arlen

whoops--double post [ 11-18-2002, 11:15 PM: Message edited by: arlen ]

One problem with taking a dog to the crags: dog lovers can accidently untrain your pooch. Like giving it food before they eat, acting submissive to it, etc. I used to hang with a woman who was in a wheelchair; her yellow lab Barnes was not only an expert helper but also the most personable dog I've ever met. Shannon had to train me about what and what not to do to prevent Barnes from having to go back to school. People would get pissed at her for telling them Barnes was working and couldn't play with them. Granted, most family dogs aren't that highly trained, but enough casual attention can get a dog out of omega mode and into other people's business. That said, a Border Collie - Pyr mix has got to be the coolest dog in the universe. You really should invest in a mountainside full of sheep for it.

It depends on your head--the only helmet that fit my big old melon head well is the Ecrin Roc. The adjustment system is nice--you can tighten on the spot to improve your climbing ability at the crux, and loosen it to improve your chasual charm with the target sex. I really could use some curb feelers for it, though--I bang it into overhanging crap all the time. Arlen

My crampons have the step-in toe bail with an additional metal strap that comes over the toe and hooks to the ankle strap. That allows it to catch a lot more snow than the inferior plain bail. The plastic toe widget works on boots that have sticky rubber toe rands, which seem like they'd handle a nice range of summer climbs. I read on some UK board that they can fail if you kick a lot of hard ice.

When I demonstrated to my doctor that my knee cracks like a bowl of cereal, she said to do leg raises without weight. Just sit up straight, straighten the leg, and hold it for like a minute, yoga-style, over and over again. I used to do exercises like that, but I kept getting bored and my wife would laugh mercilessly at my "balancing cat" pose.

I never wore a helmet until I moved to WA. I just didn't see other climbers wearing them, and didn't see any rockfall. This was mostly in the Adirondacks. I learned pretty fast that when they say the PNW is rainy, they're referring to the torrent of rock, ice and occasional nut tools, so I wear the helmet. But I still size up what other climbers are doing wrt helmets, approach shoes, how much water, etc. and go from there. So far so good.

Ask the owner of an aggro dog, and they'll say he's the sweetest leedle pooch almost all the time. Almost all the time being when they're cooped up in the bunker-like home of the barely-more-socialized owner. I'm the same way with my cat--he never hunts birds in the house, and I get confused when my neighbors complain about him batting around wounded baby house sparrows on their driveway. He's just not like that [ 08-02-2002, 11:40 AM: Message edited by: arlen ]

I got some Robots, and climbed with them and my pardner's Camalots. The Robots are liable to pivot on the two middle cams, which are close together. They feel a lot less secure than the Camalots, but both will walk into an overcammed situation. We've been able to clean them all, but a stuck Camalot stings harder than a stuck Robot. Acme has a line of "Flexbots" that look a whole lot like the Trango Flex Cams. They're center stems, thus they probably pivot less. Arlen

They're very handy, and their jingling makes a nice harmony with the hexes. They do require almost as much care and fiddling as a prusik, though. In a rescue class, during a descent of a rope, I watched one chew its way through about six inches of sheath because it wasn't quite fully engaged.

What about the cliffs around Cape Flattery? Last time I was in Neah Bay, a friend who lives there said she'd seen climbers toproping near the trail across from Tatoosh Island. It'd have to be a really, really low tide, and some cleaning would be needed, but it's a pretty cool setting.

quote: Originally posted by Noway: Unbelievable, you weren't sprayed by someone, especially Sparky. I hear ya--I considered avataring to post such an un-contentious TR. Sparky's OK with me. He's a cool guy to climb with in fact. I neglected to mention that snowshoes were needed on the snowslopes, but one could stay in the stream debris and not need them.

Having often ogled the dramatic northeast couloir on trips up Mt Ellinor, we took advantage of favorable conditions (likelihood of consolidated snow, clear road to Jefferson Creek) and set out to climb it from the north. Our general plan was to approach up the valley past Lake Ellinor, to the base of the north ridge, and climb up the couloir to the base of the summit block. We left a car at the Ellinor lower trailhead and started the approach from FS road 2401 at the west-most crossing of Jefferson Creek (totally clear of snow to that point). Some deciduous bushes were starting to bud, but the brush was minimal--that is, a little better than penetrable. We mostly stayed on the snow at the base of the cliffy north and northwest sides of Mount Washington, contouring through some inhospitable slide alder and stream debris, and eventually across the creek onto the clearer east-facing slope of Jefferson Ridge. A pretty large block with old-growth trees on it juts into the valley from the ridge; the creek flows to the west of it but we took the snowy slope over the east side of the obstacle and down into a scenic snowbowl below Lake Ellinor. The lake itself is still frozen, with some interesting fractures running across it. From the meadow above the lake, Mt. Ellinor's north buttress obscures the actual summit, and A Peak isn't obvious on the ridgeline to Mount Washington. Rather than risk going too far east, we climbed along the west side of the north buttress and up a west-facing gully that divides the buttress. That steepened to a 3rd class chute; at the top it splits into 2 cols that look into the southeast couloir. We took the upper one, descended about 40 feet of 4th class rock to the west side of the couloir and climbed about 200 feet to the ridge and up to the summit. It turned out that the couloir is hidden from the north approach by the north buttress; had we gone around its east flank we would have been looking more or less straight up the couloir. Going up the buttress made for a more interesting--and probably safer--climb. We descended via the bobsled run and down to the lower trailhead. Total time car to summit was about 5 hours.

