chelle

THAT'S what I'm talkin' about. Damn Will, you should go pro. If underwear is going to end up sliding into your buttcrack, why not start the day out with one designed to be there?

AlpineK, Cardinal Zin by Bonnie Doon would be a good choice for DH/LA. A fruity chilled Reisling would be a good pairing for your afternoon cragging at Goat Wall.

There is no difference. A group of 5, three groups of 5, or a group of 12 or 14 can each be equally obnoxious. Even a group of 2 can be obnoxious if they want to be. It all comes down to how considerate the people are of others around them. If the people are climbing safely, cleaning up after themselves and not being too loud, does it really matter? On a recent trip to Smith there were 4 of us (two cars) camped out at the grasslands. A car of 3 climbers drove in and asked if they could share our large campspace. We thought, no big deal. Sure it's big enough. Then later in the evening and the next night 4 other cars drove up to "camp out" with them. All total there was maybe 9 of them. That was obnoxious. Most obnoxious was the need for all of them to spray loudly about their recent road trips and climbs. Those same stories get boring to listen to. "Dude...it was so radical hanging out on that cliff. You should've seen it."

Ok then I missed that part... search of the national forest site supports the climbers assertions that their party size did not matter. No permit necessary, few regulations on climbing activities, which was my earlier point anyways.

Are we talking about the Twin Sisters area in Oregon? If so, it is not in the Mt Baker Snoqualmie National Forest as far as I can tell. It's part of its own wilderness area within the Willamette National Forest. Your party size may or may not be a problem, but if you're concerned in the future contact the ranger stations in that area. According to the BLM regulation s on wilderness areas: Sec. 6302.14 What authorization do I need to climb in BLM wilderness? (a) You do not need a permit or other authorization to climb in BLM wilderness. (b) [Reserved] © You must not use power drills for climbing. See Sec. 6302.20(d). [[Page 78374]] It sounds like you followed a leave no trace ethic, so I wouldn't worry about it too much. http://gorp.away.com/gorp/resource/us_wilderness_area/or_three.htm

This is one advantage to Mattp's suggestion above. The double fisherman's back up keeps the knot secure and the square knot in the middle makes it very easy to untie the two ropes.

Good Food has way better burgers and ambiance than the place with the buffalo sign out front in Marblemount. But unless something's changed in the last year, they don't sell

When I worked downtown five years ago I stopped taking the bus because of run-ins with aggressive homeless people who rode the bus route I took. I figured the extra $8 a day to park and no hassles or fear of being confronted just for stepping onto a bus and looking for a seat was worth it.

Too bad MSN requires use of Microsoft IE. But I guess that is to be expected.

Yeah. I have to go through this kind of stuff at home too.

Local Nepali's consider the mountain to be sacred. According to all the books written after the 1996 season it's been done at the south col camp and was pretty controversial because the two people weren't married, the sherpas blamed the "offenders" for the all the trouble that happened that spring.

5mm

Good posts Alpinfox and Rad. Too bad people had to poo all over it. Sometimes it's a combination of a few decisions made about small objective/subjective hazzards that when misjudged add up to a big problem. More experienced climbers have enough context and experience with the individual variables to manage the big and small picture simultaneously. They also have more experience to draw from when shit does happen. Some call that wisdom. People who haven't been climbing that long simply have not put in the time to develop this yet and are too arrogant/defensive about their abilities to admit it. They're too busy competing and trying to prove themselves. Unfortunately, climbers by nature are not humble creatures willing to admit they are not in control of the situation. When ego is on the line it can be harder to back down... Be careful out there this weekend, both newbies and hardcore experienced alpinists.

You can sunburn your mouth from the reflected light off the snow if you breathe with your mouth open. I did that once a few years back on Mt Shasta. The roof of my mouth blistered and peeled a couple times. The inside of my lips were also burned and swelled to 3x their normal size, turned yellow and peeled about 3-4 times. Now I always take banana boat 30SPF lip screen with me. Would have been no big deal except that I had a presentation in London for work two days after the climb. The first thing my boss said was "what the hell did you do to yourself this weekend!?!" Thankfully our client thought the fact I'd climbed a 14k peak was cool.

Are you trying to argue semantics here? If they were too exhausted to go on and sat down, does it matter? They're dead.

The last time I did that climb the most psychologically intimidating part of that pitch for me was the bat nesting under the roof.

Sounds like hell. I've heard of people who had RK surgery having issues with vision at altitude. Seems to me that blindness from altitude (not from corneal abrasions or bad sunburn to the eyes) would be due to swelling in the brain and might indicate a much bigger problem.

Altitude related temporary blindness? Never heard of this. Can you elaborate more?

Oh their egos aren't big enough for you.

Yeah right...And the footage of them climbing routes in Smith shows they have no talent. What do you care about them promoting themselves and making a living off climbing? You jealous?

Good thing I wasn't driving... The city all looked pretty much the same to me from the passenger seat. Probably why I get lost almost everytime I drive through that town.

If that goes through maybe they'll repair the road up to the trailhead. It was closed last summer at the 14km mark due to a several rockslides and a huge washout at the (I think) 17km mark.

You can get great sushi at Tojo's near Kitsalano. It'll run you about $75 per person though. Some of the best sushi I've ever had.

Not dissing the place, just stating the facts it's a zoo on Friday and Saturday nights.