Zenolith

I was skiing along the other day on the way back from an extreme route when I began to talk about my hero, Mark Twight. I was not surprised to learn that my partner was a fan too. We both had good action suits on and were moving very fast but we began to sing Slayer lyrics to make us feel hardcore like Twight. Anyhoo, we decided then and there that we should chair a Mark Twight fan club. Everyone knows that Mark Twight is the best and he is sooo extreme so I think you will all want to join. I emailed Mark Twight 6 times today and when he gets back to me then I'll tell you if he will lead us on an club-christening climb or something. Ok, so, climb hard and Be Extreme!! Post script: What is your favorite peice of Mark Twight advice? Mine is the one about putting your Dromedary filled with hot water in your bag to increase the thermal gradient to push moisture out of your clothes. Bingo!

This sounds like a job for Self-Proclaimed Environmental Ethicist Man!! As someone pointed out, and my handy carrying-capacity gauge agrees, there is a lot of rock out there and until someone can tell me that these lichens and vegetation, in this particular place, are endangered then I don't see a problem. Humans and all other animals have always altered their environment. Studies like this one are part of the problem actually because they come from a mindset that allows people to think that we are not natural creatures (ie. we could avoid altering our environment by changing our behavior), this is not the case. Saying that "science now shows that climbing is harmful to the environment" is RIDICKEROUS and stupid. Climbing is a basic physiological response, but science? Now that crap is harmful to the environment!! Sounds like a couple of idiots chose a silly PhD thesis. The questions we should be asking are; Should we climb somewhere else or at a different time? If we ban climbing here will we cause climbers to more heavily ipact other areas? Etc. In my view climbers should use slings and other leaver hardware that leaves the least impact possible. Climbing has been an environmentally harmless activity for a long time until the en mass proliferation of bolts, chalk and those dorky boulderers who put maxi pads on the heather. We should place intense peer pressure on those who would make climbing look like desert motocross or we'll find ourselves on the wrong side of the environmental debate in no time at all.

hmmm, two things i know. there has NEVER been a documented case of a wolf killing a human, but there have been a lot of cases of cougars doing so. does that say something about ferocity (which is subjective anyway.)? like bears cougars tend to run if they get the chance but will sometimes "lie in wait" for a human. wolves never do that. wolves can only fight with their jaws but a cougar will slap first and then chew.

hope you people did the cave route while you were there. tis real neato.

I love the smell of Napalm in the morning.

Dorthy was a cool chick. "If we laid all the people at this party end to end we'd have...."?

waitaminute, why can erik edit matt a's post. is that a trick? to the original post i say, i accel at everything below 5.5. i will spank any 5.5 face or crack with equal reckless abandon. once, i tried heinous cling on tr. i spanked the little crack, i spanked the little finger pockets, but the slapping dyno to the sloping little ledge? yes, it whipped me like that bad little boy that i am. I made up this joke and haven't gotten enough praise for my cleverness yet: what do bolts and condoms have incommon? (they both protect a bunch of pricks.)

terry, those are called "tasty bite" and yep, they are. trouble is, your bag'll stink for a long time... one of my new favorites is sardines in mustard sauce. sounds gross but it is really desirable after a lot of exertion. also like to fry the salami on my lid w/ cheese on it.

thanks jon, i couldn't find that one. and erik, yes, yes i do want those screws.

yes, erik, this has been discussed before, but i forgot and those searches are irritating. in the new bd catalog they have the "ice line" and the feller i asked at bd said its a 1/2 rope. i wondered if it could also be clipped into one piece (a screw on a pure ice climb) and he said, "those ropes are new and i haven't tried them yet" which convinced me that he was an idiot, so i spat and hung up. i would like to know if there is a 1/2 rope which offers enough stretch to be safely clipped to one peice as is usually done on ice climbs. the "ice line" is 8.1, 8 falls, 4.9kN(55kg), 10% stretch, and pretty light at 42g/m. because of the low impact force i wonder if it might be reasonable to do an entire ice climb with both ropes cliped to each screw. and then i wondered to myself, "what is the advantage to that, huh?" does anyone have an opinion?

Standing on the moon, got no cobwebs on my shoes,Standing on the moon, I'm feeling so alone and blue. See the gulf of Mexico, as tiny as a tear.The coast of California must be somewhere over here.Over here. Standing on the moon, I see the battle rage below,Standing on the moon, I see the soldiers come and go. There's a metal flag beside me, someone planted long ago.Old Glory standing stiffly, crimson, white and indigo.Old Glory standing stiffly, crimson, white and indigo.Indigo. I see all of South East Asia, I can see El Salvador.I hear the cries of children, and other songs of war. It's like a mighty melody, that rings out from the sky.Standing here upon the moon,I watch it all roll by, all roll by, all roll by, all roll by. Standing on the moon, I see a shadow on the sun.Standing on the moon, the stars go fading one by on. I can hear a cry of victory, another of defeat.A scrap of age-old lullaby, down some forgotten street. Standing on the moon, where talk is cheap and vision true.Standing on the moon, but I would rater be with you. Somewhere in San Francisco, on a back porch in July.Just looking up to heaven at this crescent in the sky.In the sky. Standing on the moon, with nothing left to do.A lovely view of heaven, but I'd rather be with you.A lovely view of heaven, but I'd rather be with you.Be with you, be with you, be with you, be with you.Rather be with you, be with you, be with you, be with you.

