genepires

take bets on whether it gets to min 120mph with gusts to 170mph?

I doubt that "Wall St" has anything to do with that fake petzl gear. The companies traded an wall st are far to large to be bothered with making a few thousand fake reproductions of obscure rope ascending devices. They would rather steal a copy of viagra or hybrid auto design and make serious money. You need to point the finger at the real culprit. "China's bottom-line tactics aren't in our interest."

Interesting that the market for ascenders and pulleys is large enough to attract the fake reproductions industry. I can see faking a NF jacket for the ease of making it, ease of getting away with it and the huge market to sell to. I imagine that the day we outsourced our production of climbing gear to china is the day that the fake reproductions started being made too.

nice! could you give us a clue about "undisclosed location"? fun game?

all routes are four star routes. Nice.

BTW, was type of tool is it? My CM/Petzl and grivel tool never rusts.

use it and the rust will be gone. or clean up good, oil it and then never use it. the rust should not be a problem. For the time it takes the rust may be a problem, you should have replaced the pick long before due to the pick being filed down too far. (no metalurgist here) But I would imagine it would take 10 years or so for the rust to develop into something to worry about. If the rust is just something that you don't like to see on the tools (understandable) then maybe just clean it off (steel wool) and oil it down. This will wear off when you swing it into ice so you will have to redo. There is a liquid (on a cloth) to apply to metal to prevent rust and you can find it somewhere that sells gun cleaning supplies. It won't get rid of rust but will form a waterproof layer over metal. Obviously this won't survive a climbing day either.

not dead yet. Winter returns this weekend with forecast below freezing for the next 7 days!

wadda think? try to enjoy the sun while we got it?

Weird how you can hear the clipping of biners (in the rostrum video) but not the mumblings of "I am gonna die....I am gonna die....I am gonna die". Maybe they are just 10000% better than I am. She can layback for a long time! the nose video is rad too.

Not entirely accurate. you can't self belay 100% of time. The times I needed to self arrest, I wasn't on ground that needed self belay or walking downhill where self belay is awkward and less secure. Plus does anyone self belay while traveling on normal glacier terrain? Don't forgo self arrest practice because of a belief that self belay will save your hide.

that is really cool but what is are the poles for? wet boots too.

and I really did mean at least a couple hundred times. If and when you fall on snow, there is no trying remember what it was you were supposed to do. If you have to think, it is to late.

all self arrest really comes down to footwork. The picks purpose is really to get the feet downhill and add a little more purchase towards stopping. Slight changes in pick design within the classic mountaineering curve style will not affect the self arrest. Since you have asked this question, it is obvious that you really need to head up to the ski area, find a same place to slide down and practice that till you are really proficient, very wet and tired of hiking up the hill for the hundreth time. Learn all 4 of the standard downhill position and try a few non standard ones. Reading in a book means nothing. Doing is the only way to learn. Not learning this and being on snow means that eventually you will be a victim.

we need nomex long johns, tuk and socks.

worse yet is synthetic underwear. In the navy, we were required to wear cotton only undies. Not that they checked. But imagine the synthetic goop on the junk! That photo of the hand is sick. what is the story?

sounds like the plastics are a better option mainly because there is not too much difference in weight and walking as you say. (especially if you are going to pack the boots to snowline)

as well as every Gadd, Raphael, Haley and Sol has a blog these days. oh yeah, these are examples of good blogs. my bad.

what are your plans? where are you going? please do tell

50 lb 138,000 calorie superbowl burger. Quit the hatin cause it is real dawg!

before alpine ascents got to be a major player on rainier, their trips would sell out within an hour of them allowing signups. It is not hard to believe that they are sold out by february. I thought that the AMGA certified guides had a few slots for rainier. Might want to give them a call to see what the deal is. Call the rainier ranger station to see what other guide services have permits. Call alpine ascents and american alpine institute. Guiding without a permit is illegal and can (and has) get the guide in serious trouble. A certified guide is not going to risk guiding it illegally. If the guide does it for free, it is fine. Work something out. Maybe have a "story" of why the guide is doing it for free in case he/she gets busted. I did a trip up rainier as a wedding gift to some friends. (the truth, honestly!) I was up front with the rangers about it and they were fine with it. Here is a radical idea. How about you guys just hire a guide to teach you how to climb safely? Maybe on baker. Then come back next year and do it yourselves without a guide. Or hire a guide this year for a 3 day skills and do rainier right after? break the cycle of needing a guide.

I usually try to be positive on things but really, you picked "Zion" as the name for the shoe? That has got to be the most lamest choice. Maybe if your shoe was orange. Of the awesome names given on this thread, you picked that dumb ass name. That is a bigger travesty than the product copying of the shoes.

cool video and cool looking climb. some guy was swinging straight shaft prophets? (3 min mark)

if they only knew what every old dufus was thinking. Fred beckey is the king of old dufus and we all know what he is thinking about. I want to hang with you guys and score a sloppy seconds hug or two.

If I am understanding it right, when you have a pull cord, the function of the cord is to pull the rappel rope down and one does not place both the thick rope and the pull cord in the rappel device. So why is there such concern over strength of the pull cord? (other than the obvious strength needs for pulling but that would be like 200-400 pounds) Why wouldn't a cord rated to 600 pounds work? maybe you guys are talking about a actual thin rap rope?