fern

polar circus w/ mrs. reynolds

The Chisel is in the pebbly texture brown CAG, shows up on a map on p259 and in the descriptions somewhere around p278. It is above Snow Creek on McLennan Ridge (opposite side to the Snow Creek Wall) past the Toketie Ck junction. That picture in High Adventure is looking up valley and you can see Nada Lake.

BC

of course it is a troll http://www.urbanlegends.com/language/etymology/rule_of_thumb.html if people really want to research stuff they use google. if they just want to talk shit on the internet they use cascadeclimbers

I don't know too much about geology or water projects in Eastern WA. But I would guess that large scale reclamation and irrigation projects are drilling deep wells into old groundwater reservoirs, deep aquifers that are not recharged quickly, nor do they deplete quickly during one or two year droughts. But the water that supplies the ice climbs is probably from perched aquifers nearer the surface... like sediments sandwiched between the basalts. These are probably recharged seasonally so they might dry out a bit during a short drought, but will be replenished with a wet season. And also this water supply is not the one tapped by the big reclamation proj.

only the bottom 2 rows need to add up to 100, since the top 50 includes the top 25 etc. dig? I don't know what it means though. But then I don't pay any income tax

you might be surprised. I hear she is an expert on semiconductor physics

Silvia Vidal ...well 'ard

is that French system still in the new edition of the richardson guide that came out a few months back? French grades don't mean much to me, nor I think many of the people who climb at Skaha. But if they are going to be in the book they should at least be accurate. You are probably one of few local people with the international experience to make the call of accurate french grades in that book. Are you going to set Howie straight?

I did the W.Ridge of Prusik last year. It was a good day with some challenges. Daylight doesn't matter much if you are hiking on good trails. Where is this Lighthouse tower?

given that there's a fire closure in Ingalls Ck, and missing bridges in the Icicle, are there any suggestions of alpine routes (5.9 or easier) in the Alpine Lakes area that can be done as a daytrip from Leavenworth area? Long day is fine - I'm tuff

my mom was a grad student in agricultural science when I was little and I used to spend time with her in the research barns after daycare. I used to think EVERY cow had a fistula. ... she also gave me anatomy lessons on aborted sheep fetuses ... aah to be 4 years old again

yeah! I was reading last night about a Mazama's trip to Mt Hood that put over 100 people on the summit one day and 27 people on the summit the next

stuff that is inbounds of the ski area (or most easily accessed through it) link #1 link #2

are you looking at that wacky description of aid-climbing in Freedom of the Hills? where they show leaving 2 biners on every piece? There are better learn-to-aid-climb references around.

Yum! that looks like it would go divinely with a nice glass of Merlot. And maybe with a tasty Taco Bell treat on the side?

this is the best climbing thread ever on this climbing website. It has so much climbing content! I have really enjoyed reading about all the climbing!

I figure the best you can wish for in any guidebook is that all the included climbs be internally consistently graded. All the .9s are a little harder than all the .8s and a little easier than all the .10a's. If that is the case then you only need to get in one or two pitches at a new areas to figure out the exchange rate. From the sounds of your rant E-rock, it seems like McLane has succeeded in the consistency side of things, just his benchmark doesn't match other areas like Index and Yos. So can't you just make the exchange calculation yourself? McLane has some 'unique' ideas about rating climbs anyways, ref the old non-starter 'Squamish Grading System' and his most recent idea ot subdivide 5.10 into only a,b,c rather than a,b,c,d. Incidental trivia, the hardest free pitch in the 1968 guide was a 5.9 variation on Slab Alley that now gets called 5.10d.

I climbed White Lightning, Memorial Crack, The Squamish Buttress and Talking Crack. It was a quality adventure to the top of the Chief with no crowds anywhere except the summit. White Lightning has some kickyourpants runout, but otherwise pretty doable for the grade I thought. Talking Crack was trickier than I expected. If you took photos why not post them to this thread and share?: my favorite this weekend photo (share) part 2 also why not enjoy these kwal TRs?: erikae at tieton , does Dru ever climb things that we have actually heard of before? , more Chief dome rockin'

Are not the concepts touched on in these two sentences contradictory? I would argue that the person making a first ascent, ground-up on-sight, drilling on lead was in a position of having to put a LOT of thought into how they were protecting their climbing. Especially if they were using a hand-drill and choosing to not employ aid techniques (hanging from a hook). Likely they will have been forced into limiting their bolting options to only places where they had a reasonably handsfree stance, stances that - in the anthropomorphic terms you have introduced - the rock offered to them. I am certain that while they were climbing through the intervening potentially run-out sections they were similarily being very thoughtful. Isn't this meeting the route on it's own terms? And isn't the choice of whether or not to employ this approach to climbing an new route the choice of the first ascentionist, and not those who follow?

I don't understand the issue of digging the tips in? I have read some debate that the weight of the skier should dictate the length of ski more than the height. I guess the issue is that you need to have enough weight to flex the ski into its designed turning radius? This makes it pretty tricky for women who are usually pretty light and therefore would seem to require skis much shorter than anyone actually manufactures. Don't forget to consider how much weight she might be carrying in a pack while skiing. I am under 5'2" but I weigh a fair bit more than your wife especially with a pack on, and I learned to (tele) ski on 175s. Those are my AT skis now and I got 160s for tele which are waaay too short and wimpy soft for me. So I guess my point is that there may not be a general rule that applies and she might benefit from demoing a few different models and lengths to get an idea of what she prefers length vs width vs stiffness. Probably get some boots that fit her properly first I would think.

the particular issue raised in concern by Ryan Foster and John Baldwin here is not about banning motorized access to these ranges. It is about granting a Tenure to ONE particular company. A Tenure is something like a monopoly lease on crown land. I.E. the company with the tenure has the sole rights to commercial use of a particular area. ( I am sure there is a better explanation of tenures, but this is the flavour). In this case as I read it two major concerns have been raised. #1) The interested company is from Arizona and so there is no benefit to the local economy which has already been developing with guides, air charters etc. run by people who live in the area (for example Mike King). This is a local economic concern, and maybe not something that most people here would have much reason to care about. #2) The company wishes to use the area for Heleskiing (not to be confused with helicopter-access backcountry skiing and ski-mountaineering). Heleskiing involves having the helicopter pick people up at the bottom of the run, fly them to a new runhover around, pick them up, fly around etc. The helicopter is running pretty much constantly. This is a volume of air traffic that has not previously been experienced in this particular range, even though people have certainly been flying into and out of the range for around 50 years. This is an environmental and aesthetic concern. hope this clear some things up. If you feel strongly either way then I encourage you to write to the people and addresses given in previous posts. If you don't care, good for you. I only posted to share some info that was given to me to a wider audience. It is not an invitation to debate the wider question of the evils of air-support or whatever. Why not start a new thread if that is your axe to grind.

didn't know they could ski! Must be pretty tiny boots.

John Baldwin got the following from Ryan Foster, who lives at Twist Lake

if you right click on any internet image you will get the option of looking at it alone, or listing the properties or whatever. It is browser dependent. Look for an URL that ends in .gif or .jpg .