ryland_moore

The majority of people on this earth can't be wrong!

Quit being a smart-ass Dru. You can get by with any rack you want. It is such an easy climb you can simul-solo the majority of it. If the snow couloir is sketch, don't rope up or place a picket. The rock is low angle and there is a ton of placements in the smaller stuff (less than 1") No need to bring anything bigger than a 1.5 or 2 bd cam.

I can think of a few in Patagonia that might compare!

Go and see for yourself. No one is going to tell you that there is never any danger on any slope, but if you are worried, go check it out aund dig a test pit, or if you don't know how to do that, take a course and learn or wait until July. I do not know the stats but I'd be more worried about rime and debris falling from the ice above along route than an avalanche on the Emmons. Maybe someone out there has some stats about how many times and locations of where slides have occurred on that side of the mountain? I'e been up there in May, June, July, and Aug and never even seen signs of slides....

Back in Virginia, I knew a guy named Steve Johnson whose father and uncle owned Johnson Bros. Erection Service (cranes). Funny thing was Steve's older vbrother was named harry and was poised to take over his father's company!

I'd call the ranger station at Jenny Lake. They can hook you up with weather and forecasts...

If I remember correctly, Sharkfin wasn't the only bad accSident Mounties had recently. I was up on Rainier in mid-August and the rangers were flying har out of Sherman. The tents and all gear were covered with a ton of blood and supposedly Mounties fell roped up on the traverse over to the saddle b/w the summit and Liberty Cap. I belkieve 2 mounties were injured and required rescue. Mayibe it is not more than the average person, but when you have a group that really is not all that big compared to the entire climbing community and look at the number of accidents recently invovling Mounties, one ccccccbegins to wonde. I think I only heard of five big accidents last summer in the Cascades and two of them involved Mounties outings and one involved members of Mounties. Hope the climber f4rom YJT recovers quickly.

Free booty!!!! prolly gone by now with how much traffic that route's seen last weekend.......

I've witnessed the eye thing first hand too. A climber from AZ whose group was on the same schedule as our Rednecks on Ice group started to lose vision around 14k on Denali. He was given O2 at the med tent, which helped his vision improve and fully restored upon descent to lower elevation. The docs explained it as high-altitude retinopathy, which is different then what people like Beck Weathers experienced on Everest or others that have had LASIK, which was attributed to what is called radial keratotomy. High-altitude retinopathy occurs frequently amongst climbers, but usually goes undetected and is a hemorrhaging within the blood vessels of the retina. According to the web, it usually occurs as a secondary symptom of AMS or HACE and most patients do not have it until above 16k, but like AMS it can occur at much lower elevations.

My roomate, Chad, just wanted to say 'thank you' for going the extra mile and returning his ID to him that you came across on Hood this weekend. You will be paid in Good Karma a thousand times over......

The guy definitely has some creds. However, he seems like a bit of a media whore, which detracts from his greatest accomplishments, like climbing Everest unguided. Is he doing it for himself or for personal gain to build himself up? You decide. Still, a great ascent of a classic (not hardest) route in NA. I will always remember crossing paths with Steve Schneider (shipoopi) in Punta Arenas, CHile after his solo ascent of a new route (Golazo) on the central tower of Torres del Paine. He was totally laid back about his accomplishment, really quite modeswt, and really didn't want the media to know. He was content with knowing that he set out to do it and did. He did a slide show tour, to help fund his climbing, but you only saw a little blurb in the rags about it, which he did not send in and a clip in the AAC journal back in 1999 - that was it. He was even asking us about our ascents of peaks in Ecuador, Peru, and Argentina, even though they were standard routes, like Polish Glacier, and really nothing more than Emmons glacier type slogs at a much higher altitude. I learned a lot about climbing and see people and how they react to their own accomplishments. Is it a great feat to climb the 7 summits? Sure it is. Does anyone care if you are the 2 person in MN to climb the 7 summits or the 1st person to climb the 7 summits from your business school? I doubt it. It is as if he has to justify himself by placing himself on an imaginary pedestal by creating imaginary categories for his successes. Did you know that I was the first person at my elemetary school to get a thumb tack stuck up my nose? Also the second person that year to accomplish such a feat in my home town. It is unfortunate that this detracts from his accomplishments, but a little bit of humble pie goes a long way. Reminds me a bit of our ol' friend Dan ____........ p.s. Did someone forget to give me the memo that we can't use Mr. ____'s name on cc.com? Mr. H? Dan H.? Danno? Dan the Man Howitzer, Dannimal? You enter his name, and the computer mods automatically strike his last name out Dan your last name rhymes with Dowitt but the first letter is an H? I am just trying to see what the mods will accept here. Sorry for the thread drift.......

Not sure if this has been psoted or not, but fill out if you have the time. Could be some good info. and is backed by Access Fund. http://bonesaw.srnr.arizona.edu/climbing/naclimbsurvey.php

NOLS is pretty solid. I know a lot of folks who have guided for them over the years. Also look at Wilderness Ventures, in Jackson, WY. I used to work for them. They have an awesome course up in Alaska for high school kids where you spend 10 days sea kayaking in Prince William Sound and then another 10 days backpacking in the Talkeetna Mountains. I loved guiding this course. They also have one for older kids that is a 3 week backpacking trip in the N. Cascades/Pasayten Wilderness with a resupply along Ross Lake. They have trips that deal with the Rockies, Tetons, AK, and of course the PNW. Not as international as NOLS, smaller oppoeration, but not as expensive either.

