Dru

We don't even HAVE an army! All we have is "peacekeepers" who go into an area where the US New World Order has screwed things up and keep the citizens from killing each other by duct taping them to the walls of their houses! And on American beer - well I saw a can of 5.5% alc./vol beer in the US labelled "strong beer", or even "malt liquor". In Canada it's got to be over 7% to be "strong" and over 20% to be "liquor" eh! 5.5% beer is just for cleansing your palate between mouthfuls of the good stuff! http://www.unibroue.com/index.cfm?largeur=800&javascript=oui

"Sit back and wait for the fodder?" I'll have you know my fodder can whup your fodder and your mama as well any day of the week ya damn Yankee! And our beer tastes better too!

I think you are referring to "line" bolting style. a "grid" is two-dimensional and requires at least two parallel lines of bolts!!!

Koflach, get the vertical (yellow) not the degre (red). a bit stiffer, better for ice, but super comfy and awesome for alpine too. you can even suppodsedly buy a "rock shoe" type optional inner boot for big alpine routes.... I have had mine for 1.5 years and climbed everything from 36 hour snow slogs to WI 5 in them and have no complaints except that they took a few months to break in for long walking. first ice season approaching was a bit clunky but since they broke in they feel like heaven on my feet.

Ok, I haven't done it, but people I know who have have basically indicated that it is an early summer-or-fall route only. Long hot days in August are not the ideal time to do it. Some continuous nightly freezing is recommended. If there is no cornice hazard, it could be easy, safe, big and fat (relative of course) in June. In Sept. expect thinner ice and more rock. In July-August maybe expect a liquid waterfall?

Good point Mike. Also wondering if anyone that rapped in made it back out alive or not?

Hey zeno don't forget the famous snow arete scenario where the partner jumps off the other side to stop your fall! In general if you are roped but have no pro in, it should be either because 1) the rope itself is your pro or 2) because you are moving fast over easy terrain but will need to be placing pro again quite soon and it's not worth it to untie,coil, and solo scramble before that point.

moving back onto topic here... (sorry sprayers, no disrespect )... it's classic if you enjoyed it and would do it again. if you didn't really specially enjoy it, but would do it again (cause its convenient or always dry or whatever)or you enjoyed it but don't want to do it again, it's just a route. and if you hate it and will never do it again, either it's a pile, or it's a classic and it's you that sucks! (there are many offwidths that put me in the latter category )

To quote from the late lamented gripped.com bulletin board, "Climbing? Yeah I climbed on your mama last night."

Yak yak? What's gnu about that?

Well it was a good trip. Borbon came by and gave me a bunch of Coors Light that he had the good sense not to drink himself. (Thanks Ray!) Got spanked on a boulder start at 4th of July. Still getting bouted on Royal Flush. But I did the Fault-Catapault-Bone-Canary link up. That's good!!!! And the Sickle Slab au cheval traverse that JN has the picture of in Kramar's guide. It was mostly a quiet scene with lots of wine drinking except for some morning wake up techno. And buddy Arlin getting arrested by the sherriff for telling him he was driving the wrong way around the campground loop. Man, the ticks were everywhere. I avoided most of them. But buddy Graham got 2 in the back of his neck and had to pull em out with pliers. Ow!

OOOOH, an invasion! Y'all better watch out, us Canajuns gonna make what the Chinese did to your airplane look like small potatoes! (Yeah that means suicide attacks, you got that right!) Just wait until your attack starts, you're gonna be mighty confused by the perpetual hemp smokescreen the average Canadian climber can generate when threatened....

Soooo, when I was at Castle Rock on Monday 2 guys were retrobolting Dan's Dreadful Direct with a power drill. I didn't ask them whether they had the 1st, or 1st free ascencionist's permission. I note that they left the sections with good gear bolt free. So now there is about 6? bolts plus gear. You could even clip the 1st bolt from the Angel crack stance before the crux (maybe). What do you all think of that? It's not my area, I won't comment yea or nay. Personally (referring to the Wa pass route mentioned above) I think you should focus less on how the route is established (top-down or bottom-up) and more on the resulting climb - are the bolts too close together, next to cracks or whatever, or in good places and well placed for clipping, not blocking holds or replacing gear or whatever? my own H.O. is that good climbs are good and bad climbs suck no matter how they were established. the only ones deprived of the adventure and terror by rap-bolting instead of lead-bolting are the first ascencionists.

