Ibex

quote: Originally posted by Ned Flanders: Hey, I want to get rid of my telemark gear and get some randonnee. Does anybody have any opinions about bindings: fritschi diamir, dynafit, silveretta also on boots: scarpa lazer or others? thanks Josh Flanders, Do some searching, this topic has been debated quite a bit on this board. Basically, you need to decide if you are more of a skiier (1) or mtneer (2) 1) get a pair of Scarpa Lasers, and Fritchi's 2) Use plastic mtneering boots with Silveretta's You can guess which one skis better and which one hikes/climbs better. An alternative solution is to move to FL where you won't have to ponder such issues. Cheers Shawn

A friend of mine climbed it a few years back. From what I understand R.W. is right. I is just a ** L O N G ** slog. Something on the order of a 20mi walk just to get to the route. Nothing more than your avg ice axe and crampons route after that (if you go the yak route). It looks pretty cool from the photos I have seen. Cheers Shawn

quote: Originally posted by Cpt.Caveman: I have been to Florida many times. What a great state. Bikini clad women and surfin. Climbing aint everything. PLus they know how to party. Not like a bunch of boring people I have seen around here. Cavey, I'll grant you there is some slight advantage to the prevelance of vanity in southern women, but you are overlooking some very important points, namely: **No good beer whew... I need another one of those **No good coffee. In a town with a couple hundred thousand people, you cant even get a crappy starbucks... **An abismal (sp?) lack of outdoor education/etiquette. This concept of leave no trace is so far removed from so many of these people it is incredible **As far as "knowing how to party"... ummm, you might be taken aback at the amazing number of beachfront hotels/developments. This may not sound like much, but what 30yrs ago was nearly "untrammeled by man" is now concrete jungle, spring break hell. The traffic on the beach moves at the same pace as I-5 during rush hour. Dont get me wrong, I have met some really great people down here. To be fair I have to say that on average southerners are much friendlier than most folks, and many will stop to help you if you break down on the highway. The ocean temp here is a balmy 85 degrees (can you say SCUBA?) and the sand on the beaches is so white it looks like someone poured big bags of sugar everywhere. It is not the 4th circle of hell, but for a climber, it is not the place to be. Shawn [ 08-27-2002, 03:18 PM: Message edited by: Ibex ]

This state seems to have a self-limiting philosophy about vertical sports.... I think it is simply the idea that to be "cool" what a person does is go buy something expensive (ie. car), shows it off and then society embraces them. The notion that a person can develop tangible skill through perseverence, self-discipline and practise; the reward for which is only one's own gratification, not applause or fame... seems to be a novelty at best in these parts. Of course, maybe I am just a little bitter about having to move here. Happy Tuesday all you lucky folks in the PNW Shawn [ 08-27-2002, 11:00 AM: Message edited by: Ibex ]

As for static ropes the best two I have found (from my brief career as a ropes course instructor) are: New England KMIII - Saft enough to stiff be knotable PMI both Maxi-wear and EZ Bend- The Maxi wear is as stiff as cable, durable as hell but unruly for anything other than "sport rappelling". EZ Bend is nearly as durable with similar handling to the new england (and I think it is cheaper too). I would stay away from Blue Water static line. It is supposedly "semi-dynamic" (ie. if you accidentally took a fall on it, it might not snap your spine and blow your anchors) which could be an important safety advantage if you intend to TR with it. THe downside is that by static rope standards it is not very durable. Thank you for one more chance to live vicariously through the internet... Cheers!

