SEF

I was at the meeting Tuesday and many of the questions being raised here were answered then. 1) Climbers on guided trips do pay the same fee as everyone else. A guided climber is likely paying in the low 4 figures total to climb, so a $15 fee increase is not a big concern. 2) The climber fee does pay for the climbing rangers amongst other things. Climbing is the only activity targeted for extra fees. Climbers on any of the routes besides Muir and Emmons see almost no extra resources provided for them outside of blue bag collection barrels at the TH. Yes they still pay the fee. The Muir and Emmons routes together account for 90+% of the 11,000+ climbs on Rainier. Approx 3,700 are guided climbs. A number of alternative plans was presented (and listed on the MRNP website) of which the “preferred” was based on the new $30 fee. Some in the audience felt that meant it was a foregone conclusion. The sentiment in the audience was decidedly anti-fee, and some were critical that “no fee” was not among the alternatives. MRNP cannot explain that climbers are more costly to service than the tourist who arrives expecting to visit the multimillion dollar visitor center, use the toilet facilites that require expensive engineering and treatment, and use the nature ranger time in a public tour of the meadows via paved pathways. The park has now gone down the path of managment which dictates what you plan to do while you are “visiting” the park will dictate what extra fees you may be required to pay. Climbing, being an easily targeted use, now pays more. As someone who believes our National Parks are a heritage to which we as citizens pay taxes and are entitled to use, I find this offensive. National Parks are to the country what libraries and city parks are to the city, and should not be subject to special use fees. Your comments are still being accepted at the park at links given earlier in the thread.

Well, I know of more accidents that have occured due to improper use of the Gri Gri than of burned hands or failed belays due to lack of gloves while belaying. That said, I think gloves (or just one glove on the belay hand) are a prudent when belaying though I rarely use them myself. I do often use a glove on my brake hand while rapping because I can go much faster, especially so if the route has a lot of raps and skinny ropes are in use.

I'm going to the Mt. Rainier public meeting on the fee increase. May swing by afterwards.

Where is this establishment?

Yes, Erden does have grand plans of which Denali is the first leg. I admire his imagination and ambition and wish him well on his journey.

Hmm. Unless I am really mistaken, the winter "night" of the N pole should begin well before the winter solstice, correct? Isn't the solstice the middle of that "night"? Whatever the start or end, it is still a long night. I think another explanation of winter solstice is when the earth's tilt relative to the sun with the S pole towards the sun and N pole away has maximized.

The part where it became “humorous” escaped me as well.

Hayshaker, Thanks for posting your much-needed viewpoint. If you have been lurking at all long, you are no doubt familiar with the tone and content of much of what is posted on this board. You must also know that the most vocal posters on this board do not necessarily represent the majority view of the participants here. Many thanks for the difficult service and personal risks you and your colleagues provide for our benefit.

Trolling? Mike Gauthier is a "Nat. Park Service" person who does more than troll. Hey, have them troll or post or otherwise contribute. This is a public forum.

Yep, ranks up there with such other excellent training thechniques for authorities as the bomb hoax in the school, or carrying a box cutter aboard the plane.

Whoa, what am I doing wrong? I've been working out for decades and don't have any such thing to show for it.

By some twisted logic, salbrecher says climbing death hoaxes are a good training exercise? Real bright idea. FWIW, criminal penalties may apply if perpetrators are caught. Personally, I suggest finding other entertainment. If I was SAR, I'd not be unhappy to see the perpetrators do jail time.

The "Commonwealth Basin Circuit" makes a nice spring (May?) training romp when most of the cruising is on snow. Hike in the Commonwealth Basin snow approach. Do Red, drop down toward then traverse over to Lundin. Climb E Ridge, descend W Ridge, then traverse to Snoqualmie. Descend to Cave Ridge and tag Guye before descending to Alpental.

Speaking of blenders, I ran into this . Quite the chick magnet in campgrounds, so says the manufacturer. It must undoubtably be on Trask's wish list. Maybe REI would special order him one.

Hey Wayne, sounds like you were up there. Were you one of the "smart ones"? TR? ----------

I heard it was a hoax. Something about a dummy duct taped somewhere.

How precious..... Timmy, did you just get the new “Flash” software and were itching to use it?

I’m sure that ehmmic will be happy with her PC since she is used to PC’s, and already has software for that platform. Makes sense. I will say, that as a Mac TiBook owner with bias, I am with jon. I love OS X. It is so damn seamless with any networks that I have encountered (mostly Windows NT), and with peripherals. And so damn stable. With the old Mac OS's, the crashing of one app would bring the whole system down and require a reboot. No longer true. M$ Internet Explorer, the least stable app that I use, remains buggy and prone to crashing once or twice a week, but it effects nothing else. Look at any computer satisfaction survey. Mac's typically top the list. Dell, though, is not usually far behind. I bought a digital camera recently. It came with a CD of software that the salesman told me was needed to install on whatever computer that I wanted to use with the camera. I used the CD as a drink coaster instead. I neither installed nor configured anything. First time I connected the USB cord from camera to the Mac, I got a polite little dialog asking if I wanted to download the dozen pictures I had on the camera. Let me know what happens when you do that with a PC. I also confess that I’ve taken this machine with me on road trips. Plugged into an external sound system (I plug into my van's stereo), the 15.2-inch widescreen LCD TiBook must be finest laptop on which to view DVD movies. It also works great with M$ Office.

I would also second many of the cracks already mentioned (Split Pillar at Squamish, Godzilla and Breakfast of Champions at Index, and some of the fine cracks at Tieton—my favorites are Inca Road, Jam Exam, Salmon Song). Some not mentioned that I would add are Cocaine crack at Leavenworth, pitch 1 of Clean Break, NW Corner of NEWS dihedral pitch, and crack pitches of SEWS Direct E Buttress. My bias is for cracks that have great jams, have position and be neither for beginners nor too hard. Being part of an otherwise great route is also a plus.

Scott, your "Pass Camera's" page that displays the DOT web cams states the following; It is a bad idea to use stuff that belongs to others and claim it as your own.

Well, the WSDOT says both Cayuse and Chinook remain open today. I'd guess probably until significant snowfall.

I found that I had to log in with my screen name rather than my old log in name. Old password was fine though.

Although I was nearby and heard the "whomp" from the fall, I did not directly witness the event, know the cause of it, or the extent of the girl’s injuries. Several theories about the cause of the accident were circulating, but the most convincing was that the rope that was being used (40m is what I heard) was inadequate for the climb, and that the accident occurred when the climber was being lowered and the rope went through the belayer’s device. I do hope the girl in question has a full recovery. I find it so sad that if this was what happened that it was so easily preventable. Insuring that the rope we use is adequately long seems so fundamental.

Mt Rainier conditions: LOCATION (ELEVATION) TEMPERATURE (F) WIND DIR SPEED (MPH) SUMMIT (14410) 25 N 25-35 CAMP MUIR (10000) 39 N 25-35 PARADISE (5500) 56 VARIABLE 5-15 FREEZING LEVEL NEAR 11000 FEET TUESDAY AND 12000 FEET WEDNESDAY.

You should call the Park Service. I heard it was closed 11/15.