Jedi

I have been pretty luckly with my knees. A couple months ago, I rotated my body to the left while my left foot stayed planted. I had a sharp pain on the medial side (the side that touches the right knee) of my left knee. The pain is still that same. If I push on a certain spot, it is still a somewhat sharp pain. The injury appears to be on the outside of the joint. Any of you guys had the same symptoms?? Jedi

Right on! Nice pic's. Thanks for sharing Jedi

I hear ya TG. Living where I live makes the pickings slim. Virginia Beach, Virginia does not produce many climbers and those typically are not interested in mountains with snow. I have had a couple fun partners but they all lacked the motivation I have. They have all moved west and taken up other interests. You definitely have to have the same general goals and ideals. I have done a little soloing but it is definitely limiting and more risky. I enjoy the conversations after a day of climbing also. Nothing like talking about the goals reached that day, the adventures along the way and the more grand routes to be attempted. Just yesterday, I was looking through guide books & magazines. Routes in the Canadain Rockies (Robson), the North East (ice routes for this coming season), AK (Huntington, Deborah and Denali among others) and wondering who in the heck I am going to attempt all these mountains with in the next couple years. All these dream routes and not a clue if I will able to find a partner. A partner with the same drive, ability and goals that is reliable and compatable. Yeah, a little frustrating to say the least. I just had a friend and partner decide to take up sailing. Geeze Jedi

Statistical, when is the best month to give Robson a shot. The North Face route has always looked beautiful to me but I understand the weather can be a little......unseattled at times Jedi

Has anyone here ever tried the Cytomax Gel? Just wondering how it tastes compared to GU. Jedi

Now SK, you know that Twight is married and his wife is no pushover

Man, I wish I had started climbing at 18!!! I was not lucky enough to start that early. No clue until I was 25 and at 34 I am still as jazzed about it. The Cassin............aahhhhhh.......the Cassin. I hope to find a partner willing to attempt in in a couple years. Maybe by then I will be worthy enough. The West Butt, I was an old fart at 28 when i climbed it. Great route to learn about Alaska. It might be a trade route but it still whips over 50% of the people who try it every year. Jedi

Alright, I think Jobe has gotten the point and was man enough to admit that he overeacted. I'm sure he is sorry he brought, what he thought was an issue, up. He has been punished. Careful not to beat people up too bad for bringing issues to everyones attention. Anyway, Jobe did you have fun on Denali? What route? Headed back in the future to try anything else? Jedi

Jacket is still for sale [ 07-29-2002, 01:50 PM: Message edited by: Jedi ]

Annie retired. Lisa Roderick (sp?), Paul's (TAT) sister is Annie's replacement. Lisa used to work for Feathered Friend's in Seattle years back and is Westman's girl. Jens, hah, who buries it? I thought you were suppose to take it with you up and down the mountain My two partners brought 1/5 of Tequila (sp?), 1/5 of 15 year old scotch and 1/5 of Rum. Not being a liqior drinker, I opted for the 1/2 case of beer for those tent bound days. The beer was gone after the 1st week (I had help) so we got Paul to fly in 18 beers and 3 bags of chips. Those damn Navy SEALS can drink! Jedi [ 06-28-2002, 08:59 PM: Message edited by: Jedi ]

TAT and Geeting will also put you in where no other services dare to land. I do appreciate it. Jedi

Jobe, I know what you are saying but that is the way it works. I have flown in & out with Hudson. Weather made it hard getting in and out. I just used TAT. Paul did not want to fly into the West Fork of the Ruth do to the recent snow fall. We opted to wait til the next morning for firmer conditions. He said he did not want to fly in but would if we really wanted too but really did not want to. He told the folks at the flight service he was probably going to "stick a plane on the West Fork". He hesitantly took up, did a light test landing to pack the run way and test the snow and then set the plane smooth as silk. 14 days later, we were at the Mountain House landing strip. we had told them on Thursday that we wanted out Saturday morning if possible. We hoped for 1st thing in the moring before they started flying tourist in. We watched TAT bring in tourist all day. I asked the pilot when we were schedualed to fly out. I then found out they had just flipped on of their newest planes on the West Fork of the Kahiltna. They were flying 3 climbers out at 11pm when it happened. $200,000 plane nearly totaled. Anyway, they were short a plane. Another flight service offered to help get us our. I flew out with another service willing to help TAT out. TAT got my partners out moments later. Later that day, Geeting let Paul borrow his Beaver to help get some of his clients off the mountain. It is hard to be patient when you are looking forward to a West Rib Summit Burger and a couple cowboy sodas and you ready to get off. Seeing the "tourist" flying in frustrated us also but it just part of the game. Jedi

