Alasdair

Two guys in nice suites playing this game knocked on my door the other night. I offered them a beer a bong hit and some magic tea but they declined so I asked them if they were government spys who were out to get me, and they said no. Then they tried to hand me a book and I tried to hand them the bong and they said no so I asked them if they were government spys and they said no. Then they asked me if I had read their book and I offered them a beer and they said no so I asked them if they were government spys and they said no so I told them to fuck off. I guess I won the game.

Given the current avalanche forecast I think attempts at first ascents are a great idea right now. I am sure the 10 feet of new snow wont be any hindrance to your plans what so ever. http://www.nwac.us/products/SABSEA

I used one several times this summer, and was very impressed. Tons of room and pretty good in shitty weather. Nice and light weight. I did not use it in wind too much so I dont know how it would hold up. It is definatly on the top 3 tents I am currently looking at.

Dru is faced with another dateless night and his harddrive full of porn just crashed. Help him out Gary.

Because volcanos very commonly just explode with no warning and catch climbers by supprise. Wow climbing is really dangerous. I am staying away from volcanos from now on. Thanks CNN.

The only reason you are seeing steam is because there is curretnly cold dry air sitting over the mountains, and it is no more active than it was last week.

It is not preparing for an eruption. It is erupting and has been for over a year.

Ding! Ding! My new executive producer's philosphy: "If we don't have video, we don't run it." Oh and also more useless celebrity news!! I'm sorry, has anybody seen my pride laying around here someplace? Awsome! Looks like you are in the same spot I am. I just sent this mail out a few minutes ago. I think you know where I am comming from... >I am back working in the confines of stupidity. All of our test >machines are in India except one. I set that one up for testing >yesterday and overnight somone in inda connected to it and put a new >operating system on it. I can not use any of the machines in india >because everyone has gone home and they fucked up when trying to add >my permissions to them. They are so fucking slow that it take 3 >seconds to click a simple fucking button. I could spend the next >4.5 fucking hours resetting up the machine I tried to set up >yesterday so I can do some testing on a Japanese vista OS that I >don’t fucking understand because no one in their right mind would >put vista on a machine if they were not specifically testing to make >sure it worked, but in doing so they removed my permissions to the >machine. On a brighter note cascade climbers is quite entertaining >this morning. I really have no idea how *edited* continues to make >money. Oh I know they outsource absolutly fucking everything and >are able to pay for lots of Indian child labor to wait several >seconds for a pressed button to acctually respond, and 4 seconds for >the fucking mouse pointer to get from one side of the desktop to the >other.

Nothing is wrong with them, but lots of climbers for one reason or another find the club learning environment offensive. Sign up and enjoy yourself.

Quite sure I will get a lot of shit for this, but... They certainly have their place. http://www.spokanemountaineers.org/

Huh? Did you wake and bake? Set down the pipe and go to work now.

I personally dont think anyone would give a shit if this was three locals from the pacific Northwest. It happens to be that these are guys from Texass and NYC so everybody is shitting themselves. There is a just as tragic a story unfolding in China right with two very skilled mountaineers, but noone seems to give a shit. I guess they cant get the carnage cameras over there.

Yes it is worth it, and yes it offers a resonable chance to summit and do it safely. Take the training very seriously and be in the best shape of your life when you show up and you will have the time of your life. It is most often the people who do not take the training seriously or underestimate what it takes to climb Rainier that dont make it to the top. The emmons is a great route and quite enjoyable. I would say its a more enjoyable route than the DC, but that is always debatable. The only thing I would add is that from my expereince people who have never climbed before are making a bad desicion picking Rainier for their first climb. Its hard, and for most people really not that much fun. Most people are totally wasted when they get back to camp and end up with the general sentiment of that was great but I am never climbing again. "Im done" I personally think it is sad that these people invest money in all the gear and then based on one climb dont try it again. I think this is because they pick the wrong mountain for a first. Take a look at some other mountains first and decide whether climbing is for you and then go get the big one. I recomend Mt. Shucksan, Mt. Baker, or some of the moutains in the Rockies (not familiar with any that would be good, but someone else might be able to help you here).

