Summit Journal Chat

Hi all. It's a cool and rainy day here in the Dallas area - quite a bit different from the norm.

Maybe someone needs to go over to Jay's apt. and set him up! At the very least he should be able to access this URL http://summitjournalchat.blogspot.com . And I was wondering about Ross. I miss his dry sense of humor. Kim says she's very busy now with work at the moment but will be contributing soon!

Lori: great hearing about the cruise. Hey, sometimes you have to stop down for the older folk and do what they want to do. You guys got to see Alaska with both your sets of parents, that's a very rare thing to do. :-) Thanks for TR. It seems like a million years ago that I came up to Seattle and we all went to hear David Breashears speak -- the 30 feet of snow at Mount Rainier - Paradise. That was fun.

Money Magazine (Apr2004) had a small article about Digital Camera's with big zooms. The Pentax Optio555 with a 5X zoom was rated "Good" at $404. The Canon Powershot S1 IS with a 10X zoom was rated "Better" at $500. And the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ10 with a 12X zoom was rated "Best" at $550. The best two have an image stabilization feature that compensates for the slight shaking of the hand that can blur pictures during long exposures or extreme zooms - a problem I often have when I'm breathing hard on a climb.

I have been following Mountain Madness with some interest. A couple of years ago I started running into a couple that I really like. I have never seen them below an elevation of 11,000 feet and I have never made plans to meet them in the mountains - we just run into each other. Last summer they did a climb of Kilimajaro by one on the non-standard routes. Appearently they were the only 2 members of their group to reach the summit by that route.

Anyway, if you go to www.mountainmadness.com and click on the daily dispatch link for their Everest climbers and trekkers you will see my firends names on the trekkers list; Didier Sourbes and Wendy Dean.

They should be at the Everest Base camp (south side) now having climbed Kala Pattar a few days ago.

I have invited Jay L about 5 times and he can't seem to get on the site.

I had not looked down the list and saw that it was already there. No response yet. I will email him.

I just noticed that Jay is not on our members list. I think that I have his email address - can anyone verify it? I will try to put it into the list.

Tim - Buy. Are you the Florida Tim or the Chicago Tim? or neither Tim? Did we have at one time - two Tims?

Anyone know how to get in touch with JayE?

Thanks for the summation Rose.

And thanks for the camera input. Unfortunately, the $$$ Leica isn't mine (yet), so there would be some concern over its treatment on the mountain. my compact Leica takes very nice shots, but they pale in comparison to the SLR with tripod.

I had planned on my next camera to be digital, but the owner of this Leica needs to sell before his wife finds out he bought it.

Ah, yes. You caught me out. ;-)

Rose (aka Elizabeth)

Thanks Rose! I know you're really Elizabeth Hawley in deep cover ;-)

Hi Everyone,
Thanks, magoo. T West is an ENews staffer who is manning basecamp. I haven't heard who any of the climbers are. Things could get interesting. Tom Holzel apparently is serving as an advisor to ENews. Also, Graham Hoyland whose great uncle Summerville gave his now famous Kodak camera to M&I is at basecamp with a BBC group. The BBC group has not announced a search for SI but one of their photographers photographed GM's remains in 1999.

Best regards,
Rose

There's a new dispatch from the Sandy Irvine expedition at everestnews - check link to the right. Who is TjW?

On April 2nd, Rose wrote:

I have been following the Mallory and Irvine story on ENews. Apparently some folks think they have figured out where SI is. After the 2001 IMG Search for SI and the camera, Eric and Jochen (I think) flew to Beijing to interview a Chinese climber who recalled seeing another dead person in the vicinity of where GM was found (but he was facing up, lying in a gully of some sort). There are some folks who seem to have put a lot of effort into analyzing the terrain and have located an area that seems likely to be the site but was not searched by the IMG team. I think this is what ENews is going after. IMG has a team going to the North col led by Jake Norton but there is no mention of plans to search. So I guess we will have to wait and see.

This is the most cohesive thing I've read about the search for Sandy Irvine. At everestnews, they have a whole site dedicated to the expedition but really say nothing about actual expedition.

