketing trip where they feature rock porn in every magazine? I mean the last issue featured Da Kind (Rachel Babkirk) that I know had every dude drooling. Then they act all indignant when someone writes in wanting the beta on her. This month they feature Goofy Donaspews wife "Patience" leading 5 hard on a multi page spread that seemed dedicated to her only. Now I haven't read alot of climbing mags in the past few years (The Bobby Bensman thing perhaps left me cold), but now all the sudden I can't seem to get enough Rock and Porn...err Ice magazine. What gives? Oh and Outer Space....ummmmm.....no bolts please.

Gee Smoker! Thanks for your approval. We all feel better about ourselves now.

Hey Rocky watch me pull a rabbit out of my hat... Ahhhhh nostalgia began to sink in this dreary evening and I decided to start a topic of no particular value. Aren't they all? Aaron takes a grounder: About 6 years ago the ambivalent Captain Caveman, this New Jersey spud named Carlos Toastie, and myself went climbing at Fossil Rock AKA- Chossil Rockfall. Toastie was a young soldier who asked us if we would teach him how to climb. Being somewhat mean spirited we agreed to take him, promising him that climbing was absolutely safe, and that he would have the time of his life. I think the real goal was to get Toastie wicked scared- trembling with Elvis leg while we kicked back and laughed our asses off at his expense. You see, even back then something was not quite right with us. As a sort of disclaimer let me mention also that climbing at Fossil was about our only choice. Mainly because we were all stationed at Ft Lewis, partially because our transpo situation was a serious bummer. Cavie had a broken down VW camper bus (which he later traded for a beer--but that's another story) I had a working Datsun POS for short range travel. Unless my then *boss* Rebecca gave me the Honda we had to settle for short range objectives. This was one of those days. We alternately loathed and praised Fossil. Loathed it when we could climb somewhere else. Praised it when we could get there for 3 hours of isolated cragging after last formation. We did in fact sense that at any moment huge chunks of rock would peel off that slag heap, cold shuts would fail, and we would all end up maimed for life. RMI guides who fearlessly scaled Little Tahoma came to Fossil and spoke in hushed and reverent tones under the decaying crags. According to Curt Gibson, who we knew only as Lucky, biting black flies and crumbly holds were all part of the adventure. Also if Jim Y put the routes up they had to be good right? RIGHT??? Anyway back to the story... As we were gearing up for another run up Tomahawk tower via the then overgraded route "Mr Meanie AKA Mrs. Weanie" two other climbers arrived. I can't remember the girls name, but I think she was the girlfriend of one of the Backslackers Supply guys and the guys name I never remembered until I looked in the Fossil Rock guidebook years later. When they stopped to talk we gave them our traditional sprayfest of unclear and contradictory "beta", designed to create hysteria and consternation in our fellow *Fossilites*. I clearly remember the guy saying he was going to lead "WC Crack" which was graded 5 easy, had bolts, and swallowed cams that even a gumby like me could slam in with no problem. So they headed off while we began the Toastie torture session. So anyway, as it turns out Toastie is actually not half bad, exhibited little fear but a little Elvis leg, and before we knew it all 3 of us were standing around on the top of the tower wishing we had some endo to pass around like "normal" climbers. When lo and behold we see homie walking down from the top of the the crag to the undeveloped section immediately above the climb he was going to lead. Not only was that slope steep and grass covered (read slick as snot), but the runout was like a 120 foot vertical grounder. It sort of got our attention that sliceage would be strolling over there with the rope coiled around his not too buff chest. Well, for my part I'm thinking out loud something along the lines of "What's that retard doing?" Cavies sort of getting this feeding frenzy look on his face, and Toastie is acting like we just scaled the fricking Eiger or something. About 1 minute later as we blankly stared off at Rainier we heard this tremendously interesting sound. Sort of like someone riding their bike full speed into a brick wall and then bouncing around on the ground a few times. There were a few "Ughs! and Whoofs! thrown in for good measure. Then dead silence for about 5 Veeeeeerrrryyyyy long seconds. "Guys! OH GUYS!@!!!" the girls panicked voice wafted over from around the other side of the crag. "Can you come over here QUICK?!!!!" Ah fuck I thought...rescue...now we won't have time to climb Maple Pro!! Nonetheless we instantly started rigging the rap station and shifted into military mode with everyone preassigned a job once we came upon the carnage we felt we were sure to find. I assigned myself body recovery although everyone else seemed really keen to do it themselves. Infantry life does wierd things to people. We rapped off in quicktime and soon found ourselves padding along the trail to the other side of the crag. I was expecting to see a mangled body laying at the bottom of the face, but instead found Homie sitting in the bush at the base of the route in the Indian position holding his side. He seemed alright! What the hell I'm thinking as I glanced up to the top of the cliff. So just as Toastie and Cavey come hustling around the corner the dude begins to explain that he was going to DOWNCLIMB loose chossy 5th class to set a toprope instead of leading the climb itself. I sort of scrunched up my forehead at that point as I began to have visions of the real meaning of the word "GENE POOL". Guy explains that he was in the middle of downclimbing when the handhold he was on broke off. He tried to grab another, but it too came off in his hand in a sort of ridiculous comic book sort of way. He said something about gravity and acceleration, but then the girl broke in saying he bounced off the lower angle section of the cliff twice and then came to a *sudden* halt right at her feet. All without rolling down the disturbingly steep slope below. I asked if he was OK and he said he was fine. Not a scratch on him, just a little freaked was all. The fall he took was at LEAST an 80 footer. Before anyone else could get another word out Captain Cavey said the best one liner I've ever heard. CAVEY: "Dude, you should play the lottery RIGHT NOW" And that was that. Toastie NEVER climbed again, and we eventually moved on to bigger and better things never returning to Fossil again. Years later I noted in the revised Fossil guidebook that there was a climb directly to the right of WC Crack called Air Aaron. Took me a second, but then I realized that Aaron was the guys name, and he had bolted a new line there in rememberence of his lottery day at Fossil Rock. Some people have all the luck. Mike Adamson [This message has been edited by mikeadam (edited 05-28-2001).]

