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Maybe that's all it does?

Conditions: natural/spontaneous, human-triggered Low: very unlikely, unlikely Moderate: unlikely, possible Considerable: possible, probable High: likely Extreme: certain Same scale everywhere in NA?

Sizes 44, 60 at 70% discount

The approach definitely isn't getting any better...

Yup, nice post!

When you add the tails to the Denalis you're increasing the length and the surface, but when you lengthen the Grivels you're opening up the hole in the middle. The only surface increase is because more of the rails is exposed to the snow. Even without increasing the surface the greater length will still give you more flotation methinks. Who cares though, the only reason to use these snowshoes instead of some big old pair of penguin feet is that you're going to be in the trees and talus and boulders and whatnot, and at that point you have a different tradeoff - bigger snowshoes are going to get more tangled up. They will also be a total nuisance on your pack once you start climbing. If you're not going to climb and thrash, take skis...

Stay away from AT&T's new GSM/GPRS service, it doesn't even work properly within Seattle. We're returning the phone we got. Most wireless plans come with a 30-day money back guarantee, which gives you a lot of time to experiment.

A ton of snow came down since the Cpt. went. The conditions are hardly worse right?

Actually, I'd like to know that too...

Cool post of the day

Increasing the length will improve the flotation, although not as much as if you could increase the surface. There is also a different binding, for using without crampons. The crampon-compatible binding doesn't work without crampons I think, and maybe not with all crampons either.

That's an interesting article. It argues that gun ownership, including assault rifles and whatnot, is protected by the constitution and that pro-gun control (sorry, "gun control") arguments about the exact words of the second amendment are somewhat misguided. Let's say everybody were to go along with this argument. Then the remaining problem is figuring out how to have guns around without people getting shot all the time. Going back to the article, it states that "over 40,000 murders were committed in the United States in 1986 and 1987, and that fully sixty percent of them were committed with firearms." That comes out to 12,000 murders committed with firearms, each year. Gun laws are even more liberal in Switzerland than they are in the States (when I started googling around there were a whole lot of pages about this, have fun if you haven't already). In particular, the Swiss seem to have taken a page from Uncle Tricky's book - every Schweizer is issued an assault rifle to keep at home, sometime after they're 18. Yet with all these assault rifles the gun-committed murder rate is a whole lot lower - 66 gun-committed murders in 1996 in a population of approx. seven million. Correcting for population size and we get five times as many gun murders in the States as there are in Switzerland. Maybe we should stop arguing about "gun control" and instead argue about gun control, that is, how to not have people shot while still having guns around? Would be interesting for sure. Oh, and the first gaper to state that people getting shot isn't really his problem as long as his gun isn't involved, is an asshole who deserves to have his gun regulated away from him. It's precisely his problem because without some form of at least alleviation "gun control" will eventually become much stricter here - just like it's becoming stricter in Switzerland.

I'm curious too. How do they compare with the MSR Denalis?

Actually, my feet used to be not only numb but hurting, when my only shoes were Boreal Aces. Those are great shoes but Just Don't Fit me because they're shaped wrong. Maybe that's the problem?

Inadvertently went to http://www.alpine-club.org/ instead of http://www.alpineclub.org/ or http://www.alpine-club.org.uk/ and my wife wasn't too impressed, oops

I came down with a cold, stuck at home.

Being Icelandic this for some reason is hugely hilarious to me. Edit: I went through the web site and there is a list of activities. They're going to go kite skiing in Iceland, HAHAHAHAHARHARHARHAR heehee, ow, so funny it hurts. The windstorm we had Friday is regular everyday weather over there and even better, the wind never blows from the same direction two gusts in a row. I saw a few guys in the SAR unit I joined play with a kite on skis and it was funny to put it mildly. The fall was abnormally nice though, so maybe they finished the shooting already and got lucky. I'll be sure to watch this show religiously.

Err, there is a really noticeable sign right there behind the counter at FF, it says ABSOLUTELY NO RETURNS ON TECHNICAL CLIMBING GEAR or something pretty close to that. There is pretty much no way to pay for anything without seeing it. The FF staff also often mentions that there is a no-returns policy, if you're getting technical gear or buying something on sales - at least that's my experience. The policy is clear enough when you buy it, but of course that doesn't help much when you want to return a gift...

According to the weather reports the snow level was at 3000-3500' for most of last week, then yesterday it briefly went up to 5000' and now it's going down to 1500-2500' for a few days. The avalanche forecasts were for moderate conditions most of the week, with something like one crust from mid-December (correct me...) and everything fairly stable, but since Thu or so we've gotten a lot of snow. I'm curious what people think the effects of the short warm spell Friday will be, especially in the Alpental area which is at 4000-6000'? Is a warming trend for a part of a day enough to create a dangerous crust and bad avy conditions? What about ice forming on routes like the N Face of Chair and the NE Slab of Tooth? I thought this would be great, thaw followed by freeze, but I guess it wasn't enough of a thaw... Any words from the wise? I know I should go out and look for myself but I'm confined to armchair mountaineering this weekend because I came down with a cold (where is the wazzup gremlin, again?).

Is there any logical reason for the ordinance? I haven't seen the boulder, is it big enough to get hurt falling off? I just don't understand why there have to be all these rules and whatnot, if people want to risk their ankles climbing around on a boulder that should be their business no?

I bet it gets a lot friendlier when the ice thickens. What do you think climbing the W Face would be like, given the current conditions? Much of the steep sections looked dry to me, but with snow on all the ledges etc.

Is it true Dwayner and Pope were at VW too? Or is it just a horrible horrible lie?

Yeah, Cavey can get brutal and not only on the approach. Didn't TLG's toes get numb because the shoes were too tight? You weren't out rock climbing in the snow were you TLG? Cheers to you if you were... but unless you tell us otherwise I'll just assume you got pinched toes at VW Anyways, I'm just using the same boots I use in the summer, a pair of Kayland multi-traktions. I just exchanged my thin wool socks with a thick pair, and throw in a good set of tight gaiters that I can trust to keep the snow out. Keeps me balmy warm and dry. A thicker setup would just make me wet and cold from sweating more. Double plastics are overkill for anything in the PNW that isn't at least three days and in the dead of winter, unless it's for skiing.

It's a bit tough on FF to bash them for sticking to the no-climbing-gear-returns policy. I've heard REI will take climbing gear back, but only because their satisfaction guarantee overrides the no-climbing-gear-returns policy. They don't restock stuff like that, they destroy it. That's why there is never any technical climbing gear at the garage sale. I have never heard of any other store taking back technical gear. There is a piece in a recent ANAM where somebody died (?) as the result of a crampon strap breaking, so it's not hard to see why crampons and axes get thrown in with ropes and cams - from a liability standpoint.

Did everybody leave already? Ping me if you're still around, if you're looking for more folks to go that is