mattp

It would be nice if you could carry dual-use items instead of a specialty product that only performs one function, but unfortunately they just don't work. Fairly common is a pair of ski poles that converts to a probe, but I believe these don't really work all that well, either. I haven't actually tried to use my probe poles in quickly hardening avalance debris, but I'm told that the fact that they taper away from the middle renders them much less effective and I have a hard time believing this would not be the case. The probe poles work fairly well for a tent pole for something like a Megamid, though (mine did break in a windstorm in the enchantments once). If you want a probe, you're going to have to get something made for that purpose. Meanwhile, maybe they should make the avalanche beacons also function as an Ipod.

I went and fiddled with a couple of them and they seemed to have a point mid-range where they stick and then click past. I found this in two different sizes. The Metolius cams are smoother, though of course wider in overall profile for the same crack size.

Do you know what the "Badlands" that the map shows NW of Big Jim Mtn. are all about? Kinda cool or kinda not worth the hike?

OUTLOOK TO SUNDAY Snow showers should end Sunday morning near and west of the crest with potential cloud breaks. More extensive breaks or sunny weather is likely east of the crest. Temperatures and snow levels should remain fairly low. This should cause further slight consolidating, refreezing stabilizing of recent snow layers. NWAC I might want to come out of retirement and go skiing with you guys. With its variety of aspects, there is bound to be something worth skiing on Lichtenberg. Does anybody know how much snow there is at lower elevations over there? One of my favorite Highway 2 tours - Nason Ridge - starts kind of low.

I find all these overlapping threads confusing -- does anybody else? (Meanwhile, I added the cch photo to the notice in the news post.)

"Falling!"==>(yawn)"take"

I put a text copy of their recall notice from rc.com in our "News" forum. It is there as an announcement. Lets continue our discussion here.

From Lowell Skoog's website: Northwest Skier, 1970 Jan 16, 1970, p. 29: "Mansfield, Tom, "Yodelin Opens" * Yodelin ski area opened on December 27, 1969, with a 1,800-foot double chairlift, a rope tow, and a three-story Tyrolian-styled lodge. Nason Properties, owned by W.C. "Wendy" Carlson and his wife, operates the ski area and lodge and handles the sale and development of the Yodelin village. A total of 184 homesite lots are available and several all-season recreational homes have been constructed. Future plans call for a condominium ("Lichtenberg Haus"), a cable car on nearly Lichtenberg Mountain, and four chairlifts on Barrier Ridge. The 3-1-70 issue (p.1) includes more information about Yodelin, plus three pictures.

I've got a friend who was in Mother Love Bone but not Pearl Jam.

I'm guessing you are thinking Mother Love Bone became Pearl Jam, MaryLou, but I'm not sure it was an exact transfer. Perhaps some of the same band members but not all?

No, you won't need a rope. You won't really need the axe either, but if you do elect to complete the snowclimb finish it will be comforting. I bet the entire crest between the summit and the knob to the southeast will have a cornice or pseudo-cornice on it right now, so the doggie crawl may well turn out to be the way to go. If you don't have an axe, turn your skis over and use the bindings for traction claws.

Yes, we'll see some pardons for sure. With any luck, it will be Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld who will need pardons.

I don't think you'll have too much trouble crossing the creek, Dave. It isn't that big. By the way, if you are aiming for the summit via Dave's proposed route up from Lichterwasser, you might want to bring along an ice axe for the doggie crawl finish. The steep climbing is short, but it is exposed. If you reach the main crest off to the left somewhere, you can skin it right to the summit.

I gotta say they always DID look and feel a bit home-made. But I like them never-the-less and I hope they can get straightened out.

I sure hope they can convince me that the problem is limited to more recent productions 'cause I really like my Aliens.

Check this out: web page Even if Dean is overstating the Dem's innocence here, the obvious and undisputed fact is that this was ten to one a Republican scandal. If the conservatives are trying to say the Dem's did the same thing IN THIS CASE they are flat out lying. (Not that there havn't bee plenty of Democrats who were/are crooks.) They cite Patty Murray, for example, as having received $ from Indian tribes that Abramoff represented. Might these be the tribes he called "troglodytes" and stole millions of dollars from? Does anybody allege Abramoff told these tribes to donate $ to Murray, or that they would not have donated $ to someone who had promoted their interests for many years without his recommending that they do so? Without some connection between Abramoff and the donations cited, I view an allegation that they are part of the Abramoff scandal as misleading at best, and more likely a deliberate lie.

Big Jim is rather impressive when viewed from High Camp, to the West. I've wondered about heading up there from Hatchery Creek.

In periods of high avalanche danger, I don't think you'll safely make it all the way to the summit by that route but perhaps nearly so. I'd recommend heading into the woods after heading straight ahead at the big hairpin and then bearing left, to climb up to the Lake. Form there, staying right may keep you somewhat out of avalanche terrain but I remember there being a few terrain rolls that may be worriesome -- and then when you get to the summit itself you will either have to doggie crawl up an exposed and steep snowclimb on the right or cross beneath and climb over a large cornice on the left.

The Aussie pie is OK, in my opinion.

As stated, there really isn't a way to avoid avalanche slopes above Colchuck Lake and there has been an awful lot of new snow coupled with high winds lately. If you want low-hazard conditions, wait until the weather settles -- or wait until it rains to 8500 feet -- and then wait a few more days.

AMS can be a fairly big issue even on some of the higher local mountains. And, in fact, a few have died from HAPE or HACE on Rainier.

How do you get from the Lichtenwasser to the summit safely in avalanche conditions? The way I've gone up from there certainly feels more secure than the west and south faces, but not totally safe. It is a scenic approach to the peak, though, and generally moderate in angle but there is about two hundred feet up the side of the ridge directly below the lake where I usually take the skis off and crawl because it is too steep to skin up in most snow conditions.

Why don't you just stick to speaking English the way the rest of us do and leave semantics to people who care? Most of us on this board are not hydrologists, and when we say "it rained for two days," or "we had a week straight of rain in the Bugaboos," we don't mean it never let up at all.