sayjay

Yikes! Someone please kill this thread before the jokes get any worse!!

(and yes, she is peeing. if you don't believe me go to icegirl's home page and click on the "Freshette" link)

what I want to know, trask, is what you'd do in this situation...

I think Freud would have had a lot of fun with you.

Okay, DM. I'll buy that - though you won't catch me doing much free-soloing beyond mid-5th! Stay safe out there...

quote: 2. free of rope or harness (fall takes you to the ground-not hanging on a rope) Why this requirement?If you get up a climb clean on trad gear does it really lessen what you've done just because you protected yourself from injury/death in the process? I could understand if you were only arguing against climbs with bolts, but I don't understand why "pure climbing" only comes if you risk bad injury or death...That's just absurd.

quote: Can you take your own snowmachine up there, or is it private property, or private parking, or something? And if you can, can you continue further (past the huts) towards the good skiing/climbing, or is that wilderness, or would that just be plain uncool 'cause it's a nice peaceful area? I'm pretty sure you can't take your own snowmachine up there-- mattp do you know? I also don't believe you can take snowmobiles past the huts because it becomes a wilderness area on the way there. Also, yes, it would be plain uncool cause it is a really nice peaceful area as soon as you get away from the huts.

quote: SayJay, whats the beta on getting a snow machine ride up to huts. What did they charge you guys? The huts are on Scottish Lake and the good skiing/climbing is a bit further at Julius Lake, correct? The huts aren't actually on a lake. (Scottish Lakes describes the collection of lakes in the area). Yes, Lake Julius is maybe a couple miles -- mainly a traverse, on trail -- from the huts. Info is on a web site:www.scottishlakes.comThey charged us $30 a head to haul us and our gear to the huts. Pricey if you ask me, but well worth saving you the ~8-9 miles (I'd say) of not-so-entertaining skiing in. I'd rather spend the $$ and spend my time in the high country! We did ski *out* though as it's mostly downhill and fast going-

Well it wan't exactly knee-deep powder but yeah it was good skiing. We just did the approach on Sunday and hit the high open country on Monday and at least then it was all hard-pack powder. It was colder on Monday than it was on Sunday so maybe that was the difference, along with the fact that the slopes we skied were between ~6000' and 7200'. On the slopes that weren't subject to a lot of wind or sun there was actually a really nice layer of packed powder for cutting turns. On our way out, when we got below about 5200' monday late afternoon/early evening it *was* mushy...

Hey mattp, Thanks for the info. Yeah, it looked very vertical, and it looked like a good line would be left down low then head towards the middle. That's cool that you worked there for a season -- it's a fantastic area. Looks like now they are maintaining trails only as far as Julius, but they've extended the trail system around the huts a lot in the last few years. I said people rarely go beyond Julius because this is what we were told by the folks working there. Two of the guys who were on their second season working there hadn't even ever been up beyond Julius and a third made some statement about how great it was that "SOMEONE was FINALLY taking advantage of the easy access to great alpine skiing". That and the fact that we didn't see sign of anyone else up there on a three day weekend :-)

Was up in the Scottish Lakes area this weekend for some backcountry skiing and saw a gorgeous-looking pitch of blue ice above the north end of Lake Julius. It looked to be in good shape, and given that it's at ~5200', is north-facing and on the east side of the crest I'd imagine that this ice stays in for awhile. Has anyone out there climbed this? The approach from below looked a little brutal but doable -- not long, just on a very very steep boulder field that may have super-deep snow -- and it could definitely be set up from above by crossing a ridgeline... What's great is that you can get a shuttle ride up via snowmobile from the people that run the Scottish Lakes huts. That gets you to 5,000', and it's only a couple mile ski to the lake from there so the approach (if you're willing to shell out the $$) is easy for a climb in a relatively remote area. Apparently it's a rarity that the masses who stay at the Huts actually trek any further into the wilderness than the south end of Lake Julius. We camped one lake higher up and hit some gorgeous backcountry and great skiing and didn't see another soul--

*Twice* I've loaned whitewater kayak paddles out to recently-become-ex-boyfiends and gotten them back in two pieces. The first time it was a custom-made wooden paddle that I loved but was stupid enough to loan it out for a first descent of a waterfall. He got stuck in a hydraulic at the bottom of the falls where it broke but managed to roll and get out the a single blade. Glad it had a happier ending than Lambone's story--