The search teams are made up of climbers. We are happy to go look for other climbers in trouble. Believe it or not most of us on search teams enjoy having a chance to bail out of work and go up mountains even in shitty conditions and look for people. You clearly dont understand the first thing about climbing and I dont really expect you to, however your commentary and criticism of something you clearly know nothing about is obnoxious. Navigate away from this site, and go back to sitting in front of FOX news.

That was a fun day out. And it was Chris that supplied the beers. Heres hoping they stopped in a monestary and found religion and choose not to come back for a while.

Prick!

I am taking the dog up Tiger Mt. after work. I figured it would be a good place to check out the "storm". Anyone else got good ideas of where to go to experience the "storm"?

Ok dude, Several people have answered your questions. Your original question was a reasonable one. Your subseqent "Im a badass climber because I have climbed Denali" bullshit is getting tiresome. You should have stopped asking questions when you were ahead. You are now begging to seem like an ass.

Dropping off of the summit onto the northface in the current conditions would be a very serious prospect. I have done that route, and I have climbed in some very shitty conditions, and I am not sure I would risk myself going over that side right now. A small sluff or a gust of wind knocks you off your feet there and will loose 3000ft elevation the quick way.

I am no expert on this but... I beleive it is a digital vs. analog problem Verizon still makes analog capable phones and has kept around most of their analog towers. If you want a phone to work in the mountains dont buy a digital only phone. I recently switched from t-moble to verizon because of this reason.

I will probably regret posting this but... The first thing a rescuer of any type is ever told is to not become part of the problem. The conditions on Hood are bad, although you might not be incorrect in stating that they are not impossible. There is a very high likelyhood of avalanche given the wind and new snow, and I would think that that is the biggest threat right now. There are a hell of a lot of climbers in the Northwest that could make it to the summit in the current conditions, but that does not mean that they are members of Mountain Rescue. Mountain Rescue groups are made up of VOLUNTEERS!!! Great people who are willing to give up their personal time to go and help others when no one else would be willing to go out because the conditions suck! This does not mean that all mountain rescue volunteers are comfortable, or for that matter capable of climbing to the summit of Hood in the current conditions. It also does not mean that the ones who may be capable of climbing in those conditions are available this week. If there is one thing I have learned from being a part of mountain rescue it is that as a climber you better not rely on anyone coming to get you. Not because they dont want to, and not because the groups are somehow undertrained or skilled, but mostly because they are groups of volunteers that like everyone else have lots of other commitments and other experiences. If you are lucky when you get into trouble the right volunteer with the right skills will be ready to help you. If you have the skills then there is a mountain rescue group that would love your help. Do something for the community next year and volunteer.

The BMC published a study a few years ago that basically stated "ropes dont break". The results of the study in very short form said that it it time to retire your rope when there is a visble problem with it or it becomes too furry or fat to use. The BMC has done a lot of very good research that sadly is not all published online, but an index to some of their articals can be found here. http://www.thebmc.co.uk/safety/tech/tech_res.asp?search=rope&drop_cat=cat_all&drop_type=type_all&submit=Find+Technical+Reports Ade might have a copy of the original artical, or know where to find it.

Just a couple of thoughts. Clint wands are not too helpfull in 70+ mph winds as they break, or get blown over. Also, questioning what these guys did and did not do correctly is not really helpfull right now. It certainly sounds to me like these guys did nothing different than what I would have done, but either way right now it does not matter. For all those wanting to go help cheers to you, but if they need more searchers they will call in other mountain rescue teams from accross the northwest. The sheriff will be very cold to the idea of random people showing up to help due to insurance, training, and other issues. Want to help? http://www.pmru.org/ in portland http://www.seattlemountainrescue.org in seattle volunteer with your local mountain rescue group.

Dude, any peak could have bad avalanche conditions. Its not any worse than lots of other routes in Alaska. Use common sense and think about what you are doing when you are doing it and you will have minimized the risk. There is a shit load more photos here... http://www.nwclimber.com/climbing/trips/alaska2000/climbingforakerinfo/forakerclimbinfo.htm

I just realized that this famous thread is all because of me. That Neutrino was mine, and the stopper I think belonged to Ade. Sweet. Hey John can we still get our gear back? j.k.