The best problems in that Olympia gym were the ones you made up from the scratches left in the concrete wall. Sorry it got torn down!!

There is currently construction on the road heading out to the Pearly Whites (The boulders on Mountain Home Road) so bring a mountain bike or be prepared to park and hike a ways. Mike Adamson

I haven't hiked it recently, but I drive by it every 2 days on my way back and forth to the icicle. There is still quite a bit of snow on the south side of the peak, but melting out a little more every day. It would be a very easy morning hike and probably better with the low snow cover providing good step kicking. Mike North Bend

As far as I'm aware several of the "sprayers" ARE the more active climbers on the board. Probably between the lot of them they could supply all the beta you need on any given area. Several of the sprayers are guides or climb fulltime for no other reason other than to climb. Notwithstanding the large group of climbers who never post on this board and couldn't care less. About half a dozen of the *best* climbers in the state have looked at me stupidly when I mention this site. This topic has been debated for quite some time now and had a traceable genesis. If you look back to some of the original and most humorous topics on this site most would have fallen into the spray category. One of the original and best spray topics was started by one of the webmasters entitled "Climb K2 at work". Spray has been one of the best things about this site and until certain self righteous individuals started loudly whining about it we all had a pretty good laugh and no ones feelings were getting hurt. Then came the 2nd wave of anonymous detractors such as Baltimore Hemmorhoid, ZDFG, and finally some people who posted here quite frequently-loudly-and most self righteously I might add. There are reasons why some of the older, more well known Cascade climbers don't post here, but before you jump to conclusions maybe you should email them and ask them personally. Maybe they just have better things to do. Maybe we all should have better things to do. Really though why do you care? Why don't you just call them and see if they would like to go climbing with you and then you can really get to know them as they are not as a posting on a website. At any rate most of the people I have talked to get the most juice out a good rant, a flame, or a spray session. Truth is that most people want to spray but are afraid of being ridiculed here online. I never campaigned for the removal of spray to some dingy back office cyberspace. Rather it was forced down mine, your's and the webmasters throat by a small but vocal group of posters who thought their agenda was in some way superior to the sprayers rolling online conversational style. So after some friendships bit the dust over this topic the sprayers sort of stepped aside. Now more sprayers have stepped up to take their place. I sense an even further rift as the powers that be begin to take sides. Someone speaks their mind in appreciation of spray and all the sprayers get ripped? So hey uh Cyberspace is a bitch huh boyz? Most people really don't need or get much help from some persons interpretation of a route done 2 days, 2 years, 2 hours ago. There are a million guidebooks, other climbers to gain insight from, ability to explore is still there. Mission statement? C'mon... Maybe spray has taken a turn for the wierd in a few posts, but really the only true way to rid this site of spray is simply to shut it down. Now what would I do on my rest days if that happened? Mike

Dru, I had intended to climb this peak as part of a traverse from Mt Daniel. If you are interested in hooking up you can email me. I am looking at mid summer timeframe and midweek. Mike

I am selling cascadeclimbers.net If you are interested in buying it send an email to mikeadamson@alpinelite.com

Lhotse, Hey there! I haven't been back there recently, but Jim Graham told me today that you can still ski all the way to alpental parking lot so there is plenty of snow on the ground. Bring skis for the approach and expect winter/spring travel conditions. You can also call ProSki in North Bend to talk to Martin Volken who skied Alaska mountain a few days ago. I'm sure he had a good view of the peak itself and can give you details about the route conditions firsthand. Tell Nick hello, and that I'm honing my 5.14c deathgrip!!

QUOTE: -------- Maybe in another 10 years it will be as bad as the Alps! -------- Yeah, I hope so. That's the most entertaining circus on the planet. I mean we gave them Disneyland...we can have a Redneck Chamonix in return. Once we get a telepherique up to Colchuck Col you'll be able to send Triple Couloirs in a few hours and then paraglide over to Stuart for a romp up the North Ridge and then back down to Cham...er Leavenix for a wheat beer with your mates who skied Cannon Couloir via the Cannon tramway. Ahhhh paradise.....

Geez, shouldn't the thought police be jumping all over this thread and promoting a more genuine generic rated G browsing experience? After all, what I REALLY need some beta on the approach to Careno Crag. Not sure if I'll do it if I don't get some online beta here. Come on out of the closet in protest. I know you want to MVS, Alex et al.... Anyone seen my buddy Who Cares around lately? He never emailed, but I'm still waiting. SOD OFF WANKERS, Mike

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