fern

there aren't any other nearby fixed-wing aircraft besides Andy and the Helio-Courier for flying into the Logan area. There are plenty of helicopter pilots however. Doug Maconen is a great pilot (and character) flying a Jet Ranger out of Haines Junction for Trans North Helicopters. Depending on how much gear+food+people you need to ferry, the costs could be similar.

I have 2 favourite stupid rope tricks. One is the Texas figure eight, you hold the end of the rope in one hand like a dart, the other hand holds farther along the rope so there is a largish bight hanging between. Give the bight a twist so it spins around twice and toss the end through the hole, voila, a figure-8 to tie in. The other trick is the one handed bowline on a coil. Another rappel trick I have heard: suppose you reach the rope end (double rope rappel) a few meters shy of a safe touchdown. Spin yourself around a whole bunch of time so the two strands twist around each other, lock off one strand and let the other slip through your device. You'll start unwinding and the friction of the ropes together will (hopefully) slowly let you down.

I don't get it ... cause isn't a square knot the same as a reef knot?

two things to avoid: 1) all you can eat buffet at Circus-Circus2) chimney on the 3rd pitch of Jubilant Song

quote: Originally posted by willstrickland: Fern's Nipple, a little bump on the aquarius plateau in south-central UT. heh, a little bump in UT... you kids with your fancy slang.

cone with h=2r , but really it was a joke to point out that digging out a deep burial means moving a lot of snow, maybe more than you can hope to move within the narrow time interval that separates a live rescue from a body recovery. If you want to follow my stoopid math you will find that a burial 3m deep requires moving almost twice as much snow as a hole 2.4m deep ... but whatever, it was a dumb joke. As Beck points out ... find buddy with your beacon and start digging the damn hole. IMO a probe isn't an absolute requirement. for those looking for product review:I have a G3 probe which hasn't had problems yet. However, the writing wears off which makes me think that paying extra for centimeter graduations isn't worth it. And I have been told that the section ends crack after awhile, especially if you assemble it using the chuck-and-pull method rather than assembling it piece by piece.

just as a guideline, the hole you dig to get to a buried person will be about as wide in diameter at the surface as it is deep. Imagine how many meters^3 of compact avy debris you can move in 20minutes, multiply by 12, divide by pi, take a cube root and you'll get the length of probe that might be of actual use to you in an emergency.

the complexity-of-technology argument kinda falls apart when you can buy a GPS for half the price of the cheapest beacon. I figure the two most important pieces of safety equipment for backcountry winter travel are a brain (make sure you practise with it first), and a shovel. I hear back in the pre-beacon days sometimes they'd tie plastic bleach bottles onto the end of 50' of bright coloured cord and drag it behind while skiing.

fix your heels, fix your problems

quote: Originally posted by lambone: Alpine Trekkers = Bullshit no kidding, talk about prone to breakage. you'd be better spending those Alpine Trekker $$$ on snowshoes and carrying the alpine skis on your back in my opinion.

www.digikey.com is one source of electronic components. White LEDs are pricey ~$3 US each. Pretty flexible in terms of voltage supply though. The circuit needs to be running at 20mA or thereabouts, so you just line up all your LEDs on your power supply and chuck in a resistor that ends up giving you the right current. I was thinking of a similar lighting arrangement for my truck, solar-charged 12V battery bank running a few LEDs ... much lower fire-hazard than running incandescent or halogens. (: