sobo

"The operation timed out when attempting to contact www.wastateice.net/" Good one, Alex! Is Zlib compression available yet?

What a howl! I had a few pairs of those "back in the day". Mine were actually a red/white/bue plastic "sandwich" type of construction. Not all white.

Don't you really mean the hydraulic grade line or the hydraulic gradient? If the hydraulic grade line is at the surface (or above) of the ground, then by definition you would have an artesian well. We don't see that much out here in the Eastern WA desert. QED. Class dismissed.

Only above the 1.2 Gigawatt range...

Ice climbing guide I know, it was too easy, but I just couldn't resist...

Right, but the Eastern WA desert is underlain by basalts of the Ellensburg and Grand Rhonde Formations that are over 10,000 feet thick. Yeah, there's water down there, but it isn't enough to well up and form icefalls. It's fahq'n deep!

Thanks for the background, Alex. We trust that answers your question, BigWave.

DPS is right on so far. The Columbia Basin Reclamation Project (of which Grand Coulee Dam is it's most visible and recognizable man-made landmark) is the most responsible agent for the ice climbs around Banks Lake, Moses Coulee, and Ancient Lakes. This is because without the Project, there would *be* no groundwater to speak of to form these climbs. Eastern WA is a desert, ya know. It is the late-season run-off and winter groundwater seepage (supplied by irrigation earlier in the year) that supplies at least one of the requirements for an ice climb - free water. And Paul detrick is correct on one of the other requirements - It's up to Mother Nature for the coooooolllllldddddd. She's already provided the third ingredient - the vertical environment!

From my earlier request of The Guide's status back in July: Alex notes the omission here. I got my advanced copy in the mail and it looks pretty good. It made me really jones for ice season to start. With the weather we've had lately, I'm getting pretty keen. You'll be able to buy the guidebooks direct off the Mountaineers Books website. Ironically, the route in the cover photo isnt in the guide!! Comment for BigWave, Alex? Inquiring minds want to know.

I have one, and IMO it's the best, most idiot-proof beacon I've ever owned or used. Takes me right to the target every time (except once, in a practice in a friend's field, when I kept following the signal up to the house - I took me a couple of tries to figure out I was following the underground telephone line) When my unit does practice searches, and even when I took avy awareness seminars, I was always the first to locate the "subject". Let it also be said that I practice with it at least 2x per year.

E-rock and others, Don't spank RuMR for what I brought up. I brought up the All-Around World Champion slugfest after I clicked on her site. As I said earlier in this thread, Sure, she may be a great sport climber and plastic jugger, but nothing she's done qualifies her to be called/call herself/allow herself to be called an "all-around" world champion, all-around being the key phrase here. I think her sponsors have some 'splaning to do.

Then I'm pleased for you to hear your reason for selling the gear. I feared something more sorrowful, like a wife or kid is forcing you out of the sport. We just had our first kid, and I only got out like 3 or 4 times this past year. I'm not about to call it quits, but the outlook looks pretty grim for a few years ahead. Maybe I'll be "cleaning out the closet" then, too. I just hope it's for Dad's toy upgrades...

My point exactly. Her x-games feat grants her all-around climbing champion status? WTF is up with that? I guess the part that really chaps my butt is the claim of "all-around" champion. My understanding of "all-around" means just that - you've got to the best, or at least mighty goddamn good, at every aspect of the game at hand. Speed-pulling plastic or jugging El Cap just doesn't cut it in my book.

Well, I wouldn't be the All-Around Climbing Champion anymore, that's fer shoor... Hey, my avatar image is stuck in mid-smack.

Fuck, even I can do that! As a result, I hereby proclaim myself All-Around Climbing Champion. Now there's two of us; time to

I read that. Respect for that accomplishment is one thing, but I ask you again, does that qualify her to be named/name herself/have her sponsors name her an "all-around climbing champion"? I think not. wirlwind hits it on "The Nose", it's all about selling shit to kids that's bought with the 'rents cash so the CEO can retire early. But surely she must have some say in the misinformation that is posted on her website, eh? I'm just on a rant about blatant overhype. Time for me to chill out and get a

And here's something I don't get... So sure, she's a talented 15-year-old sport climber. This distinction, then, qualifies her to be named an all-around champion climber? So what has she done in the alpine? Big wall? High altitude? Ice? Call me crazy, but I just can't see that naming her an "all-around champion climber" makes any fucking sense at all. WTF is up with today's youth anyway?

I can't help but wonder what has happened recently in someone's life each time a closet cleaning like this is announced...

Me and a bunch of buds from the Tri-Cities that climb went to VL after seeing all the bullshit in the trailers. We got good and drunk before the show and all doodied up in our climbing gear. Ya know, helmets, harnesses, racks, boots, etc. Some clown didn't want to let us in until the manager came over (whom I know) and let us in (but we had to leave our ice tools and axes with her during the show). We sure had a whoopin' good time flaming every "climbing" scene, but I think that a few peeps thought we were real assholes. We sure thought it was funny, tho.

I just knew I had a purpose on this planet!

From the movie K2, with Michael Bien ("Kyle" from the first Terminator, and the only Marine who survives along with Sigourney in "Aliens"): The part at the end (when the director ran out of money and needed to end the film quickly) when the Huey plucks them from the mountain at, oh, say, 17k feet. Same movie, when Bien and his wimpy buddy anchor the tent of a competing party (who decided to pitch it in an avy chute) vying for the same route with a snow stake. When the avy hits, the clowns in the tent are "saved" cuz our hero lashed them to the face with that stake. BOMBER!

classic!

Patience, padwan learner. The force will (eventually) be with you. Hey Rob, where are you living now? I kinda understood that you were back East for Isabell. You still live there? Where is "the flatlands" you refer to in your avatar?

She's dead. Killed on K2 in 1995. Ticks included solo ascent of Everest and scores of difficult solos in the Alps. Yep, she was a hard one. What about Sue McDevitt? Yosemite Big Wall girl?

Governor