climbnjump

Yes. Sometimes the heart just knows.

I hunt deer, I shoot deer, I eat them. Just thought you should know. That's just the way girls are raised here in Pennsylvania. We get our hunting licenses at age 12 for the most part. Well, that ought to be good for about a dozen marriage proposals... Just not enough female hunters to go around. (Ya gotta read that right, as in "females that hunt" not "hunters of females" - I think there are plenty of the latter.)

It's personal preference regarding the number of pairs of shoes needed. I have friends who have climbed for years and only own one pair at a time used both indoors and out. I'm not exactly on par with Imelda Marcos, but I have a few pairs of climbing shoes. Two pairs for indoor climbing - one with more flexible soles for toe work leading overhangs and ceilings and another pair with stiffer soles for most other routes. For outdoors I like stiffer soles with high tops for use on granite routes, softer soles for use on sandstone, and yet another pair (more like specialized hiking boots) for longer alpine routes. And then there's the pair of double plastics for mountaineering and another more flexible pair of double plastics for technical ice climbing. Feet are useful appendages - be sure to provide 'em with good tools...

This might help you get started... http://www.thelaminator.net/

I've only been married once, but I've had more wives than Henry VIII.

I also agree that wearing a helmet should be a personal choice. My choice is that I never ride without one. Although I have yet to crash a road bike, I can't count the number of off-road crashes that I've had in 30 years of riding. In one particularly bad moment, I would have lost all my front teeth (due to a secondary collision between my face and my handlebar) if I had not been wearing a full face helmet. (Kinda wish I'd had a "helmet" for my nuts on that one as they impacted the gas tank pretty hard... Thought I was gonna barf right inside the helmet. That woulda been sweet.)

Um, I didn't say he didn't have options. Just that without actually being there in his place, it isn't possible, for me anyway, to judge his actions. You obviously feel differently. Learning is important to me. If I can learn from you, that would be great. So please, educate us all - tell us what you would have done in his place. Exactly what does your training say Simon should have done?

That's just a plain, outright lie. Makes me frightful to know I jump with people who have cowardly instincts and will let you die at the first hint of danger instead of AIO and refuse to leave a man behind. Dear Mr. Tuna, I apologize for frightening you - that wasn't my intent. While you have a billion more jumps than I'll ever have, it is pretty clear that your knowledge of climbing is minimal. (Or perhaps, you simply enjoy "stirring the pot".) While your beliefs would protect and save lives in battle, they would would have the opposite effect when the sh*t hits the fan on the side of a mountain. It has little to do with bravery or cowardice, but everything do to with properly analyzing the situation you are in and acting accordingly. So, I promise to never share airspace with you if you promise to never share a mountain with me. It should be a pretty easy bargain to keep. Best Regards.

Of course you do. People love to disagree/complain in these threads. I am extremely thankful I didn't serve with anyone in my unit that had that mindset. Leave no man behind. Period. And yes, I have been put in a similiar situation (non mountain climbing) while serving. Sure, everyone can have an opinion regarding whether cutting the rope was right or wrong. But the fact is none of us were there - only Simon was. The other fact is that in spite of his cutting the rope, they both survived. I'm having difficulty envisioning a better outcome. And I HAVE been in Simon's position while taking part in a climbing rescue that went from bad to worse. Had I not been able to hold my partner (there was no time to build an adequate anchor), I would have let him go. It was something he knew and accepted when he went over the edge. He was risking his life to save another. But if I had been unable to hold him, my dying with him would have served no purpose (except ensure that the rescue would fail). If you have done EVERYTHING you can, but it isn't enough to prevent another death, is there a purpose in dying "just because"? Maybe, maybe not. It is a question that can only be honestly answered in the split second that you encounter it. Climbing is not combat. People choose to climb, they are not ordered to do so. In making the choice to climb, they must also accept responsibility for the outcome. While climbers frequently do risk (and sometimes lose) their lives to rescue others, the strict "leave no man behind" rule does not apply. Any climber who believes that it should apply, would be better off staying home.

Hmm... Kinda like mine.

Well, my 3 nephews miss it. I have a sister who lives in Quincy. She used to take the boys out to watch the jumpers and they loved it. I don't know what the rest of Quincy thinks, however.

Yep. My Grandpa & Grandma raised them in their basement for years when I was a kid. The money was okay, but I don't think anyone got rich from it. That would have required WAY too many of the little buggers. The "processing" wasn't really that bad (unless you WERE the chinchilla). After skinning, the carcass was discarded. The foxes, owls, hawks, etc that hung around my Grandfather's farm ate pretty well. The "fine sand" that someone mentioned, is actually volcanic ash - at least that's what my grandparents used. This was placed in a box that could be pushed into and pulled out of the cage. The little buggers wanted to "shower" at least twice a day.

since i work on f-16 that's my goal...... plus theyhave much bigger intakes for more "wiggle" room than a f-14 does... I'm certainly no expert, (having not been laid in either intake) but it looks to me like the F14 intake would be more comfy...

I was 12 at the time. As a kid, I was glued to the TV for every single Apollo takeoff and watched all the TV coverage of every mission. But some months before the Apollo 11 mission, my folks had made arrangements to send me to summer camp in late July. They weren't aware, of course, that the dates they picked coincided with the moon shot. There was no TV there, so I didn't get to watch this one. I was crushed. I think I finally forgave my folks for that about the time I turned 40...

Usually, the first thing we do is turn off the video camera. Then we get out the score cards while the tape is rewinding. Then we score the replay and create a game plan for the next round.

The only time men and women think alike is in a crowded building when someone yells, "FIRE!" (Well, okay. Maybe not even then...)

Hey, I'm a network admin. Pick me, pick me!

Now, that there incredible piece of architecture looks like just about the best gol danged deer stand that I ever saw!

One possible side effect of repeated dehydration is the development of kidney stones. I have had the pleasure of this blessed event. I have a fairly high pain threshold (I once skied 2 runs on a broken leg) but the kidney stone experience was a killer. I uttered more naughty words during that trauma than I previously had in my entire life while I was lying on that table waiting for that sucker to complete its journey through my system. The attending physician was a woman who had both given birth and had passed a kidney stone. She said giving birth was less painful and she at least had something cute to take home afterword. I've never allowed myself to get dehydrated since that ordeal.

Ladies and Gentleman, we have a match: Dennis, you are moderately right-hemisphere dominant and have even preferences between auditory and visual processing, traits that might make people perceive you as "slightly off balance." Well, yeah. ...In the middle of summer, flies to somewhere where it is 20 below zero - spends 3 weeks w/o a shower (and one change of underwear) climbing a 20,000 ft. frozen chunk of granite. Makes annual trips to Canada to climb frozen waterfalls. Enjoys falling out of airplanes... Yes, most people think I'm "slightly off balance." However, I like to think that climbing and jumping balance each other leaving me nicely centered.

Well, finding ANOTHER someone sometimes works... ...And sometimes not.