I'm with Erik. You guys are mean!And you wonder why the lurker-to-poster and male-to-female ratio is so high on this site...Or maybe you want to keep it this way? [ 02-15-2002: Message edited by: sayjay ]

Hey, I'll take these aliens as long as they'll protect me on a climb! I especially want the one that levitates...maybe he could teach me how to do that so I can stop carrying all this $*%U&)#* metal around.

quote: first of all when does the climbing season start and end??? i have heard this before....it worries me that i do not know when the season is cause i tend to be out there all the time and i would hate to get caught for clibing out of season.....any info oyu could relay would be greatly appreciated....thank you in advance... fine, fine, point taken. you can always find a place to climb outside though I'd like to know where you can get out on rock during the week in Dec-March if you have a 9-5+/7. and when it's winter i'd rather spend the weekends on snow/ice. quote: second of all i dont climb in gyms....see above right, gathered that. i just don't think you need to slam on those of us that do.

erik: quote: i took your response as stating that trad climbers do not use features....i use them all the time. my fat ass needs everything i can to get up the hardest 5.4+ route in the world.... so what's your problem w/ using features in a gym for practice? (i know, i know, it's not the *same* as being on real rock, but it does improve skills more than doing, well, *nothing*, which is the other option for those of us who can't get out on the real stuff during the week).

Lambone: quote: I think that the people who are most dissapointed with gym climbing are the ones who expect it to be like the "real" thing. Its not, its the gym, its plastic, plywood and concrete. just to clarify: I didn't intend to say indoor climbing was like real rock. I really think of it as really a separate entity altogether that has the great benefit of helping me get in shape for the climbing season. If I didn't have to work okay I'm sure I could get conditioning in outside during the week but, hey, some of us have jobs!

so erik I take it from your response that you don't ever use features outside? oh, I know, if you don't have a crack to jam your foot into you just let your feet flail and haul yourself up by your studly arms...

quote: is it so important to have texture? maybe the routesetters aren't adding enough holds to their routes to give you foot options and intermediates thus making you wish you had features to use. although features can make the walls look cooler and give you more options, my opinion is that it would be better to have more creative setting with more holds and eliminate the confusion of all the features that (if used) can mess up the specific moves the route setter intended you to make. I completely disagree. Features (at least the ones at Seattle VW) make the climbs much more like real outdoor rock. Smearing skills, even if you are exclusively a trad climber, are important and its great to get used to what your feet will stick to. Small holds just arent' the same.

VW in Seattle (haven't been to the one in Redmond) for leading and longer climbs. Stone Gardens is very bouldering-oriented, which I am not. VW crowd seems more experienced in trad/alpine climbing and so a good place to hook up with folks wanting to do the same stuff I do. BTW, SG was remodelled recently and now does have textured walls, though I don't know how good they are as I haven't climbed there since the change.

specialed - click on "imperial units" for deg F. 6C=43F... yup, CRAPOLA. kinda makes you jones for colorado, eh?

Ummm, you might want to be careful about Mt. Cook climbing beta from the 1980's, seeing as a very large chunk of the summit fell off in Dec., 1991... [ 02-04-2002: Message edited by: sayjay ]

Jason, thanks for the info. Well worth knowing. I'll shred that page of the book... which is, by the way, great to have. I appreciate your putting it out there. As for the rest of you, is there really no one out there that's seen these climbs recently or are you all just too reticent to give up info? C'mon, share the wealth, guys...

To add to Matt's ##'s, but specifically on the Kyoto/CO2 issue- Per capita CO2 emissions, in tonnes of carbon:U.S. 6.2Canada 5Australia 4.5Former USSR 3Japan 2.75Western Europe 2.2-2.5China 0.6Latin America 0.6India 0.25Africa 0.25 And lest you should say "yeah, but this is per capita and China & India have so many more people!"... Percent of total CO2 emissions:OECD N. America 30%OECD Europe 17%Eastern Europe 5% Former USSR 13%Japan 2.5%Oceana 2%China 6%India 4.5%Other Asia 5%N. Africa & Mid-East <2%Other Africa 5%Brzil <3.5%Other Latin America 6.5% Kinda makes it look like we're the problem, not China and India, doesn't it???

damn. good thing it's not a wednesday or i'd spend all at this thing...