PaulB

New England and upstate NY are pretty good places to live if you are a climber. Lots of crags for rock & ice, and of course bouldering. Mountaineering options are limited, but Mt. Washington and Cannon Mt. in NH, and Mt. Katahdin in ME can dish up some good challenges. Most of America's top alpine climbers have spent time in the Northeast due to the training potential. To get a feel for the history and current scene, check out the video "Uncommon Ground".

Here: NPS Morning Report Check the April 17th report for the Swain item.

I liked the story in today's report about "special agent" Todd Swain busting another park employee for embezzlement. I'm assuming this is the same Todd Swain of Red Rocks and Gunks guidebook fame.

Ahh......so you were the guy on the bench. I was one of the two who headed up onto the Neve after your solo friend. We lost his track in drifting snow and zero vis at about 6700' heading up to the Tent. We turned around shortly thereafter, once we realized were caught in one of the wind cirques, and couldn't see how to get out of it other than to follow our tracks back downhill. Another (VOC?) group that managed to come over from Garibaldi Lake said they didn't see anyone heading in the other direction, but thought they heard someone calling out at one point. Hopefully your friend made it through OK.

Etopo sells scanned images of the standard Canadian topos. These can be printed with any imaging program, but they come with calibration data for use with Ozi Explorer. Spectrum Digital Imaging also sells Canadian topos on CD. I found that the Spectrum maps were higher quality images (they've been touched up after scanning), but I bought the Etopo ones because the price was better in terms of maps per $ spent.

Neoprene is indeed waterproof! Wetsuits work by warming up a thin layer of water between your skin and the neoprene. The water enters through the neck, ankle and wrist openings.... not through pores in the neoprene. Many dry suits are made of neoprene. What makes them "dry" is the latex cuffs and neck seal, and the fact that the suit is slightly pressurized.

I don't know much about their backpacking tents, but I've had a Eureka Timberline (3 season, a-frame, canoe/car camping tent) for about 15 years, and its still in great shape.

While I was at Intuiton, I discussed this with Robert (who was very helpful), and his main argument against having footbeds in the liners is that they take up too much space. They feel that getting the liners molded to your feet is just as effective as getting custom footbeds, with the benefit of it all being one piece.

So for those who are interested, here's what happened. I spent the last week walking around my apartment trying out two different sizes (UK 9 & 9.5) of Alphas. The difference being that the 9 has a "9" shell and the 9.5 has a "10" shell. The idea of down sizing double boots doesn't seem to apply to Alphas, since my "street" size is a UK 8.5 (which would also use a "9" shell). I took both pairs over to Intuition to see about getting a pair of their liners, and found that I couldn't comortably get a liner into the 9. The Intuition foam is much thicker than the standard Alpha liner, and the Alphas are very low volume boots. I did fit a liner into the larger shell, but the bulk of the doubled foam around the ankle made it hard to tightly lace the cuff. Not so great for front pointing. So in the end I returned both pairs of boots. The 9 shell seemd like the perfect size, but was a bit tight with the standard liner. The 10 shell was comfy, but too big and sloppy feeling. Nice boots, but unfortunately they don't seem to fit my feet. A 9.5 shell would have been perfect.

The show in question was a NOVA episode called "Everest:The Death Zone", which was filmed by David Breashears. It featured Breashears, Viesturs and a couple of other climbers. They underwent brain scans and cognitive testing in Seattle, and repeated the testing at various altitudes on Everest and when they got back to Seattle. It was a bit scary to see these world class climbers giggling their asses off while trying to answer test questions at altitude. The comment on Ed's brain scan was that compared to what the docs considered "normal", it appeared that over the years his brain had atrophied, presumably due to so much time at altitude. I don't believe that they implied he had suffered any long term mental degeneration. If you haven't seen this show, it's worth tracking down. Lots of good scenery, none of the Hollywood climbing hype and a sobering look at what altitude can do to even the best climbers. Two thumbs up

I've used Superfeet, custom footbeds and orthotics. Superfeet are a good value, and a good place to start. If your feet still hurt with Superfeet, then you might want to consider orthotics. In the end, whatever you spend to get comfortable feet will seem worth it.

I called Intuition, and was surprised to find out that their climbing liners are only $120CDN. They said that using their liners would let me go with a smaller shell (as per Twight doctrine), and still have warmth and wiggle room for my toes. The other surpise was that they don't recommend putting a footbed or orthotics inside their liners. Anyone have comments/experience with this?

The fun part in the UK is that while they are officially metric, many speed signs are still in mph, while most distances are shown in km.

In any case, people are laying down the $$$ for arc'teryx. I was at Whistler yesterday, and I couldn't believe how many people were wearing their jackets and pants. Granted, Whistler isn't the best example of "normal" consumer spending habits. As for CMS, I picked up a pair of Scarpa Alphas for $300CDN this weekend, which I thought was a pretty good deal.

I've been trying on Alphas and have settled on a size that seems to be right, but may be a bit snug. Has anyone with these boots found that the liners packed out? If the Alpha liners pack out as much as the ones in my T2's have, the end result should be an excellent fit, but if not, I think they'll be too tight for cold weather. Thanks in advance for any info.

For anyone heading across the border in the near future, you might want to check these out: WA Border Cams BC Border Cams According to the radio its about a 2 hour wait if you're heading north this afternoon.

I have an Expedition-25, but I haven't sat out any major storms in it, so I can't comment on its performance in crappy weather. It has enough room for three people, but for a long trip I'd probably only want to have two in it. On the other hand, it's a bit too bulky and heavy for just two people to carry. The round doors are probably good from a structural point of view, but are a pain when getting in and out cause you have to step/crawl over the "sill". That also makes cooking in the vestibule a bit inconvenient. For what I paid (I got it for slightly more than dealer cost) I'm happy with it, but I went with Moss when I wanted to get a two man tent.

It's amazing how the precipitation stops right at the Canadian border.

Apparently one of the two victims was the founder of Outdoor Research. More info at Telemark Talk

The alpine wasn't closed yesterday, but the Peak Chair didn't open until around 11, and Harmony until noon. I think it was more to do with poor visibility than too much snow. They did let some guys up the Peak chair early, it looked like they were doing a photo shoot on the cliff band to the right. Gave everyone waiting in line something to watch as guys hucked themselves off the cliff.

Sounds like a neat idea..... Esprit Firefly

You can check the forecast for Kamloops at BC Weather The forecast for Sunpeaks is at Sunpeaks Forecast and for Whistler at Whistler Alpine Forecast

Does that include climbs in the Bridge River?

I must have lucked out on seasonal clearances the first year after CMS got bought, 'cause I haven't seen any lately. As for service, a few months ago I noticed they had some Riva Z bindings laying around without any price tag. I couldn't find anyone who even knew that it was a ski binding, let alone figure out the price for it. That being said, I once went into the MEC in Toronto to pick up some ice screws (it was August, but I needed it for a trip) and asked the heavily pierced gym rat behind the climbing counter if they had any in stock. His response was to turn around and ask his co-worker "Duude, what's an ice screw?".

I thought this quote from the Ice forum would be good for some discussion..... Travis' comment reminded me of an article in Friday's Vancouver Sun about MEC laying off (for the first time ever) some head office staff. One of the potential reasons cited was increased competition from CMS, and MEC having missed the boat marketing to the younger demographic. I have to agree with Travis that the service at CMS usually sucks. On the other hand, I've been able to score some pretty sweet end of season deals on gear that I would have otherwise bought at MEC. How do you folks view these two stores? (This is obviously not a TR, so moderators please feel free to relocate it)