Tim -

If you are interested in digital cameras, you might want to check out:

http://www.imaging-resource.com/DIGCAM01.HTM

They do a nice job for the comparison shopper. I received a Minolta Dimage S414 as a Christmas gift, so can't claim any astute shopper points but am liking it a lot. It can be had for a little over $200.00 and is packed with many features found on cameras that are much higher priced. It has 4.1 mega pixels, digital zoom, manual over-rides, a TRIPOD MOUNT, and tons more. It even does voice recordings for your picture files.... But check out the site. It has good things to say about the Powershot too.

Thanks Carrie. I spoke to Tricia today. Like the rest of us, she's happy with the new and improved SJC. We should hear from her soon. I'll try to invite her with the instructions you posted. Let's see if I can get it right.

Terry, I sent you an email....I need your lawyerly advice.

GBS, the glacial fjords are lovely and the views are amazing, as lovely as can be given the the fact that you're stuck on a huge ship with 2500 other beings. We had a balcony room, so we escaped to privacy and the view on our terms. The deck, whenever it was sunny, was people, and deck chairs, and more people. If there was something to see, everyone crowded the railings. Overheard: "I paid to see whales. They better get me some whales." Unfortunately, although most of the passengers seemed to be nice enough, there were enough of the "we're doing this to tell our friends we did this" set to really get on my nerves.

We did our own day trips, didn't pay the outrageous $$$ to do it with the cruise social directors. That left us free to do what we wanted, as far away from the others as possible. That was nice. We saw bald eagles just overhead while hiking in Sitka National Park. Salmon in a creek outside Ketchikan that you could almost walk across the creek on top of them. Outside Klondike, at the recommendation of an NPS ranger we spoke to, we joined a funny little local geologist/archiology who does very small tours (for $25 each) and explored the forests, often crawling on hands & knees to see rare mushrooms, artifacts of the native tribes, and other treasures that the NPS would never let a large cruise ship group near. As we were driving to one of the sites, he picked up a hitchhiker, a young lady whom he believed worked in town. She didn't; she was backpacking her way across the US, but he let her ride with us anyhow, but she had to take the tour with us because we didn't have time to drop her off anywhere else. She complied and got the free tour. Funny Alaska sort of thing.

We planned to do some flight seeing that I arranged through a contact at work, but typical Juneau, the wind and rains came in at about 60 mph and grounded us. So we visited museums and the local pub (the one where locals hang out, not the Red Dog Saloon, which was created for tourists). Back on ship, we heard a lot of grumbling about how people went on the cruise for helicopter and glacial flights and they were "rooked" out of that experience. I guess people think we're kidding when we say that Alaska has tempermental weather even in summer. Or maybe the cruise company is supposed to fix the weather somehow!

Our parents had a great time. They loved hanging out with us and each other. My parents were in the discos every night til they closed at 4am. Patrick & I ditched the parents when we wanted to go on hikes or wild mushroom hunting excursions.

My perspective on cruises? There is, of course, the whole envirornmental concern (I researched to avoid the known contaminators), and the impact of all those people on small Native towns, which is an issue I grapple with. But cruises also keep all those masses out of the more pristine wilderness, for the most part. I think that IF the cruise industry cleans up its act, cruises are all right. But we'll be avoiding them -- we only have so much vacation and discretionary spending money. I can cruise when my knees give out (hopefully when I'm about 98). For now on, we're packing our packs and going the same old way we always have -- on foot

Tim: You certainly can't tell it from my JTNP photos (due to rain, snow, & sleet) but the Canon Powershot 400 is a great little digital camera. IMO, you want to stay above 4 megapixels, although 3.2 isn't too bad. Hey, unless you are just admantly opposed to digital, why not lighten your load but still have great quality photos? I have better examples of PS400 shots I can email you. What's up - don't like "hanging out of the car, out of focused shots in the rain"?

Lori and Terry - I have sent Tricia an invitation to join this blog. Good idea!

