PaulB

They refer to the language spoken by Quebecois as "Quebonics" That's because Quebecois French is rooted in the 1600's and has evolved differently than Parisien French over the years. For anglophones, it would be like hearing someone speaking Shakespearean English, with a bunch of regional slang thrown in. In my (and Sean Isaac's for you trivia buffs) home province of New Brunswick (the only officially bilingual province), Acadian French is dominant amongst the francophone population, and even the Quebecois can have trouble understanding it because of it's archaic form and the high speed at which it is spoken. To top it all off, many Acadians also speak a dialect called Chiac which mixes Acadian French and modern English simultaneously.

Has anyone ever done a roadtrip to the Rockies in mid November? Just wondering what conditions might be like for some of the stuff that mere mortals can climb. I'm thinking the Junkyards, Cascade, Haffner Creek, etc. for some easy early season mileage. Gadd's conditions website is great, but the fact that Terminator is "..in easy WI6 condition" doesn't help me much.

If you're gonna make the long drive north, head to the Mt. Washington valley in New Hampshire. Cranmore, Attitash & Wildcat are all close to each other, and Sunday River and Sugarloaf in Maine aren't too far away either. In the spring you can also make the pilgramage to Tuckerman's Ravine on Mt. Washington itself. If you're an ice climber, there's lots of that do in the same area as well, which makes for a nice dual purpose road trip.

It's great, except when people that have been epicing on the Weeping Wall crawl into the bunkhouse at 2AM and wake everyone up. But, that also contributes to it's charm.

My hernia was a bit above and to the left of the "jewels", and at first I thought it was just a pulled muscle and carried on with my usual activities. After a few weeks it worsened to the point that there was a visible protrusion through the hernia. Went to the doctor, who confirmed it was indeed a hernia, and within a few weeks had it repaired with a patch (wasn't kevlar, but some other exotic material). After about a month of downtime to let everything heal up, I was back out ripping it up on my tele boards. There's a lot of good info on the web about hernias. If you feel pain near your jewels, I would highly recommend getting it checked out ASAP. Do a Google search for "scrotal hernia" and you'll see why.

Lots of good beta on routes above. Here's the scoop on logistics: As usual in the east, be prepared for old school grading on some routes. When you top out on Cathedral, chat up the tourists and/or look pitiful, and if you're lucky, they'll give you a ride back down to the base while you thrill them with tales of the ascent. We used to camp for free (somewhat illegally) in the trees between Cathedral and Whitehorse. As long as you set up late, and left early, no one seemed to care, but that was a few years ago. There are lots of pay campsites in the nearby national forests which work on the honor system when the attendent isn't around. There are coin-op showers at the Pinkham Notch visitor's centre. The two climbing shops in North Conway are IME and EMS. IME has a used gear shop in the basement which is worth checking out. The lobby of EMS has the best public washroom in town. You can also visit the Wild Things factory store. My favourite climbing shop was Ragged Mountain Equipment, which is in Intervale, about 5 minutes north on HWY 302. They manufacture slings, clothes and various other items, and will usually re-sling cams overnight (sometimes while you wait). Lots of good eats around, but it can be expensive (for us Canadians, everything there was expensive!). Delaney's "Hole in the Wall" pub/restaurant is a good choice. Also, be aware that driving through North Conway on a busy weekend can take forever. The main street (HWY 302) gets totally backed up with tourists and outlet store shoppers. To avoid this, when you leave Cathedral, watch for West Side Road on your right, which runs parallel to 302 and takes you to HWY 16. Have fun, it's a great time of year to go. It is less crowded than the summer, the temps are better, and the view from the crags is amazing once the leaves change color.

I heard camp slime had been shut down. Too bad, it was a convenient place to crash.

Good job! After skiing in the area this spring, and scouting out the McParlon Creek road earlier in the summer, I've put an ascent of Thiassi on my "to do" list. Unlike Jordop, I waited until the end of a most excellent ski run down the glacier to take pictures. His legs must have been tired from the climb up. The trail (and some bushwacking) leads to the Pebble Creek cabin in Ash Pass. A great base for ski adventures, but not so convenient for ascents of Thiassi as you'd have to go up, over, and back down the significant ridge between the Pebble and McParlon glaciers. Easy and fun on skis, not so much on foot. Knowing that the hut was so close (and yet so far away) would make this even more miserable.

