J_Fisher

I've got a pretty similar problem that I trace back to a couple motorcycle crashes 2 years ago that involved landing on my head and hyper extending my neck and shoulder muscles (mostly upper and mid traps). Like you describe, long periods at the desk can lead to painful spasms, even neck totally locked up. I've used various permutations of drugs (flexeril)(no help, but vaguely recreational, esp. with a few beers), visiting an orthopedist (zero help), massage and a chiropracter. Massage feels good and seems to have some marginal benefit. The visits to the chiro have had the strongest correlation to relief, but I attribute this more to his other recommendations than the adjustments (which I've been getting anyway). The chiro recommends periodic icing of the affected area, spending at least 15 minutes on your back on the floor with a 3" rolled up towel under your neck to restore position and let muscles relax in their natural position, really focusing on posture, esp at the desk (sit up straight, no slouching, shouldsers back, etc.) and stretching the affected muscles. (Stretches are too hard to explain, but basically anything working through the range of motion will help, and I bet some google searches will turn up some recommendations). If I had it to do over again, I would have gone straight to PT. Since I've been doing well lately I haven't taken that step, but will if things get bad again. If nothing works, I understand a physiatrist (not an ortho) is the right kind of doc to visit. You might PM ice girl for some names. Good luck

Dale, just curious. Do you carry leashes with you on big climbs but only put them on the tools if you think you'll need them? I've been noodling the leashless thing, but don't think I get out enough to justify new tools, esp. since there are so few M climbs around here. Besides, I'm weak and like my leashes . . .

It is a twisted legal system we have where you can spend 20 years in jail for a $30,000 trade that didn't hurt anyone in any way, but you can run a stop sign and kill a motorcyclist or rape someone in the back of your cop car and spend only a couple days in jail. http://www.commondreams.org/news2004/0123-06.htm http://www.bikernews.net/getnews.cfm?article=95&badcop=true

I'm not sure anyone was saying downtempo electronica was "jazz". But out of curiousity I pulled the dictionary definition. I'm not steeped in music theory but one could make a sound argument that the definition describes a lot of electronica. DJs spinning live do incorporate improvisation. It's fine if you don't think a turntable, beat box and synth are "real" instruments, but at the end of the day it's people using machines to make noises that sound cool. Main Entry: 1jazz Pronunciation: 'jaz Function: noun Usage: often attributive Etymology: origin unknown 1 a : American music developed especially from ragtime and blues and characterized by propulsive syncopated rhythms, polyphonic ensemble playing, varying degrees of improvisation, and often deliberate distortions of pitch and timbre b : popular dance music influenced by jazz and played in a loud rhythmic manner

Man, I'd pretty much written of ice for the season and was planning on spending some quality time on the new motorbike, but this has me psyched to squeeze in another trip north . . .

Verve owns the rights to those songs and they encourage remixing. Verve has a lot of downtempo/electronica artists in addition to classic jazz.

I think + and - grades are helpful, especially since WI grades cut a much wider swath than rock grades anyway. If we had "Rock 5" covering roughly 5.8 to 5.10+, I think you'd find a plus or minus very handy, even if ice is more variable. At least you know the mean to expect the variation to deviate from.

G&M is a lot harder if you don't know/figure out the trick for the wide bit at the top.

I've heard it said that Carls Berg is easy for the grade but I've done it a few times and found it to be full value. It may not be sustained at 90 degrees but it's always been pretty technical for me--chandeliered and overhanging blobby things. As hard as the RH Weeping Wall, and a lot harder than the Carlsberg in Field (in the conditions I did it a couple weeks ago--more like 4/5--probably easy shape?). I would not recommend it to self-described 4/4+ leader. And certainly harder than any time I've done Louise Falls (including when Loiuse had a 1 M roof in the middle of the steep bit in 01/02) Loose Lady is the hardest 4 on earth if its a 4. Icy BC (3d pitch) is probably the 2d easist "5" I've been on (easiest being RH of the GBU). But I'd keep the grade for tradition's sake. I backed off Shriek the one time I went up to it--skinny little 80 foot pillar didn't look very 4-ish to me. The big crack at the top sealed the deal for me. Synchro is a 4, but isn't that what the book calls it? If you find it without the little pillar at the top of main climb (pitch 6 if you're not using 70s or simulclimbing) it's probably 3+. Shit, I'd leave 'em as is, except for maybe LL and Shriek. I bet LL is the most backed off climb in Lillooet by a long shot.

