Pencil_Pusher

Well, don't stray too far off the beaten path up top, there are crevasses. My leg personally knows of one up there close to the summit. Bring wands to help guide you back to the hellish N Ridge.

I'd guess this is like Microsoft and Linux. Both may be great in their own respect, but everyone uses Microsoft. Incidentally, I know of someone who'd tied in with a bowline and it came undone and fell to the ground, while that climber was on lead. Part of the problem was the follower did not know how to check the knot (I guess it was tied wrong). I don't know how to check the knot either. So if you're going to fall repeatedly and untie each time (?) why not just use a figure8 on a bite, clipped in to the harness? The climbing gyms don't particularly like that, but it sure saves time.

You can pre-purchase tickets for the movie at fandango.com and as an fyi, here's an e-mail I got: The Matrix Reloaded: The IMAX Experience will be released at IMAX® theatres in Canada and the United States shortly after its 35mm release on May 15. A listing of theatres that will show the film has not yet been finalized. Please check www.imax.com for updates. The Matrix Revolutions: The IMAX Experience will be released simultaneously in IMAX and 35mm theatres November 5. Best regards, IMAX Corporation That's sick and twisted... the show at the IMAX.

I can't remember which weekend it was, but we happened to climb this route before the permit season, in June 2001 too. That was my first attempt at going light and I froze my friggin ass off camping at Lake Vivianne. I agree with your gear assessment, we brought way too much as there were plenty of rocks to sling/girth. I had rock shoes the partner had boots, we both froze our asses off climbing that thing and it was the shoes that got us up both iffy sections you described. The little "unprotected" face above the piton wasn't much... For the last 20ft we went around to the right side and ascended a shove-yourself-in-a-big-crack to shimmy up. Thank god it warmed up. The descent had us guessing where the stupid slings were (both the descent off the top and the approach from camp were mostly snow). There wasn't snow on the route, just some ice in a crack or two including that bastard 10' crack that begins the final pitch (my first use of alpine aid). It's got a bomber fist jam for your left hand at the top of that crack. This is why I'd second the dude that said go there in the summer. Just do it as a long day trip to avoid the permit schpeel, you'll enjoy it more.

Dang, I kept forgetting to post this. Anyhow it's Coleman brand and a pretty darned good deal.

Has $38 heart rate monitor wristwatches, $60 altimeter watches, and $157 3.2mp digital camera (brand-spanking new).

Things haven't changed much here at cc.com I see. Well, check out Matrix Reloaded trailers for some kick-ass previews of what's in store for us come May 15th. Probably five times the action with even some skin.

No, no, no... not "in other words." Don't put words in my mouth. Just what I typed above. Or, from the Cost Accounting book, "In other industries, the pricing policy is based on excess capacity and differing elasticities of demand; a higher price is charged to the core market and lower prices to secondary markets. In order for this to work, there must be no arbitrage. Arbitrage occurs when the customers who purchase the goods at the lower price are able to resell it to other customers." (Cost Management 3rd Ed., Hansen & Mowen, pg. 790) I've been pretty happy with the learning this quarter, both in this and marketing. Beats the gobbly-goop, fluffy management terms.

I flew in with Geeting and Hudson took me out even though I'd paid Geeting. I got great service from them both and would recommend them. If I went again, I'd try for the two chicks and a bird solely because of how impressed I was by their flying/service. All the same, I'd go with Geeting or Hudson. I think most of the services there tend to work with each other when times get tough and they need help. For instance, I saw both Hudson and K2 help out Geeting under different, but similarly difficult, circumstances. And I'm sure Geeting did/would help them out as well.

Delayed studying by adding bakers cocoa with instant coffee mix (crushed coffee crystals to powder first) and then added this to the jar of brown rice syrup and blended throroughly. It was about a tablespoon and a half... I didn't really measure, just dumped some in. So now the syrup tastes like those Coffee Nips (candy). The cocoa because I didn't want to add sugar, the caffeine because it came to mind. Simple... making gu for dummies.

Looks pretty hokey... more along the lines of the ava-lung. Of course it could just be the pink trim that doesn't make me a believer.

