robert

Check out Alpenglow for plenty of history of the Cascades. A bit more ski focused, but Lowell know about as much as anyone when it comes to Northwest mountaineering history.

I have intuition liners and I don't think it would be any problem to get them to fill the extra half size. I would take the boots to a local boot fitter and get the final word from them, but I doubt it would be a problem. I used Martin at Sturdevants in Bellevue and the liners are working great.

Gene, Too late I know, but in case you are still looking for a good place... I have taken kids sledding on the north side of Stevens Pass along the cat track up to the cell towers on Skyline Ridge. There is a great sledding snopark at Hyak, the Hyak SnoPark. It costs $10 to park there, but the sledding is groomed and just the right angle. That the car is just a few steps away and there are bathrooms makes it a good option for groups including other than outdoor people. I have taken people sledding out of the Stevens employee lot, but you are looking at a snowshoe of half an hour or so to get to a suitable spot.

Awesome trip in the true definition of the word. If one tried to argue this was a hike they would lose. That looked like a life changing experience.

We found it wasn't just the digging, it was the digging to get to our neighbor's chickens that was the problem. Our husky is great with our kids, though now at 11 he is less tolerent of our two year old than he was when our first was that age. He does seem to take his agression out on the unfortunate wildlife that happens into his fenced yard. He has killed a racoon, a quail, a snaffle, a couple of rats and some mice. He didn't actually kill the neighbor's chickens, but he scare them pretty badly. For this an general lack of interest in staying with us we have to keep him on leash at all times when we are out of our yard.

Climbed the WI2 flow west of CYA today. The ice was pretty good with spots of rotten or wet, but it took screws well enough. The top was more snice than ice, but it made for a slighly more sporty finish. It was a good, fun if short climb. For those looking for top ropeable ice, it appears it could be top roped by climbing the trees to the right and descending down to the anchor. A 50m rope will work, but a 60 would be more comfortable.

I think that the users can take what they want from the data. If they don't want to see the photos from the route or approach, or don’t want waypoints, elevations or whatever piece of information they can choose not to consume it. I could see that simply looking at a line on a topo map and a beautiful photo taken along the route might be sufficient to inspire someone to grab their USGS map and plan a trip. Others might choose to view every photo, read every linked TR and spend hours in Google Earth going over the approach. They would each have their own experience of the trip. I would rather have the information and make a choice to use it or not than not have the information available at all.

I would love to see something map based. Maps.google.com I think is the best option. I love maps.live.com and the aerial/sat images are better in our area, but no topography yet is a huge drawback. Some modes of travel lend themselves to topographic maps better than others, skiing = great, crag climbing = harder to show much information as travel is vertical. Rock climbing or ice climbing would benefit from a topo generating tool. I would like to be able to see geotagged photos tied to the routes. I agree that that the meta data will need to be customized by mode of travel. I can see that if you pick skiing you get choices like slope angle, avalanche danger, slope characteristic (trees, gladed, clear cut, open, glacier) and some others I can't think of right now. If you choose crag climbing, you get choices like rating, number of pitches, gear required, anchors, rock quality, aesthetics, approach. I am fine with having subjective criteria as well as objective data for all entries. I think as the wiki matures the quality of the data, subjective and objective will increase and it will become a tremendous resource.

I really like the idea. I don't know if you caught the thread on this same topic at TAY, but the community was split. Those against were pretty strong in their opposition. Those for it may have been more in number, but I don't know if it will go anywhere. It takes someone to really take ownership of the idea and dedicate quite a bit of time and energy. I would love to see it happen and ideally I see it combining climbing and skiing. I would love to see a map of the state, range, region whatever, with routes and photos and information overlaid. Robert

Celebrating her first hike. Taking a break on her first backpacking trip. She actually did carry a backpack to the lake. Watchout for that hole daddy.

Eldorado/Klawatti is nice. It sounds like you want a base camp and day climbs. That trip works well. If you have time you can throw in a tour over toward the Triad. Not a base camp trip, but the Shuksan/Icy/Ruth traverse looks very nice. I have not done that one though. The area around Lake Ann/Rainy Pass would be worthy of exploration over a few days. A trip to Black Peak and touring around Lake Ann could fill the time easily.

