jja

Because I am not a moral relativist.

Henry, If that means going in hat in hand to countries with absolutely no stake in the matter like angola and cameroon, and saying pretty please can we defend ourselves - no thanks.

Iranians aren't arabs. The french behaviour is regrettable but understandable as your analysis points out. The germans on the other hand are just freakin scary. It seems they go careening through history from one extreme end of the political spectrum to the other. After the kaiser united all the principalities germany became a war mongering and ultra nationalist state. Then came the horrors of WW1, and the resulting morally bankrupt nihilistic weimar republic. Then the ultra nationalist nazi's and horrors of ww2. And now without the cold war to moderate their natural tendancies, they've once again swerved into the decadence of the weimar republic. Watch out! weimar = what happens when democracies go bad.

From a couple of weeks ago: So, did you buy a harness yet?

he looks like the evil jockey from the "bad as you want to be" episode of the simpsons

Liberty Ridge is good fun. If you want to do the easier white river approach, the road ususally opens on memorial day weekend. Don't underestimate the approach, it's a long way, and starts at a relatively low elevation. Some things to think about: Curtis is a broad ridge, with lots of sidehilling - it seems to go on forever. Instead of camping on the curtis consider dropping down to the carbon to camp on the snow, more pleasant because there is no dust from the ridge. When you do drop down to the carbon, you're better off losing a little elevation and gain the glacier where it's easy, if you try to descend to the carbon from up higher on the curtis, it's just loose crap trying to get down. The most direct line on lib ridge will have lots of little rock steps to climb past, these can be bypassed by trending out into the snow on the right or left - but hey you came to climb lib ridge and this is in my opinion one of the things that makes this route so much fun. As far as gear goes, I think the key to this route is to go really light, as light as your experience and comfort level will allow. Most people bring bivy sacks or a bibler. For gear, 3 or 4 screws and a couple of pickets will do, a light rope, ice axe, second tool and a shovel for the party. Another thing to keep in mind, if you're not putting in pro down low on the route, there's really no reason to stay roped. We roped up and pitched out only the shrund at the bottom of the headwall, then did a running belay from there to the cap. Depending on weather, and the time you top out, consider spending a night on top. One of the best experiences I've had was sitting on my backpack with all our gear packed up and ready to go, with a hot cup of coffee, watching the sunrise up above a solid deck of clouds at 10k and blue skies above. Usually considered a III/IV this is a great route but if you truly are a "newbie in mountaineering" take an experienced partner or do the emmons first and learn the descent route.

it's out of print .. you could pay me a lot of money for mine though Andrew, are you the guy who asked us about directions at the mile 0 last week? if you're looking for specific info, I can let you borrow it.

This sunday I witnessed a leader fall on the first pitch of icy bc that was really scary. Fortunately the climber missed decking by about 2 feet, and only suffered a bad ankle injury. For the rest of the day all I could think about was seeing him whiz past his last screw - and that damm video that got posted last week with those two climbers ragdolling down the hill.

Gotta love google: From: Alan Lindsay (alindsay@networld.com) Subject: Accident victim suing "Expert" View this article only Newsgroups: rec.climbing Date: 2001-04-29 17:43:59 PST Check out: http://www.sltrib.com/04292001/utah/93201.htm In short, Lady meets guy who claims to have been climbing for 12 years. He invites her to go climbing with him. Something goes wrong with the TR (details are sketchy, but it looks like the rope was run directly through the webbing). She falls, massive injuries and gets word that this dude's maybe not as swift as he let on . Figures he oughta pay, since she trusted his representation that he knew what he was doing and it would be safe. It's a complex issue, but I gotta admit; if he made the mistake it looks like he made, he oughta bear some liability. (as a side note, she also finds out he's not as SINGLE as he let on, either)

I vaguely remember something about a climber getting sued (in civil court) for dropping his partner while belaying. It seems this "climber" represented himself as having 12 yrs of experience and took a newbie out climbing, only to top rope directly off the slings, which promptly burned through while lowering. Personally, I think the whole civil liability thing is way out of hand. I also think it's sad that this find-somebody-to-blame syndrome has infected the criminal justice system as well - the point I was trying to make with the skiing article.