The way you invite someone is:
1. Click on the Settings tab (next to Posting on the page you post from)
2. Click on the Members tab
3. Click on Add New Member
4. Enter the invitee's email address and any personal comments you want to make
5. Blogger.com sends an email to the invitee with instructions on how to join

Hopefully Tricia will make it here! If you have a more current email address for her than the one I used, go ahead and send her another invitation.

I used a PowerBook 540c until I could not upgrade the OS any more and then bought a used G3 which I love because of the expansion bays and the neat drives you use in it. The only problem is that I think the place where I got it is not so good and this machine may have parts that are not original in it - like an IBM hard drive in an Apple? I was not so smart at the shop when I checked it out. The next one will be a 12" Titanium PowerBook. It is good looking and just the right size for my hands. Wonder if those freeze on the big E.
I also love the new flash memories. I saw one that had 512MB and was silver. WOW. I also have been seeing allot of high GB pocket sized hard drives.
Got to go work on my projects.
Bye for now.

Thank you Lori.
I have always wanted to do that.
I don't think it is off topic. I would like to hear about what you saw in Alaska.
Bruce, or Tim, who ever asked about the tripod. I think that there are body tripods that you can either attached to yourself or hold on you knee. I don't think that you need a big three legged one anymore. Why not write DB and ask him what he takes when he is not using large cameras?
The year that MIT helped the American expedition to Everest, they were wondering how to package the weather instruments - I saw a post that said that the only thing left from a former installation was a tripod - all the other instruments had blown away - so, I suggested making the tripod the instrument - and they did. They put the instruments into a "pipe" and the pipe was part of a leg. It worked OK.
Well, anyway, I was taught two techniques. In one you sort of push out your chest and brace your upper arms on it to steady your hands as you shoot, in the other you put the camera on a friend's shoulder. The arms on chest technique works well and allot of documentary filmmakers use it.
Cheers!
My cell phone has GPS.
Don't feel bad Lori - it takes years for me to get new technology. I don't like the prices of new technology (nor do I have those bucks) so I finally broke down and got a cell phone after they passed the law allowing us to migrate our phone numbers across companies. As soon as I heard that on NPR it was a done deal.

It's the last Thursday before the First Friday that spells the beginning of a nine day break. Happy Easter Everyone! - fat, bald and in between.

I'm sensing a bit of a theme here....

Lori, before any cruise you have to find a story by Pam Houston called "Humping The Jet Set", an absolute hoot! Not sure which of her books has it, but worth the search. PBob will remember hearing her read this story live a few years back.

And BTW the following cut a little deep...

creepy overweight bald guys trying to convince you that they're still as virile as when they were 18 year old stud football players.

Hey Lori, nice to see you here. Of course,Tricia would be welcome, only I don't know how to invite her. Perhaps when Magoo logs on, she can make the invite or post how it is done.Anyway, when I left the tv the Flames were getting their butts kicked by the Canucks so I gotta go.
BTW, I agree with you about hating to agree with Bruce, mostly on principle.But I think it also possible to hate agreeing with Bruce and be completely unprincipled about it.

Liz,GBS, Tim...wow, names I haven't heard in a long time. It's like a high school reunion except without all the creepy overweight bald guys trying to convince you that they're still as virile as when they were 18 year old stud football players.

SJC Reloaded forced us to end the 2 years of inertia and go out and buy a new desktop yesterday. Our old system was similar to Terry's old 486, except that Terry didn't have kick his to get the hard drive unstuck to make it boot up. These are exciting times! I never realized that webpages load faster than 8 minutes per page.

Can we invite Tricia too? She left SJC once it started getting overcrowded. I haven't figured out how to do anything here except read and post (and it took me a while to realize that I was reading back into history instead of forward). The idea of posting comments to specific messages to help thoughts flow logically kind of amused me. It HAS been a long time. I recall that many of us never had thoughts that flowed logically back then. Mostly, you kept reading until after you skipped over certain posts (ok, Terry, Bruce, me) and things actually started to make some sense. But with respect due to those who 1. think before they post, 2. think logically before they post and 3. actually have a reasonable flow to their thoughts, I shall certainly take note of whatever tools that Blogger provides for this and certainly of how others in the Blog use them.