Yodelin or Lichtenberg via Smithbrook are nice and reasonably safe. If Avy ends up being really high Yodelin is probably better. If it is moderate Lichtenberg via Yodelin Place is one of my favorites in the area. Yodelin starts from the Stevens Pass employee parking area/dorm and goes straight up the ridge above. Lots of tree skiing options. Lichtenberg via Yodelin Place starts in the same lot, but walk across Hwy 2 and then ski down the road which generally parallels 2 before turning left and ascending gently. Stay on the road all the way to the end and tour into the trees. Once you are clear of the houses you can drop down and across the creek. Once you pop out of the trees north of the creek you have lots of options. Lichtenberg via Smithbrook is access from the pull off at the Smithbrook road. Tour up the road until the hairpin and then keep going straight, eventually bending south towards the summit of Lichtenberg. Let me know if you need more details.

Not that I know of. There are ski schools and racing clubs at Stevens. I don't think there are any lodges. Are you looking for the lodge or the club?

Sounds like pretty much the same way adults ski powder, stand up, ski fast and do it on fat skis. I don't think there will be many chances for her to get into the pow this year, so hopefully next year when she will be a year bigger, stronger and on 100cm skis she will be able to handle it.

Not from me personally, but this TR on Jason's site got me fired up to take my daughter up when she gets a bit older.

Does anyone have any advice on how to teach kids to ski powder. My four year old can ski all over the mountain, but if the snow pushes back harder than her 40 lbs can push it, she falls over. Since this is the PNW, that is most of the time. I read the TGR TR Sky posted and it was awesome to see kids out there ripping it up in the backcountry. She loves to head off into the pow on the sides of the groomed runs, but it always ends with her either getting stuck or falling down and gettng stuck. Any pointers?

The crutches vs. brace seems to be a doctor issue versus a type of repair issue. My wife chose the hamstring and had a very short recovery. She was on crutches for a few weeks, but never wore a brace. I have a friend who also had the hamstring. She never used crutches, but was in a full brace for 6 weeks. Different doctors, different recovery processes.

The only way to know for sure if you tore it completely is an MRI. If it was completely torn it can only be repaired surgically. If it was partially torn it can heal on its own. You have to get in and see a good sports medicine Dr. My wife tore her ACL. It was misdiagnosed by her primary care doc and the movement in the joint eventually led to significant meniscus damage. The recovery from ACL repair is down to as little as 6 months. You can elect not to have it repaired if you have good stability still, but if you ski hard I expect your doctor would recommend surgery. Good luck.

I would disagree if you have the skills and patience to do the teaching. The first day I had my daughter out there was also a class of about seven kids, probably five or six years old. It was their first time on skis. Their teacher was doing a good job of teaching them, but in the time it took for the whole group to move about 40 feet my daughter took a full run of about 1/4 mile and I carried her back up to the top. Beginners need the smallest group they can be in. If you could swing private lessons for the two of them that would probably be the best, but short of that, and assuming you can teach them, I recommend that over a class for the first couple of times. Once they can all stop, start and turn, then group lessons can be helpful in taking the next steps.

Are you planning to teach them or put them in a ski/snowboard school? If you are going to teach them I would either start with the one at which you are the most proficient, or the one they want to try first. XC is great for weekends when the resorts are crowded. If you are going to teach them I found that barely sloping ground and an gentle push worked well for my 3 year old daughter. By the end of the second hour she was going faster than I could run and telling me she didn't need to snowplow because "I'm fine." The second day we graduated to a rope around her waist. Two days of that and we were able to skip the rope on green runs and only use it on blue runs. I don't know how you could use that with two kids at the same time. I think that they may have to just go on their own. I think the biggest thing that helped my daughter was not bothering with turning until day three. She needed to work on balance and speed control. Turning was more than she could handle, but she was only three so you situation may be different. Good luck.

I couldn't find the current penalty, but the one time I was stopped by a ranger and climbing without a permit the fine was going to be hundereds of dollars. Sorry I can't remember the exact amount, but the $22 permit is probably the smart way to go. Especially if you are going before 5/15. Robert

I have not used him personally, but Jim Mates at Custom Boot Service comes extremely highly recommended. He is not likely to be as cheap as Sturdevants.

There was a great discussion on waxing at TAY last year. Lou Dawson has some good stuff too. Personally, I hot wax not very often and I will clean up an edge damage with a cheap file. I am not a model of gear maintenance.

You might read this thread for a discussion of G3 glue and attachment. I have BD ascensions and I like them. When I have the length adjusted just right the tail attachment works great. If it is just a little too loose or too tight it pops off. You are relying on the glue at that point. I second the 10mm or so less than tip width. You don't need to waste money by cutting off a bunch of skin.

The drive from Bend is five hours, but the skin from the parking lot is an hour or a little more. Typically there is a well packed superhighway most of the way. The gain is about 1000 vf.