Also, when you come off the bridge and head west on Main St., you can't turn left to get into the store. You have to drive past, turn around at the next intersection and come back, or park in the mall across the street. On the plus side, after visting MEC you can walk across the street and patronize two other pillars of Canadian retail... Canadian Tire and Tim Hortons!

Save yourself the effort, if not some $, and check out Fugawi. C$100 gets you every topo map in the province, and their software (C$150) lets you stitch them together seamlessly. Good for hours of trip plannning fun!

Detailed mountain weather forecasts are not generally available from Environment Canada through their public website. Commercial operations like ski resorts can pay for a localized forecast, which they may publish on their own website. Rescue Dynamics in Edmonton maintains an excellent summary of BC and AB weather resources here.

Use this instead: http://members.shaw.ca/eseedhouse/wapiti/index.html

It's actually jealousy due to the fact that male Mountaineers are so good with the ladies. This sordid tale gives a rare look into their methods of seduction. Sorry, but I couldn't resist digging up this gem. Perhaps one of the funniest things I've ever read online.

Lots of relatively local options to choose from: - Head down the 401 to Kingston and check out Kingston Mills. You might run into the famous Rob Chisnall... one time holder of the world record for one finger pull ups. - The Gatineau Cliffs in Luskville (in Quebec, not far from Ottawa). Some details here. - Mazinaw Rock in Bon Echo Provinicial Park. Directions, access and other info here. - Val David in Quebec if you want to experience "la belle provence". As others have said, for major road trips, check out the Gunks in NY or Cathedral Ledge, Whitehorse Slabs and Cannon Mountain in NH. All are worthy destinations. If you're going to be there during the winter, the ice climbing options are just as good.

There's always the MEC.

Our group concluded the same thing after thrashing our way down to Lambda Lake. It probably would have been faster to just head over to the basin and pick up the trail from there.

Climb: Tantalus Range-Niobe, Pelops, Iota, Alpha Date of Climb: 7/25-28/2004 Trip Report: Spent three fantastic days at Lake Lovely Water with three of my buddies. For two of us, it was out first time in the area, and we had been looking forward to the trip for awhile. After flying in on Sunday, we climbed the NE Ridge of Niobe (a nice route with great exposure ) and scrambled up Pelops and Iota. Monday was a big day on the E Ridge of Alpha, which was fantastic !. Tuesday was spent relaxing on and around the lake, taking in the views and enjoying the sunshine, before hiking out on Wednesday. All in all, it was a great trip with great weather. As it turned out, the climbing was the easiest part of the trip, while logistics proved to be a learning experience. To get up to the lake, we took advantage of the fact that a large ACC group was flying out on Sunday. This seemed like a chance to get a cheap flight by sharing costs with the ACC group. However, the heli company had different ideas... since they had given the group a flat rate for getting everyone (about 15 people) in and out, they felt that they had already discounted the flights, and wanted $300 to take us into the lake. Not that $300 wasn't a good deal compared to the regular cost (about $400), but it was more than we expected to pay for what would otherwise be an empty flight that had already been paid for by the ACC group. On top of that, when we got to the airport on Sunday morning, there were two other people waiting to fly in, who were being charged $100/person. In the end, we figured that for about 25 minutes of flight time (two round trips to get six of us in), they got about $1400 from all the parties involved. As one person observed, "Really, what can you say? It's their machine, they can charge whatever they want." The most frustrating part of the trip revolved around our accomodations. We had tried to get reservations for the ACC hut, but had been told that it was fully booked for the whole week, and the next two as well. As it turned out, there was absolutley no one in it the entire time we were up there . This weighed heavy on our minds and bodies as we hiked down the trail on Wednesday, with packs full of tents, stoves and other camping equipment. Our exit strategy was to hike down to the river and get picked up by Jay Bicknell who can be hired to ferry people across the river. Now, for this to work, the boat actually has to show up at the agreed upon rendezvous time, which in our case, did not happen. We had called and left a message before leaving the lake to say we were on our way down and that we would call again when we got to the river. We arrived an hour ahead of schedule, left another message and settled in to wait. When the agreed upon meeting time came and went, we made another call and left another message, fully expecting that he would soon show up. However, after an hour, and a couple more unanswered calls, we got the distinct feeling that we had been stood up. We called Murray at Valhalla Pure to see if he knew anyone else who might be able to pick us up, but he couldn't think of anyone right away. This left us with the options of using the cable to tyrolean (although we didn't really have suitable gear) or someone could suck it up and swim/float across and go in search of someone with a boat. Just as we were about to make a decision, we heard a small boat that had earlier gone upriver, coming back down. We waved him over, and soon made the aquaintance of Patrick Lewis, a member of the Squamish Nation. A quick bargain was struck, and for the sum of $10/person he took us two at a time down to his fishing camp on the east bank of the river, complete with cold beer! One of his friends then gave us a lift to the airport to pick up our vehicle, which in our absence had had the rear window smashed in. This was somewhat ironic, since we had figured it would be safer to leave a vehicle at the airport, rather than parked near the cable crossing at the river. Despite all of this, my first trip to the Tantalus Range was great , and I'll definitely be back. Gear Notes: NE Ridge of Niobe - some folks might want a rope E Ridge of Alpha - Standard rack for the crux pitch, double ropes useful for a group of four Approach Notes: Can't say that I'd recommed Mr. Bicknell and his ferry "service" . Give Patrick Lewis a call at 604-898-9107, he'll be happy to give you a ride across the river.

