fredrogers

No need to ship to MT. Try Cascade Cobbler in Mazama/Wintrhop. James and Tori do an awesome job, relatively cheap and with a quick turnaround. You can drop them off at Stone Gardens or Edgeworks. www.cascadecobbler.com

Ooops. Missed Wayne's earlier post- sorry. Rock is plenty dry at Fun Rock- had a lovely afternoon of craggin there today. A little dirty and the usual spring looseness here and there since it hasn't seen a lot of traffic yet. No porta poty yet and I'm sure the folks at Outward Bound would not mind a donation (box in the lot, on the message board) to help pay for the cost of it. Should be installed soon. I have not made the trek up to Prospector yet since, well, it's still ski season. Early Winters CG is bone dry, I would suspect that there is still some snow here and there at Klipchuck, but it was so dry down in the Valley this winter it's doable if the road is melted out. Lone Fir is still blocked by a big snow berm. Any of the CG's up Lost River Road (Ballard, etc) would be a good choice, too. The mosquitoes seem to be out in force already, so make sure to surround yourself with lots of smoke. sickie Rode part of the birthday tour last weekend, but it was so firm we just skinned back up Mad Ave and rode Spire back to the cars. Top of Spire has bunch of cornice debris, but lower down was good and there is a nice bootpack up it. Big slides have come down across the traverse back from Hidden Bowl with lots of chunkage, so check yer speed. Tomorrow will be the first really warm day we've had in a while, so keep a head's up for slide activity. Public service announcement: do note that parking is very, very limited- try and carpool as best you can to leave room for others- and don't park in the slide paths below Liberty Bell. If they go it will be tomorrow or Saturday. Extra bonus- the Mazama store is closing out all their winter beers at $5.50 a sixer... and all their food rocks- their mounds bars are the best energy food going. Can some one PM with the location? I'd like to swing by and say hi to all you folks. I'll be up at the Pass on Saturday, so maybe I'll run into you there. I'll be the guy on the green splitty with a bunch of tele skiers.

Sweet. Thanks for the stoke.

Blah blah blah boarders blah blah. This is your invitation to get over it. Seriously. See you in the mountains. MZA splitboarder.

Well, technically, Fun Rock is on the border Mazama and "Lost River", then you have Goat Wall (In between Mazama and Lost River), and Prospector is Beyond Lost River. Seriously, who gives a hoot? I'd suggest bringing a helmet to Mazama as well, esp. in the Spring. It was cold here this winter and the rock is chossy to begin with.

The Standard in Mazama is in. Fat. The Bear looks to be in the from the road. Gully to the left of Prime Rib is in, and reported to be thin- bring stubbies. Beard- nope. Childs route above the store looks sun baked and thin. Will go check out some potentially new routes later in the week and will post back once we've had a go at them. Of course, the warm up this week may make it all fall down.

Hey Snoboy- thanks for the info. I'll be there Feb 13 through 16th with a large posse who likes to damage their livers. I hope we get more snow, too. Been pretty thin down here in the North Cascades this season.

Hello CCers. I've just tagged on to a trip to Red Mountain, BC and am wondering if any folks on this board have been there before. Looking for beta on good in-bounds runs, slack country recommendations, food and of course, places to get my drink on. I'm headed there from Mazama, WA and may want to hit a few spots on the way. Any thoughts appreciated.

I have a Lamina 0 degree which I really like. Lightweight and super compressible for a synthetic bag. My only real bitch is that the zipper gets stuck in the fabric all the time. Other than that I love it.

Sobo- This is the only reported incident via the press right now. See FONWAC.org for more detailed reports http://www.avalanchenw.org/info_exchange.html. Shit is sketchy. People being hit by naturals. Be safe.

Hey John- Hard to tell from my work near the Freestone Inn, but it looks pretty discontinuous and pillar-y at this point. I'll try and do a drive by tomorrow (1/2 day off) and snap some pics. We have had a low snow year + cold temps and my sense is that snow + warm temps need to happen for this to come in. That said, your balls are bigger than mine so perhaps hard mixed on slabby sketchy rock works better for you than me. Thats said, the snowpack is super sketchy here right now, so perhaps that is another consideration... you can PM me or e maiL db underscore climbz at hot mail dot com. that may work better than Geof or Diane at this point.

