mattp

I have gotten two solo permits and I don't remember this question. It may be new, but my answers would have had nothing to do with extraction but everything to do with avoidance. When on a heavily crevassed glacier, I generally prefer travel well after the most recent snow and when climbing anything snowy I generally prefer cooling rather than warning trend. I use a ski pole, without the basket, to probe around areas where I see a hint of a possible crevasse. In early winter, in Washington, a crevasse fall is a significant possibility (in August less so). My understanding is that they rarely or almost never flat out deny a solo permit if you actually apply for one but BE CAREFUL. Rainier is serious with a good team and more so if you are alone.

I like same side orientation. If the bolt (or,as I tend to use them, the draw clipped to a piece of gear) is in a corner, this is what you want. If not, you can clip the top biner either way, can't you?

May can be pretty rough around here but, for a spring trip on Rainier, you want it not to have snowed for ten days and you'd be better off if it is not a warming trend but a cooling one.

You're getting good information here as far as I can tell, Sobo. Sorry not to answer your message earlier but I have been too busy with work and life to check cc.com and find your private message yesterday and today.

Mt. Watson and Silver Star are another two possible targets. Watson is a hike/scramble and offers a relatively easy climb to a summit with excellent views (even a kid can get there), and Silver Star, a larger mountain, has a small glacier that is not likely to be icy or risky. Both peaks offer a taste of the North Cascades without requiring real alpine mountaineering skills.

Smithbrook is great. If you are up for taking off your skis and crawling uphill for about 200 feet, you can leave the road at the hairpin and head up and left to visit Lichterwasser Lake. It is quite scenic.

Forbidden Peak by W ridge and Shuksan by the Fisher Chimney's would be good choices. These are not exactly beginner routes, but a competent guide could lead you on them. Liberty Bell's Beckey Route might be worth a consideration, too. Mt. Baker is a great peak, an excellent warm up for Rainier, and often guided - but these other peaks offer something more different from what you will find on Rainier -- including easy rock climbing or scrambling and pointy summits. Eldorado is a classic N. Cascade summit, and it sits right in the heart of the North Cascades. It is worth a visit and the East Ridge or whatever it is called is just a stroll.

Nice! Cache Col is a great place, huh? (We had an aggressive visitor of the goat kind there.) You are a fit bunch indeed. I think it must be nearly 20 miles from the car to Spider - 15 at least.

Your report is not completely clear but that is a significant stomp for a single overnight (I've done it, though not with skis). Nice!

Thanks for the share. But the user better get there quick. The drift will settle, and it won't be long before it is only 1 foot high.

Sobo, Willi's party had been attempting to climb via the Ingraham Glacier, as I recall. They did not reach the sumit.

I hear you, Sobo (I think you may be referring to the fact that when the sun hits there may be rocks falling on the Ledge). However, if lingering AV hazard is a concern as in where it may have been a few days since a windy snow event I think the Gib Ledges may present less objective danger than those routes where you spend a longer time in the big gullies. I've been across the Ledges twice and thought it was a pretty good way to go. I've only attempted the Finger, and only once, though.

I'm with you there, Dane. I've been up "the hill" several times but my most fun trip was one where we spent three nights on the mountain and camped at a little over 11,000 for summit day.

It looks like Bergues has skins on his skis in the photo above, and maybe he has the Canadian "top fix" system with the keeper strap wrapping around the tail of the ski, but there are also the lateral straps that used to be used with non-glued skins...I guess he probably just has old fashioned strap ons, eh? They are probably made of seal skin, too.

I once took a bunch of friends into the Broken Top crater for a winter camping trip. It was cold as hell, and blew like hell, and we had a miserable trip. The approach started out on snowmobile trails, but it was not long before we left the two stroke exhaust behind. We had an overall OK wilderness experience and I still think you could have a good outing there, with a relatively short approach from the road, to a wild setting with a summit climb potential. We missed it on that particular outing and ended up in a hot tub in a Bend motel.

