genepires

what routes are you talking about? When you mention technical, I hear bibler single wall. There is a big difference in gear between w buttress and something more techie. The mountain can crush people with good gear. If the crap hits the fan, the extra money you spent on SURVIVAL gear will seem trivial. Denali (especially a technical route) is no place for inappropriate gear. Be wary of people saying that they didn't need this or that. They may have had excellant weather. What you need is to be prepared for the worst possible weather or else you may end up in next years accident in NA. Yeah, others have climbed it with wool and blankets and whatever but no one I know is as tough as they were. Plus lots of them die early.

f$^&ing nightmare! That guy is lucky.

alpine solo techniques in newbie forum? newbie should steer clear of soloing. If one were to self belay in the alpine, I would expect that to take forever and make bigwalls out of small climbs. I find it hard to reccomend free solo but it is quicker way to get up and to die also.

What MIke is trying to say is that routes like this are next to impossible to plan ahead (buy tickets) and then actually do it. Weather, avi, route conditions are so fickle that to actually do this route you must either hike up there multiple times till you get the right conditions, get lucky with an unusual winter like last, or wait till someone else does it and then talks about it. Either way, only locals have a decent chance at getting any of these situations. Just being honest. I get a chuckle when I hear about people flying in january to get a winter ascent of rainier. They must have lots of extra money. But try and go for it. The stars may align in your favor and if you have a huge positive karma balance, hopefully it will work out for you. My money is that you will be in the rei cafe talking to mike and me.

Petzl feels that if the pick has seen enough abuse to warrant a new pick, then the connection to the axe (bolt) must have also seen abuse and should therefore be changed. Is the old bolt really trashed? probably not. Maybe someone has heard of a case were a old bolt failed and they started this new policy, but I doubt it. It is probably a result from a question arising at a meeting in petzl headquarters or something. Since you are given a new bolt, seems like a good idea to change it out.

for defense of the 6mm cord According ot the pezl website, the most force that could be put on the anchor is 9KN which is fall factor 2 right on the anchor. A KN is roughly 225 lbs so we are looking at needing to hold 2025 lbs. If you have two legs in the anchor equally loaded then each leg needs to hold 1013 lbs. Each leg is made of a loop of cord so each piece of cord needs to hold half of that again, 506 lbs. 6mm cord is rated to around 1700 lbs, well above the force needed above. It is rated to three times that force. This does not take into account the weakness of the knot and less than perfect equalization. I am sure there will be other factors not realized yet too. With that thought, I still use sewn runners on harder climbs but feel fine with 6mm in the mountains were fall factor 2 are next to impossible.

was a good year. guided a bunch of good people. got married. went on a trip with new wife to mexico and belize. (snorkeling in warm oceans) climbed a big goal for me for many years in the bugs. did a great climb with Darin on Castle peak. tons of craggin in leavenworth this fall. can't get much better I suppose.

Maybe the ice is too thin to build a v thread so you could equalize two tied off screws and rap off that. Jeff Lowe had some kind of crazy scheme for dealing with two tied off screws that seemed like a good but complicated idea. That would be one hell of a scary rap. In this case pins would be a better idea.

Famous? Only to my two dogs.

There is probably just enough snow up there to make the rock climbing miserable, unless you like it that way. Go for it. If it is too snowy then the hike is good anyway.

It is only a matter of time till one of them does.

The topo has a pretty good approach info. The old dirt road is about 50 meters upstream from the parking area. Follow old road to a old bridge thingy. Find small trail around right side and follow it to the talus field. Grunt up that pig to the base of the rock and follow small climber trail to the base, which on the right side of a large gulley. Find the bolt to start. Fun route. Bring lots of draws. Having two ropes doesn't help that much when going down. I would bring just one single rope.