Tim, take the camera. I hate to agree with Bruce (on principle, mostly), but if you leave the camera at home and miss the killer photos, you're going to be disappointed. Family birthday parties are important, but you probably bought the camera for your adventures too, right? What's the point of having it, if you don't bring it with you? Even if it breaks halfway through your trip, you've still got half the pictures. Take the camera and the lenses you need. And take plenty of film. Film is cheap, right Terry? Take the camera and take lots of photos. When you're 103, you may not have the best of memory and you won't have that camera, but you'll have those photos. And they'll help you remember what you did when you were young and virile.

The best thing about SJC Reloaded? It's motivating me to go out and find new adventures and exploits, so I'll have something interesting to write about. Other than a trip to Chiapas and the surrounding region in Mexico last year, we've been kind of going to the same places, doing the same things. We took my parents and his parents on an Alaska cruise this summer, which the folks enjoyed, but is about as far from "adventure" as you can get ("comatose" is more like it -- although there were nice day hikes). Patrick, me and the senior citizen bunch. I don't think that will cut it on SJC, eh???
But it's almost 9pm. Time for my warm milk and slippers....
nite all...

Lori (ghost written by Grover)

Normal strangeness? Would that make strange strangeness normal?

Tim - It's only a matter of time before a similar technology to the one that's been applied to binoculars makes it possible to take long exposures on a light tripod. Digital resolutions may also soon offer some help. How about shorter tripods? They would gain sturdiness from their compressed dimensions and on top of a mountain, height should be less of a concern.

But maybe the real fix is to leave the camera and tripod at home. If trekking up a "hill" can be justified by the experience alone, maybe that should be enough. The old movie Soylent Green comes to mind. The antithesis of continuing life experience - the ultimate death trip - was the film version of the by then extinct "natural world". So, doesn't it make sense that those lucky enough to be alive, and with a future, should live so fully in the moment that artifacts become unnecessary, sort of like the orchestra that plays so perfectly - the only thing left to do at the end is to smash the instruments. Somethings can only exist in a moment. Any immitation would be an insult.

After all that, think how much better the moment could be without any of the added weight. Besides, you can always buy the post card set from the shop at the bottom of the hill.

"Another tip - don't let people who like to hack have administrative power. OTF LOL"

I just found this addition to Terry's post, is this what you mean? I'm pretty certain Terry didn't add this.

What kind of strangeness?

Have you noticed anything strange about your posts?

Bruce - I didn't watch the show but, if I remember correctly, they went last year and the climbers were dropping like flies. I don't know if anyone ended up making the summit or not.

By the way does anyone know what the story is on that reality TV show that ran last year and offered a fully guided climb of Everest as the grand prize. Are they going this year? Did they go already? Did somebody wake up a say, "You know, maybe this isn't such a good idea..."
I think the show ran on the Outdoor Life Network.

Hey Tim - My advice is to take the best possible camera and damn the torpedos...or repair bills. I thought I was being REAL smart last year and took diposable cameras (good quality mind you) on the West Coast Trail. We had close to 30 miles of watching whales just 100 yards or so off shore and not one good shot to show for it.

That and the terminally topless Swedish...German...Swiss...Ah who cares she was topless, had an accent and was an aerobics/yoga instructor. Or at least that's what I think she was telling me in her native language as we filled our water bottles.

So as I was saying take a good camera.

Another tip - don't let people who like to hack have administrative power. OTF LOL

A tip: If you want to use the comment feature, you have to disable your pop-up blocker.

Thanks Carrie, I'll try that.

Tim - Is there anyway that you could get "the girlfriend" to carry the camera and tpod? Mention to her that carrying the extra stuff is a good way to lose weight. That ought to do it. Oops - don't tell anyone I siad that, ok.

