ryland_moore

Took 28 days wort of food and fuel and made the summit on day 14, back at bc on day 16. Gave away around 60 lbs. of food and fuel at 14k. Parties and played for a week in AK after wards. Made for a nice transition back to reality. Take the time and don't spend all that money only to have to turn around b/c you didn't plan enough time or bring enough food and fuel.

Nice work man! Yeah, with the wind and all, the conditions sucked! Even at noon30 on Hood on Saturday, the upper mountain was icey! Thought I was going to lose a knee coming down. Sun was out, but with all the wind, the snow just would not soften up. Glad you had a good outing!

Good luck my man! 4th time's a try! Persistence will pay!

Used to hate doing taxes. Would take me multiple days and many draft forms until I would get it right. Until this year a friend turned me on to on-line forms. I used H and R Block, but you can use any of them. Cost me $20 for both fed. and state. I was done in 45 minutes - no bs. I will never fill out a paper form again. I didn't once need a calculator. The computer does everything for you, carries your answers onto different schedules and even over to the state form. It also mails everything in for you. Plus, filing online, I got my refunds back within 1 week for state and 9 days from the feds.

Just for future reference D, it may have been better to take off your crampons in those conditions, or get anti balling plates (not always reliable). If the snow was so soft, you can kick steps in and not worry about the balling. We all learn every time we go out, no matter how long any of us have climbed. Keep it up!

Awesome trip! Can't wait to see the pics!

Fort Meyers at sea level isn't much difference from most Pacific Northweesterners at a few hundred feet above it. We usually do it in a one day push like Hood and Rainier, or a two day push. The more you carry up the harder it is to acclimate, which you aren't really doing on these climbs because you are only up there for such a short time. Camps are established for a number of reasons: protection from weather, elements (ie. avalanche, rockfall, covered crevasses, etc.), a good point to stop, etc. It is good to have enough gear to survive, but on Rainier, I doubt you will need to carry over everything unless doing a route like Liberty Ridge, and then you are trying to go as light as possible anyways. For dog routes like DC or Emmons, there are the main camps like Sherman and Muir and higher camps like Ingraham Flats. All in all, you can only go as high as your body will allow. You may find that you get to Muir and can't go another step, or you feel fine and can push on to Ingraham Flats. You can camp anywhere you'd like, just as long as you trust your reading of the elements and have a good understanding of where you are making your camp (ie. Do you know that there is not a huge serac waiting to fall over that cliff above you at 12k?) Mountains are unpredictable. Unless you know the terrain, why risk camping in an area you are'nt familiar with to make your summit day "easier" (which I could argue carrying a full load 2,000' higher may not -since you may be so trashed from the previous day) Most people do Rainier in two days, more are starting to do it in a day. My rec. to you is hike up to the camp of your route on day one and prep. to summit next morning. If you don't feel acclimated enough, hang out for another day, go explore, whatever, and summit the next morning.

Yeah that was weird looking over to Rainier from hood yesterday. There were no clouds on any other mountains except Rainier! Later that day, a cloud descended on Adams summit for a bit as well. Cascades weather - gotta luv it!

Crazy Ian! Last we saw you was after you skied down off the summit and were chatting with friends at the Hogsback. We probably put on our skis and headed down when the accident occured. Crazy, cause we were sitting in the parking lot drinking beers and on the way back to PDX saw the blackhawk landing at Legacy. We were joking that there was a rescue on Hood. Unfortunately, it was true. Glad that they survived. Seems like a long fall to me. Any idea why they were so low on the Castle Crags route (a route that seems to require stable snow on the traverse) so late in the day? Is that where they fell from, the traverse? You looked stylin' on tv last night! Glad you were there at the right time. Qucik recovery to the two climbers.

Sorry RBW, I was writing fast. It is 18,996 id I remember. In my journal, since it was the first time for me above 15,000' I wrote that although the summit was just under 19k, with my height my head was aover 19k!

Wind may keep people at bay! Also, check the avi conditions if you are going to come down WCR if still looking for a ski descent.

