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Rodchester- Your way off base on that one. Look at the friendly outdoor coop to the north. "Nominations are now being accepted for the 2004 election to MEC's Board of Directors. To be eligible to stand for election, you must be 19 years or older, a resident of Canada, and an MEC member for a minimum of three years. You must also have voted in one of the two most recent elections (either 2002 or 2003), and made a purchase or rental from the Co-op within the past two years. Board members are expected to contribute time, experience and effort for the betterment of the Co-op. The amount of time and level of skill required of directors is high. The candidate should expect to contribute 40 or more hours per month of their time for Board responsibilities. Travel expenses are provided by MEC. All nominations must include a statement signed by the nominee accepting the nomination and stating that he or she is willing to abide by the Rules of the Co-op and any election policies. In addition, at least five MEC members must sign the statement. Please be sure that your nomination includes your Member Number, address, and telephone number, as well as those of your nominators. As a nominee, you'll be contacted to confirm your nomination and to receive more information on the election process. " So that's five signatures. Versus 21,000. And MEC's 1/4 the size.

Wopper- That's the deal here - they made a business decision without consulting the owners (the members!) that many members do not approve of - and then have pursued a course of gradually reducing the power of the membership. Jack Welch was thought of as a great CEO because he did an excellent job pleasing the owners (i.e stockholders).

no i don't but i have good friends who do (both for large and small outfits). seriously, i don't have the exact numbers but people should compare rei management wages to that of comparable retailers. as much as we may wish so, they don't operate in a vacuum. That was part of the point of the Seattle weekly article - that the information as to how much management makes is unavailable. The BOD, at $15k/year is making a quite competitive salary with other BOD's of similar companies.

I have a pair of Vasque k2 clones. I've never had a blister(except for the time I wore cotton dress socks!) - and since I added footbeds, I've never had any pain in my feet. Maybe it's me - but I just don't have problems with my feet hurting from boots (including some 20+ mile days in them). YMMV

So the rest of us should just hold are ankles so "they" can have jobs?! Fuck that! uh dood what kinda REI have you been going to! Burnside?

There aren't any high-profit retailers remaining (that sell legal goods).

So the rest of us should just hold are ankles so "they" can have jobs?! Fuck that!

Instead of getting used to the pain - get new boots! Seriously, unless you use your boots once or twice a year, or use really crappy socks (buy some smartwools!) your feet shouldn't hurt! My ankles are too week to use approach shoes with any kind of pack, so I go with lightweight hiking boots.

Oddly enough, today I received this e-mail (my prior correspondance was in February, until this point I had received no information) Dear Mr. Johnson: Thank you for your inquiry earlier this year into REI's board of directors' election. The election cycle will open July 1, 2003, and complete election material is available at that time. If you wish to receive an election packet, please confirm your interest, and I'll be sure the material is forwarded to you when it is available. You may reach me by reply to this e-mail; by mail at REI Public Affairs, (address and number snipped) There are two ways to pursue candidacy for the board of directors: by nomination or petition. The election packet more fully explains this process and provides potential candidates with the background material required necessary to apply for the 2003-2004 election cycle. Each year the Nominating Committee works actively to offer the membership candidates whose skills and abilities match the needs of the board and the co-op. The Nominating Committee pursues this goal by reviewing requests for nomination from interested members and actively recruiting candidates. The petition method offers members an opportunity to appear on the ballot by collecting signatures of active members. In addition to completing the candidate packet, to qualify as a candidate a person must have been a member (or spouse of a person who had been a member) for one year as of December 31, 2003. Thank you again for your interest in REI and its election process. I look forward to hearing from you. Sincerely, (name snipped) Public Affairs Director

As in finding the water crossing? Or elsewhere? Some bad beta lead my group astray - we headed to far down the river. The actual crossing's like a mile before the campsite (or was)

No- I'm a future former owner. If I were an employee I might have had a chance at the becoming a BOD canidate - as a lowly marketing program member (aka "REI member") I didn't really have a chance. What I found most troubling, both in my dealings with REI, and in the article, was the complete absence of information regarding governance matters.

LOL. I dunno, unless I clean up all this laundry it's kind of lacking in the scenic department. Clothes on the floor are requisite for my preferred type of bedroom scenery.....

ever bought a lift ticket at Meadows? Or waited hours for them to open the upper mountain on blue bird days?

