genepires

Not familiar with some of your gear but a few comments Are your bottom layers (fleece, event and belay pants) full side zips? (especially the belay pant) They will need to be put on without taking boots and crampons off. Definately bottle parka for both bottles. Can be home made though. Ear plugs.. best damn things ever. I am assuming that the .5 liter bottle is your hot drink bottle. good idea. Does your down parka have a hood? As of a couple years ago, the park service fixed the running belays to denali pass. hatremoves the need for lots of pickets. Not everyone on your crew has two pickets I hope. Might need a cordlette to make an snow anchor. Just decadent but I have a stuff sack with a sewn in fleece section. Hmmm pillow. I think cascade design makes one too. Worth the weight (unnoticeable) for me. Sounds like a good list you got. Enjoy the mountain and get good food in anchorage.

No one has a fat wallet except for a select few. I was just jokin with that part. Posting your gear list may be instructional and may gather some wise ass comments from some. But thoughtful comments may be helpful. As far as ridge crevasses go, I have never seen as many wierd slots forming in ALL places on the mountain. Anyone going up foraker should not dismiss crevasses at any point on the mountain. I have not been on foraker but have been on several other peaks in the kahiltna area. Ridges, faces, covex, concave, glaciers, snowfields, summits, everywhere there are crevasses.

"very fast when light" will get you in trouble on denali. 2 reasons. (call me a old fart if you want) 1-very fast gets people up too fast and they get altitude sickness. You will see it in others. The young fast "kids" get sick and worse. The old farts plod along all day and get back home. 2-light and fast is fine in the good weather. But denali can be anything but good and nice. Once again people lose hands, feet and worse even when they are prepared. Give all advice a second thought before you start dropping gear in the hopes of going faster. Theoretically one could leave behind your down jacket cause someone once did not use it. But you'd have to be a fool not to bring it. Same with ascenders. When it is ok weather, prussiks can work. But it the weather turns, good luck trying to get that cord on the rope, which could lead to a fall. Without experience on the mountain, it is best to bring all the standard gear that general consesus experience has said was required. After your trip, especially when you will have crappy weather, you can decide what was needed and not. If you have a FAT wallet, buy everything new with regard to ounces. Talk to Jim Nelson and hand over your card for the hook up. Otherwise, get loaded up, be slow and have a good time anyway. You will be out there for weeks and might as well enjoy it. Bring a camp chair and a megamid. load up the sleds and drink beer.

As you may know already, keep the screws from melting out by piling snow ontop of them and/or use v threads. If you make a anchor for a regular TR (bottom belay) I would use v threads only since you can't check them out as often. Jasons use of munter hitch is superior to a belay device on the anchor for good belay up and lower down.

judging by the view of the hills around 3 fingers, I bet vesper is all snowy. Road was easy but will be snowy now too. Typical weather for this winter "should" have a bare road next weekend.

just one clarification Jason on your step 4. Once the device is lifted back like you say, it becomes a tubular belay device and one MUST hold the climber appropriatly. It is not like a gri gri were you could "throttle" the brake affect with the lever. Just didn't want anyone to think incorrectly about this. Once again, nice job Jason.

Hey Nolse, all these comments are keeping your post up high in the list so more people (like the one who finds your tool) may see it. Without, this request may slip into obscurity just like your tool.

One mans classic is anothers choss heap. My classic N face is -coleman headwall on baker (big ice) -north side of slesse (just damn big) -north side of stuart (variety of routes) with a honorable mention -dragontail (once again lots of variety) -whitechuck east gulley (yeah yeah, but it is ne facing and therefore dark inside. classic climbing) -north side of johanesburg (sp?) Never been on it but have stared at it alot.

aztar is too short. Alp wing is a smidge longer than all the tools mentioned. So for alpine ice and waterfall ice I would vote for alp wing

I've logged many miles in those beat up degrees. Never a blister. Just put some good insoles and you will be fine with degrees.

