G-spotter

[video:youtube]

"Doctors steal so here's your bill" - Devo

The Sierras don't have much snow or ice but they do have good climbing.

Drawing inferences from extreme events is problematic. If, on the other hand, you're just waking up to the thought that climate change might affect local mountaineering, then hey, how was that 20 years sleep, Rip?

dammit

was that hard to type one-handed?

But dude what about the Throne???!!

You know there is this magical crag with cool summer temperatures and no traffic called "the alpine" eh?

it'll be the 100th anniversary of the first ascent in another week, BTW.

Ouch, dude. 70 feet!

Trip: Mt Sir Donald - NW Arete Date: 8/7/2009 Trip Report: Jesse, Jeff and I were smoked out of the Gold Range and were sitting in Revelstoke trying to come up with an alternative plan. We settled on the NW Ridge of Mount Sir Donald. We got a campsite at Illecillewaet and set the alarms on alpine time. Woke up at 2 AM and left the campground at 3:20, heading for MSD with light daypacks. The trail by headlamp Alpenglow on Jupiter Nearing the base of the mounain at dawn. We got to the Uto-Sir Donald col around 6:40 with three parties ahead of us, and started climbing around 7 AM. Even though it had been stinking hot for the last couple days it was cold at the col: I was wearing a fleece hoody with a down jacket over top. We were all soloing, and quickly caught up to the lowest of the three parties ahead of us, who were all simulclimbing and had bivied at the site below the col the night before. We climbed close to them for a while and then passed at an opportune time. Probably because of the way it was sunny on the north side, we did a lot of climbing out on the north face side and rather less on the crest of the arete, until the sun swung around and we got shadow on both sides. We passed the second party just above the West Face ledges and caught up to the third (guided) party on the summit around 10:30. A fast party that had left the campground at 6 AM got to the summit not long after us. It was a great day to be on the summit, with minimal smoke and views in every direction - the Bugs, Adamants, Gold Range and Columbia Icefields all easily visible. After lolling on the summit for almost an hour we set off on the descent. There is an extensive topo distributed by Parks Canada that describes, and I suppose implicitly recommends, the following descent: -scramble partway down the South Ridge -traverse the West Face Ledges back around to the NW ridge -downclimb the NW ridge for a ways with one or two raps off webbing stations until you find the Parks bolted rappel line - make 10-12 single rope raps down the NW ridge and then lower W face to the ground. The big advantage of this descent is that it gives you solid rappel anchors (two Fixe ring bolts) much of the way. However, the disadvantages are IMHO: - the west face ledges are loose choss with a dropoff underneath; - the 4th rappel can be screwed up, by rapping over an overhang leaving you hanging in space several meters right of the next anchor. This is highlighted in the topo, but still several parties ended up with ropes in space this day. There was a fatal accident here in 2006 where a woman from the PNW rapped off the end of her rope; -the 5th through 10th rappels are basically in a straight line down the lower west face, and there is a lot of junk on the ledges. Higher parties almost unavoidably drop rocks, some of them large, on lower parties; -Unless you are very fast with the raps it's probably faster to just downclimb the ridge rather than rappel, assuming your downclimbing skills are up to par. This is what the Jones guidebook recommends as well. Anyways we followed the Parks topo descent, as did everyone else on the mountain, but if I was going to do it again I'd either bring an axe and crampons, take the South Ridge all the way and then do the climb out over Terminal Pk and walkoff to Perley Rock, or downclimb the complete NW ridge, rather than do the W face bypass and rappel option again. We got strafed by serious rocks from parties above and it wasn't very enjoyable. It ended up taking 5 1/2 hrs to descend what had taken us 3 1/2 to climb. West face choss. Once the snow is gone, nothing holds it together. Guides reported a new significant rockfall from around here a few weeks beforehand. Traversing unpleasant scree ledges on W Face Back on the NW ridge & downclimbing below the W face ledge A short rap off slings in the midsection before the bolts start On the bolted raps down the W face of the lower NW ridge. Once back at the base we retrieved some cached trekking poles and walked out back to the campground. Total time for the round trip was a leisurely 15 hrs, some of which was sloth on our part and some of which involved unavoidable interactions with other parties. Overall this is a pretty good route although the descent we used made it less so in our opinion. The rock, advertised as impeccable, is pretty good by Rockies standards, reasonable for the Selkirks, but not amazing by Coastal standards. It may be quartzite but at least on the north side of the ridge there are many large loose blocks and quite a bit of dirt. Such a pretty line though! The climbing was not too hard; soloing it was reasonable, and the rope stayed in the pack all the way up. I was pretty happy to finally tick this route as I had been the the base in '01 and then climbed Uto instead after a snowstorm started. Walking out: Gear Notes: We had a light rack (set of nuts, 3 cams) and single 60m. We never used the pro. Raps are set up for a single 50m but having the extra length provides comfort on one or two raps, notoriously the one that can leave you hanging out of reach of the anchor if you screw it up. Given all the blocks and horns, a rack of 4 shoulder slings wih biners would probably be sufficient for pro... Crampons and ice axe not needed when we were there but had been useful up until about 2 weeks prior & would also be useful if planning to descend South ridge. Approach Notes: Good trail from campground to base: 4km, 1200m elevation gain to col. Then 800m from col to summit on route.

Don't bolt the coral

It's kinda like bellbottoms: both the generation before and the generation after despise them.

Meanwhile in the Bow Valley:

By human intention - as you'd know if you read the MCR post

Dude you're supposed to wear shorts over those polypro's.

Most of the people that I know who died in the mountains, did it while skiing. Moral: take up snowboarding.

Why not just buy toilet paper, it is cheaper and will give you more enjoyable moments than the Olympdicks

Maybe a meteorologist or atmospheric physicist would be a better expert than an ER physician to tell you how to avoid being hit by lightning?

I thought FKT stood for Fastest Klenke Time?

I'm as trad as they come. And when I say come I mean serious bukkake.