quote: Originally posted by Rodchester: I use ski gogles in very cold and windy weather, usually winter. I have never had problems with the eyes. My brilliant (and shortlived) idea of wearing ski googles ice climbing ended after 10 minutes of **seriously** fogged lenses forced me to stop. On alpine/windier stuff they might have good enough ventilation to work. quote: It is my understanding that the darkness of the lenses and the filtering of UV A B & C rays are not always related. (Maybe some eye guys out there say diffent?) That is correct. The UV coatings are separate and unrelated (for the most part) from the darkness of the lense. Anybody else out there have a UV filter protecting the lense on their 35mm SLR...? quote: I now use a pair of similar style CEBEs that are a little smaller and more comfortable. I love them. Cost me about $50.00 to have the lenses put in (I know the guy). I have seen some guys that charge a small fortune, skip them and go to a regular eye guy....doing the lenses is not rocket science. This is something I wish I had done, I paid $300ish bucks for custom made glacier glasses. There are certainly cheaper ways of doing it, but I must say, I am **VERY** happy with the quality of the optics. For those interested souls, check out www.opticus.com out of boulder, co. quote: You want to use plastic lenses, because glass can shatter and weighs too much. You want to have them put a scratch resistant coating on the lenses...becuase plastic does tend to scratch (main problem with plastic). The main reason for getting glass (which is what i ended up getting) is the better optics, and the durability of the coatings. As long as you dont break them (they really are pretty tough) they will have a longer life than the plastic lenses. As far as the weight goes, as long as your prescription is under 2.5 diopters, the weight isnt really a problem. If you wear "coke bottles" get plastic. Another thing I have to say on behalf of opticus, is that they have a **LOT** more experience with high-altitude eyewear than your local optometrist, and excellent customer service. They can tune the lense material, frame, coatings, and tint to get exactly the product you want, and will even send you samples of the lenses to look at before you buy. With just a phone call with them, and you will be much further ahead of the game. FYI, i got the Julbo Atlas with "Froggy the Gremlin" lenses (red mirrored front) that makes the world look green when you look through it. They look a little wild, but they work like a champ. http://opticus.com/naked.jpg http://opticus.com/froglens.jpg Good luck! Shawn

offwidth, Here is a low-cost suggestion. DON'T WASTE YOUR TIME BY GOING TO RANIER!!! If you are looking for an alpine experience, there are so many better, less crowded, cheaper, and non-guided places to go. Maybe I am just a cynic, but I feel like there are so many good climbs in the cascades, that there is no really good reason to do Ranier other than being able to say "i climbed ranier". It's not a bad mountain, but it has a lot going against it in my book. Especially if you are doing one of the yak routes. Shawn Here's to the flatlands....

quote: Originally posted by freeclimb9: A double loop of Bluewater Titan 5.5mm cord tied with a triple fisherman's knot will extend the life of your Friends without much damage to your wallet. It will also be totally bomber. Putting the knots either side of the stem hole would be bulky. A single loop of the cord tied with a double fisherman would also work great. Keep the tails kinda long (around 3 inches). To piggyback on my buddy FC9's post, one thing I have done with some metolious cams is this: Get about 4' of your favorite techy cord, 6" of 1" tubular webbing, some dental floss and a stout needle. Fold the tubular around the center of the cord, and hand stitch the EDGES of the tubular around the cord, being very careful not to catch the 5.5mm in the process. So you have a doubled layer of "padding" around a 6" section of cord. Loop this through your favorite camming device, tie the ends with a triple fishermans. Now you have a loop, with a section of padding, tied through your cam. Slide the knot of the cord through the "tubular sheath" to position it about 3" from the cam stem. Now stitch the openings on either end of the tubular together to make a 3" (doubled) 'captive' loop for your cam. The nifty thing with this setup is that you can clip it short for racking with one biner, then when you go to use it, you dont need a draw, just one biner. Save weight, simplicity, etc. The cord is well padded by the tubular, and you can even use this for wire looped cams like Metolious and Wired Bliss. This (IMHO) is better than just slipping the cord through 9/16 webbing, b/c this way you get 2 layrs of padding, and it is much more tightly held on cord. If you are deathly interested, I can send you some pics of cams that I have done this too. If you die, it is your own damn fault.... Cheers Shawn

