ryland_moore

Still up in the air. Never done Gib Ledges, and from Mike's report, it sounds promissing. Others in the group want to look at ID though. I am all for the "wait and see" method. We probably won't make a final decision on whether to go or not until Friday, and the route, well I guess it will be a vote. I've done the ID in the Spring, but never in Winter. Suggestions?

Rainier, unless weather looks really bad, then skiing in the Tatoosh!

That equates to over 12 posts every single day!!!!!

I agree with Dru's post to make it personal. Especially for Climbing's Vantage Point section. You need to personalize it in such a way that your experience relates to the main topic of conversation. You could also trash the online climbing sites by doing a story about the guy who tosses oranges but never has to face consequences, as in I was on climbtrasksmom.com and planning a trip to the Tetons and asking beta. I got really great beta from one guy named Agent Orange and was psyched to go climb there with all this great beta only to find out he was full of shit and never been there. Then you could talk about online info in chat rooms vs. guidebooks, and just getting out there and doing it mentality. Always make yourself look like an ass in some form and use personal reflection as a way to see light at the end of the tunnel phylosophy. Sorry for the rambling. Long day and too much work.

Y'all so Crazy! Muffy how do you put up with jKrueger anyways?

Sorry, that's what I meant. Many climbs in the area have similar names to their Rockies counterparts. Any reason why?

You may have lent them to John, we were climbing on Weeping Wall just to the left of you. Were you the guy who went up first or had to wait for the helmet and put the dog up by the car? I was the one wearing the blue/gray cloudveil and jja aka John was wearing the black jacket with the Quarks. Hope to see you out there soon!

Also, for Nalgene bottles, Forty Below, the maker of overboots also makes bottle booties. Work well for me.

A cool car to car two peak day is to hike up to the Meadows and then proceed up to do the NW side of South Teton, then traverse down to the saddle and head up the SW Couloir of Middle Teton. Can do it alone and never goes over 45 degrees. Plus you bag two peaks! It is a low snow year, so it shouldn't be too much trouble getting up there. PM me for other specific routes, especially if you are looking to do some alpine rock in Death Canyon or other areas outside the main "4"

Fromage, which group were you with? The two guys and girl (who was super-strong) or the party from Kamloops or Kearney party?

Excellent weekend. ANd if you go into it thinking you will be wet, then you will be pleasantly surprised. Early mornings were really nice and drips at Rambles and Marble didn't really start flowing until mid afternoon. I never got wet the entire time Except for the upper pillar at the right hand ramble at 3pm and it was the end of the day anyways. Yes, at Mile-O the infamous Trask is mentioned in the logbook. It stated something like this: Name: Trask Climbed: His Momma Comments: If you can't lead 5's go to Vantage? It was signed on Jan. 12th, 2003. Trask, why are you talking bad about yourself? All in all, a great weekend, with slightly colder temps than expected, blue skies, and good company. As for the group from Western WA, they meant well and we were all newbies once. Yes, they knocked down a lot of ice, but it is to be expected for their first time out. And what better place to do it then the left side of Marble. Better there than some nice multi-pitch you've had your eye on for a while! Highlight was watching Alan Kearney lead up Weeping Wall and making it look super easy.

Yeah, like me last weekend on Hood, in the rain above the Palmer in a whiteout with winds a constant 40mph with gusts up to I don't know but I had trouble keeping balance range. If you listen to the weather man you would never get off the couch, but you can still suffer and get wet. Pretty miserable last weekend. Good luck with colder temps! Like others have said, watch the snow levels. If it starts freezing with the snow conditions and then fresh heavy snow dumps, it could create some serious avy conditions with the two layers.

At the base of Slowdance Cave at the Happy Boulders, at the base of Caveat Emptor, Death Canyon, Tetons, and the Lower Saddle on the Grand. But not a single time on rope or at a belay ledge!

John, check your PMs

Anyone been out there this week? Still thinking of heading up. Looked at the weather report and it doesn't look excellent, but climbable in "wet" conditions. ALthough, if I believed the weather report and stayed home, then I would never get out and actually climb anything. I checked the "conditions" report, but it only had updates on a few climbs like Icy BC and Deeping Wall. What about other stuff around? Anything in strong but melting? Areas outside Marble worth checking out?

Awesome discussion and thanks for all your input. I am making "braces" from an old pair of ski boot cuffs now, and will continue to practice. I have been skiing since the age of 4 but have never felt so off balance on skis in my life! I do have shorter skis (170) for this trip and will be practicing as much as possible until I go. Don't know if I will buy a second pair of boots for the trip though. The budget for this is already high enough. Any more insight is welcome. Thanks y'all. Ryland

Skiing the buttress in the sense that I will have skis on instead of snowshoes up to 11K. Not planning a ski descent or anything, just prefer to be in skis than in snowshoes for the lower part of the climb. Will also use them for approaches to climbs etc. in the future. Will save other bc skiing for teles and alpine. Good point, Iain. I think I will take my setup over to Bachelor next weekend. This way my girlfriend and I can actually ski together and she can laugh at me!

Yeah, these are Koflach with Silveretta 500's, and maybe I will do a little better with them after having a chance to practice, but under high winds, rain, Cascade cement, and zero vis at the top of the Palmer last Saturday, it prob. wasn't the best consitions to test out how well plastic m. boots do with AT gear.

I had trouble trying to ski on Hood this weekend with an AT set up and my Arctis Expe boots and was hoping to use this set up for Denali. So my buddy started an online discussion on telemarktalk.com to see if others had encountered this problem and suggestions to fix it. Here it is: http://www.telemarktalk.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?topic=6649&forum=1&4 Also, interesting article by Skoog. Any of you ever MaGiver'd up your climbing boots to get better support for skiing in them? http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&selm=66jr5q%245o%241%40halcyon.com

Hoodoo just closed. Not that I ski there very often, but pretty sad when a ski resort in the Cascades closes during typical peak ski season.

Skisports, look up a guy name Brad Condra. I think he is out in Law school there. Pretty solid ice climber, used to live in Telluride.

Maybe Dwayner was picked on by football players in highschool, hence the animosity towards the sport? Dwayner, do you watch people climb a really hard route? Just because some people choose to watch a sport does not make them lazy or fat or a wife beater or a drunk. If you want to cut on football fans, what about golf, baseball, hockey, soccer, and basketball? Rob, do you think you became uninterested in football, becuase you would rather be out there playing and not watching or because you got burned out on it? I can't figure it out myself with soccer. I played all the way through college, and now do not enjoy watching it as much (unless it is the World Cup) as I did when I was playing it. Can't figure out if it is because I got burned out after playing all year long for 18 years or if it was because I wish I was still playing competitively.

I remember his interview, but can't remember the player. That was some funny shit. It was in the context of "I can shake this way and that, Run in any direction and catch with both hands. Amphibious like, ya know what I'm sayin."

I'm ambidextrous. At least the women like it....

I skinned up to the top of the Palmer for some exercise Saturday and have never been so wet in all my life! Didn't see anyone else outside of 100 yards from the parking lot (not that I could have with visibility beingso poor) and it was pretty miserable. When I got back down to the parking lot, there was a tall young lady, heading up a little ways to go build a snow cave and sleep in it for the night alone. Pretty hardcore if you ask me! Supposed to get colder this week. Bring on the freshiez!