Bug

Bug, I have some old SMC 12 pointers (thats cause I am old too) and have used them on snowpines ok. Have you used anything like that on the new plastic T2's? And how is climbing with T2's as compared to Koflachs etcc.? I haven't used plastic Tele boots. Too cheap. But the only pons I was able to get on my tele boots were the ones with bales. As far as hiking in tele boots with rigid crampons vs koflachs with rigid crampons, there wasn't any difference except perhaps if it got a lot colder. My feet have good circulation and that is usually not a problem for me. The points stick out past the tele toes anyway and I haven't done any front pointing on the routes I was willing to ski. So basically, the tele toe has no bearing on the performance when you have crampons on.

GET OFF MY BACK ASSHOLE!!! Whew. I feel better now. Yeah I wrote it in Word and cut & pasted it. Didn't even check it after I posted. BUG IS A SLACKER! So to get back to my point, Using all caps was over-reacting. Most flames are. Most posters here do not seem to be professional writers. I certainly am not. Dru's critique in this case was to the point and useful. Not all of his are. Nor can I claim to be consistent or good at critiquing or anything else except pissing off my wife. So why bitch so much about someone else's TR? My TR wasn't even about climbing. It was about a stroll in the woods with my little girls. Doesn't it matter wether or not there is any useful climbing information in the TR? And if there were a bunch of useful info in the TR, how much does it matter wether or not someone is chestbeating or just plain bad at writing? As with most things, the truth lies somewhere in the middle. But if you sit on the fence your polyps will get splinters. So we continue to be interesting.

Yeah and the toes keep the puncture wounds shallow. I used Lowe foot fangs with Asolo Snowfield boots. Now I will use my M-10s with Merril super comps. I also went to shorter skiis for ease of turning. I just love telemarking and the flexibility it gives me in the mountains up and down.

Are you saying there is something wrong with spray?

Two winters ago I side slide down hard ice rom the bottom of the Muir snowfield to Panarama point. I was so tired from using the same muscles, I couldn't ski the wind blown powder from there down. I should have saved my strength by putting on my crampons and wandering down to where I could actually ski. About ten years ago, I was up on the Muir snowfield in a whiteout and couldn't even see my feet at times. It was really wierd to be skiing alon and get engulfed in a white out before I could stop. It is like falling through a cloud. Of course, most of my life has seemed like that but you know what I mean..............

YOUR mom knows I'm not wearing ANY right now Yeah. You know yer pushin old when all yer climbing buddies have mom's you want to hit on. "Like, pleeeease dude. Don't tell me how my mom was."

Hrm. I was standing on a chair at the back of the slideshow as well. Guess I should've introduced myself. You probably looked scary or something. Just old and leacherous.

I stood on a chair in the back for the slide show. You and the Law_Goddess were in the booth in front of me. Nice, uh, slide show.

It has come to the attention of many that there may be some over zealous posters on this website that would belittle a newbie for being a newbie. As a matter of fact, there are a lot of posters on this board that are just plain rude. So I have come up with a few "rules of thumb" for "newbies" on CC.COM. Never assume your assailant has a job. Ignore him like a Pike street panhandler. Do not shrink away from any confrontation. Your apponent is probably a poser. Check the number of posts the attacker has. That is often an indication of how much of a drinking problem they have. Assume that the worst asshole on the board will be nice to you at PubClub. Buy me a beer at PubClub. Do not try to get a date on this board. Most of the females have chest hair and half the males have ambiguous genetalia. Neither side will be honest about their inherited gender. There are good climbers here too. I will never climb with them again. If you really want to climb, you can find someone on this board to go with you. Bring a helmet and your own water bottle. If they try to drag you up a 5.13 your first day out, that's OK. You learned how to belay. Welcome to CC.COM Can anyone think of something that I left out?

GET OFF MY BACK ASSHOLE!!! Whew. I feel better now. Yeah I wrote it in Word and cut & pasted it. Didn't even check it after I posted. BUG IS A SLACKER!

So I've never been successful in the winter but I have climber Rainier a few times. The winter attempts were enough to put a healthy respect for the storm potential in my fear centers. One night I stood at the Anvil and watched the lenticular lap up and down about a thousand feet in moments. One minute Cathedral rocks were there, the next they weren't, the next moment....... Short days and at least a little post holing can be counted on. Skiing isn't always fun but I will probably never go up there without skiis again. Debate it all you want guys. Most of the time, I have way more fun than the people I see without skiis. Pump those legs on some hills. You might want to run around that island once a week or so. We'll have a blast.

