Bronco

Nice save!

How many trees need to be removed from the road to ED?

The traverse to Eldorado is commonly done as a ski tour in early season, probably due to the glaciers being pretty broken later in the summer. Here's a recent TR: http://www.turns-all-year.com/skiing_snowboarding/trip_reports/index.php?topic=36253.from1460395852#new I may be wrong, but my perception is that the traverse from Forbidden to Eldorado is a long ways. Have you guys considered doing the N. Face on Buckner? It's a pleasant steep snow climb in a great setting that you probably wouldn't see many other folks and relatively close by. I personally haven't done Boston Peak because of its reputation as the chossiest peak in the area.

Whats up Eric, lots of folks skin up to the top of the Palmer lift, some skin to the top of the Hogsback, it depends on the conditions at the time and your ability. Definitely do take your boards, very much reduces the suck of walking down, even if the skiing isn't "enjoyable". In April 2014 I had good snow on the upper mountain, mashed potatoes mid mountain down to the bottom of the Hogsback, frozen suncups from there down to the groomed run so it can vary quite a bit. I don't know that many folks rope up for the Southside route this time of year, do they? It seemed pretty benign when I was there but I was by myself so I didn't really think too much about roping up. Read up on your snow travel skills, chapter 13 (in the 6th ed) of Freedom of the Hills contains a lot of good info on ropes/snow/mountains. There's a bunch of factors to consider when deciding to rope up or not. Anticipate crowds and goofy stuff going on. Obviously if the weather turns or the masses are hindering progress, get on down the mountain quickly.

I heard Theodore Cruz rides snow blades but his are made in the USA!

Good question, I'd be glad for an improvement over my current system of two webbing leashes. I have some old spectra slings that I've considered cutting and tying into new leashes just to reduce the bulk.

Probably just because Luke is a snowboarder, it's discrimination!

Can I see the guns without turning off my adblocker? Maybe Bob's been looking at body building websites. "Gunshow" [img:left]http://f3nation.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/246_gun-showX2.jpg[/img]

That's pretty cool, I've probably looked at that lump a million times and wondered if there were any good routes on it.

This one's a real beaut' [img:left]http://cdn.thedailybeast.com/content/dailybeast/articles/2016/01/19/sarah-palin-backs-donald-trump-murders-irony/jcr:content/image.crop.800.500.jpg/48443994.cached.jpg[/img]

[img:right]http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/55918a4b6da811695ab77f22-480/rtx1gzco.jpg[/img]

Is fat biking like a chubby guy riding a bike? I could probably squeeze my "winter" gut into a medium but I don't think that's what you're going for. How much do you pay per day for the middle aged winter gut modeling? I can do spread sheets as well as fast paced walking.

[img:left]http://media1.s-nbcnews.com/j/newscms/2015_30/687396/zoolander-blue-steel-ben-stiller-today-tease-150720_690101f3edc8f1aa9fc8b8b754527bd5.today-inline-large.jpg[/img]

Someone posted this on TGR, sounds like a terrible accident with lots of people watching but unable to help: It appears that one of them was injured while skiing on the backside of what most people call Mt. Herman. Technically the true Mt. Hermon is behind to the west. They had called 911 for help with the injury so several people were watching them work their way down. They were coming from the backside of Herman and cutting under what is known as the Widowmaker, just on the apron of it. A slide from above hit them and now both were injured. A second and third slide came down from above them and really messed them up. It is amazing that they were not both fully buried or killed from trauma. These were very large wet slides going on the ground. Widowmaker is very steep and the ground is solid rock slab with no vegatation. We just had a ton of rain a 2 days before this so the water could not drain due to the solid rock. The stability really wasn't that bad anywhere else. I bet these were the only slides in the Mt Baker region yesterday. Strange set of circumstances really. A situation went from bad to worse. They longlined one guy out and left the other due to him being mostly buried, having severe head trauma and it being too unsafe to dig him out. Condolences to the family and friends, hope the skier that survived the slides fully recovers.

This place is a little further from Hyalite but close to the ice in Beehive Basin and Big Sky Ski resort (party)! https://www.vrbo.com/613508 and would comfortably host your entire crew.

We travel to Bozeman 4-5 times a year and have had great luck with VRBO there. Just a quick search turned up this place: https://www.vrbo.com/393844ha#location It's pretty close to Hyalite for $120 per night. Might be worth checking out the rest of the listings around town. Bozeman has a bunch of great restaurants, hard to go wrong with any of them.

I agree with Jason regarding the crevasse risk being relatively low. It may be tough to obtain an overnight camping permit for that zone on a weekend in August. If you can swing a weeknight, you will probably have better odds. The hike and boulder field scramble are pretty steep but at least the bugs will be terrible.

I think this belongs here: [video:vimeo]150121019 Made my stomach turn as he clears the top

As usual, your writing is eerily relatable and spot on. It's been a long time, hope to see more of it around here. Condolences to Doug's family, friends and climbing partners, by all accounts, he was a force to be reckoned with.

Nice Kurt, thanks for the last pic to remind us of the reality of early season touring.

Sounds good Pete. I'll send you an email.

That makes sense. It's pretty warm looking, probably would've fought over it if forced to bivy.

Nice! What kind of animal is that on her head? Looks like fox fur but the ears and face look more like a marmot or something similar.

Might be easier to just find a spouse.

The terrorists have won!