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This looks like a really cool, lightweight harness for alpine stuff, but since there is so little material I'm wondering how durable it would turn out to be over time. Kind of like how skinny ropes aren't as durable as fatties... Anybody have extensive experience using an Eolo harness?

"Huh? You have to be kidding?"

That "trail" is such a classic The only time I was there, January 2001 I think, we got 12-18" of snow dumped on us overnight. I woke up and my first thought (deep within my sleeping bag) was oops, must have overslept. Then when I got more conscious I thought that it was so dark in the tent that it must be before sunrise. So woo-hoo! Still have a chance for a reasonably early start to the climb! I got all excited and it was only when I bumped my head against the tent fabric that I realized we were buried, hahaha. It turned out to be something like 10 o'clock, we were dead tired after fighting up the "trail" with camping gear the night before and had just slept and slept. Didn't dare venturing very far up "Avalanche Valley" or whatever it is called, either, not with all the new snow.

Yeah, that was pretty cool. Down's fine for short, less serious trips though.

Got any particular routes or locations in mind?

It's the Cascadeclimbers.com alternate history theme week, get with it.

Since that's what he wrote, that's probably what he meant, don't you think? And it isn't hard to tell when there aren't any footprints in the gully snow...

Yah, that thing rules. Hop on it now, before the interesting parts fill in with snow and change it into a slogging step kicking session. Stay on the Rib as much as you can, the views into the West Face are seriously sweet.

For the price of one digital beacon you can get two analog ones, which means you are self-sufficient for practicing. That's kind of cool... Woo-hoo! Made an on-topic post

I'm getting a 40 degree 1 pound down bag as soon as I can afford it. I already have a down parka, a 20 degree synthetic bag and a bivi bag so I figure I'll have lots of useful options for mixing things up. Parka plus down bag plus synthetic bag plus bivi bag will be way warm together, too warm for almost anything in the PNW. I've been using my synthetic bag with the parka and bivi for winter and snow trips, works great except my feet and legs sometimes get a little cold. However, I only get condensation around the bag openings - not in the footbox. When I use the same combination minus the parka in summer I always get condensation in the footbox too.

Wool works best for me, I have lots and lots of thick Thorlos and thinner SmartWools, that's the only stuff I use. Socks are pretty easy to find on sale, both at REI and on the web. I tried synthetic liners and gained much stink but nothing else.

Take snowshoes, have fun, maybe let the rest of us know if there is any ice left. I was up there Wednesday wanting to climb ice but it was melting fast, despite the cooling trend in the forecast. What did you do up there Tim?

Since only half the population has Y chromosomes and the entire population has X chromosomes the long term trend points towards complete disappearance of Y and there won't be any males left. Playboy, a snapshot of evolution at work

Indeed.

That's pretty cool, centimeter accuracy is an order of magnitude better than I thought they could do. It's still an order of magnitude worse than millimeter accuracy but that's hair-splitting. The price tag makes it somewhat irrelevant though, eh? Anywayz, you're right, that's pretty cool technology, I'll shut my naysaying mouth and stop crossposting

Ah, yes, better crap all over Martin Volken then, since he's putting names on things we could just as well refer to as being "fun" - you know, as in, "oh, yeah, we skied the fun route last weekend". Screw him for publishing a cool guidebook to skiing around Snoqualmie Pass too, that's totally Euro-trash.

GPS can't get you millimeter accuracy. More importantly, the signal is very easily blocked and distorted, by roofs, cliffs, trees, probably even cloud cover although I don't know for sure. Here's a link to the home page of a Ph. D. student at UW who works on fine-grain location technology.

If I don't want increased "user" fees, why can't I vote for that by not going to a chat session that would suck up my evening and make no difference in the greater scheme of things anyway? If I don't go, why does that have to be a vote for increased user fees? If I do pay the user fees, why is that a vote for more user fees? Why do we have to be fucked if we do and fucked if we don't?

Spirou

I had plans for Saturday but that might fall through because of excess Centigrade :wazzup: Oy! Where is the wazzup guy? :wazzup: Colonial sounds great, I'll be in touch.

Heh, I could say exactly the same. Too bad you don't know my cartoon, but then again I don't know yours

It's a long story. But since we're going down that road, isn't Captain and Caveman kind of oxymoronic put together?

Can't have one sprayer of the year, doesn't work that way. Trask, Greg W, Sisu and DFA are the (un)holy quaternity of spraydom these days

Passed by there today, it was quite warm and there is a lot of drippage between the ice and the rock - it needs to get colder before this is worth the hike.

The Icelandic Alpine Club has a new page in English and a friend of mine there (the guy who put it together) asked me to post the URL to the site and a poll designed to get him some feedback. The ice route photographs alone will probably make it worth looking at for a few minutes. The site is at http://www.isalp.is/english.php