Rich, you are a fool, how could you try to gain experience with a guide service. RMI, o gee wiz! You deserve a horsecock or something.... I am just joshing with you in trying to keep in the spirit on many contribitors on the board and so you would not be disappointed that you were not harrassed. ANYWAY, right on! Sounds like you had a good experience. My 1st mountain was Rainier in 1995 with RMI. 5 day seminar. Being that the closest mountain with a glacier on it is over 2000 miles away, I figured a guide service was the fastest & safest way to gain knowledge. You get to cover great deal. What might have taken you several trips into what can be a dangerous environment, you get to do in one trip. I was one of 15 clients and 7 guides. 4 guides had been to Everest, 3 had summited. I was the only client that was a rock climber, the rest were hikers. Most of our party summited in stellar weather. I felt I learned a great deal. There is nothing wrong with learning the proper way to do things in the mountains from those with a great deal of experience. Then tweek your style after that. At least you have an idea what is right and wrong. I also wished we had spent more time on crevasse rescue. Luckly since then, I have able to get myself out of the crevasses I have gone into. Build on the information RMI has given you by reading and getting out there. "The body can achieve what the mind can conceive." Climb on. Jedi

Payaso, Since I had already worn the skin off my shins, I knew I had to bandage them and where. I shaved a ring around my legs knowing it would be ripped off anyway when i took the tape off. The small piece of gause went on the raw spot (shin bash area) and I put 2 wraps with athletic tape around each leg to hold the gause in place. The roll of tape was 2" wide. The key is, too not wrap you leg too tight. Or have the wrap loose where you will end up wth folds in the tape. No problems the rest of the trip. The Intuition custom liners rule! I still can't believe how light and warm they are. I had AMH in Anchorage fit them for me. Their boot guy (Grahm) was great and worked on the liners and Alpha's for 9 hours to get them right. Really had to bump the toe area out for my Fred Flinstone feet. No charge for that. Great shop! The liners are flat as a pair of socks. He puts them in the oven at 250 degrees. then puts them on your feet and you stick your foot in the shell. When they cool, the come out Shaped like the inside of the shell and the inside of the liner is contoured to the shape of my foot with 1 pair of Bridgedale's on. No lacing, just pop them on. No insole for me either which is unusal but the Alpha shell has an arch. No heal lift. Feel like a mid weight hiker I will never put those big clunky Inverno's on again. Jedi

JayB, see me post above. Yhe guys I talked to tried the copper wire, insulating the fuel canister among other things. The water in a bowl works the best. Worked for them on peaks in the Himilayas, South America, Europe, Moonflower Buttress on Hunter, many routes on Denali among many other mountains. I figure they had a little experience. I saw their 3500cu packs they had for the Infinite Spur of Foraker weighed all of 30 to 32 pounds. Jedi

BD SwitchBlades crampons: dual and mono frontpoints. Good condition $40. BD Android leashes: like new, never used, $42. La Sportiva Mega's....SOLD OR Modular gloves (shell and liners): size medium, still have tags on them. $45 TNF Mountain Jacket, 3ply GTX, medium, blue & black, no rips or tears. Good shape. $85. Patagonia Storm Cycle jacket $55. Like new, Medium, red with a hood, waterproof, breatheable, stretchy, similar to a jacket Patagonia sells for $200+. Prices includes regular shipping to your door in the lower 48 states. email me for question or pictures. Jedi jfclimbhi@earthlink.net p.s. Need to sell my road racing bike to find trip to Candian Rockies and Alaska next year. If you are on the east coast, email me for pictures and info: Yamaha YZF 835 AMA Superbike $6,500. Many extra's. 365 lbs and 140+hp wicked fast. Track bike only. [ 08-03-2002, 07:58 PM: Message edited by: Jedi ]

My Scarpa Inverno's gave me some pretty bad shin bash for years. Shins usually scabbed up and tenden after a trip. I had custom liners made for my Alpha's before my trip to the Ruth. Hoping this would eliminate the shin bash. It did not. My boney, narrow shins are just not made for walking in boots. Bleeding and tender in 2 days. I took a small piece of cotton gause and athletic tape and taped both shins. Day three, I had no problems. I did wrap the tape around my leg. The hair has still not fully grown back but it got me through the trip. I guess what I am saying is that if you can find something to stick to your sweaty feet and distribute the friction, you should be good to go. Jedi

