Ade

What a horrible thought... I almost feel sorry for Rush.

What sort of round would you load it with? I guess something that would go through a couple of layers of sheet rock but not like ten would be good. I guess that would concern me with a .45 too. Hitting the neighbours kids with a stray round, even if I was fighting off a hord of would be murderers might still get me kicked off the block watch committee.

The big problem with all these experiments in isolating them from external vibration. Next time you fall off at Index make sure you land gently.

Which reminds me of a certain high profile case... Maybe there's a novel defence to be employed here. "My client(s) did not mean to kill Mr X. How could they have possibly meant to kill him? They fired 41 times and only hit him 19. These are not the actions of an intentional killer." So maybe the lesson is to be either a very good shot or a very bad one.

Humm... When I first read this I thought it particularly applicable to the current global situation. In which case I thought the current conservative answer to be something like: "See a guy you know across the street reading a newspaper (you've seen him before and he's a bad ass, beats his wife and kids and you've kicked his ass before). You think this guy talked to the guy coming at you with the gun... maybe. More to the point he's a sitting target so you're certain to hit him and you know where he lives so if you don't get him the first time... Kill that guy instead. Don't talk about the guy with the gun and he'll just go away." Anyway... There was an article in SOF magazine ages ago written by a lawyer who defended people in self-defense shooting cases (No, I don't subscribe). It was very interesting. A couple of the things I picked up from it. Buying a large caliber gun is OK provided its not called "the Manstopper .45" as the prosecutor will have a field day making you (an SOF reader) out to be a total nut. If you can shoot then you're much more likely to stop your assailant with a single round which is much easier to explain that a corpse riddled with shells, which again makes you look like a nut. If you want it for self defense, and are not going to carry, isn't a shotgun a pretty good choice?

Poindexter. Great pick for the job in my opinion. Your secrets are safe with him. Who else is working on the project Gordon Liddy perhaps? I have to go now I'm off to the local jail to find a babysitter for my kids.

Just for the record that's why I got rid of your post, I actually thought it was quite funny and appreciated your effort, but it made no sense when the posts it refered to where gone. Deleteing threaded posts is quite tricky - seems the order you remove them is important or something. Sometimes you get a ..DELETED.. gravestone left behind, sometimes you don't.

I know it was hacked by muslim excrements because they inserted a new default page saying so. I inserted the latest front page and it has been hacked out more than 6 times already. Much of the photos and some of the web pages have also been deleted etc. Fucking pansy ass raghead cyber terrorists. Cut their balls off and give them all columbian neck ties. Yes, Yes, I can imagine it now... Bin Laden (evil bastard that he is) sitting in a cave somewhere on the Afgan-Pakistan border. Celebrating his recent successful evasion of a sizable part of the US armed forces and of course the (despicable) attack of 9-11. He eyes his remaining comrades in arms (the "pansy ass raghead" to quote Cavey's racist slur) and asks, "So brothers, where should we strike next to further weaken the Imperialist Americans?" There is silence... All eyes turn to Bin Laden, eager to do whatever he asks. His response, "We should hack Mike Adamson's web site". Give me a break!!! Of all the dumbass conspriacy theories I've ever heard this is one of the worst. Face it... it was one of your friends with a better, or worse (depending on how you look at it), sense of humour than you give them credit for. Either that or at least try and convince us Mike was abducted by aliens, its about as likely and marginally funnier. BTW: I quite liked some of the stories on it too. Why not put it back on line so whomever it was doesn't have the last laugh? Ade

Right. Why should Matt or any of the other moderators spend their time cleaning up a threads? If those individuals and their multiple avitars took their spray to the Spray area and thought a bit about what they posted before they posted it then.... We wouldn't need to have this discussion. Matt could have lunch. Half the TRs and other posts wouldn't end up reading like they were written by a Kindergarten class with a bad case of Tourettes. We could all spend the time we saved climbing, or at least thinking about it. BTW: Justifying spray as humour. A lot of the "funny" comments errm... aren't. Mainly because we're reading them for the fiftieth time. Have fun... Ade

Supergaiters are great, thanks for reminding me that I own a pair (gonna dig them out for the next winter Cascades trip). I used them a lot on big trips to the Yukon over plastics as they ensure 100% dry feet. I've never used them in the Cascades as they don't do well on rocks, it's pretty easy to destroy a pair on talus. They can also be quite hard to put on making the do the approach, put the gaiter on when you hit the snow tactic a little frustrating (cold hands, cold rubber = broken fingernails) Best suited to trips where you're on snow from the start to finish. I use superglue to hold the toes down, you can also use double sided carpet tape. I have a pair of non-insulated synthetic Technica boots that I use all the time in the Cascades (did Rainier in them). I would also say they tend to leak a bit more than I would expect a leather boot to. I'd do the same again but dig out the supergaiters.

