genepires

not really close to seattle but s arete south early or beckey route on liberty bell in wash pass fits your bill, plus the views are stellar compared to anything along i90. go for quality vs convienence. weekend rock by david whitelaw might be a good book for you. darrington has some routes for you as well. silent running if you had slabbage skills. zig zag in mt erie also. all in whitelaws book. accept that you may have to drive 2 to 5 hours for what you want.

as a father, this story hits home. thanks for sharing this.

I had stuff stolen from the back of our pickup (with canopy) at index years ago. Filed a police report and the cops found some of our stuff abandoned in bushes miles away. maybe the same "luck" could work for you.

the first time I did total soul, the first pitch was completely under snow. Kicked steps right up the 5.6 parts and got to the bolted belay. that was kinda cool but I guess we didn't climb "the route". thanks for the photos.

"Gentlemen, that's as far as I can take you. Sticky rubber has yet to be invented" "Gentlemen, that's not as far as I can take you. I don't give a rats ass about sticky rubber, I got some leather boots and grapefruit sized balls." my hero conrad did 5.8 in the rockies with boots back in the day.

umbrella tree route was some of my first multi pitch ventures. To intimidated for 5.9's so we sought out untraveled 5.7's. Not the best idea really. We where wondering around there and not really sure of where we were going though. I remember one point bailing due to extreme lichen slabs but that was prolly really off route. Many good memories from those days. even a duct taped hook for pro but that is just plain silly.

chop steps like conrad kain to get to slab climbing. yeah for the road open.

not there lately but 3 oclock usually dries up quickly, being slabs n all. I am curious as to the state of the road too.

I may be free if chris is unable to go. still waiting for his reply. Also, I injured my shdr last weekend but it is getting better quick but I may not be pulling down real hard climbs. (actually pullups don't bother it) If you don't mind a mellow start and see how it goes and/or you can't find any other partners, drop me a line. I could be good for darrington. do you know how far the road is washed out from the TH? BTW, I have been climbing for a long time. gene

Alex and I did brewer buttress on castle rock years ago. that was a great day. never been on louise but I suspect that the rock is better on castle. Maybe you could run your question through a knowledgable local banff person? Ask will gadd as he is very helpful when he is around the computer. If you go to louise, make a tr with photos for us homeys.

that hex choice is good. I would add pink, red, and brown tricam to that passive pro mix. so what are your alpine climbs that you are preparing for? this will assist in gear choice advice.

nice one. sorry to hear about the foul weather. My one trip up denali had a little lost bird make a home in our cook tent too. Felt really bad about shooing it outside but it was crappin in the cook tent.

http://www.rcnw.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=631 topo for newhalem, hopefully better than the NPS site.

there was some info on the newhalem place somewhere on the web. Pretty good topo. Will try to find it again. I might have found it here on cc.com somewhere. maybe a search within the last 10 years can bring it back up.

I have one of the old reversino's and I think it is kinda hard to use even on ropes it is designed for. I seem to remember it "sticking" when using it to belay. No idea about newer versions. If you really want a reversino, PM me and I will give you mine.

I hate this advice. You're not allowed to just complain about anything, you just have to set an example yourself? Hippie bullshit. I guess I better quit my job and start working construction, because the guys digging up my street are doing a terrible job. Oh, and I guess I better stop complaining about Congress, too. maybe you should try to dig up a road and then fix it. you might learn that those "guys" are doing a good job. the point is to walk a thousand miles in someones shoes before casting judgement or some other silly "hippie" or native american or Buddhist nonsense. but we have freedom of speech so feel free to complain away.

be a part of the solution. write your own guidebook. write a good guidebook. be an example instead of a complainer.

The idea of jokes is hard for you to understand. I thought the little happy face would show that. Lighten up a bit.

sorry about the loss. Can't imagine what it must be like for a dad to lose a son. for some reason, the name David Trippett sounds familiar. We have a small circle and I think I ran into him once or twice.

You might need a "work" tent and a "personal play" tent. work tent may need to withstand rain for days. Personal play tent does not as most people just go home. Guided trips don't have that option. It doesn't have to be expensive or heavy either to be a good work tent. I used a light MEC 3 season double wall tent for many years. There are even more options for LW 3 season tents now just make sure it has several guye points (>6). prodeal or even used. this tent will get UV damage and trashed so why bring a pricey single wall style tent? No single wall tent is "good" in a rain shower. I have a older generation of the LS evo nepal top called the nepal extreme. Can't say if they are the same but prolly close. I wouldn't want to walk a long way in them on trails. They are still clunky. I used the old scarpa freney (blue ones) a long time and they worked much better. I think they are lower cut. If you want a summer work boot, I think there are better options out there. More towards walking and less towards vertical ice performance. Too early for me to come up with examples now. garmont towers and the new freneys amongst others. cheap looking gear might earn sympathy from clients and yield better tips.

melt with stove and purify with chemical treatments like aquamira worked for me for decades. Filters are not required and just too plain heavy for the job needed. Maybe if I was in a foreign and filthy place (varcas valley on aconchossua comes to mind) then a filter would be worth the weight. I used a plastic bag to store snow near the stove for melting. The sun would warm up the snow to a slurpy mess, getting us halfway to water.

if you will be doing weeklong courses with the chance of precip, the leathers will be a poor choice. if you get some leather boots THAT FIT, keep the plastics for those foul weather trips. The plastics will be useful for acon-choss-ua too. Don't be that guy who goes to acon with leather boots. Put everything in your favor when choosing gear. Pick reliable and durable and warm. your acon-choss-ua tent should be absolute bomber. horrible winds are the norm. I would rather haul a ve25 and know that my shelter will withstand what the mountain will dish out. (maybe) Even with the rock walls and great anchoring, the tents take a beating. You will spend lot of money going down there and have your summit taken away due to LW gear failure will suck. Plus the guy points on the firstlight are too low on the body. back to guiding on shasta, can you describe the kind of work you will be doing?

twas good. but getting old means that day climbs becomes all I get for the weekend. tired!

nice work. we were two of the six on OS you saw (on the ground as you came by) and watched your work. was wondering if that was champagne and now I know.

isn't this true of every climber?