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Mt. Sill Swiss Arete Trip Report
I’ll start with some facts about the trip with comments to follow. In my planning I came across Romain Wacziarg’s June 2002 trip report, which is not too far short of a full guide to the route. If you want pictures and other practical information that I don’t have :cry:, check it out. Location: The…
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Movie: The Killing Fields
Cambodia was a spot on the map to me, involved with Viet Nam in some foggy way, and accompanied by some dim recollections of headlines from my childhood. This movie brings it into sharp, painfully understandable focus. Movies that portray the consequences of our actions in distant places are needed here, regardless of the political…
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Restaurant: Sizzler
I had a salad bar at the Sizzler last night. It’s like a regular salad bar, plus all the TV dinners you can eat.
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Beaten
I’ve sustained my first climbing injury since I started more than a year ago. Thankfully it’s just a minor ankle sprain, and will probably heal fast. It happened at the notoriously pumpy Owen’s River Gorge, on the notoriously pumpy route Show Us Your Tits (10b). I thought I had become strong enough to take on…
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Movie: Run Silent, Run Deep
I decided to watch this to compare it with Das Boot. A disappointment. It winds up playing like a Navy recruitment film, and doesn’t come close to expressing the gravity of submarine warfare the way Das Boot does. A strange irony to contemplate: maybe being on the winning side leaves less room for honest artistic…
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Movie: Tomb Raider
The fact that I am admitting I watched this movie is a better review than I expected to give it :!:. Way better than the Red Sonya-type modern sex heroine flick I thought I was in for, but still no match for Tank Girl.
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Gear: The Ozark Trail Screenhouse
Need instructions? If you have the 13’x10′ model, your prayers are answered! Here is a PDF of the owner’s manual. Commenters report good service by calling 1-800-775-1965 for other models. Commenters have also, in the spirit of empiricism and reverse engineering, written their own instructions for the 14′ x 12′ and the 10′ x 13′…
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Domelands
Ann and I spent three days and two nights backpacking and climbing in the domelands this weekend. We encountered many things: A young rattlesnake right under our feet, endless stands and varieties of flowers, a wade through a swampy beaver pond, a thrilling rock climb up Moon Dome (posted in Climbing), an accidental dunk in…
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Surpise Symphony (5.8 ) on Moon Dome
Ann and I did our (and my) most adventurous route yet this weekend: The route is highlighted with a dot between each pitch. The trees are so big that you don’t get a correct sense of scale – the end of the first pitch is about 180 feet up! Because of the 10 mile approach…
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Have I become a flower freak?
I can’t help it, the desert flowers are blowing my mind. This is a prickly pear at my friend’s house in Joshua Tree. When we left to go climbing there were only buds, and upon return a bee was already hard at work in the blossom. There were also lillies blooming all over the place…