I downloaded it OK, would attach it here but it's a lot bigger than the suggested limit (1.1Mb).

Bog Snorkelling

Good effort in going up to check it out! Three Ring Circus comes in pretty rarely so it's no surprise. Marble might be your best bet although it gets crowded with TR's (see Don's post elsewhere) it is high and sheltered. If things are really marginal then you can always take your skis and bail to Whistler, and then head home. I've done that before.

You're presupposing that most serious climbers are dirtbags with no money. I suspect this is another myth put about by the climbing media in their mission to promote the "climbing lifestyle". You've only got to look at how the cost of gear has risen to see that there must be some pretty well off climbers out their to support the market.

John Harlin's email address for AAJ submissions is aaj@americanalpineclub.org but as has already been pointed out the deadline has passed.

I think they should be given some credit for the Tackle and Fowler articles and Changabang profile. And for launching a magazine in a pretty crappy economic climate. Sure, I'm not wild about desert climbing either but it's more in keeping with the magazine's niche than say a feature on bouldering at Bishop (this is not a value judgement on either of these activities, simply a statement about how they fit with what I perceive to be Alpinist's readership).

Dru - In Scotland if it's got frozen water on it then it's "in". Doesn't even have to be snow, I'm told hoar-frost is acceptable, but frozen turf is the key (dig out those old warthogs - excellent in turf). The lines on the sub peak looked interesting, interesting enough to go back in for. Does anyone know anything about them? There's a big slot/corner up the center that's pretty obvious.

Subscribe!

I didn't go an inspect any of the ice up close but there was still a lot of running water to be heard yesterday. I suspect they're a mite wet, but there is ice there if you want to "have at it".

Humm... I had my eye on one of the lines right up the front of the face, the Improbable Traverse for instance. But it doesn't seem to be holding any snow at all. Just this sad solitary drip of ice stuck in the middle of nowhere way out on the face. It's also got 5.7 friction moves on it, which might not go in winter - not for me anyway. I've done the route in summer but a long time ago so I can't remember what it was like. Oh well food for thought anyway.

I'm sorry I seem to have offended you, there's really no need to get abusive (this isn't Spray after all). Couple of points to note... I don't care how much or little time you take off to celebrate Christmas (I'm an Athiest), it just strikes me as odd that a country founded by groups of deeply religious people doesn't make a huge deal of Christmas. I never called anyone spritiually decrepit. I don't work at MSFT. My company employs your fellow Americans (well we try, the economy is tough right now etc etc). If I worked at MSFT then I'd get the whole week off, they close down between Christmas and New year I believe. The Queen and her offspring are of course essentially Germans. They changed their name to "Winsor" during the WW1 (to make fighting for King and Country a more convincing sell) Just for the record I took the 24th and 25th off but worked the 26th. Seasons Greetings and all that.

That your sounding off about "Faggots" on a piece of technology invented by one. Maybe you should just be grateful. Or are you truely as dumb as you are narrow minded?

Task suffer from homophobia, please contact your psychiatrist for new rx. Trask's just overcompensating, pretty typical repressive behavior if you ask me. The OTT Republican viewpoint, the gun ownership issues, the odd reference to "ragheads", it's all a front. It's OK Trask, we're your friends, we understand, you can just come out and tell us you're gay. BTW: You should find out who Alan Turing was.

Not very pleasant I would imagine. On the 28th a lot of the snow wasn't consolidated and much of the ice wouldn't bear much weight (let alone my 200lbs). I've done the improbable traverse route in summer and from what I remember (backed up by the guidebook description) it involves some 5.7 friction. The route above the lower gullies looked to be completely devoid of any snow/ice to me. The routes on the left side of the face would probably go, the big rightward slanting gully for instance.

"Servants were required to work on Christmas. They were responsible for making the holiday run smoothly for wealthy landowners. They were allowed to take leave on December 26th and visit their families. The employers gave each servant a box containing gifts and bonuses. In addition, around the 800s' churches opened their alms boxes (boxes where people place monetary donations) and distributed the contents to poor." From WebHolidays.com This tradition hasn't entirely died. I can remember my parents giving the milkman, dustman etc christmas boxes when I was a kid. And of course it's another day off work. It's only the US that takes a mear 24 hours off to celebrate the birth of Christ.