David_Parker

My arguement would be whether overall I liked any of these ex-presidents or not, they ALL did something effective. But since we Americans love to live in scandal, we tend to only focus on their faults and forget their accomplishments. Probably all these Presidents did something scandalous, only some got caught and the later ones were at the mercy of a press that dominates the news instantly. If you are so into 20/20 hindsite vision, you will find a lot of good things to say about most of the above mentioned Presidents regardless of Party line. Is your idea of a good president one that you really don't know much about because nothing significant really hapened during his term? I'll bet you can find good things about Grover Clevland, Howard Taft or any other president we never talk about. You can always find what you are looking for if you dig deep enough. Seems too many are always looking for the bad and forget how good or (ugly) they are.

I find most of the "qualified" candidates never win the nomination because they are NOT mainstream thinkers and are outside the box. Looking at history, these type of (world)leaders prove to be the most successful or influetial given a chance. The problem is, most Americans are too fucking stupid to get outside the box. Here's to those who do! PLEASE NOTE MY SIGNATURE!!!!

Cracked, I resized so you can edit/remove your post if you want since it's too big

What is the best web site for ski conditions, avy report and weather? Also, best phone number to call. Every time it rains like last night, I wonder..."where the hell is the snow level?? I wonder if it's raining or snowing at the base of Crystal??"

You are lucky it wasn't bigger, especially with a 12" crown. And this goes to show you aren't necessarily safe in trees either, In fact if you are caught in a slide that is in or goes into trees, you are in a much worse situation. In the NW, that is a factor a lot more than in Utah and Colorado. Had you missed that first tree and picked up more speed, you could have easily sustained a terrible injury even if you weren't burried. Avy gear doesn't save you from injuries. That is why I find carrying avy gear can create a false sense of security and actually get you into worse situations than if you didn't have it. Being burried and dug out is one thing, being burried with a life threatening injury is another. Sometimes the beacon only helps with body recovery. We carry avy gear for the unexpected. I'll bet your expectations have been adjusted now. Thanks for sharing a story we can all learn from!

Kinda makes you wonder about DIVINE INTERVENTION, eh?

As I was watching the movie and as soon as Simon began to lower two rope lengths with them tied together, I asked my self why Simon didn't grab Joes belay device and as he came to the knot have the second one set up on the other side of the knot already before unclipping the first belay device. This would have added a margin of saftey for the brief moment he was changing over while Joe attached himself (marginally) to the mountain briefly during the passing of the knot. If they had this set up going when Joe was hanging, the knot would have been tight but there would be a second belay device already in place on the slack side on the other side of the jammed knot. He could have cut his belay loop or part of his harness as Forrest mentioned and the second belay device would be ready to catch the rope already. But as mentioned hindsight is 20/20 and it was a situation where clear thinking is seriously compromised so we have NO right to critcize. This dicussion however has merit as we are thinking about this stuff and who knows, some day you may have to tap into this knowledge.

#1. Leave Thin Air out of this. Start a new thread if you want to re-hash that shit. #2. Simon did the right thing and more. The guy friggin sat there for hours with full body weight on him until his powdery seat deteriorated and he started sliding. Only then did he cut the rope. I'm sure by then he figured Joe was free hanging and he said he thought he was a dead man anyway and for sure thought that after he cut the rope. Why would he abseil when he already knew the rope didn't reach! Going to the lip to even look was suicide in the unconsolidated snow with NO anchor. If you look at the photo in the book, you can see the cliff and how Simon went to skiers right to bypass it. If he did really rap his remaining single line like in the movie, he probably knew in the daylite it was his last rap and din't need it after that. My question in the movie was: #1, why didn't they take Joe's crampon off on his broken leg so it wouldn't catch?

Aucontrair, the manufacturers still label the ropes on the ends 1/2 or twin. To me, "double" and twin" are synonyms and thereby more confusing, while "1/2" and "twin" are distinctly different and much less confusing. But I was an english major, not a math major in college so what do I know!

Go check her underwear drawer and see what size thong she wears. There's a pretty close corelation between thongs and harnesses. You could probably have fun with that harness on Valentines day too!

To be completely clear, we should use "1/2 ropes" or "twin ropes" as "Double ropes" can be confusing to some. I would prefer to alternatively clip 1/2 ropes but in the event I were to clip both into one piece, I'd probably use 2 biners or draws, one for each strand. This would be better in the event previous to that clip, you had alternatively clipped pieces with one strand.

I had a dry rope that got non-dry while climbing a non-dry ice climb. When it got dry again it was dry so I used it in some dry conditions and it stayed dry. Then I got it non-dry again and when it was dry again it was still non-dry so I applied some dry tratment and it was still dry. It stayed dry until the next non-dry climb, but it got dry again. So I applied some non-dry treatment since it wanted to be non-dry annyway and now it is non-dry all the time except when it dries out.

rbw, telling about being in a crevasse is hardly "describing" a scene. Don't worry, we haven't ruined the story for you. Dave

I saw the movie last night an thought it was incredibly accurate and realistic. I like a lot of the different camera angles. The thing we climbers need to understand is that most of the average joes and jills don't really know shit about what is really going on up on the mountain during an alpine climb. It hought they did a great job showing that so people really get it. I then read the review in the Stranger on the ferry on the way back and thought how cluless that guy was. It kind of pissed me off how he thought the movie "dragged" on too much and should have meen a 30 minute Discovery channel documentary vs a feature length film. To each his own, but basically if that guy can't sit through a 1.5 hour movie, well he's just a pussy. There are hundreds of epic survival stories out there, but I thought this one really makes the audience begin to FEEL what it's like. This is an example where the visual effects of the movie actually enhance the ability to extrapolate the reality of the story over the book. Unless you've ever seen or been in a crevasse, joe and jill have no clue what it's really like. I watched the body language of the audience in the theatre and found it interesting that many started sitting upright and eventually sank lower in their seats and almost began to assume fetal like positions as the story unfolded. I recommend reading the book first if you have not, but not sure if it's neccessary either. The movie did a fine job of telling the story too!

