genepires

if you go to the coleman seracs now, it will resemble honest winter ice conditions, brittle and hard. It will be very unlike the usual summer "buttery" conditions. You will need to get up there soon before the snow bury the low angle ice and possibly put a light cover over the smaller crevasses. If you head up there, do so in the next two weeks if the season progresses as normal.

go to both. it is only about 3 or 4 hour drive away. spend 3 or 4 days in j tree. when your tips are trashed, go to RR. If you are still trashed, go to zion for a little canyon sight seeing.

well some guide services get discounts on items used for rentals. While I have not been a part of the office environment for a guide service, it would not surprise me if some services got free gear for their rental department. Mainly services like exum. While not "sponsored", it is a financial factor to push a guide service to go with a product. Besides, the clients,sherpas and guides have to carry the heavy gear anyway. I have a jaded idea on NF but it is mainly the clothes. There ve tents are very good tents. While MH tents are also sturdy, they are heavier than the sort of heavy NF tents due to so many "bells and whistles". IMO, MH would make great tents if they got rid of the extra crap. Old wild country tents (terra nova) was the best tents distributed here but that is gone by the way side like grivel.

just because "the biggest names" use them does not mean anything. Those people could be paid to use them gear. called sponsorship. There are plenty of good climbers using crappy NF gear. If walmart sponsored climbers, there would be some great climbers wearing the walmart apron, sending hard none the less.

Hey Jason, can I be a newbie?? It has been a while since I got out. Maybe you can guide me!

that is the coolest avatar image!

If time is scarce, flying could buy you another climbing day or two. the drive is a solid 24 hours with good conditions. The flight to denver and drive to ouray will cost you one day each way. you "could" stay in the vic or any other hotel in town and walk to the ice park easily. The common place to stay is the riverside inn and bungalos but that is a little far to walk every day. If you could find a bus the get from the airport north of ouray (I forget the town but I remember it costing a lot more to fly there) then walking every where is a possibility. But if you have more than 4 days there, it is real nice to get out of the ice park and do some of the other great places. SIlverton comes to mind as well as the many places between. feel free to pm me with any more questions.

I couldn't imagine using actual overboots on the normal route. Using overboots means using crampons as there is a nylon bottom. They would get trashed in the rock and scree and using crampons on the rock would be tedious at best. Maybe insulated supergaiters would make more sense. Only been there once on the varcas normal route and we had the plastic and regular supergaiter. Was cold but this boot system worked out fine. Only 10 feet of snow on the whole route (horizontal distance) so it could be different when you go. I saw some guys with only medium weight leathers up there. They made it fine but that leaves very little room for error. think long and hard about how much you LIKE your toes before going up there with leather boots. With the crazy circus enviroment on the other side of the mountian, you will see all kinds of insane practices. And frostbite. And death too. seriously. three people died while we were on the mountain.

I tried the glued on patch thing with the sil-nylon glue stuff and it eventually opened up again. a temporary and not very durable solution.

of course they will buy it. The GOP plan is to look like idiots and therfore gain the love of the fellow american redneck idiots, just like bush did. Twice! Maybe Obama should say words wrong to appeal to the mass idiots.

was thinking more of banff for this guy,

there is some kind of mountaineers man made climbing area behind McCord airforce base. You could check that out for some close by "fun" Exit 38 is good. get a guidebook. check out gritscone.

american alpine institute in bellingham used to rent ice gear. They definately do in the summer. They probably still do in the winter. If you are going to canada, then maybe you should rent it up there. where are you going to ice climb?

sounds good. weather permitting, it should be a great time with no crowds. You may have some new snow but shouldn't be enough for snowshoes. (might be a good idea to either bring them or be ready to rent them if you find they are needed) Fall seems to have come a little early this year so it "may" be a bit cold in mid october. Enjoy!

I have heard of more people falling onto ice screws in the last 4 years or so and the screws have held up very well. I would bet that some of them were even near a previous tool placement as tools are placed every 2 feet or so on the way up. so chances are every screw placed is within a couple of feet of a previous tool placement. An yet, the screws held. Probably a good idea to give tool holes some distance but don't go out of your way to do so. Give them a foot or so and keep it in good ice. The only story of an ice screw coming out on a lead fall was on pan dome falls. But that whole thing sucks for ice anyway. oh yeah, don't fall on ice.

save up money and buy a good (will be expensive) down feathered friends volant. You will be happy years from now when the money won't seem too much. If you buy cheap now, you will buy expensive when you have learned the lesson.

I think it froze up some 3000 years ago in a freak mini iceage.

garmont towers

you could put a couple on either side of your pack in the compression straps. Have the sling (preferably a single or double length runner) girth hitched to the top hole of the picket. Don't have this sling trapped under a compression strap but rather hanging down from above the straps. Clip this runner to a accessible place like the shoulder strap. Maybe have a overhand knot in the end of the runner so that the sling doesn't flop around too much. When you need the picket, unclip the biner and pull up on the sling thereby pulling the picket straight out. Or you could have the runner (double length only) girth hitched to the top hole and the other end of the runner clipped to the opposite hole on the picket. You could put the sling over your head and one shoulder, sort of like a purse. More than 4 like this is a pain.

if the NF of atha is too much of a day, then you might want to give silverhorn on athab a look. Quite a bit easier but still a very good line. If you walk up the columbia glacier, you should be able to find a crevasse to TR but no stable icefall (contradiction in terms?) exists. The colman icefall is quite an strange beast.

you need one anchor point (in this case a bolt) for every baby you are responsible for. So you need three bolts for your anchor. Or one bolt and two trees. Or maybe one bolt and my fat ass as an anchor. Maybe I need to be your little belay bitch before you actually try to self belay.

contrived or not, bivying on routes or summits are very cool and memorable. (in the summer)

My little 1 yr old boy has never slept outside of either his crib or a very heavy portable crib. He seems to really need a routine and I am not sure if he can sleep well without a crib. I want to go camping with him soon (car camping) but am concerned about the night. I was thinking there is a small collapsable crib with a foam pad bottom and plastic rods for the side posts with mesh all around. Something of a mid way crib to ween him off the crib and just sleep on pads. Anyone ever seen or have such a thing? thanks gene

Not really that into the fireworks. Haven't seen any shows in many years. But on top of a mtn would be cool. quilcene sounds good. baker too far and rainer dog routes face the wrong way?

I was up on pilchuck yesterday thinking the same thing. Nice easy way up for the family. Would have to camp up there though.