Pencil_Pusher
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Posts posted by Pencil_Pusher
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So was the photo on Extreme Alpinism touched up? I wondered this because it looks like on the left side of the photo, underneath the snow, there is a triangular shaped shadow. Added that he's got a locker on the last piece and his moves go to nowhere, I figured this was a poser shot.
I like the book, but there are a few things in it that have me go
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Shit, the least you could have done was spelled veterans correctly in the first place.
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Challenger in a day?! Are you crazy? Sounds schweet and I gather I'm not the only one that thinks so...
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My hat off to the living and dead of the various militaries. They may be gone, but not forgotten. While I appreciate and honor their sacrifices, I sure do hope those leaders that send the troops off to their deaths know the hell of war.
Cue Ozzy's warpigs song...
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The Ortovox F1 works really well. During that class, as Gary walked away, all the other beacons stopped pinging long before the F1. That 80m range blows the others away.
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I'd say don't wash your pack, let the rain do the trick. I washed mine once and then spent forever sewing up the stitching that came out as a result. Dental floss seems to work well for this task.
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I bought both the Shrike and X-15 new from eBay. The Shrike is a bent shaft and has a slightly smaller diameter shaft than the X-15. They both seem to have the same pick attachment point thing-a-ma-jig so it looks like I can swap out picks between them. Maybe that's standard with all the BD tools, I don't know.
Shrike $100, X-15 $70
eBay continually has sales on tons of ice and rock gear. Paypal is a pain in the ass the first time around.
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I don't know if it was by Hafner or not, but there's road construction on Hwy 1 somewhere near that Banff area. The wacky thing was we saw a forest fire up on the north ridgeline near there... this when there's snow on the ground.
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I need to learn how to better copy and paste. Retyping this stuff is tedious, so here's a copied version (warning, lengthy TR for all who hate them):
Went up yonder to Banff this past weekend. Those Canadians are really nice people. Three Vets on 6th and Yukon in Vancouver sells a double-burner propane stove for $40 Canadian if you forget to bring one. The list goes on... they all drive FAST on that Highway 1, 80mph can be slow in comparison. They have the BEST sunflower seeds, Spitz. Banff and Canmore had the cheapest gas outside of Vancouver at .709/liter.
"The Waddington Guide" by Don Serl, Elaho Publishing ISBN 0968247253 www.elaho.ca
This is the best guidebook I've ever seen. You'll drool with awe at all the inspiring photos on a very remote range of peaks.
Ice was in darned near everywhere in Canada. We even spotted a three or four pitch huge frozen waterfall at exit 129 on Hwy 1 in CA. That's 129 kilometers from Vancouver, essentially four hours away from Seattle! Further up the road there was climbable ice near the tollbooth on Hwy 5. I'd suggest parking near one of those holes-in-the-divider "emergency vehicles only" so you can avoid paying the toll when you get done climbing for the day.
Tons more ice near Rogers Pass and by the four avy tunnels on Hwy 1 headed to Banff. In fact, the ice near the tunnels has approaches of five minutes for a few of them! There is legal parking nearby. The time to do these is now before the avy danger becomes high.
Kicking Horse appeared to be thin, but everywhere else we saw thick and phat ice. Cascade Falls outside of Banff was a popular area and Urs Hole was getting into shape with a few climbers on it. The Icefields Parkway had oodles of fat ice everywhere. We pretty much had the Weeping Wall to ourselves on Saturday, a party of two had left four or so hours before us. Bridal Veil Falls was huge and fat. Car camping was had at the rest stop outside Banff, Weeping Wall parking lot, and Bridal Veil Falls parking lot with no disturbances nor visits by the warden.
Valhalla Outfitters in Canmore has a "current conditions" book for local ice routes, effectively the climbers "word of mouth" for route conditions. They also sell that Waddington book and everything else you could need for your climbing/hiking needs. Charlet Moser Quarks for $275Can. Those things are sweet.