No doubt we have all been "snag-bagged" by the hype!

The best leather treatment I ever found came in a can from Nikwax. It was rubbed on like snowseal, but was more waxy and lasted alot longer from snow abraision. I put it on my Asolo Extremes before doing the Houte Route and was very impressed with it. I believe it came from England so I don't know it's availabilty now in the states. It claimed the polar explorers used it very successfully. Their newer stuff that you apply to wet leather and let dry seems to be doing very well on my Solomons after multiple applications. Snowseal or beeswax works ok but multiple applications don't seem to improve the situation and so you just need to keep applying. I have never had a problem with stiching blow out from using it.

I saw these interesting skis at LL Bean over x-mas made by Karhu. They were short (maybe 100cm) really wide and had a built in patch of climbing skin. The bindings were like a snowboard binding, but hinged (fairly stiffly) at the toe. You could easily steer these things with regular plastic or even leather ice climbing boots. Fairly lightweight too. I was tempted but I just had too much stuff already to travel with. Only about $150 at the outlet store in freeport. I immediately thought about how perfect they'd be for an approach like chair peak. Her you go... http://www.karhu.com/gear/category.php?c=all_terrain

I use golf balls. More impact on the sleeping bag and they make more noise, dent up the inside of my dryer and piss my wife off!

Last year I was hell bent to get all the way to Muir and needed crampons for the last icefield. I can pretty much say if you need crampons to get up, the skiing will suck on that section! So leave the crampons in the car and stop going up when you can't skin anymore (if you intend to ski what you climb) unless you are doing a section early in the am that you know will soften up later in the day.

Light (weight) skis with good torsional rigidity help with fully executed jump turns when necessary. They wip around quicker.

Sun Valley has great BC. I just don't know the names other than the two mentioned above. Durrance is big vert with many aspects on top, so you really can't go wrong. There is more trees further up towards Galena. I know a local so I just go with him when I go there......in fact I'm way over due. When ya headed there?? Go to Grumpys and you'll get beta if you ask around.

I solved this dillema by buying 60M ropes for me and talking my partners into buying 70M ropes! Now we can chose according to what route we do. The first time I did Polar Circus, a 70 meter rope would have been great and saved a lot of time. The second time we still only had 60M ropes but since I was more familiar with the route, the belayer just started climbing when the rope came tight so the leader could reach the top belay. It wasn't that much simulclimbing nor difficult ground and there were enough screws in by then to make it safe. I noticed 70M ropes would have helped somewhat on Sycronicity, but it's wasn't that big of a deal to only have 60's. It's probably one of those "the grass is greener on the other side of the fence" thingys. Communication between 60M is hard enough. 70M is even worse. Still, I'm thinking of getting some 80M or 90M ropes and carrying radios!

I love my Solomons SM9's and highly recommend them. I'd buy them if they were my size. FYI, I don't have narrow feet either. I think they fit most normal feet, maybe just not really wide feet. The inner part of the boot has a unique and simple (easy) lacing system with a pull tab that allows you to snug up the fit before doing the outside laces. Any leather boot made in Italy is great quality and will last.

You must align your expectations with performance. If there is water running on the ice, you should choose other gloves. The fabric is only schoeller and therefore nobody said it was waterproof. Although I have them, like them most and have not had a problem with seam blow out, I did not use them in Lillooet on wet routes. On the other hand I used tham last year on Polar Circus and they were fine the whole trip and survived all those raps plus many more. I was surprised how warm they were for the thickness. Keep in mind thinner gloves can be surprising warm as you don't have to grip so hard which is a cause for cold hands. I also treat the leather with dubin with silicone to keep it supple yet waterproof. The moisture predominantly comes in from the back side of the glove unless you rap on wet ropes where you then are forcing water through the leather. I climbed Sycronicity in the New BD Spindrift glove. BD claimed "waterproof" and I was skeptical. I must say my hands stayed completely dry in spite of climbing on very wet ice with surface water. It was only the last rap where the ropes were completely soaked that I finally felt water on the inside. Since the glove doesn't have a liner, I didn't get them dry for the next day and I concur on a multi day trip it might be difficult to get them dry. Bottom line, bring a quiver of gloves and at least an extra pair on ANY climb. I was wishing I had the vinylove last weekend although you still need something else for rapping. A tip: Radiant heat drys anything twice as fast as warm blown air. Direct sunlight, radiators, inside sleeping bags and infloor heating systems are all sources of radiant heat.

Depends on how fast you drive. Two hours barely gets you out of western Wa and there is no ice in western WA. 2 hours by rocket ship should get you to Russia if you go over the pole. I heard it was cold there!