Stefan

Same with me. However, I would like to point out I am thankful for food and the roof that is over my head, my wife, and my children. I don't think I should complain about being worse off with those types of benefits. I just want the war to end.

In my low 20’s and starting on this climbing thing I went with a partner to do Hall Peak just outside of Silverton up the Mountain Loop Highway in June of one year. We parked at the Big Four parking lot and we got a non alpine start. We started up and of course came through the ruthless tangle of Pacific Yew trees. For those of you who do not know, the Pacific Yew tree is the most difficult type of brush in the Northwest to get through—more difficult than Devil’s Club, and of the ubiquitous Slide Alder, and Vine Maple--in fact the yew tree is associated with death in mythology due to its poisonous nature. It took a bit of time to get through the yew section and we did find some rappel slings, which made us happy somebody else had a low IQ as us. After the yew tree mess we wound our way to the top of Hall Peak seeing a bobcat. It was late, and we needed to get down before dark and a decent time or our wives were going to call search and rescue. So we thought it would be faster to go down the north side to Silverton and hitch a ride to the Big Four parking lot. So we went down. I don’t know how we did it, but we had to start doing rappels. We had to beat the darkness encroaching. We moved fast at setting up the rappels but we were inefficient due to the amount of brush we were rappelling through in the middle of the north face of Hall. On the second rappel, I lost my wedding ring somewhere in the middle of the face. The fourth rappel we were tired, and the sun had it last gasp, but I could see we were close to the bottom. I couldn’t see below me due to the brush and I did not know if the ropes would reach. I threw the ropes, and went rappelling over, not knowing how far down I could go, but I just went for it. The ropes did not reach the bottom. However they stopped right in the middle of a cedar tree with an 8” diameter trunk that was sticking nearly perpendicular out of the rock face about 40 feet above the bottom of the face. If the ropes were 10 feet to either side, we would not have made this tree, or rappel. We hung on to that tree for the final rappel. It would have been funny to see to people hanging on to a tree about 40 feet above the ground. We got down. Now it was completely dark. Take out the headlamps. Only one, and it was fading…Then we had to go out via Silver Gulch. For those of you who do not know, Silver Gulch is a Washington State Slide Alder tree farm. Now try negotiating through Slide Alder in the dark with one headlamp between the two of you, getting worried your wife will call Search and Rescue on you. We got out to Silverton at 1:00a.m. and we were able to hitch a ride from some gangly looking teenagers and to a phone around 2:00a.m. to let the wives know that we were out. The wives had indeed called Search and Rescue about an hour earlier. The epic part comes into play when you know you can make it due to the conditions, but you aren’t going to make the “time” and the wife gets worried—that feeling makes the time feel like days.

glad to hear you okay. too bad about the clowns interceding your peace.

cool to see you and John S pointing the camera at each of you.

It is a forecast for every 5KM square area. And yes it is true. For example, click on Stampede Pass and mark down the temperatures for the forecast. Then click on Lester, and notice the temperatures forecast. They will be different. They haven't done this before for locations that are so close together. It is just starting. In the future will be precipitation and wind too.

The reason for the new format is that they are trying to get to a forecast by each of the 5KM pixels. They will give forecasts for precipitation by each of those pixels in the future. Seriously, I was told this last year by the national weather service (NWS). NOAA doesn't actually do the forecasts, it is officially the NWS. The NWS is a subsidiary department of NOAA.

several people have done the entire traverse in a day. The only problem I had were on two peaks: 1)Pinnacle...I did not need rope, but others have definitely needed ropes to descend. 2)Unicorn. Low class 5 for a short section. I did not need rope on the way up, but needed for a short rappel. recommendation: take bike to trailhead to Unicorn, and stash bike in trees. Drive back to Longmire and ascend trail to Eagle, then do the traverse, and then down to your bike, which then you can ride back to Longmire.

parenthood never ends.....congrats on this part of your life.

