genepires

$150 each is the going rate.

you mean those post failure REI special sale cam for $35 might go for 4 times that. I should have bought 100 of them and then retire. just imagine what they would be worth in 10 years.

I think that there is a problem with this. The rangers allow people to only camp in designated areas which they require a permit. A planned bivy is a camp and you could get in trouble. Now if you were up the route one pitch, you may be able to get away with a "unplanned" bivy. serpentine has no glacier travel required but it does have snow on approach and descent. The snow maybe a managable without crampons. You could get by with one lightweight axe for the two of ya. The approach snow is very short as most of the approach part is on a moraine. The descent snowfield is steeper but has fairly good runout. I have had good luck getting permits midweek. Be there early, waiting for the doors to open. They keep a certain number of permits available for walk ins like yourself. They may not even have issued all the reservable ones which gives you more permits to get.

unless you are thinking of alpine ice action, you might want to consider some of the light weight axes out there.

all of the regular companies do one on one private guide trips. (who turns away $$) Of course, those are more expensive per day. The north cascades mtn guides (used to be called mazama mtn guides) do lots of one on one or small group things in the washington pass area. (and other places. I don't know their permitted area) Your choice of guide service may come down to who has a permit for that climb in question. American alpine institute has the largest permit area and you will most likely fit your needs met there. (except rainier) what is the climb you are wanting a guide for? If your climb is on rainier, you probably won't get a dedicated guide for yourself as that may cut into their permit system and also the safety aspect of being a rope team of 2. But they do climbs without courses on rainier but you would be on a team of guides and clients of 8 to 12 people total.

only ice screws. (at least 7) there is no rock worth putting gear into. The normal and more sensible approach is straight up the glacier far away from any rock. try to steer clear of any rock faces anyway due to the loose nature of the rock and exposure to flying missiles. This includes a camping spot used my many people.

Damn. I wish we didn't need those rescuers and ranger. But I am glad there are there.

I am no entomologist but I swear that the mosquitoes need snow around the spires to live up there. It seems like when the snow is there melting, melting and giving the bugs a place to do whatever bugs do with water, it is thick up there. But by mid august, the bug situation is much better. (except when up there with Rad) the trial head will always be very bugy due to the small pond/swamp nearby. So yeah, june may be a harsh time for the west side of the liberty bell group. I think the situation is a bit better on the whine spire group. (bug wise) If things don't work out at the pass (bugs, weather, or you send everything), or you are needing something a little different, you could run down to mazama. You could do fun rock (cragging) and a real long easy multi pitch (route is prime rib and topo in mazama rock from brian burdo) to the left of goat wall. It is over rated at 5.9 so your second should be ok. your weather will generally be better in wash pass and mazama than the west side areas.

in case you haven't been following the blog, the landslide dam is now being eroded rather fast and the dam will fail soon, maybe within the next couple days. The flow is being slowed down by a big boulder that luckily was in the right place. But it will be undercut eventually and then would be unable to hold back the lake. The lake behind it has grown enough to have flooded at least two towns. The lake is HUGE. It must be at least 22 km or 13 miles. The dam is 24 feet tall. satelite image of lake http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_a2JvElU8gh4/TAilV5h9OrI/AAAAAAAADDE/Y2gy_ppVfGY/s1600/10_06+ASTER+Attabad+1st+June+corrected.JPG I tried to figure out the volume of water in the lake from the estimates of inflow but they seem too big, somewhere around 1.5 billions gallons of water per DAY. And it has been building for over 5 months. (I would assume that the flow rate was much less in the winter but it has a large inflow for the last 2 months at least) I can't even comprehend the amount of gallons in that lake or what would happen when it is allowed to go downhill.

a elegant and simple equation indeed. One that looks reasonable but for any equation if you can find one example of an untrue condition, then the equation is not valid. possible examples to negate your equation -client unties from rope and jumps into crevasse, a planned suicide that was not shared with guide. -client suffers from a unknown rare medical condition that kills him instantly upon eating oatmeal -terrorist attack on rainier guided group. Just because a client dies, doesn't mean the guide failed to do his or her job. On everest, history has shown that even the best guides can not ensure the safety of the clients or themselves. When the air is thick, the guide should have enough reserve energy to be able to ensure the safety of the client within reason. But up high....what is humanly possible? Don't get me wrong. I am a believer of the guide is completely responsible for the welfare of the client. That is why I do not think that there should be high altitude guiding.