Weeping Wall has a rappel anchor in the center rock exactly 60m up. This was our rappel when I chickened out after I heard of the impending crux 5 pitch as being next. I assume WI# is the same as #, so a 4 is WI4. Two pitches of 4 was good enough for me. The ice had varying conditions for what we climbed. That chandelier ice was a bit of a pain to go up. I used my regular crampons, Grivel 2F, for Urs Hole and then IceIceBaby's unknown brand monopoints for Weeping Wall. I was so pumped from the exposure and such on Weeping Wall, I'm not sure if the monos were any better or not. While I was getting better with tool swings and hooks into existing holes, I had trouble trusting my feet on vertical ice. Also, I didn't quite get the whole hand-foot synchronization thing worked out for efficiently and effectively moving up the ice. As it was, IIB yelled out on the second pitch, "Quit having sex with the ice and hurry up and climb!" I guess my grunts were a bit loud
I finished off on some funky horizontal cracks in the ice on a rising traverse through a water shower to the belay. Nothing quite as humbling as making moves while getting drenched!The weather was awesome the whole time we were there. Cold of course, but nonetheless great. Spectacular, actually, as we had a full moon out with nary a cloud in the whole sky. The temp was around 40 I'd guesstimate for Saturday with virtually no wind and still no clouds. This made the climbing a little harder as the day progressed, plus all hell was cutting loose as ice and rock started letting go with the warm temps. Putting a backup on the rope would have been smart as there were some chunks coming down that could've easily knocked me out (or hurt like hell) when I was belaying.
After Weeping Wall, we headed up north to Jasper. The scenery was excellent. We had dinner, gassed up and then headed back down to the Bridal Veil Falls parking lot to car camp. Chess helped the night progress, the dark hours are long up there. Putting your sleeping pad on the floorboard is a trick he showed me, it sure did help out quite a bit for the feet.
I awoke early Sunday realizing I'd better get back to Seattle to study for this wonderful accounting class if I wanted to pass the class. It's so easy to slack when climbing enters the brain. It was a pretty cheap trip with the big expenses mainly being gas, book, and stove. I brought almost all my food from Fred Meyers, which was nice. I should've brought more doughnuts as the stuff I brought to cook never got around to being cooked. It was cold enough outside just getting the water warmed. The huge chocolate bars were nice. My windshield got a huge crack in it from the defrosting each morning, plus I got a couple of nice stars in it from rocks on the road
Of course the border patrol flagged our car to be searched on the return. At least some of the BP folks in Blaine were nice. Estrada either wasn't in a good mood or was on a power trip... either way, it was kind of funny thinking about how disgusted he must've been searching through a ton of empty sunflower shells on the floor of the car
Those Spitz were good. At least I got a smirk in reply when I told him how good those sunflower seeds were, when he gave me the car keys back. Which was better than the trying-to-look-intimidating stare I got which prompted me to tell him to smile, wherein I got the, "You got a problem?" response. I felt like that Sutherland character in that WWII movie (Hogan's Heroes?)... "You gotta stop with those negative vibes, man." Or something like that. Then this old BP guy came out from behind the two-way mirror and all was cool. All in all a nice trip. Get up there before the avy danger becomes high. There was still only a light dusting/coating of snow. Sun Peaks near Kamloops isn't in yet. $10 toll on Hwy 5 but it's like the autobahn in Germany as I guess there is no state patrol in Canada. Near Hope, Kamloops and then close to Vancouver we saw patrol vehicles, but only on the Hwy as it went through these cities/towns.
There was a weather front moving in as we were leaving.
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Canada ice is in. Had Weeping Wall to ourselves yesterday. Urs Hole the day before. IceIceBaby lives and breathes ice, leading WI5, and *really* wants to get out there again (hint). He has beta and photos. Go there before avy danger becomes a problem. Cascade Falls, Bridal Veil Falls both in and phat. The list goes on, but it's everywhere.
Dru, your fellow canucks are very nice people, eh. Seriously.
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I don't know if he posts here, but there is a self-professed dirtbag skier who has skied every month for the past 90-100 months named Bill F. I think he went to that wacky-named Kyrzygstan-whatever place about two years back. He's a white boy so maybe he pulled off some german or russian accent to keep his american butt out of trouble, I don't know. Gregm on this bored might be able to point you in this dude's direction.