Skier charged after deadly collision By James Langton and George Richards, Evening Standard 4 March 2003 A British skier on holiday in Colorado was today charged with manslaughter after the death of another man on the slopes. Robert Wills, 31, was arrested after a collision which left 56-yearold Richard Henrichs dead in Breckenridge on Sunday. According to the victim's son, Mr Wills ran into his father, causing him to hit a tree. In the resulting collision, Mr Henrichs suffered massive head injuries and a broken hip. A Foreign Office spokesman said: "Robert Wills has been charged with manslaughter. His family have been informed and consular assistance has been made available to him." Earlier, Summit County Sheriff 's Department spokesman Jill Berman said Mr Wills "might have been going too fast", when the accident happened. Officials from the British Consulate in Houston, Texas, are now on their way to Breckenridge where they will try to secure Mr Wills's release on £10,000 bail. The accident happened as Mr Henrichs, from Naperville, Illinois, was skiing with his son in the early afternoon. He died several hours later in hospital outside Denver. The Briton is being held in the Summit County Jail while the district attorney's office considers charges. Under Colorado law, ski accidents can become a criminal prosecution if it can be proved rules governing skiing conduct were broken. Like most other American resorts, skiers and snowboarders in Breckenridge are required by law to avoid hitting anyone below or in front of them. Mr Wills was staying at the Great Divide Lodge, a four-star hotel situated close to the bottom of he slopes and the centre of Breckenridge. He was on holiday with two male companions. They left Britain last Wednesday and had been due to return home tomorrow, said a spokeswoman for travel agent Thomas Cook. The resort, a former mining town about 60 miles from Denver in the Rocky Mountains, is popular with British skiers for its powder snow conditions and steep back bowls. It is one of the highest altitude resorts in America, with the town at nearly 10,000 feet and skiing up to 15,000 feet. Accidents have claimed the lives of 13 skiers and snowboarders in Colorado this season, following a record 16 deaths last year. Resort spokesman Dawn Doty said that staff sometime used speed-monitoring equipment. "We try to do whatever we can," she said. "We have our ski patrol staff and guest service staff on the mountain every day to remind people to ski slower at certain times and at certain points." Two years ago another skier involved in a fatal collision was jailed for 90 days in Colorado. Nathan Hall was convicted of killing Denver carpenter Alan Cobb, who originally came from Ipswich, on the slopes at Vail after hitting him so hard it took him nearly 100 feet to stop. Hall was charged with reckless manslaughter, which carried a maximum sentence of 16 years, but a jury convicted him on the lesser offence of negligent homicide.

Here you go Paul this ought to make you feel better: By the way for a self confessed gear slut those blue and yellow parachute pants of yours are quite a fashion statement!! Oh and by the way night-n-gale was in and fantastic this saturday. This is OJ from two weeks ago: Have fun hittin' those books !! ... And when are you going to send me some pictures ??

Did Oregon Jack on saturday, it was flowing a little but otherwise in fine shape. It was cold and snowing and for the first time this winter it actually felt like winter. It was even colder on sunday. woo hoo !!

check out scott semple's new page here No content yet, but it's got potential.

Try BackPackers Supply in Tacoma, Jim Yoder used to work there, and they carry it still (I think). If I remember correctly there's also a little beta in the Smoot rock climbing washington book.

I once saw two dogs whining and crying up a storm while clipped into a belay on a small patch of dirt below upper greensleaves (hyalite). When the owners got down from the climb the dogs discomfort only worsened as they had to be manhandled down the rampy WI 2ish gulley. What the hell were these people thinking?

How hard is the pornstar? Are you sure you want to know?

yeah, I think one or two of the hard routes have holds.