I had one of our group have vision problems on the summit of rainier. She claimed to be blind but I think she could see a little but everything was really fuzzy. She could not see the trail or follow in postholes. I had to short rope her with 10 feet of rope and constantly direct her with left or right commands. Luckily we had no crevasse issues as it was just her and me on that rope. It took a while but we got back to sherman and her vision came back the next day. If she had been truly blind, there is no way we could have gotten down and would have had to call for a rescue. Those sherpas must have done a heroic effort to get him as far as they did, at altitude no less. If it was a guided trip, how did the guide fail? How can one predict or prevent a eye issue? From what I read, it seemed like everything was going good for the guy on the way up. Guiding at altitude is a very different game than guiding the cascades. Like the difference between checkers and bull fighting.

that must have been real tough to leave a live person behind. very sad for everyone involved.

Make sure your inner liner is tight but the shell is snug. If you crank down the inner and outer laces, then you force the friction to happen on your foot. If there is a small slop between inner and outer boots, the friction will happen there instead of your foot. you might already know that, but your post wasn't clear that you knew that. If you search on then net, you may be able to find different lacing patterns to solve different foot issues. You can weave the laces in different patterns to apply or relieve forces to foot. good luck on rainier.

As for your questions, all I know is what I have read before things got filtered, which may or may not be true. I hope that what I heard was wrong but it didn't sound too noble for the guys who came across the body.

My skill in falling is the ability to eject all crampons and ice tools while airborne. Ya gotta be quick.

Hey Rob, does this question really need a answer? I think it is reasonable to expect that anyone would call the authorities immediately when finding a body. There are a few good excuses for not doing this but going for a recreation climb is not one of them. The fact that any wild creature might start consuming them is another good reason to get the SAR team in there quick to get it out, for the family sake. Maybe they believe in casket burials.

tangent........pilot to co pilot, we need a thread correction.

Just wanted to say thanks to all the soldiers out there, especially the ones that have had to spend any time in some hot and hostile desert. I can not imagine how bad it is over there. For the guys who are currently serving in iraq and afghanistan, hopefully you will be back home sending routes and getting up peaks soon. Once again, thank you gene

it is a good idea to take at least one screw per person up something technical. What would you do if you had to climb through a schrund? Conditions change and it is best to be like a boyscout, prepared that is. My first up n ridge baker, we had 3 old chouinard screws which was inadequate. Coleman headwall, we had 3 and that was enough. Both in may. If there was a crack that was unpassable by walking, we would not have the gear to get through it. given that we are having a late winter, you could probably get by without screws if you are a bad ass.

"Rainier will always be there." Not true. Someday it will blow up or erode to a small pile of choss. Someday the glaciers will be all gone too. Maybe next week! But seriously, Dane is right. Conditions blow right now. Go do something "fun" instead.

way to get after it. I find it hard to believe you haven't been on silent running yet. that smedley has a super rad tuk.

Instead of just repeating that you would never do such and such, why not give a logical argument for or against such things. "they suck and respond badly more often than correctly" is just opinion and not a very intelligent explanation. Logic makes for better reading of the poor souls stuck reading this trainwreck of a thread.

I like oatmeal. I like bacon. how about bacon flavored oatmeal?

it would take more than 15 minutes for Dan to show you everything he knows. he is being modest.

financial reporters are never wrong. (hint of sarcasm)