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That's a good book, "Waterfall Ice, Climbs in the Canada Rockies, eh". They let me in their country last week so getting in with the jalope should work, whether it survives the trip is another question... the gear inside will be worth more than the car. Thanks for all the tips, I've printed this out for a reference. Found a few good places to hang out at night Which one is the best?
Be back with beta but probably no booty. -
Found this surfing the web. It has a good listing of what's in/out/forming.
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Dru said:
I know of a couple of free, warm bivi spots but they're secret so I leave them for you to discover.
How to talk Canadian, for Americans: do a web search on "Rick Mercer" and you will find some interesting info.
Are you talking about this goofball?
I tried searching the tourist info and park stuff search on the web, nothing much to tell of ice climbing there. Gravsports.com didn't result in too much either.
Thanks for the other tips too. One thing I found along the way was Cody Ice
Any more helpful info is appreciated.
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Hi all. How do you drive there cheaply? I hear the Canucks have expensive gas.
Good places for ice climbing, bivy spots free of wardens, bars/taverns to hang out till midnight before crashing in cold bivy, how to talk/act like a Canuck to avoid local pissing wars and the such...???
Those were some thoughts that came to mind, any help/info would be appreciated. I'm assuming once there we can buy a book for ice climbs of the area. Is this Weeping Wall in that area?
I've got a jalope for a car, with chains though I'd prefer not to use them. Oh yeah, where can I pick up one of those red maple leaf bumper stickers?
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3.5oz? So the manufacturers have it all wrong? I did a quick google and the Lasers came in at 8lb 13oz, with the TLT4 at 6lb and TLT4 Pro at 6lb something ounces. Maybe you meant to type 35 ounces as the difference?
The lightest ones were the MLT400 or something like that, off the life-link.com website. Around four or five pounds.
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Pro Mountain Sports has Charlet Moser 13cm screws on sale at $30. There's also a hammer DMM Fly tool for sale around $80-90. There was another tool for sale at $80-90, I just can't remember which price for which tool. They have a third tool for $39 (Grivel, I think). I guess they have tools to try out too, there were some on the racks. Looks like PMS preps their workers for ice climbing, the dude working there was bundled up in a coat and warm hat.
I think there were two adze Dmm Flys for $120 each, but not sure. They also have some of those butt-floss Mammut single spectra slings.
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Picked up a copy at Pro Mountain Sports today, along with a 13cm Charlie Hoser screw (on clearance at $30). Of the book, hilarious and awesome. Good job for the two authors that put it all together and to all those that had the spirit and fortitude to find these areas. Even a few yahoos here are named in the book.
I thought the intro and the references were awesome for the book. It's not just a "here's where to climb" book, but goes in to great detail on various aspects such as weather 101, helicopter 101, and how-to-clean-up-your-shit 101.
I only got to browse through the routes a bit and I sure did like that one route on Pyramid Peak, "It ain't over yet, motherfuckers!"
Good job guys
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Van Steen has a better guidebook on Rainier which came out earlier than tool Gator's
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Ask joshk, he says he has some of those super-light dynafit boots.
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Ditto on trask's version of religion and war. I agree, let Israel fend for themselves. As for Iraq, pull out of occupation and instead guard booty of war: oil. What a mess.
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Beck said:
and a tent isn't too bad if it's lightweight and you've got a snugglebunny. Then the 14 hours of winter darkness don't seem so bad....me and this swedish girlfriend, we used to LOVE going winter tent camping! And I remember the time, me and another girlfriend and a german girl we knew, it was a dark and stormy weekend in a VE-24...
Three girls in a VE-24?
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Fricking awesome what this couple did. What a way to get the hell off a mountain too.
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"Reluctantly crouched at the starting line,
Engines pumping and thumping in time..."
Free stuff
in The Yard Sale
Posted
With all this interest, you should set up a time and place for everyone. Then the people that really want this stuff can have it and you can still technically say it was free. Sort of like a little eBay action going on...
Have fun on your trip. Be sure to post here intermittently while abroad so we can all squirm with envy whilst in our own little hells.