fern

thank god this thread isn't another one about peeing

even if you go get your intuition liners fit in person at the factory store they will start duct-taping on wedges of extra foam here and there to get the snug fit and no heel lift. Get an old foamy and some tape and start experimenting yourself. Pads on either side of the achilles taped on the OUTSIDE of the liner might lock your heels down. Get some thin shims jammed up inside to fill up toe volume etc.

don't forget to take care of your whole body too. wrist bone connected to the elbow bone connected to the shoulder bone ... If your wrists are tweaky it's even more reason to make sure everything else is bomber and well tuned.

I think you mean hardly working climber

the bigger the boobs the smaller the waist looks.

I wonder how much of the "debate" is caused by this being essentially a front-country range well served by an adjacent quaint tourist town with plenty of internet cafes where our urban-alpinist heroes can sip cafe-con-leches while they update their blogs (and make sure to thank their sponsors...) "Patagonia" sure has a romantic history ... but it's easy to see why some might question how different it is from Chamonix or Canmore any more ...

Cerro Torre Bolt Count 2011!!! someone needs to make a blog widget so we can all stay up to date.

Everything won't be in shape, but some stuff will be fine. Look high and shady. Night'n'Gale is probably fine (depend on avy conditions in bowl above). Red Wall Wanderers maybe. Oregon Jack. Maybe stuff isn't convenient or close or hard-enough for you or easy-enough for you. But there is ice. This isn't the worst winter we've had in the last 10 yrs.

me. I will buy.

hello, currently 2/3 of your posts on this site are self-promoting a business. Your entrepreneurship is commendable and it would appear you offer a service that may be of use to the cascadeclimbers readership. However, please consider the concept of SPAM as relates to your posting history. If your only major contribution to this site is going to be advertising your business then you will have to sign onto the advertising program like the rest of our associates that pay for banner ads. thanks

yesterday: is it fat and ready for climbing? or is it sun rotted and about to fall ... hmm ...

get a chunk of old climbing rope and strip the core strands out and just use the sheath. Should be less bulk than that webbing.

the Phantoms do have laces. They are inside the zipped gaiter. after playing with them I think that with some effort you could still "zip" the boot up even with no zipper pull, so it would not be game-over if it happened mid-trip. You just have to mash the zipper together by hand - which granted would be tricky to do while wearing gloves. the Amazon.com return policy seems fairly hassle free so far - we will see if my VISA gets credited with the refund ... Overall I did not really like the boots anyways because they were way too laterally stiff in the ankle, and uncomfortable to walk in. I think a case of downscaling a "big" boot to a sz38 without easing up the stiffness needed for the greater leverage of bigger feet.

mine had the TIZIP tag. But I don't think I could make any repair to the zipper pull that broke into 2 pieces. Probably a repair shop could replace it. But I don't like the boots for other reasons too, so back they go. looking closely it seems the casting is poor quality where the pull broke apart - a number of larger bubbles and voids.

I got an older model pair of the Scarpa Phantom Lite a couple of weeks ago on Amazon for a good price (with the red short gaiter). The zipper got misaligned and jammed. In trying to free it the zipper pull blew up. Major functional failure with no easy field fix. Luckily I was only walking home from a dinner party. They are going back for a refund.

we climbed Rambles left on Sunday. All in all more ice around than I was expecting. Boxing Day and Gong & Short of It looked OK and not avy threatened yet. Plum and PCV are building nicely and other Darcy-Birken stuff - probably climbable now in much harder than usual shape. Entropy and the XitoLacw things both looked very grey and thin, plus not a ton of snow around to feed them.

Cache Creek and Lillooet were getting absolutely pissed on with rain 2 weeks ago, so that might be a positive sign for the amount of ground moisture around to fatten stuff up. Who knows. Snow line was below the acrophobes yesterday.

I chopped my Raven Pro. Couldn't get the spike out with all kinds of blow torch and hacksaw and chisel trickery. I ended up just cutting the shaft on a miter and calling it good. Sometime I'll get around to installing a plug to stop the snow ramming up the shaft, but otherwise I am happy with it with no spike insert. I only use it on snow/ice so it is wearing well. But if it dulls I will just slice a 1/8" off on the saw again.

found it: http://www.climbinginpatagonia.freeservers.com/

don't bother buying that Kearney book as a guide book. Very out of date. Mainly good as a piece of mountaineering historical literature. The best guides are now scattered on various websites (french and spanish), plus climbing and alpinist mag back issues. Are you thinking Chile or Argentina? I have only been to the latter, El Chalten. There is plenty to keep even a gaper happy for a couple of lucky weather windows. Though the easier routes are very busy when the sun shines and wind dies. it's going to take me some digging to find some links but I will update when I can

I have had a few of those Costco shells for a few years. The early versions I got were sewn with a thread that absorbed water, and the DWR on the fabric was weak/non existent - so they would wet out faster than similar "name" softshells. I got a pair of their softshell pants last year though and they are super for skitouring/ice climbing. Microfleece lined, boot cut, stretchy.

Kim Czizmazia had one or two of her hips renovated a few years back ... then took up with the Crossfit scene which is super hip-intensive.

thnks Dane.

A little offtopic ... but any opinions on the LS Trango Prime ?? It looks to be the only techy,light,insulated boot LS offers in a sz37 ...

X2 http://www.justropes.com/ClimbingRopes/shop/item.aspx?itemid=256 thanks rat for the link a couple months ago!