nolanr

I actually liked Hayduke Lives! more than Monkeywrench Gang. I got the impression much of Abbey's fiction contains elements of truth, both events that have taken place and characters that bear resemblance to real people. I prefer Abbey's collections of essays, Desert Solitaire was pretty good, Down the River and Beyond the Wall (might not have the titles quite right) were also good. I enjoy his writing and it makes me yearn to see some of the desert southwest/canyon country, but I think I'll always love mountains more.

I was at Smith Easter weekend one year and the place was overrun w/ Canucks. Nothing but "eh" this and "eh" that. Beautiful conditions, temps. around 35-40, occassional snow flurries. A bunch of them had these little portable (propane?) space heater thingys, didn't look like it would have done much good, maybe it's a Canadian thing. Dru? Anyway, this weekend went up to Gothic Basin. Wanted to play around on Sheep Gap Peak, but apparently the best way to get there is not going all the way up into Gothic Basin--kinda ugly looking down climb in steep gullies or steep heather slopes w/ light layer of snow. As a consolation prize I headed up to Gothic Peak. The middle of the 3 summit towers looked the coolest, so I headed for it. Dinked around a while, but combo of wet rock, a little bit of ice, and thin layer of snow readily sloughing off of slabby stuff convinced me to call it a day. It was cool just being up there, anyway. Glacier Basin peaks looked awesome w/ a fresh coat of white stuff.

Last year I saw a slideshow by Ed Viesturs. During the Q&A I asked him if he thought things had changed much, it terms of guiding, on Everest since the disaster of '96. He said some individuals have changed their point of view on it, but it general it's exactly like it was before '96. He thought it's only a matter of time and the wrong circumstances, and there will be another similar disaster.

One year in mid-November I was descending from Aasgard Pass w/ a buddy. The air temp was around 10 degrees, wind of about 30 mph blowing straight up the pass from Colchuck Lake. That was pretty cold in my book (I know, not Alaska or Montana cold). First and only time I had ice starting to accumulate on my eyebrows and eyelashes. As much of a grunt as Aasgard Pass approach is, I prefer it over Snow Lakes entry, it's shorter and more interesting scenery.

Second time climbing and the dude's doing .10d? Shadup already, that's not fair.

Lizardbrain, No, I don't play any stringed instruments. I'd like to, but I don't think I'm willing to put the time and effort into learning right now. Maybe when I'm old and decrepit I can take up a new hobby.

Banjos and fiddles and mandolins, oh my. Dobros, too. Ya gotta love hillbilly, old timey, bluegrassy kinda music. Well at least I do.

Oh yeah, reread the Lord of the Rings trilogy, and the Hobbit, and the Silmarillion earlier this year. Good stuff. When is the movie coming out, I'm getting tired of waiting for it?

David Roberts has to be my favorite in the mountaineering/adventure genre. He's also branched out into some kind of cultural anthropologist or something. Anyway, I've liked everything I've read of his. I'm kind of off and on w/ the climbing literature, you can definitely OD on it. Just started "Conquistadors of the Useless" by Terray, good so far. Non climbing lit., I read some of this, some of that. I Like Edward Abbey, Ivan Doig. But in my mind the absolute best author I've ever read (and nobody else has mentioned him yet, bonus points for me) is David James Duncan. Local NWerner. "The Brother's K" and "The River Why" are both just incredible. I'm not going to try to explain them, just read them. You won't regret it.

You wouldn't believe how many gumbies run around up there on the permanent snow field during the summer w/ tennis shoes and no ice axe. I can't remember hearing of an accident or death up there, but probably someday it'll happen. Too bad you had crap for weather, it's a cool place. No ice on the ladder when I went.

I think you have to wear a swamie belt to really cinch your nuts up. Ugh, brings back unpleasant memories, never again.

Are you crying? There's no crying in baseball!

Maude has a pretty good view of the majority of the eastern side of the range. Saw from Baker to Adams (barely on the latter) on a fairly clear Oct. day last year.

I know it's "Moonshadow," I have the CD, I was messing with 'ya.

Sexual Chocolate, It's a mixed bag around here. There's some serious and intelligent dialogue, there's lots of sarcasm and sophomoric potty mouth humor, there's even some open hostilities from time to time. That's unfortunate if you've been offended by the detour onto moondancing on this thread, but if you'd taken a look around you might have expected as much here. Also, at the same time you're defending the legitimacy of what you do and insulting certain posters as being too small minded to understand it, you haven't really made any attempt to explain it beyond vagueries. I think people are probably going to keep spoofing it if they have no idea what it is, and you seem to be the only one who knows what it is. Just my $.02, got to this discussion a little late, but I laughed out loud several times while reading the thread and I am kinda curious what moondancing is.

Where did that "moondancing" thing come from originally? I skimmed thru the whole thread and couldn't find it until Dru mentioned it. Was it from another thread? And if nobody knows what it is or understands it (except for a very select few, apparently), how can you make a living doing it? Oh, I got it, Cat Stevens was being followed by a Moondancer back in the '70's.

Retro, Can you post a real time view out your living room window for all of us stuck in the city?

Welcome to da' board Emily. Don't let Dru, Cavey and the others scare you, they only spray because they care.

Bronco, No kidding man, it woke me up somewhere after midnight last night, sounded like the hail was trying to punch holes in the roof. Rockin' thunder and lightning storm after that, too.

A teeny bit of snow on Sunday up by the Coleman Gl. on Baker. Saw several parties playing around down there, probably some ice climbing and some doing practice crevasse rescues. Watch out for the killer bees alongside the trail near the TH, they were stinging people left and right (not me, too quick). Can't believe they haven't froze to death already this year.

I dunno, if the piece won't come out easily for the second climber, at least you have a pretty good idea it would hold a fall. Sometimes you just have to work at the buggers a while to get them to come out. If they come out too easily I would be a little worried that they weren't placed solidly enough.

Retro, That's what I'd heard. Compliments of one of the painter dudes, right?

The power of a name...I hear rumour of a pitch at Frenchman's called Menstrating Whale Snatch. Geez, what does that tell us about the climb? That you need a harpoon and foul weather gear before you attempt it? I don't have a wife, so I won't be able to try that little experiment of whispering another woman's name in her ear. Sounds like a lot of fun though.

Damn, the freshies were all gone already. There will be more later, at least.

I know, I know, they're just 3rd/4th class scrambles, but due to the awesome scenery worth the while. Did Golden Horn on Sat. and Mt. Hardy on Sun. Kinda weird looking down at the Matchbox sized cars whizzing by below me from Hardy.