Mini disc players work well up there. A disc can hold 6 cds worth of tunes. A bit heavier than a small mp3 though. But probably around the same weight as a mp3 than can play LOTS of music. Plus you can carry extra discs and have an immense music library. But then, don't you want to get away from that stuff? I have seen a tiny mp3 (from good guys) that was worn around the neck, held 1 hour of music. I would get that and put the best of the best on it, for those times you really need a little. 14K and above, great fm and cell phone reception. Small amount of baby wipes to clean up with a little. Make sure to thaw it out before using. One piece clothings (thermal underwear, fleece suits, outerwear and such). Too much clothign bunching under the waist belt hurts. Make sure that it all works together for crapping. For the girls, lady J or freshette. Get used to it. pee bottle if you are a regular late nighter pisser. If not, use a ziploc for the occasional need. Isn't there some kind of rad little hand held video games? A lighter version of the gameboy? Killer food for the first three days. Go big and tasty. progressively lighter as you go higher. But have something tasty us high as it is real hard to eat anyway. Plan food well as it is becomes the biggest thing of the day. Pasta doesn't cook well at altitude. (mushy)

There are some really light double runners out there. IMO nothing beats a regular pre-equalized knot anchor with using your rope to anchor too with a clove hitch. Can you escape the belay when you use the rope as part of the anchor? If you need to move about, is your bowline system able to allow that? How fast can you tie this knot (properly and still equalized) compared to my double runner and a overhand knot? The answer to these are why I would forgo using this bowline anchor knot.

I have both the arctis (colder places like denali) and the degree (local). The degree liner will last a lot longer. I have found that the arctis liner takes a longer time to dry out because it doesn't have small holes in the material like the degree liner. So it gets progressively wetter from sweat (warmer liner) and stays that way till I get home. I usually try to hang it from the tent to dry out. Both are good for walking long ways. Both suck for ice climbing. No experience with the verticals. Would expect it to be a good ice and less good walking boot. There are lots of places to rent koflach. Try before you buy to see if your foot will fit their designs. Usually normal to wide feet do good.

As one who has known Justin (necro) for around 10 years, I would offer my vote to unban "Necro" as well. Always a good climbing partner, good driving conversationist, and never one to do anything unsafe or stupid. He speaks his mind and doesn't hold back. That is one reason why I climb with him. He probably says things that the rest of us are too cowardly to say ourselves. Thanks Darin and Justin for a great memory on the last climb and here is one for the future climbs ahead.

here is the photo of the big 4 climb, circled in purple. Once again, click attachment.

Last shot, some gumby leading higher up still. click attachment again. Maybe someone who has the skills can put these photos in a regular way?

photo of Alex higher up. click attachment. I need education.

OK, I got no clue about photos on websites but here is a photo of alex leading. Click the attachment.

picture of the climb. please click attachment to see photo. I am a computer clutz.