Fugawi maps can only be uploaded to the Garmin iQue 3600, which is a combined PDA/GPS gizmo. As far as I know, there are no GPS units that allow you to upload Canadian topo maps. A few have street databases, but thats about it.

Actually the Fugawi maps are on DVD , and for the price of about 10 paper maps, you get the entire province. Just print out the bits you need. Don't get me wrong, I love looking at paper maps, but for investigating out of the way places that you might not want to actually buy a map for, digital is the way to go. Even more useful if you combine it with GPS info, especially now that Fugawi has the "seamless" feature.

Get them in digital format from Etopo or Fugawi. I bought the Etopo maps a couple of years ago, but if I was buying right now I'd go with the Fugawi. Fugawi's dealer in Seattle is: CycoActive Products 701 34th Avenue Seattle, WA 98122 206-323-2349

With the heat we've been having lately, the transition from snow to ice in the alpine is probably well underway. Wedge, Fissile, Castle Towers, the NE face of Joffre or the NW face of Matier would be good choices. The 'schrund on Garibaldi is likely gargantuan by now. Some other possibilities here and here.

After spending four days at Lake Lovelywater, we arrived at the Squamish airport this afternoon to find the back window of my buddie's CRV smashed in. Nothing was stolen, but it was a crappy end to a great trip.

No bolts that I noticed. If you wanted, you could build an anchor just about anywhere on the route.

Discontinued, but still available. Coast Mountain is clearing out Khamisn and Bora 30's for $99 right now.

While not a climber/belayer dialogue, Dru's story reminded me of something I witnessed in the Gunks many years ago. We were hanging out near "Camp Slime", which is beside the road that divides the Trapps and the Near Trapps crags. We'd had a good day of climbing, and were enjoying some brews when we see a cadillac pull up across the road. Two big guys in suits get out and survey the surroundings. One exclaims, in a full Brooklyn accent, "This is fukin' beaudaful! Ain't this fukin' beaudaful? We godda get out of the city more." His friend looks around and nods in agreement. The first guy then says, "OK, let's talk about what happened this morning. Don't ever show people what's in da trunk! You got me? Never open da trunk! I don't care what they say....the trunk stays closed." The second guys looks a bit admonished/relieved and mumbles something apologetic. "Good. Now ain't this fuckin' beaudaful? We should come up here more often" By this point we're pretty sure we're looking at two full fledged memebrs of the mob, so we just keep drinking our beers and not drawing attention to ourselves. After a few minutes they get in the caddy and drive away, and we can't help but wonder... what's in the trunk? For the rest of the trip, everytime we got to a belay with a nice view we'd say "Ain't this fukin' beaudaful?".