quote: Originally posted by willstrickland: I figure I won't be skiing lift-served, but just skinning and the downhill back to trailheads. I need something I can find CHEAP/USED, and something that's a little forgiving for a chump non-skier like me. I don't know AT from Randonee from Slurpee... Will, I am going to make the assumption that you are looking at this mainly from a transportation standpoint, and not form a skier-performance-type standpoint. I think it depends completely on the type of boots you want to use. 1) Plastic/leather mtneering boots: You can use silveretta's with these (or damn near any welted boot). This lets you do the standard "downhill style" of turns. Beware though, you are giving up a lot in terms of control. I would buy some stubby 140-ish ski's from goodwill and you will only have to pay for the bindings. If you go this route do NOT buy their "easy go" bindings, they only work with (3) below, not mtneering boots. Note these are "releaseable", and silveretta's are the only major brand that will fit this genre of boots. 2) Telemark boots: look like downhill ski boots (for the most part) except for a big "wrinkle" in the plastic over the ball of your foot. tele boots need tele bindings, and you can use most any ski. The downside here is that tele turns are a completely different skill set than DH. If you find the stuff on sale/used it might be worth it to buy, but as just a means of transportation to a climb, I think this set up is at a small disadvantage b/c you are still wearing your ski boots when you want to climb, plus you have to learn to tele. Also note, the vast majority of tele bindings are NOT releasable. 3) AT/Randonee boots: Look almost identical to plain ole DH stuff. Expensive, ski's well, walk's ok. Uses the same bindings as number 1, but ski's a LOT better. Here the problem of having ski boots on your feet when you want to climb is even worse. Also by this time you have paid for the expensive boots AND bindings. One other curiosity is a "tele-conversion" somebody on this site did to make their mtneering boots work with tele bindings. Search around and you will find it. The cool thing there is the "handyman factor", low cost and you still only need mtneering boots. the downside is that you still have to learn to tele in order to use the things. If I were you (and I was in your shoes a year ago) i would go route (1). Then advantage there is that you can get your skis/bindings set up and then use your mtneering boots for climbs, and if you want, buy a crappy pair of used DH boots to play on liftserve with your buds. All for the low, low price of $200-ish. If you want ski's for the sake of backcountry skiing, I would honestly recommend a full tele setup. It is an EXTREMELY versatile system, with the ability to ski equally well uphill and down. As you said before, you are more into snowboarding, so you probably would not be happy with this route. Cheers! Shawn

quote: Originally posted by Zenolith: yes, erik, this has been discussed before, but i forgot and those searches are irritating. i would like to know if there is a 1/2 rope which offers enough stretch to be safely clipped to one peice as is usually done on ice climbs. Zeno, quityerbellyachin and do a search. the tech-heads on here debate this about once a month. In answer to your question, I beleive PMI makes a rope that can be used as EITHER a half or twin. check out www.pmirope.com and read up on it. Cheers Shawn

quote: Originally posted by wdietsch: bringing this back up to the top hoping to perhaps get a little more feedback. In particular I am interested in the "Ice Axe Handcuffs" as Yates calls them, the Alpine units Ibex refers to.Ibex.. is the plastic buckle that you refer to on the wrist strap? W.D. If i correctly understood your question, yes. It is the ladderlock buckle that "locks" your wrist to the leash. The tail of strap that goes through the buckle is secured with velcro. The other buckle on the leash is a beefy aluminum one that secures the leash to the tool. Cheers! [ 03-27-2002: Message edited by: Ibex ]

The only beef I have with Schoeller is the DWR. It needs significant/frequent "boosts" with Tectron or the like. I shouldnt say my only beef, try walking through a thorn-patch with your schoeller pants on, and you will get a bunch of threads pulled out of it. You might want to try Patagonis's softshell stuff made with "Tactel Inspira". It is not quite as soft, or stretchy, but it is MUCH more waterresistant and more durable too. I have been using the Patagonia Dimension Jacket this year, and it has worked really well for me. Cheers Shawn

Neri, Your problem is that whole petzl/charlet issue. Just buy BD stuff, or if you must go euro, buy grivel. Is there any ice left up in the dak's? I am heading up there in 2.5 weeks. Shawn "friends dont let friends climb on CM"

