ryland_moore

Better get your AAC memberships renewed!

To expand on Ken4ord's comments, I would highly recommend not using any joints to join aluminum poles. Instead only purchase two aluminum poles in the 1/2" diameter and one short 3/4" diameter. I used the 90 degree joiners and they snapped under heavy loads. I also experimented with PVC, but the weight of the sled was too much for me throwing the weight of the sled around and was hard to turn back over weighted on side hills. What worked for me on Denali and did not even have to make a repair was this: Take the two aluminim poles and get a bar bender, bending them at 90 degrees or a even more if you want the poles to cross going to your hips (even stronger). To attach the two poles together on the sled, take the 3/4" aluminum pole and fit it over top of the two 1/2" poles in the middle of the inside of the sled. I had the 3/4" pole running the entire width of the sled in the front. I drilled four holes to accomodate 4 large screws and wing nuts (easy to grab in cold conditions with gloves) and joined the 1/2"poles to the 3/4" joiner with two screws for each pole. Super solid and strong and really awesome on the downhill slope. I was using a harness, but attaching the poles to your pack would work well as suggested above too. The sled was your basic orange kid sled but longer (alomst 5 ft. Get the size that will fit your needs the best, but remember that you want the weight on the bottom. Top heavy sleds or weight sticking up high will cause problems on varied terrain.

Damn, from the title of this thread I thought one of you all was going to give me some dirt about a few of the women who post here!

It will be on again this Saturday. Read above or check out the MSNBC website. My copy is loaned out, but if anyone still needs it in a week or so, I can proabalby loan it to ya.

Well you sound pretty stupid. Obviously have not done your homework. The Denali Pro is a full ,1200 cubic inches larger than your 85. Yes it is heavier, but it also carries more gear. If I wanted to have a pack that you can only access from one point and have to dig through the enitre 5,200 cubic in. area just to get at something, then maybe a nice lightweight pack like that would be useful. In the Denali, you are paying for comfort. I like both of these packs, but when shlepping heavy weight up a mountain for multiple days, I'd rather carry an extra pound and a half worth of pack then have my back and hips killing me. A pound and a half difference is well worth the extra "bells and whistles" That come with this pack. You can convert the top to a fanny pack, enter the pack from the back to get to stuff in the middle of the pack without having to undo all the rest of your pack to access the top, and get to the bottom of your pack without having to do the same as above. Can't do this with Rainier's Serratus. I have used the Serratus and like it very much, but not for long expeditions. Try different ones on and go with the one that fits you the best. Look at function and form and make a collected decision based on what you will most likely need it and use it for.

I love mine. Had it for 4 years and it is amazing for week + long trips, expeditions, etc. Bad for weekend trips and even a little too much for winter climbs up Rainier. It is big, so you can really put alot of stuff in it. I've used it for weekend trips but now prefer to use something with less cu. in. All in all, a great pack if you are doing expeditions. It survived peaks in Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Argentina and Denali, and trekking around Pasayten for a month. Overall rating:

I have one pair of skins that I use on very different dimension AT and tele skis. They work fine, are straight cut to fit the waist and I slip rarely. I have skinned up Pan Point and felt that the very few times I did slip was because of the angle on a switchback or two. AFter spending two weeks using them on Denali and rarely slipping with a full pack and sled, I have to say that me slipping came down more to lack of experence in using skins than from the skins themsleves. People today think that the latest gear or latest technique is going to save them instead of trying to figure out how to make what you have work for you. In my case, I found that it was the way I placed my wieght over my boot when I stepped/skinned up rather than lack of surface area covered by the skin on the tip and tail area. Get out there, practice with what you got, make it work, and quite whining! Oh yeah, and get tons of face shots in the process.....

For those of you who were up on Denali this past season, you probably remember the National Geographic film crews doing a documentary on the Denali CVlimbing Rangers. Well, it is finished and will air this Sunday on MSNBC at 8pm. Check out the link: http://www.msnbc.com/news/978692.asp Should give some pretty good insight into the lifves of the rangers and all they do while on the mountain. Plus I am sure there will be plenty of good footage of rescues and the like. Enjoy!

