terrible_ted

Let us never speak of him again.

My vision is roughly 20/100. At my last eye exam, the doc. commented that this was fairly average myopia. I wouldn't consider Mountaineering without corrective lens. I carry spare glasses and contacts, and most of the myopics I know do the same. Roughly 80% of your environmental stimulation comes visually. Visual acuity decreases with light levels. A pair of clip on lenses and some duct tape could be had for less than the cost of a Mountain Hut meal. For people that need corrective lens, and not "reading glasses", leaving them behind so that can "semi-blindly" wander up a glacier, trying to make out at 160 feet (how convenient - a rope length) what their partners can make out at 40 feet, is patently absurd. Here's a sign you might want to be able to read: Cornice Overhead here's another: "Subtly rippled snow - Crevasse You seem earnest, otherwise I'd have just assumed this was a troll... -t

Yeah, I'd be thrilled to let you lead out onto the glacier... I'm going to nominate this for all-time worst advice. Sorry, but going up Rainier, even the trade routes, half-blind is asinine. Kind of like bringing your own whiteout with you. I suppose it would offer some justification for the handicapped toilets... -t

link

Fly-fishing is the shit, but it's rarely the most reliable way to catch fish, especially on a lake. I grew up in Astoria, and my old man went to school with Dave Hughes. My old man is a gear-only guy, and Dave is one of those FF "dudes". Dave will readily tell you that my old man will always catch more fish than him. Always. Now admittedly, this is more a deal with coastal salmon fishing, but the example is pretty broadly valid. If you hit a lake right, and uneducated trout are feeding near the surface, then all you need is a little colored piece of string on a hook to get a bite. If it's too bright, if the fish have been educated or there's too much to eat down low, then you have the classic FF dilemnia on your hands. How to get down deep? There are whole books on this. A tiny spinning rod, a few lures and (ugh) a couple of worms are a far more likely path to pan-fried trout. My hand-built, 5-piece 4wt Scott pack rod and a dozen flies is a far more likely path to nirvana. As for getting fish off the hook: Take a paper clip and straighten it out. Jam one end into a cork. Twist a small 1/2" diameter loop into the other end. Pull the fish in close, get your hand wet, and grab him around the back, keeping your fingers out of the gill. If you flip him upside down for a second, they usually go limp. (You can use a net and skip the handling.) Slip the metal loop over the fly line and slide it all the way down to the fishes lip. Unless he's hooked deep in the throat, you should be able to just slip him right off the end of the line. When you get the hang of it, you don't even need to touch the fish, you just pull him in close, slip the loop on the line and pop the guy right off. Milt Fisher (RIP) showed me this quite a few years ago, and now I think someone sells the little doo-hickeys. If he's hooked deep, you're better off just cutting the line off as deep as you can easily get. The hook will rust out and free him to eat in about a week. If he's bleeding (even slightly) from the nose he's going to die. -t

That sounds harsh, but I'd prefer a dislocated shoulder to a "failure to self-arrest." -t

I wear glasses. I have two pairs of polarized prescript. sunglasses that I consider multi-use. The lighter pair is my driving/snowfield glasses, and the darker pair is my "sitting in bright sunlight"/"glacier" glasses. Even though the UV knockdown is nowhere near the recommended %ages for glacier glasses, I haven't had a problem. The polarization is the key. You can get these bendable plastic side shields at most most reputable climb shops, and even REI, for a few bucks. I think Lenscrafters hit me for a about c-note for each pair - RayBans for what it's worth. -t

When we went up in June the backhoe crew clearing the main debris field "smoothed" some of the boulders around and then stopped work to let us push our bikes through. They let us know about the smaller debris field further up the road and were generally pretty nice. The next evening, both sections were smooth enough to bike over - slowly, in the dark... Thanks guys! -t

After all that I was more than willing to sign my name in blood. I actually had a pencil, as I usually take a lot of notes while climbing. What's funny is my entry for that day was: "6am, left camp. 9pm bivy at col" I took a little solace in the number of entries in the summit register that referred to the 'beautiful sunrise' That's one climb I'll never forget. -t