Man, that really sucks. I didn't know him well, but chatted with him often in the summer climbing at the local sport crags in Jackson often. He was always willing to chat with you and answer questions about his latest projects, ski descents, and journeys. Pretty humble man for what he had accomplished. I know he got a lot of people in to steep skiing and ski mountaineering. He will be greatly missed......RIP Doug

I think you have your coordinates mixed up. Cooke City is the NE entrance to Yellowstone, which in my opinion, is the best route in Yellowstone as it goes over Beartooth Pass and is the highest maintained road in the US at over 11,000'. It is also your best opportunity to see wolves and bears. The Boiling River is a subset of Mammoth Hotsprings and can be reached either through the NE entrance or the N entrance. Not from the West which is in a town called West Yellowstone and is really far south. It is also a good fall or early spring fishing spot as the "boiling River" flows into the Gardner River and there are huge cutts waiting for your fly.... Nice TR!

Why not the regular Polish Glacier route? The Polish Direct is rarely in condition and typically is bullet-proof ice up to 70 degrees. Why would you do this or the walk-up False Polish that traverses over to the Normal Route, when you have a great route like the regular Polish glacier right there?

Check her out! Show on the travel channel from 11pm-12am. Dude she is as hot as her pics indicate

Congrats! Won't you have to make an honest woman of her first before trying to get her back to the U.S.? I had a friend who married his girlfriend over in the Phillippines two years ago and his wife is still not back yet!!!! He is so frustrated, but it is now a really big hassle and he is going broke flying over there three times a year just to visit her. Ever since 9/11, things have been really hard getting through all of the red tape. I wish you luck. I'd recommend you get a lawyer asap to help you through this.

I've done the route at the end of May fwiw. This year, if the winter continues, you should have no problem.

Is that why they call you Dirty? Becasue you have the runs all the time?

Agreed. Ashw_justin, like you said, you've never been there, so you really have no basis for opinion. I climbed the WB in 2003 in mid-May and have to say it was more beautiful then any climbs in the N. Cascades, Tetons, Mexico, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, or Argentina that I've done. There is just nothing like it in the world. And if you think you can walk up Denali like you can the Emmons, then by all means, go for it. I've been alot higher than 20,320' before and that was the hardest "dog route" I've ever summitted. When we were up there Barry Blanchard and crew used the WB to summit for their acclimation for the Cassin, so limiting WB summit permits wouldn't work either. Also, the NPS is doing a lot to keep the mountain clean, but there are still people who disobey and will leave crap and trash on the mountain. It is not a perfect world. The more people, the more trash and crap. Tell someone who is pinned down at 14k or 17k for a week with 60 mph winds and temps -30 to go shit in a pit and see how many out of a few hundred at 14k will do so. When you are worried for your own safety, which can often happen on Denali, WB included, then the last thing on your mind is that you make sure you get your CMC business all taken care of or that you make sure you dig up your cache of trash before you sprint to lower elevations to escape with your life. We had a lot of people when we were there and it wasn't even peak season. Adding another 300 people is a lot. If you do not plan at least 6 months in advance, it makes sense that you shouldn't be going in the first place or just wait until next year. The mountain isn't going anywhere. Our society is so self-centered and about instant gratification. This is one instance where the greatest good is not about you, but about one of the most beautiful places in the world remaining just that. As for people attempting other routes like South Side, I am sure the NPS will have unwritten exceptions. Also, a question posed earlier, the total number is not for a two month window, but for the entire year. The tally starts running on January 1, I assume. There will never be all 1,500 people on the mountain at the same time. I would suspect if that would be the case, they would have to reduce the limit even further. Just having 400-500 people on the mountain at the same time is a lot.

PeakBetty - all of this is good. Asuming you are a newbie climber, I am also assuming you are a newbie backpacker with the list of stuff you are wanting to purchase (tent, stove, filter, etc.). Everyone starts out somewhere and thinks they need all of this gear, when in reality, you can get by with a lot less. I own a filter and bet I have not used it once in the last three years and I am out climbing almost every weekend in the spring and summer. I use iodine tablets or that little bottle you fill up and put a cap full in a nalgene. I've used these on 2 week backpacking trips and been fine. If getting a stove, go lite with the jetboil or something similar. Same with your rack. You will only need a small rack and can combine with partners you climb with. I do not have a full rack and can always comingle with partners. Just make sure you mark your gear or you may end up losing it like some poor cc.comer was complaining about recently. Just remember, whatever you take, you have to carry. If you don't bring it along on a regular basis, do you really need it? Most of the routes a newbie will be doing will not be gear specific and you will have multiple options for gear placements at almost every point you want to throw something in, so no need to buy a full rack anyway starting out.

I think this is a good thing. ALthough, when I climbed it in mid-May, the hordes of climbers had yet to arrive, but we saw what was ahead on our descent with the camps at 14k and 11k tripling to quadrupling in size from when we were there. Although public lands, it is amazing how easy it is to exceed an area's carrying capacity and it seems like the NPS has done a good thing along with the CMCs to keep the mountain as prisitine as possible while also keeping climbers' healths a focus.

Sounds like you thought it through. Not like you are drytooling Smiff tuff on some super-famous manufactured route anyways. Good luck on The Trip!

Damn, I think after RoadHead's post (who I might add also hides behind an anonymous name), I will go out there and chop the bolt again just because he acts like an idiot and seems like a total dick and really just to piss him off........ Sure you didn't lose it your your goatee old man? Or maybe forget that it was never there and you are starting to get a little senile? Relax moron.....