slothrop

Aw! Well, they make great gifts. Maybe you should make it up to her by sending her a bonsai kitten tastefully wrapped with a ribbon.

Word. Did you trundle debris on him so he'd have to work to free that crux 5.6+ pitch?

I had a Mountie leader make a smartass remark to me about not wearing gloves while rappelling. Are gloves one of the 10 essentials? Being Mountaineers-correct is just as important as having more stuff.

What else can we learn from the Japanese? this, apparently. Not to be confused with this, which is just lame.

Do not forget to chain smoke on the way up and wear garish colors.

I've got the BD Blizzard harness. It's good *shrug*. The waist belt is definitely sized for winter clothing. Mine is a small and I have to crank the buckle all the way down if wearing just a shirt (I have a 30" waist). I got an Alpine Bod for my lil' bro to use when he came out to visit and I wanted to take him out to the crags. I caught my 200-lb. cousin's fall while wearing it and almost became eligible for a promising career as a castrato. The the Alpine Bod is reasonably light and easy to put on, but the Blizzard is almost as light, much more comfortable, has gear loops, and is still fully adjustable, so you can put it on without stomping it with your crampons (though maybe not as quickly as with the Bod). The Blizzard also comes with one of those ice clipper things to rack screws on.

Universal Time Coordinated, I think, which does imply a kind of international (gasp!) cooperation. I think Bush would probably be against it, if he knew it existed. Sssh!

Oops. Mine sez 12/22, 0115 UTC.

The 22nd.

Skiing was pretty good above Paradise on Sunday. A little icy in places, but there was plenty of fresh snow. Five of us were up there, along with a few other skiers and some snowboarders in the trees down low. Amusing rally driving was to be had in the nearly empty snow-dusted parking lot.

I went up to Paradise with a few friends to ski yesterday and had a good time in the copious fresh snow. It was blowing spindrift and snowing most of the time, but my friends got in some good turns while I flailed gracelessly downhill. The east slopes were heavily windloaded and we saw a recent foot-high fracture line on the way down (Geek the Greek skied right over it in the whiteout). A party of out-of-towners was headed up to Muir that day to attempt a summit climb . They said they had a week to do it and were going to stay at the hut there if necessary. So I'm curious: has anyone here made an extended (forced or otherwise) stay at Le Grand Hotel Muir in the winter? I'd love to hear stories of puffing with the resident snafflehounds to pass the time between trips outside to shovel the door clear.

Yet another anecdote about the Dimension: I wore it all day over a windshirt today on the Muir Snowfield, where it snowed and blew spindrift most of the time. I stayed comfortably dry, despite repeated faceplants into the deep freshiez.

Four days of perfect weather next summer for Fleblebleb when he goes to do Challenger again (and takes me with him).

Nice TR!

That website is broken, at least in my browser. And to participate in the Performance/Technique Clinic, they recommend that you be able to TR W13. That's when the ice kills you when you look at it funny, right?

Hooking the bolt holes with your heel spurs is aid.

Good point, Geek. I was wondering when you'd say something in this thread So: having an overhead anchor that is built to resist a multidirectional pull is a Good Thing, and usually a better idea than anchoring the belayer tightly against an upward pull. Assume the belayer will have to be pulled up into the anchor (it's overhead), thus dissipating some force with his movement and the associated friction. Then, when the system becomes static as the anchor-belayer system pulls taut, the force will increase on the leader's top piece, but by now it's a much lower force to be multiplied by the pulley effect.

Yup, you can get Camalots anywhere (and they're always the same @#%!#$% price, too... ). I like PMS' selection of unusual gear.

I've got the Cerro Torres, the yellow ones. I think the insulated Cerro Torres that Highlander's talking about are red. They're pretty burly boots and my feet have stayed dry without me having to sno-seal them yet. I've climbed ice, snow, and easy rock in them fairly comfortably, though they still hurt my weirdly-shaped heels.

What's an LEO ranger? Oh, Law Enforcement Officer?

Good point, Loren. I can't think of anything I'd want to pay extra for. They've got a nice monopoly on the mountain, and it doesn't make sense to try to run the park like it was a competitive business by offering "value-added services" or whatever bullshit. Of course, recent reinterpretations of the mission of our federally-owned wild areas don't seem to realize this.

My sarcasm does *not* translate well to written communication...

Sure, Nada Lake's probably frozen by now, but come on, it's WI1! You have the ice sickness.

Naw, man, getting soaked was scheduled for this weekend. But climbing something big and snowy is looking less likely as the winter storm threatens. Whatchoo up to? Hoping your freezer ices up so you can at least climb *something*? Books! You know, for the pretty pictures.

Ah yes, but how would I really know how much softshell+rain sucks without going through the suffering personally? A mellow day at the ice caves was the perfect opportunity to learn that I don't want to wear Schoeller in a rainstorm. Now to test it in snow! Slothrop is a character from a book, Gravity's Rainbow. I like it because it's a stupid awkward word, and because the character gets all the ladiez.