CSTerry - I had a post that posted out of order the other day and I had a heck of a time editing it to update the time but I finally got it stuck in the right place. I think what happens is the timestamp in the Post window is set to the time you start typing the post, not the time you actually post it. Thus, the posts can get put on the blog out of sequence. On the right side of your post window you can open up a window called "Post Options" and edit the time of your post if you take a significant amount of time typing it. :)

Hey Bruce, no entries for this year--real question for me is whether to drag another 10-12 pounds of gear up a mountain. The Leica and a real tripod would be a significant step up in quality.

This might be a concept for PBob to toss around: lightweight tripods (it takes weight for a tripod to be effective).

I even recommended "Blogs" to the Curriculum Director at my school. I think there could be a lot of benefit for members of a department or faculty in general by having the opportunity to weigh in on various topics related to their job. There is something about formulating your thoughts for a larger audience than an email recipient that compells, but also gives pause.

Our own unintended "pause" as a group seems to have fostered a fair amount of reflection on and appreciation for what we originally just took for granted.

Happy Easter everyone!

I just realized that my post did appear but out of order. Both have the same time stamp and everyone knows I can't type 2 posts in one minute

That's strange. I published a post but it didn't appear.

Team Canada climbed to the Summit of the World Women's Hockey Championship tonight winning their eighth consecutive gold. The win was marred by a couple of bad officiating calls which went against Team USA.

I like the comment feature. It means one doesn't have to say " referring to PBob's 4:02 post ".........For the digitally challenged, like someone I know, the fewer words to type the better. This place is turning into something pretty cool

I just want to add that we can now type the word "hard" with out being censored like we were at OO :-)

The comments numbers are now posting.

Maybe since they're being stored on haloscan.com, maybe it takes a while to catch up.

Now it's gone, but that would be a different kind of comment. The comments under our post can be put there by anyone not just members.

magoo - where do those comments go? I tried to use the 8:15 comment link under your message

How about that? ->
With less space above and below the lines related to "post a comment"?

It's really meant for people who drop by or lurkers who want to post a quick comment and don't want to go through the whole invite thing. Although, it could be used like a thread, I do think that would break up the conversation too much.

Others weigh in.

I think it is better on the sidebar since that part of the screen doesn't change.
It looks too fussy to me to have it on the time stamp.
In a blog majority rules? I have not had such web power before! LOL

I'm not sure Magoo, might be too divergent, and make things harder to follow.

Do we likey?

You should be able to add comments to posts now.

It might be cool if there was a comment link - same size - right beside the timestamp?? That would be a little less intrusive. Then people who are lurking could drop by and add a comment. That was the beauty of the old SJC.

I thought that add a comment thing was good for people that were just stopping by. But it really breaks up the flow.

I mean - I put the "want to write a post" into the side bar with the link - I don't know abou the traceback and comment stuff

Hi Magoo - I put the sidebar on
don't know about the comment and traceback stuff - did not do that

While it lasts Terry, while it lasts.

A repentent Bruce.......something to savour.

Was our old site at OO a blog? It sort of acted like one, but, it did not do the dynamic updates for the usernames.

Bruce: It's okay. The way I look at those things is it's a chance to do it over again and do it even better!

Oh yeah I refreshed my PC...I also get to see both the blog and the posting window on one screen on my PC, but on my Mac I only see one or the other and have to switch windows to manage things...This really wears a guy out you understand - - that's my I messed with the template yesterday.
Which I am STILL VERY SORRY FOR!

That is interesting.
Did you refresh your PC?
I changed my nickname back to GBS from TT because I started a blog around a group of artists working in art, science and technology and no one there knew me as TT. These blogs are very interesting. I am not understanding the updates and re-publishing yet.

funny
let's get one

Slogan - "Getting this underwear on is optional - getting them off again is mandatory"

And I was seeing "Gloria" as your name on my PC at home - My Mac at work had you as TT, now GBS.

PR gone wild!! - get your life size cut out of EV http://edviesturs.altrec.com/shop/detail/16523/40. Hey, maybe he could put his summit underwear on Ebay afterwards!!

TT - No, you are posting as TT. Yes, your friend that wants to join can use the link to the right where it says "want to join this blog?" to send an email to magoo and she can send them the invitation to join the group.

