Matt

Apocalypse Now The Year of Living Dangerously Tampopo (Juzo Itami)

Free your heels and your mind will follow. ski ergo sum

Dr. Jay and I climbed the North Ridge of Stuart this week. Fantastic climb! I want to go back and do it again! Highlights include: Steep snow and mixed 4th class going up the bypass off the Stuart glacier 5.fun climbing up the ridge! sleeping high in the mountains on a perfect ledge! (luckily I had a bug net for my head as the morning mosquitos were hungry!) Waking up and getting on the Gendarme! Killer exposure on a very friendly offwidth! small pack and the perfect amount of foot and gear bluebird skies the whole way! Stashed beer in the river near the car so we had cold ones waiting for us when we got back! Footwear beta: I wore trail runners for the approach and put crampons on for the glacier and had comfy rock shoes for the route. Definitely would not have felt comfortable without the crampons as both of us slipped and self arrested on the Stuart Glacier. I'm sure the effortlessly cool Mattp might get by without crampons, but not me. Some pretty steep slippery snow in someplaces, the ice axe and crampons were well used. Running shoes worked well most of the time, though coming down the Cascadian Couloir I wished I had boots with more support. Jay had these cool light weight garmond approach boots that were above the ankle and had sticky rubber so he could both kick steps in snow and climb all of the 5.fun pitches, though he did get out his real rock shoes for the Gendarme pitches. Gear beta: don't need anything bigger than a #3 Camalot. There is still a #4 fixed in the middle of the 5.9 offwidth. We had a 3.5 and used it all over the climb, but not on the "crux" pitch. We did use it on the belay above the offwidth. We had a heavy rack, but it was nice as it facilitated faster simul-climbing along the ridge. As for bivies, yes, it looked like there were a few places on the summit where one could hunker down. We slept on the bivy ledge on the 9th, which was very nice, maybe the best bivy ledge on the route. Sleeping on this ledge was one of the bonuses of the climb! I can't imagine doing this route on a weekend and competing for space with other parties. We were lucky enough to have the entire route to ourselves. Plenty of snow all over the climb. Don't carry too much water! Great time to climb it! It seems like the N. Ridge is the flavor of the month. I give it

Someone picked up your crazy creek chair. I think it was either Mattp or AlpineK.

I have Tuesday through Friday off next week (July 1 - 4) and would love to climb something big and cool. Rainier is cool. Stuart is cool. Dragontail is cool. You get the picture? I've had enough epics to call myself experienced (both rock and ice). I have gear, car, EMT-B skills in case you epic, blah blah. PM me and let's climb.

Not guns. Fire

Fence Sitter-- $500 and it comes with a 32MB card. I think costco has the cheapest price. Did I say it has a 3X optical and 3.6X digital zoom? Blah blah blah... it takes great pictures.

I bought a Canon Powershot S45. Gets 4.0 megapixels. Lots of features. Add a 256MB flash card and you're good for a month in the Himalaya! Weighs less than my 28-80mm lens for my Nikon! I give it Combine it w/ iPhoto on a mac and you've got an idiot proof system!

Caveman-- I've been busy playing with fire! There is more to exit 38 than lame sport routes! Let's get out and climb, eh?

AlpineK-- I vote for cutting down trees. Index needs to be cut back and cleaned out. Let me know if I can help. Also, I'd suggest connecting w/ Andy Fitz and the Access Fund before hand just to make sure some trimming won't jepordize our access. I'm a tree hugger, but we're not talking about a grove of old growth cedars. Cut it down!

Some classic Bush quotes: Discuss.

Scott-- Just solo up and down, no need to bring a rope, however, real rock shoes make it a little more secure. I remember there was a discussion a while back and I think Dan Smith or ChucK had done it car to car in under 2 hours. It becomes an afterwork trail run with a boulder problem in the middle. It is so nice to get up there without the weight of gear dragging you down. It's much easier to pass people when you are soloing-- go for it!

I have the next 3 days off, May 14 - May 16. PM me if you want to climb. Friday would be perfect for 11worth. I have car, gear, etc.

I usually pick some up at the Great Wall Mall in Kent (spitting distance from Ikea). Uwajimaiya also carries it. I've also been turned onto noodles called "Japagetti", a kind of Korean/Japanese spagetti. This is not a troll, these noodles really do exist.

Fairweather, I never met a climber I didn't like. Then again, we've never met. Aren't you a weekend warrior?

I have most of next week off and would like to climb something Tuesday and Wednesday (5/6-5/7), maybe leave Seattle area Monday night, return home Thursday morning. I have car, gear and motivation. Cragging in Leavenworth or a glacier slog is what I have in mind, but I'm open to anything. I used to "not suck" at climbing and now I'm trying to regain my former level of not sucking. Mid week climbing rocks. A few weeks ago I climbed Outerspace and my partner and I were the only ones on the SCW. Yes, we might miss the cc.com picnic, but wouldn't you rather climb? Send me a PM.

I am looking for a climbing partner for Monday and/or Tuesday. Either cragging in Leavenworth or Index, or something more ambitious like a mountain. I have car, rack, all the stuff. I'm open to anything. Send me a PM.

Tell 'em Ehmmic!

You can get these at www.foxnews.com:

Mattp-- I think I remember you telling me you soloed Liberty Ridge. Are you telling me the only time you climbed Liberty Ridge was the time you soloed it? You down climbed it too, right? So effortlessly cool...

Please tell me about your portaledge experiences: 1. What do you have? 2. What do you like? 3. Have you ever set up the fly? Is it worth it to buy one? 4. What problems have you had? 5. Sex on the ledge? 6. Can you think of any good design to paint on the bottom of the ledge? 7. How many of you have a ledge sitting in a corner of your garage that you never use? 8. What routes in Washington can you use a ledge on? Squamish? 9. Anything else? 10. Anyone want to go aid climbing in Yosemite in September?

Check your PMs

Be sure to 9 mm ropes or smaller when belaying two with a reverso. With larger diameter ropes it will be unwieldy.

I have 5 aliens-- blue, green, yellow, red, orange. All are awesome. My favorite alien placement is the green alien at the very end of godzilla-- it always makes me feel warm and happy inside. Is that sick?

8. Who explained that the Bush Administration waited until September to push publicly for war with Iraq because, “from a marketing point of view, you don’t introduce new products in August”? a) Attorney General John Ashcroft b) Chief of staff Andrew Card c) Press secretary Ari Fleisher d) National security advisor Condoleezza Rice