Hide your wives and daughters, boys! A posse of drunken Canadians is heading to Leavenworth this weekend! Expect to hear "Oh Canada" sung in 8-Mile Capground at 3AM!

Trip reports on Robson North face are pretty easy to find online aren't they? Try typing "Mount Robson North Face" into a search engine? You can check the Canadian Mountain Encyclopedia too, they have some nice (recent) pictures. Condition wise expect 2000' of 50 degree snow and some fun cornices on the summit ridge. Only sissies and rich kids fly in. As for the Emperor Face, Stump/Logan and Cheesemond/Dick are both unrepeated. Blanchard/House/JoJo got to a few pitches below summit ridge, then bailed, twice (at least) including once in winter I think. OOOOOH cold! See the film "Beyond Gravity" for more beta on their last attempt.

True, true!

Even after the burgers and "beer" (urine samples?) I lost ten pounds on that one. I think that's what happens when you climb for 14 hours and only drink 2 liters of water (I'm sorry, I have no idea how many quarts that is ) You can, or could, buy a T-shirt at that tavern that says "Spotted Owls Taste Like Chicken!"

Hey John Goodtime, the N. face of Shuksan in mid-July should be an easy day(and a half) for just about everyone not just a lady. Just walk around the vine maple patch instead of going through it. Maybe 4 hours to the bivvy from the car? We though the hardest part was surviving the half-pound burgers and pints of Rai-Near Beer at "Holy Smoke, A Tavern" afterwards. Check out the trip report at: http://bivouac.com/mtn/TripPg.asp?rq=TripPg&TripId=33

I don't know about clearcuts but on the coast I have had the worst problems with ticks on bluffy areas with lots of arbutus (madrona) and salal bushes. In the Interior of BC the little bloodsuckers seem to be everywhere. It's funny how knowing there are ticks around makes every trivial itch into a tick bite... The best option (aside from showering in DEET every morning) is to wear long pants and shirt and then check yourself frequently. remember primates (=us) like to groom socially! although, whether that's enough when swarms of them crawl out of cracks at you, I don't know.... scary! Run away!

One thing I haven't seen mentioned at all on this thread refers to using half ropes and sketchy gear, and can be seen in Hard Grit or just about any shot of a Brit climbing (unless its on a boulder). When the gear is sketchy and may or may not fail in the event of a fall, you put in two pieces almost side-by-side and clip one of your two half ropes into each. Then if you fall and one piece blows but the other doesn't, you don't fall as far. Or you can climb on one (9.5 mm type) but use the other (8.5) as a directional, so that if you fall you get swung away from manky death pokers towards your directional piece. this is a little bit different than the "alternately clip each rope" scheme.

Well - If I had to choose between a Trango FCU and a DMM FCU, and I was buying here (in Canada) I would choose the DMM unit hands down. Cheaper, better quality, lighter, and has the double sling too. But if you were comparing Trango units to, say, Rock empire Robots, or Kong cams, or Lowe Fan-Cams, then I'd go with the Trango.Better quality. Those Robots are scary!

I climbed a frothen ite-thickle onthe. Dothe that count?

An ex-professor of mine contracted Lyme disease and spent a year confined to bed. It seems to affect a lot of people quite variably. Better not to get it I think, than hope that it won't affect you.

On the subject of 3rd class, 4th class, easy 5th class and how they overlap ( my opinions ) check http://bivouac.com/mtn/ExpPg.asp?rq=ExpPg&ExpId=102 Also, I challenge ANYONE to produce a method of distinguishing between any climbs rated 5.0 -5.4. They all feel the same difficulty wise! It's way easier to distinguish between 5.10b and c than it is to distinguish between 5.2 and 5.5. [This message has been edited by Dru (edited 04-03-2001).]

Skis, maybe? It's a long way to sno shu when you could schuss back down. The Baker/chilliwack alpine region got over a foot (35cm for Canadians) of new in the alpine in the last few days.