nolanr

Old School was frickin hilarious, I just about fell outta my seat a couple times.

Is it possible there are some "climbs" that have very little to no technical difficulty (ie. standard slogs on volcanoes)? And I've definitely got myself sketched out scrambling on rotten rock while "hiking."

Spectacle L. is pretty sweet. I have determined there is no good way from the lake up to the Lemah massif, gonna be some bush wacking and swearing no matter which way you go.

Damn, I gotta start going to these shindigs! All the luminaries, and passed out half naked chicks. And since it's coming from Dwayner I know every word of it is true, not even the least bit exagerated....

Jesus did do some climbs, maybe even FA's, but they were probably just walk-ups. Always taking his disciples up to high places to pray or whatever.

False advertising, that ain't right!

I made it as far as the Dickerman trailhead on Saturday, road was clear, and while this is speculation I'm gonna guess you wouldn't encounter much snow as far as the Monte Cristo townsite. As you get up into Glacier Basin 'shoes or skis might be helpful, depending on how many people have been up there recently. There was a well packed trail going up Dickerman but when I veered off it to take a "short cut" up a gully I was plowing thru some surprisingly powdery snow.

I thought the original post was funny, didn't take it as anything other than a joke. I'll admit it, I got a free 2 week membership at Vertical World and have gone half a dozen times or so. And it was fun. But I would definitely rather be climbing alpine. It being winter and midweek and all, the gym is much more convenient, and it is good training. I don't get too into the trad vs. sport ongoing grudge match, but tend more towards trad myself. I would say I feel sorry for anyone who's only climbing experience is in a gym, they are missing out on so much.

Take that Snafflehounds!

No way, Great White is waaaaay better than White Snake. Or I should say was. All those guys shoulda stayed retired after the late 80's or early 90's.

Only $46, I guess I didn't spend enough this year.

Who says there's no good b-ball in Seattle? The Husky women kick ass, the Husky men are frustratingly inconsistent, but they have some talent. They put on a good show whuppin' up on the Ducks yesterday. Nate Robinson is a freakin' stud for a guy who probably isn't evn 5'8", he does things on the court that he just should not be able to do.

I think it would be a huge surpise if Payton resigns w/ the Bucks at the end of the season. So they basically traded Allen for Mason. Desmond that is. Did somebody actually mention Anthony Mason? That guy hasn't done shit in years, other than wreck what Milwaukee had going 2 years ago when they made it to the Eastern Conference finals. The Bucks aren't going much further than the Sonics, they just happen to be in the East where you only have to go .500 to make the playoffs. If you were Jason Kidd would you seriously want to come play in Seattle, where they really don't have any kind of a nucleus of a title contender going? He wants a ring, and Seattle ain't the place to get one.

Hey, bluegrass isn't just for hippies!

They picked up Elden Campbell, who used to be a pretty good big man but might be just about washed up now. They can add him to their collection of totally worthless ass big guys. They not only got rid of Payton, they also traded Kenny Anderson. So instead of 2 starter caliber point guards they have......Kevin Ollie? CBA refuge who's a serviceable backup, not a starter. Ray Allen is a definite star, but somebody's gotta run the show and they've got nothing now. I remember Payton back in his college days, too, we used to go to the Far West Classic at the Blazers old homecourt every year.

Trask, There were a bunch of those in a op piece in the Local News section of yesterday's Seattle Times, pretty funny stuff. Somebody snagged the paper and I'm too much of a techno dunce to post a link. Anyway, it's there. The whole article is a pretty good French bashing session, takes a few swipes at the Germans, too.

But French kissing is still okay.

Sorry, haven't logged on for a couple days. There were a couple fixed pieces somebody had left before. We used a couple pitons, a couple ice screws, some cams. Lotsa natural pro. Had 1 picket but we didn't use it. Ice was thicker than we expected for the most part, just the first little bit was thin. Well compacted snow over much of the route. I managed it w/ 2 mountain axes, didn't have tools, no real troubles. Any new snow that fell since then is gonna be real prone to sloughing off. Have fun if you're going for it this weekend!

We did it yesterday, found the route in good condition. Mostly foggy/cloudy so visibility was limited. Little bit of snow falling. Impressive avalanche tracks in the basin below the east face.

I don't know about more rain in WA than OR. Ever been there? I'm pretty sure it rains more in the Willamette Valley than the Puget Sound basin. It rains there A LOT, and down there it rains hard, it doesn't mess around w/ that light misty stuff like we get up here often.

Cutting down all the trees is very sound forest fire management policy. No trees=no forest fires. Duh. Then w/ no habitat there will be no wildlife and we can forget about that whole pesky ESA thingy.

Minority Report was WAAAAAAY better than Vertical Limit. One was sci-fi so of course it can be a little far fetched. The other was a complete blasphemy of everything we as climbers hold sacred....or the most unintentionally hilarious movie I've ever seen, depending on how you wanna take it.

The kid probably is going to be amazing a few years down the road, he'll have a learning curve similar to Kobe probably. Kevin Garnett seemed to do okay coming out of high school. Jermaine O'Neal's progress was slowed down due to being buried on the Blazers bench for years, but he's immerged as probably the best big man in the East since he went to the Pacers. The high schoolers that were drafted in '01 have been a bust so far, but it's a little early to totally give up on them. I don't think high schoolers should be eligible for the draft, but the NBA doesn't consult me about it and teams are going to keep picking the best ones (the rest are screwed if they don't get picked). What about all the damn Europeans that are getting drafted now, most of them aren't going to turn out as good as Nowitski, Gasol, or Stojockavich (spelling?). A lot of them turn out to be busts, too. Whatever happened to drafting American college players?

Are you kidding? A lot of athletes can escape from college w/out an education. Anyway I think he can speak as eloquently as most current NBA players. Nobody sounds dumber than Shaq.

Even though I can't stand Marilyn Manson, I would say the remake of "Tainted Love" was fairly good and it's definitely totally different than the original. Okay, gonna get way obscure on y'all here. The Cox Family, a bluegrass/old timey country outfit from Louisiana did a beautiful version of "Blue Bayou," which Linda Ronstadt did a nice version of in the 70's, and I believe it was originally done by Roy Orbison who knows when. All 3 versions are distinctive. Seriously whether or not you like a remake has everything to do w/ your personal taste and whether you like the style of the original or the cover better. When I was a head-bangin' teenager I liked Judas Priest's cover of Johnny B. Good, now that I'm older I think the world could've done w/out that just fine. And the problem w/ remakes is there's so many of them half the time you don't even know you're listening to a cover because you're not familiar w/ the original.