Fromage

I take a one-pound, 25-degree bag on Rainier in the winter, and have never been cold on the three winter climbs I have done. Saving the weight with the bag lets me bring more fuel and food. Since you have a down jacket with you anyway on a winter Rainier climb, it makes sense to incorporate it into your sleeping system for greater efficiency. I use the Feathered Friends Volant jacket inside the Vireo on top of a Thermarest ProLite 3/ short yellow foam pad combo inside a single wall tent and have been plenty toasty. Eating a good dinner, being hydrated, and snuggling up to a couple hot water bottles makes a big difference, too. I used to use a -10 bag in the winter in the Cascades but it was too warm and too heavy. I like the Vireo system a lot, plus it is cheap enough to justify owning it in addition to another sleeping bag. With the amount of time I have spent in mine, it has definitely been a good investment. I know people who take 0-degree bags to Denali and Aconcagua. While it is unusual, it is not unheard of. For your trip a bag of that warmth should suffice, but you could be carrying excessive weight if you use it in the Cascades. Lots of mountains in South America are in low latitudes and have milder conditions, so you may be able to use a reasonably light bag on your trip.

Are you suggesting that a DAS Parka is appropriate for Everest and other Himalayan peaks? Have fun shivering up there. If you want a belay parka you should consider a lighter and more durable one like FF Volant or Frontpoint. My Volant works great as a jacket in the Cascades from summer bivies in Boston Basin to winter climbs on Rainier.

Feathered Friends Vireo (one pound) with Feathered Friends Helios Jacket (15 oz) = sub two pounds for a 25-degree sleep system and warm down jacket combo. I sleep on a chopped down Ridge Rest and my pack. My tent weighs zero pounds since I sleep in the hut when I'm on that side of the mountain. Link to Feathered Friends Vireo

On a 2-man, 2-day ascent of Rainier on the Muir side my pack weighs 27 pounds when I leave the parking lot. That includes 4 pounds of pack and 4.5 pounds of water (which obviously decreases as the day goes on), which leaves me with about 19 pounds of gear. If I have trained well and am in reasonable shape, I will be carrying 5 pounds less fat on my body than I have now. This takes us back to the classic Gram Counter's Fallacy: instead of spending hours deliberating on what kind of new gear to buy, you could be spending hours running stairs, thereby making yourself stronger, lighter, and richer by not spending $200 on a new pack that saves you one pound. That $200 could buy your park entry fee, your climbing permit, gas for the drive, beer afterwards, and you would STILL have more than $100 left over. I'm not saying you are fat, just highlighting the point that the gear doesn't get you up the hill. But there are other reasons for buying a pack than saving weight. Comfort is nice, and it's okay to look cool. Remember, If you're looking good you're feeling good If you're feeling good, you're climbing good If you're climbing good, you're looking good

If you have that much time to make a leisurely ascent, why take the most heavily traveled route on the mountain? There are numerous other routes of comparable technical difficulty that would be more pleasant and safer on account of fewer people. You are planning to go at the peak of the season. If you want to share your route and camps with big crowds, by all means do so, but there is so much more to the mountain than the superhighway that runs through Muir. With the amount of time you have you could easily do a relaxed ascent of the Tahoma Glacier, for example, where you will maybe see a couple other parties. Even the Emmons will be less crowded than the DC, although probably not by much. Take a look at Mike Gauthier's guidebook and you will find a plethora of choices that will give you an excellent Rainier experience without the cluster of the DC. Otherwise, to address your conditions question, I think the mountain will still be in great shape in July provided that the summer doesn't heat up quickly. I was up at Muir yesterday scouting some lines and was amazed by how much snow there is this winter. More is forecast to fall, too, so the summer climbing season will be a long one if things don't melt out too quickly.

Still available Blue Water helmet 2 Momentum harnesses 1 Fudge harness Thanks!

I give you a camel and fifteen gallons of insecticide. Then maybe I let you shoot dog. In my country, that is sport. My wife, she is dead. But it's okay, I got new one.

I have 5 harnesses leftover from my guiding company, 3 are BD Momentum in XL. They have adjustable leg loops, gear loops, haul loop, have only been used a couple times for toproping. $15 cash money each. Also available, two Blue Water Fudge harnesses. 2" flat webbing, belay loop, fits anyone from 60lbs to 300lbs. Perfect for kids. $10 cash money each. BD Halfdome helmet. White. A few scratches. All webbing, buckles, velcro in great shape. $15 cash money. Blue Water helmet. White. Excellent shape. $15 cash money. PM if you are interested.

I attempted the Fuhrer Finger last winter. Several hundred feet above the Finger couloir my partner and I were hit by icefall. We thought we were far enough to the side of the Nisqually that we would be out of the fall line of tumbling seracs, but apparently we were wrong. We walked away after being bombarded with television-sized ice chunks, but a party below us got hammered in the couloir. I believe there are some graphic photos on this site of the effects the icefall had on that group. If I were to do this route again I would head left immediately after exiting the couloir and pick my line upwards by linking the cover of rock bands. It was a low snow year last winter, so conditions will certainly vary this season. There is an excellent camp site above the Wilson glacier at about 9,400 feet on a shoulder near a giant boulder. Have fun!

