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Hey, I resent that

Alrighty, for the life of me I can't figure out how sidecut or no sidecut affects the chance of catching an edge. Anyone? Bueller, perhaps?

Bones are aid, and lame ones make for lame aid.

Uh, too bad you didn't drive up last Friday, eh?

Well, I was thinking I'd just do the de-tuning myself, play with that a little bit after figuring out how. Would be cool if I could actually feel the difference They're new skis, just waxed, so no need for the big job.

Bet that was the same rotten dead tree I (and probably everybody else here that's climbed Cutthroat) rapped off. Scary. Silly me, I thought you guys had climbed something else on Cutthroat...

The third photo is damn funny, I like the angle - is that chainsaw really bigger than you Kurt?

Phew, a tad bit overwhelmed Freshly hot-waxed not able to stand or walk, yup, that was me Saturday. I guess I have never skied a pair of recently tuned skis before in my life, heh, or ones with half as much cut. To de-tune edges at shovels/tails, do I use a fine-grain bastard file? Stand the ski on its tail and lean the shovel into a corner? (I don't think I have easy access to a vise...) Then slide the file downwards and outwards in a curvy motion? I'm pretty much just guessing, can you tell? Thanks for the tips everyone!

Do you all tune your skis yourselves? Dave Parker I should de-tune my edges at the shovels/tails, a little bit. I don't really know how to do it. So, couple of questions... Where do you take your skis if you don't do it yourselves? What is the kit if you do it yourselves? A "stone"? I don't even know what that is A bastard file? What kind of roughness? Is it easy to fill in a scratch, as long as it isn't too bad? Paul Parker's book has a chapter on ski tuning, I figure I'll read it until I understand what he's talking about.

I want to go ski volcanos. Baker by Easton, Adams by S Spur or NW Ridge or traverse both, St. Helens, mebbe Rainier? What's a mellow way to ski Rainier this year? Emmons? Hardy was sweet, that's a funny photo of Kurt on the log That was the exact log where I went NONONONO oh-my-poor-new-skis, hehe. Turns out I got one scratch, not bad at all.

WHOOO-HOO-HOO THAT'S ME IN A SKI PIC, har-dee-har-har. That's a first Hey Matt can I grab copies of the rest of the pics somewhere? I was shooting film, probably won't finish it for another week or two.

Oops, muchos scrolling to read this thread now Was a super cool weekend! Dave!

Aw, come on Erik, this is mean. Give it back! He's gonna be missing it some day.

Phew, thank god we're having this discussion again. It's more than timely. Seriously though, there are lots of old threads about this.

That's bullshit CBS. The ropes are put up in the morning and the time they're left up exceeds the time somebody is actually being belayed by a whole lot. But this is easy to fix - just divy up into small groups, 2-4 people, each with one rope. Then you'd be pulling the ropes all the time. Do this for a couple of years and the mentality of "claiming a route" and the idea of being able to climb without a proficient leader in the party would both almost disappear. If the Everett Mounties are already doing this, more power to you.

Where to put custom insoles? Thermafit liners? We want to argue about skis! Hehehe This thing will be great once there are several hundred posts on it...

Attitude, your list of posts is a wasteland. As far as I can tell you have never contributed anything useful here, and you're not much of a sprayer either - don't draw any laughs, don't make any good trolls, don't really do anything interesting. What's your climbing like? Why are you defensive when people push back on big groups with tons of top-ropes that were put up from above and are left alone most of the day? Is it because you don't lead? That's my best guess. Feel free to tell us otherwise.

Matt, I think the level of activity on the ropes constitutes the main difference between a crag visited by a group of 50 Mountie basic class participants, and a crag busy with that many climbers in smaller groups. In some ways busy crags are good - we need busy crags in order to maintain access to climbing areas, strength in numbers and all that good stuff. But inactive ropes are bad. If the group of 50 Mounties were divied up into parties of 2-4 with each group using the same rope throughout the day then there would be much less difference between ropefest and the basic course field trips. However, in that case it wouldn't really be a group of 50. Lead, follow and move on.

Matt, I think nobody, including the Mountaineers and myself alike, is discussing wilderness areas. We're talking about busy crags in non-wilderness areas. Crowding and route access is a greater problem than erosion and environmental impact, although the latter shouldn't be ignored. Ropes should not be left hanging on routes when not in use, on Barney's Rubble and otherwise. That's a message the Mounties should be advocating in the basic class, not ignoring.

Actually, I disagree with that. I think you need a certain level of skill before hooking up with partners at pub club becomes realistic. It's not a big threshold to cross though. And if you stick with the board for a little while you'll most likely find a couple of folks that have a similar level of experience and then you can go out and learn together, as long as you are careful, read the books and don't get in over your heads.

Alrighty, fuck priapism for likening the Mounties to Osama Bin Laden... But fuck the fucking basic climbing class just as much. A group of 50? Only? Makes me wish I had Ray's, or Trask's, or Crazy Polish Bob's way with words, I mean expletives. The Icicle is no place for groups of 50, no more than any other crag is. I don't care that you're taking over four different small crags either. There is nothing that is taught at these massive field trips that couldn't be taken care of in the city. If the Mounties take their enviro-conservatism seriously then they ought to stick to their own rules about limiting group size, national park boundaries notwithstanding. The basic class should not be an exception - it should be the first and most important opportunity to imprint good ethics, including the limiting of group sizes and how (not) to manage ropes at busy crags. Lead, follow, move on. The offer to take down a top-rope that is not in use is not good enough either. An active top-rope should be taken down if another party shows up and wants to lead, follow and go. I have no other problems with the Mounties. I'm a member, although I have never participated in a climbing trip. The reason is that there doesn't seem to be any way to begin climbing with the Mounties that doesn't involve participating in big trips like this. It's an anachronism and should be changed. If the form of the basic climbing course would change I think I would only have good things to say about the club.

Actually the snow level was lower on the west side. Judging from what we saw this morning it was a good deal higher than 1500' east of the pass.

How about just tying into the ends before starting the simulrap?

I did the same thing Ade did except we were in Icicle Canyon - so less useful for figuring out what's happening up north, but for what it's worth it rained cats and dogs all night in the Icicle, with temps around 40. This morning we drove over Stevens Pass, the temps were 33 at the top of the pass and it was dumping snow. There is a lot of precip coming down, if the weather gets better for the weekend then the skiing may be awesome but the climbing maybe not as great.

I don't know about the Mounties in its entirety but that basic class sucks balls. There should be a strict 6 member limit on all club trips, period. Then I don't think I'd have any bad things to say about the Mounties.