genepires

I held someone who took a big lead fall on pro such as that anchor. He must have fallen some 80 feet onto those twigs and it held him about 10 feet from decking. Even though, I wouldn't trust it.

typical AAI thing. who quit?

I would bet that 10 minutes frollicking in the snow on some logging road or on the edge of a ski area parking lot wouldn't hurt. even for a pup. sure would be fun to watch. just keep your pup on a leash. he/she wouldn't last too long if it got lost.

make rope swings in the forest and swing tree to tree like monkeys.

the best present is the one having the most fun. my little boy is having fun so he might be the best.

According to Will Gadd (page 27 "Ice & Mixed Climbing") "Horizontal frontpoints work far better for most pure ice climbing than vertical frontpoints......I challange any climber currently on vertical frontpoints to climb five pitches on a good horizonal frontpoint crampon and feel the difference." ah...what does a wanker from canada know about ice climbing? he doesn't even post here!

get to alaska range. hopefully do something rad within my remaining skills. get into waddington area or adamants all the while staying out of hospitals. see a dentist. be as good of a dad as possible while still acheiving above.

you live in the 'ham. Make art out of it. One possibility - Make a scarecrow and put the harness and pack on. then hang it off some tall structure, all eiger like. Maybe off some building in the square in western. maybe on the chief or the mythical bellingham big wall.

To me, vertical frontpoints feel more secure and just "right" vs with horizontal points. How do you quantitify this? I don't know and it doesn't really matter. Do I need the extra advantage if there is any? Yes I do. If I was a uber hardman, I might not need the advantage and maybe even seek a little handicap to make it interesting. So if you are asking for advice on this, I can assume that you are not a uber hardman. Hence I would say that the verticals would be advantagous.

so i was skiing in inbounds when i decided to duck under the boundry rope. i didn't get low enough and lost my head one inch above the shoulder. the docs put it back on but they told me to not think much for the standard decap recovery time of 4 to 6 weeks. how long before i should post on cc.com? oh oh...too late.

pretty much all of the waterice crampons have them thought they might not be as wide on the top portion as the sarken.

favorable conditions happens rarely around here. It snows too much. If you want to get out this time of year, you have to know avi stuff and be able to pick terrain that is less risky. Even then........

maybe ellensburg just got internet hookups.

Sarkens came with a plastic toe bail so you could use them on boots that were fairly rigid without a real welt, like the garmont towers. None of the petzl line with waterice front points come with this option. Sarkens are much lighter than M10 and did better in snow walking than dartwin. (built in anti bot) I went through the same mental torture about the crampons but finally traded them in for the dartwin.

The boot having the most fun.

while definately a nice looking boot, it looks like it will have the same problem as those big everest type boots with the built in gaiters. what happens when you trash the gaiters with your crampons? while being less bulky than ultra warm boots so maybe good footwork will be less a problem. would hate to see such expensive boots trashed.

that looks sweet! thanks for sharing. gene

the hardest route is the one having the most fun confounding and scaring climbers

I am no expert in cody but i have been out there a couple times. Both times in february. But I think the biggest problem with going out there early season is the river not being completely frozen over. For early season stuff you want to be on the north facing side which means crossing the wide, fairly shallow and slow moving river. You can be all means wade across but really.. UGH! Locals do it but I think they are used to that kind of self torture. With forcast like you mention, I doubt that south facing climbs are in. Cowboy up and get on it! Let us know if you go and if you see any grizzlies.

Maybe I am wierd but I have found that for me, a sock without a liner works better than with a liner. I have felt that the modern socks like smartwool and thorlo were soft enough on the inside to not need a liner sock. The liner sock idea came about when everyone had on wool socks which was practically a steel wool shaped thing. Newer socks also wick moisture so well that a poly blend liner sock is not needed to keep the skin dry. My cheap liner socks just sag down and bunch up causing blisters. just my 2 cents. maybe I am lucky with tough feet.

tromp around snoq pass area. Up to source lake or common wealth basin. You could basically get a hiking guidebook and find a trail with a lake to go to and camp. Chances are for snoq pass area, those trails will be packed out for most of the winter. Usual reservations- Learn to evaluate avalanche conditions. Listen to professional avi advice (NWAC) and believe it. People have died on the trail to source lake and almost everywhere else that seems "safe".

where do you live? (for nearby reccomendations) you will need a stove board of some kind so the stove doesn't melt down into the snow. Are you looking for easy winter peaks to get up as well as camping?

gonna be dark n COLD. enjoy!

best of luck to ya Mikey! We should all fly to SLC to climb with ya. try canyoneering in zion. you may like the change once in a while.

take a avi course but also head out for some smaller objectives (with other people) and get experience. Knowledge is very good but knowledge that is put to use over time is called wisdom. the little voice in the head (from wisdom)is much more valuable than a course alone. Winter on rainier is not a place to develop skills. Go solo st helens or baker first. A added plus, soloing these is legal vs on rainier.