David_Parker

I took my son and we both enjoyed it very much! Chuck, you should lighten up a little and just enjoy things for what they are. I asked my son what his favorite part was and he said "when that guy said the biggest thing to be afraid of was seeing # 3 in my rear view mirror!" A toast to you Dale!!! I like the tire that came flying off and went zooming over my head! 3-D !!!!

My vote is the ONLY one that counts since it is my place. I will consider all the banter and decide, but right now I'm leaning towards the 1st-3rd. Whatever weekend I pick, it will be available starting Friday afternoon, with the main party Saturday night. Every one clears out by Sunday afternoon. I will need to arrange for porta potty as I don't want to overload the existing outhouse. Place your vote in concise english like Kurt said and I will consider the votes. Girl votes count double! Don't friggin vote unless you plan on attending because we need to do some planning! Invite anyone you want! There is a cabin with 2 bedrooms and a loft. I get one bedroom. A man/woman couple will have priority for the second. Matt P has first choice. The loft is up for grabs. There is a large deck, 2or3 barbques, firepit, handpump well w/rusty water. Away from the cabin is a large camping area with lots of room for tents and a second fire pit. The property is 10 acres with a trail system to the Methow river. There is a place for swimming and fishing. The cabin is not on the river but about 1/4 mile back. It is about 4 miles south of Mazama. about 1/2 mile north of Weeman Bridge. It is 16 miles to Washington Pass. All I ask is that you treat this place with respect and come with a FUN attitude and be willing to help clean up and contribute something to the party. Drunkeness, smoking, sex, and general debautchery are allowed and encouraged. Kids are welcome at your own risk. I might bring mine as he had fun opening beers for everyone last year. Any questions, send me a PM. Dave PS: no boarders allowed! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . just kidding!!!!!!

Way to go Dryad! And way to have the confidence to go solo. I bet you've met a lot of really cool people. The world really opens up when you travel solo.

Hmm, I kinda liked the washout. It added just enough to the approach to Mt. Constance to keep the riff raff out!

PABST IS MORE THAN YOU THINK!!!! Most of the above mentioned beers ARE Pabst!!! The following Beers are all brewed by Pabst: Piels,Lucky Lager, Olympia,Black Label,Lone Star,Big Bear, Black Bull, Blatz, Bott Ice, Colt 45, Country Club Malt Liquor,Goebel,Heidelburg,Jacob Best, National Bohemian,Old Milwaukee,Old Style,Pearl,Rainier,Schmidts,Silver Thunder, Special Export,Stag,Strohs, Texas Cowboy Lagar,Texas Crude Bock and more!!! You just never knew you were drinking Pabst, did you!!!

And some more from my early days in Maine... Black Label: Appearance: clear and extraordinarily pale, just a shade above invisible, with bubbly bone-white foam above, short in duration. Aroma: best compared to ripe cardboard, dried lemon peel, dirty socks, and yesterday's urinal cakes. Taste: None. No, sorry, there's an over-abundance of nothingness, and me, I'm stuck with no way to describe it. I'll try harder...lemonade without the sugar and the lemons..iced tea without the ice and the tea...a moist ghost faintly traveling through the palate, leaving the mind with only a fuzzy, bad memory, and the bladder with another load to bear. This is the Official Beer for Nihilists, Everywhere. If you believe in Nothing, this is your God. Schlitz (the one beer to have when you're having more than one!) Apparantly not... Pours out that same light yellow/straw color that all the other Schlitz beers pour, giving a decent head which goes AWOL quickly. Aroma is of grains and alcohol. Taste is even worse, with the alcohol burn/bitterness covering everything and clinging to the tongue and palette long after the beer has left. Mouthfeel is bubbly and like champage--thin, watery and highly cabonated. Beer goes down burning, lowering the drinkability by a lot. I gave the rest of this six-pack away when I was done with the first. Schaefer: Ok, quite possibly one of the worst beers I've ever had. Out of the worst of the worst crap beers I would deffinatly take Beast or Natty over this. This stuff is God Awful. I am only drinking one, because it is all there is. If I had any choice I would gladly drink my own vomit. Genesee Cream Ale: make sure you don't have any important meetings the next day. Farting is a side effect of this beer.

I remember drinking this stuff back in Maine when I was 16... Narragansett is the classic New England working mans beer. This is not some Nancy boy Pacific Northwest microbrew infused with berries and herbs. By god, its a beer with a sharp taste good carbonation and is perfect when very cold. If you’re looking for a creamy, sweet, or heavy taste look elsewhere. This is beer meant to wash the days work dust and salt from your throat. A natural chaser, probably that is the reason why it was so popular in shot & beer joints frequented by local tradesmen. http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/rate_results/324/7406/ check out your favorite beer and see how it rates!

