Coondog

Never worn (too small for me; I'm Medium). So rather than sit on my gear shelf these should find someone who can take them to all the places they want to go. More details @ http://www.backcountry.com/outdoorgear/Cloudveil-Shadow-Peak-Pant-Mens/CLV0459M.html DM or email me at atdot

While I prefer to carry an SLR kit heavier than my tent, i understand some folks like lightweight. The Sony point+shoots with the Zeiss optics take really high quality pics, and they're pretty cheap now. Most people I know who've got Canon Powershots like them, and their included software is pretty good.

Climb: Wa Pass (+ loose rock needs trundled from Concord)-Concord Tower, N Face Date of Climb: 7/3/2006 Trip Report: Group of 4 camped at Wa Pass this weekend. Did S Arete of SEWS (aka scramble & downclimb) Sunday, then headed up to do Concord N Face and Beckey Route on Liberty Bell Monday. Concord N Face was much fun; however, (and the reason I'm bothering to post a TR @ all) we noticed a fair size death flake / horn of rock on the 2nd pitch of this climb at roughly the 1/2 way point. At roughly waist-to-shoulder height as you gain a fair size ledge (w/ twin cracks meandering up left and ow-ish chimney to right). Horn-shaped, and movable by hand, this rock is roughly 3' high and 12" deep... <edit> Also note: two slings, purple & believe blue, slung in the 6"-ish chimney on the right side of this ledge. When you see these slings DON'T PULL ON THE LOOSE ROCK ON YOUR LEFT! <edit/> We'd have trundled this ourselves if not for the two groups of folks hanging out in the gully below. Rapped off, waited to see if the two groups on Beckey route of Lib would be fast enough for us to get on before rain came, bailed due to rain. Hiked over to Blue Lake that afternoon, glorious... Awoke next morning to black skies and thunder booming nearby. Broke camp & on trail in 30 min later... bummed to have to leave such a lovely spot, glad we weren't being rained on a pitch or two off the deck... JavaMan in Winthrop makes great breakfast burrito & good brewin's. --Coondog. Gear Notes: More than needed. Approach Notes: Snow in approach gully to Lib Bell / Concord N Face largely melted out; ice-axes not needed.

Howdy campers- If anyone's interested in some ski mountaineering or ice-climbing in Chamonix or La Grave between Jan 2nd to 9th drop me a PM. Cheers- --Coondog.

As promised... sans pics. We don't have a pic of the scar from where this chunk popped, but we'd be interested in seeing one if someone has the chance in the near future. I can add a couple pics of us toting Craig out once i get them. Sun, 4/25/05. L'worth: Castle Rock:: Midway Clapton leading 2nd pitch, believe he's at the large ledge just before the traverse-y portion; belayed by Golan. Craig next to Golan after having lead 1st pitch, belaying up Yves, aka "Dr_Crash." If this image link works, believe Clapton was on the obvious ledge just before the rightward traverse on the 2nd pitch. For more detail, look at MattP's excellent topo @ http://www.seanet.com/~mattp/Midway/midtopo.pdf ; believe flake that popped directly under the "5.5" marking to the left of the optional belay on the 2nd pitch. Clapton downclimbed to backclean a piece, then executed the same move off the ledge he'd made previously, only this time a piece of rock approximately 7' in height, 3' across and 6-8" wide popped with no tell-tale wiggling or creaking, fortunately depositing Clapton sideways directly back onto the ledge he'd just been leaving, while he immediately began screaming "ROCK!!" of course. Our coffee-table-ish size friend tumbled, and apparently hit hard enough to air-burst into a substantial number of smaller size pieces. Craig, at the first belay, was struck by 1-2 pieces of unknown size: major piece directly struck him on the top rear-left of his helmet, glanced off and then struck his left shoulder. Second strike was to Craig's lower left shin, leaving a 4" gash exposing his tibia; believe this piece then struck his foot/ankle, leading us to suspect it may have broken toe(s). Golan, belaying at top first-pitch, dodged as far away from rockfall as he could and fortunately wasn't struck. Yves struck directly on head by a rock of fair size; apparently separate hits from smaller pieces to right shoulder, right arm/elbow, pretty substantial hit to top right thigh with substantial bruising, and right lower leg with some scrapes / bruising. Rock debris continued down face of Castle Rock to pepper area around the 3 parked cars at trailhead, and one piece approx. softball size struck yellow line of Hiwy 2 and peppered... Golan then assisted Craig; he tied off Craig's belay line to Yves, tied off his own belay line to Clapton, assessed condition of folks, and set plan. Lowered Clapton down to belay ledge to assist him, then lowered Yves to ground, re-rigged lines, then lowered Craig with Clapton attending / assisting. Then Golan rapped off and lines were pulled. On ground, I checked out Yves and found him to be in mild state of shock; helped him clean off his elbow hit, checked to make sure he wasn't bleeding too badly elsewhere, and sat him down to eat a donut and not wander off. Once Craig to ground, I looked at his leg and though seeing 3-4" of his bone exposed wasn't exactly heartening was pleased to see that it had already clotted well and there was little bleeding. He was in pretty serious shock after shot to head and shin. Checked for other bleeding, then washed out his shin gash and bandaged him up to keep clean while we got him out. Yves, in his infinite generosity and slightly reduced mental state, kept trying to feed Craig donuts, which I didn't think was a great idea since I think Craig had enough already without spewing rainbow sprinkle donuts once juiced up on painkillers and antibiotics. I loaded Yves down with an extra pack & ropes, and set him off down trail to get my truck ready to transport Craig into the L'worth clinic. Only took us a few minutes to set our plan, pack up, and get Craig mobile down trail. Took turns carrying Craig in arm-bar, then once to mellower ground just helped him along with one of us under each arm. Third to halfway down trail the pain of carrying seemed to have blown through the fog of the rock hits, and he started hopping down trail on one leg so as not to suffer our bouncing him along. He made it a most of the way down one-leg hopping with a shoulder to lean on, then Clapton piggy-backed him out. Threw him into a nest of sleeping pads & bags in the back of truck, then straight into the clinic. Just under two hours from time of rockfall to getting Craig & Yves checked out in L'worth clinic, where we spent a delightful afternoon... x-rays, irrigation and painkillers, o' my. After leisurely afternoon in faux Bavaria's clinic, a leisurely drive home, some take-out Snappy Dragon, and lots of collective "holy crap are we glad to be alive" reflections and a couple well-deserved Observations: 1. We were very lucky: considering everyone was basically lined up like bowling pins in the line of fire from this rockfall, we were very lucky the rock didn't catch Clapton when it came off, very lucky it burst into pieces, and very lucky no one was injured any worse... This could have played out very differently... i'll assume most folks who've been in a similar situation feel the same way afterward... 2. We'd assumed that a route as well-traveled as Midway would naturally be in pretty bomb-proof shape, but fortunately had our helmets on... If we hadn't... well, again, this incident could have been far more traumatic. 3. Only possible thing would be to consciously have tried to belay from a more "out of the way" position, but not even sure how possible that was given the terrain... 4. We all kept very cool and were zero-bullshit in getting Craig out safe asap. And hat's off to him nutting up and hopping his own as out most of the way... Hardman. Here's to with your buddies after something like this... Buhk-soon indeed. Live long, climb strong. --Cd.