Went to see the captain, strangest I could find,Laid my proposition down, laid it on the line.I won't slave for beggar's pay, likewise gold and jewels,But I would slave to learn the way to sink your ship of fools. Ship of fools on a cruel sea, ship of fools sail away from me.It was later than I thought when I first believed you,Now I cannot share your laughter, ship of fools. Saw your first ship sink and drown, from rockin' of the boat,And all that could not sink or swim was just left there to float.I won't leave you drifting down, but woh it makes me wild,With thirty years upon my head to have you call me child. Ship of fools on a cruel sea, ship of fools sail away from me.It was later than I thought when I first believed you,Now I cannot share your laughter, ship of fools. The bottles stand as empty, as they were filled before.Time there was and plenty, but from that cup no more.Though I could not caution all, I still might warn a few:Don't lend your hand to raise no flag atop no ship of fools. Ship of fools on a cruel sea, ship of fools sail away from me.It was later than I thought, when I first believed you,Now I cannot share your laughter, ship of fools. It was later than I thought when I first believed you,Now I cannot share your laughter, ship of fools.

climbed 11:00 last Sat with imorris, pete, and patty. Was fun. Good conditions but poor pro due to the unconsolidated snow on the n. side. tr and pics later.

yes, they are doing business the french way it seems. you just need to know how to deal with them. they got on the ball pretty quick once i started calling instead of emailing. my shipping on skis and poles was $25, that's 5 days longer and $25 cheaper than skis from T-P.

I have some 4.o wiregate biners which are really nice for my purposes. they have a gate opening of 29mm, rated to 26kN, and weigh 49 gm. These are my favorite wire biners. I have some jc wires too which are good but not as easy to use with gloves on. i have their caranut tool too which is nice but i think i've seen one made by some other company now. I have some knob handle screws which are basically the same as smiley's. good stuff i think. some people say they are no good but they give "too cheap" as their only reason which i think is stupid.

this is probably old news but i just heard about it. if you have android leashes look here: http://www.bdel.com/alpinism/icetools_android_replace.html i emailed the warrantee dept and told them i had two and they mailed me new ones (just from the clip down).

i bought some atomic tourguide superlight skis from them recently. i also bought poles and the bill (incl shipping) was 340 euros (USD 300). they didn't have the poles i wanted and it took them a week to tell me that, so i called them to ask what was up and they said the order had already shipped. it shipped by french post and then fed ex so it took about 8 days to get here. i would reccomend this shop if you can't find what you need at barrabes (whom i have used) or T-P (whom i have used twice). they have a vast selection and you can buy out of season gear anytime of the year. some advice; call in your order (at midnight pst), make sure they have your stuff in stock and ask when it will ship. you'll get better results that way. Nathalie (the only guy i dealt with) spoke perfect english. when my package arrived there were some really nice Ti leki makalu poles inside that cost 13 euros more than the ones i was charged for. i look forward to rapping off them in an epic retreat someday.

Does anyone have more current info on ice at Banks? Seems like it might be in w/ all the cold we've had recently...

its how you tell a 3 year old to paralellstem christieparalellstem christie...

wow, you saw beckey on hood?!!

Bug, That kind of stupid shit goes way beyond spray. Grow the fuck up.

I have the following from meeting minutes; "NEWS FROM THE PLENARY SESSION OF THE UIAA SAFETY COMMISSION INNSBRUCK, AUSTRIA, JUNE 2001" "New work has again confirmed that ropes should not be marked (middle) with any kind of felt pens. The ropes will be damaged." The following is from the Alpine Club of Canada Gazette regarding UIAA safety commission's testing on ropes. 1) Gasoline, diesel fuel, camp gas, sea water, coca cola, and strong vinegar do not damage ropes. Urine dropped the number of falls held in the standard test drops by 50%. 2) An American product specifically sold for marking the middle of ropes reduces the strength of the rope (only at the point of marking however and only when this point is loaded over the test edge) by as much as 50%. I had forgotten the last part which really makes it unlikely that this would cause a real-world problem.

russ, My axe is actually a flash and weighs 18oz -next to nothing IMO.

A few more points: 1) As Winter eluded to, public lands are owned by the public and are an extremely important part of their ecosystems, bioregions and the ecosphere in general. Placing a sign demanding money between the true owner (you) and the caretaker (Forest Circus) makes people feel less interested and less empowered in regards to public lands. People generally feel more responsibility toward something that they own than to something that they pay to experience. 2) The way most of the USFS roads are built is by trading them for free logs. The roads are then often either closed to the public, decommisioned or obliterated for the price of...more free logs! As erik mentioned the timber co.s get these logs at way below market value and we pay them hansomely for the construction of the roads. If they screw up a stream or cause other structural problems we pay to fix that too! These roads we buy don't (usually) lead to anywhere we want to go and they are often closed to us anyway so why should this use of our public lands be paid for by taxes and (our) trees when recreation, which costs nothing in comparison, is paid for (twice) by us? 3) Lastly, the fee demo is being implemented jointly by the USFS and the American Recreation Coalition. There are a lot of clubs, companies and organizations represented in the ARC and the majority of them require infrastructure in order to do their activities (boat ramps, wide trails, multi-colored, labeled photos of the view you're looking at, etc.) that are contrary to the wilderness experience that most of us seek. There are NO climbers, backpackers or other wilderness experience seekers represented in the coalition that is helping the USFS to charge you to walk a trail. At Mt St Helens, for instance, a climber will pay $20 for one day while a carload of snowmobilers with their machines will pay $5. I'm with erik; you will NEVER catch me paying a fee for a wilderness experience.

UIAA recomends the thread thing that tex mentioned. I've done it and it works very well. UIAA says that they've done confirmed tests that show the marker method (even the marker made for that purpose) weakens the rope by as much as %50.