genepires

well, i am no authority on rainier accidents but it seems like recently, there have been some real bad instances in june, including a downed rescue heli. Maybe Gauthier or some other MRNP ranger can give better details. But it seems that june has been hard for reasons of avalanche (stays more wintery later up there), less favorable weather (june can be a wet month around here) causing a whole host of problems like falls, exposure to cold, forced unplanned bivies, getting lost and so forth. Big difference between june and july. But conditions can be good in june, just not as often, so a warry eye for objective and subjective hazards is more warranted. On a side note, I have been up the emmons many times usually with groups of 10 to 12 and every time, there has been some strange medical situation. Nothing extreme, requiring rescue or life threatening, but strange like swollen throat parts, extreme ab pain, dislocated shoulder, people not taking their anti depressants, people going beyond their physical limits and having severe suffering on way down and lastly the strangest, altitude related temporary blindness. Granted when you have large groups, you roll the dice often for medical problems, but damn I can't have a trip without something strange. This trip is hard and the stress causes wierd things. Luckilly we always had good weather. But if any of those situations we had when combined with foul weather could easily turn deadly.

I assume you asking asking about emergency gear. Depending on you comfort level, maybe a cell phone. Maybe even several cause not all providers work up there. If you bring a emergecy space blanket, then drag a foam pad along. A first aid kit with some extra ibu for possible altitude headache. And a good first aid book that will help when you have a real situation. For example, how to deal with dislocated shoulders. I like a small fm radio for the early hours climbing. Bring a couple of blue bags which the rangers will give you when you get your permit. keep the route poop-free. Altimiter watch so i know how much damn farther i got to go. Roll of cloth tape. (repair kit) And most important of all, bring your eyes and brain along. Watch the weather. evaluate for crevasses. probe if needed. Don't feel compelled for the summit in adverse conditions. june is a deadly month, no kidding. brush up on crevasse rescue (for real, not just glance at a book) and self arrest. stay hydrated.

Sshhhsss. lets keep the Dan H. references down. lets not wake up the sleeping ......... whatever he is. Been real nice around here being Dan H. free. Interesting when I write Dan's last name here, a ____ appears.

bad ass is realative to the people around you. hang out with people who can't climb. like me.

I guess one could lock-tite the bolts down

Doesn't this axe seem to be a mountaineering tool? and if so, when was the last time a pick needed to be changed? Seems like a liability to have the potiential for pick loosening mid pitch. Is this acceptable for a pick changing benefit that will never be needed? Are people using this tool for water ice and drytooling?

rock climb as much as possible. rock climbing (sport and trad) is the base for all aspects of climbing. Some bad asses I know have a "eat, sleep and shit climbing" attitude. Every aspect of the day focuses on climbing. other BA's don't. the common element is positive and exploratory attitude. I would suggest that you fucus on the fun of climbing and the bad ass will follow. focus on the process and not the goal. read book called rock warrior!

that sounds more convincing than my anti aloe arguement. not understanding a single sentence is a key to a solid arguement, someone is doing serious research. glad to hear that there is some good research out there. not being a jackass here.

recent stupid rappel f#$% up, lack of knots in end of rope climb lady wilson cleavage (banff) a day after snow fall. yeah we got swept back down the cleavage. rappeling down the rambles in the dark, noticing a large loose 20 lb. rock, going down further some 20 feet, rope knocks same loose rock onto my chest.

feathered friends bags. love them. quality made locally. there has been lots of discusion on this topic that you should check out. first thing you must figure out is what condition do you want to use them for. how warm to you sleep? how much weight do you want to carry? on and on. then go buy a feathered friends bag. mountain hardware seems like NF stuff, heavy and over built.

