Roger

damn, it's retro-week. Is it because we miss trask? I liked the part of this thread where dru waited 36 minutes and one intervening post before responding to his faux female avatar...

thrash - glad you had a good day; thanks for the beta. We did pretty well navigationally until after the falls - then had a couple of issues finding the goddamn road. Ask dave for details...

Climb: Mt. Hood-Reid Glacier ski descent Date of Climb: 3/20/2004 Trip Report: The plan was to leave a shuttle at the Ramona Falls trailhead, skin up to Illumination Saddle from Timberline, and ski all the way down the Reid. The USFS had other plans, as the road to Ramona Falls was closed just off Lolo Pass Road at the bridge over the Sandy, which would add an extra 3+ miles at the end of the day. Oh well. Weather was perfect and warm on Saturday, and we got to Illumination Saddle around 11:45 with time to burn. Ate a leisurely lunch, talked with some folks (met Thrashador – thanks for the beta), and generally dicked around while letting the sun work its magic on the west side. We started down around 1:00, traversing right from the saddle and then dropping in: There was some great snow up high – the key was to stay in the big pockets of wind deposits: Great views of the Reid headwall and Leuthold's from the flat part of the glacier: We headed far right to avoid the cliffs and icefall in the middle of the glacier, into a steeper and narrow section next to Yocum Ridge that opened up into a sweet, long fall line with great snow that provided the best turns of the day. Note skier and tracks at center left of this photo: Traversed to the right onto the lower part of Yocum ridge, and had great views of the Sandy: Closeup of the Sandy headwall for anyone who might be interested in climbing the sucka: Followed the ridge down, ultimately dropping onto the left side of the ridge just above timberline, onto a south facing slope where things got wet and grabby. Tree skiing turned into ski-bushwacking as we attempted to descend while bearing as far right as possible, aiming roughly for where we thought Ramona Falls should be. We were actually still having fun at this point: Pretty soon we had to cross to the north side of a stream and deal with a lot of windfall, so the skis came off and we thrashed our way down, making frequent map checks and still bearing slightly north. We may have been a little too proud of ourselves when we finally hit the trail (which was totally dry) only about 100 yards north of Ramona Falls. It was exactly 4:20. Somehow we managed to piss away 50 minutes at the falls, but at this point we thought we were basically done: Since the trail appeared to be totally dry in both directions from the falls (it's a loop), we were expecting a mindless trail hike to the road, and then down the road to the car. But around a few bends in either direction of the falls we encountered deep snow and no chance of staying on trail. Skis back on, we pole generally west on mostly flat ground, picking our way through trees for maybe half an hour until we finally hit the trail, which speeds us up considerably. We proceed to follow a set of ski tracks and footprints on what appears to be the road, but after a while it becomes clear that it isn't the road, and we're just back in the forest again, but now it's 6:45. We keep moving west, and with about 8 minutes of light left we find the road, and ski down to about a quarter mile from the gate. Almost to the car in the dark, the snowboarder informs us that he left the shuttle keys in the van up at Timberline Lodge. We are certain he must be joking. He isn't. We resist the urge to throw him into the Sandy River, and weigh our options. We visit a nearby campsite and find a really friendly guy from Gresham who agrees to give us a ride all the way up to Timberline. Once on the road, it quickly becomes clear that one of the reasons he's so friendly is that he's been drinking heavily since about noon. This drive is clearly the sketchiest part of the entire day. He swerves all over the road for 20 miles up to Timberline, and then immediately drives into axle-deep mud in the parking lot and gets stuck. We push him out, give him some cash, and head to the Zig Zag inn for beer and burgers. Gear Notes: Map and compass!

there's still a lot of snow in there... we were able to ski down to within about 1/4 mile of the gate (which is at the bridge over the Sandy), so I doubt that road will be melted out for another month. I'll put up a TR later tonight.

