sobo

"Ah say, Ah say go away son, ya bother me."

See previous response.

This does not merit a reply.

Ignoring

Careful, minx, his location is Sly Bacon. He could be sneakin' up on your avatar for a little piggie pokin'...

I covered that already in the Sexual Deviancy thread.

I'm going to assume it's a bored bitch troll, but I'll bite anyway... ILS, to answer your question, I shall pose one for you, to wit: Let's say you're thinking about making a hefty expenditure on a piece of gear, and you're not quite sure if it's the right choice, and if it isn't the right choice then you certainly don't want to be saddled with for the rest of your climbing life - what would you do? Would you buy it from an "all sales final" type outlet, or would you "rent" it from REI? I think you get my point...

Way to go, carolyn, for draggin' up this classic! I don't know, Kurt, there's lots of SAR/MR folks up there right now. You'd prolly get dug out pretty darn quick.

silly porter, the price doesn't evolve because the garments are intelligently designed Now that's fuckin' funny, and I don't care who ya are. Jeezus H Christ, vertical hiker quit two days ago and this thread is still going strong? What is it, 39 freakin' pages now? This has surpassed the Fat Housecat thread in a week, and is rapidly closing in on the Nodder, Mt. Hood deaths, and Muir on Saturday threads! What hath Dog wrought?

I remember when you were the Couchmaster. I thought that was great. I'm not sure, Bill, but I think everybody lost their "pet" names with the last upgrade. Same thing happened with the upgrade before this most recent one; peeps lost their names and the little "the horns/love you/donate" fist. I don't think anyone's pissed at you. You could probably pretty easily convince a mod to give you your name back.

SWAL: I don't know those folks on the other side of those links from Adam, but they appear to have the right curriculum and mindset. I'd be OK with taking a course from them, but they *are* sorta "out of town..." But you can get a similarly adequate level of instruction by taking the National Ski Patrol's Level 1 avalanche awareness course, which is taught to the same standard as these AAA guys' course. I got my schoolin' from the NSP. Good luck, I hope you take the course somewhere.

Only climbed it twice, both times in late May/early June. Piece of cake, although that depends if you like "swimming" through powder snow up to your armpits and short-roping two other disabled parties to the summit with you (that was just the first trip). That said, it was first ascended over Labor Day in 1935. Totally different conditions, I would imagine. Most people do LR, as well as other glacier crossing work, in 2-person parties. Not a big deal if you know how to work a 2-member party crevasse extraction. YMMV. Plan ahead, be prepared, know when/if to bail. Lotsa folks on this board have climbed LR, some several times. Shit, I think mattp soloed it, too. You should be hearing from these folks soon.

If you make it to the Red Rock Rendevous in March, you should be able to catch a couple self-rescue clinics there, too. The one I took last year, "The Fine Art of Bailing," was pretty helpful, and I plan to take more of the same this year. Easy to forget all that stuff if you're not using it everyday. Sherri makes excellent points in her post on the preceding page referencing the Fasulo book and here for the clinics. While reading/practicing techniques shown in books is nice, and likewise with attending specialized clinics, all this learning is for naught if one fails to practice these techniques somewhat frequently, as Sherri intuits above. I've been doing this gig for over 20 years now, and I still find I have to practice self-rescue at least once a year just to be sure I don't "flunk the course" on that one day when the grade is Pass/Fail.

Definitely a good idea for anyone who never has. And a refresher is a good idea if you have, and it's been a while.

Were his eyes bugging out of his head in mesmerization? My wife and I had a phrase for when that would happen to Nicholas when he was tiny: Information Overload

Just for you, Honey chil' :kisss: been wanting to use the "kiss" graemlin ever since the upgrade...

How are you so sure? Heisenberg told her it wasn't.

I could post a picture of meself. That oughta put you in stitches...

fatherly

The man is deceased. We got pinged to drive up tonight and start looking for his body tomorrow morning. He is apparently in the Edith Creek Basin area, just below Pan Point. My sincerest condolences to his family and friends. Please be careful out there, people.

What Jim said. A heavy crockery-type bowl with vertical sides works best if you're going to have a bowl in there anyway. Oh, and buy pet insurance... a lot of it...

Hey man, don't laugh... Around my house, "imperial command" is affectionately referred to as Air Traffic Control. I can't get outta town without a flight plan and departure clearance from ATC before every trip. Plus when I start my drive back home, I need to request approach instructions before entering the airspace, then confirm landing instructions before lining up on the final approach glidepath. Once I start my taxi to the hangar, I'm all good...

Put a big rock in his pack. Hilarious post, Matt! Take chucK's concept one step further: Make it lotsa beer instead of a big rock. And don't delude yourself for even one second to think that ice isn't a critically important addition...

priceless!

I celebrate Christmas because I don’t have a choice. My company recognizes it and they are closed. I used to spend every Christmas climbing on that day. Now I have a family and its all about the children. Christmas has nothing to do with religion in my book. It is just a way for Nordstrom’s to sell lots of expensive clothing…..and greeting cards. I don't believe it... I find myself agreeing with The Bone on this one. My wife and I consider ourselves agnostic. That being said, we took our kids to a universalist/unitarian church (because it was the most we could stand) for a few weeks last winter/spring when my eldest started asking questions about God (which he learned about from the Mormon neighbors). But anyway... my employer, too, is closed for Christmas. I, too, used to spend every Christmas vacation fucking like minks, boozing, partying, and climbing. But I have kids now. Like The Bone said, Christmas, for all its foibles, is not about religion in my book. It's about the kids. And a way for retailers the world over to make a buck on everyone. So is President's Day... and Valentine's Day... and Memorial Day... and Independence Day... and... well you get the idea. And to echo JosephH's comment... You guys think Christmas is commercialized here in this country? You should see it in southern Vietnam!! We were literally fucking astounded at the display and pageantry that was trotted out for this holiday. Couldn't fuckin' believe it. China wasn't nearly as bad as Vietnam was in this regard. To echo crackers's comment, Happy Ramahanukwanzmas! It's all just so much shit.