msr whisperlite international. just my opinion though as i haven't used any other. because the msr works so good, no need to try others

not sure how MM runs their courses but alpine ascents has a course that sounds similar. The way we did it basicaly day 1 to 6 basic mountaineering skills (very important for your rainier trip) day 7 to 9 rock skills day 10 to 13 take those skills out to other peaks and climb good stuff. Learn other skills also but mostly solidifing basic skills, review, build experience and so forth. This would be the section to ask if you can go to heavilly glaciated areas. I don't know their schedule or permited areas. Ask for peaks such as Baker south side glacier peak shuksan pk, sulphide glacier also, if possible, ask to lead your rope team and find the path through the glacier. don't hang out in the back. you will learn more in front. as the course goes on, make the leadership calls. the guide will make all the calls if you let him/her. the guide should welcome your desire to lead. (may not like your calls but that is why you are there. to learn) enjoy your beautiful area! tie knots in your rope before rappel. (my new mantra) gene

patagonia (as well as others) have white poly glove liners which work pretty good in warm air/snowy ground conditions. if there is snow on the ground, it usually is good temps for liners. if there is no snow on ground, the sun affect is less and you don't need as much sun pro anyway. When on snowy angled terrain, you need to protect your hands in the case of a need to self arrest. I have seen a few badly scraped knuckles from rubbing in snow during the fall. I heard an interesting arguement against using aloe vera after a bad sun burn. Aloe causes skin cells to multiply. So you got a bad burn with possible dna damage to living skin cells and instead of letting it die, you command it multiply therefore possibly creating the initial skin cancer group. This was told to me by a good doctor. food for thought.

no one mentioned wild things yet. i have a rock sack that has taken serious beatings and keeps going. very light and no BS features. I would bet that the ice sack would fit your requirements. they have been making them for decades and found a make that works, so they stick with it.

price glacier on shuksan. used to be "classic", now a rubble field. never been on it but has anyone here been on it or heard of anyone? global warming. the black slab pitch on sw rib sews used to be licheny but now you can see the boot path from below. did it late 90's and it was still licheny and unsure where to go. now, follow the trail. used to remember there being more bail v threads in the can rockies but now i can't find very much anymore. standards (people) have gotten too good for bailing. maybe less single rope use. so anyway, less free protection mid pitch, therefore a little harder. yeah, reaching. next 20 years, our ice climbing will be much harder when it is all sick little pencils. aren't most mixed climbs getting easier when it is all scratched up and obvious? Fisher chimneys used to be really mellow in the 90's. (did it four times over 6 years) Went through it 6 years ago and it was much more broken up and almost impassable (reg glacier travel wise) in a couple places. not sure about recently. n face athabasca is gettin harder due to ice recession

you will get from the course what you put into it. if you want to be ready for rainier, then let your guide know so and pay attention to those parts of the course. review those portions many times (snow school, crevasse rescue, weather prediction, snow camping, ect) often during the course. there may be other books available so read them in the evening. ask for latter portion summit climbs to mimic rainier. steer the course in your direction and desire.

was me. right hand in cast so typing is a struggle. rapped off end of rope. rope wasn't even. was real dumb and can't believe it happened as i am usually very deligent. all it takes is one time. keep on it 100 %. got off lucky. broken right wrist, sore left hand, small crack in lower vertebrae, sore hip started today. lots of stiffness. hope to be mobile soon( when back stiffness lessens) and cast off in four weeks. sucks cause i had plans that i have to back out of. sorry matt! gene

how can a hammer dig snow and chop ice as easy as a good adze? Plus, a regular ice axe pounds pickets just fine when you use the top part of the head. At least around these parts, the snow doesn't get hard enough to demand a hammer to place.

fischer chimneys on mt shuksan has lots of variety. lots of 3rd and 4th class to snow to rock to good glacier to summit pryamid. Just when you've had enough of what you are on, it changes to another climbing medium. Getting through hells highway is very thought provoking too. Can do a bivy sack bivi below winny's slide for classic mountain experience. Not many crowds due it's exclusion from nelson guides. But a good description in found in Kearney and Beckey guides.