Gaston; I understand that you would think this way, coming from socialist anti-gun Europe. Crime doesn't only follow poverty, but it also follows an unarmed populace. This has been statistically proven; good reference on this is "More Guns, Less Crime", by John Lott, an economist. To refute your assertion, look at the rising violent crime rates in Britain where handguns were banned in 1995 (or 1996); look also at violent crime rates in rural communities where there are quite a few guns. There will always be murder, just new and different implements - that is a human issue, unfortunately. I'd be happy to discuss this over beers with you sometime. By the way, did you ever do that retro-bolting work up at Static? Greg W Greg- I seem to remember prior arguments comparing the murder rates in Richmond, Va; Baltimore, MD; and Washington, DC which came to a not so clear conclusion. (Namely their murder rates are all similar, but there gun policies are vastly different). Actually, Baltimore (and Maryland as a whole) and DC are VERY restrictive on handguns; almost an outright ban in Balt. and a ban in DC. Both have high murder rates. Can't speak to Richmond, but I know the Project Exile program has been very successful there. Greg- Richmond is just down the list from Baltimore & DC - which was my point. Virginia is vastly more permissive (concealed carry's in schools, the capital, etc.) in regards to handguns. Carl

Gaston; I understand that you would think this way, coming from socialist anti-gun Europe. Crime doesn't only follow poverty, but it also follows an unarmed populace. This has been statistically proven; good reference on this is "More Guns, Less Crime", by John Lott, an economist. To refute your assertion, look at the rising violent crime rates in Britain where handguns were banned in 1995 (or 1996); look also at violent crime rates in rural communities where there are quite a few guns. There will always be murder, just new and different implements - that is a human issue, unfortunately. I'd be happy to discuss this over beers with you sometime. By the way, did you ever do that retro-bolting work up at Static? Greg W Greg- I seem to remember prior arguments comparing the murder rates in Richmond, Va; Baltimore, MD; and Washington, DC which came to a not so clear conclusion. (Namely their murder rates are all similar, but there gun policies are vastly different).

Gracias, senor!

The authors experience neatly dovetails with mine. Earlier this year I e-mailed the board about the requirements, and process, to become a director. They responded that the requirements were not available yet, but they'd add me to the list of potential canidates, and that they would send the requirments to me in June. They've yet to do that, even though: a) the director requirements have been posted in their stores since mid-May b) the 21,000 signatures are due by July. I'm currently writing my resignation letter.

That was the mega scorching weekend, right? When'd it start slurpeeing (as in time of day)

Huh? My definition of exposure has always had to do with the impact of a fall. A "long exposed traverse" may only be 5.1, but if a fall drops you 1,000 feet, it's exposed. 4th class, to me, is almost always 3rd class terrain with substantial fall potential (somethin like the top of Teewinot).

For Los Alamos climbing: http://www.losalamos.org/climb/zGUIDO.html Even if you don't do any climbing, the Jemez mountains are awesome - and well worth a trip.

wtf? bullshit marketing. shouldn't you climb a route before scheduling a glory tour? what a strokefest by team stone. wish luck to the guys on the route though. and sombody please repeat "A Pair of Jacks" to the top, please Whatever. I've always thought the excuses for why they weren't able to climb the route the most revealing. Besides, the true marketing BS juggernaut was Marmot's Climb Sepu (It included a magazine poster for god's sake!)

Depends how far and how fast you've gone before you are in correct position to apply ice tool to slope. Even this is potentially lethal, depending on runout zone. The whole idea of selfarrest is to do it immediately, not to gain speed. As I recall, we had to start head first on the back and stop within 30 feet. Oleg. 10meters? On Pure BLUE ice? I call BS

Did it make it through the fires alright last year?

I just lump this conversation into the spray. It's just an endless repitition of the same story - and not really climbing related. If you order from any mail order company enough times you're going to have problems. Particularly with lower volume items like Aliens, or in my experience, a Whippet - which I ordered from Mountain Gear (the one everyone's raving over). Except they never told me the Whipper was being drop shipped directly from Black Diamond, so there'd be multiple days for Mountain Gear to process the order before it shipped - it arrived 2 weeks later, the day before I left. And then there's the debacle I had wiht Altrec where they wouldn't honor my coupon. Or the debacle with Rei.com. Or the debacle with.....