Am I posting as "Gloria" on your screens?
Thank you everyone. cyberspace... is as good as it gets here.
Carrie - sorry to hear about your mother. They were always here and now they will continue to be here in another way.
Seems like we are all going through changes.
Bruce - congratulations on the second child. What a joy to hear about. What a nice place to grow up in.
I am going to ask a friend who climbs to join in. Shall they email magoo?

Gloria - Let me add my condolences on the loss of your father. My Mom passed away in September of last year and I am still working my way through the grief. My best to you and your family in this difficult time.

My condolences as well Gloria....


Winter Sun

The late winter sun is lost
And a long shadow disappears
Into the dead grass.

When the birds are singing
And the new blossoms
Are vibrant as rainbows...

Remember the one who lived
Yet, not long enough
To dry all our tears.

Just incredible! I had come to believe that our group had finally run its course, when it obviously has not. Maybe we need to change our name to "The Phoenix". I know, I know....don't ash.

Gloria - sorry about your Dad, it's always tough when the big chief goes.

We would have loved to have rioted when Bush came here, but we were told not to...very unCanadian. I am no longer in the media, laid off three years ago but picked up with an agency as well as some pretty good freelance work. The question machine has a little brother now, which keeps us on our toes - he broke his first bike helmet last week, proving that the nut doesn't fall very far from the tree.

Magoo - yes, I did make that little change - but, you notice I commented out the original line before I made my change in case someone didn't like it. Anyway, since we are going to have lots of System Managers we may get ourselfs into trouble so we better keep backups of the template around.

thanks for putting Dave's page link. it's great to see it. - good going Dave!
Hey Bruce - don't be afraid to make mistakes with the html. That is... if you can go in reverse and fix what ever it is that you mess up. Keep a notebook by the computer and write down each change you make so you can go backwards.
thanks to everyone for doing all the work to get this place. it is really great.

Have been reading cognitive aesthetics.
Going to church and Kerry activities. Almost a riot here when Bush came last week.
Everything changing at MIT in my domain. All group heads, chairs and Deans in my area are in the process of changing.
Father died in January.
Work coming along. Using SOHO data for an upcoming exhibit. More on that later.
Some info in Journal Leonardo Feb. 2004 issue.

Do you mean we actually want folks that don't agree with everything B-list writers write? ;-)

Good idea magoo! I like the idea of new people being able to drop in, and giving them the opportunity to join may keep new, fresh perspectives coming.

So I'm thinking it's been about two years since we last had a somewhat functional SJC...What's everyone been up to during that time?

Yeah it should make for an interesting year. I've always enjoyed EV's way of doing things, but I feel like he's a bit off the rails lately. His book Himalayan Quest, was oddly timed, considering he hasn't completed the 8000ers yet. And this Everest trip means that he was fallen off the Everest anonymous wagon with a resounding thud. Is this an opportunity to get altitude for his later climb or an effort to get some face time and cash in on whatever buzz Touching The Void generates?

It makes me nervous though

With the search for Sandy Irvine and the Ed Viesturs, David Breashears expediton, should be a good year!

So... Everest - May 10 '96 - the movie: http://www.edviesturs.com/news/everestfilm.asp. A dramatization??

I see that EV was involved in something called the "See you at the top" climb for lung cancer. I wonder if anyone warned him that TCCD trademarked "See you at the top"

hee hee hee

Hi jean! Good to see another old friend. This is fun.

Ed Viesturs is at Everest base camp on the South side and is calling in dispatches every few days at:
http://www.edviesturs.com/

recovering

Hey Jean. Just a tip, but don't touch the template button.

Ha - there's jean

Hey BBob thanks for getting me here. jean

Um, I'm just guessing here, but could it be Tom West ?

link update

There's a dispatch from the Sandy Irvine expedition at http://www.everestnews2004.com/malloryandirvine2004/dispatch04032004.htm

It's signed by TjW. Does anyone know who that is?

Yer just sayin' that cuz it's true.

Bruce gives new meaning to "there goes the neighborhood"!!!

Should be back now. Even the fire engine red time stamps - I hope Boulder Bob did that?? I followed suit in putting it back together today.

