russ

One situation where poacher killing is justifiable homicide. You do the work of breaking a trail in and some lame ass (probably most of YOU) hangs back til the top. Then flies through to hop on the freshies. It's completely acceptable to chase them down, gut'em and leave the carcass for the snaffle hounds. It's also permissible to sell their gear on E-Bay.

In the meantime look at data here. Pretty impressive so far...

I'd give Sturtavante another try - maybe call and make an appointment as I did to have my liners molded. I've used them several times and had nothing but excellent results. Fitting may be a 2-3 trip process as you spend time in the boots and find hot spots. Another place to try is Pro Ski Service on Aurora. Haven't used them as much, but got excellent service when I did.

Hey, shouldn't this thread be in Spray??

I haven't tried making turns with the hardwire down. The spring tubes would ride really low and might be knock loose on a turn. But I don't think it would hurt anything to give it a shot...

I'm meant having the cable/hotwire adjusted to the right length for your boots. Then mount the heel piece the correct distance back, so the throw of the cable/hotwire fits behind the heel piece. The heel riser has a rear lip to help hold it in place.

If you set it up right, you don't have to remove the cable/hotwire for skinning up. just lock it on the backside of the heel plate riser.

I lost a bet once while traveling in Europe. A very large German named Helmut bet me he could open a bottle of wine without using a corkscrew, breaking the bottle or pushing the cork into the bottle. I accepted and he proceeded to smack the butt of the bottle repeatedly with a very large and powerful hand. The cork slowly inched it's way out until it protruded enough for Helmut to grab it and pull it out. Later, while skiing on a glacier we had the same dilemma. With gloved hands we tried to repeat Helmut's stunt, but it hurt too much. I think we used a sneaker and smacked it with that until the cork came out enough for us to grab it. My climbing partner tried the hold & smack method a few years ago, about a week before we were suppose to climb Stuart. Bottle shattered - sliced finger tendon - end of climbing season.

1.Tua Sumo - all round tele, but better off-piste 2. BD Mira - all round AT 3. Atomic 8.20 - tele edging ski - for firm on-piste days 4. Atomic Tourcap Guide - light weight spring ski that I can't decide to mount as tele or AT

I'd advice you to go out and try on as many AT boots as you can. Try to decide if you want a monster boot w/ lots of support, but more pain on the approach. Or if you want lighter, hence less support but easier skinning. If you can spring for it, go w/ moldable liners - they're warmer and you get more of custom fit. The most important thing is fit. Dynafit, Silveretta and Fritschi all make good bindings - again what features are most important to you. weight, easy of step-in, pivot action.... Naxo's look cool, but are unproven.. Think about the feature most important to you, then narrow it down. There - I haven't told you anything you didn't already know!

Yeah, but soon you'll be past that stage and you'll be glad have skins that will continue to work for you.

Good TR - I enjoyed the detail. pretty straight forward,not much chest beating at all. to him.

why all the way to the upper saddle, would think they'd drop loads at the lower??

dryad - a word of caution (that you may already know). If you don't have the basics down pretty well, it might be pretty frustrating trying to learn/improve while skiing in the backcountry. To get the most out of this kind of camp, you already need to have a certain level of skill. A number of years ago it was possible to get a 2 hr lesson a Snoqualmie. I'd recommend taking a short lesson, then get as much ski time on-piste as possible before going to the bc camp. If I've misread your present ski level, please ignore. Have fun...

I'd really recommend demo'ing before you fork over the bucks for the Shuksan. 2 years ago they were also highly recommend to me (by the shop) as an AT ski. Found a pair to demo and I was totally unimpressed. Just kind of a midspeed cruiser, not particularly lively. I ended up demo'ing and getting Mira's. Since then I've skied w/ 2-3 people that have Shuksans and when I ask about them, the first response is 'yea, they're good'. But after talking a little, they seemed less enthused... New ones may ski differently - not matter which skis you're interested in - demo.....

Yah, I had the wrong weight listed on my gear chart. 8 oz for the dynafit 85mm crampons.

not quite - Skalp are fixed, but Dynafits pivot at the attachment point so lift with each step (unless you've modified them to optionally stay down as I have on my tele set-up).

weight: 10 oz. - well worth it for the energy saved bulk: store in skin bag w/ skins in center of crampon - no additional bulk.

I've used ski crampons quite a bit and consider them another tool in the bag to be brought out at the right time. I rarely use or carry them in the winter, but in the spring and summer they shine. Here's a few situations where I'd use or not use them: (gear: dynafit crampons used on AT and tele bindings) - early morning hard pack, terrain is such that I'll be keeping my skis on most of the time (easy to reach down and put on or take off. way easier than switching between boot crampons and skis) - firm conditions where you're traversing moderate to steep slopes and it's difficult to lay on enough skin surface to keep from sliding - firm or icy glacier terrain with probable/potential hidden crevasse (rather be on skis to even out weight) - if all of above are on continually steeper terrain, I generally boot crampon As I said, another tool - just go out and experiment....

Here's one climb etched in my mind forever... Friend in San Diego took me out to climb a route he had put up on an arete that probably no one would find unless he took them there. Since it wasn't expected to get much traffic (and he was a cheap bastard), he had "protected" the first 40' with 2 quarter inch studs with no hangers. There was just a nut on each stud, so you could cinch a wired stopper behind the nut. He raved about the quality of the moves so much (5.9+) that I didn't give the pro (lack of) too much thought. Also the landing was a tangle of manzanita roots 2-3' off the ground. Being a dumb shit I started up to do the historic second ascent.. Nice moves, got to the first stud and slung a wire, then made the crux moves. Just after completing the sequence, I glance down to see the wire slide off the stud and down to the belay device. Fuck! Friend starts in "ok, stay calm - just start reversing the moves" (said as he backs up out of the landing zone). I knew I didn't want to try that, so I told him to shut up so I could concentrate. The next stud was about 6-7' above, I went for it instead (probably about 5.9 face). I had mixed feeling when I hit the stud - happy to have "protection", sick because I had no confidence the wire would stay on this one as well. Cinched 2 wires - one in front and one behind the nut, put a long runner on it to minimize vibrations. Then went for a horizontal crack 10' above. I've never been so glad to reach a crack - slammed in a couple of cams and probably stayed there 15 minutes getting my head together to complete the route. Funny thing was my climbing really improved after that because I had proved to myself that I could lock out the fear if I had no choice. Of course, that was then, now my hands are shaking just typing this

Tell me more. Saw a couple of nice slabs on the east side of the lake hiking into the enchantments. Wonder if there were any routes established.

Is that the climbing rock at Camp Long ???

And you've portrayed your friend as pretty clearly NOT knowing when to go, and where to go. The boy needs sum egdeukation. Tell him to go take one of Gary Brill's avalanche class series - not very expensive.

I've got 2 different types of Schoeller pants and they're both great. For winter use Mammut Castors - which combines schoeller with a breathable membrane rule. For warm weather skiing and climbing BD Alpine pants have worked well thru 3 years of use. Just don't get a lighter style pants and expect them to work best in all conditions/all temperatures.