I think early June is a good time--only if the weather cooperates. As others have said, I recommend a backup plan for the eastside of the Cascades. The weather does not cooperate in June as much as it does from mid July to mid September. With early June you have: Higher elevation brush beaten down. The alpine rock is free of snow. And you do not have to deal with annoying scree. some mosquitos With May you have: Pretty much most brush beaten down...but appearing. alpine rock on steep faces is definitely gone..but some cracks and crevices have snow. Could have snow showers. Do not have annoying scree. not really mosquitos, but may appear With July you have: The existence of brush at all elevations on the approach. The alpine rock is free of snow. You have annoying scree. Mosquitos. BTW: Hottest time period is usually end of July to first week of August.

1) CBS. Sorry to hear you leave. I do enjoy reading your posts. 2) Sorry we did not do more alpine together. 3) Make the move to Cali an opportunity. 4) Yes, you deserve the respect of being told you are laid off. 5) I will not make the mistake that others have done to you.

And then this graphs shows the accumulated number of days it has precipitated since 1982 for each of the days in each of the months from Nov 22 to March 8. Once again the data shows the best period is February 25 to March 1 with that first two weeks in February being somewhat okay, but definitely second in the choice.

This question intrigued me about the best days at Rainier. I am no scientist. Here is what I did, I took the SNOTEL data from Paradise ONLY since 1982 and found the daily precipitation from Nov 22 to March 8th every year. I then accumulated that daily precipitation for each of the years. For example I accumulated the precipitation for January 8th from 1982 to 2007. I then graphed that accumulation to show which days had the least amount of accumulation of the years and tried to see if I saw "weather windows". Here is my conclusion: I am wrong in my original estimation of the third week of January being the best month. The best time is actually February 25 to March 1 for the least amount of accumulation. For second best it appears the time from February 2 to February 14th appears somewhat consistently lower. A better analysis would take more snotel data from other snotel stations around Mt. Rainier, but I don't want to spend the time.

Agreed.

You know I would like to know if her husband just said, "You know I just don't want to communicate with you any more. My priority is with the guys at the pub." Or what if he said, "I am not doing any more chores around the house." This woman sucks. Sometimes sex with your spouse is not the greatest thing. IMO you should still do it with your spouse, for your spouse, which means you do it for the relationship. Just like turning off the television during overtime of a great sports game so you can listen to your spouse during a difficult time. Buck up bitch. This woman is selfish.

Awesome ride in today. Cold but still inspiring. The sunrise was gorgeous. And by the way I solved the answer to my cold weiner. I bought some shorts that have more padding up front. Problem has been solved! W00T!

lost mine for 15 minutes at Snoqualmie Pass yesterday. I could not imagine what 2 hours must have been like. Glad to hear it did end well.

If you look at the current weather forecast, and current conditions, it looks like I am right. AGAIN!

ditto

I drive by this place all the time and looks like a decent operation: http://www.northwestembroidery.com/ Its about 3 miles drive off of I-5 at Fife. Stefan

I suspect there are two reasons for this. 1) The reporters following the candidates have already reported on the positions of the candidates. Therefore reporting AGAIN on their positions is NOT NEW news. The reporters know so much about each candidate there is nothing NEW. 2) The candidates are doing so many things, they cannot devote enough time every day to every news outlet. Therefore the news outlets you are consuming cannot say anything about the positions, becuase they have not had time with the candidates.

one person I estimate is over 200lbs. About the 5th time he went out he told me the decking starting tearing away from the snowshoe. It happened when he was out. It pissed him off from the money he spent. The other person is probably 180. same story. But I think it was half way through the season and he was out maybe 10 times in my estimate. This person now goes by the plastic denali ascents which I use too. I had the first year of the denali ascents they came out....and they finally broke last year....so about 7 years? and I am a hard core user.

I had a great tailwind. It was like the supple hand of Denise Richards spanking me on the buttocks.

my opinion. anyone over 180lbs should not get MSR Lightning shoes. I have seen happy people that are small use them and swear by them. But I have seen two big people use them and have had nothing but trouble. I hope you aint above 180lbs.

I found through many jackets that my repellancy last longer if I do not wash it. It does not matter what techno repellancy anybody tries to sell me. The less I wash a jacket, the more repellancy lasts longer. But I do have to say that the trick to washing less is to stay cleaner.

I have always observed that is the third week in January.