My soon to be wife and I are going to S.A. for our honeymoon in May. We are probably heading to Ecuador though. Still up in the air. Can you be more specific on what you looking to do? Shawn sdhigbee@iastate.edu

Lambone, The way to do this quickly, easily and painlessly is to create a generic webiste with A,B,C,etc buttons for each of the questions Start a new thread about it and get people to go take the survey on line. You can even log their IP address to prevent multiple responses from the same computer. If you arent the strong in the html department, you can easily pay one of your fellow students $10/hr and (assuming you have the questions prepared) in two hours they will have it done for you. It just *might* be a little more efficient than "hey what do you guys think of my questions"... Just a thought.

I toyed around with the idea of making a couple of these this last summer, and here is what I found. Pretty much every commercially produced one has a top layer of closed cell foam about 3/4-1 inch thick, over a 2-2.5 inches of open cell foam. The closed cell is easy to come by in 3/8 to 1/2 thicknesses (just double it), and the open cell can be bought in a fabric/craft store. Beware though b/c they have EXTREMELY high markup's on this stuff, and you need to buy it on sale (which is practically every other week). Anyway, you want the light green "high-density" open cell foam. After you get your pile of materials, stack up the foam and jump on it some to see if it is firm enough. If not, just add another layer of closed cell. For the fabric cover, just about anything will work. Popular choices are cordura, packcloth, industrial carpet (for the top), etc. A little bit of webbing for the handle/straps and you are in business. Good sources for fabric include www.seattlefabrics.com and even your run of the mill local fabric store will probably have a version of pack cloth. When I priced it this summer I figured it would cost about: closed cell: $12-15 depending on brand and where you buy it Open cell: $30-$60 did i mention sales...? Fabric: $15-20 need about 2.5 yards of 60" Webbing/buckles/thread: $5 So you can save some money over the store bought ones, but you cant count your labor into it. As far as the construction details, just spend an hour or so looking at some commercially made ones and you'll figure it out. Send me an email if you have any more questions. cheers! Shawn sdhigbee@iastate.edu

Lambone, quote: Originally posted by Lambone: Ummm....how the fuck do you break in plastic boots???? If you know please fill me in, thanks. The liners will break in considerably, this is why you want to size the shells without the liner on. Pretty much all you have to do is wear them around. As far as the shell goes, there usually isnt too much breaking in that can be done really. You can remedy some fit problems by manipulating the shells, but in the end, most plastics are just plain stiff. My $.53 Shawn

quote: Originally posted by Zenolith: "Be sure to clip them independently." Why is that? B/c they have diff stretch? Sort of.... It gets back to the whole double ropes vs. twin ropes concept. Double ropes= ropes that are tested one strand at a time by UIAA and are intended to be clipped independently to pro Twin ropes= usually thinner, stretchier ropes that are tested in pairs, and are meant for two strands to be simulaneously loaded in a fall (ie. clip both ropes into every piece of pro). Note also this assumes that both ropes are identical, and will respond the same to loading. There is much debate, but little hard data, published concluding that if you clip 2 DOUBLE ropes to the same piece of pro that because they are slightly thicker and less stretchy/dynamic that it will increase the force on a piece of pro. With the obvious concern to marginal pro, ice screws, etc... Then you have the mitigating factors of dynamic belays, screamers, low impact force ropes, etc.... So some will argue to the end that if you clip 2 DOUBLE ropes into a single piece of pro, you are in for a hard catch, and possibly pulling out your pro. Others will argue that the difference between double and twin ropes, when clipped through the same piece (use two separate biners when possible to avoid rubbing b/w them) is pretty academic. This latter case is similar (but slightly more extreme) to what was cautioned against above, using non-twin ropes hooked into one piece of gear. The concern is that the impact forces are too high because the ropes are engineered to have a certain amount of stretch (and shock absorbtion) by themselves, not in pairs. Do some reading and decide for yourself what you are comfortable with. Regardless of what side of the double vs. twin arguement you fall on, you should be safe using a half rope (one designed for double rope technique) and a full single rope, as long as you clip them to separate pieces of gear. Cheers Shawn

