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'Pass the Pitons' Pete
Big Wall climber
like Ontario, Canada, eh?
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Topic Author's Reply - Dec 31, 2015 - 05:32pm PT
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Holy frig,Susan!! Don't you dare tell the world what Anita did to me on that sofa!
Do you have to PAY for the WiFi now??
Much snow? How cold? She made me buy her a Heady Topper double IPA.
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SC seagoat
Trad climber
Santa Cruz, Moab, A sailboat, or some time zone
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Dec 31, 2015 - 05:46pm PT
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My lips are sealed. For a price.
The highs are in the 20s. Lows in low teens. Beautiful day time sun.
We are xc skiing. Snow camping tomorrow. Yes you have to have checked into Curry for WIFi....but we have "friends".
The Valley is LOADED with snow. Badger is beautiful.
Susan
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'Pass the Pitons' Pete
Big Wall climber
like Ontario, Canada, eh?
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Topic Author's Reply - Dec 31, 2015 - 06:21pm PT
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Sealed for a price, eh? Blue Moons?
Save me the WiFi code!
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SC seagoat
Trad climber
Santa Cruz, Moab, A sailboat, or some time zone
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Dec 31, 2015 - 07:03pm PT
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Blue Moons?
I know, I know. It's not real beer.
Susan
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Fritz
Trad climber
Choss Creek, ID
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Dec 31, 2015 - 07:14pm PT
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Happy New Year to my drunk friends, & Harley (the cat) sends a hello to Anita.
We popped the cork tonight on our last bottle of wine brought home from France. It is a 2012 St. Emilion Grand Cru, that I dropped about 8 Euros on in a supermarket. Some nice bouquet & otherwise thin & sour.
Oh well, at least my glass will stay mostly full. Heidi even promises Champagne for the late night.
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'Pass the Pitons' Pete
Big Wall climber
like Ontario, Canada, eh?
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Topic Author's Reply - Dec 31, 2015 - 07:57pm PT
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We had a St. Emelion Chateaux Qu'est-ce Que Tu Le Fvck last week, and it was dry dry dry dry dry dry. Blech. Trop de Merlot.
Tonight the Rombauer Chardonnay. Knott overrated. Don't ask Anita Nother what she had for supper and why.
Anita says she wants to kidnap Harley, a big chubby wubby, and snuggle him to death.
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SC seagoat
Trad climber
Santa Cruz, Moab, A sailboat, or some time zone
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Dec 31, 2015 - 08:17pm PT
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Anita says she wants to kidnap Harley, a big chubby wubby, and snuggle him to death.
Maybe she needs to practice first. Not saying who, but....
Susan
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'Pass the Pitons' Pete
Big Wall climber
like Ontario, Canada, eh?
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Topic Author's Reply - Dec 31, 2015 - 08:35pm PT
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Are you calling me CHUBBY??!!
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Fritz
Trad climber
Choss Creek, ID
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Dec 31, 2015 - 10:07pm PT
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A snowy New Year's Eve evening at home with Twilight Zone reruns.
Now into the champagne.
Sluuuuuurp!
Harley (the cat) says hi to his new rich aunt Anita.
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'Pass the Pitons' Pete
Big Wall climber
like Ontario, Canada, eh?
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Topic Author's Reply - Jan 8, 2016 - 07:01pm PT
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Good Friday evening all. Just sipping on some Hardy V.S.O.P. Cognac, a much appreciated Christmas present from Anita's dad.
So I actually am heading to the crag tomorrow, sort of. I'm back to the Huautla region of the Sierra Mazateca in Mexico, roughly halfway between Mexico City and the Yucatan in the state of Oaxaca. In this area is the Sistema Huautla, the deepest cave system in North America - I was caving there a couple years ago.
This time I'm with a much smaller expedition of about eleven I think, which has only just received permission from the local Mazatec people to explore a previously unvisited section of cloud forest up in the 1800m ASL range. Here aerial photos, google earth, topo maps and a single previous recce by our expedition co-leader back in the 90's shows a number of spectacular pits, one of which is said to be 275m deep! That is one BFP!
I only found out a few days ago that permission had been secured to visit the upper part of the mountain, where the best leads are, and I had promised to go if this turned out to be the case. No white man has ever visited the area, and some of the locals are openly hostile to outsiders - be they Merricans, Hosers, or even Mexicans! There is a famous story from years gone by where a locals who was drunk on mescal sidestepped the guard and chopped a rope with his machete that a caver was jugging at the time! The caver was fortunately right above a ledge in the pit, otherwise it would have been a two-hundred-foot fall to certain death.
