AlpineK

I don't have any problem with the popular vote Foulwanker. Like Squid said if we had a popular vote 4 years ago then we wouldn't have the chimp wrecking our economy and making enemies with our allies. On another note I find your tone confusing. You act like you want to be a voice of reason yet you can't seem to avoid making cracks about the liberal elite or being a jerk to someone who's trying to argue straight up with you (please note I'm not talking about me ).

Actually he looks like that little kid who plays the banjo at the start of Deliverance.

hmmm. I find it hard to believe you could vote on something that would retroactivly affect a law. I mean they would have to figure out whether the measure passed before they could assign electoral votes.

I don't agree with that at all Dave.

I'm curious what you mean by late changing of the rules Fairweather. People are voting on a proposal that won't actually take place until a future election (also it may have to pass some legal hurdles) I also don't see where WA is any different from a number of other states. I bet you could find quite a few states where there is a similar geographic split. Are you grumpy because your vote for president may not count?

I'm not sure what kind of crack you smoke Fairweather. By general consensus Kerry won the first two debates, and I believe, like Mr E, that he'll have won this one. I think the election will be real close. I'm not sure who will win, but I'm hoping that new voters will push things towards Kerry.

I like Patagonia...and Fairweather's distaste for what they do is just one more reason to buy their stuff.

Um Bandit have you ever skied above tree line on a big Cascade volcano in the winter. I think Wistler wont face much competition.

Don't expect firewood till friday, but I'll be there with firewood.

Ok I'll bite. You shouldn't solo if you feel uncomfortable. Take a partner and do a running belay. That's the fastest way I can think of. If you ever aspire to climb long alpine routes you will eventually have to solo 4th and easy 5th class rock so you can climb fast. You need to work up to that though...

Fuck Bush. If he was an ordinary guy I might view him as human, but he's the worst president the US has seen in my memory.

Yeah well they do have some good beer down there, but you can't pump your own gas. Fuck OR.

I thought the debate was pretty even. I heard nothing that might convince me that GW and Dick Cheney don't need to be gang raped by the Borax 20 mule team.

I discovered Sparks 2 rope ups ago. Malt liquer + energy drink. Bud is late catching on. Beer with LSD sounds like a dumb idea unless you only want to drink one beer and then spend the next 6 months thinking about whether you should have another beer (that is unless you're really into tweeking your brain)

I think you need to study the climb you plan on doing and know your climbing ability. After that you should bring the least amount of gear that will make you feel safe. I don't know weights, but here's what I would bring. A set of stoppers A set of Tricams...they're lighter than cams and I love em. Enough cams to make me feel happy. Enough slings/quickdraws to place gear on the hardest pitch.

Last time at Smith we were looking at a climb on Spiderman buttress when this guy says to us, "Were going to do that climb next..." He was standing at the base of the cliff next to another route, and while we were sitting there he started to lead that other route. I watched him for a couple seconds and then told my partner to go ahead and climb the route we wanted to. I was itching to go off on the guy who told me he'd reserved the route, but he never confronted us. The point is that there are lots of folks out there with crazy ideas like reserving climbs they're not even prepairing to do. If someone is waiting in front of me I respect that as long as they don't bumble around. I also wouldn't climb right up on someone, but I figure that's for my safety as well as being polite. In the example given in the first post I think you guys gave them plenty of space, and they had unrealistic expectations on what other climbers should do.

When I go to the Grasslands I always bring ear plugs. I expect folks to be making noise there, or at least I figure it's highly likely. Last time we were down there nobody was partying but the cows made a lot of noise every morning starting about 5 AM. I figure you should always ask someone to be quiet before you call the cops; however I might not have the guts to ask a group of Hells Angles to shut up. I wasn't there, so I don't know that much, but it sounds like there was a clash between folks who were a little too uptight and folks who had a few too many to know how noisy they were. Anyway I hope there isn't a big dispute down there next weekend.

Just for the record Scott. I banned you, and you were never banned for posting . You were banned for 20 obnoxious posts before you posted . It's never one single post that gets someone banned.

When we climbed the east butt of El Cap Jeff spent the night before taping 4 cans of red bull so we could clip them to our rack. It worked too.

I don't know how steep it is... but they can winch some pretty hairy stuff if they want to. Once they get skier compaction, and grooming, then it is not likely to be avalanche prone anymore. Yeah once you've got a ski pack, winch cats and dynamite those pesky avalanches go away.

I believe he is in Yosemity, but I'll send you his #

If you're interested in what I've been doing recently Lambone look at the BC section. I haven't climbed der toof since '81 if memory serves me right.

I know the truth is embarassing Don. Speaking of which I hear one of the two things you climb now-a-days is der Toof. How many times have you climbed it.

No it's $8.25/hr to stand on the ski slope with a video camera and offer to take videos of people skiing. I'm sure the computer job pays better, but being as it's CO I bet it doesn't pay much better.