genepires

Pack light and bivy on the ridge itself. A little bit below the serac band is a flat place to bivy on. In august, there are rock walls around a nice dirt patch with room for a 3 person tent if you wanted to haul that up there. Bivy sacks are fine or just sleeping bags. One day in and up to the bivy so you can negotiate the heavily crevassed glacier in the daylight. Then a early start on the technical parts the next day and out. A really good 2 day schedule if the packs are relatively light. And yeah, the single half rope is good and if the thickness bothers you for the steep parts. Tie in the middle and use both strands for 30 meters pitches. enjoy! I really like that route.

you asked if anyone ever knew of someone who cut a rope while falling. Man was rope soloing prodigal son in zion. Fell and his lead line was in behind a flake and cut when he fell. He was up something like 5 pitches. Of course he didn't make it. I don't know what kind of rope he had.

Mike Silich who used to work at american alpine institute in bellingham. He got full amga certified so he is able to guide in europe so he moved to cham and married some french hottie woman. That is quite the organized gear area, unlike my piles in action packers. Maybe it is a full time guide, AMGA thing.

just a thought but why limit yourself to just stairs? While stairs would be a good training for following a great bootpack trail, it is not very representative of real alpine. How about hauling ass up some of those steep sidewalks in downtown seattle or elsewhere? You could simulate cramponing up moderate angles slopes and get a good calf burn. The sidewalk bums could simulate objective hazards.

Rad has LW biners all around and couldn't afford to lose any body weight. He is already fairly skinny and if he lost anymore body weight, his harness wouldn't stay on which would make is setup lighter. The rope is the only place left to look for weight savings unless he wants to take up bouldering or soloing, which I doubt he would.

damn it.

I have known two people who fell in a moat (that was covered like a crevasse in early season) trying to get on a glacier. For anyone getting advice on the "newbie" forum, rope up before getting on a glacier for the moat alone. I solo'd only one glacier (on athabasca) and I think it is the dumbest thing I have ever done. Every step is a question. Just have read too many crevasse stories like wickwires epic in alaska to put the fear into me. (I think he was even roped up) When it comes to questions of risk, you could ask yourself, "would this activity look really stupid in a accident journal?" For example, is it a good idea to wear helmets at vantage? Walking unroped on glaciers? Climbing ice in a major gulley on a warm day? What would the accident journal say as an analysis? Would it be unflattering? If so, don't do it. Use common sense which is hard for climbers. Now I have gone unroped up palmer and muir (permanent snowfield without covered cracks)because I don't think it has crevasses. Maybe I am wrong?

How did guys back in the day get up stuff with 11mm ropes? OMG. I guess I am old school but I woudl think that 10 mm is a minimum for cragging mainly from a durability standpoint. Seems like durability and the right amount of stretch is a bigger concern than weight. but then again, I don't send 11's or 12's either so what do I know.

Baker late season is a fine adventure. Very fun and thoughtful glacier travel and some exposed glacier ice make it a fun time. Don't think that volcanoes are lame, just another good time for a lame sport.

or use a bowline on a bight, but use one locker as a place to clip the end of the bowline into. (for the non end rope person) Make sure that the middle rope person ties into the exact middle or else one rope will be longer. The longer rope will hang up on stuff as well as get stepped on.

the real thing to think about is what will happen to you if you slip at the belay. Your buddy may or may not be clipped into an anchor. So if you fall before you get the "on belay" call and without an anchor to be clipped to, you will either fall a distance equal to the slack of rope that you have (actually more but lets keep it simple) or you may pull your buddy off and both of you will go to the ground. Either way, it is not a good thing. Given that you are asking this question, can I assume that you are new to this? Taking yourself off the belay (by dismantling any part of the belay anchor) before getting on a belay from above, is a very bad idea. Best to wait till you are belayed from above before taking your belay apart.

only two on colchuck n buttress coulior. did you guys get the west ridge in too?

sorry to hear about the bad marriage. Good to hear you are getting out of it and on to what makes you happy. for denali my faves: tent- classic NF ve 25 with a megamid cook tent sleeping bag and parka- I would say go to the feathered friends store and talk to the people there. (since price is not on option, go big) boots- I had good results with koflach arctis with overboots. But boot fit is most important so unfortunately you gotta spend some time trying boots and then probably buying a couple pairs till you get it right. Koflach fit wide feet fairly well. I used a sierra design nylon anorak more than a goretex jacket out there. Seemed like we needed a windshell and light flurry protection more than miserable condition wear.

