genepires

awesome pictures. I like the black and white "then" shot and the color "now" shot. Is that you in the B&W shot on the right? Skinny guys.

nice use of the baby carrier! biking and mountaineering, the new rage. good job on the route too.

sounds like Josh doesn't need a mentor but really needs some growing up, maybe with a couple months in army boot camp. the duct taped feet is funny.

helmets are always a good idea in the mtns. Same with ice axes unless there is zero chance of snow. Take someone who knows the area, you get along with and has good climbing skills. the beckey guides to cascades mtns has all the route info you could need as well as photos of that side of the mtn. I bet you could get it from the library.

nice job Tom!

Would like to get to anything in the darrington area or spring mtn or even roan wall. I can handle 5.10 there. Open to possibilities. thanks gene genepires at hotmail dot com

why is skiing a requirement to patrol the glacier? clotheslining climbers would involve paperwork. skiing unroped doesn't create paperwork as long as you don't fall in a hole.

damn that is cool!

needing a permit and not being required to rope up without a permit is contradictory. If a hundred guys walk up a glacier together and none of them are roped together, they are all "soloing" the glacier. If you are not required to rope up, then why need a permit? Of course, things should slide when a rescue is involved as time is critical. But 2 rangers died some ten or 12 years ago trying to hustle to a rescue that wasn't that urgent. (a broken leg I think) They were roped up but conditions were bad that late in the year. The point is, in the percieved urgency required, they didn't look after their own safety and paid the price to the mountain that don't care about people. I would hope that all people, professional and recreationalist, on the hill look after their own safety all the time.

I have nothing against the rangers and we all fully appreciate the work they do. Just seems wierd that the public needs a permit to solo the mountain while the rangers are free to, even in non rescue situations. Just hiprocritical and a bad example. As far as I can tell, skiing is not a requirement for the rangers to patrol the route or perform rescues. It is just fun. I can understand the desire to climb unroped after doing the route hundreds of times.(not me, I was writing about the rangers) But time and precentages will catch up and the next time the outcome may be much worse. We all just have to respect the mountain and its dangers, public and rangers alike. The mountain don't care. They will always have a job until people stop climbing the mountain. I think their funding ,partly at least, comes from the climbing permit fees.

If you do it, he will want to. Till he is a teenager when he will think you are retarded and rebel. Finding crags that are kid friendly is more challenging than a hard 11c. We could start a thread on places that are kid friendly so they can watch mom n dad climb. couple ideas anywhere on the road for exit 38 8 mile rock any rock gym or manmade feature

SLoan, Stuart, & Ingalls - I woudl think that your setup would be fine, especially in late july and august. not sure about montecristo and keyes as I haven't been on them. But I would bet that once again, your shoes would be fine. They don't make the d7 any more. Be good to those shoes. I love mine and on my "backup" pair.

thanks D!

what about the pickets? And Darin's arayete on shuksan? and Darin's lines in the twin sisters? Castle peak has a couple. Since you got into Canada, North rib of slesse and some on rexford. There has got to be more that still get done but not that often. Are all the hardman sport climbing or at index? I think I have done some 10 or 11 of these routes but I think that I must currently remove myself from this list.

The way I see it, the butterfly knots shoudl not be a problem. If there is a crevasse fall, chances are that the snow is real soft. So the knotted rope will dig in really far, so far that actually digging it free to be able to haul up will take too much time. (plus the thought of digging the snow around the loaded strand!) So the extra rope will most likey be needed in a prepared lip to do the haul or prussik out with. One thing I started doing, after practicing single person rescues, is to be able to attach the rope to the first piece of snow pro with a tension release hitch that is already attched to the rope. In addition to the regualr prussik setup, I had a cordelette with a regular prussik hitch to the rope. This cordelette also had a munter mule hitch (to a locker) close to the prussik hitch. this locker would be attached to the first snow pro, whatever it is. When I placed the second snow pro, I could release the munter mule to lower the rope onto the new equalized snow anchor. One can also release a regular prussik by pulling on the wraps to lower also. But my way is so much more geeky and makes me feel "smart".

