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jhamaker

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Posts posted by jhamaker

  1. I wish I could get my quiver down to 3 pair of skiis.

     

    Wait, you want a longer, fatter pair? For powder, yes, but for hardpack, anything with sharp edges should do. Soft for moguls, but stiff for ice. Too much side-cut and they tend to ski themselves regardless of where you want to go.

     

    And those big ass shovels on the tips slow you down.

  2. I weigh 130lbs and ski on the lightest cheapest 150cm's I can find in the kid's dept. One of my tele skis have a big side-cut, great for soft snow, but not good for ice, esp while skinning on a side hill.

     

    I ditched my old Silveretta 404's for a dynafit set-up. I like it. Though I'm Jonesing after a pair of Scarpa articulated boots.

     

    The temps here are mild, get the smallest shell you are comfortable in, wear overboots for those January ascents of Rainier (not an issue this yr : )

     

    If you like your plastic climbing boots too much to part with them, detatch a cuff off an old old ski boot and buckle it over your climbing boots.

     

    NOTE: Skiing w/ an overnight pack takes 5 yrs off your skiing ability.

  3. I was up there yesterday. Had I knows the snowlevel was going to stay low, I'd be up there today as well. I headed for the SW side (Avy forcast mentioned heavy deposition on N and E aspects). The avy folks were right on.

     

    No good skiing in the tight trees - bare, patchy or icy w/ windfall on ice/snow.

     

    Soft, but consistent snow (open areas) to about 4K ft. New snow moderately well bonded to old.

     

    Lighter, better skiing on snow above 4K ft, though the old (pre-Tue) snow was a solid (walkable) crust under the new.

     

    Lots of strange wind eddies. Many fallen cornices. Many cornices on both sided of ridges.

     

    SW side looked glazed and icy, great for walking, but not for skiing.

     

    Unless conditions are very stable I stay away from the habitual avy slope that runs down the E side of the S side of Granite. The avy debree can be viewed through the trees at the second switchback (a thousand?) ft below the snowline.

     

    I generaly just head through the open trees a hundred or so ft either side of the large stream that drains the SW side of Granite.

  4. PNW, or BC. Packs or Sleds, Fishscales or Skins, Mountains or Meadows, Icefields or Iced Lakes . . .

     

    RSVP to jhamaker at Opera mail dot com (no spaces)

     

    Some of my favorites have been hut skiing in BC, Spearhead Traverse (BC), Crater Lk by moonlight (OR), Mt. Cashmere basecamp (WA), Volcanos (Cascades), WA Pass basins (WA), Yellowstone NP . . .

  5. Just got back from there. The four days I was there we had chance of preciptation forcast at 0%,0%, 30%, and 90%. We ended up w/ none, 10 min of spit, 10 min of spit, and two hrs of off again on again sleet and snow that mostly dried off durring the rappel.

     

     

    (Results are not typical, and may vary depending on individual karma acounts.)

  6. Funny, Clintoris. When I bought my set of 60M Beal Icelines, I figgured I would keep them in the front country untill the ends got worn, then chop em down to 45 or 50M apeace. The vast majority of alpine rts here in WA were put up w/ what, 40M ropes?

     

    I'm a weight nazi, so I go w/ the lightest usable system. Usualy that is a light weight single, though I also get a lot of use out of a 30M half and, lots of use out of one 60M half (folded for those steep pitches between scrambling and running belays).

     

    For the seriously weight concious where long rappels are desired, there is the (5mm) pull cord option.

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