Carolyn, I recently went from dual points (on BD switchblades) to trident points. They are basically a mono, but with 2 short, closely spaced stabilizer points on either side. The idea is that you get the penetration, etc of mono's but also the lateral stability of duals. Note, this is the same end result as the BD Mako. Some folks are prejudice against them, and there certainly are a lot of die-hard Grivel fans out there, but I would have to recommend the Mako/trident point setup. It feels very precise and sensitive, but at the same time very stable. You can also get them pretty inexpensively online/used/ebay, BD may even still be clearing these out. Shawn

quote: Originally posted by carolyn: Guess the midwest isnt all that bad! Well, the midwest certainly has its ups and downs. Last weekend my friend Ryan and I went to Sandstone MN and Duluth MN to do some ice. Sandstone was drippy, but certainly thick enough for climbing at the most prevalent spot back in the corner. Duluth was really melted out, and we got a TR set up above the longest remaining route, but my friend pulled off a HUGE chunk of ice (the last 10 feet of the climb). We should have known better, the surface of the ice was very mush "sno-coned" and really hollow sounding. So, my apologies to the city of Duluth, who's ice climb we tore down.... This weekend, three of us are heading up to Thunder Bay and Orient Bay to do a little ice. It is the first time any of us have climbed with Canucks, so it should be interesting. take care Shawn

I am not sure which model of watch I have, but it is a Casio, about 2-3 yrs old with altimeter/barometer. I think it is the pathfinder, but i am not sure. Anyway, I am pretty happy with mine. I got it for REALLY cheap (under $30) and have used it for a couple of years. My only gripe with it is that the altimeter only goes up to 13,200 ft. It is pretty solid, but admittedly unspectacular in comparison to some of the new watches theses days, esp. the Suunto's. my 32 cents Shawn

Will, You should really check out Stoneworks www.belay.com if i remember right. They are not as big as the other places, but the owner is very friendly (done lots of trad/mtneering) and the route setters are really fantastic. They really do a great job of changing the routes and keeping it from becoming boring. I think it was only $40/mo too. The only downside of it is that they have a junior climbing team (that is disgustingly good), so there tends to be a presence of 15 yr olds there. I never found it to be a problem, but some people did. When I left PDX they were expanding and putting up more (and taller) routes, I used the place mainly for their excellent bouldering. Either way it is way cheaper, and a nicer environment. I went to PRG and was not really impressed, especially after I paid something rediculous like $13 for a couple hours of climbing. Cheers Shawn

[ 12-28-2001: Message edited by: Ibex ]

I have used the handcuffs. They are very plush. Not exactly what Twight would recommend... The best thing about them is their absolute comfort and security. They have a rock solid grip on your wrist, that is quite comfy. The downside is weight, plastic buckles, and a strip of velcro (heavy, durability, and ices up, respectively) that is used to secure the tails. I would recommend them if you are big into comfort/security, but there are certainly tradeoffs. I am very curious to try the Ice cuff (alpine stripped down version). They look a lot like the trango leashes on the Captian Hook tools, or the BD Robo's. They also compete well with price of other basic leashes. Anothe bummer is that they are usually sold in pairs, so you might not be able to find just one if you want to. Cheers Shawn

Bronco, Even in light of all the techy windproof fleeces, if I am using synthetic gloves, just a plain pair of P200 weight gloves has worked fine for me. I have a friend who bought those mitten/fingerless gloves (palm folds off) made of whidproof fabric, still waiting to hear feedback on the experiment. I have used cheap military surplus wool gloves for a number of years now as lightweight liner/late season ice/cold rock climbing gloves. They are not exceptional at any one thing, but they are pretty cheap, and have worked well for me. At $3/pair I can go through them without too much worry.