genepires

this site is getting to be stale. The PC stuff is going too far but it is not mine to dictate.

foi = friends of index

standard QD for sport climbing I like flexible QD with rope end biner capture pieces to keep it oriented right. But pretty much any commercially available QD is fine. ANd lengths are fine too. I wouldn't get too hung up on weather it is a 4" or 6" QD. I like to have a couple QD with a locker on the rope end for the first couple bolts or before a runout section. But i am a scardy cat and maybe overly concerned about things like that. I bring up a couple of the alpine draws for places where there might be rope drag with a normal sized draw. Probably a bigger concern is what biners you put in draw.

very nice work FOI.

Don't know how I could bend AL pons when I walk like a little ballerina whenever getting onto dirt/rocks.

depends on how crappy it is. If it is really foul (whiteout for example), you would need a wand every rope length, that amount of rope that is between the first and last person. If you had a team of 3 with 40ft between climbers you would need one every 80ft. If you had two teams with 40 feet between climbers, you would need one every 160ft. If you had 3 rope teams of 3 people with 40 feet between, then it would be every 240 ft. (For multiple teams the last person on one rope would need to be close to the first person on the other rope team.) For a 5 mile (26400 ft) walk up, you will need a butt load of wands. 330 for a team of 3. If it is really that bad, go down instead of bringing that many wands up. What usually happens is that wands are placed in changing directions and around suspicious crevasse areas. Almost more like a warning on the return trip. I can usually find remnants of the uphill track if the snow has been falling or the wind has been blowing for a little while but it is nice for the wands to make me aware that I need to look for tracks in different direction at those changing direction locations. If you think that your tracks are going to be covered within a couple hours, you really need to think about getting back down quick. While I usually don't recommend technology, a gps unit with bactrack and fresh batteries is a better option over wands if your concern is travel in whiteouts. so the short answer to your short question is, yeah, you have enough wands.

a shovel may be useful if the need to dig a snowcave came up. A route that was more committing may have this need if something like bad weather snook up on ya. If weather came in on the emmons, go back the way you came. A big stack of wands (in addition to a gps unit) would be more useful than a shovel.

taking my boy out to daisy chair at stevens for the afternoon today. no teacher. fun day ahead fur sure. yeah it is about spending time with the little ones. If your question is about value for lessons, then you have to ask if the child is able to take directions well from strangers. (why is it that children take directions form strangers better than their own parents?)

my boy started this year at 4yo. I don't know if he would have taken the instructions as well before that. So the best age is very dependent on his/her take on teachers. My boy is a bit of a rebel. We had a season pass at stevens that had unlimited lessons. This helps a lot as the first 4 lessons are not much learning involved. That would hurt to pay the regular price. Wherever your local hill is, I would look into such a deal.

2 person rope team with a 30 m rope can be really hard to do crevasse rescue. If you freind is going to cut up his 60m rope, have him cut it down to 50m or 45m. Any less and the spacing is too close between the two of you. (assuming you want ot carry rescue coils long enough to reach the person in the hole) on the clothes, drop either the fleece shirt or the nano pullover. If you can't wear all the clothes at once, you brought too much. Bring the hardshells no matter the weather. If it turns or makes it own weather, the hard shells will save you. hands- just the liners and mitts. see above rule. just my opinion, but I would not bring a helmet for the emmons. maybe the DC. drop the ice screw and goggles. If you need goggles, you should be walking downhill. I would get the AL crampons instead. Not just for the hiking in but when it is on the feet too. Lifting the foot up every step is easier. Like having lighter boots vs heavy clunking plastics. have your self arrest and CR skills down solid. You may not have other folks around to help out if you get in trouble. The emmons has some traffic but nothing like the DC.

while I don't have local experience, it seems like murchisons has a long life. Always seems extra cold up there. If you are aiming for WW and PC, then murchisons will be right up your alley.

someone with photoshop skills should create a image of the perp wearing all the gear they stole, then post the wanted posters on local glaciers. I mean small packs and med to large outwear. Must be short torsos with large hands and feet. Damn near troll looking.