Barry, I also grew up in Michigan (UM class of '98) and found it hard to learn to climb in that area. I ended up going to France to learn alpine climbing since the Michigan Alps didn't quite have the flavor I was looking for. I agree with the other posts that suggest you would have a more enjoyable alpine experience by spending your time venturing into the North Cascades. And that's not just because I also guide for Alpine Ascents. Given the choice between climbing Rainier and going into the N Cascades I would choose the latter because of the wilderness, the beauty, the quality of routes, and the variety of terrain. Rainier is a lot of fun and I have climbed it a few times, but the type of experience you will have up there in June is very different from the type of experience you will have in a more secluded part of the range. If reaching the summit is an important objective for you, then signing up for a trip with RMI might be the way to go. If, however, you spend your time and money on a six-day mountaineering course you will learn some valuable skills that will put you well on your way to becoming self-sufficient in the mountains. You would then be much better prepared to climb Rainier as part of a small, private group, or even a small guided group. As for training recommendations, for Rainier in particular and Cascade approaches in general, having legs and lungs that can work hard will take you far. I run stairs and ride my bike a lot. Head down to Michigan Stadium or Dennison Hall and start doing laps. Alternate running sessions with carrying a pack and hiking the stairs. Or take your mountain bike to Pinckney, Brighton, or Yankee Springs. The Circle of Pain is a decent, 1-hour in-town ride. Feel free to send a personal messages if you have any other questions. Cheers.

Link to BD page: http://www.bdel.com/gear/zenix_iq.php

Used one trip. As new shape. Runs on 2 AA batteries and has a blinking light that (a) indicates battery life and (b) lets you know where your headlamp is. $48 new, $25 takes it home. I can ship at buyer's expense. PM if you want it. I don't like the center elastic strap, so I'm getting a Spot or Tikka XP that only have the headband style strap.

Seldon, I was skeptical of the WB-400 fabric myself until I bought a Beyond Fleece Cold Fusion jacket. It stretches really well and has good water resistance. I have worn it as an outer layer on Rainier in winter and found the jacket was windproof as far as I could tell. Plus it fits better than anything else I have tried on. And at $180, it was cheaper than anything else on the market that was comparable in warmth. Breathability is fine, better, in fact, than my Arcteryx Windstopper softshell. Beyond Fleece also makes clothing out of several other Schoeller fabrics as well, so check them out. US made = Custom fit = Cheap = Customer service =

Pertex products are not obsolete. Some companies, like Marmot, purchased enough of the remaining fabric inventory to continue manufacturing their products with it for a while. The guy I talked to at Marmot said they had about a year's worth of fabric and were looking for substitutes in the meantime. Regardless of the fate of Pertex, there are so many different textile mills producing quality fabrics that this will not spell the end of lightweight nylon. Now for the confusing part: an Asian textile company named Mitsui has purchased the name Quantum to brand their own type of fabric which will be a little different from the original English Pertex Quantum. This new Quantum has not found its way into commercially available products yet as far as I know. The demise of Pertex is going to bring an interesting shift in materials sourcing in the gear industry. Marmot and TNF were two of the companies more heavily dependent on Pertex fabrics, and it will be interesting to see where they go to find replacements. Feathered Friends has found a new lightweight nylon and is already using it in their products. The folks at their factory think it is a denser and more stable fabric than Pertex Quantum and say it is practically the same weight. Rather than asking "are Pertex products obsolete?" you should examine the quality of the manufacturing of the companies who are using the material. The quality of the materials are only one part of the overall quality picture. Three different companies using the same fabric may produce items of distinctly different qualities because of their designs and how they are put together.

Pertex is the name of an English textile company, not a specific fabric. This company went out of business in 2005. Your comment is vague and inaccurate, since some of the fabrics that Pertex made, namely Endurance, had very good water resistance (PU coated nylon). If you were referring to Quantum, that fabric's water resistance was not great, but since you didn't specify, it makes it hard for others to know what you meant. It's like saying "All Chevrolets are slow," which is obviously untrue if your Chevy happens to be a Corvette. And were you talking about Gore cheesecloth or Martha Stewart cheesecloth?

The head weights are attached with an allen bolt to the pick just forward of the head. They are pretty low profile, nothing like the Quasar/Pulsar headweights. The setup seems to be fairly stout. For drytooling if I was concerned about the weights getting in the way I would remove them. The setup I want to experiment with next is to only attach one headweight per tool and see how that affects the swing.

