sobo

I pretty much have to agree with what everyone else has said here. I don't keep track of who's to blame or play the "my shit/their shit" game. I've blown up a few partners' cams and/or fixed their gear on routes in long leader falls, and they've fixed several of my pieces and/or blown up my cams as well over the years. The way I figure it, we're in it together: if gear gets lost/dropped/broken/left as bailers/rendered unusable, that's all part of the game. Some of these events make for great stories later. But like Crillz said, if they do something [really] stupid to cause a loss, well then that's very different. I don't think an event like what Bill related above qualifies as "really stupid", but it was rather unfortunate. I would only hope that I would be so magnanimous as Bill was in the "blowing off" of the incident. And were it me who did the deed, I would like to believe that I would be so philanthropic as to behave as Dave did and "force" the replacement upon my partner, even if it was many years later.

you were just lying in wait for Reply #24, weren't you?

Is that Maug, the Klingon dude?

Which one? Or should I go for the "both hands" dyno?

must... not... post... nude... climbing... photo... of... myself...

ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOBBBBBBBBBBBBB!!!1 We found that little slant-eyed fucker!!!1

Hey Billy! By the time I was doing Westpole, I had already attended the "Seneca 7 Skewl of Hard Knocks." My initiation to that school was Alcoa Presents, on the back side. Frightening as one's first 5.7 at Seneca. And very humbling, too. It's too bad you missed the Gendarme. Getting on it was always a classic outing.

Just tell 'em, "Hey, I get paid to look at tits! What's yer excuse?"

Seneca Rocks, WV: Pidgeon exploded out of a pocket in the alcove where you turn the roof on Westpole. Scared the bejeezus outta me, but I hung in. Another time at Seneca: I had just summitted the famous Gendarme route (it ain't there no mo' - fell down a few years after this) in the gunsight. I had just finished the obiligatory unbelayed standing yodel when I noticed a dark cloud down the valley and a low rumble akin to thunder. Puzzled, I squinted for a better view. Within a few seconds, a VA Air National Guard A-7 Corsair came blasting up the valley, about 200 feet out in front of me and slightly below the level of the top of the rocks. I was looking down into the cockpit and could clearly see the pilot looking back up at me through his darkened goggles. He peeled the aircraft hard right and floored it outta there, shaking the shit out of the place. My partner, unaware of what was making all of the noise, starts screaming that the whole mountian is coming down. I couldn't contain my enthusiasm in relating what I had just witnessed. It was pretty fucking cool. It was one of these, but obviously in a different paint scheme.

I did not get my driver's license until I was 16 yoa. I was in the 8th grade (14 yoa) when I was delivering papers. I would ride my 10-speed (purchased with my paper route money ) to the drop-off point, load my bag, and walk the route each night and weekends (Wednesdays and Sundays required that I return to the drop-off point to restock, the papers were so big). And I walked each paper up to the front door (unless the customer wanted something different). The winds were so fierce, and the winters so cold, in Idaho Falls, and they didn't give you rubber banded papers, so it was my idea to walk each paper up to the front door, open the screen door, drop the paper in, folded side down, and quickly close the screen door, so that when the customer opened the inner door, it dropped into their entryway headline side up. They never had to brave the cold to pick up their paper. My customer service ploy was recognized and rewarded by many of my customers. But some of them were just cheap-ass bastards who expected that I deliver their paper for free (they were extremely hard to track down on collection days). And yes, I did my own collections, too, per company policy. I learned a lot from having a paper route, yessirree. Learned about hard work in shitty conditions for miserable pay, providing superior customer service even to those who didn't deserve it, and how to recognize a cheap-ass bastard at 30 yards. I hope you have a blast up thataway this winter. Go climb ice in Huntington's Ravine. It's a way of life.

man, I like that avatar pic... ...

You tend to live life on the edge, don't you? Crazy mutha...

Thought you said you didn't climb. künt. (note that's with an umlat ) I don't have any particular pitch singled out as the best/most satisfying, cuz there have been many, in many different places, and for many different reasons, but I do have to agree with what Dru said.

I knew, as soon as I saw the title, that this thread would bring E-rock out. There is no greater master of poo than the E-rock. All hail E-rock, and his poo. E-rock's favorite website.

-40 plus unknown windchill, winter camping in a freak arctic blast in the hills outside of VA Tech. All the beer froze in the cans, the only thing we had to brink was a fifth of Jack Daniels. The next morning, while trying to start the stove (in the tent ) it exploded and burnt the tent to the snow almost instantaneously. It was pretty funny after we got out of our bags, got dressed, and got the f#%& out of there. -40-something at Huntington's Ravine, NH, ice climbing over a Christmas break back in the day. The ice was so brittle, it shattered with every stick and I never thought I'd get the hell off Pinnacle Gulley that day. Once we got up to the Alpine Garden trail, we took off our crampons for the trudge over to the Lion's Heads slide. The wind was so freakin' fierce that it blew us across all of the frozen ponds on the AG bench. There was nothing we could do, cuz there were rocky spots between the frozen lakes, and we didn't want to wear our crampons across the rocky parts, nor did we want to put them back on to cross the frozen parts. So we "sailed" from shore to shore across the bench. I'm just glad it was a tailwind that day. I think the wind was like 80 mph or some shit. It gets really windy up on Mt. Washington. Add to that it was so whited-out that we had to stay roped up and "swing a radius" from cairn to cairn to find our way to the start of Lion's Head. The wind was so fierce that you couldn't hear each other when you hollered that you had found the next cairn, so we ended up yanking on the rope real hard to signal the follower to come up. We both ended up with more than a few faceplants from that strategy. It was a freaky day. I was never so glad to be back at the harvard cabin as I was that day. brrrrrrrrrrrrrr... In my younger years, I delivered newspapers in Idaho Falls, notorius for its deep drifts, cold temps, and stiff winds. Spent many an evening in the dark and -30s trudging along from house to house. I had 120+ customers. It took a long time in the winter...

Hey, it's a great place. I grew up there... Oh, mebbe that's why...

CAUTION!!! THE INTELLECTUAL CAPACITY OF THIS THREAD HAS BEEN BREACHED. You may now begin your discussion of global warming. Please carry on. Thank you.

Is there gonna be a bonfire...?

Sweet! Way to make Dad proud, eh? Love it when the young'ns do that.

Another 15-18 posts, and then, yes. Patience, dear... And porter, it's "sayeth"...

Ah! Good point...

The sad f#$%ing inconvenient truth

Oh... nevermind...

I blow my nose at you, so-called Arthur King, you and all your silly English k-nnnnniggets.

Go away before I taunt you a second time-uh.