OK. So two weeks ago, my two little girls and I went "climbing". We drove up FS road 6300 to about 3500 ft and then hiked about 150 yards up totally treacherous trails of mud to a rain-soaked bog surrounding a pond named "lake" Evans. There were actually fish in the lake but, as Olivia pointed out repeatedly, I had forgotten the fishing rod. And the hot chocolate, turned out to be packets of split pea soup. A leftover pack of skittels and a wayward twin pack of Hot Chocolate saved me a drive into town. The echo was not stellar but enough to keep the bears away and Olivia recited every song she knew, one word at a time. Meredith could just barely squeek loud enough to get a squeek back but that produced endless giggles for all. Then my Trango 3 went up and we broke out the light sticks. After two hours of wrestling in the near dark, I gave up and nursed my flask of scotch on a damp log by the lake-pond until the cresent moon went behind a cedar covered ridge of no consequence. The only living things willing to reveal themselves were still my two mischevious daughters and I was out of scotch and the log had sucked my ass clean out of heat. A trango 3 is a serious mountaineering tent and I bring it out with the girls so I will remember them in it the next time I am in it and a long way away from them. Like Denali. Where my first trip away from them was a guilt wracked phsycology experiment that I eventually passed on to my wife so I could get permission to go again. That worked out OK. 2005. Acclimate at 14, do the WB and then fire up the W rib in a few days. If that goes well and the weather holds, the Cassin has been calling endlessly. Colin's Cobras may find their way up there. Anyway, while I was on the log, Olivia and Meredith had unpacked my pack and put everything away in the countless pockets of my Trango. While I did not have a matching pair of socks in the morning, we did have a snickers bar that night. Maybe Greg put it there on the Stuart trip? Meredith set out to find the northwest passage the next morning and took us on a bushwack up the hill and back down a slippery creek with huge logs fallen over it. She probably did not see out over the devils club more than twice and still insisted on continuing because “she was the leader”. After discovering the wet aspect of a bog, we returned to camp and a hot cup of mint tea that didn’t go over too well. The bog smelling socks were wrung out vigorously and stored in my pockets for thirty minutes but still caused some whining when it was time to head back to the truck.. There is nothing special about a Jr Whopper but the stories we made up about our “climb” were worth posting on cc.com.

i am glad tho' that i am not hangin' with the family. everytime it ends up as a discussion as to why i am not married. What? Why aren't you married yet? Wait till you are 35 at least. 34 was definately too young.

Billygoat. Check this out Gib Ledges TR

Hey Dutchess, I remember that you were on Gib ledges last winter right? Wasn't it you that told the story about the party that got yanked on the chute?

Denali in the last two weeks of May is consistently clearer but colder. I had two solid weeks of clear weather in 2001. I am hoping to get back up there in 2005.

Count me in. I am also looking for a party to do Gib Ledges this winter. There are a couple accident reports over the last few years about inexperienced people on Gib Ledges. I will try to find them for you. I personally would not be roped to anybody for most of the Gib Ledges portion. There was another accident on the chute portion where the entire roped party was yanked by one newbie and slid 600 feet. I think there was only one broken bone but a lot of soiled gortex.

Kelty Cloud is very light. Beats most packs by POUNDS.

It has to be dry shit doesn't it? Isn't it the rat shit dust that people inhale? So the virus could have been around here for a long time but just never got airborne until this very dry summer we had. But what do I know? I'm a dung beetle.

To oversimplify in general, only experience will help avoid anchor failure. The most dangerous time in any climbers carreer is when that climber is starting to lead trad. I always recommend doing a few pitches of clean aid climbing with the rack you will use to lead with plus a few extras to suplement. Do it on toprope if you want to really be safe. The act of weighting a piece while you can watch it will teach you a lot. Wether or not to use "SLCD's" is a silly question to me. I would pick whichever one fit the crack best regardless.

I like to take long day trips just for the shear pleasure of seeing all that terrain. And chest beat or not, I like to read about other people's trips. Most TR's that sound like chest beaters are just not expert writers. It is difficult to write about a difficult trip that includes a serious accomplishment without sounding like a total thumper. Trip on dude. Tell us how it went. Just don't tell us it took less than four hours.

That dog rules. Post another pic. Conditions looked pretty different from the last time I was up there. Right on dudes!

OOPS. I have a Drew too. He's grounded. Sound like yours?

I have a chainsaw, pick and shovel. How manyy cc.comers does it take to fix a road?

No. They charge full price and my girls will climb one or two climbs and be done. Not enough bang for the buck and they don't get into much. When the weather is good, we go to Marymoor and swing around a bit. THat is about all the artificial climbing they really want in a year at this point. They get into climbing real rock a lot more. But even then, it takes a bit of peer pressure. We'll have to get them out next summer. I might have some skiis for your daughter. I have been meaning to dig them up but haven't gotten around to it yet.