One hopes they are little more friendly these days... ;)
And I've just been told that the other co-leader and I are to be the Point Men - we are heading up the mountain with an army of local sherpas who I'm told will carry enormous pigs for the modest fee of about ten bucks U.S. per day, so the Cheyne Lempkes and Joe Marlays of the world be forewarned, as I may import a few to El Cap next spring and bust the union. So it's our job to go up a day ahead of the others, find a place to camp [which I am told is no small feat in such a dense section of cloud forest] and have things ready. We shall see.....
We're sitting on a limestone sponge, so there is no drinking water. We either have to have it carried up for us, or else we will collect it off of our tarps. I'm told that it is the rainy season in a cloud forest, so I am madly waterproofing my tent and bivi sack and everything else. I'm also bringing the big plastic tarp that I use on camping and canoe trips. Any fool can be uncomfortable.
This seems to be an adventure that is the REAL DEAL. No roads, no cell phones, hell, I'm told there aren't even many paths! So we may have to do some full-on epic jungle bashing to find these caves. Hopefully, something will "go deep" and keep us busy. I'm guessing we'll be bringing up something in the order of a kilometre of static caving rope. As a caver, I have discovered, explored and surveyed many many miles of previously virgin passage, and have often "gone where no man has gone before". But this may be the first time I've done this above the ground. There aren't too many places left on earth like this, that's for sure.
The resurgence is far below, and is much larger than the resurgence for the Sistema Huautla. That cave has about seventy kilometres of passage and is 1500m deep, and the cave system in our area could be even bigger. The question is, can we find the entrances to the system? Are the passages big enough to explore, and do they all connect together? Or does all the water just seep through micro-pores in the limestone?
Only one way to find out.
Needless to say, our sherpas will be carrying up many gallons of fine local mescal.
It's hell in the karst.
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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So it's our job to go up a day ahead of the others, find a place to camp
El Fer de Lance te espera, cabron! Mucha suerte! ;-)
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'Pass the Pitons' Pete
Big Wall climber
like Ontario, Canada, eh?
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Topic Author's Reply - Jan 8, 2016 - 07:33pm PT
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Two years ago our biologists found five brand new species of tarantula, if you can believe it.
Man, there have to all sorts of creepy crawly nasties hiding out there - scorpions and spiders and bugs. Get me underground, where I know I'm safe!
And then, of course, there is all the rillenkarren, these razor-sharp blocks of limestone that have been sculpted by the rainwater. Don't fall on one of those things the wrong way, or you'll end up sliced in two.
And don't forget the Spiny Normans! That's what we call the bad agaves. You know what we use the good agaves for. ;)
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guyman
Social climber
Moorpark, CA.
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Around 5 regular beers, Kirin Ichiban, a IPA and a few rips.....so I do not really qualify for this .... But just surfing the Taco.
Don't trust anything that dude Reilly says, he is the village idiot of Monrovia.
PTPP sounds like a blast, be safe.
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Evel
Trad climber
Nedsterdam CO
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Beam and Colorado Cool aid.
Naw. I ain't following the rules.
Happy Friday night!
And Fritz! Give ol' Harley a scratch on the ears for me. A Most handsome fellow indeed.
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guyman
Social climber
Moorpark, CA.
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Naw. I ain't following the rules.
Evel... you might get banned...
happy friday
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Evel
Trad climber
Nedsterdam CO
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1.Beam and beer
2.Non-Climbing threads suck!
3. Cause it's like 11pm and I've got a blown knee.
There. That's covered.
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guyman
Social climber
Moorpark, CA.
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OK, your safe..... now.
whats up with knee?
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Evel
Trad climber
Nedsterdam CO
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Partial MCL back in June. Doing some treatment and saving for more.
Really want the stem cell therapy. Friends that have had it swear by it.
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guyman
Social climber
Moorpark, CA.
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good luck with that...
Count is now up to 7 rips, and 2 Bloody Marys.
Knight all
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Spider Savage
Mountain climber
The shaggy fringe of Los Angeles
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Just one Makers Mark and soda.
Harley is the only real cat on this site.
Skiing Mt Winston on Sunday morning if I get my work done tomorrow. It's small but I only get half a day.
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