Lambone

Hey Bug, Did you ask her if you could post that email here? Or at least notify her that you were going to? Just curious...I don't have any opinions about her, I think kids who climb and love it are cool...when I was a kid I dreamed of making money climbing...why not?

Big ones, 5.9-10easy... But I need a partner...

Get the I-Tent The reason to spend the $ on this tent is to have something you can carry on a climb. The Fitzroy is too heavy for this, and needs a larger space to set it up. The I-Tent is plenty strong, if you need some more room go with the Eldo.

N Ride of Stuart 8 hour drive to Seattle, crash at buddies place. Wake up not knowing where I am, spend the morning motivating him to pack. Convince Fitz to leave his Makalus in the car and wear appoach shoes. Hike to Goat Pass, boil tons of water, bivi. Climb the ridge, Fitz yells at me to put more gear in, packs are heavy, hands cold and bloody, ropes blowing in the wind. French free the Gendarme..cold, packs get stuck when hauling, visions of epic fade to veiws of summit. Summit just before dark, totaly worked, bivi, run out of smokes. Shlog out, drive home, stop 1 hour from my house at a Rest Area and sleep in the car for 5 hours... Thanks to Feathered Friends for the use of the great sleeping bag, warm and light...perfect.

We ended up hitting the North Ridge for a yearly reunion with a fine route. It was a beatifull weekend, perfect weather window. For those burlier than thou, the entire N Ridge of Stuart is draped in sweet looking ice ribbons. A bit thin now, but there were several lines that looked cherry, with some more ice they would be fatty alpine mixed lines. We would have hit the N Ridge Variation for some ice fun...if we had tools, screws, and wern't wearing tennies. Kind of that..."if we had some ham we'd have some ham and eggs...if we had some eggs..." Great climb, my hands suffered, and we got nice and chilly, but the crux was the 8 hour drive home last night. Fall alpine trips are awsome.

where does hwy 20 close at, can you still get up the road towards Eldo/Forbidden area? Thanks

cool, thanks slothrop...sounds like a dusting, not to bad, but time for boots maybe... devilboy...I mean posterboy...go stuff it you knappyheaded suffermachine...this ain't the Winds were talkin 'bout. too bad the Eldo approach is shut down...I have heard of this nice little late fall route up there...

hmmm...just called the Leavenworth Ranger station, they said there is no way to access Mt. Stuart right now Edit: Cle Elum Ranger Station says it is opne...

Is the Teenaway Ingalls Lake/Creek TH open? What is the link for that TH info, thanks!

haha...werd. But Whitechuck is closed, and the other approaches are topo long...

Hey folks, man I'm jones'n to climb in the Cascades... I might make the 8 hour drive to Seattle tonight to meet my old bud and go get k-k-k-cold in the mountains. Any recomendations on routes do-able in 2 days? North Cascades is out, any info on Stuart range access and conditions? Whats the weather lookin like up there? Thanks, Bone

This is the weekend, come on, pony up...Eugeners???Ryland, Mike, Muffy...I need a partner!

lummox is right... But if it were mine, I'd probly not worry about it. Edelweiss ropes are bomber. It probly just got compressed by the strap, and will go away after the first time you use it. Call Jim Nelson at Pro Mountain and ask him if he has ever seen this on the Edelweiss ropes he sells.

To repeat...the fitting size is genneraly standard on all Butane type bottles, Primus, MSR and Snowpeak, and Camping Gaz(the blue ones)are interchangeable, except coleman. I agree that they do work great at High altitudes, we used a tine Primus at 18,000 ft for a week in Nepal, boiled water like a champ. Side note: Be careful if buying Butane canisters in a third world country. They tend to re-fill the canisters with cheap gas that doesn't work above 15K. It's hard to tell the difference between an old one and new one, because they both work fine in Katmhandu. If they can refill them, I don't know why we can't

Done, thou who shalt spray within the gear critic shall be tossed. I like the MSR butane stove (can't remember the name) light, compact, burns hot and simmers as well. Very trustworthy.

