Alasdair

I have seen many types of crampons on denali with all types of boots and overboots. With the 40 below overboots i have never seen a pair of crampons that do not work. The OR overboots are another story. The only thing I would recommend is make sure you have horizontal front points and dont go with aluminum crampons. I think you are fine with what you have.

Hey folks I still have these. How about $300. Too much? make me an offer!

bindings area medium

Be careful when you second guess others decisions in the mountains. I was out there on Saturday and saw this group. The weather went from marginal to really really bad very quick. The visibility was as low as I have seen it at one point, and it would be possible to loose your group by walking 10 feet away. One second it was ok the next the wind was picking up so much snow that it was hard to keep my group close enough to maintain visual contact. Glad to hear this guy is ok. I had the feeling someone would get into trouble that day as I was leaving the parking lot.

All in pretty good shape. The skis need a bit of a tune up. They are a great approach set up. $400 obo.

Take some skis or flotation. There is a lot of new snow.

There are quite a few at index. There is a 1/4 inch bolt that needs pulled on Rogers corner and not replaced since it is very protectable with a cam. Remove it now so someone does not mindlessly replace it. One other area I wonder about is the wall just to the left of the tunnel. The bolts look good, but on close inspection the other day I noticed corrosion in bad places on them. I am a little worried it might be a case of non stainless washers and other random different metals next to each other. When you get back we can do some climbing there and have a better look.

I dont use a pulley and I make sure and watch my prussik so it does not get pulled through to the other side of my system.

It can be done. Keep going strait down. Take a lot of tat and a couple of pins.

Climbed the N. Ridge of forbidden this weekend. Its in great shape with very few approach difficulties. Go get it while the gettings good! I posted the details on my blog. http://alasdairturner.blogspot.com/2011/07/forbidden-peak-north-ridge-climb-with.html

Hey folks, All the routes in boston basin look to be in great shape right now. Sahale - que sabe glacier is well covered and the last pitch to summit looks to be dry rock. Boston peak - still a big pile of loose rock;-) N face of buckner. Looks good. A party did it yesterday Sharkfin - all the loose rock getting to it is covered in snow. Forbidden: Torment - forbidden traverese looks pretty good right now. North ridge of forbidden - good - I did it yesterday West ridge - good- lots of people did it yesterday East ridge - good - at least one party did it yesterday NW face is also looking good with very minimal approach difficulties. Doubt its been done yet this year. The gully is still fine and should be for another week or two at which point there will be some interesting route finding.

Hermit thrush is more common near treeline, swainsons deeper in the forest. Swainsons are very common at index. I have a bunch of ptarmigan in winter plumage photos, I just have not uploaded them yet. I would love to see the photos though.

Ok dont know if many of you guys care about this, but I put together this blog post last week with photos and some information of all the wildlife I have seen and photographed above treeline in the Cascades. For some of the birds I included links to the call since most of us hear the birds but never see them (click the links, I guarantee you have heard these bird calls if you ever pay attention). Hope you enjoy the photos, and I would love to know what other things I am missing in this list. What birds and animals have you guys seen above tree line in the cascades? Yea I dont have a photo of a bushy tailed woodrat. I would love to get one, but it would likely be impaled on an ice axe pick. I also dont have a kangaroo mouse on the blog, but I do have a photo of one I need to dig up. Here is the link to the post. http://alasdairturner.blogspot.com/2011/07/animals-and-birds-of-washingtons-alpine.html

There is no exit to rock. I was snow until you get to the ridge. Thats the way it was two weeks ago. I will update on Monday. Heading to the N. ridge tomorrow.

Should be in good shape still. Here is what it looked like a couple of weeks ago. http://alasdairturner.blogspot.com/2011/07/west-ridge-of-forbidden-peak-climb-with.html

Was up there yesterday. NW face forbidden is not happening right now. Steep sketchy snow. N ridge Forbidden not happening due to large cornice remnants still needing to fall off. Torment forbidden not happening due to snow patches sluffing off on route to summit on Torment. West ridge of Forbidden is good to go.

Here are the photos from the trip kurt talks of. http://alasdairturner.blogspot.com/2011/07/west-ridge-of-forbidden-peak-climb-with.html Kurt, You in town? Lunch w/ beer tomorrow?

Ok here are a couple... Landscape: This one is for landscape. I shot it a couple of weeks ago and thought some of the folks here would like to see it. Needless to say I dont need the prize since I work for AAI. It is of the Mt. Baker summit crater and consists of 8 photos stitched together. Humor: Shot this last year on Mt. Baker also.

There is a bunch of climbing areas in the Coburg hills and there are even bolted anchors on much of it. Some of it is pretty good climbing. I climbed there when I was living down there (with permission). However. It is all on private property and the land owners have no interest in having climbing on the property and likely never will. Unfortunately you would best forget about it.

Eagles are not the only bird that is getting killed by wind turbines. Unfortunatly there is a large contingent of people building wind turbines who are doing what they can to make the numbers of bird kills look much lower than they are. Green energy is great, but like all other things we really need to pause and think about the consequenses before we continue to line every ridgetop in eastern WA with them. As far as bird closures go, I think there were less than 10 climbing areas in the pacific northwest that had any type of nesting birds associated with them, of those only a few had any impact on climbers this year. Its just not that big of a deal to climb at another crag. I visited one of the nests a few weeks ago and have some photos here. http://alasdairturner.blogspot.com/2011/05/this-years-eagle-nest.html

It really makes no difference which knot you use. The bight is not going to break. I use a overhand. The only error in your thinking is that you are over thinking it. The rope is almost never the weakest link in the system, so you should not spend that much time worrying about it breaking.

Yea it snowed over about 3 miles from the TH. I have a trip report from 2 days ago here: http://alasdairturner.blogspot.com/2011/05/mount-baker-summit-climb-with-students.html

Hey folks I am currently trying to put together a complete list of bird closures for the spring season. I was hoping this thread could be made a sticky and I will update info on each closure as it becomes available. If anyone has info on current closures please let me know and I will update the thread. Current closures: Leavenworth: Due to late spring birds are not likely nesting yet. Snow creek birds did not nest on outerspace last year and may or may not this year. Time will tell. Tieton: Andy Fitz claims there are not closures posted here. I spoke with the bilogist from WDFW and he claims the closures are in effect. Please respect any closure signs. The biologist claims that the eagle closures are the same as the previous years. He also claimed that the signs are currently posted at the base of cliffs and birds are nesting now. Closure is likely to last through June. Mt. Erie: There are several walls closed, however the nest has not been located and it is not known if the birds have nested yet or not. [img:left]http://cascadeclimbers.com/plab/uploads/385/viewer.png[/img] China Bend: After speaking with Andy Fitz apparently this area in not closed. It is managed by the NPS since it is in the national recreation area. The closure is being managed by the eastern Washington climbers. Beacon Rock: Can someone in the know please update this thread with the Beacon closure info? Index: There are nesting peregrines at Index. So far I do not know anyone who has come upon or even knows where the nest is. If you know could you update this thread? Thanks, Alasdair Please contact me if you have any specific questions.

The Tieton closures are the same as they have been in the last few years. Signs are posted at the base of all closed areas. They should be closed until July.

Im not sure the Emmons has any less objective hazard. It just comes in a different form. emmons crevasse