to each his own. My comment was based on that I usually use daisy chains for aid climbing. I am not a big fan of static connections to anchors unless rappeling. A real fall factor 2 on a diasy chain is a bad idea. Plus I usually like to be farther away than daisy length. (like sitting down) And I never liked the daisy chain wrapped around the waist or in the thong thing. I seem to get my knee stuck in a daisy too often. yes you should think for yourself and do what works for you. that is part of the beauty of climbing.

glad to hear it was only a leg injury. Could easily have been worse. I used to wonder about the things the rangers do like skiing and snowboarding the mountain and soloing in general. Given that it is a federal agency, I wonder if these actions will persist.

the span between climbers is a personal choice. 30 feet is a little short for me. I usually go with 45 feet to allow some distance if I get caught off guard and slide some before being able to self arrest. I also use up some rope by putting in three butterfly knots to drag and take some of the force off the surface person. 165 feet= 45 ft between climbers + 6ft for bowline knots + 6ft for butterfly knots + 108 at ends (54ft per end) for rappeling to victim and making anchor. It is all a personal call though. I usually take a more conservative slant on things cause I am a wanker.

Unless you are lazy and are mostly a trad climber. why would a trad (free) climber have daisy chains on? Unless you are lazy and mostly a aiding while free climber.

evidently this der sportsman is good. I liked that beckey line (non select line) on the south face of prussik pk.

did you try the test while loaded? Loaded would make more twists. The munter should be attached to an anchor usually above you. Otherwise it is too hard to pull rope through. (try belaying a munter from the belay loop) Usually belaying on snow is done from a seated snow anchor position in which a munter would suck ass. Belaying off a device on the belay loop or better yet a hip belay is normal for belaying on snow. (unless you are talking about crevasse rescue) glad to hear that it is a dynamic line.

yeah, 70 m of rope between glacier climbers is too long. Can you imagine the rope stretch if someone fell in?

stay off the circus route on hood. (the hogsback whatever) I don't have any experience with oregon peaks but I think that the cascade peaks are better enough to warrant the one day drive from Lovers leap to the north cascades. I would bet that the snow would be mostly gone on the oregon peaks and shasta but you could get a good climb out of baker. You could bounce around from peak to peak and have mediocre conditions or just drive to the good stuff and not waste time. Up north you would also have access to the washgington pass area for the alpine rock. Some sport climbing at the exit 38 area. Darrington is good. The alpine in the enchantments. So much more. I am sorry if I have offended any oregonians by dismissing your climbing potential. Maybe there is more to offer than I realize. Maybe smith rocks won't be scorching hot in august. Maybe the volcanoes are rad.

the prussiks should be put on the rope when you tie into the rope. That way you don't have to try and tie it on after falling in. Tiblocs work on 8mm ropes but the thought of teeth on a thin line is a little too uncomfortable for me. Why do glacier travel people need to belay with ATC's? Especially with a 30m rope, you are not going to be going to alpine rock climbs. The ATC is most useful as the blocking for the prussik in a 3:1 pulley system in which case holding power is irrelevant. If you need holding power, use a munter. (as mentioned above) As Bug says, it is a good idea to have rescue coils. A 50m rope is a minimum for teams of two. 30m works for teams of 3 as there is the rope between the two surface climbers to be able to get to the victim. where did you read that 30m is good for 2 climbers but not more? That source needs to get purged or burned.

prussik friction is a function on difference in diameter and the physical characteristics of the two sheaths. Your cords and rope maybe too new and "slippery" to work with 3 wraps but will when it gets fuzzier. Until then, you could either add more wraps (try 4 or 5 or go crazy) or use a 5mm cord. Kliemhist hitches are easy to add crazy amounts of wraps.