I had the opportunity to use a pair of the new Charlet Nomics for three days in Lillooet last weekend. Climbed at Marble, Synchronicity, and Rambles. While I liked these tools, I didn't love them as much as I thought I would. Being a longtime devout fundamentalist orthodox member of the Charlet Cult, I had pretty high expectations. The best thing by far about these tools is the grip. It is the most comfortable and natural feeling grip of any leashless tool I have ever tried. The adjustability of it is great, and once you get your size dialled in your hand fits into it like lego. The swing threw me off a bit. I expected the lively snap of the Ergo but found the weight was not as evenly distributed, probably due to the head weights. It felt like it took more power to get going, but connected well with the ice. The tool felt really stiff and damp, and I didn't feel like it gave me as good feedback on placement quality as Ergos. The angle of the grip, being slightly more vertical, made me alter my swing. The pick was great, stuck really well and didn't fracture the ice much, even on the chandeliered 60m penultimate pitch of Synchronicity. Charlet continues to get it right with their picks. I didn't get to use these tools on rock. Hopefully soon. Bottom line is the grips on these kick ass, but the tool as an entire package does not feel as good as Ergos on ice. I think a better setup would be Nomic grips at the Ergo angle on Ergo shafts. Given the progression of Charlet leashless tools thus far, it wouldn't surprise me if the ErgoNomic came out next year with this configuration. I still take my Quarks over any other tool, though.

I use Scarpa Matrix boots on a DynaFit setup and they have worked great so far. The main complaint I have is the challenge of engaging the toe half of the bindings, but that is equal parts impatience and incompetence on my part. They are light, and the Matrix boots are pretty damn comfortable. And I haven't even thermomolded mine yet. If you want to try the setup I suggest you go rent some from Feathered Friends. They have DynaFits on K2 Shuksans and on Atomic TMX skis, and some larger sizes of Matrix in their rental fleet. That way you can try them for yourself before making a decision. It could affirm your hypothesis or save you from making a big mistake. Bonus- FF gives you the cost of the rental off your purchase.

I have a good stretch of free time approaching and I'm thinking of heading up towards Canmore. Unfortunately, the usual sources of route/conditions info don't seem to have any useful information to offer one way or another. Gravsports, bivouac, live the dream, acmg, wicked, none of these have any reports that suggest whether or not it is worth going up there soon. If anyone is up there or has been up there recently, can you please let me know what the ice is like? Thanks.

I have a FF Helios jacket in Pertex Quantum. I like it a lot. Packs down to the size of a Nalgene, and the pockets are more comfy for keeping my hands toasty than any other down jacket I have tried. I think it is reasonably priced, and the quality is excellent.

If you are considering twins for ice, why not climb with doubles? Weight difference is minimal and you gain the advantage of lower impact forces on your gear by using doubles. This can be an important safety consideration- you still don't want to fall, but if you do you definitely don't want to rip your gear out. Plus less rope drag is nice for alpine routes since you don't have to clip both strands. I have been using Beal 8.1mm Ice Lines since 1998 (not the same set ) and have been a big fan of those. I also like the Mammut 8.0 doubles that some friends have. But if twins are what you have your mind set on, then the choice should be simple since there are fewer options from which to select than single or double ropes.

I have this coming Thurs-Sat off. Weather looks spotty at best. Does anyone have some non-technical trips in the mountains to recommend? I would like to not sit in my tent all day in the snow, and I'm trying to convince myself that I'm not going "hiking." Alternatively, does anyone want to go to Skaha?

Western Mountaineering Apache Super DryLoft for sale $200. Great for tall skinny dudes who want a light bag that will stay dry. - length: long (fits up to 6'6") - features: permanent collar, right zip, Gore DryLoft fabric, 59"/38" shoulder/foot girth, cotton storage sack, overfilled, recently washed and not used since. This bag is on display at Feathered Friends (interestingly enough) so you can swing by at your convenience to check it out and don't have to bother with arranging an appointment. I can ship this bag anywhere in the lower 48 at buyer's expense ($6 for UPS ground). If you want it but ain't ferm around these parts you can PM me to discuss the purchase. Retail on this bag is $450.

Good choice with the Upgrades. I put one of those on a Pulsar of mine and found it climbed really well. The pick lacks the curvature teeth up near the shaft that later model Cascade picks had, but hooking is not what Pulsars do best so I found it made little difference. I was very conservative in altering my Upgrade. I only filed a small bevel on the first few teeth behind the pick and left the tip alone. I didn't bevel them the way the new Quark Cascade pick teeth are sharpened to a point like a triangle; I beveled parallel to the edge of the teeth, so the teeth sharpened towards a ridge (although I did not bring the two sides of the "ridge" together- that would make the teeth too fragile). This minor modification increased the bite of what was already a sticky pick. I had no problems removing my placements with the top edge of the pick in an unaltered state. In general my advice would be to make changes in very small increments. File a little, climb a little, repeat if necessary. It is easier to take more metal off than it is to put it back on. Good luck!

The pack is gone, gloves and sleeping bag still available.