genepires

yes, you are correct mark. I woke up in a cold sweat last night thinking that I mixed up the E and W. then I said "meh!" and went back to sleep. Eat or west, it is up that counts eh? real men descend the hard way. I have been known to climb the west butt and rappel the cassin.

what they said above I took nepal extremes one time and it had super gaiters on. was good for most of it but I wished I had some warmer plastics on a couple of days, one being on minimoonflower. You don't have to stay in the TIA if the zoo and noise bothers you. go uphill till you feel comfortable but be aware of the hanging terrain above that exists beyond the control tower. (that is the small rocky pk /knob with in the middle of the valley. bring floatation of some kind. honestly. Anything off the highway is deep and gets deeper as the season progresses. know your crevasse rescue. for reals. that is the one place that you will need it. the snow is weird. it is alaska. it keeps you on your toes. It wants to kill you. Beware of crevasses on ridges. I punched through into 4 in francis alone. it is alaska. it keeps you on your toes. It wants to kill you. avalanches. came close a couple times on those lower moderate routes. made the entire summit platform "settle" on the control tower. same thing happens on ridges too. it is alaska. it keeps you on your toes. it wants to kill you. take the time to plan your food and buy good food. It matters after a while. plan your ascent without regard to normal climbing times. By that I mean many things 1. if it is warm, climb it at night which is really twilight at worst 2. if it is chilly, climb it during the day 3. if it is really f'in cold, snowing hard or has recently snowed hard, stay in your tent or cook tent and get fat. 4. things take longer than you think so plan accordingly. if you want to climb the east ridge of francis, I suggest climbing the west ridge first so that you know the descent. call it acclimitizing if you need to. climb the control tower to get a feel for AK climbing before getting on bigger things. maybe even right after you get off the plane if the thought of wasting time bothers you. if the forecast is bad for your flight out day, consider getting out early. You may end up being stuck there for a long time as storms can linger longer than forecasts call for. Some flight services give priority to their cash cows, the guide services. You won't starve though. plenty of people will unload their food if you need. have a cheap cook tent. megamid is fine. good luck. share photos.

they say the most dangerous part is the descent. we all need reminders that it includes the part all the way to the parking lot. awesome job getting up that thing.

will draw it out on paper later for ya buddy.

a triangle is formed (by the poles for all angle of slopes) in which the bisector of the top angle forms and angle equal to the slope angle. Lets call that angle Z. using the sine rule, sin (Z) = (length of snow slope from two pole interactions with snow/2) / length of pole. to simplify, lets call it sin (z) = length between baskets / 2 ski pole lengths. to simplify it more, length between basket = sin(Z) * 2 ski pole lenghts This a labeled version of the sin Z = opposite / hypotenuse. from this you can put in the length of pole and then plug in z=30, z=33, z=35, ect. to find if that trend is there for your pole length and also if it follows for angles over 45 degrees. (I don't have a good calculator with me now) I suspect that it will not as the trig is not a linear function. Right around 45 degrees it is somewhat linear so the idea that it will change a fixed amount over a fixed degree change is expected. the short of the long is that if you are anal about numbers, the idea of a constant degree change over a fixed length change is false. but good enough for having "phun" work. also, it depends on the pole length too. also depends on ball sack size.

when the slope is 30 degrees, a equilateral triangle is made and the angles inside the equilateral triangle are 60 degrees. when compared to the horizon (angle of slope in question measured from the horizon) , the pole always creates a 90 degree angle with the 30 degree for slope and the 60 degree inside triangle.

not sure if you call it crags, but I am fond of the entire squire creek area. clear creek area as well. Once again with the "crag status", but Washington Pass always held a strong alpine cragging position for me. Not in WA, but real close and reasonable for washington climbers, Squamish is the best cragging area within access to people from washington. Especially for bellinghamites. Index would rule for me if I could climb 5.10's there.

many critters have built in crampons. maybe real critter style would have boots with retractable points.

speaking of "having a full rack" http://www.outdoorresearch.com/blog/stories/how-to-tell-if-your-girlfriend-is-a-climber?utm_medium=Social-post&utm_campaign=FB+How+to+tell+girlfriend+climber&utm_source=Facebook I bet Anastasia clocks in at 14 out of 14 points.

points pointing away from each other, straps wrapped around the bundle, then shove it between the pack and my back. thats how I roll, all hardcore n shite. pain is weakness leaving the body....and the metal jammin in my spine.

with the view from my sofa, given the lack of snow in the last week, I would not have thought we had much hazard. I would be very wrong. http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20140120/NEWS01/140129896/Mukilteo-climber-dies-on-Lewis-Peak don't make any mistakes out there.

conrad kain. old school badass. alpenstock and fancy hat

is this a eye 2 eye? or is it a aye to aye?

please explain how fall restraint is used with friction hitches. Are you talking about ascending fixed lines like above the 14K camp on denali west ridge route? the usual reasons for using friction hitches of any kind are for ascending ropes (crevasse rescue and in high angle rock climbing), rappel backups and to prevent slips on medium angle ground form becoming real falls (fixed lines in mountains). All of these are easily done with the standard old fashioned regular prussik hithces using small loops of cord. No need to make this more complicated than it needs to be.

sounds like you are asking about skinning more than downhill. more like XC skiing but with the BC ski gear on. Wouldn't any old logging road do?

gigi instructions are here http://www.kong.it/doc412.htm I tried the belay a leader technique once. once. it is basically setup for a rappel but was a real bear to pay out rope. maybe I did something wrong but I would rather use a munter hitch if I did not have another tubular belay device.

I thought that both were reasonable for skinny doubles and twins. I noticed a big increase in friction when using a guide atc on 10mm and 10.5mm ropes. so wintertime, I use the guide atc and in the summer, I use a gi gi and a atc. the unfortunate part about gi gi is that it is difficult to belay a leader with it. rapping is a little more of a trouble too.

PM sent on tc shoes

no real ideas about tlt boots but how about a small gator over the boot but under the pants?

Back from the land of the dead, Dan rages onwards and upwards! awesome!

best of the year but second to Chris's failed bugaboos trip from a decade ago. Chris didn't have any burning cars (awesome) but the personality interactions are priceless.

that omni biner looks like a good belay biner. OK to load in any direction? hard to believe but they claim it is so.

assuming it has not fallen down since I was last there, there is a road and short trail to the worlds largest Joshua tree. It is very large and very cool looking. no idea how we got there but I bet that a ranger can direct you. I think it is outside the park boundries.

south face ingals peak midweek. hundreds of thousands of climbers have pulled on it enough that all the loose stuff is gone. starting with the "classics" is a good start if you want no loose rocks. R and D in the icicle may be a good solo. I think the cruxes have a good hand crack for portable belays I feel weird giving solo suggestions. the moral liability.

I thought it was conservative in that he spends a lot of time (weeks) on safer lines before feeling confident enough to go on a slope that has any sort of feature that adds to the hazard. (like cliffs, terrain traps, big open bowls, ect) The usual thing is to see and shred whatever is untouched as soon as the snow stops.