Bronco

I had a kind of interesting experience just this weekend on Mt. Rainier where one person in our party had been the point man on our rope team the entire ascent to Liberty Cap even though he was suffering from the altitude. Anyway, we come to the schrund at the top which some hot shot Canadian alpine dudes were struggleing to pull over the top and I offered to lead the 15' of verticle snow groveling if he wasn't feeling good enough to do it without falling as I was still feeling very good. I knew deep down he wasn't feeling strong enough to do it, but when he wouldn't relent, I put him on belay despite my doubts. The first moves were over a bulge at chest height. He steps across the schrund, moves up about 5', struggles, grabs the picket (his only pro) which pulls out. He falls and crash lands on the lower lip of the schrund and starts sliding down the forty five degree glacier towards Willis wall which was promptly arrested by the belay. Miraciously, he was totally uninjured despite the presence of no less than 3 pickets, 2 ice tools and 2 crampons flying through the air with him and landing on his side. When he came off the schrund, I thought we were screwed, he was gonna get hurt or fall into the schrund or chop the rope with a flailling piece of gear. I was pretty angry but didn't say much. I guess now I realize I was pretty angry with myself for not insisting he let the stronger climber take the lead, I'm sure he would have listened to reason, I just didn't want to offend him. As it was, it ended up just being an exciting moment on an awesome climb, but, it could have ended up much worse. I'll see if I can post a picture of the schrund when we climbed it, the one crackman posted it's in much better shape and about 5' shorter.

Bill: No matter how much crap I bring, I know that somewhere out there, theres a guy topping off his 70lb pack with jumars to do the South slope of Adams. I think that Mount Adams may be the best place to see the contrast between over and under prepared.

Bruce McMillian, Greg W and I summitted Liberty cap yesterday around 8 am and agree, the condition of the route was beautiful. The scariest section for me was the mud & scree on the lower part of the Ridge because the upper part of the route was "cruiser eh" according to the 3 Canadians also climbing the route. The schrund crossing was about 15' of verticle snow flailing and pretty interesting. It was hot enough at Thumb Rock where we didn't need to fire up the stove, just threw snow into water bottles and in the pot and laid them out in the sun. We listened to a large serac crash by on Liberty Wall in the early afternoon and got dusted a bit, but the route was untouched. Shortly after the avalanche, a couple guys cruised through doing the route car to car, shooting for 18 - 20 hours round trip. By comparison, we took 8 hours from Thumb Rock placing 10-12 pickets for running belays and moved pretty cautiously. The descent is fairly direct right now, cutting accross the upper Winthrop to the Emmons. There's a big boot pack on the entire route, but that could change pretty quickly. It's unusual for me to have caught the route in such good shape and in great weather with solid partners. I could get used to that.

what about those of us looking to make an ascent first? Sorry, I'm a little pre-occupied with climbing.

All this stuff is used and for sale: Grivel Rambo comp mono-point crampons, decent condition $75.00 Jagged Edge windstopper fleece Jacket with powerstretch back panel Men's Small, like new - $40.00 Jagged Edge full side zip, fleece pants with Supplex reinforments in the knees and seat, Men's Small, good condition - $40.00 I'll be out of town for the weekend but send me an e-mail if interested - ryan@rpmcousa.com

BING BING BING BING BING! We have a winner!

and congrats to the rednecks!

just this once.

Figger 8 posted it a couple days ago, but thanks for the breaking news anyway http://www.cascadeclimbers.com/threadz/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=UBB29&Number=186727&page=0&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=&fpart=1

Nice job Jay! Those pictures are wack!

I have one. Have slept on snow in cold temps and on dirt in warm temps no problemo. Got snowed on a couple times and little rain once. Again no problemo. If there's a blizzard and this is my only shelter, I'd be diggin a snow cave or looking for a crevase or someone's RV to hide in, that would definetly be suck. If you are looking for a totally bomber bivy sack - check out the Unishelter. The only problem with that is the weight (3lbs 3 oz). For a few oz more, you could have the ID little two man tent, (I forget what it's called). Bought mine at MEC. If I had it to do over again, I'd probably get the ID Endurance bivy from www.promountainsports.com It's much lighter, cheaper and prolly as good of protection as the South Col.

Have a Gemini, and personally, I'm a little dissapointed in the lack of power on the "primary" bulb. Mainly use the LED. Maybe I need to change the primary with the spare that came with it, anyone?

I have a special tool always in reach for the delicate job of stove diagnosics -

how'd you get that little thing over your o in Adios?

shouldn't this be called Relative dynamicity of various belay devices?

I prefer to crap while sitting on small diameter logs, but as I get older, I don't really want to spend as much time looking for that "perfect" place to take a dump, so I just squat, facing up hill (everybody knows shit rolls downhill, LOL) usually while clinging to a tree branch to keep my balance. Sometimes I'll even throw a handfull of snow, moss or a rock over it so nobody has to look at it when I'm done. However, it looks like your question was mainly about how best to wipe though, so I'll address that too. In general, I usually am not very generous with the buttwipe as carying a lot in the pack is quite bulky. Although it's risky, I'll usually take a 4 square section and fold it in half twice, ending up with a quadruple layer of mountain money. I know this isn't as thick as a lot of you saftey geeks like, but, it's an acceptable risk level for me. Anyway, I'll generally wipe front to back folding the TP in half each time until I am uncomfortable with the exposure, no more than 3 folds ever it's just too small and risky for getting stank on your fingers. Using this method, I can usually get the task done using no more than 12 squares total. Leaves are a different story all together, big leaf's are preffered obviously, but I've heard stories of pinecones being used. If you're above tree line, it's my opinion that if you don't have TP or an article of clothing you're willing to sacrifice (make a half shirt, or a long sleeve a short sleeve), you'd better make it a clean shot in the first place. As far as rapping chimneys, it's a bad idea in the first place, too much chance of getting ropes caught, knocking down more rocks or getting yourself hung/beat up (like you did).

Once again Kurt - Let me know if you need any help.

R & D is always fun

Let me know if you want some help Kurt.

is this jacket ugly enough that it wouldn't get stolen?

Here's what I did - throw that thing in the garbage (with violence) cause if you do get it unstuck, it will probably wait until you lean on it to catch your balance then collapse becasue the tensioner has been damaged. Then go to store and get some BD Flick lock poles or just some ghetto ski poles.

beauty eh!!

I've climbed most of the big cedars on my property with ice tools and crampons. It's pretty fun and down climbing is good to practice also.

Still got 'em! $20 for nice glasses and nose protector? Are you kiddin me? Such a deal!

well, I didn't actually go blind like that, both of my expereiences were just very watery, swollen eyes that felt like I had sand stuck all over them and blinking just made it worse. At least I could still see! Reminded me a lot of flash burn from watching someone arc weld.