fleblebleb

Or, in this case, top-rope

Hey Steve, SEF, we will understand if you take a quick look at the responses and never become back, but if you do, and I hope you don't, then you should at least pause and give yourself a quick pat on the back. Because you've really entertained the masses here I'm not sure you should take all of this, or the previous bashing, that seriously. The Mounties take a beating, sure, but probably for a lot more things than the club members warrant. I think most of the posts about "Mountaineers" are really about organized climbing activity. 'Mountie' is just a handy sticker that everyone understands. It's really no wonder since the Mounties are the biggest club around here. There isn't much that can be done about this. It'll be snowing in hell (skiing, whee!) before this bboard embraces organized climbing. Organized beer drinking now, that's another matter. Why don't you show up for pub club one of these Tuesdays? They're really pretty cool, nothing like all the flaming that goes on on-line.

Hey Jon, that's an excellent idea. You know Mattp also has that Darrington web, right? Maybe you could do extra clones for giving the royal treatment to the other crag areas. One for Index, one for Lworth, etc. Hahaha!

Matt Truitt and I climbed that flow earlier that same day. We were there right after the lifts opened in the morning and stopped around 1 pm, a little after the sun came around to hit it. We spent the rest of the day skiing the upper lift and never saw you guys. I copied your picture and drew our line in blue on it. Hope you don't mind I guessed WI 3, maybe 3+ except that it is easier now because it's basically been kicked to death. There is a staircase all the way up, one can just hook with the tools. I'm not really sure whether the thing is still in for leading, unless you can solo it. The two chandeliers on the right (marked with red ellipses) were dripping rivers all day, made us nervous. The pillar (third ellipse, closest to blue line) looked better than the chandeliers but I still didn't want to put anything (screw or tool) into it. There is a big space behind it and it didn't seem to be very well attached at the top. Leading the rest on screws might be a questionable idea, the ice is very soft and screws can also melt out. [ 03-31-2002: Message edited by: fleblebleb ] [ 03-31-2002: Message edited by: fleblebleb ]

This was a way scary scene. Get better Jim.

Anyone headed for a one day ski trip I could join this weekend? Have gear+car, but all my buddies are busy. Ping me back/stebbi

[ 01-16-2002: Message edited by: fleblebleb ]

I have a pair of skis with G3 Targas mounted (soft springs), and I was futzing around adjusting them to my tele boots (T3s). The whole setup is new (to me), and it turns out for the first couple of times I used it the cables were so long they were almost just dangling there - just barely short enough to get a little 'snap' when putting the skis on, and to hold the boot in the binding, but only with a tiny part of the extended tele toe actually in the binding. (Yeah, I know, stupid, but I was so psyched about having skis after 12 years of not skiing, and I'd never really tele'd before, so I didn't notice or didn't figure it out, whatever, I just ran out to start logging face plants.) Anyway, I skied with this silly setup for two days and was doing fine. Then I fixed it and it's a whole different world. But this gave me an idea - if I can ski with so little of the toe actually in the binding, then why shouldn't I try skiing with a pair of crampon-compatible climbing boots? Turns out my climbing boots fit the tele binding just fine, only of course they don't extend into the binding. Is there a problem here that I don't know about? Why shouldn't I ski some approaches and stuff like this? If it is all good, then why don't people talk about this possibility more? Not getting it/fleb

Off topic? The hell it is! Doesn't someone here know all about this? Cuz I sure would like to find out, too. I want to be able to split board up to an alpine climb in winter conditions, do the climb on crampons or aiders in the same boots, and ride back down. I wouldn't mind buying one new pair of boots for all of this, but would be way happy if I could just continue to use my trusty Salomon M9Gs. Anyone?

No no no, he's much better this way. Just think how awful things would get if too many people happened to agree on something

Pshah. Digital point-and-shoot cameras are absolutely great. Each image is free, so you can return from a trip with literally hundreds of images. Then you can throw them on the web to share with your buddies. I never use my manual SLR film camera anymore except when I shoot slides. They're just different tools, good for different things. Plus, an SLR has that clunky form factor and weighs a ton. Small digital cameras like the Nikon 775 or the Canon Elph are light, fit in a pocket and quite weather resistant. Sounds like a good deal to me.

Yay! I'm so happy! I've finally figured out why everyone always dumps on Dan Larson, heeheehee Way to go Dan, you're full of entertainment.

Hey Erik, no points for good intentions? I always mean to go... Cross your fingers, this time I'll make it...

Hey does that heinous klingon guy work at the insurance company too?

Oy! What's with the lagging interest? No posts? Where is everyone? Out getting rained on?