Nope I'm not going to touch anything again - I promise, tho it's not the first time I shut down the SJC. :-)

B-List writers do not like HTML - I know this now.

Since we all have admin access, we can all potentially cause the train wreck that Bruce caused today. So, in the future, if you'd like to brush up on your html skills and change this page, please feel free - calmly knowing that there is a backup in the archive template tab and that I have a backup on my drive - in case you're feeling really froggy in bloggyville and go and erase the archive also :-)

Bruce: JSYK, it did come back rather painlessly as you can see. ;-)

links should be back - Bruce definitely owes me a pizza. Wait, 2 pizzas because he wiped out the backup.

Hey,we also seem to have lost most of our links. Bad Bruce, Bad Bruce! Now there are 2 links that say "edit-me"..........I'm not even going to go there.

Drunk with power I am...

Other books that are pretty good for Everest geeks are the two 50th Anniversary tomes - one from Venables (and others) and the other by George Band

Thanks for fixing the template, magoo. And I can see last week's archives too.

Bruce!!!! I knew we shouldn't have given him Administrator privileges!! :)

I think "P" is PBob.

By the way, who is "P"?

oooppppppssss sorry.

I thought the template change only affected my screen - won't happen again.

Nope. I didn't change it, but I will put it back as much as I can. Somehow the archive was deleted also. Bummer. It took forever to figure out their code.

Me suspects someone else modified the Blog template. magoo?

Help! I posted and now the format of the page is changed (but I didn't do anything to change it!). I can still see all the posts, but the poster's name is not there and the font is much larger and less pleasing to the eye :) Any idea what to do?

Lori - You're letting Grover post for you?!? Uh oh!

Bruce - Maria Coffey's book is on my (oh so lengthy) list of things to read. I haven't read your other recommendations either. Sound interesting.

There goes the neighborhood -- good to see you Lori.

Ok, I'm in.
Thanks Bruce.
No time to read or post...
But looking around at the familiar faces is nice.
Lori

NG Adventure has become my mag of choice over the last year - some dynamite writing and stories, and more than a few writers that used to be the core of Outside seem to have found a home there.

Recently I finished reading "In The Spirit of Crazy Horse", by Peter Mathisson - fantastic read and very poignant with regards to the current perception of threat and how it is spun.

I'd also suggest David Roberts' "Escape From Lucania", Ed Doouglas' "Tenzing" and Maria Coffey's "Where The Mountain Cast Its Shadow"

Reading? National Geographic Adventure magazine is about all I have time to read these days. Excellent magazine. Last month featured an interview with Dr. Ken Kammler who I'm sure we all remember from Everest 1996. The issue also had a focus feature on the Grand Canyon...makes me want to get out and do some hiking!

Good Monday morning everyone! Glad to see so much activity over the weekend. However...that must mean we are all home on our computers and not out climbing anything. I certainly don't have any good trip reports to post, being Carrie the Sedentary lately for various reasons. Anyone been out enjoying the outdoors besides Bruce? BBob?

Hello to everyone who is finding their way here. pretty amazing really. It was about this time in 1998 that I brought up the tale of TCCD to the SJC. Good times...good times.

I'm not surprised that Touching the Void makes for a weak trailer - - the action, such as it is, doesn't really lend itself to bits and bites jammed into 90 seconds.

What has everyone been reading lately?

I believe I was able to refresh the page, with the latest post, by simply clicking on the filter tab while in the "Manage Posts" section.

You're never too old B-bob...At least that's my experience. With the numerous and at times unintentional techniques I've used for coming down a mountain, there is in my opinion no more pure way to descend than with a snowboard. Every other technique demands that you oppose the fall line - but on a board you work within the fall line...that and the chickies dig us greys on trays if ya know what I'm sayin'...

And it's extra good to see my old buddy P-bob on here - - I know I owe you about a million emails - my bad.

Good description Bruce (re: your drink). I guess I'm too old - a snow board is one of the boogie board things for snow, right?