Doolittle, before you vote for Nader on that basis, you ought to do a little research. His own financial shanigans, including shorting companies he's about to attack other market manipulation type stuff have been well documented for years. http://dir.salon.com/politics/feature/2000/10/28/stocks/index.html http://www.realchange.org/nader.htm

Except for some chimneys and offwidths, the good cracks pretty much start at 5.9. Party in Your Pants and the double crack just left of Air Guitar (forget the name) are the only good 8s that come to mind. I recommend overprotecting things if you're new to gear since the rock is a little weird. Don't need anymore accidents out there.

I find that climbing lots of ice turns me into an absolutely shitty rock climber. It takes me forever to stop freaking out that there's no rail to hold on to and you can't make a foot whereever you want one.

Crowding at Vantage is a non-issue unless you want to do 5.8-5.10- clip ups on the sunshine wall. With the exception of maybe 3-4 routes, the cracks are almost always free to jump on as you see fit. Vantage is far from perfect but I'm sure glad to have it as an option.

This looks like good news WSDOT info I was expecting to hear more about the washouts from October. Maybe they got that stuff patched up over the winter?...

Dima, the picture is from the NR in June 2001. The line we took was a few hundred feet climbers right of the usual line. It was about 80 feet of AI4-ish. As dru said, the normal line is a lot less steep. We thought it looked like fun to go straight up. Snow conditions sucked for us b/c it snowed above 6000' a couple days before and we had a hot day. Lots of post-holing, and the Coleman headwall avied in the afternoon.

I just got a policy through NW Mutual Life. The climbing questions were pretty dumb, but basically they just want to determine that you're not climbing high altitude stuff or professionally. I ended up paying 20% extra b/c of another hobby, but they didn't care at all about my climbing. They care the most about your age and your health and what recreational chemicals you've got in your blood.

Depending on line choice you could make it a lot harder, if that's your thing.

Could be fine, could be snowed in. 1st week in April 2 years ago there wasn't too much snow to get around but we didn't get in too much climbing due to snow squalls. But I've been snowed on there in late May, too. I wouldn't commit to the drive without current beta and a good Wx report. Also, I would plan on the road from Oakley being closed over the little pass at the north entrance.

June Lake and Lee Vining are 2 areas I'm aware of. They may not qualify as "close" to Tahoe, though. Lee Vining is from drips from a dam and may be what you were thinking of, but I haven't heard anything about it being closed. I'm sure you can find plenty of info by googling "Lee Vining".

BD says the same thing as Petzl on this, i.e. not using the belay loop is more likely to cross load the belay biner and is therefor bad. This may be true in general but I also notice that using the belay loop actually makes it more likely the biner will slip completely sideways, loading the rope directly on the gate. This is not a good thing, obviously. However I always use the belay loop just cuz it's easier and less clusterfucky when you're tied into the rope. I've heard people say they belay off the tie in points b/c of redundancy and a one-less-link-to-break theory. This seems a little silly since I think the number of reported cases of belay loop failure is zero, but whatever floats yer boat.

Anybody got any? I've got "by tower 4 of the Glacier Express chair" from the icybc website. Is it as straightforward as it sounds? Anyone been up there lately?

Yea, what Hal said. Wasn't he like 16 at the time?

Ahh, thanks for setting me straight Dale. It is a pretty compelling line...though the lack of activity makes me think I might be underestimating the seriousness of it

Thought I'd throw out a quick endorsement here. I did North Cascades Mountain Guides Level I avie course this past weekend in Mazama and it rocked. I learned a ton. One of the best investments in money and time I've made in a long time. If you've been thinking about doing an avalanche safety course these guys have a great program.

I was talking to someone yesterday who thought the Goats Beard has only seen one complete ascent. I thought it's been climbed a few times, including once by Daler. Does anyone know for sure? (Dale?)