AlpineK

Climbing is about style. Most peaks you can walk to the top of. Now you can fly to the summit of E in a helicoptor (though I bet the pilot didn't shut off the engine ) We all choose the rules by which we play the game. Climbing Everest is a challenge no doubt. Even with O2 and ropes. I wouldn't put it in the same catagory as technical climbing, and given enough time and money I think a lot of people could do it (a lot of people already do it). I'm turned off by the hype, but it is a better thing to be doing than most 20 year olds usually do.

Only in Canada. Most other folks would call that the 5 Mile High Club... The Metric system makes you dumb.

Yes. They have an extremely broad scope of practice too, and are the experts on neuromuscular skeletal disorders and are concidered portal of entry physicians. Hmmm I'd say chiropractors are doctors...for suckers. Sorry Mike.

You've got an apple and orange kind of thing going here. Everest is harder than a marathon and harder than an Iron Man Triathalon, it might be harder than that race they have across Death Valley, but it isn't as hard as crossing antartica by human power. I don't think you can compare it to technical climbs other than to say that it is more glamorous than any of the climbs you listed.

That's never going to happen Dru. As the world stands right now it's in no country's interest to drive the US into economic problems because it would fuck up a lot more than just the US. What I was driving at was some act of terrorism like a dirty bomb set off in a major city, or something like Boeing, Microsoft, and a few other big employers leaving Seattle all at once.

I can see housing prices stagnate, but there would have to be an economic disaster, or some other kind of disaster before prices would really drop. The way they keep increasing density around Seattle I don't see how prices would even stagnate that much here.

Yeah everything else I saw from the plane looked boring. There is the Vampire(?) range north of the cirque. Unfortunalely helicopters cost too much to just joyride wherever.

Hmmm, hang out with tree guys or Dave Shuldt...Hmmm

Hey Tex have a good time down south. Come back when you can. Kurt

That is quite an approach to the climbing still. One point that Dru hasn't brought up is that coming from the Yukon you'd have to do a month of brushwacking to get to the cirque. Not that it can't be done, but only a handfull of people have walked to the cirque.

FWIW Not that I think it would work, but to the best of my understanding Marx's idea was that communism would happen in the most advanced countries of the world. Eventually the US, Japan, and western europe would become communist. In reallity revolutionaries have used the ideas of communism in more backward countries. I believe Lenin's idea was that Russia could leapfrog all that development and go straight to communist government. In any case I don't think the philosophy would work because in reality human nature acts more towards self interest as opposed to group interest. Of course true capitalism isn't practiced anywhere on the planet.

Ben was there climbing cracks and slabs (with drilled out hand holds ).

Fuckin a. I scrolled down a bit and I got this: I haven't heard that song in years, but I love it.

I've never spelled the long version before.

Sobo, are you suggesting that all people from Naches are meth (or should I say methaphedrine) addicts.

I suppose it would be a mistake if you were only going to climb at Smith, but I still like them for alpine climbing. If your going to get passive cams get tricams... those things rule.

It's only aid if you use spurs to climb the tree.

Yeah if you want to be a sucker and spend 2 hrs a day commuting. You'll get more for your money buying out in the suburbs no doubt, but you're going to pay at the pump and waste your life commuting. Time is money after all; instead of spending your life in a car you could be relaxing at home listening to the traffic reports and laughing. I'll mostly agree with your views on the home equity loan with the exception of doing major capital improvements to your property. I'd never use one of those loans to pay off stuff not related to your house.

I think I'll be in 11worth Sunday evening. Sunday I'm climbing at Index or 11worth.

I bought one of those time machines on ebay too. Those things are rad.

Yes

Sunday.

As of right now the road to Toulome is closed and I read that there was 30' of snow at Tioga pass. The weather has turned warm down there, but I bet there's still going to be a lot of snow at the end of June.

I'm thinking hard about heading down.

I'm sorry to say that didn't happen. I came pretty close to being busted for staying over the 7 day limit at C4. The weather turned pretty nice a couple days after the flood. I want to go back!!!