I guess I was one of the ignorant ones. Then I got schooled. So I'm taking this marketing class and relate the little Barrabes/BD schpeel we have here in cyber-wonderland. Prof gave a good reasoning (in a nutshell, as I understood it): Company in business to make profit. Customer looking to maximize their own "profit". Both want the best price for themselves. If customer can take profit from company, they're happy for the good deal. Likewise for the company who is in business to earn a profit. Skip to the internet. So there's some sort of "grey" area where the manufacturer will sell to a different country at their market value provided there is little "cross-talk" between the two, meaning the two different markets (in this case, the US and Europe) won't interact much. So this was probably true for pre-Barrabes. Then the Spaniards got wise and alot of BD ice tool sales went to Barrabes instead of BD. The "cross-talk" became huge. Apparently (learning through the cost-accounting class) head sales and marketing people are more inclined to sell their product at a loss to obtain "market share" whereas the accountants are always looking at ways to maximize profits and are wary of such "sales with a net loss". From the marketing and sales point of view, BD (assuming they sold at cost/loss to Barrabes) may have been trying to establish or maintain a foothold in the European climbing market. This is pure speculation, but it's more meant to show a huge grey area rather than a $120Barrabes and $250Black Diamond USA black-and-white deal. I doubt any company would be so willing to lower their prices so willingly... again it's both sides (company/customer) wanting the maximum profit for themselves. By cutting off Barrabes, there is no more "cross-talk" and they get better contribution margins on their tools. So maybe BD was able to sell at loss/cost because of their profits from US sales? As arlen pointed out, the distribution model... heck, before last week I had never heard of such nor considered the true implications of "cutting out the middleman", as good as it sounds in the frequent sales pitches we hear.

Burning both ends of the candle here... at work. Umm... I remember a while back about Jon from this website, Chief Gaping Officer... Jon and Tim... Anyhow, check with this dude Jon, I think he mentioned a while back about training to do a triathlon in May. So maybe the dude is up for the Wonderland as well.

Or wind up crying if the store is closed/gone (or swiping unattended gear at airport). Take the rich and famous trip to Talkeetna sans a shitload of gear. Visit this shop and buy everything you'll need for the climb: Windy Corner Downtown Main Street Talkeetna, AK 907-733-1600 www.windycorner.com climb@windycorner.com Cartridges for such stoves as well.

Jerome hit the nail on the head with most of his recommendations. Ditto on Clif bars, everyone was trying to barter those off to some poor fool; toilet paper is a good barter, bring two rolls. Go light, avoid the sled if at all possible, only bring two weeks worth of food and fuel. Some people managed to avoid the sled... a bit heavier pack but holy hell you'd be a fat cat if you brought skis too. Tie the ice axe to your harness. I know there's a big reason why not to here, but lose your ice axe out there and you'll be in a world of hurt. Cell phones work at 14 and above (Verizon has best reception), FM radio comes in good from Anchorage. Turn GPS on from landing strip to 11k so you can use backtrack function on exit, if need be. Bring postcards with stamps and give them to climbers as they head down and out to Talkeetna to mail for you... the climbers "Pony Express". XGK's seemed to be the stove of choice, a group used a hanging cartridge stove to heat the tent in the morning up to 14 and then regular stove for higher. Hape sucks, avoid it. Also, Julie from Mckinley Air Service saved everyone's ass big time by skillfully dipping down into the valley under clouds to catch clear air and start picking folks up to get the hell out. Nobody had gotten out for a week due to the weather and the other air services said we couldn't get out that day due to conditions. This chick plucked people off in two trips before convincing the other companies to start flying in. We had Geeting who, along with the others, eventually picked us up. But she lead the way. Heard from an Iranian climbing dude that she pulled a similar stunt a couple of days later. Nothing against the other air services, but f-ing A, that was impressive. Here's my shameless plug for a pilot I've never met.

You'll get all of that in the basic class. They'll drop you into a crevasse, you'll get to yank others out... all the stuff you mentioned. Two months after graduating, six of us "classmates" went off and climbed the Emmons route together. We were happy enough that we pulled it off by ourselves, albeit an easy route. That's right on par with what most folks do upon completing the course... a Rainier ascent. On a separate note, when I mentioned the intermediate class has the student climbing at their ability level, that's in the true sense, whether it's 5.4 to (as far as I know and I climb nowhere near this so not sure) 5.11. I think a student and instructor went up Thin Red Line last year... because both were capable of such. Fuhrer Finger and N Face Shuksan were a couple of the snow routes they did last year too. The graduation climb is one planned and approved ( ) by the instructors. Goode, Triumph, N Ridge Stuart were some of their climbs.

Caveat emptor: There's an unadvertised $8 shipping charge, the Alpine Harness is 15.4oz and comes with only one gear loop (versus the advertised 11oz with two gear loops), and the screamers have a plastic covering over the whole sewn part. Josh is a nice guy and shipped the package while waiting on the additional $ for shipping. The adjustable daisy chains are the best thing since sliced bread for aiding.

I recall Campmor having an altimeter watch on sale for ~$90, check out their website. I have a Magellan GPS that needs three satellite signals to get a fix and an altitude. The thing has only had six to eight strong signals at any one time, but that's rare. I think they advertise 12 as the max. Here I am starting in on those old fart comments, "Why I remember back in 1990 when we had those GPS units, why they were as big as a VCR and heavy too."