Drury Falls in May

For guides, look for British Publications. I spent 2 weeks in the Dolomites about 4-5 years ago and did quite a few amazing Via Ferratas. They range from very easy to very difficult, but if you are a climber the very difficults are just low 5th class. Technically you should have the proper device made by Petzl that will absorb shock in the event of a fall, but I just used my confidence, one sling and a locking biner. I think the Via Ferrattas rock! I went out in a blizzard with my walkman, greatful dead tape and did one from the door step at Cinque Torre. I also did a few more on Toffana de Roses, The west ridge of the Marmolada and another one near the Tre Cima's. They are maintained by the Italian Alpine club and originated by following routes and tunnels built by the military in WWI and WWII. Bring a headlamp! You can cover huge amounts of vert in one day with multiple people in your party and you'll meet folks from age 8 to 80. I did a slide show for a wilderness group over here on the Olympic Penninsula and would be happy to do another for a group in Seattle if a bunch expressed interest in knowing more about it. I have maps too. The movie Cliffhanger is the easiest way to see what kind of terrain you can experience. Those ladders and bridges they rip out or blow up were real Via Ferratas and probably just needed replacement. Just don't be on a ladder during a lighning storm! ouch!

Pabst is back By Jonathan Drew ASSOCIATED PRESS COLUMBUS, Ohio — Matt Dixon sips beer from a red, white and blue aluminum can in a smoky corner of Betty's Food and Spirits, a dimly lit hangout for local artists, college students and restaurant workers. Bartenders pour 13 different microbrews for $3.75 a pint at Betty's, but the best-selling beer is Mr. Dixon's choice, $1.50-a-pint Pabst Blue Ribbon, a former blue-collar favorite decades removed from its heyday. Pabst Blue Ribbon, or simply PBR, is enjoying an unlikely comeback across the country. After a steady decline since the 1970s, sales rose about 5 percent in 2002 and 15 percent in 2003. "It's just cold and refreshing," Mr. Dixon said between gulps. "It's not a bad beer. You just have to get beyond the fact that it's what your dad drinks." In 2001, sales of the 160-year-old brand had fallen to less than 1 million barrels, about one-tenth its peak in 1975, said Pabst Brewing Co. brand manager Neal Stewart. Betty's owner Elizabeth Lessner said distributors laughed at her when she began asking for kegs of Pabst three years ago. But it was about that time that Pabst's comeback had started. Mr. Stewart said the beer's resurgence began in Portland, Ore. when customers adopted the brew. There had been no change in marketing. Pabst somehow appealed to trendsetters: punk rockers, kayakers and mountain bikers, Mr. Stewart said. The brand is the top seller in Portland's Lutz Tavern, which began carrying it in 1999 to replace a discontinued regional beer. "It's really popular with not only the college students but also the working class guy and the Social Security crowd," said Lilias Barisich, whose family has operated the bar since 1954. The revival spread to cities like San Francisco and Seattle before hopping across the country to the Northeast, Mr. Stewart said. By some accounts, its young buyers are rebelling against established, mass-marketed brands. "There's a theory that there's a niche out here for a consumer that's antimarketing," said Eric Shepard, executive editor of Beer Marketer's Insights. The San Antonio-based Pabst Brewing Co.'s marketing strategy — or lack thereof — eschews conventional advertising in favor of generating word-of-mouth buzz. "It's a nice story for Pabst that Pabst Blue Ribbon has caught on and is quite popular in many markets, but I don't know if any of the major brewers are quaking in their boots," Mr. Shepard said.

I'll assume you know where Wa Pass is. The property for the even is about 4 miles towards Winthrop from Mazama on Hwy 20, pretty close to the Rocking Horse Ranch if you know where that is. I'll post more details later.

We did not use much rock pro, only near the top as we simuled, more for rope directional than pro. We only placed a few screws in some exposed alpine ice near the bottom after passing the shrund on the left. After that we simul soled neve to the top of the couloir and then found our way through the exposed rock still mostly on snow/neve. I think the scariest part for me was traversing rotten 4th class on Boston Peak to reach the Boston Glacier.

I did the NF couloir a few years ago. It was fun! It just seemed if you went over there it would be appropriate to do the slightly more challenging route.

The date will be announced as we see how they are progressing with the snowplowing. SECOND WEEKEND AFTER THE ROAD OPENS! This will be subject to my personal schedule since it's at my place! Last year I brought my son and I skied with him. He had fun opening our beers for us! More pics from last year:

and "Moguls are a condition the BC lacks, which actually provides a reason to go to the resort." You need to ski the Wasatch...it's totally bumped out!!