This is my first attempt to post a TR with pictures so in advance please excuse my ineptitude with this. Will send them soon. No TR function for posting? So two weeks ago, I took my two dogs for a walk up the Mt Dickerman trail on a rainy/snowy day. About two hours out at the 4500 foot level, there was a small creek which the dogs lapped up the cold water. Above was this patchy system of ice up the rambly cliffy section. The rest of the hike was pleasant in the snowy/rainy Washington kind of way. I knew though that the climb could form if it stayed cold and didn’t snow too much. This last week was good for creating ice. Fairly cold and clear. Alex was up for a good day and I was also able to convince a new buddy, Robert on a temporary assignment from LA, to come along. We got a good early start for the hike in, climb and follow up with a hike to the top. Two hours walking on solid boot pack (must be hundreds of switchbacks) got us to the ice, right above the trail. The ice is a cool little WI2 and about 75 meters, give or take a dozen meters. It can be split into 2 pitches at a convenient tree belay 30 meters up. The ice was thin with frequent hitting of rock but plenty of good medium and stubby screws were placed the whole way up. The angle of the ice compensates for the thin ice conditions. I hauled a bunch of standard rock gear and pins but was unable to find any cracks to place anything. Two raps off trees get back to the ground. Farther left, there is the possibility of some shorter ice climbs, some easier, some mixed. All involve wallowing through the deep stuff. After our climb, we got back on the bootpack trail and continued another hour to the top. We carried our ice gear with us to confuse and/or frighten the more sane hikers. No one seemed to notice. For those who haven’t been on top dickerman, there are good views of n and e face big 4, n face sperry, n face vesper, w face sloan, glacier, pugh, whitechuck, e face Whitehorse, e face 3 finger and baker. Many possible winter objectives can be checked out from this vantage point. Note for dog lovers, lots of people with dogs on this trail last week. I would not expect this climb to be exposed during a more normal season. It seems that it could easily be buried. But in early season, this could be a good climb to knock the rust off the swing and get a leg workout. It seems that this climb must have been done before due to the access. Whoever may have done it never bothered to mention it to Jason and Alex for the ice guide. Maybe it is too easy to bother reporting? But whatever, it is ice, it is in Washington, it has a nice trail, and it is fun for hacks like me. For those alpine suffering types, there is no visable ice on the west face of Sloan, east face of Whitehorse and Three fingers. BUT there is a very interesting ice formation on Big 4’s east face. Maybe three pitches of very steep terrain. It has a complicated approach but the reward is equally big for those willing to suffer. I will try to post some pictures later when I figure out how to zoom in on the photos I got. Gear: standard ice gear, medium and stubby screws, maybe some KB’s, snowshoes needed if there is recently snowfall. Skis not useful.

I have the 40 degree down and synthetic fill overbag combo and it works really good. For the summertime I only use the down part. The sleeping pad is so important with this system. I used a blue ensolite pad and was pretty cold. A descent thermarest is great but going too light on the pad will mean a cold night. Also the pad must be shaped to fit inside the bag. (no rectangular pads) Don't use the air core pad they offer. The one that you blow up with no foam inside is light but worthless for staying warm. Who would have thought a littel foam inside makes it work so well? Very roomy and good for stomach sleepers.

Trash compactor bags are cheap, available, and waterproof. Cut a couple into sheets and tape them together insuch a way to fit the floor of your tent. One bag can cover about 75% of a one person tent.

Was wondering if anybody made their own two person bivy sack. Was hoping to get some design ideas, places to buy the materials and thoughts about double sacks itself. visions of using this on alpine rock climbs for planned and unplanned bivies.

I own a set of old BD hexes and like them. I got a free met curved hex that seemed to be too much of a bitch to get out for someone to bother with. I had to hammer it with my little pika nuthammer to get it out. Now this hex was only 6 feet off the ground on R&D route so I doubt anyone fell on it. It was just a bitch to get out once "set" . Seems like due to the curved geometry it might be real easy to set this curved hex hard and not be able to get it out. I have never had this problem with the regular hexes. I guess they usually fall out instead of getting stuck.

Some ice axes are not designed to be used as deadman. I forget the rating used but if you don't notice the weight of the axe on your pack, then it is probably not a good snow anchor. The question is the strength of the shaft. (anyone reply with shaft jokes!) Also, there is a question about appropriate surface area for the type of snow you are trying to build a anchor in. Good luck trying to get a 50 cm tool to work in fluffy powder. (or anything except skiis for that matter) Most ice tools and some ice axes have less surface area than a picket, therefore less snow holds it in place, hence are weaker as a anchor. So like all things in climbing, there is no cut and dry answer to your question on wether a axe is a good anchor or not. You gotta evaluate the strength of the snow and axe and then decide if it is OK. Another note: I think that I would never use a vertically driven axe as part of my crevasse rescue system. (even driven back ones) This is because most rescues happen when the surface snow is soft and weak. In that condition vertically driven pickets and axes are very weak. But strength can still be found by deadmaning whatever you are using for a anchor. Saying that, I feel it totally OK to use two tools in the cascades in summer.