Hey all: In the interest of future beta seekers, I'm going to add a few notes about our climb of Fury on 7/17-18. If this bugs you, Iain, let me know and I'll repost as a new thread. I just think your post captures the beta for this route nicely. We found that the descent from Luna Col to the lake (where we camped) is easier if you traverse wide to the left (south) at ~5900'. Eventually you'll hit snowfields and some easier talus slopes that lead down to the lake, avoiding the cliffs and the nasty-ass dirt gully that Iain and co. took. We approached the snow finger that Iain climbed from our Luna Lake camp. It took less than an hour to get there. Unfortunately, it had melted out radically. The gap between the upper and lower snow finger was ~15 feet. Water was flowing at thousands of gpm all across the exposed section. The nearest step from the snow to the rock was about 3', but it was wet, downsloping and completely committing. Handholds looked suspicious. Slip and you drown under the snow field. F#ck! We pushed to the next lower approach gully, and for whatever reason walked right on up the rock strewn snowfield and up to the slab walls. I traversed out on the rock, looking for an obvious line to move up, when I heard a deafening crack. I caught the big boulder out of the corner of my eye as it ricocheted off the ground next to me, but I didn't even see the little rock that hit above my knee. I sucked up to the rock tighter than shit on a pig - I vaguely heard my partner yelling rock, but I was off in 'dreamtime.' I could hear the rocks whizzling by and caroming off the wall around me for what seemed like minutes, although it was probably over in less than 30 seconds. We scurried back down the slope and evaluated. The rock that hit me only left a small puncture that closed up pretty quick. I seemed pretty ambulatory, so we decided we'd take the time and scope the final, lowest snow gully, and maybe put off the ascent until the next day. The lowest gully is about 800' below Luna Lake. We found it relatively easy going back up to ~ 4800' where the couloir started to narrow out. Even though we were now running almost two hours behind our initial plan, we figured we could still pull it off... There were three small couloirs leading eastward towards the North buttress, and we chose the middle one. It started out as a chossy gully, leading up to a high chockstone. I was able to fit pro under the chockstone, but couldn't avoid kicking rocks on my partner doing so. Rich weathered it okay, and I contemplated the move. I didn't bring rock shoes (only 5.6 - 5.7, right...), and I found the move to get over the chockstone as ball-busting as anything I've ever done, shoes or not. We eventually gained the ridge, but had a tough day from that point, losing a little more time at multiple points. I'll cut it short: we had to bivy above the snow arete (just below the summit) and had a long day back out. We were lucky, the weather was stable for the entire climb. -t

That's a great idea. Can I assume it was a 50M? My 8.6X50 comes in at 4#, which would beat the hell out of the other options I was considering... -t

Nice job! I'm planning a trip up there next week, actually, and I was curious about your choice of ropes. What did you guys bring, and what do you wish you'd brought? We'll be going up as a pair as well, so I'd like to get by with as little as possible, obviously... -t

Those tracks across the avy chute were ours - we left them on Saturday. The avy triggered around 5:45am Saturday morning and left us a little unnerved from our mid-Boston Glacier high camp. It went continuously for about 45 seconds. We traversed the Boston pretty high on the ridge, which allowed us to avoid losing much elevation. Nice climb!

I sprained my ankle last July. The ligament didn't rupture, although the doc claimed it ripped a little bit and pulled some bone off. 2 weeks on crutches, another week with the ankle brace. I was gimpy for the next month. It was very readily re-injured (i.e. easy to accidentally "re-roll it) for the next 4 months. Watch out for this! I starting using an ankle brace for my home improvement (hauling stones, cutting firewood, etc..) tasks. Even with regular stretching/range of motion/balance activities, I have a mass of probable scar tissue just below the ankle. My masseuse commented that deep tissue (well, as deep as you can get - it's only an ankle...) massage of this area the first few weeks after the injury might have helped prevent this. You might want to fold this into your rehab. bag 'o tricks. When I hike for extended periods of time or with a heavy pack, it hurts. Not enough to leave me crying in the fetal position, but enough to know that it's there. Traversing is the worst. There may be bone chips/spurs etc. left in there, but I'm not going to pursue anything until after the summer climbing season. When folks say it can take a few years to get over severe sprains, they probably aren't bullshitting. I used to do all of my long approaches in Tevas, even with 50+ pound packs. It was more comfortable for my toes, and I had strong ankles. Now I don't. Best of luck, -t

from my school days: Don't look into the x-ray with your remaining eye! from the computing lab: Jesus saves every 5 minutes! CBS will appreciate: The safety-conscious chemist always washes his hands before he pees! -t

Nope.

I was leading a group of 4 with the Mountaineers. I'll post a TR over there at some point. I'll warn you that the travel times were unnaturally slow... Buckner is in perfect shape and makes for an easy snow climb right now. Except for a short (20M) very soft section near the top, where I engineered a stupid route choice, the snow was perfect for step-kicking. Vertically placed pickets felt very secure, and we used running belays throughout. The Boston Glacier is readily traversed close to the ridge, so you can avoid giving up a lot of elevation getting to the base of the climb. We saw a massive avalanche release just to the west of the climbing route around 5:45am. Not much to do but look at it, gulp, and say "glad we weren't there, then." -t

As long as you're pushing rocks uphill, why don't you start working on getting folks to pronounce "Goode" correctly as well?

The cam's still there, I didn't work on it too long, but it seemed pretty well stuck. I've never come across as much involuntarily fixed gear on a route before. I lost a small tri-cam to it as well.

I told you to go to the left! -t

We did this route last week. I was pleasantly surprised to find the rock quality of the West ridge VERY nice. The east ridge descent (4th class) was loose, but nothing unusual. There is no snow on the climbing portion of the route. Mt Thompson TR I've got to think that jonthomp is thinking about a different peak? Maybe Black? Boston? -t

No. Check your tape. How did you find oversized lumber? I'd have kept it... -t

"Alright, as long as I can get back before _________ !" ("my hot date" is the absolute worst...) -t

mass tissue replication? sounds like cancer. So does pregnancy, if you stop and think about it.

A Zed and Two Naughts