we did, but we needn't have bothered because my former friend the snowboarder left his keys to the shuttle in the van up at timberline. Also, the road to ramona falls was closed, so we pretty much had to park at Lolo pass road. So it was a longer day than planned, but a great ski.

nice photos iain - what a great day. Here's to never ever ever hiking down the south side. Saw you and the pmr posse gathering in the climbers cave saturday morning. We skied down the reid and out through ramona falls - when I have a chance to cull some photos later today, I'll post a TR.

maybe under your totalitarian regime, but not down here in the People's Republic of Oregon, where checkpoints are unconstitutional. If you can get auto insurance before your court date, and show up with proof of insurace, the judge may let you walk on that $570 ticket, or at least cut it significantly, but it sounds like it wasn't your car, so this gets even more complicated.

an officer must have 'probable cause' to pull you over, but Thinker is correct that they can pretty much make up whatever they want as a justification if they really want to pull you over, such as "he was driving erratically." In the traffic stop context, probable cause only means that "the officer subjectively believes that the infraction occurred and that belief is objectively reasonable under the circumstances." In other words, they don't have to be right that you actually committed an infraction, they just have to have a reasonable belief that you did. So the question is... why did the cop say he was pulling you over?

Was this on a two-pitch route, and they were both topped out? I've never been to vantage, and I'm just trying to make sense of what happened. Most of the reports are saying he fell 100 feet. Condolences to all involved.

A qwest rep referring to earthlink as a "900-lb. gorilla"...? You've got to be kidding. I don't know anything about speeds, 'cuz I'm a total tech zero. It's definitely fast enough for me, but I'm no trask.

I signed up with qwest fairly recently on their promotional offer that was definitely the best deal in town at the time - $30/mo. for a year, free installation, free modem. Not sure if they're still running it though. There might be some helpful info here - comcast vs. dsl

"I'm telling you, Ed Viesturs does too wear his helmet in the parking lot... I read it on summitpost.com!"

No. Then write some of your own, gortboy.

while Jed and Roscoe meticulously comb their packs for the ten essentials, Brenda, delirious with HAPE but blinded by summit fever, drops her pack and begins an ill-fated sprint for the summit.

I'm shocked to see only one set of gaiters in the whole group...

pot'teryx said: whoa, dude... I'm SO stoned... oh FUCK I think we're on the glacier...

AT vs. telemark plastic vs. leather bikes vs. cars I kind of miss those gripping j_b / mountain goat global warming debates about IPCC protocols.

well, if it isn't DFA, back from sabbatical? Your oft-stated aversion to BBQ puzzles me, because you clearly climb full grades harder than I ever did (I've never even been on a 5.12... except for one ill-conceived occasion when someone left their draws on Chain), but I always really liked leading that route. weird. My first lead ever was helium woman, which must have been hard for the grade at the time, because the pre-Watts pamphlets put it at 5.8.

killer time capsule. so AK, how did it work out? did you ever find any partners, or just end up trapped in the cc.com time-suck vortex for the last three years?

damn, I've never even heard of those bars... guess I don't hang out in good old NW pdx as much as I used to.

Cinema 21 is pretty big (at least by modern theater standards)... but I'd get there early, buy a ticket, and have a drink or two across the street at the Gypsy, or at that bar next door that used to be Casa-U-Eat-Me. What time do they start selling tickets? Edit: just found the answer in the "events" forum... with all the posts on this subject, I think we need a NEW TOUCHING THE VOID FORUM

nope, this one rules -

minx, does this have anything to do with why you have been waking up in Ballard lately??

that's weird, b/c the first time I read your post, it did have returns between all paragraphs. I think its a right-wing conspiracy, and FW had one of the republican moderators remove your returns.

Estrada withdrew several months ago. Clinton was at least smart enough to only do it right before he left office... Bush is just pouring fuel on the flames for his pending and future nominees. Now there is no way in hell the dems are going to approve any of the rest.