To expand on lummox's pressure breathing, not only pursing your lips but forcing the air out and pushing through your abdomen. It souns loud, but it does work. Make the breaths deeper and longer as well. Prior to going to altitude for an extended period of time, it can also help to take Iron supplements to "strengthen" the blood. Just do not take it and maybe a week before heading out on an expedition. As for coca, I drank the tea down on Cotapaxi, but I don't know if it helped or not as I had already climbed El Cayambe (18,000') and Gua Gua Pinchincha (15,500') over the previous few days. All in all, acclimation is key for higher mountains, descent is mandatory if acute mountain sickness persists for more than a few days. In the cascades where summits are attained in 24 hrs or less, hydration is key before and during your climb, moving at a steady but slower pace, pressure breathing, eating regularly (caloric intake like Gu every hour or so), and not pushing yourself. If you feel bad, rest, rehydrate, pressure breathe, and eat. If you continue to feel bad, descend. Altitude affects people differently each time they go out. My buddy who had been up to Everest base camp a week and a half prior to meeting up with me on Aconcagua acquired Pulmonary Edema at 14k. We went from Mendoza to the highway drop off at 9k the first day. Then hiked to a camp at 12k. Took a rest day at 12k, with a day hike up to look at the S. Face, and then headed to Basecamp the following day. By the time we hit BC, he had hit a wall, and by that evening we took him to the Gammo Bag where he remained all night with fluid in his lungs. Why did he get it and no one else in our party? I had been to almost 21,000 in Ecuador and Peru the previous few weeks and my other buddy lived in Telluride at 9k for the last 6 months. We all carried minimla weight as the mules had most of it. The only difference was that when he hiked, he hiked fast and then would rest while we caught up. We moved slow and steady and were fine. He later went and sumitted some peaks in the Cordillera Blanca a month later and had no problems. Another thing on longer expedition-style climbs. If you reach your next camp and are feeling bad, you may need to rest for a little while, but do not become lethargic. Sitting around hoping you will acclimate is probably the worst thing you can do. Take a walk around camp, offer to make water, set up a tent, build an igloo. In otehr words stay active at that altitude. You will acclimate fast and more likely won't have to descend as you will begin to feel better. In the Cascades, you typically get can up and down without incident, but for those that do have problems, what I mentioned above has worked for me without any problems. As for Diamox, my belief is that I want my body to acclimate naturally. If you need Diamox to try and acclimate, then you are climbing too fast. What's the rush? You're in some amazing place and you are trying to rush through it so you can go back to your boring daily lives pretending to work and typing on cc.com all day? If you are having trouble on Hood, Rainier, Shasta, etc. Insterad of doing a one day climb, make it a two day and bivy at 9-10k. I bet you'll see a difference. My final comment, and then I'll shut up, is watch your weight. Do you really need a whole pound of cheese and three bagels to run up the S. Side of Hood? What about extra jackets? As you spend more days on the glaciers and in the mountains you will learn what you do and don't need. Keep track of everything you use and if there is something you keep bringing and never use, my bet is that you can leave it behind. More weight defiantely has a direct correlation to how one acclimates. My two cents.

I am heading up tonight at 2am to go solo Leuthold's or Reid HEadwall. See y'alls up there. Nothing like hiking up without a headlamp by moonlight!

Figger Eight recs. Peanut Butter, which is awesome, but will freeze solide and really only be good for ice bowling on the glacier. If you can keep it from freezing (sleeping with it) then it is nice to have. As others mentioned, variety is KEY! Also, with a pressure cooker, you will save so much gas that the minimal increase in the cooker is well worth the weight on an expedition compared with the additional fuel required without it. My two cents.

Instant cheese cakes are the schizzle! We made plenty of friends on Denali with them last year and even helped folks celebrate their birthdays. Plus all the squeeze butter helps for energy. Tasty Bites Rock, but are getting rediculously expensive (I saw $4.50 i nthe grocery store). Instant grits, mashed potatoes, pasta at lower elevations, and any type of burritos you can imagine. To cut down on fuel if out for a long time, think of using a small pressure cooker. Heavier than normal pots, but cooks rice and beans and real grits super fast! Don't take pasta if going to high elevations 15,000+ as it turns to goo, and what truely makes a meal is the condiments. You can stomach anything with some tabasco, garlic powder, olive oil and butter anyday!

There was a thread on this in the AK section last year for people wanting to do Denali. I made my own sled for Denali and it stayed together well. Instead of PVC (which I broke the joints while skiing in the crud with heavy weight in the sled, I used 1/2 " aluminum and used a bar bender instead of joint to link the middle to attach the two aluminum 1/2" waist bars in the middle of the sled, I took a 3/4" tube and slid the 1/2" inside and drilled two holes for each 1/2" piece. Seriously bomber, never broke under the heaviest of weights and I skied with no problems except when I wanted to make big turns and going fast, then the sled would sway a little too much to the sides, but still never tipped. I did use a longer sled so that my weight in the sled was more spread out and less top-heavy which also seemed to help with not ever tipping over. The benefit of using a bar bender instead of joints is that on each trip you can adjust it to what you want. Want more stability? Just bend the bars to cross. Want something a little more versatile? Bend them back to parrallel. PVC sucks IMO and bamboo would never work unless you were pulling only the sled and no weight.

Plus, if I remember correctly (only TR'ed it once and flailed like a greased pig) the laast bolt to the chains is fairly easy compared to the super thin crux sections below?

I think the difficulty would be that by the time SH melts out, the Road to Adams is just opening...

Alot of folks who do the extension deliberately fall right at the top instead of clipping at the anchors for the extra rush of a huge, albeit safe 40 fter. He may have just been packing up because he was finished and leaving.

The Skydive variation is also fun. Goes at 10c and instead of doing the traverse for the second pitch you head straight up.

Anyone done S. Side and Worm flows in a day? Thinking of doing it with skis. WOrth the effort? Seems like if you summitted Hood around sunrise and skied down then hopped in the car and made it to St. Helens say 11am, you could easily skin up and summit and be back before dark, right?

So.......when is it gonna happen? I'm jonesin to get out there!

Taking a newbie up this weekend and don't feel like bringing a rope and pickets. Any problems with the shrund? I doubt it is even showing, but would like to make sure there are no issues getting around it.

Heard they cancelled the icefest in Canmore b/c all the ice fell down!

I voted once. I've been in a strategic planning session the last two days at the Kennedy School and have not even looked at the puter till now. I still have to go to the 9pm one, but could meet you all somewhere after.