G-spotter

^^ I know this thread is spray-free but that first pic is a tough sell on "cleanest"?

No shit? Thank for clearing that up. I suspect many Oregonians would have no idea

Fern's pics from the Duffey: Carl's Berg Shreddie Upper Rambles Right (Petersen-Smaridge dihedral)

We were thinking about Sumallo but figured the new snow was teh suck. Good to hear we were correct! How did the ice below the NF of Silvertip look?

Adrian is going to blog format for reports this year http://westcoastice.wordpress.com/ First conditions report should be up later this week. I saw where Fern said the Duffy was super thin on the w/e. Sumallo is forming, good to go by midweek maybe. First Time Lucky is fattest. Anthrax Ripple is all there but very thin. Cruncy Frog is about 60%. Landmark curtain is 1/4 way down. B/K is very gray (thin), upper unclimbed ice is quite impressive. Hope is forming more slowly, except Mousetrap which has more water and is forming faster. no idea what's up in the Fraser Canyon. Heard there is some ice around Box Canyon already, quite thin though. Snowline is quite high, allows access to some rarely reachable things, go get'er! landmark and the BK forming Unclimbed ice/mixed line above the BK Crunchy Frog trying to form

Brunswick sardines in mustard sauce. 89 cents a can at Superstore? Hard to find this flavour at other stores. some IGAs have them but for $1.49 a can. The tomato sauce ones are good too. Old Cassin soft iron pins are very good dual purpose spoons/pro.

Trip: Crown Mountain (North Shore) - Crown Couloir aka Crater Couloir Date: 12/6/2009 Trip Report: Sweet alpine travelling on the North Shore. Snowpack like rock, no need for flotation, just traction on the steeps. Hard to kick steps, snow too hard. Graham Rowbotham and I left the Grouse parking lot around 7:30, were in the lodge before 9, and at the base of Goat by 10. We put on crampons there and met a party coming back who had left at 5 and climbed the Crown Couloir and summited around 9. They told us we were "too late" and that the route was falling apart. Ummmm WTF. The route gets morning sun and then goes into the shade. Dropped down to Crown Pass then down into Hanes Valley and cramponed over to the couloir, which begins south of Widowmaker. North face of Goat from the base of the Couloir. looks like some awesome mixed potential in the right conditions. Les MacDonald did some really obscure summer rock route here in the late 50s. Graham below the route, goes up on the left. We found excellent bullet hard snow in the couloir with one short WI2 ice step of maybe 20m. Took me longer than Graham because I was getting serious crampage in both legs until I ate a can of sardines. Sardine power took care of the electrolyte imbalance and tasted good too. Also the strong northeasterly was just rushing up this thing so we had a tailwind near the top. I heard Squamish had gusts to 90kmh. It might have been almost that windy on Crown. Graham in the narrows. The WI2 step. Easy peasy but the first ice of the season for me. We topped out around 1ish. Graham went to tag the summit while I sat in the sun and just out of the wind in the Crater Rim rocks and ate more food and tried to thaw out. Then reversed the normal route to Crown Pass and slogged back thru the Grouse hordes to the tram. Stopped off in the lodge for beer and ho soup, 3:30 ish. Took tram down, back at car 4:15 ish and home in da Wack by 6. There was a big lasagna in the oven waiting for me to arrive! Waiting to download. Anyways since the ice is still thin in Hope and Lillooet, and there is breakable crust in the Sea to Sky and Cascade alpine, it seems like the best solution is the North Shore alpine where conditions are ideal. I suspect that the Lions, Harvey etc are all in prime, once-in-a-decade climbing conditions right now so get some! This was my first time up the Crown Couloir in winter conditions. It is a classic moderate alpine outing. The overall angle is not as steep as Harvey's NF ramp but the WI crux felt a little more sustained tha the normal conditions on Harvey. Overall probably easier than Harvey but a much longer approach unless you take the tram up. Gear Notes: Two tools and crampons. good opportunities for short screws in the ice, pickets if you want them but you don't really need them. would be good for one long axe and one tool too. Due to the lower angle for most of the way you are using your spike with only a couple sections on the picks. Approach Notes: Grouse Grind is officially closed so there are fewer people on the trail. Only got passed by 4 hikers this time which is a new low for me. No need for snowshoes. Ski conditions = barf.

Hope probably won't be in till the weekend except maybe mousetrap Sumallo should be in by Wed or Thurs up the canyon probably the same north Shore Alpine is off the charts though1 the snow is like concrete styrofoam, squeak squeak.

He's coming on to you Pat.

I have no idea. I am still using the MEC Belay Overparka from 2001. gord told me that nobody else bought one, they made like 800 and only sold 300. I suspect something similar may happen again, in which case, look around on the clearance racks come spring.

Unless, say, it's swollen shut.

But don't you see that's just EVIDENCE that these creatures are some sort of shapeshifting extradimensional entities?!

I encountered several large, hairy, bipedal hominids in the Queen Charlottes. Those girls ain't never heard of Lululemon up there.

or switched shoe sponsors I guess...

In Progression you watch Patxi try this high intensity strength training to be #1 competition climber then BOOM his foot slips and he's in third. Should have trained technique more

Waterproof gloves do not remain so. For the same price as one pair of spendy do it all gloves you can get 3 to 5 pairs of cheap gloves and rotate them so you always have a warm dry pair to put on. and then when you wear some holes in a pair (and you will) it's only $40-50 for a new pair instead of $150

So it was a hoax by the police to cover up their own killing spree: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/perus-human-fat-killers-were-invented-to-cover-up-deaths-1833160.html

Same tactics different problem.

"AIDs is not caused by HIV. Just a coincidence." "The eye is so irreducibly complex it could not have ever evolved." "The Grand Canyon was formed by the Biblical flood." "Smoking does not cause cancer. Sick Building Syndrome is to blame."

Warmer and heavier than the DAS

So in Alan's interview he says there are as many trad as sport routes at Smith. Is that only true if you include the Gorge? What's the trad/sport breakdown for the tuff?

And some bitch

Why do you say "gay" when you mean "lame"? I fixed it for you O_W. He should be hating on cripples, not fags or retards. Right?

I think the first Watts guidebook is probably the best guidebook I have ever read. Psyched to see the new one! Especially after all the fun we've had designing fake covers for the April Fools "New smith guide!!!" threads over the years here on cc.com.