BD picks are fine. My only thing with their picks (and I am probably wrong) is I think they get stuck easier in cold waterice and they break easier than charlet moser and grivel picks. But these are cold winter things and shouldn't be a concern for summer activities. There a tons of BD fans out there so their picks must be good. I would probably pick a BD over a simond tool. (I used to have the old prophet and old cobra tools which were heavy unlike the modern stuff)

Hey Mister negativity, while a bunch of positives proves nothing, a bunch of negatives from this test will prove a lot. If this shop owner does have some sway with CCH, maybe the manufacture protocols will be changed. He is volunteering to do this so don't rain on his parade.

There is a mountain madness group going up the south side this weekend but they are bringing snowshoes so don't expect a boot pack trail. good luck!

When you say cragging I assume that you are not talking about any multi pitch stuff. how about a multi pitch that is fairly alpine as a stepping stone? There is snow creek wall, darrington area (3 oclock rock, exfoliation and dreamer in "alpine' order), and sharkfin tower. Washington pass is an excellant intro to alpine rock, as mentioned earlier. Get on the tooth midweek. Maybe even the lower down pitches of infinte bliss for a closer choice, road permitting.

I admit that I bought several aliens after the debacle and rei put them on a heavily discounted sale. So I carry some on the back of the harness for those "oh shit" placements. It seems when I can't get a tcu in, the aliens usually make it happen. Granted I have never fallen on one, but disregarding the strength issue, the design is very nice for hard to get placements. I hope I got a good one.

I got this wed and thursday free for day trips. anyone interested heading to exit 38 or erie or anything else as long as I am back in woodinville by 5pm. gene

in case anyone is interested, the mtn loop hwy (silverton side) should be ungated later this week. I talked to a worker out there and he thought that it should be open by thursday. they were plowing up around monte cristo area. he didn't say if the road would be open to the other side and I didn't ask. So that means there is no snow on the road the big 4 BTW.

Would really help if you defined "serious mountaineering" or give some goals you want to take the tools to. You mentioned ski touring and mountaineering, which would lend me to think you what you mentioned would be adequate (mtneering) or overkill (touring). If you had alpine ice as a dream or goal, I would say a pair of alpinish ice tools (aztars and other straight bottom, bent top tools) would be good. But people have gotten up alpine ice with 7 foot alpine stocks so I would bet that your mentioned tool setup would be adequate also, especially if your tick list wasn't very big.

answer my own question if anyone else is curious. from turns all year website: "We took a lazy start and parked at Deer Creek, where the road is gated. There is "almost" continuous snow on the road from the gate, perhaps a few 100 foot long bare patches and then continuous snow. Average 4 feet deep snow at the Big Four picnic area (most of the picnic tables are invisible or barely visible). We tramped out to the washed out bridge; I forget if they have put in a new bridge there somewhere. We had significant mount/dismount action on snow fingers on the boardwalks. Lots of skunk cabbage everywhere. Mega wet slide evidence all over the place but we only heard, and did not see, fresh avalanches. High clouds moved in and cooled things off, with the car thermometer only at 55 at 4 PM. It looked like there would be continuous snow up the Kalcema lake road still...incredible. A pleasant non-motorized day if nothing fancy"

The usual searches on web gave me no good idea if there is snow on the road from the gate at deer creek or if the road is melted out. All I could find is that it is still closed (gate open at deer creek maybe?). Ranger stations are closed for the weekend. The only one open is at the rei mothership and I doubt they know the answer. Anyone been out that way? thanks gene

sharkfin tower has a good moderate rock climb on it. something like 5.4 or thereabouts. It is in a different basin than eldo though. Same approach as forbidden which would also be in good shape that time of year. Actually out of boston basin you got forbiddens W ridge, sharkfin's route and a glacier route up sahale. That basin could keep you busy for a good 3 or 4 days. Or it could keep you tent bound if the weather was bad.

One disadvantage to the LW heads is strength in the odd case of having to do a little ice climbing while glacier climbing due to crevasses. I saw a guy break his pick off (ultra LW axe)while trying to surmount a small little ice wall on the south side of baker. I know ounces add to pounds and pounds add to misery but does a couple ounces on the axe really matter? Instead of shaving ounces off the gear that should be strong, we could be shaving ounces off of our asses.