For me it was worth it when I lived at ft. lewis, cause i could just go out the east gate and be on 507. So to answer your question it's worth it if it's the closest climbing area to you, and if it's not you should probably go at least once so that way you can at least rag on it in an informed manner.

Good suggestion catbirdseat. Couple of more points on fossil. 1. It's not as bad as everyone says. 2. Bring a mountain bike for the logging road 3. WC crack is a 5.7 crack just to the right of the prominent cave on the first wall. It's a great first gear lead.

Your knee still hurts Craig ?? shit and I was going to call to see if you wanted to go again

David, I've got version 2.6.8 Click on File, Print Map ... (move crosshairs to center of image you want), Export Map to Disk ..., Choose Jpeg Best, Jpeg Good, or Jpeg Fair from the pulldown and give the file a name (you don't need to include the file extension, ie .jpg). For more control instead of using "Export Map to Disk", choose "Copy Map" which puts the image on the clipboard, then you can paste it into a graphics program of your choice, where you can choose compression ratios, image size, etc .. Wayne, As far as I know the ubb code only works with .jpg and .gif

left the army a couple of years ago now so things may have changed, but the climbing gym at ft. lewis is a converted raquetball court. Judson Lang runs it and is a climber and all around nice guy. You don't need to be in the army to climb there, but you do need to be able to get on ft. lewis, which pretty much means either being a soldier, or having a job on post. almost forgot, besides the indoor gym there is an outdoor freestanding wall that the sf group owns. you ain't getting on that one.

Hey, the guy came in second at Ouray - if it's good enough for him .. On the pick thing, yeah they get 'em for free, but I noticed on my own picks that being aggresive while getting them into cracks doesn't do nearly as much damage as a gumby swing into rock on an ice climb. After several laps on my tools (quarks 'B' pick) they only needed a little touch up.

I went to the ice fest ... fairly low attendance but I had a great time regardless. Bernard and Catherine really tried hard and did a good job with the limited amount of time they had to prepare and poor ice this year. They're psyched to put on a big(er) event next year. (Catherine even climbed Waite for Spring - says she's hooked ) Saturday night was Rob Owens slide show and door prizes, because of the low attendance (maybe 30) nearly everyone got something .. ice srews, axes, gloves, backpacks, I got a new petzl helios helmet. After the food and slide show it was off to the Reynolds for some discounted brews and exagerated epic telling. The real draw for me though were the clinics. Saturday at Marble with Scott Semple and Sunday at the Rambles with Rob Owens. The instructor ratio was fantastic because of the low turnout so what was supposed to be half day clinics turned in to all day affairs. With Scott the big thing I learned was to stay in better balance under my planted tool and to concentrate on the left tool/right foot - right tool/left foot dynamic. Something I would of never thought of by myself - completely eliminates the barn door feeling, especially when placing a screw on the steep. The mixed clinic with Rob was an absolute revelation. Watching one of the best mixed climbers in the world opens your eyes to the possible. The big lessons here for me were: 1. feet, feet, feet, climbing is always about feet! 2. quiet tools. 3. be really agressive looking for(or making) placements 4. I'm really weak. 5. I love leashes Number 3 suprised the hell out of me. Watching Rob do a demo climb, he just whacked away at the rock with almost as much force as an ice placement while looking for placements in cracks. The other big surprise for me was a complete willingness to totally weight a torqued pick - no worries he says they don't break. There were the usual gear demos, with BD and Charlet/Petzl on hand. BD has a new jaws like atc coming out, and the Fusion leashless tool. We also got to swing the ergo and try all the different crampons etc.. On leashless tools I could really see the advantage, especially on the mixed. I had one sequence where I actually felt like I knew what I was doing ... Drape the tool over your shoulder, pull on a jug with your hand, place the tool in a crack, match hands on the other tool and then switch - really sweet. My problem with leashless though is I can only do this for about 10 feet or so, then I'm sooo pumped without leashes ... take!!! Couldn't stay for monday, had to work (bummer!) Thanks to Audrey, James, Tanya, and Elliot for being great partners!!