Alasdair

Good luck. It rains a lot there in August.

Hey folks, I am looking to contact some of the people who regularly climb at China Bend and know the area well. If anyone can put me in contact with some of those people shoot me a pm. Thanks,

Take your wife with you. I did and she absolutely loved it. Even if she does not climb she can enjoy the mountains.

Nice. Let me know if you need any advice. What you planning to climb?

Its my new favorite place to guide also. Not a good place to go sick. Never went below 11,000ft once on this trip. Being at that altitude for that long makes for a lot of feeling crappy, especially after having a few drinks.

Hey Folks just back from Bolivia. My first time there. If you have not been its well worth a visit. Great climbing, great country. As far as logistics go... It is very easy to get from point a to b no matter where a or b are. Photos on the blog... http://alasdairturner.blogspot.com/

No Im in Bolivia. Illimani yesterday

I dont agree with those that say keep the battery in your pocket. I have never had an issue with Nikon Batteries. Your D90 and two batteries will be fine. I had my d300 at 21,000 ft yesterday and had no issues with the cold. I wrote an article on this a last year for an AAI newsletter. You can find it here. http://alasdairturner.blogspot.com/2009/03/this-is-article-i-wrote-few-months-ago.html

First off I am volunteering my time. I have been at the nest twice total, and both were very short duration. In addition the visits were timed to be during a period that would not cause a major issue to the birds. A climber near a nest for one pitch would cause much more problem than the time I was there. As far as me lecturing you climbers goes, I would bet I do a hell of a lot more climbing than you. I am just trying to make sure that the areas I enjoy spending my time at dont get blanket closures.

We as climbers have a responsibility to avoid disturbing these birds in any way. They are protected under federal laws and those laws cover any sort of disturbance. Climbing anywhere near a nest is not just an asshole thing to do, it is illegal. You are probably right that these peregrines have adapted quite well to humans near the nest, but this could just be luck. These birds often will leave the nest if there is a threat or disturbance. If you go climbing at the wrong time (when there are eggs, or when the birds are very young) the parents leaving the nest which can cause the eggs or chicks to die. The closures are there for a reason. The peregrine in particular has been studied about as much as you can study a bird. I am currently working with the WA Dept of Fish and Wildlife on Golden Eagle research. Climbers have had an impact on golden eagles in both washington and Oregon. When a climber gets near the nest the parents leave. They sit a long way from the nest and wait till you are gone. If you are not aware that there is a nest close to you and climb all day that nest could very easily fail. I was at two eagle nest sites earlier this year and as soon as I got to the nest the mother bird left and I never saw her again. She was across the valley watching us. The Fish and wildlife folks do not have the budget to find all the bird nests and monitor them. If you see a nest go somewhere else. We are not going to get the state to hire more biologists they are just going to do blanket closures unless we regulate ourselves. Oh and if you want to see some photos of some eagle chicks I have some on my blog: http://alasdairturner.blogspot.com/2010/05/second-trip-to-eagles-nest.html http://alasdairturner.blogspot.com/2010/05/yesterday-i-went-out-to-yakima-area-to.html

Ryan, was that you in the party of two camped next to my group? Did you follow a guided group up the colman demming? If so that was me in front of you.

The route is no different this year than it is any other year. I was up on the north side two days before you guys and shot a couple of photos of the ice ramp on the the upper ridge. I have never had to climb a chimney, and in the photos I can clearly see the chimneys you guys were on. The standard way of climbing this step is on the far left side, climb a single pitch of 75ish degree ice until the rope runs out. Climb a second pitch at about 60 degrees. At that point you can basically walk to the top of the route on 55 degree snow slopes. I have looked at the right side of the ice step before and always decided it looked crappy.

If so send me an email. I have some photos of your team you might like. I will post them on my blog in the next day or so. http://alasdairturner.blogspot.com/

Oh dont PM me I never check them. Send me an email. alasdairturner@hotmail.com

Ok so I am almost positive that the people who this thread is talking about is a group I was with. Now that there are numerous other people who support the fact that there were no signs I will admit it was me. First off there were NO signs posted. We started hiking at 6am and we were out for the day. We got back to the car at 12:30ish. In addition the notification email that DOT sends out to people did not arrive till the morning of the incident. I agree there needs to be a better way of working with the climbing community on this one. I was on Polar Circus several years ago and had a shell or two lobbed over my head so I do not want to repeat that. Not only that, for me to ignore warning signs about avalanche control would be a career ending move. I like my job and would like to keep it. If I saw signs, there is now way I would ignore them. Hope this incident helps climbers and DOT work together in the future.

Hey if you lost one of those nice OR gloves with the zipper on them on the N side of baker let me know. I have it here. It says "Tapp on it in sharpie. So if you know a person who marks his gear with Tapp then let him know.

Ok here is another one. When ever I see an anchor that is questionable I shoot a photo. This next one was not seen this weekend, it was seen somewhere on the east coast.

This is a photo of a top rope anchor I saw in Leavenworth this weekend. This was built for use by one of our favorite local climbing clubs. It was being used by them entire day. Granted it was a back up for another anchor, but I could have dislodged both of these chockstones with a light kick. There is no way this should have been used as a part of any anchor system. Even as a back up. If you are going to be TEACHING climbing classes please make sure your teachers are competent. If this anchor had been weighted it would have sent one or maybe both of these blocks down on the group below.

Hey Mark, Thanks. I think you might be correct. I remember doing a couple of passes on that because the light was good, and I have flown past that a hell of a lot in the last 5 years.

Thanks for the comments guys. Hey Chad, Yea it was great to see you up there brief as it was. I am off to Red Rocks for five weeks and then back for a bit before Alaska, so maybe we can squeeze in a Trout Creek trip between. Gene, The photo after the Cassin is not labeled because I dont really know where it is. I need to sit down with one of the pilots from K2 and get his input on it. If I had to guess i would think its one of the ridges on the East side of Hunter. Maybe unclimbed. The plane crash photo is not actually a crash although I remember the crash you are talking about. I bet its the same plane. It was shot last year. This time he was loaded a little heavy on a soft runway and decided to abort at the last minute. The funny thing about that is I know one of the people in the photo and it was the day after his 40th birthday. He had to walk back up Heartbreak Hill not feeling so good due to consumption the night before.

Since it is time to start thinking about what to climb in the Alaska Range I thought I would post up some of my photos from a series that I shot over the last 5 years of trips to the range. This group of photos were shot from numerous flights over the range. I dont feel like this series of photos is finished yet, so another photo trip is planned for this year. If there is anyone planning any Alaska Range Ridge ascents this year and would like some photos I have some specific shots I am looking for to finish this series up. Enjoy Alaska Range Photos

This is going to be a great event! Here is a sneak peak at some more of the photos I will be showing. http://alasdairturner.blogspot.com/2009/12/alaska-range-from-air-black-and-white.html Hope to see you all there.

Gene, I dont know if your in Seattle, but if so you can find almost any tool you need at Hardwicks Hardware in the U district. They will have the drill bit.

Dont sweat it too much. Unless the core is showing then its fine. There was some research done a few years ago where they walked on ropes with crampons and then drop tested them and found no measurable strength difference. The points push fibers aside rather than cut them.

There is pretty good serac climbing right now.