Superfly crap? Do tell! Why is the bibler better? Thanks Jedi

I talked to a couple guys who had been climbing hardcore in AK for 20 years now. They only use a Iso/Butane stove on the routes they do. No flare ups in the tent. I asked them what they did when it got cold as I tried my MSR Rapid Fire in cold conditions and the performance was not there. They said they had tried it all. The best was what Allison recommended with the water. Their variation was the bottom of a soda bottle that fits on the bottom of the fuel canister. They said to add just enough water so the bottom of the canister has water touching it. The soda bottle bottom weighes nothing and takes up no room. These guys only use 11oz of fuel a day for both of them so they have to be efficent. I have to admit, I do like the Whisperlight more than my XKG because it does fit in the pot. But the XGK is great for basecamp. Anyone have the Superfly Ascent hanging system? Jedi

Sugar is sucrose(sp?). A simple sugar that your body burns. Your body processes this sugar rapidly. That causes you body to produce insulin, to counteract the high level of sugar in you sysytem. Problem is, your body produces too much and then later you feel a little tired. In GU (and others I assume), they use Fructose which is a sugar that comes from fruit & the like. It is a "better" sugar. Does not cause as much insulin to be produced or something like that. I find on a 12 hour climb, one GU an hours works. I would like to have more but I do not want to carry any more weight than that. I use Cytomax to help retain H20 levels. One liter of Cytomax & one liter of H20 keeps me better hydrated than 2 liters of of H20. It takes 1/2 liter of H20 to digest a energy bar and only a swallow to digest the GU. Energy bars are around 250 cals or 2 1/2 GU's. Less H20 to digest the GU's. I have to have some fat at dinner after a day of GUing. "Just Plain" GU sucks but I like the rest. The "black tip" GU's are good too. Pants pocket are usually gooey after a trip with all the emtpy packets. Jedi

Man, you think it is tough to find a female climber out west? Try the southeast where it is hot and hummid. Also no great mountains to hike around on like out west. When I head out west, I always notice that a lot more people get out and cycle, run, climb, etc... This includes the number of women I see out and about. Think about it, how many guys that play basketball, soccer, football, golf, cycling, kayaking, etc... say that it is hard to find a woman that digs their sport and plays it. Maybe even plays it as well as them. A partner that you can experience your true love (climbing) with and have a relationship with. I have heard about this but have never seen it. Sounds pretty awesome. My buddy's wife, mountain bikes and has a sport bike for carving in the mountains. They get to do a lot of cool stuff together Lucky guy. Also know a guy who motorcycle road races. His girlfriend does to and she is pretty good. One perk to that is the tight leather suit she wears. Trust me, you do not want to be behind her because those tight leathers can be very distracting and you will find yourself running off the tract at 120mph. Women who enjoy hardcore sport like activities are hard to come by because it is genetics. That is fact. There are just not a great deal of them. I respect the ones here on the board. Women that are not into things as such do not really want to hear much abouth them. They want to be your main focus and knowing that climbing is......causng friction. Most of the time (not always) when you see beautiful woman hanging off the arm of a guy that is hardcore anything......is because of the fame or fortune. Just like rock stars. Granted some women like too hear about that NASCAR drivers day at the track going around in circles for 500 miles or that touchdown but most of the time I bet you could see the glaze in their eye after 5 minutes. Anyway, it's the far away look I get from my wife when she makes the mistake of asking how my latest adventure went. She just wanted to hear "it was great or it sucked". She has climbed a little but does not really care for it. My daughter is 21 months and I think it is great when i see her heal hooking her way into a tall chair or mantling up onto the dining room table. I plan on taking her climbing as soon as she is old enough. I hope that she is interested in alpine climbing. I will support anything she wants to do. Jedi

Roger, did you guys attempt the South Ridge? Beautiful peak from the south! Jedi

I am interested in hearing more about their trip Rodchester. Thanks for sharing. Jedi

If any of you guys see any BD Alpine Pants on sale anywhere anytime this summer, post it. I have been looking for a pair and can't really afford $210. Jedi

quote: Originally posted by Cpt.Caveman: ... I am sure they work fine in alpine or waterfall ice. Yeah, Mark did do they would not climb waterfall and alpine well. These crampons are made to climb all chilly mediums well. I think he was saying, that the Rambos & Rambocomps will climb steep & overhanging ice & a smiggen better. But the Rambos and Rambocomps would not work as well as the G-14's in other places. He said the ball up less than the Rambo's & Comp's also with their lower profile. Then again, I would not want to be climbing Alaskan bulletproof, 75 degree ice on a 1200' ice couloir in my Charlet Moser Black Ice crampons. I would rather have something like the G-14's. But if I am roadside cragging and planning on groveling my way small up some WI4+. I think I would rather have something like the Rambocomp's or M-10's. Either way, it should be an improvement over the Swithblades. Jedi