robert

This is horrible news. My most heartfelt condolences go out to Skoog family.

It was just a slip on moderate angle ice. He was walking back around on the ice, sliped, spiked his leg and then caught his crampon breaking his ankle. You just can't let your guard down. Even a short fall with crampons on can be very dangerous. I would certainly still go and feel good about it. It is really fun and pretty mellow up there right now. The seracs are in great shape. Have fun.

I was worried that it might be a pretty serious break by the way that he described it. Hopefully he will heal faster than expected. On the way down he said that he intended to keep climbing, so at least he was keeping a positive atitude. Wish him a speedy recovery for me when you see him again.

I brought my wife in to get a Helios Jacket and the whole experience was great. Great help, great product and they didn't even get upset when my two year old would stay out of the tents. Thanks guys.

If any of them are out there I would appreciate an update or a PM with his email address.

Paul, You don't have an email address for him do you? I wanted to see how he was doing. I have a phone number, but I couldn't find an email. I didn't want to bug him with a phone call. Robert

Right. This weekend is only the 8th and 9th. Clearly I need to have a calendar at hand.

Wow. It is going to be crowded there this weekend. I will be there with a couple of guys and a girl. I don't know what we will be wearing, but if I see any of you I will say hi.

I have had good luck using Google. I just type the item I want and sale in the search. For example I would search for PMI Verglas rope sale. Google crawls the pages so regularly I usually get really good results.

My favorite quick dinner is angel hair pasta and shrimp. I saw that pasta doesn't fill you up, so substitute whole wheat pasta and it should last you much longer. Boil water for pasta. Thaw shrimp and remove tail Heat some olive oil in a saute pan Add pasta to boiling water Cook shrimp with salt, pepper and red pepper flakes. You can use hot sauce if you don't want to buy red pepper flakes. Cook shrimp until just opaque. Drain pasta and toss in saute pan to coat with olive oil. Top with Parmsian cheese. No more than 15 minutes from cupboard to table.

Sobo, I can see you getting your stick ready for Mt. Leeman as you were writing this. Good job. Robert

You googled Dru. That is not his real name. You need first and last to find him. I saw someone get smacked down for outing someone else on this board, so I will tell you where to look, but you have to find it yourself. He posted it in a thread on October 29, 2002. May the force be with you in your search. Incidentally, I was wrong. He job is the fourth and fifth items. One of you illicit drug addicted thieves must have stolen my ability to count.

Google his name in quotes and it is the third and fourth links.

It is funny how many of us get our information from the same sources. I read this too. I have seen a fair number of items on this board right after wired blogged about them. Our geek tendencies don't end when we log out of cc.com I guess.

Sobo, I totally agree with you on the costs. I just noticed in the Herald's article that they were not military and they NCNP even had a contract with a commercial outfit. It was more of a warning that this information might be used to discredit the letters even though they are certainly more fact based that his knee jerk. Robert

Not to contradict the general truth that most of the choppers used in rescues are military and use the trip for training, but that does not appear to have been the case this time. From the Skagit Valley Herald The rangers guided the first helicopter, an Airlift Northwest medical helicopter, to the scene at 7:58 a.m. Monday. McCourt was taken to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, the area's largest trauma hospital. Hi Line Helicopters Inc., a company in Darrington that contracts with the National Park Service on search and rescue missions and wilderness flights, flew a doctor to the climbers shortly after the medical chopper left. I only mention it because if any of the letters to the editor do get published someone might try to thow this back in our faces. Hopefully the editors and readers of the PI don't read the Herald.

It could be done, but it would take six pieces. Probably not very likely in the field.

Of course if it's cloudy you can still get a sunburn. When I know that I am going to be on the snow for an extended period of time I put sunscreen on when I wake up no matter what the weather. I have waited too long to put in on many times in the past. The worst I ever got was on a cloudy day hiking to Camp Muir. Going to work with a face that looks like you shaved with a blow torch only adds insult to injury.

Gene, Please post a TR after your trip. I am planning to head down there in a couple of weeks and would appreciate any beta or photos of the conditions. Thanks, Robert

If the first bolt on the pitch were the last to move to Exit 38 the imact on the belayer would be like a machine gun with a whole pitch full of draws hitting all at once.

Sadly the draw will only smack the belayer if the fake bolt is the first bolt on the pitch. Any real bolts below the fake will catch the draw.

There were quite a few teams moving slowly up the wall. I talked to one team that wanted to know how much farther when they were about 1/2 of the way up the wall. Fortunately for them they were almost done. I am not sure that they would have made it if they had had much more than that to go. I knew that there were going to be a whole herd of cc.commies up there, but didn't get to talk to many. Maybe next trip.

Climb: Mt. Baker-Coleman-Deming Date of Climb: 5/29/2005 Trip Report: After our climb of Hood last month the girls were ready for their first big climb. My wife was sick so it was just the three girls from our Camp Fire group and me. We arrived at the trailhead around noon and after some last minute packing were on our way up the thankfully shady Heliotrope Ridge trail. Despite the hot temps the stream crossings were no big deal and we were soon ascending snow patches and trail up to the Hogsback camps. We headed up the snout of the Coleman to the rocks to the right of the cattle path where TrailPair had found some flat ground next to some running water. Running water at almost 7000’ score! That saved hours of melting snow for four people. As we were setting up camp I asked if the girls had ever done any backpacking. They hadn’t. This was their first time camping more than a few feet from a car. You never would have known it as they handled their packs with aplomb on the approach, but that is pretty typical for them. We were in bed just after 7:00 pm and up and climbing by 2:30 am. The route on the Coleman is pretty direct right now, though there is one crevasse just below the col at 9000’ that is probably open by now. On the decent I saw that someone looked to have put a leg through at some point in time. No big deal as it will be easily rounded on the left. We took a short break at the base of the Roman Wall to give the groups ahead of us some space and then we started up. The snow was just starting to refreeze, but the big steps made crampons unnecessary. We climbed the wall in the shade stepping into the sun on the summit plateau on a beautiful morning. We chatted with TrailPair and a couple of other groups on the summit and enjoyed lounging around in the warm sun and very light wind. The decent was equally straightforward transitioning from firm snow with good steps on the wall to shin deep slush on the football field just below our camp. Packed up and got in a good glissade to the Hogsback and some standing glissades on the slopes below. After a quick hike back to the car it was down to Glacier for some ice cream. It was a great weekend in the hills. Gear Notes: Ice Axe, Trekking Poles, had crampons didn't use them. Approach Notes: Stream crossings straight forward even in the heat of the day. Some patchy snow below 6000', but not much.

Nice trip. It is great that the weather cooperated given the long approach from Arizona.

Awesome TR. You