It's gotta be pretty wet out there right now - even in a cave.

The best high performance and cheap waterproof-breathable shell is two shells: a windbreaker and a raincoat. There are lots of options, and the combined weight can be little or no more than many of the popular hardshell jackets. The cost is less - except I don't know the Costco deal. If it is below 32 degrees or raining only misty or less wet, wear the wind breaker (keep it treated with water repellant). It will breathe better than most if not all "waterproof breathable" fabrics. If it is really raining, wear the raincoat. It will breathe zero - just as will a completely wet "waterproof-breathable" (water does not breath and a wet shell will not breathe). With such a system, you have a truly waterproof jacket when it gets really wet, and a truly breathable one when it is not wet but simply windy. If you are hiking and not really climbing, consider, too, an umbrella. In Europe you see a lot of people walking in the Alps with these things and they work really well in the right conditions. The umbrella you got at the dime store may not be a good choice, though. In the wind you need an umbrella built for that sort of thing.

I think there's a pattern here. I had a truck stolen and it was quickly left in an alley on Capitol Hill. It became a homeless shelter, and somebody lived in it for a month. I didn't have any Credance tapes, though, so I don't know what made them select such an uncomfortable shelter. After that it smelled bad as long as I owned it and I was amazed that some crazy guy paid $800 for it when, barely running, I finally sold it.

Yup. I'm with J_B. Their "demands" are pretty clear: they stand for the proposition that 1% of the people in the country or maybe 1% in the world are running things for their economic benefit and 99% are getting screwed. They are asking that this issue be an actual issue of discussion in our public discourse. I understand that you might think it is "unruly" to have protestors camped out in Westlake Mall or Seattle Central, or that you might be unhappy with the fact that there is a small place in Seattle (or Oakland or New York or wherever) that has been as a side-affect invested with rats or drug users, but I don't get the need to stop these particular people from promoting their message in this particular fashion. I just don't. I thought our Constitution protected the right to peaceably assemble, and I don't think these encampments, ugly as they may be, are a threat or a danger.

Happy birthday, Sobo! What time is it now?

Yes, I've always liked the aliens. They get pretty bunged up, too, with heavy use. What about the BD's? In the tiniest sizes they seem pretty good but I always like my tiny aliens, too; in the finger size cracks the master cams feel pretty solid. not so sure about finger size. Any votes for wild country? OP?

I'm interested in the Master Cams discussion. I don't get out as much as I would like but in smaller cracks I have found them to feel pretty solid the way that BD Camelots do in larger cracks. Is the problem with them that they get bunged up too fast or are you guys finding them hard to place or are they too heavy or what?

I don't think that there are any closures that will apply but I would guess that December may be the month where the least average year sees successful climbs on this mountain. This is not to be discouraging, however, but the simple fact is that the weather tends to be poor at that time of year and the snow conditions, too, generally unfavorable. Mt. Rainier, however, is a worthy objective any time and plenty of parties have climbed it during the dark months of winter. You will not find Camp Muir to be crowded (assuming you are not climbing something other than one of the "standard" winter routes).

At a basic level it is easy to answer that question, Jason: the Park Service was founded to preserve national treasures for future generations while the Forest Service was founded in order to promote responsible management for resource extraction. A lot has changed since the days of Stephen Mather and Gifford Pinchot, though, and most of us here don't think we're talking about whether the land in question should be preserved as a national treasure or managed for resource extraction.

I think the worry about the convenience stores was that they would have less to lose than might a large business like a Costco or Safeway store of 10,000 square feet. I'm not sure that this is true because the mom and pop stores are exactly that: mom and pop stores. The operators are dependent on the income and are not any more likely than anybody else to violate the law. But, either way, the "teen drinking" thing has been an issue that is subject to a lot of emotional argument but nobody has actually suggested that states where liquor is available at minimarts have higher rates of teen drinking as far as I know.