robert

I had great success in getting additional informatin through a quick email. Worth a shot.

Fred Meyer, Target, WalMart, probably Big 5 too, but certainly the major discounters. If your friend wants something he or she can use again and again look into a drag bag. We used Wild Things bags in Alaska. They worked great.

Now those are some great bouldering shots. Not probably a fair comparison as you mentioned, but a worthy goal no doubt.

I have to say that I was a bit uncertain about ordering from a French website, but it turned out very well. Telemark-Pyrenees had the best price I could find on a pair of Garmont Adrenalin AT boots and they arrived just as ordered in five days. I couldn't be happier.

I think that it would be nice if there were a fixed size. 1024x768 sounds good to me. If someone had an image that was a different proportion they could use a black background to make up the difference. It is difficult to compare images that jump all over the place. I took a look at the link you posted and I have to say I wouldn't have voted for any of them had they made the final. I think that having some great scenery makes the composition much more interesting. If you are going to have just a closeup the light and background have to be perfect or the shot is just of some guys muscular arm, which is not that interesting.

What size is the Denali?

You might talk to this guy. He is looking to sell at pair of Adrenalins. They are a bit smaller, but the guy I talked to at Marmot said that they have been fitting Adrenalins smaller by about one size. He recommended a 29.5 for my 12.5-13 size feet. YMMV.

Marmot will give you half of up to three rentals towards your purchase. It sounds like cascadecrags has much better rental prices though, so that might make up the difference. When it comes to buying gear it is hard to beat the prices you can find online. I saved about $400 on my package over the best prices locally.

Marmot rents randonnee packages. They are 45 for skis and boots. I am not sure of the best place as I have only rented from Marmot. Throw in skins for another 10 and a transceiver for 17 and you are set. Renting AT gear makes a lift ticket look cheap.

We had Safeco when we were renting. We had stuff stolen from our car and they were very helpful in the process. It wasn't climbing gear though. You might look into listing it as scheduled property if you expect to have enough that you would be over the limit.

I bet that it was summer here when it was taken.

Looks like a nice area. Thanks for the stoke.

Nice pics. Where were you on Sunday? It looks like you had perfect weather and conditions.

You are forgetting, or leaving off the list, the 1995 Division Series Game 5 Win by the Mariners. It saved baseball in Seattle. It was also the only time I have ever heard a crowd screaming so loudly it hurt my ears.

I have to agree with Matt. Learning to ski in the backcountry is really hard. Build some skills at a ski area and then head out into the BC. You will learn much faster.

I almost posted this in response to your post on Cascade River Road. It seems like this is an incredible snow year, but it is really just average. Almost anything would seem great compared to last year.

I have to give props to backcountry.com for my most recent purchase. I bought a skis and bindings package and saved $150 over the best deal I found anywhere else. They arrived quickly and I couldn't be happier. They

I ordered them last night. Placed the order at about 8:00pm and they are already on the UPS truck taking them to the airport. We will see if everything is in order when they arrive, but right now I have nothing but great things to say about Telemark Pyrenees.

Take them for a moderate hike. If they give you blisters try wearing them around the house and work to break them in. If they don't give you a problem, take a bigger or steeper hike. I find that the steeper the trail the more that the boots will irritate my feet.

I love the package tracking website. Unfortunately, when I have a pack to track it becomes almost a burden. For some reason when waiting for some new gear this week it became incredibly important for me to know when they reached Hermiston, Oregon on their trip from Salt Lake City to Seattle. That was the only stop that occurred during the day and because my order came in three separate shipments after the first one I knew the route and when they should be where to arrive on time.

A whippet is this. It is a self arrest ice axe like grip for a ski pole. Normally they have a basket, but if you take the bottom section off of your pole it is just a stick with a pick on it.

I have climbed it with just a mountain axe, but a whippet should be just fine. Given current snow conditions a basketless whippet should be great. If not one person climbs it first and tosses the axe down for the other. It is only a short little section where it is steep.

Thanks. That makes me feel a bit better about the prospect.