I had them on the original sarkens but returned it with the recall. wish I had kept them as they didn't offer that binding for the new sarkens. I really liked the spirlock when I had them. Used them on some WI (sarken points too long but binding works) and alpine ice here in WA. Both cases the binding worked great, I thought. not a fan of the sidelock as I am slightly stupid to make it work easily. Maybe I can hire a guide to show me how to use those.

good job Robert. Even got some Jason martin screenplay action.

all the good stuff happens in portland and leavenworth.

cool looking water runnel there.

I luv to climb with you dan. You can carry the heavy soaking wet rope on way down. But of course if you get to pull the rope out before the tent is put up, then it is a win in the slacker game.! I have seen many people get so much stuff and their pack is fine till they get to the office and realize how heavy the group gear and food and water is. Then we had to go through their stuff to lighten the load. Such a waste of money.

Assumed it is a 6 day mountaineering course? all of below assumes you are standard climber/student type for mtneering course --Boots and gaiters (type, brand etc) I would either rent or buy plastic boots (buy if you think you will get more use out of them to justify. Like going to denali or acon-choss-ua or something like) Don't be the guy with leather boots. seriously. gaiters, the standard OR kind is fine. --Warm synthetic/down jacket and pants med weight synthetic jacket but not pants. If you really need it, get thicker bottom layer (or shoeller pants) to put over thinner bottom layer. Jacket must be able to fit under rainjacket. If you can't wear all if your clothes at one time, you brought too much. Not down gear here. outside of tent = synthetic. inside tent = down. --Day pack/overnight pack nope unless it is super lightweight and possibly double duty kind that can be used as a sleeping bag compression sack --Sleeping bag (degree?) and sleeping pad normal types 20 to 30 degree bag. (20 for cold sleeper and 30 for warm sleeper) down. pads is a foam and a lightweight inflatable kind like thermarest. --Harness simple kind, alpine bod or similar. If you think you will want to rock climb in future, get a rock climbing harness with adjustable leg loops. --belay/rappel device atc will be used in crevasse rescue z pulley. Other ones may or may not work. --Rescue Pulley whatever basic pulley from climbing store, not hardware store --ice ax something lightweight again. (notice theme?) does not need to be able to handle ice climbing. 60 to 65 cm and nothing bigger, really. --crampons if mountaineering is what you are all about and nothing "extreme", get lightweight aluminum crampons. If you think you may go for some steeper terrain, then metal but with horizontal frontpoints. no ice climbing crampons you will get a gear list from the guide service and it will be close to what I suggest. The gear list works so stick close to it. But always think lightweight. The pack will get heavier when you load up the food, water and group gear. Expect packs to be 40 to over 50 pounds. Being lightweight means your pack will be in the 40 pound range vs the over 50 pound range and you don't want to be that guy, I promise. ahead of time, figure out your food needs calorie wise. Food need is easy to over estimate and will cause the pack to be overly heavy. Try to pack about 130% of your normal daily caloric needs. no water hoses even if you have a sleeve for it. while out there stay hydrated and fed. Personal maintenance is so important. gloves. thin liners and windstopper gloves and standard OR mittens. versatile and lightweight. Hopefully you will get lucky with weather but late may can be a fickle time. good luck and let us know how it goes. leave photos.

one or two depends. If it is late season, I would say two and mainly because of the need to possibly put directionals in tough crevasse crossing situations. but for everything else, one or none. I know of one situation where a ice screw came in handy for a crevasse rescue and that was a very strange situation.

link don't work (or I am a internut idiot). pretty rad though.

good doctor, I hate you.

back from the dead

not surprising really, considering it is republican created. A lot of crazy shit comes from arizona and florida.

pro mountain sports? give them a call. also give alpine ascents a call. It is a guide service but they have a retail store. Never been in it but worth a try. same goes for the american alpine institute but they are in bellingham.

I haven't heard much from the Josh lad lately. Hey Josh, you still around these interweb parts?