From when the Daily Show was funny: Marijuana is not a performance enhancing drug--unless you play bass.

Another vote in favor of giving it a shot. Check out these links: textile outfitters Outdoor Wilderness Fabrics Specialty Outdoors Ultralight Backpacking (look for Make Your Own) Controlled Exposure made a pattern for an alpine-style pack (~2200 cu) with patterns and instructions for straps, etc. Allison's right--the materials wind up being a little more than one might think--but there's some value to having something you made, if you're into that. If you just want to save some cash, it may turn out that the time and frustration are more important expenses. On the other hand, I've made a few things I'm proud of and have taken lots of abuse. Arlen

If the frame isn't compressed all strange then it should work fine. The pack will conform to to frame (with a couple wrinkles if the fit isn't perfect), but mainly what a frame does is provide a support for the pack to hang off of. A hiking pole does the job better than a framless pack. As long as you can keep the top of the frame more or less directly above the bottom, you'll get some benefit from having the load shifted toward your hips. Which basically means: now you can take some brews along and feel just as comfortable as before Arlen

Hey, count me in. A few hours ago I was eyeballing it from Ellinor while working on my alpine tan. I've got long weekends for the next couple months.

I topped out Sunday at about 3:15. Took the chute. The snow on the road is so high that most low-clearance vehicles parked before the first creek crossing after the side road; with chains and 4WD I couldn't get past the point between the creek crossings where most trucks have been parking this year. I went straight up the clearcut ridge. Snowshoes would have been helpful all the way from the car to the meadow (even in the woods), but I made it without--but with a fair amount of post-holing. Snow was firm and wet; windy at the saddle, socked in at the top. I felt a little silly about going all the way up without bringing a dog food offering for the summit like the party before me. I wonder if the dogs glissaded the chute too? Arlen

I like the dehydrated refried beans--I add some chili powder, even some dehydrated ground meat (buffalo is a little less likely to spoil); pour in some boiling water and rig up a "tea cozy" to let it rehydrate. For some reason, it's a lot better for solo trips. Arlen

Shit, if I'd known that, I would have freed up my hands and radioed some reassurances--maybe "YA LOOK GRATE, MAN."

The radios are great, if you can figure out a way to carry it, retrieve it, yak into it, and stow it without a) grinding it into the rock or b) dropping the motherfucker. The last climb I was on that we were using radios, we both kept inadvertently activating the call button against the rock; we sounded like a goddamn pinball machine. That is, until I dropped my partner's $120 talkabout to the bottom of Castle Rock. Having the radios on the rest of the way would have made that climb a little smoother, but we made it to the top with some basic signals: on a steady pull from below, get ready and belay; on a steady pull from above, get ready and climb. arlen

Does underwear count as gear? If so, Sierra Trading Post rocks. And they make me feel important by occasionally reminding me that I'm their preferrred customer. www.sierratradingpost.com

I'm pretty much convinced by the need to have the system be dynamic anywhere it can be. But leaving slack just for that purpose means the leader falls farther, increasing the eventual arresting force. A longer pendulem radius may be better, but you're more likely to be snapped upward into the wall. And more force on the belayer means a bigger likelyhood that they'll be dragged around on the features of the belay spot so much that they have a hard time holding on--and avoiding rockfall. If I'm belaying a leader--especially one heavier than I am--there's no way I'm going to stand way out of the line of force just to give them a pleasant fall experience. There have been times when I've been a bit out of the line for other reasons, and they worked out fine. Arlen

Looking for suggestions for a crampon that hangs on well to the SM8. I'd sort of prefer a step-in over a strap-on. I'm not ruling out attempts at any kind of climbing in these boots, but what have you gotten out of them? Thanks in advance-- Arlen

forrest-- no argument that there are shited-up things going on in USFS. But I don't think that not participating in the fee program is the best way to go about making change. At some point, lobbyists for timber/mining companies are going to point to a paucity of permit buyers and argue that nobody wants to use the woods for recreation. How to push for change? Protest the unpaid ticket with a well-reasoned letter full of CCs. Or get active on the conservation side of the issue. I'm afraid that just refusing the pay puts us on the hyper-libertarian side, which doesn't get much serious notice from people who are trying to work out good public policy. arlen

Look, I don't have an argument with anyone who doesn't want to pay the fee. But I haven't seen any reason yet for me, personally, not to pay it. I've worked in the public sector all my working life, and I feel like I understand how money flows to and from general funds: the effects of tax revolts show up pretty clearly in the budgets of people trying to do good things. I don't agree with all of the segments of USFS, but it'd cost me a bit more than $30 to make the improvements I've personally trod/driven/skied across, so I'll cut them some slack and pay their fee. Their preservation arms don't have much support from the higher levels these days, so I'd need a good reason to give them shit. I've read the arguments, and I respect the reasoning. But the fee program issue just don't rise to the level of an ethical revolt for me. arlen