genepires

did your 40th birthday go a little too far? ugh, maybe I am glad I didn't make it.

This kind of sleeping arrangement is best suited to someone who has considerable experience with sleeping in the extreme cold. It is one of those "if you gotta ask....." situations. Probably not a good way to go for high altitude ventures unless you are doing something like the cassin, but then it is assumed you would have considerable experience in climbing in the denali range. You will get opinions and tales of "when I was there we didn't need anything warmer than a 0 degree bag", but there situation and your possible situations may be completely different. You may find yourself struggling to stay alive while they had a pleasant spring stroll. What do you want to be prepared for? BTW, I didn't need a down jacket on summit day.

never been out there but from one of the photos, it looks like the wa dihedrals may be to the climbers left of the slot couloir. One photo has a large gully to the right and below. good luck. let us know what you find out please.

yeah, sauk and not squak. my bad. I got a copy of that kloke book somewhere around here. I should look into making it available online. Not sure how I would do it though. Maybe at least make a list of the peaks in the guide.

hey here is a novel idea, why not just let the occupiers just stay there? Why is it so important that protests disburse? Taking the protesters away only feeds the message that they are making. Maybe I am wrong, but it seems like the protesters are picking parks and public areas and are a problem to very few people. Not like they are sitting down on a highway.

OMG! Really f'in manly getting out. 3.5 hours for rappels and getting out 2 miles is a fast time. There was a video posted here maybe a couple years ago with a skier with a helmet cam on getting buried in a slide. Damn spookiest moments that I ever saw on the web.

I always thought that snoq pass is a great place to go for day trip winter climbing. You got the tooth, chair peak, guye and snoq mtn, all with different ways up to suite your skill level. Get a map and some guide books (beckey and select cascade) and find what works for you there. for up your way on hwy 20, squak mtn is a nice day trip. pick a line of your skill set and choosing. Dallas Kloke wrote a winter climbing guide to cascades of the real obscure things. It was based on the idea that small peaks that are ignored in the summer are rad in the winter. He had all kinds of decent climbs to do. Sadly, it is out of print a long time ago and he is no longer with us. Maybe kindly ask his family if they have any more copies or someone can make a photo copy for you. good luck and watch the avi conditions. It feels like a winter for NOT doing alpine climbing.

I made an imprint of elcap and working on freeing the nose. Also made a imprint of justin bieber and using it as a punching bag.

the best crampon is the one having the most fun? can't let it slide without the classic response

How are things going?

There hasn't been one "name dropping" on this thread. Not sure where all this hate is coming from. Looks like everything here is just personal opinions. Take a chill pill brother.

There is also the point that the pseudoscientific premise that it is based on (that evolution happens slowly enough that humans have not adapted to a modern diet and so should readopt and consume a diet similar to pre-agrarian hunter-gatherers) is completely wrong and has been invalidated by the last 10-15 years of genetic research. Tomato, tahmato. fleece hat, tuk aluminum, alumeenium

If those boys where in town, I would buy them some warm beer. That is some stunning looking climbing.

If you think xfit as GPP (general physical preparation) that goes along with SPP (sport specific physical preparation) then you have a good recipe for getting ready for the alpine. So a couple days a week of xfit with a couple days a week of hiking and rock climbing would be a good training program. I am too cheap and po to pay for xfit, but it seems like xfit would fit your needs of "lose weight, build strength, and build endurance".

and favorable exchange rate

Don't feed the JH with the negative energy. It makes his head bigger. I am curious about your opinion though. Is it that it has 4 cams instead of 3 that makes it harder to place? head width? Or is there some other aspect?

ditto what rocky joe says. My comments were based on the highly probable fact that you will eventually start cragging more than mountaineering. for easy technical alpine routes, the really small cams might be excess. granted they are very light excess weight. I usually bring along a set of #1 to #6 tcu/fcu and a #2 camalot. maybe a #3 camalot if needed. The core of my alpine rack is the nuts, tricams and hexes though. There has been quite a few used cams available on the yard sale lately.

stuff can be made in china and be of quality if the company requires it and pays for it. But most of the companies don't want to pay, hence the crappiness of many things from china. I believe that BD is requiring and paying for quality. I would choose a set of cams that is very common around where you climb. Chances are you will be combining your rack with your partners so for the sake of familiarity with cams, choose whatever your partner has. Unless it is some strange chek brand. BD and metolious are common.

sounds good. I assume there is a board along the floor that the feet step on? or is the feet on the floor up against the wall?

In addition to the above, have your wife check out your posture. Are your shoulders slumped forward? Modern day life has us reaching forward (computer use, driving ) too much and that can pull the shoulder out of neutral alignment. If you go see a physical therapist, they will usually suggest things that stretch the pec muscles and tighten the upper back muscles like rear delt flyes, band pull aparts, rowes, ect.

nice job Rad and Brandon.

isn't that the kind of tent you wold find in some basecamp in the himalaya or at some well funded expedition?

good job Pat. will listen to the podcast.

If you want a LW jacket with a long cut, try calling them. They seem to be very willing to do custom jobs. They might not even sure if they charge much more.

dean makes it look like a 5.9 route. except for that last part when he cut his feet loose, I almost shat myself.