Oh crap, I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE, what the hell did Dan Larson do that everyone always dumps on him? Oh, and I'm a Mountaineers member, too. I've never been on a climb with them, because they won't let you climb without either doing a class or an equivalency review. The former seems to be a waste of time and money since I mostly know the stuff (well, anyone want to take me aiding? don't know much about that) and the latter are few and far between. I tried to attend one of those reviews, it was held in Camp Long in West Seattle so I jumped on my bike in the wee hours and rode down there, with a packful of climbing gear too. Except I only got as far as the lower West Seattle bridge, some arsehole had left it open so there was basically no way to cross the Duwamish short of swimming. The best part was when I saw those four old harbor workers sitting in a pickup truck sipping coffee and waiting for their workday to start. I think I made their day, they laughed so hard when I asked them how to cross the @#$% river. One of them told me to jump in and swim it, that made the other three smirk even harder. I could barely keep from laughing myself, it was one of those Kodak moments I tell you. Anyway. So far the mounties climbing program seems like a bit of a racket to me. Fuck liability, now that's a motto for you. Liability is single most important reason for why climbing is sometimes all fucked up. Oh, and I went to a mounties avalanche beacon class thingy at Camp Long another time. Want to know how to figure out which white paper bag in the middle of the grassy field is the one with the beacon? It's the one with thirty people sitting on top. But now I can go on ski trips, and I actually think I might try that. I don't think there is anything wrong with ski touring or winter volcano climbs with like two rope teams of three each. Hmm, I guess all my funny "stupid mountaineers" stories are about me, how great is that? Check it out, they're "stupid cascade climbers" stories at the same time Wait, here's a thought! If random 10 mounties that don't know each other sign up for a trip and then run into you, how many of them have to suck to give you a bad impression? Probably one or two. The rest could even be people that you might be perfectly happy to climb with, albeit hopefully in a smaller group. Whatever. I mean, I don't know, I've never been on those trips, but I just can't imagine how a big group of Mounties somehow must be worse than a big group of something else? Worst big group I ever ran into was going down the DC, 2 guides with something like 19 clients. One of those kids they were walking up and down the mountain lost his balance at the point where you turn around to get off the cleaver, and fell flat on his face. Next thing I hear is him asking the guide how to stand up. What the hell? I remember thinking something like, get me out of here before this becomes a real storm. Final piece of mounties trivia, did you guys know Beckey started climbing with the Mountaineers? Fresh out of the boy scouts, according to his book at least. You probably all did know that, sorry. There is like a ton of guys like that that have climbed with the mounties. I can't really bring myself to dump on the club as a whole...

Search and rescue really worked for me when I was starting out. Met lots of cool people, both similar age with similar interests and similar (no) experience, and older hands that showed us lotsa things. It's free, you just have to put in your time, and the best part is that because search and rescue gets to pick up the pieces after climbing accidents, there is this whole emphasis on how to do things safely and not mess up. I don't know a lot about SAR in the Seattle area (I was with Reykjavik SAR, http://www.hssr.is/, not very relevant but take a look at http://www.kcesar.org/. I know they take new recruits in fall, which doesn't help you much for next summer's rock season.

What's with those aluminum heads on the Charlet Moser tools? I'd think there is no way they can take a beating. The BD tools have steel heads, much more durable right? I have a picket and a shovel that died violent deaths on a snow climb, pretty wicked. Steel crampons cut through the aluminum like nothing. Not that I want to stomp on my tools, but still... It's good business though - make a very nice tool, people buy it, go through them much faster than steel tools, buy new ones, repeat... Not that I know anything though, I never had a tool with an aluminum head. Here, how's that for a disclaimer?

Hey, are you guys familiar with those alpine trekkers? They lock into your alpine bindings... see http://www.bcaccess.com/ftrek.html Voile has two variations on the same theme to go with their split boards, see http://www.voile-usa.com/snowboards/tele_plate_binding.html and http://www.voile-usa.com/snowboards/mountain_plate_binding.html What I want to know is, why isn't there something like this that will let me strap my tele skis to my mountaineering boots? I know the sole of the boot is fully rigid and all that, but I'm not asking for the greatest ski setup ever, I just want to be able to access winter climbs. I mean, if you could only attach the boot to the ski then who gives a damn if you lose some of the control you'd otherwise have over the back ski? You could still do the tele turn even if there would be a weird hinge there or something.

Yeah, I'm up for Si!

Check out http://www.avalanche.org/~lsafc/TUTORIAL/EQUIP.HTM - do you have avalanche balls?

I hiked, er, snow-shoe-swam, to Snow Lake yesterday (Sunday). Excellent exercise, all that hip-deep post-holing with the snow shoes on. The weather was nice during that brief high-pressure period in the morning, and we got some cool views, but then it started dumping again. We saw some icicles but nothing climbable. I took some photos from the saddle above (south of) the Lake, here's one of the Chair. [ 12-03-2001: Message edited by: fleblebleb ]

The best gloves I have ever used are the Ortovox Berchtesgaden. They are at their best when you're dripping wet, freezing cold and still need excellent dexterity. The wool keeps so warm even when wet through, you have to try it to believe it. The Kitzbuehel look even better since they do away with the need for a rap glove but I don't have a pair. Check out http://www.ortovox.com/eng/produkte/produkte.phtml?kat=13&prod=133 - don't be fooled into thinking your aunt might knit an equivalent pair for you, the tight weave is the trick. Has anyone tried the Glacier Glove they sell at Feathered Friends? How is the durability? The dexterity seems hard to beat - I wanted to get a pair of BD Dry Tool gloves, but I didn't like the somewhat bulky seams on the fingers and the Glacier Gloves don't have those. Plus, they're also cheaper at $40. Anyone?

Aw man, that's pretty harsh? It's cool to have slideshows posted on the board, but noone will do it if we always bite their heads off. Plus I think it's pretty amazing that guy did climb Everest, siege or not. And you're going in the wrong direction with the missing body parts, the really interesting question is how many prosthetics are you *allowed* to have on a cool Everest climb. Or bioengineering, even better, say, if Cpt. has a brain transplant with a yeti and moves to the summit of Everest, is it cool or is he just a loser who had a brain transplant with a yeti and lives on the top of the world? Oops, just realized I've never really posted to one of those threads-on-fire. Bet I just set myself up for a good flaming. Bring on those napalm hoses! BTW where do you go to get a cheap bolt kit these days? Cheers/stebbi