chelle

Use hand sanitizer gel to clean your hands. Far more effective than hand washing with soap and water and infinately more effective than rinsing your hands in a stream. Rob- you may have gotten infected with something in Peru and the incubation period covered you until you got home. Happened to me when I went to Nepal when I got some kind of parasite. I got really sick within 24 hours of getting home to the states.

I've purchased it for climbs in S. America. My view is that I only needed to pay for the days I was climbing and the fee was small in comparision to the overall cost of the trip and of any rescue/recovery costs if things went badly. Another thing I did prior to my trips was to write a letter to my family stating how my assets should be distributed if I didn't come back. I had it notarized, but it was an informal thing not drawn up by an attorney. I don't know if it would have held up if challenged in court, but I figured it was better to give some direction, than leave them wondering. Just a thought.

Best post I've read in awhile.

akf - you traveling alone or in a group? If you're a male dirtbag type traveling alone in a dirtbag car, you'll probably get harassed. I've got a couple guy friends who've had some trouble trying to cross by themselves. They both got detained, searched and questioned for a few hours. One was threatened with having his truck torn apart if he didn't let them know where the "goods" were hidden. A few years ago when I would head up to Squamish solo, I had no trouble getting in. I got hassled coming home a couple times, once solo and once with a climbing partner (one of the guys who got detained previously). But I haven't been searched or detained. They just peered into my truck bed and saw all the camping gear and stuff and waived me through. The other time we got the friendly wave through when we told the guy we knew eachother from nursing school...which was the truth. Weird how the border agent's total demeanor changed at that point.

Glad to hear you are on the mend Kurt.

Congrats, Luke! Back home from the hospital or back home to the U.S.?

I don't like angry, mean people.

You should be able to donate to the account from any branch in the country. Just let the teller know that it is a WA account and s/he can make sure it gets deposited correctly.

Go ahead and be a dick. It might produce a good discussion. I am opposed to fee camping at the site, unless the alternative is to close it completely. It's a primitive campground, the past two times I've gone there it was BYOTP. There is no water, the sites are undeveloped. A minimal fee, if needed to maintain what is there and supply TP to the two pit toilets is all that is being proposed it might be reasonable if it keeps the area open. Hell, put in a envelope collection system and ask for donations to help maintain it. I'd put in a few bucks every time I stay there. If there is a proposal for more development of the area, bone fide safe fire pits, tables at the majority of the sites, clean drinking water, etc. I think it would make sense to see a cost benefit of leaving it the way it is and spending money developing it and subsequently managing it. I would hate to see it turn into an 8-mile campground experience leased out to 1000-trails, where some retired couple camping out in their generator supplied RV serve as "managers" who appear to truly enjoy harrassing everyone at 6:30 a.m. about whether they have paid the fee or have parked outside the allotted parking space.

Something on the Lighter Side for all you serious international news fans. Take a break from the conflict and hang out for the last segment. It might just have you signing up for Lithuanian News Service on a sattelite service. I'm sure all you hard men will love it.

Thank you for the link Alpinfox. Comments sent.

I personally don't like any guns.

WTF! That's a pretty stupid comment, Gary. You need to review some pretty basic infection control info, or are you just a complete idiot.

Six years ago my climbing group ran into a solo day hiker on the PCT section of the approach to Glacier Peak. Guy was in his late 50's or early 60's and had a shiny silver gun prominently displayed in his shoulder hoslter. He was not a ranger. Kind of freaked me out to see a gun out on the trail.

"The Ditch" has been in use for quite some time...

One way to think about psychogenic vs the other types of shock is that it is the same physical response due to a psychological event rather than a physical insult to the person (infection = septic; neuro- & hypovolemic = physical injury). They body doesn't necessarily differentiate between them once the physical process gets going. In psychogenic shock the body's stress response overwhelms the person and their BP drops and they pass out due to lack of blood to the brain. My understanding is that in most healthy people the body realizes it overreacted and the readjusts to normal blood pressure and the person is pretty much fine. If they are frail physically/medically before the event, the body may not re-equilibrate so easily and return to a "normal" state.

If they are going to start charging I hope they actually start maintaining the facility...

How high did you drop it from? I've heard that some Yos dirtbags sent some biners they found at the base of ElCap to BD for stress tesing and they performed as well as new caribiners. Presumably these were dropped from above, not just left on the ground for someone to find.

So what's the trade off between potential epic due to wind jamming knot into a crack and said knot saving a life if one has overestimated the length of the rappel or the location of the center of the rope? Also it is a good idea to use a prussik back up when rappeling. Takes a couple extra minutes but can also save a life. Seems like tying a knot is a good idea and generally there are two climbers at each belay to help "remember" that there are knots that need to be untied. Also if you tie a butterfly or figure 8 knot in the rope at the end it may be less likely to lodge itself in a crack. In my experience if you do the same exact thing every time it will become habit and you will recall the steps when you are tired or rushing due to weather or some other hazzard. This is even more important when a person is new to a new aspect of climbing. Eleven years ago I started out climbing trad, not sport and consciously chose this route because I had a some very good mentors who taught me that this was the way to become solid. My progress was slow because I only got out a few times a year before I moved up here and took a year off to climb and bum around a few years ago. That year I nearly stepped off a belay ledge when I was stressed out after a climb and a disagreement with my partner. I had threaded my device and clipped my carabiner, but did not clip it to my harness. I was still somewhat new to multipitch climbs that required rappeling and thankfully my partner looked through my set up and grabbed my harness. It was a wakeup call that I needed a mantra to repeat to myself before I unclipped from the anchor and I now use this every time I rappel. And I now always use a prussik.

That sounds terrible. I can't image being so close to getting out and not able to grab the rope.

I think you'd have to take it slow for acclimatization but there shouldn't be any problems taking her to that altitude. Lot's of little ones are born and live at high altitudes. Congrats by the way!

Impressive! Congrats on the climb.

I think it could be interesting to look at how long people have been climbing and how much they spend. Newer climbers would spend more as they accumulate gear and equipment. Once I made the investment in my rack and other gear I really didn't need to spend that much on gear annually, but those first couple years I spent a lot.

I agree. Move out of that CA sh!thole and move to somewhere where the drive is scenic and part of the trip. Driving through the cascades you can spend a majority of the drive looking at future objectives and planning other trips. From what I recall of driving in CA it was all about traffic and avoiding some road rage freak.

Wasn't it Dru's birthday sometime last week too?