While is possible to generate as much force on 4th class as 5.10, it is highly improbable. Falls on fourth class would be more of a bouncing down ledges which absorb alot of force. The rope would most likely keep you form rolling off a ledge after you crash into it. 5.10 falls would be steeper with the rope taking a higher fraction of the force. So a half rope could be "acceptable" for fourth class terrain. Personal call.

hi there. I am planning on going to cascade crags fairly regularly on mon and wednesdays. around 5 to 7pm roughly. Anybody interested in some gym time? gene

hybrid aliens too?

agree with alex. If the nepal or nepal extremes were acceptable up there, you would see more people wearing them. But I have seen lots of frostbite toes from people wearing GOOD plastic with overboots. You think any leather boot can compare to a good plastic? I think not. Even the scarpa alpha boot is a bit lacking in insulation Get a pair of plastic that fit your foot and has a good liner. A good plastic boot will cost something around $300. That is only $30 per toe. Cheap. Don't skimp money on important things, like anything imperitive to your existence. Hillary may have gotten up everest with shitty boots but he might have had excellant weather. You probably will not on Denali. (locals call McKinley by its indian name, Denali) Many Everest summiters were shocked by how much more brutal Denali is than Everest. Please, do not underestimate Denali. People of all expereince die every year up there. Plus, from someone who spends weeks in the hills, leathers have a hard time drying out when compared to plastic liners which are pulled out of the shells. Weeks of sweat will drentch the leathers and make you more suseptible to frostbite and trench foot. Don't get me wrong about leathers. I wear them a lot but they have their place and don't belong in some places. gene

I never said he was an evil boss. You should read these posts closer instead of jumping to conclusions. I work for him and I don't work for "evil people". Heck that is why I left amer. alpine in the first place. Jeesh.

evil cause the owner for alpine ascents worked for dunham for a summer before making his own company.

Still looking for a pair? I have a pair of head weights. gene

Time doesn't matter as long as you are first. You are competing with the other applicants. Try sabotage. I tried the guide tryouts a long time ago but failed when I realized my gaiters, socks, and lots of clothes were at home. They didn't look too kindly at my lack of preparation. I think someone must have stole my gear and then left it in living room. Tricky! But seriously, consider sending applications to Amer. Alpine Inst., Alpine Ascents and Mountain Madness as well. If you get a job with any of them, you will have a more diverse summer, doing different summits and having a better time. Why do rainier all summer? I have worked for AAI and now work for the evil AAI so feel free to PM if you have any questions. gene

not sure of the insulative quality of the salomon boot but -20F can be pretty cold for non insulated leathers. Sounds like you are unhappy with plastics from your post so you may want to check out some insulated leathers. I have used my nepal extremes in -20F and been fairly comfortable. Probably more than $180 though. Might want to check out insulated super gaiters (around $120) to add to the salomon boots for very cold days.

The practise area on sahale is the snowed slabs right below the glacier on the far left side of the glacier area. Some smaller crevasses right above that which is right below sharkfin tower. It takes a while to get there from the regular campspots. Might be hard to find non glaciated snowslopes later in the year. If you go light then your kids pack shouldn't be so bad.

quien sabe glacier on sahale peak. The skills area is a little far from camp (hour or so) but the glacier is mellow. South side of baker. Sounds good for what you are asking for. Are you looking for a glacier that you will unlikey fall into? Baker too big? Give the easton another consideration. Daniel is not that great of a route for what you are asking for. Could climb it without any glaciers at all. Shuksan sulphide glacier would be good. Mellow glacier. Cool little scramble to the top. Great skills area but very few crevasses that you can do actual crevasse rescue in. Mt hood? Colchuck glacier area. Very little (if any) crevasses. Pretty cool though.

I got some nepal top and nepal extremes. Love them both. Good reliable leather. Good steep ice boot. I also have some older freney which I like also. I bet the new ones are nice too. (I probably have as many leather boots as your girlfriend has shoes) gene

You are too kind Mike. I wish I climbed half of the stuff you do. Maybe I should get a non summer job. Rainier is kinda "gnar" for a guiding gig. Lots of work but I have to give big congrats to all my "peeps" on that trip. They sucked it up real good and kept the momentum, even when we were all freezin our kiesters off and tired. One of them lives here in seattle and works at the childrens hospital. She dug deep to get to the top. They all deserve a good beer gene