If it's for wall climbing where you'll be in hanging belays for hours at a time, definately go with a wooden one. They are easy to make. Get some thicker plywood, cut it to the size you want, larger the better as long as you can carry it. Drill four holes in the corners. Thread some old rope or webbing through them and tie it up. Get creative with the straps and figure out what you like, there are a couple of different ways. Malke them long enogh that you have room to hang below the clip in point. Also, very important...get a cheap old foam pad and cut a piece out to cover the top, duck tape it on and you've got some padding for thy arss.

Yeah, we almost sweltered in the Trinity Alps last month, I have never been so hot in the mountains before...

home star runner .com is a stupid waste of time. even stupider than cc.com...at least cc.com has mountain porn and horsecock...

Everyone (with at least some belaying experience) has the right to take the test Scott, it's up to you to decide who has the privilage to pass it.

This is a pretty interesting thread... I worked at VW for 3 years while living in Seattle. I really enjoyed it, yeah a gym is a gym is a gym...but I met alot of great people working there and they became my friends, and that made me want to remain a proffesional gym rat. Before I got a job there I went to the VW in Redmond with a friend of mine, she had never climbed before. I thought I could teach her to belay real quick beforehand and slip her in with my wifes belay card. She used the Gri-Gri pretty well for the first few climbs, then on the 4th or so...she dropped me. Straight to the deck. I cracked my heel bone. I don't know if any of you has ever cracked your heel, but it sucks...big time. I limped around with a cane for two months, right before an expedition to Nepal. Shitty way to train. Anyway, I learned something vaulable that day, never take belaying for granted. While working at VW Seattle,I gave hunderds of belay tests to all walks of life, from 6 and 7th graders, to girlfriends under preasure by lurking boyfriend, to oldschool mt dude with EB's who insists on using a hip belay, to poor nice folks who god bless them...wear velcro shoes because they couldn't tie a knot to save their life...the whole spectrum, including sponsored magazine hard men and women such as Lynn Hill and steve House. Ok, my boss gave Lynn the belay test... Anyway, I guess my point is, I allways tried to treat everyone equaly, with respect, but also assuming they didn't know their head from their ass about belaying. This would infuriate some people who thought they were to good to be treated like a newbie, but I didn't care. If you favor one person another will complain. Almost allways, those who got the most angry had the worst belay technique. Some peole would say "why can't you just teah me real quick?" and sometimes I would make slight exeptions, but go into VW on a busy thursday night and watch the poor bastard giving belay checks for a while, teaching the gri-gri is about the max one can do. What also suprised me was how nervous some people got during the test, people shaking, talking non-stop, crying, you name it...men and women. You had to be pretty sensitive to this and not be intimidating, which is hard while trying to be proffesional and tell someone that they did not pass. VW folks are pretty strict and this is a good thing. You only need to see one accident in the gym in order to appreciate this. Gyms that are slack on belay tests only do their costomers a dis-service, one that could be fatal. This was my perspective at least. Sorry, but I have more to say... Teaching the begginer rock course was my favorite thing to do at the gym. To take someone who doesn't know a leg loop from a waist belt, or someone who is totaly afraid of heights, teach them the ropes and put them at the drivers seat with their friends life in their hands is an amazing and rewarding thing. I fed off of the satisfaction that people got from their accomplishments in this class. If some new comer to climbing thinks that $40 is too much to spend for an experience like this, they are only cheating themselves. To answer some of the questions about waiting a day after to get belay checked. At VW, if the instructor feels confident in their students, they are allowed to belay after the class. Then they get a red card that is a free pass for the week(worth more than $40), they can practice belaying, but at some point during that week they need to take the test to get a card. Otherwise you have someone get a belay card the same day of the class, not climb for a year, and come back with a card that says they are proficient at belaying...obviously an accident waiting to happen. Last but not least, when mtngrrrl says that belay tests are to protect YOU, she is absolutely right. Almost every accident or near miss that I witnessed involved someone getting dropped on someonelses head. Have fun!

Hell Yeah, I'll pick you up at the airport. Lots of southfacing stuff, I'm sure winter is doable, and i've heard scant rumors of ice...

Who wants to go? 'Tis the season...

isn't the necronomicon sort of a helping friendly book?

It's important to have someone who knows what they are doing fit those Thermal liners, they take alot of work to get right, and it's not exactly easy. Sweet