fredrogers

I have a 2002 Outback- bought it 4+ yeas ago. Going from 58,000-114,000 miles has required very little outside routine maintenance, some warped brake rotors, that was about it. Pros: super reliable, with studless snows and AWD that thing is a fantastic snow car (with 1 exception), lots or room for gear and I can sleep in the back at 5' 10" with pretty broad shoulders. Gets decent mileage and as TimL showed this summer it does close to 100 MPH pretty well when loaded with gear. Cons: clearance. I was following my bro in his Forester on some pretty rough FS roads this summer and bottomed out a few times where he was fine. My main bitch, since I live in snow country, is that the wheel wells get plugged with snow easily. If that shit freezes its a bitch to clear.

Hewitt- Here's a plug for the North Cascade Mountain Guides here in Mazama. They offer a 3-day glacier travel training course for $550 a person, which is a heavy focus on the skills you'll need for climbing glaciated peaks. That breaks down to $183 or so a day. I think a summit attempt is extra, but they are good guys and it would be 2:1 instruction. http://www.ncmountainguides.com/glacier.asp

I think you missed my point.

Sweet fucking jesus. I can't believe I have wasted minutes of my life on this thread. I can't resist anymore, although I knew immediately who Dane was talking about. Submitdouchebag- Shut up. Shut the fuck up. Seriously. Stop posting. Go climb some shit for your own development and not post about it. Try some humility. Try some silence. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and expecting a different result. For the rest of us, let's not feed his pathetic narcissism that craves any attention, even if it is in this negative vein. I have to agree with Drep that a big reason I don't contribute to this site very much anymore is the pointless drivel that predominates the user generated content- in the last few months from this particular poster mostly, although one can also easily tire of Dwayner as well. I'm all for a site to share beta, conditions reports, beautiful pics, gear reviews, etc. But this pointless drivel is tiresome.

There are a few of us splitty/bilers in Mazama. Worth the drive for sure. Get in touch via PM if interested.

Climb N Early Winters, fix line, rap down. climb S Early, rap down, grab line fixed to N Early and jug back up the the top of S Early. Fix line. Commence traversing. Scary as hell I was told.

breathe deep, chill out.

Little spits of drizzle today- after yesterday's deluge, but totally climbable. Brisk, with winds 10-20MPH and temps have been 40's in the AM and right around 60-65 today. Looking at the NOAA forecast for the weekend, I'd say you'd be able to climb all weekend in Mazama- Prospector dries super fast, as does the Fun Chunk. FWIW- I climbed Prime Rib last Sun and just a head's up one of the belay bolts at the bottom of the last pitch is missing- with a long cordalette you can sling a pinch off to the right.

Nope. It's in the Ross Lake NRA which is part of the Park Complex. It is also the most heavily used "part" of the park, so highly patrolled.

Same goes for Ballard and other camp grounds up Lost River Road. If you have a trailhead permit there are a few undeveloped spots at Robinson Crk. TH that are "free". Early Winters will be your best bet if you are headed to the Pass, though. There is a new breakfast spot a ways down from Mazama at the Rolling Huts (aka Wesola Polana) that does great food with bottomless coffee for about $6 per entree. Opens at 8:30 and has wi-fi.

It is super fun. Can be windy up high and bring some long runners for the traverse pitches. and approach shoes for the scramble between P8-9 and the descent. 13-ish raps with a 60M will get you down just fine. have fun!

Skinned in and climbed the SW Coulior today. What started off as 5-6" of decent pow ended up getting hammered by the sun. The SW Coulior is in great shape but a bit of a wallow- there is a nice trench up it now. Here are some pics of the Becky route- my zoom wasn't working, but the 3rd pitch was plastered with snow. The Coulior was a fun wallow. Definitely nice to have 5" of snow over the verglas in the top 100 or so feet. Set off a small slide on the lower steep bit on the way down. Photos are in the gallery. Maybe some smart person can get the links to work here. Was snowing pretty hard by the time I reached the base- forecast is calling for a little bit of precip each day through Sat.

Delightfully so.

I have used both extensively over the past 3 years. Globalstar if awful, unreliable and a waste of weight in your pack. I would only use Irridium because they are super reliable, even if more expensive. Texting from your base to the phones is free and a great way to communicate on the cheap. Don't be lured in by the heavily discounted rates for Globalstar. You will not be able to get any kind of reliable comm with them...

They do a great job with the funding they have. The link is a little bit buried on the NWAC site, but the Friends of the Northwest Avalanche Center have a user info exchange that is very helpful for more detailed reports from the field: http://www.avalanchenw.org/cgi-bin/search_reports.php

This is perhaps the most hilarious thing I have read in a while. Could not have called it any better myself.

Well, there is old Fun Rock in Mazama. Routes from "Mazama" 5.4-5.12 that are usually easy to set a TR on (certainly at the main climbing area, although you can set TR's elsewhere with some creativity or by leading 5.7-8).

Revivex makes a treatment specifically for softshells- works like a charm. Much better than anything from NikWax. Plus it's now owned by a local (B-ham) company. http://www.mcnett.com/ReviveX-Soft-Shell-Water-Repellent-P346.aspx

Okay, I'll bite. Here is the NWAC washington Pass telemetry data from Washington Pass, which shows as of this morning 22" of snow on the ground. I'm not very good at math, but I seem to recall that there are 12" in a foot. MM/DD Hour Temp Temp RH RH Wind Wind Wind Equip Hour Total Total PST F F % % Avg Max Dir Temp Prec. Prec. Snow 6630' 5500' 6630' 5500' 6630' 6630' 6630' 5500' 5500' 5500' 5500' 1 10 600 20 25 99 98 15 21 227 43 .01 .38 22 And to the point above, the 37 miles represents the closure from gate to gate and there is not 2-3' of snow for those entire 37 miles. When you live in an area largely dependent on tourism, having a main arterial close early is not a good thing. Hope that helps.

I suspect that this means the temporary closure will last until April or May. Rumor has been rife in the Methow that the DOT will call it good for the season at the first opportunity because budgets have followed the economy into the shitter. Yes, their mandate is "transportation not recreation" but this is most likely the 3rd preemptive closure of the pass in as many years. Years past the DOT did their best to keep it open until it was clearly a hazard. Don't like it? Well, here ya go. Let them know how you feel: The Washington State Department of Transportation¹s mission is to keep people and business moving by operating and improving the state¹s transportation systems vital to our taxpayers and communities. We take this mission seriously. We would like to know your opinion about how we are doing. Please take a few minutes to complete this brief survey. Your feedback will help us learn more about how we can improve our performance. Thanks! http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=Wb_2f_2b8KUThZx4qP0b5WGt3w_3d_3d

You should check out the line of BCA Stash packs from BCA with their Nalgene compatible hydration system- won't pop, leak, and the insulated shoulder sleeve works like a charm. The best part is that the bite valve twists to lock and I have never had it leak (locked or unlocked). I can't say that about any other hydration system. I super-sized my Nalgene to carry more H20 and with a .25 liter thermos of tea, I'm all set for a day our touring.

I work for Outward Bound- there are standard "open enrollment" courses which are not really designed for kids with serious behavioral issues (although I often joke every teen is at risk these days). He may very well benefit from an Intercept course, details can be found OB Intercept Courses here.

Excellent pack, especially for ice climbing. I have stuffed a weekend of touring gear into it and it did pretty well if packed right. Superlight.

Ah, fuck. He will be missed.

Where are you getting this info? I don't mean to be too obtuse- he is a good friend of mine and I want to know for sure.