genepires

from what I read from that article, it sounds like the one fellow got to the ledge and then loss control of his brake hand therefore letting the rope go through the device. this would lower the other fellow and when speed got high enough, it would be impossible to regain the brake side of the rope before it went through the device. I could imagine the fellow on the ledge was clipping into the anchor. Just pure conjecture from a news article on my part. no knot to stop the end, but in this case, a knot may not even have stopped it. Knots have been known to blow off in hard dynamic testing. This is so sad. Not only for the poor fellow who died but also for the other three guys on the climb. Can't imagine the hell they are going through right now.

Can we decide that simu rapping is a bad idea? Whoever is teaching this technique needs to stop.

there are some small kid friendly crags at playground point. (appropriate name) I can't remember the crag name or route but if you walk up the main trail for playground point, go past all the buffed out boulderers and it is the first real crag you get to. I think there are 4 or 5 easy kid climbs on this bolted face. Has a big tree at base to hide from sun and the consequence of a base trip is small. A stumble would result in cuts, scrapes and bruises but still be ok. Lots of l-worth crags have pretty bad bases for squirelly kids who may accidentally stumble around while not roped up. you can walk around to setup TR. enjoy!

I have climbed it in may, june, july and august. in august and september, you should expect that the glacier to the route to get more challenging as well as getting up the initial part of the ridge. Rockfall and bergschrunds make it tough. FWIW, there is some rock walled bivy spots about a pitch or two below the seracs pitch. If there is icefall from the icewall, it should fall away from the bivy spot as it is pretty much on the ridge proper. this makes for a nice day. hike in and do the complex glacier in daylight, get up to the bivy on day one. this leaves plenty of time for summit and hike out on day 2. Of course this involves bringing lightweight bivy gear for the carry over. going from glacier camp to summit and hike out is a big day but the pack would be lighter. your call. the bivy was pretty nice experience.

IMO, a houdini or similar and a exp weight top would be more versatile than a soft shell jacket. prolly weighs the same. FWIW, I did not feel the need for a front zipper to vent. I was fine with a anorak level of venting. I was rather surprised by the ability of goretex to breathe up there. I think I brought softshell pants never just carried it to 14K camp realizing that it is dead weight because I still had thin and thick bottom layers in addition to puffy pants. Basic rule is if you can not wear all your layers on in one time (extra skivvy and socks excluded) then you brought too much. I would add that if you can not adjust to the micro differences in temp, then you did not bring enough. One needs to keep the body under low stress. There are a lot of stresses already like hauling crap up the hill and altitude. Adding stresses like too hot or too cold only takes away from the bodies ability to adapt to the other physical stresses. insufficient calories and dehydration are other stresses that are critical to be minimized also. basically a obsessive compulsive dedication to personal maintenance will help with the ability to adapt to altitude. the main take away is that the clothing system should be able to micro manage the body temp so that you are always neither a little too hot or a little too cold. always just perfect like the bed goldilocks was looking for, hence the preference for multiple wearable layers.

same thing with pants. tight stretchy type pants down low and add goretex pants for mid and high mountain life. never had breath ability issues. no need for softshell pants.

only been up west buttress denali once. Since the air is so dry and cold, goretex actually does a good job with breath-ability, which is atypical for goretex. my system that worked well for outwear is either the down puffy or simple goretex over various layers or a real simple nylon windbreaker. Something like the pataguchi houdini. I think that this very lightweight nylon windbreaker was worn 80% of the time. Even when it was snowing, the windbreaker was fine. When it got windy or up high, the goretex jacket or puffy was the thing. i think a softshell jacket is just going to add weight as you need a goretex jacket anyway. (for cutting the wind, the softshell is not adequate. think 30 mph winds) You will be having 2 items for the same purpose.

Paging Kurt Hicks. KUrt Hicks please report to the exit 38 question area. Paging Kurt Hicks.

Try these guys https://squamishclimbing.com/squamish_climbing_bb/

Star Chek! 5.9. 3 pitch. Easy approach. Rappel down to river and climb back to highway. Very scenic. I have the whistler rock climbs guidebook but I have no idea if that is still available. If so, that would have other option for you as well. There must be other guidebooks available for sport only climbs. I am old school and need to work with guidebooks and not the smartphone. You would prolly find other ideas online too. There are sport climbs tucked in and around the classic trad areas in Squamish as well. Usually bolted slab climbs is that is acceptable to you.

I have not been up there this spring yet but this http://leavenworth.org/weatherwebcams/ Shows a web cam pointing at the mountains from Leavenworth. Seems to me that the rocks facing south and near the entrance to the icicle may be climbable. I would suspect that icicle buttress has snow on descent but rock is dry. Looks like everything on the north facing side is snowy. As far as being dry after a couple days, most things should be. In the summer and fall, if it rains for a couple hours, it usually dries up fairly quick. what is unknown is the amount of seepage from a long wet winter still draining out. The seeps would be coming out of cracks so I would suggest find face climbs.

south ridge/face of ingals peak should be climbable, weather permitting. still sporty but doable. would need snowshoes/skiis to get there. maybe a trip up to eldorado east ridge? I think it would be somewhat avi reasonable but would have to be avi permitting also.

I thought AAC had some kind,of,insurance but it may be just rescue insurance. Maybe they have a connection for other insurance that deals with climbers?

Whatever you can do to make the rescuers job easier, the better the outcome. 2 way communication will make their job easier. It is all about intel to make the mission go smoothly. They will be prepared for anything as they are professionals, but maybe victims should act professionally also?

I hate running but the real difference is that I really do hate running. Walking, that is my speed. Knees and achilles like walking.

any winter ascent is still something to be proud about. good job. if you have the time, a trip report would be great reading/viewing for us low land monkeys.

The second rule of crevasse rescue is don't fall in crevasses. The third rule of crevasse rescue is "we don't talk about crevasse rescue"

Once a math geek...always a math geek.

I used to teach a 6 day course like you are asking about but it may have a different curriculum than the provider you are taking it with. I would suggest the 6 day course. I don't know exactly what they will teach in this 2 day course but if it is strickly crevasse rescue, then it may have the same amount of instruction regarding this as in the 6 day course. But the other time in the 6 day course will have the opportunity to learn other things to help keep you out the slot in the first place, like proper crampon technique, self arrest skill and route selection / rope management. If you are solid in these and you really only need the mechanical rope skills of hauling and prussiking, then the 2 day would suffice.

to be mathematically accurate, you would have to ADD the "suck it up". your equation implies that "sucking it up" actually takes away from "all you can do" nice photos from stairway, BTW.

the Testosterone flows strong in my old blood. now get naked!

welcome back Josh!

if you got the free time, take the WFR. the hands on simulations are worth it alone. listening to someone blah blah all weekend is nothing compared to doing it in a simulation. even if you actually remember nothing, it is worth the confidence of knowing that you actually did it right once in your life. and in emergencies, confidence and being calm about things matter more than any 10# first aid kit. right on for you even thinking about such training. Mine elapsed so long ago but the training with a couple real life situations helped when things go bad. I am more calm about it now than when I did the simulations.

usually open by may. depending on how much snow we get this winter (currently getting plenty) you may have to walk a little bit to get to actual TH. they don't plow it for a opening date. just melt out.

if you are talking about the easiest way up, I would say the spring time before summer exposes all kinds of nasty rock. I have climbed n ride baker in ealry may and it was good. Colfax should be fine that time too, weather permitting. If you are talking about the ice line on colfax, no idea how long that season lasts. I saw that Roger Strong climbed it this year.