Tell me what color & what was inside & be happy to return to you... looks a little beat up after taking a tumble off the cliff... O' yeah, found it this past Sunday 4/17. --Cd.

Re: beta on DT: 1. We camped @ the Natl Park (or Monument?) area which is okay, but sounds like the hookup is to get your reservation at the climbers hostel / camp well in advance... Climbed next to the guy who runs it, super cool guy... 2. Be prepared for the crowd on the weekend; bag the Durrance and Matador on a weekday (if ya can) 3. Ditto on the stretch... unless you're already gumby dat is; Matador is unreal. <if I really got this image to insert, i'm buying myself a bier right now>

i'm selling my K2 Ascents w/ Silvretta 500's, about a $650 setup, on eBay. yeah, i know, i know, sorry to post my eBay auction, but they've been skied 5 days and they're @ $169.50 right now... which hopefully seems like a decent deal if you're int'd in K2 approach boards... thanks- --cd.

Sent these to eBay also, opening bid is $99... http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=7113762891&ssPageName=STRK:MESE:IT please buy so i can get new booties... or just flame me for cross-advertising my eBay listing here, either way really.

Bump: and know I may get flamed for saying "eBay," but since i've had several people ask about them: they're being auctioned off @ http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=7113730193&ssPageName=STRK:MESE:IT current bid is $99... good luck. --cd.

from my experience, in order of preference: #1 Jim Mates -- Custom Boot Services <http://www.customboot.8m.com> Will drop the complete boot science and have you in a centered, "balanced," athletic stance in 2-5 minutes. Was impressed when after just having me jump around in my boots for a minute he completely diagnosed what's wrong with my GS carves and steep skiing... $75-150 for complete fitting, custom footbeds were $180. And worth it. #2 World Cup Ski on 24th in Bel/Red: They'll fit your boots for $45+ and do a good job. Most of my friends who've gotten their boots fit at a ski shop and then gone to World Cup, either to fix the initial fitting or for new boots, have sworn by the guy. If I could afford to go see him, my buddy Trevor Munger of Munger Orthotics in Achorage, Alaska would rank #1 for custom orthotic footbeds. But I don't visit AK enough... --Jeff

Gene, thanks for the beta -- mucho appreciated. Norman, maybe hiking / climbing something closer would be more better... will keep an eye on the weather... SnowByrd, haven't you broken enough of yourself lately? No, if you wanna go out and play you're invited... Cheers- --Jeff

Posthole/snowshoe up, alpine down for me, and board down for my buddy Dice. Other takers welcome to come along... probly leave Seattle "early-ish" and be back "late-ish." --Cd.

Does that mean you're (finally) not sick any more? And, aren't you going to --ski-- Mt Fujiyama??? If not, why not? If so, convince me why I shouldn't go back to work or remodeling my house and spend a week in Japan, then a month in Thailand climbing in the beach, drinking bier, living on the cheap??? Hey wait a minute, umm, i'm going to Thailand -- forget Mt Fuji...

Anyone had the chance to compare the Volkl's NJ's or Mountains to the K2 Shuksans?