Nome, AK

I like the people that work for Beyond, just not the owner himself. Had a semi-bad experience with him, but more personal that product related. In speaking with the employees directly, they are honest, hard-working and make excellent poersonalized gear. I have talked to some folks who either had an excellent experience with them or a terrible one, but the bad experiences came from them being so overwhelmed with orders that they could not fill them in a timely manner. I'd suggest that if you want something for X-Mas, you'd better order it now as in a month, it will be so busy, that you may not get your order filled in time.

Paul, re-read my statement. It uses the terms "Most teens" not all. I agree that the lazy attitude stems from the parents, and if you re-read my statement, you will see that I blame the parents fore the outcomes of their children as well. ANd no, Paul, I wasn't referring to you. I think you are a fine, upstanding teen! Necro, go find some real friends. I see that my post has struck a nerve with you, and I can only assume that my statement above some how turned personal to you and that what I said somehow portrayed reality to you in real life. I am sorry that you do not have friends outside of cc.com and you failed reading comprehension and/or basic math. I can't help that. Go climb, have fun, and why stress or worry what others think og your climbing style or why stress about what you think of others climbing style? You are not them and they have no effect on you or your activities personally. If they do, then you lead a very sad, uninteresting life. Oh, and if you want to find out who handles all of Dean Potter's meetings, publicizing, and sponsorship requirements, make all inquires to Wild Things in NH and Five.Ten. They can help you out.

Anyone wanna bet on this one? I could get pretty rich pretty fast. What about Messner, think he didn't have an agent? I'll bet on that one too. Anyone in the public eye today, regardless if you are a musician or a climber, has an agent. You think Dean wants to sit around all day dealing with covers, photos, video shoots, articles, and sponsorship issues? Hell no, he wants to be out climbing. So does Tori. A role model, whether it be someone famous or the molester next door, is still a role model. Whether or not it is a good one for each child is up to that child's parents and no one else. You guys all support the media craze one way or another. You are also all responsible for the direction climbing is going. Climbed at Smith lately? Cause that is what climbing is to 90% of climbers. You all are a minority. Sounds like you all are pissed about that and wish that your style of climbing was more popular. Then you could all feel better about yourselves, because you would then have people look up to you (doubtful). Sounds like the Tori dissenters are really a bunch of narcissitic nerds who have nothing better to do than spend wasted time on this board. Go get some friends! If you can't meet anyone else that enjoys your company and your social conversations revovle around this board, then re-read two sentences prior and maybe that will explain it to you. Most kids coming up in the world and want to get into climbing aren't thinking about alpine routes and sufferfests. They want to have fun and that is all that matters. Not boosting their egos like everyone on this board wishes to do. Go out, do what you like, climb what you enjoy, for yourself, and quit judging others that you have no idea about who they are, what they are like, or what they represent. If you all would spend half the time climbing that you spend talking shit on this board, you might break into another letter grade level. I praise Tori, not just for her ability, but her perspective, her overall understanding of her situation, and her ability to deal with the media craze that surrounds her. Screw all of you for judging a teenager. Most teens I see around here are uneducated, lazy, disrespectful, unmotivated, and will be a burden to society in a few years when my taxes will have to pay for their food stamps, welfare, etc. Who are their role models? I'd worry more about your own kids then about some teen who is actually doing something positive with her life, unlike the kids out there who are fat, lazy, slobs and a waste to the world. Take a look at your child. Is he/she part of generation "O"? What about you? Are you conveying the lazy, fat attitude that is plaguing the rest of the US? Look at yourselves and your children before you bash on others. If you don't have any, then you have no voice to talk about role models to begin with. The fact that Tori is so intelligent, can write and get her point across in an eloquent fashion is kudos enough. SHe is more than half most of you all's age and is more intelligent and eloquent than most of you on this Board. She is not even finished with highschool! This website sucks Trask's ballz!!!!!!!!!!!!