I hope you are right. But there is a tendency in humans to "see" trends when the concept is imprinted on the brain, as in this case the post about declining population of climbers. Then while you are thinking about it, you notice all the evidence to support the claim while ignoring the contradictory evidence. All unconscious and this tendency is brought up in court cases when dealing with eye witnesses. If I said the crags were all crowded (and I was a reliable source) then I could bend the common perception such. Only quatifiable things can be used to support a rising or declining population. (such as permits, maybe gear sales, mag subscriptions, ect) With all that though, I would agree with you in that it doesn't seem so crowded anymore. But then maybe it is because I steer clear of smith, hood, DC cleaver, and Baker on the weekends. Also, the guiding industry localy has slowed down a bit (maybe 20%?) after the heyday of the late 90's. whatever the reason, I like it. I hope the rock routes stay clean though.

read "freedom of the hills" cover to cover. (after that book, there are other ones too) You got the time. If you aren't commited enough to read the book, then maybe you aren't commited enough to be out there. Then you should be able to make up your own determination of risk which is specific for everyone. You will also learn about equipment. (another very specific set for different people) For me. when the weather is nice, it is a very safe place to be. But people die up there in bad weather. People slide out of control on the snow and crash into rocks. People manage to get themselves into all kinds of trouble. It is a good goal though. Read up, get in shape, come out here, and have a backup plan if the weather turns foul. But no need to fear about ice worms devouring people, they are vegetarians.

Solo ascent of rainier required a permit. Application for permit was meant to weed out the unqualified. I hope your friend is aware of this and has gone through all the hoops. Maybe they are done with this process. Maybe a rainier climbing ranger will reinform us of the rules.

haven't been on it, but clean break? the formerly mazama guides shack (in mazama, duh) had several photocopies of new routes, free. There are outside the front door. The guides shack can be found right next to the mazama store. They had route topos for spontaneity arete (looks like a nice 5.7) and gato nego (5.10+ on the west face of silver star or whine spires). They also had two topos for routes on goat wall which while technically is not wash pass, they are good destinations when it is raining in the pass. The routes are 10.c ao (11a) and a 5.8 or 5.9 depending. Did the latter and it was fun and pleasant. maybe they have new topos now? (marks line on burgundy?) Maybe one can download them from their website? There is a large potiential for new stuff also. Look on all sides of silver star for unclimbed rock. (or at least unpublished new rock) hope that helps

neutrinos are fine. all this detailed analyse of biners and their correspnding weight (difference by a 10 grams or so) and functionability is a bit funny. A difference in 10 grams for 30 biners comes out to .6 pounds. Huge deal? Functionability. You will learn how to use whatever biner you buy and probably like it. I got hotwires and regular biners (enduro and light d) and I really like them. As far as I know, there are no safety issues with any modern biners, wiregate or regular. (except for a kong biner, I believe, that is very small and has a small rope bearing diameter) So I would reccomend just buy whatever is on sale and they will be fine. have a couple solid gate biners (oval or closely symetric) for biner brake rappels. Not sure if wiregates can handle the sideways loading.

To answer your question "sky ledge is a hiking tent but what's the difference?" The difference is when the weather turns where you can expereince winter in the summer, then a 3 season tent may not have adequate strength to withstand the winds. Hiking tents are for below treeline where winds are not a issue. Some 3 season tents have pretty good strength though. I used one such tent (MEC tarn 2 ) in pretty tough wind, snow and rain and it survived. -Look for at least 4 (better yet 6) guye lines attached to midway up the side of the tent. Low guye lines and ground corner loops for staking are worthless in wind. (think torque and lever arms) -Also the amount of netting that comprises the body of the tent matters in storms too. Winds will blast moisture under the fly and up the body. Excessive netting will let that moisture inside. (look at 4 season tents and you will find very little body netting for this and temperature reasons) -Also, demand that your tent have taped seams, especially in the fly. (except for the firstlight which you must seamseal) "why use a single wall tent in the summer?" You get 4 season protection for 3 season weight. (except for 3 season single walled of course) Single wall tents have bug netting that allows you to ventilate keeping it cooler in summer. Four season tents are not like a down jacket. Easy to ventilate. SO the questions you must ask yourself is What conditions will I be exposed to? (mostly wind) Will my tent be able to withstand it? (guy lines, strength of fly) What will happen if the tent fails? (simple walk out?)