jon

I wish I had more time to write this. I am not a flu expert. I am not a huge opponent to flu vaccines, I personally will not get flu or H1N1 vaccines, but there are some things that need to be understood. Flu vaccines, even "live" vaccines, only prime the immune system for primary exposure. It DOES NOT prime your immune system for primary infection or persistent infection. There is a difference between exposure and infection. You go get a flu shot great, get it every year great, you might get sick, you might not. If you don't and you are exposed it very likely could be because of the protection afforded to you to primary exposure by the shot. Great. The problem is you are never "teaching" your immune system to fight off a primary or persistent infection. The viral antigens involved can be vastly different, as well as the immunological compartment involved in fighting that infection. In the event you do get a primary infection, since your immune system has not been primed for it, it doesn't know what to do and you get really sick until it figures it out. At this point you have developed a lasting immunity to fend off future infections. The same goes for antibiotics. Yes antibiotics are for bacterial infections, but it's the same concept. I do believe the concept of herd immunity does exist, it developed over thousands and thousands of years. What changed is we started sending kids to school, centralized pathogen breeding grounds. Now it's not the hunter gathers risking primary exposure, it's the progeny.

Everyone this is really shaping up to be a great event. Lots of beverage. Lots of prizes. Please put this on your calendar and come! Tell all your climbing buddies!

http://cascadeclimbers.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/415668/Re_SausageFest_Reloaded_Slides#Post415668 http://cascadeclimbers.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/542571/Re_3rd_Annual_SausageFest_Slid#Post542571

Folks! Please put this on your calendar and show up! We've got a lot of gear we will be raffling off. As always there will be a drink "special". If you don't know what that means you better ask somebody.

"He finally got into a "stable" relationship! " ROFL!!!!!

"The "green" solution would be to buy one of the millions of houses already sitting empty. Not build a new one." Gotta love the comments on the Times. People think spray here is vicious.

OH HAI IM SIX GUNZ MCGRAW N KICKED UR ASS KTHXBAI!

You need to (on a mac) ctrl click on the image to 'Copy Image Address' http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3218/3091420640_779607035c_b.jpg

Historically it has been pretty favorable to those who come, and I can't see it being any different this year. There will be a drink special. Shultzys arguably has one of the best sets of rotating taps in Seattle. It's not uncommon for them to have one of two kegs on the westcoast of something from Europe.

Folks, More details to come in the next few days to week. SausageFest is scheduled for Sunday Nov. 15 at Shultzy's restaurant in Seattle. For those of you don't know about this, or forgot what happened when you were there, this is our big slide show/party we try to put on every year. I know we haven't done this for a few years so we have a little something special planned for this one. PUT this on your calendar, you WILL NOT miss this event.

Thanks to those individuals who took the time to privately write us with your feedback.

http://www.komonews.com/news/local/63945287.html Condolences to TJ's family and friends.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/09/science/09fossil.html?ref=science

Nine years ago today Timmy and I started cascadeclimbers.com. Porter came on several years ago and he and I continue to run it to this day. To a degree I'm not surprised that it has become as big as it has considering we filled a void, we really were at the forefront of online communities and social networking. 9 years is really light years in Internet years and it's incredible we are still around. I'm still amazed at the raw quality of some of the content that comes out in the form of Trip Reports. These years haven't been without controversies and missteps, but I'm proud of the hardwork the admins and moderators have done to keep this website thriving. I don't think it's very transparent at times just how much work goes into keeping it running but I hope people respect that by continuing to post great Trip Reports and other positive content. Looking Back I want to thank the moderators for all the work they have done since this site's inception. They really have a thankless job but it's essential to make sure our content stays the course with the vision we have for this website. I'd like to thank the individuals who have donated money, and more importantly time, to work on projects and events over the years. Most of all I'd like to thank those who have contributed positive content to this website, because we would have nothing without these people. Looking Forward We are working on some exciting projects, most significantly the wiki. I wish we could push this project along quicker but we are doing the best we can considering the resources at our disposal. We really want to implement the best solution that will work for us for the next 10 years and beyond. I want to assure people we are still very committed to this website and are in it for the longrun. There are a few things I ask of you as a user of this website moving forward. Consider your contributions to the website and what kind of impact you are having. Continue posting great Trip Reports. Respect the view of others no matter what the subject is. Some of you may view this as a place to screw off while at work, but I guarantee to you there are people here who this is much more and have a vested interest in seeing it succeed. We respect the views of our posters and you need to respect them as well. The quality of this website is largely determined by the quality of what is posted, and if you aren't helping making this a better place then you are disrespecting those of us who are. If you just browse cc.com and don't post I encourage you to help contribute to the great content that we have. If you have climbing partners that don't post here I challenge you to encourage them to start posting. I know that people out there who are not happy with some of BS or quality of content on here, and I challenge you to help make this a better place instead of turning your back against it. We hope moving forward that we can continue working on making this a great website and a center piece of climbing in the Pacific Northwest. Thanks again for everyones contributions! Cheers, Jon, Porter, and Timmy

DID SOMEONE SAY VIA FERRETA?!?!?!

Colin, a guy I ski with is a machinist and could CNC parts out of aluminum and/or plastic if you wanted to make your own binding. He could make something like the Salewas, probably would just need to jack some parts from some old step-in crampons.

I just emailed with Cathi and they are home safe after spending a night on the rock.

This sounds up your alley..... http://cascadeclimbers.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/909643/Free_Training_from_Aspirant_Cl#Post909643

Forget the pullups, this is what all the CrossFit people are doing now! Frieh recommends 4 sets of 15 minutes, with the 4th set one in each hand! [video:youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4HFoYqCA6g

I hated scotch until I went to a Johnny Walker deal in Fremont a few years ago. They had this big presentation that was almost out of Zoolander (your going to kill the prime minister of Malaysia!) and started us off on Red and ended with Blue. I love scotch now! Next time you're heading up to BC stop in the duty free and pick up a bottle of The Macallan. They have a good 12 year called Elegancia for around $44 that is f'ing amazing, and have a lot of bottles that are exclusive to the duty free. The reason I like this scotch is because it is so smooth, with some spicy and citrus tones and a really nice finish.