nolanr

The only good beer is a dead beer. Oh, wait, that's supposed to be bear. Oops sorry, that's a different thread.

There are (or were c. 1991-92) some shrooms growing in a lawn by some of the dorms at the Univ. of Puget Sound in Tacoma, the armpit of Seattle. Adds a whole new meaning to an institution of higher learning, doesn't it?

A new coworker at my office is the niece of John Roskelly. Really, I think it's legit. She doesn't know enough about climbing to just make that up out of the blue. So that makes me...nothing really. But I'll have to hit her up for some old rusty pitons or biners of his or some such cool climbing relics.

Somebody dragged a photo of Mr. Charleton Heston up on Maud last year, although I think he wandered off. He's probably chasing grizzly bars around with his trusty 6 shooter.

Don't know the name of it, but I love that place in Marblemount (I think), conveniently located just as you get back to the highway coming from Cascade Pass area. Or Ike's Drive Inn in Granite Falls. The burgers are pretty good, the shakes are the best, they have about a dozen flavors.

Stubborn turd. I had one of those, I was trying like hell to squeeze it out down at Paradise so I didn't have to take a crap on a glacier, nearly gave myself a hernia. But I managed to do the deed.

Geez, there were a lot of people out there this weekend. The Tacoma Mounties were doing an alpine scramble class, practicing upside down, backwards, inside out, every kind of self arrest that is possible and maybe some that aren't. Several other parties of varying sizes up there, too. As far as I could tell, I was the first one up the Castle, then I headed elsewhere when it got really crowded. I walked the ridgeline over to Unicorn, been meaning to do that for while. There was a party of 12 descending the route as I approached it, also a couple of smaller parties up there. They all looked at me like I was crazy for scrambling up in unroped. I'm not saying that to brag, I'm sure most of the people posting here have soloed harder stuff than that. Anyway, the weather was mostly nice and it was a fun day. The snow is consolidated fairly well, best kick stepping/plunge stepping/stand up glisading I've had this year. The next day I got blasted by wind and fairly heavy snowfall up at Summerland. Who they hell named that place, every time I've been up there the weather has been crap.

I just got a Subaru wagon, haven't even got to put it to good use yet. Previously I had an Eagle Summit, kind of a cross between a wagon and a minivan, AWD, decent clearance, plenty of storage space. It was a great car. They don't make 'em anymore, about the closest thing is a Sub. Forester, but those have less room. Years and years ago I drove a little Geo Metro, it always got me where I was trying to get to, can't beat the gas mileage, but not so good for storage space.

Right on Teogo. Boy, it just gives me warm fuzzies knowing all these Bwana the Great White Hunter wannabes are lurking around. Hey, guys, do something more useful, shoot a cow or a sheep if you absolutely have to blow the head off of something.

Bronco, Maybe do all of the above, but drag them behind a slow moving vehicle. Is there such a thing as trolling for bears?

I read that book, and damn it got me fired up. Same as his other one, Lasso the Wind or something like that.

The best thing about grizzly hunting is sometimes the grizzly gets the ugly 2 legged critter, kinda evens things out a little bit. I must say, I'm a little surprised at all this hippy bashin'. Ain't they your ganja smokin' brethren?

You guys are killing me here. Chossy, sketchy, manky...so those are all out? How the hell are you supposed to describe anything then? Poor quality rock just takes too damn long to say. And tweak, that's the most versatile word in the English language. When anything is not quite right, it's tweaked. That's my favorite medical self-diagnosis. And if you try to fix something, you're tweaking it. And before anyone jumps on me, I'm definitely not a pink lycra tight wearing, retro-bolting, sporto-climbing, gym monkey. I once heard an old timer (in his 60's)use the word "interesting" to describe a really nasty traverse, coming down from Ingraham Flats to Cathedral Rocks w/ iced up snow and 60-70 mph winds trying to pluck us off the side of the mountain. Is that word a little easier for you to stomach than chossy, manky, sketchy, etc.?

Hey, didn't you guys see Vertical Limit? You never now when you may need to ditch your partner and cut the rope. Any good climber would.

Sorry Specialized, that was last year, and it was just before and then during Memorial Day weekend. Couldn't tell you what the conditions are like right now. Not a skier anyway, but I could tell you when the snow is ideal for stand-up glisading.

Thanks for thinking of me Dru.

If the guy lost his leg, why did he name it after his ass? Damn Californians, they just don't make any sense. I was guessing maybe it got dubbed by some guy after a really bumpy wagon ride who had hemorhoids. Of course, maybe that's his name, and it should be Bumpass's Hell. But if your name is Bumpass, you should really look into legally changing it. How about Jackass Pass in the Wind River's. It's not that I have an ass fixation, it's just a funny name.

I've spent the night at Ingalls Pass or the Ingalls Lake basin (don't tell anybody, but the lake was still buried under snow, so I didn't bother any delicate vegetation) twice, and the wind was ripping both times. Seems like that might be the norm there, if you're planning to do an overnighter.

I'm not buying that 500-700 calories a day thing. Most anorexic and or bulimic chicks probably accidentally swallow that many calories in a day. When you're climbing, your body needs fuel, and lots of it. Sure, you got fat stores that will last you for weeks or months, but a starvation diet isn't going to be optimal for demanding physical activity. I hung out w/ a bunch of bodybuilders in college and those dudes probably slammed down 5000+ cals/day, and they don't burn nearly as much energy in 1 or 2 hours in the gym as a climber will slogging thru snow all day. I can always appreciate a good Snickers or Baby Ruth, but they're a bitch to chew when temps get near freezing.

It's not a mountain but 'ya gotta love California's Bumpass Hell thermal features. Don't even wanna know how they came up w/ that name.

Erik, I hear 'ya. In fact when people at work give me crap because "climbing is dangerous," I always tell them it's not half as dangerous as driving to the trailhead.

You see, Dru and everybody else, what happens when climbers smoke too much weed: you start hallucinating. Just kidding. I'm just envious I haven't seen any light shows like that.

Methinks that's a little scary trying to recruit climbing partners like that. Do you readily tie in w/ someone you know nothing about, don't know their skill level or climbing style, amount of risk they're willing to take or amount of effort they will put into avoiding any kind of risk. On 2 occassions I've climbed with someone I had just met, and while they were nice people I didn't enjoy the experience because the climbing compatability just wasn't there. I hope to avoid that situation in the future. You're free to climb w/ whoever you want and I've seen other posts trying to hook up w/ partners like that, but I just think it's kinda sketchy. Good luck.

Dru, Hanging around the campfire in the Icicle after a day of climbing, smoking a little herb, I can understand that. For some strange reason I guess I was making a distinction between being in the backcountry and being roadside. I can also understand a lot better partaking of some doobage AFTER climbing rather than before or during. But I don't mean to start all that up again. Anyway, I like the campfire analogy.

Okay, I guess I've beat this dead horse enough. Did anybody ever find that lost jacket?