REI sells the Tahoma Mountain Rescue Emergency bivy for ~$4.25. It even comes with a pack of matches and some survival tips on paper! Shirley it's the lightest on the market.

I may be one of your support crew, Norm. 20 credits and working full time sure puts a damper on exercise. Maybe what Norm was alluding to insofar as the competitive edge... anyone else wanna go along for the ride and see what they're made of? Lurkers check out profiles for e-mail addresses if hesitant about posting. I bet mikebell and Swissman would be in on this. I know Mike wants to pull off that Olympic traverse in a day. That guy's in excellent shape with an 8km peak under his belt. I'm sure there's plenty others that are reading this that are up for it as well. I was thinking Cytomax should sponsor a 24hr Wonderland Trail race. I wouldn't touch organizing that with a ten-foot pole, but it's an idea. Either way, having some other runner out there within eyesight ought to be stimulus enough to push harder.

There are exceptions I'm sure. While on an un-named outing up the W Ridge Forbidden, we couldn't get a permit so we each carried something miniscule for a bivy "if it came down to that". No sleeping pads to make us look suspicious. Leaving the TH at 8am was how it began. We bivied and damn if that wasn't the best bivy conditions a climber could ever ask for with what little we had. On the way out we met Mr. Ranger with the badge on his chest and gun on his hip. He scoped out our small packs, asked us if we bivied up there and if we had a permit. We told him we bivied up there due to the late hour and that we did not have a permit. Well the guy was pretty damned nice about it and said he'd been in a similar position a couple of times. He let us go with a, "Have a good day," as we fled for our lives from the biting flies. We knew the difference between right and wrong and, as stated in this thread, convenience was the reason we chose to break the law.

Here's my two cents. Take your dogs and bring them wherever you want, off their leash. The little shitzus and poodles will get eaten by the big dogs or fall off the cliffs. I haven't met a dog yet on the trail that annoyed me or gave me any trouble. If I had a dog, I'd take him to Si and take off the leash. As far as barking dogs, well I guess I agree there... they do take away from the peace and serenity. Here's a good one, duck hunting at the Potholes: We're there freezing our butts off in the morning, sitting and waiting with the decoys out. The silence is very peaceful. Then a dog lets out maybe two barks, nothing much. And then, booming loud all over the damn place is the dog owner screaming, "SHUT THE F-K UP YOU G-DAMN PIECE OF S-T DOG!" on and on this dude hollered. We wisely chose to move somewhere far away. Those shortcuts on switchbacks are caused by global warming and the WWF. Show me the study if you say it's the dogs.

Not that I'm objective about this subject (I took the basic class through them), but I think the Boealps basic climbing class is a great way for the beginner to get introduced to climbing. Suck in your manly-man pride, take the class, wear your helmet from the car, don't summit... but by the end they'll have taught you enough to where you can go out on your own and do stupid things, hopefully safely. The class is pretty darned fun too. I was up there on 1/1/01 and some insane dude had put in those sideways ski steps all the way up to the shoulder beneath the summit. We went up that thing without a rope on a rising traverse, intersecting Dru's red line at about the middle. From there it was pucker factor +100 to the top and back down. It was a nice crust that offered support when punched through but it was also if you slipped/tripped a "catch yourself in the first ten feet or not at all" deal. Pretty stupid but thankfully it panned out. One of the skiers was backing off as we were coming up. Granted this dude was smart enough to leave the skis down at the base, but he still wasn't too keen on going to the top. I guess he figured he'd try again when he saw us but then decided against it. There's some quote out there... "Prudence is the better part of valor." Take the Boealps intermediate climbing course if you don't need anyone to hold your hand. The intermediate class is essentially designed to give you more confidence leading and to subject you to climbs within your ability in the alpine setting. They go to Smith Rock, Squamish, two other group outings and then disperse into a 1:1 or 2:1 student/instructor ratio for their alpine climbs. The intermediate class is a butt-load of fun. Now's the time to apply for either, both classes start in March. The basic class is three months long and the intermediate is six months. Boealps website

Take the snow skis, fool. "Look, just point your skis down and go REALLY fast. If something gets in your way... turn."

So in a nutshell: everything we type here, be it in a post, in our profile or in a PM is essentially public. -- (responding to below without adding another post) Cool. Yeah, I wouldn't be bent out of shape knowing the two dudes that started this free website had the ability as admins to view, with discretion, PM's. I just wanted to reinforce what you were saying about being cautious on the internet. So, thumbs up for this website, J & T!