1 fatality, multiple near misses with injuries (and some without) here in the Mazama area this weekend. Bad time to be outta bounds right now. Be safe, climb later.

You can buy rip stop nylon tape in multiple colors- works like a charm and doesn;t get as messy as duct tape. Multiple options here: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&client=safari&rls=en&sa=X&oi=spell&resnum=1&ct=result&cd=1&q=ripstop+nylon+repair+tape&spell=1

I'd second the recomendation for Balfour Wall- WI2 to 4 or so if memory serves me well. Plus it's west(ish) facing, which means a chance of sun and warmer temps- key in that area in December.

Not just you. I suppose it's so more ads can come up as "served" for the advertisers, who largely support this site. Any mods care to comment? Yet seeing three at once is kinda like car with too many bumper stickers. All you do is confuse people with which one to read, annoy them and leave your message unread.

Give Rainy Pass repair in Seattle a call. http://www.rainypass.com/ They might be able to help you out- they work miracles with packs and tents.

Hey Dan- I was up there with TimL in early September and the N Face of Maude looked pretty melted out and discontinuous to me. I'll try and post a pic I took later when I get home.

I have had 3 pairs of shoes re-soled by James. Fast, good and cheap. Normally you get to pick just 2 of those attributes.

The trail to Cutthroat is melted out as far as the lake, then the snow gets patchy. You can get across the first stream crossing above the lake easily, but the second is a torrent and I couldn't get around it (I didn't bring sandals). The West Fork reputedly has a lot of blow down on it this year, but is a nice ride out and back- some exposed sections. Call the ranger station in Winthrop on that one. Cedar creek is a good ride, but a little minimal on the views until you get to Aspen Meadows (around 3-4 miles). I like the ride up Sandy Butte from the Freestone Inn- single track purists may scoff at riding an old road, but it's hammered enough to provide some more technical sections in spots, is about 8-9 miles to the top and with temps here in the 100's as of late, very shady.

Got the pack today, as advertised. Thanks Chris.

Agreed. Wind, dust and nazi-hosts. We ended up bailing and getting a cheap hotel room.

Whatever happened to the hot Spanish wife? You just need to drink more beer and eat more meaty-cheeseys. Men with kilos are men with power. FWIW I'm looking at a Marmot Helium 0 degree down. My 0 degree synthetic is waay to bulky.

12 days BC touring + 4 days at a the North cascade heli yurt, 8 days and 120K at Loup Loup and 3 days with approx. 26K out of the heli. It has been a phenomenal season so far. And 4 more days at the NCHS yurt in late Feb. Whoo-hoo. end chest beating.

I took both Level 1 and Level 2 Courses from Larry Goldie at North Cascade Mountain Guides here in Mazama this winter. I highly recommend both courses (and Larry). Both offer time in the field- 1 day with level 1 and 4 days with the level 2 course (taught at the North Cascade Heli Skiing Yurt up by Hart's Pass). Why not combine 4 days of avvy 2 with an amazing setting and some great skiing (or split-boarding) and a heli ride. I'll post some pics later- I'm still buzzing from my time up there last weekend.

Sorry to hear about your loss. Sucks is an understatement here. I have been with USAA for about 20 years (sigh) and have always found them very responsive and easy to deal with. I did take out an additional rider (sp?) for my climbing gear since after insuring wedding rings, silver, etc, it seemed to make sense to pay a little additional to make sure I had FULL coverage for $5K+ worth of gear. I think it costs me about $75-100 year for this rider. I make sure to document via pics my rack and other gear at least 1x or 2x year so I have "proof" of what I own if something should happen. I don't have life insurance with them so I think the advice to heed mixing climbing gear with life insurance may be good, but have no proof one way or the other.