Flagging often messes me up more than helps. My own instincs are pretty good and often I find I'm following a sucker trail. The problem I see with flagging is that some people do it so they can find their own way out, but it's not always the best way. Ideally if you are flagging for others, You should go up and then flag on the way down because you will know better where the trail should go by learning from your mistakes on the way up. I'd argue that flagging is good for the wilderness areas in that it keeps the impact to a set area and keeps people from making a new path every time they go in. On the east coast, they mark their trails, even in remote areas. Much is paint on trees. Used to be blazes. I was on the AT trail in the Maine wilderness this winter and was woondering why there were sometimes two paint stripes instead of one. Keep in mind there is no path to follow in winter, so much of flagging is for winter travel when going through the forest is impossible to know where the trail is. Anyway, i found out two marks means an abrupt turn in the trail coming up. One means go straight more or less. I don't really mind the paint stripes. They are usually on the hardwood trees and not so much an eyesore. Surveyors tape SUCKS. It deteriorates (gets brittle)in less than a year and falls off. Then it's on the ground but never disappears. Above timberline like on Mt Washington or Katadin, white stripes on the rocks have saved many lives. When the fog and cold wind rolls in in the middle of summer, there is no way you'd know where to go.

Lazyboy, I think I saw some of that flagging. Mostly to get you across the river by leaving the trail to charlia lakes and beginning your 'schwacking towards Constance. Someone also was cutting tops of tiny cedars with a lopper to mark the way. I think not many people use this approach anymore! http://www.cascadeclimbers.com/threadz/showflat.php/Cat/0/Number/203259/page/3/view/collapsed/sb/5/o/all/fpart/1

I don't agree. I feel a significant difference with how much force it takes to put in a BD and a smiley/OP (same thing). I also don't like the not folding knob. Time (placing screw)is money and I wouldn't even consider buying an OP screw. Once you go BD, you won't go back. And I don't even have the newer BD's!

Thanks Lowell, you said it better than I. That year seemed to be a constant rolling of storms one after another over the Cascades and it was hard to find a "window" that year. Sometimes you just have to wait for the right year, not just week. Goes for climbing too. Still, those guys get the highest of praise from me. Wish I had been invited! I'll bet that thread was a motivator for them!

My balls sweat too much on a mono-ski!

Fern, here's how to mount twin tips: Measure tip to tip. divide by 4, then muliply by 2. Place mark on ski. Take big swig of Spin left ski 7 or 9 times as it must be an odd number. Spin right ski 6-8 times (even number), place back on bench. more Put left binding facing forward on right ski. Put right binding facing back on left ski. Now you are ready to rip on twin tip skis! Lummox, Good question. When I mount tele skis, I check out 1/2 cord and balance point to compare. They should be pretty darn close. I definitely want my pins equal or ahead of the balance point so the tip will be up, not down. (still affected by stiff plasti boots) Personally, I would never mount tele skis with pins behind cord. Pins should be right on or 1-3 cm ahead. Templates sure make things easier, but shop rigs are far superior to paper ones. I agree that it's best to have the ski shop do it. If they screw up, the pay. If you screw up, you are stuck.

When I first started ice climbing, leading with snargs, we used a fifi hook on a tether attached to our harness to hook onto our leashes on vertical pitches. You pretty much needed two free hands to get the snargs started, one to hold it and the other to smack it. The follower did it too, as they are harder to get out than in. Way too much energy wasted if you didn't do it. Yeah it was "aid" but whatever....ice climbing is aid anyway! I tried umbilical cords once but it was too much of a cluster fuck. Like trying to get a shoulder length runner off from around your neck! More cons than pros imo.

Weren't those some kind of Anti-telemark bindings?

I like going parties at someones house. I would be more than happy to host a party at my house, but I seriously question how many would ride the ferry to Bainbridge. Still, the invitation is open. Maybe even a Friday or Saturday night when we know the weather is shit for the weekend. My next for sure party will be in Mazama. Second annual ski-fest coming this spring.

I just got back from Mission Ridge and Stevens Pass, both powder days. This time I was trying to be fair and see if I saw many skiers sideslipping, but I really couldn't find any. Again, lots of steep, narrow little shots through cliffs or trees trashed by sideslipping boarders. Tye Mill and everything off 7th Heaven was thrashed yesterday by them. My son says I embarrass him because I keep screaming "turn" to all the boarders. I really don't see skiers NOT turning. They have to! I realize it is harder for a boarder to commit to a turn because he/she is at a distinct disadvantage being that he/she is already turned sideways on his/her device for gliding over snow. A boarder won't have the tendancy to keep shoulders square to the fall line, but the opposite. So as I stated in the very begining, I don't think the learning curve in boarding is any faster than skiing and I will now argue it is longer, at least all the way to the expert level. It seems the steeper the terrain, the LESS likely they are to turn. Skiers don't have this problem. Basically boarders can glide over snow on steep terrain and "feel" like an expert because you can tell your friends you did a double black diamond, but did you REALLY do it? NOT!!! My eight year old son can do harder shit better than 98% of all the boarders out there in better style. TURN, you wankers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!