nolanr

Yeah, no need to argue. It's funny, I actually think something is wrong when I see too many white boys on the court at one time during a b-ball game. The whole idea of college athletics has gotten pretty ridiculous, to call them "amateurs" while the schools, athletic conferences, and the NCAA are rolling in $$$ is kinda laughable. Nothing amateur about it, it's just cheap labor. I can see why kids accept $50 handshakes. Coming outta school w/ wads of cash and brand spankin' new cars you know those broke ass kids didn't buy for themselves, well that's a bit different.

Dude, I'm not really defending the off court behavior of basketball players, but are you naive enough to think athletes in other sports are any better? If you are I got some ocean front property in Arizona I'd like to sell ya.

Ooh, good one. Hey, most pro baseball players don't even go to college, they go straight to the minors out of high school. And how many of them cats they smuggle out of the Dominican Republic or Cuba or wherever when they're 17 years old speak English?

You shoulda seen Michigan State and Maryland going at it, looked like wrestling out there. The only time baseball players aren't pussies is when they get in brawls.

Baseball sucks!

probably my favorite book ever

I started "Close Range" towards the end of last year, I couldn't get thru it. Too gritty, not that interesting I thought.

I've been rereading them off and on for several months, I'm down to the last one. Definitely more of kids books, but entertaining enough for adults. Pretty quick reads.

Oh my God! I think I used to work w/ that one in the middle. Good thing we got rid of him/her. Eegads.

Come on, nobody else is a college basketball fan out there? Losers! You all probably thought it was some kind of underage porn thing from the title eh, sickos.

First there were 64, now there are 16. Who do you like to go all the way? I gotta stick w/ my boys Arizona (it's a damn cryin' shame they had to take out Gonzaga, that's my other favorite team ), but Kentucky is looking scary good.

What are we gonna do, threaten Saddam w/ more useless UN resolutions? That'll really do the trick. Maybe in another 10 years he'll be compliant w/ the resolutions from the early 90's. Or not.

My experience w/ it was similar to Central Oregon Cascades, chossy scree slog approach, but the rock is solid on the final summit pinnacle. Fun scrambling. I worked my back down roundabout, there's some fun "bouldering" more or less on some crazy looking little volcanic spires, more nubbins than you can shake a stick at, and none of them broke off on me.

Man, I've never caught good weather up there, but I'm definitely interested, keep me posted on a possible trip.

Well that answers that question.

I think that justs means they're horny, and they don't have hands so they can't jerk off like we can. The wonders of an opposable thumb.

Whatever happened to Son of Caveman and Petite Dru?

Yeah I meant river otter, sea otters are a little too mellow, look like they're stoned or something.

Otter. They look like they have more fun than anybody and don't have too much in the way of natural predators. But I hate fish, guess I'd have to get used to sushi.

You should have seen the smoke at Crater Lake in August. At times standing on the rim you couldn't see the lake, and from lakeside at the cove you could barely see out across the water. Made for some cool sunsets though. Thielsen looked pretty sweet too as this dark needle poking up above the haze.

Yeah I did that east approach connecting w/ the main route like Timmay was talking about. I'll admit, I stopped just short of the true summit, didn't really feel like doing any au chaval (whatever, French for straddling) unroped w/ no one around, figured I was w/in spitting distance and that was close enough. Just for fun I descended to PCT, followed it N to saddle on N side of 3FJ, then off trail thru upper meadows, back up to the moraine lake, and back out to trailhead I started from. Pretty sweet circumnavigation/climb, between 1/2 day and full day. The whole thing w/ volcanoes being choss, sure the approach is pretty sucky, lots of scree. But when you're actually CLIMBING I thought it was solid.

I might be up for that. I've been thinking this could be a good year to get into Royal Basin early in the year. Also interested in Mt. Clark in the Needles.

I think Ed Abbey coined that "slow elk" phrase quite a few years ago. He probably helped himself once or twice to some free range cattle he happened across in the desert southwest. Cattle ranching in much of the arid western U.S. always was and still is a bad idea. It takes way too much square mileage per cow to support them and they cause way too much environmental damage. I agree, get rid of the cows and bring back the bison. What's w/ that bullshit w/ paranoid Montana ranchers slaughtering Yellowstone bison the second they cross the state border during the winter because they allegedly might spread some kind of disease (brucilosis or something like that, not sure on the spelling) to cattle, even though there hasn't been a single documented case of this happening. They wiped out about a third of the herd one year several years back.

What's w/ this climbers hate hiking thing? Are you a bunch of sport monkeys that can't handle an approach hike of more than 10 minutes? (Yes, I'm trolling, trying to stir this thing up 1 more time). Anyway I like climbing and hiking, it's kinda hard to separate the 2 I think. Until they put Euro style trams and whatnot all over the Cascades, you're gonna have to do some walking to get to the alpine climbing. Once I'm above treeline, I enjoy the approach just fine.

I heard lots about how crappy the rock was on 3FJ before I did it last summer. I was pleased at how decent the rock was. I've encountered much worse. I think volcanoes get somewhat of a bum rap as being nothing but choss. I don't trust any holds til I test 'em, but I had lots of fun playing around on 3FJ, Thielsen, Broken Top, and the Crater Lake area last summer w/ some pretty solid rock and about the most nubbins I've ever seen anywhere.