"B-List writers. Interlinked and meritocratic, seething with fierce debate and rivalries"

That quote actually made my frappacino reroute itself out my nose! LOL May I suggest that we use it as a working mission statement.

Hey Tim I saw the call for entries for the Banff Photo Contest today when I was in Banff and wondered if you're going to try again. As for the shoulder, talk to your Doc and get some Anaprox - - beautiful stuff and works like a charm for me.

And for those keeping score - snow was wonderful, the lift lines were small, the temperature was in the 50s (translated to American) and well...I love my snowboard.

Glad you made it here TT!

And, perhaps if you go to the Publish Status tab and repubish you will get the new stuff?

I think that the "Refresh" option of the Internet Browser will get you the latest.

LOL! You didn't do anything! Have you noticed that when you make changes, edit a post, etc., you can't see the changes until there's a new post? I'm noticing it when I make subtle changes to the page and I can't see the changes until there's a post. Weird.

That's strange. I added a post and in so doing, I seem to have deleted a post by Magoo at 4:00.

That Mounteverest.net site is a good one. Nice to see still more people logging on here.

Hi Everyone,
Two days in a row. Wow. This is great. This is the URL for a very good Everest site for current news. It has an interesting site for BaseCamp MD that discusses the medical aspects of high altitude climbing. It is a good complement to ENews.
http://www.mounteverest.net/

Hey, this is fun.
You can go into "Manage Posts" and fix spelling in previous posts!
I love it here.
It's like being on an island in the warm sun again. WOW - Thanks!

I am guessing that we have "personal" pages associated with our own IDs.
I changed my login name and it automatically updated all of the previous posts.
That is great. So, we have an identity that if we change, all post are updated and we can track that person's comments. I guess they can have numerous logins if they have numerous email addresses. I don't have much experience with blogs. Will have to read up on them, but, I can tell that the system is more powerful than our other one.

Magoo,
Thanks, just put the Post page into my bookmarks.
Do you go to blogID=6712119? or some other number?

TT: you can bookmark the "Create New Post" page also.
Funny how you can bookmark the page, yet I can't add that url as a link here. I've tried to put a button or at least a link to create a new post, but it's not working for me.

OK, I get it. You go to the Blog home page to select enter a new message, and you go to the SJC page if you just want to lurk. This is allot better than the other place. Thanks for asking me to join back-in as I missed everyone.

PBob - I found that cooking site and put a message up for you there, but, I never went back to that tasteless place! LOL

Hi There,
This is great.

I am in.
Thank you Boulder Bob.

Hi,
I am here.
Thank you Blouder Bob

Hi PBob,

Peruse this page http://www.blogger.com/about.pyra for basic information about web logs or blogs.

Also there is a great article about blogs in this month's Vanity Fair, April 2004 - by James Wolcott. It begins with:

"Don't dismiss blogs as the online rantings of B-List writers. Interlinked and meritocratic, seething with fierce debate and rivalries, they're the best thing to hit journalism since the rise of the political pamphlet. ".

Let's see.

magoo - I'll work on a few paragraphs that might be suitable for a "mission statement" of sorts and send anything I come up with to the group via email. If a consensus can be reached, we can go from there.

After viewing the photos from the Banff Centre Competition, one theme that I think should persist is that of "mountain culture". Those photos remind me that, although we may feel that putting ax to rock and ice is the epitome of our fascination with the mountains, there is a broader calling that knits us all into the same sweater.

I'm liking the spartan look to this site, especially since it seems so reminiscent of the "old SJC", but I think I need a review of the primer on Blogs and their distinction with the more traditional bulletin board, if I'm going to recognize their special status. Help me out here.

Otherwise, it's great to see the numbers and names again!

That Grand Prize is a nice picture - thanks Tim

Supposed to be a link here, but it's not showing up on my screen

finally found the invites in my "junk" folder; at any rate, thanks magoo.

month away from some climbing in Alaska; my shoulder is behaving badly but with this trip coming up it has no choice but to improve. Hopefully I'll have some nice pics to add to my site afterwards.

Speaking of nice pics:


http://www.banffcentre.ca/MountainCulture/archives/festivals/photo/2003/