jordop

Real tricks: -mini plastic golf balls for snow anchors: it works! -7 mil rap line: you can cut it up for anchors, but you can't jug on 'em. -North Wall hammer/axe/third tool -glue neoprene to the outsides of your ski boots and add evazote 5 mil insoles: toasty

Jeez, can't ya just take the beer with you? Used to pack Grolsch flip top bottles around the North Shore and have summit nips Alps style! If you "have" to do the Grind, ie with coworkers/females, take a couple of bottles with you for the Skyride down. Haven't been kicked off yet, but then what are they going to do? My buddy's got another odd summit habit, which he calls "topping it off." So far he's got most of the volcanos (its sort of payback to have to share the mountain with victims of the dreaded "Cascade Volcano Syndrome"). He figures there's so much giardia/crypto up there anyway . . ..I am the king of Thread Creep with this one!

For routes that feature a lot of stright crack work (the Valley), forged friends are no worse than flexies -- plus they're lighter. But for routes that wander and are much more featured (Squamish), I find that flex stems are a bit more reassuring.

Dru, I think your camera is haunted! I've never seen that in any other pictures of Gimli! Another but not mine: Buddy of mine summits a large peak in the Bernese Alps via a supposedly nice 5.9 multi pitch (can't remember the name). In in the midst of a clear sky at sunset, raises his axe in triumph, only to be struck by a large bolt of lightening. His brother walks him out and he is completely amnesiac for the next week. He started going bald the next week. Now he is a fire protection engineer!

Another Gimli spook: last October, retreating from the South Ridge in a snow storm, we looked back from the parking lot to see the sky mainly clear except for this localized snowstorm just swirling over and over on the east face. Those of you who know what the peak looks like (a giant wave cresting to the east) can probably picture this "horizontal tornado" just cycling over and over in the recess of the east face. Very strange. [ 02-28-2002: Message edited by: jordop ]

Allright, Schoeller works best in cold climes where you are constantly moving. Any "water resistant/breathable" garment "works" better when you are moving and making heat. This is why stretch nylon mirofibre is great for ski touring/ mountaineering but in fact sucks for any activity where you are not creating enough heat or are continually stopping, i.e. vertical ice climbing or lift skiing. My experience has been that my Schoeller jacket (MEC Feratta) is bomb proof but not that water resistant, whereas my Dimension (prodeal ) is very resistant to elements but will actually "burn" under high abraision. Yes, skiing far too fast through the trees yielded lots of little brown permanent scrapes! That being said, I wear microfibre 90% of the time. (Gotta like that Arcteryx proto Packlite/Primaloft thing they had at the VIMFF!) [ 02-26-2002: Message edited by: jordop ]

Dru, you should be charging for these pics, they're awesome! Gotta like that flow on the NW face of Stonerabbit!

At last, an explanation. Still, this doesn't explain what's goin on below 11k! From today's Globe and Mail: Mountain climbers just can't stop passing flatulence, reports The Independent on Sunday. "It's not their fault. As they climb higher, the outside air pressure falls so there is less resistance to the release of body gasses -- and uncontrollable, pneumatic flatulence occurs. The condition is High Altitude Flatus Expulsion. According to the journal High Altitude Medicine and Biology, it kicks in above 11,000 feet." Adults can pass up to 2000 millilitres of flatulence daily.

This was the one in North Van, but I wouldn't be surprised if the others have the same stuff.

For everyone north of the border, Liquidation World, that exporter and bastion of everything that is classy and in good taste in this world, is selling off some discards from the Mountaineers for real cheap. Beckey's "brown" book, Twight's subdued and quiet instruction manual, Burns's Select Desert Rock, and many others all 50% off US price. Oh and if you're looking for some crap, they got a bit of that too.

Allright, Dru won, but we all knew he would. Given the proliferation of activity in the area and its accessibility, the fact that Caspar had remained unclimbed until 86 is bizzare. Still, that snow arete looks like a nice moderate day route.

Dogs that dig you out of avalanches are nice dogs. Dogs that bite your ski boots and steal your sandwich and drink your tea when you are not looking are annoying. Harry, if you're reading this, Beavis is a tool.

"Probably unclimbed"It's WAY in BC (i.e. not Cascades), so double points for anyone south of the line. [ 02-17-2002: Message edited by: jordop ]

Easy dude! If ya want people to guess, don't shut 'em down. I was actually gonna say somewhere around slesse cause that's that the rock looks like, but it clearly isn't there. Probably south of the border where I have no interest

Looks like Chehalis rock. I'm gonna say Peak 6500 from Nursery Pass.

cause Dru works for the government and appropriates Crown resources for his own sick and twisted projects. People like him taking advantage of government resources give civil servants a bad name! This is precisely why the Liberals are cutting back services! Shit, as a teacher the only think I've gotten is an old Gordon Smail guidebook to the Chief from a school library which features these really cool illustrations of drunken vikings trying to belay and climb! More pictures Dru!

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I'm thinking seriously about spending May in the valley, but I'd rather be on the east side alpine. Snow's probably still around then, but Charlotte Dome was totally bare two years ago in May when I was there. Hmmm. Three week ski traverse or alpine vacation in the sun. Tough call.

A certain well-known executive of an alpine club that I climb with occaisionally carries, and wears at the same time, Gore pants and jacket, a rain poncho, and a pack cover. The man also takes a full spice kit wherever he goes!

Yeah ya beat me Darin, but just because I had to wait for my new name to be approved. Thought I'd be cocky a few months back and change my email address to a non-existant one. Geez, that was smart. Now I look like a newbie. Yes, of course it is blanshard not blanchard, I was in the midst of a zero sleep night writing a stupid report. That's my excuse.

Allright, here's a good one. Always trying to fiddle with gear and never leave well enough alone, what's the worst gear tinkering project you've ever come up with. I only bring this up cause as we speak I am repairing a TNF down bag that I was "improving". Convinced that the bag was understuffed to begin with, I took an old Eddie Bauer down jacket (cotton shell!) which actually had some nice gooose down in it, sliced open the bag, stuffed in the down to bursting and sewed it back up. Actually, the Bauer down was far better quality than TNF 600 fill. Except I put WAY too much down in and could never get the bag stuffed. So now I'm unstuffing the damn thing again. What a moron! Other lowlights include: trying to engineer a tent pole/avi probe combo, trying to create a screw-in housing to make a probe out of non-probe sectional poles, only taking a box of 24 Powerbars for 7 days on the Columbia Icefield, ill-fated attempts to tape old pair of prescription glasses to mountaineering glasses, the shovel/deadman combo that never works, and trying to make a coated nylon jacket breathable by sanding the the interior coating off (it fit well). Don't think I'll ever get a job in gear design.

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The south facing wall off to the right in Dru's photo looks to have some amazing cracks on it. Viewed to advantage from the Rexford basin, it appears as a giant patch of golden granite resembling the piece that fell off the Dru a couple of years back. You can probably walk along the divide crest from the Rexford basin.

NE face of Blanchard, to be precise. Previous ascent history unclear, looks like a nice winter line except for those upper slabs. Probably bushy in summer. Lots to explore north of Golden Ears; most of the Stave-Pitt divide is very underexplored. Relief and bushwacking quotient both very high although the rock can be clean in some places. According to Reinhard Fabische who did the FA of NE face Robie Reid, rock was surprisingly clean for the Coquitlam-Pitt. Take a look at the buttresses West of the Judge, off Tingle Creek: All yours if you can somehow magically transport yourself there. Either that or a boat ride and an incredible ED3 bushwack.