He wasn't trying to kill himself. He is a stuntman in Michigan. He said to his friend right as he jumped in that if he survived, this stunt would make him a lot of money.

What about an adopt-a-trail program done by climbers for this trail? Who wouldn't mind spending a weekend day clearing the trail up to the past on Saturday and blitzing up a one day ascent of a surrounding peak the following day? That is all it would need, with the majority of the work coming in the first year. After that, it is basic maintenance and occasional avy debris from the year before. Even if the trail was as enclosed as the BB trail is at the beginning, that is all climber's would need. Very low impact in an area that is mostly void of vegetation because of the avy terrian to begin with. Any thoughts? I'd put in a weekend once a year to help out.

Gib Ledges winter ascent, Drury Falls if it decides to come in this year, Sandy Headwall/NF route on Hood (March)

The only place I see this as an issue Matt, is if someone can't place pro well, makes it up a climb without falling, builds the anchor improperly, then has to hold a fall from the second climber and the pieces pull. But for the most part, you are right!

Oh great, Trask is a mod now? Alright, who's the wise guy that gave Trask the controls?! This ought to be fun!

All in all a great summer of climbing in the alpine with some new and old climbing partners. Road trips were fun filled, weather was stellar, and the rock, well, everyone knows what the North Cascades are like! Can't wait til next summer! Thanks y'all.

...

JKrueger gets ropegunman of the year from me. Also Danelle (maybe a lurker?) for letting me talk her into doing many alpine climbs this summer. Muffy said: How can you knock the Sveldts on this board and praise the Fralik's? That is like punishing the chickens when the fox is the one in the hen house! Not saying those bros. are not nice peeps, but they have burned alot of bridges and rubbed alot of people the wrong way!

Sounds like y'all had a fun time! We bailed after talking to a friend who had just come back from the Icicle on Saturday morning and said that it was wet on Snow Creek Wall. (Only thing we really wanted to climb). So went duck hunting on Saturday and Smiff on Sunday. Saw Ben Moon's slide show at a friends house Saturday night and all was well in perfect Eastern OR weather Sunday. Glad y'all had fun!

Well, at least we can get drunk! Greg, I used to follow the Weather channel report until it always was wrong for a period of time and I was never climbing, but driving 14 hrs. round trip for a weekend when I could have been out at SMith climbing. I have been playing with the NOAA Mountain Forecast for the last two years and it has only occassionally been wrong. The weather channel's office is out of Hotlanta (I beleive) While NOAA's is out of Seattle.

I'm trying to hold out, and will not make final decision til manana at 6pm, but 70 % sux for Saturday! Please change the weather report those fools!!!

Bug, if a bear really wants to get you, it will. Pepper spary has been shown to bea deterent and in other cases, just does not work. In my situation, we were in Yellowstone in a BC camp along Shoshone Lake. We had sea kayaked up from Lewis Lake, through the Lweis-Shoshone channel and paddled to our campsite. I had been fishing for Mackinaw all day and we cooked some up. All our gear was hung in a bear bag and we were getting ready to hang another with our clothes that we had cooked the fish in in another bear bag. That is one the young male bear came into the camp. It was me and my girlfriend. He walked around the perimeter of our camp for about 10 minutes. We were down by the lake's edge. He came to wear we had cooked, about 50 yds. from our tent. We were going to get in our sea kayaks and paddle out. As he got closer, maybe 15 yds., I sprayed him with pepper spray. He didn't do anything at first, but the wind, which was at our backs took it right into his face. He snorted and pawed at his face, then took off rather quickly. If you really want to know how to deal with bears in the backcountry, go to this link and click on the TV to download make sure your volume is on so you can hear the commentary. I am sure some of you have seen this one before! Funny Aussies!

Maybe I can talk jkrueger into going, but it won't be until after we get off Snow Creek Wall. Let me know where you all will be....