jordop

I got the new catalogue yesterday. All the Serratus stuff gone of course, but nothing new under the house brand to fill the voids. I guess we're gonna have to wait until Fall to see this next round of MEC brand technical packs and clothing. I can't help but feel however that with the 2-3 pages of hydration and urban packs in the new catalogue that there has been a vast shift that MEC rather stealthily hides; its a question of priorities. I do not even work near to the industry and it is obvious the things I would like to see MEC doing to remain "technical": 1. Make a Schoeller/powershield soft shell with a hood damnit, and treat it as outerwear a la the Patagonia Dimension/Krushell. The ferrata is way too small and skimpy for shit storms. 2. Tents made out of silnylon. Is the stuff hard to get? 3. Sell winter climbing gloves. Why was the MixMaster taken off the market?

Yeah, soobs can do it all

You don't get this Soob vs SUV battle in Canada. Each knows its place. Yes, lots of wanks never takin their Subruban off pavement, but the limits for each vehicle are clearly drawn; majority of deactivated FSRs will demolish an Outback. Amazing how much shit in BC is inaccessible without a truck, as compared to WA. ?Pourquoi?

Also helps when you weigh 120 lbs

While I'm familiar with your avowed hatred towards pickets Don, I continue to take one for two reasons: 1. placed before rock steps where there is no pro they give some confidence, and 2. granted in winter snow you have to T-stake them, which is loads of fun and time, but T-staking ice tools has always left me uninspired because you can't really equalize a tool like you can a picket with a hole halfway down it. Small beer, yes, and besides, you just can't be falling off on this stuff anyway for it to matter This reminds me of an old mountain bike-riding friend of mine who was "not a few" pounds overweight, but insisted on shaving every gram off his bike with titanium spokes, hubs, etc. in complete ignorance of the other bits of mass about his midriff that he was taking along on rides. No, I'm not saying you're paunchy , what I'm getting at is the way I like to take a few bits extra gear in exchange for having wire gate 'biners, dyneema slings, and 7.5mil twins, cutting grams off the other stuff. (Yes, I failed on a comparatively easy climb this weekend because of thirty feet of Cptn Highliner freezer shavings while you knocked off the plum -- while humming along to that old war tune, "you just can't be falling off on this stuff anyway..." -- and so my comments are somewhat moot at the moment.) But cutting the pounds off your oval biners and 1" webbing slings in exchange for more gear is another big Twightism

fuckyah with the two screws again

I'm gonna see if I can get this on a t-shirt

Holy Shit Two screws

Here's the cornice in a normal snow year

Climb: Measuring the Cirque-umference Date of Climb: 3/13/2005 Trip Report: PaulB and I went into the Eight Mile creek valley NE of Pemberton this past weekend trying to get the conditions just right for a direct line on the east face of Cirque, which is about 1500-2000' of 50-55 degreeish ice, snow, and rock. Necro and I had tried it too early last year, and Stemalot and I tried it too late (entrance pitch fell down in the night). This time there was just too much rock showing in the low snow year, and we decided that although an ascent would go, it would likely require MANY belays through the rocks. Here's the face last May: So Paul and I thought we would try these cool, lower angled couloirs at the head of the cirque. But you can't really see into them at all past the halfway mark; the walls on either side are sometimes over a hundred feet high. Steve and I had noticed these before, but in most years they are guarded by forty foot cornices at the top. This year, with the June-like snow levels, the cornices were a more manageable twenty feet. The left one had a massive chockstone about 2/3 the way up with a partially formed icicle which looked troublesome, so we tried the right hand one, which looked more challenging too. there was at least a full pitch of steep ice at the top of the thing, plus lotts mixed ground below it. Note cornices at top. The climbing was awesome in the couloir, about 500 feet of 50 degrees styrofoam, with a 70 degree ice bulge. But then we came to this wall of shit that looked like it was about 65 degrees from the bottom, but was more like 80-85 up close. I managed a web of shitty nuts for a belay as Paul tried to fuck around with it. Icing sugar, rotten ice, no cracks for pins, and punching through into air (it was obviously a decayed waterfall) So we bailed off pins and then noticed from the bottom that the very upper part was actually a full on mixed/WI5ish chimney. In a better snow year or maybe in the fall, these lines would be incredible, but you obviously have to get the conditions just right. The cornices are worrisome as well, triple layered and 20-40 feet overhanging. This area is a lot like the Sumallo in the "holy shit" size of things, and there is a similar scope for things to do. Oh yeah, there is also what looks to be a continous ice line of about 1500' that forms on a nearby aspect. Too rotted out now in March, but the sun would be low enough in January to make it go. No photos for that one!!! Oh, the approach from truck to bivy is 90 minutes. Gear Notes: Pins, screws, pickets, big skid plates for the road! Approach Notes: 8 mile FSR. Bring someone else's truck.

Cooo. Lots to go back for

Also: Alpinists are certainly more tightfisted than sportos and, granted, there are a few armchair folks about, but the market is too small.

If FB didn't have a truck he wouldn't get more than 2-3 km past the end of the public road anyways due to waterbars. The road is not steep and as long as the snowpack is firm you should be able to drive to the turnaround 5-6 km from the head of the valley. With chains in a truck I think you should be fine. PB and I drove on a foot and a half of snow for quite a while w/o chains. Few steep grades.

I don't get it. The centre of that circle is a field between Butchart Gardens and the care home where my grandmother resides . . .

You can't tell me you didn't see that coming, Layton will eat anything. What it doesn't mention in the article is that he usually does it for money. Not much either. Sometimes for a sandwich Mike, where's the one where you're making out with a chocolate bar? That says it all right there.

HOLY

Heyzeus

Hafta been done by now by a bunch of couch surfin drunken sled drivin lifties.

You can go back to the failure forum now.

Check out these

Dooood we are talking about skiing.

Hey Mike you could call your ex-girlfriend.

A Rhesus monkey on a unicycle did it yesterday after ten years of fixing lines. Sorry.

Superflys fall apart when you sneeze and they don't make em anymore. There is a new model coming out, the Superdrago, which looks much more robust. Nike Tallac are a wicked idea, with a very climbing-friendly sole, but I don't think they'd last more than a few weeks of heavy use. Has ANYBODY seen the La Sportiva Trango Guide in any stores? It looks to be just about the best heavy approacch shoe made, but I can't find a single listing on the net, only in their recent catalogue

Alpenlite too!