bobinc

Amen to that. What a drag to have the neighborhood burn every 5 yrs or so...

Kinda off the subject, but I went to a NoMeansNo (Victoria, BC band) show yrs ago and the band was poised to give away free Hanson Bros CDs if ANYONE in the audient could answer even the easiest Hanson Bros trivia question. No one could do it (non-hockey literate Americans) and the band was rightly horrified...

Glad you brought that one up. The Long Walk is the ne plus ultra of the genre. The author's name contains no vowels, as far as I remember; it's much easier to search the library or Evil Empire (aka Amazon) under the book's title. This one is a must-read.

Carolyn -- if you don't care too much about looks, you can get a canvas duffel bag at the surplus store. They're harder to kill than cordura, although some of the newer bags are pretty bombproof. Also, you get better value if you stay away from the higher end labels: North Face, etc. Outdoor Products sells some big duffels for good money. On clothes, bring wool and a shell that won't weight 10 lb when wet. You can pick up secondhand boots for reasonable prices in Seattle at Second Ascent.

The Nikon 775 gets high marks but I haven't actually used it and there may be concerns about durability. It does have a 3x zoom, is under $500 (from cameraworld), and is said to take amazing macro shots.

Right now the meteor showers are spectacular. I never get tired of the flowers and observing the marmots, either.

Matt-- when we did that route yrs ago in Sept, I recall we didn't really need crampons. An ultralight ice axe sounds a little better than a sharpened stick... but you should be fine as long as you're a good judge of wood. I like the Guide Almighty idea; something like the Garmont Kevlar Climber would also be great.

Can't believe no one mentioned the glissade off The Brothers in the Olympics. Around 1500' of 25-35 degree snow which, when in shape, is a total hoot.

Has anyone taken the route from Park Creek Pass up and over to Horseshoe Basin? It looks like a steep snow gully from Buckner Glacier, but I haven't gotten very close to get a better look. Also, how feasible is it to link up from upper HBasin over to Sahale Arm? A route is described in one of the CAGs but wonder if anyone has done it.