Bug

The few (two) times I have had to do a self rescue, speed was important. One time we were getting lightning strikes all around us. The second time, it was already getting dark. I always carry two short prussicks about twice the size of a caribiner. I can whip those babys out and be halfway up the pitch before you figure out how to do that foot bite thing efficiently. But to each his own.

Oh Yeah. Addendum to The Bloody Toe; Watch for loose blocks. It's alpine.

Raphael and I did a 1st ascent of a steep alpine ridge up Mill Creek in the Bitterroots in 1988. It was about 12 miles in and up a thousand feet to the bivy. From there we had our choice of several long routes that looked good. We had planned on doing two so we took the easiest one first. It went very well for the first 16 pitches. There was a little 5.9 but mostly 5.6 to 5.7. We were on the last pitch before lunch. I summited and was belaying Raph. He got to within 50 feet of me and yelled "FALLING" and then didn't fall. He just started cussing and swearing and generally saying "ouch". He came up to the top, sat down, and ripped his shoe off. Then said "Watch this" and he poured about 1/4 cup of blood out of his shoe. He had come up to a piano sized block on a ledge. He stood on the ledge and reached over the block and started to pull himself up. It move immediately onto his foot which he yanked out instantly. He thought the block was going to continue and he was preparred to leap frog it but it settled precariously on the edge of the ledge. I looked at his toe and saw that the pad at the end of his second tow was ripped off and hanging by a flap of skin. It was pretty deep and bleeding well. I applied pressure for about five minutes and got the bleeding stopped. Then I taped it up and we started down. The face and ridge were huge and treeless so we had to walk off. We had about 2000' to descend just to get to the bivy. We started out with him wearing one of my larger shoes on his injured foot. He still hobbled miserably and I was hobbling too from wearing a shoe two sizes too small. I finally took my shoe back so I could move ahead and reconoiter the descent route. It was varied over talus, 3rd and 4th class, and a few rappels here and there. The last rappel went over an an overhang and ended on a 40 degree snow field. My twin 9mm 50 meter ropes were about3 feet too short to touch the snow. I had to rap off the end and land on firm snow in rock shoes and stop myself from carreening down the rest of the snow field about 300 feet. When Raph came down, I was up hill and had him swing over to me so he could plant his feet before unroping. We pulled the ropes and started inching our way down the snowfield next to a wall. By this time, Raph's shoe was wet and bright red. He did not complain even once. We got down to the bivy and packed up and hiked out. We stopped at "The Doctor's" for a few MG of Demerol. Raph had some too. Then I cleaned out the wound and recommended stitches wich were out of the question for a boy with no insurance. So I taped it up and recommended lots of inactivity and drugs for a few days. He healed well. We named the route "The Bloody Toe".

Mike Scott was one of the hard men putting up routes in the Bitterroot in the early eighties. He led all the hard pitches on a climb we did up Bear creek. As far as we knew there were no other routes on the wall and we had first shot. It was early in the year so we had to take warm clothes and bivy gear. I made an imitation Forrest wall womb the night before, copying the one he borrowed from Kurt Kleiner. The Bear Creek wall is very steep. Kurt and I had already done the first three pitches three weeks before so Scott and I knew to take a full aid rack and two ropes up to the base. It was a three mile hike up to where we had to fill our jugs in the creek. Then the pigs weighed about 85 lbs for the 900' hump to the base. We moved pretty fast up the first three pitches but the fourth and fifth were tricky. Hauling wasn't too bad but cleaning those overhangs was hard work. It took us all day to get from the car to the top of the fifth pitch which was on the outermost edge of a large blank bulge. Mike drilled three quarter inch bolts and I made it up to our hanging bivy just as the last rays of light disappeared. We clipped our hammocks in the dark and crawled in. We could just reach each other across the abyss as we passed the pipe back and forth. As we finished, thunder rolled in the west and then the clouds parted above us. We were in a dazzling display of the Milkyway and I do not think it was just the drugs. We forced down as much water as we could before passing out. I remember being amused that every time I lifted the jug to my lips, the hammock tilted back. I would think about the 700' of space below my butt and wish I had been able to inspect Mike's bolts. The next morning we ate a quick breakfast and hastily packed our gear as there was serious thunder peeling to the west over the Bitterroot divide. As I was about to start out on the first lead off our bivy, Mike looked at me real serious like and said, "man I really have to shit". I begged him to hold it long enough for me to get up fifty feet which he obliged. He undid his leg loops and planted his feet firmly against the outermost edge of our bivy bulge. He looked up me and said "I'm sorry man". and cut loose at least a half gallon of rancid tunafish, chocolate, and Bear Creek water. Some of it made it the entire 700 feet to the base of the wall. Some of it blew into the wall and is there to this day, petrified as proof that we were there and no one else ever would be. But some of it was carried by the wind. It wafted upward and outward. It might have been seen by someone in Stevensville had they known to look. And then, IT RETURNED. We could see it coming. I began climbing again but Mike had me tied off. I strained against those quarter inch bolts and nearly popped a vein. Then it was over. We were looking at each other like it was our last moment on earth when it hit. We both squinted and frowned, and squirmed in our harnesses. But the suffering continued. Finally the cloud passed (yes, that would be the passed cloud) and we could speak. I croaked out "CLIMBING". and Mike replied "GO MAN GO". It took three rurps and then was A1 for about 60'. I was on a ledge and pretty much in a different inversion layer. I set up a belay and got Mike out of there as quickly as I could. We freed the next three pitches and walked down the ridge to the car. Thus was climbed the Bear Creek wall for the first time. We named it "Morning Thunder".

Right on Paco. Followed your tracks for a ways then baled when my arthritis kicked in. Wish I could have watched but the clouds were thick when I headed down. You must have climbed in some snowy moments.

Last time I tried to go climbing with a female from this site my wife stood over my climbing gear with lighter fluid and matches until I recited over and over "'Not a date' means 'date'. 'Not a date' means 'date'........" It was humiliating. I'll never do it again.

9 hrs Colchuck to Snow creek. Easy pace. No pack.

Good luck. Let us know how it goes. I will be up there next week so kick good steps! Actually, I am thinking of doing the Colchuck and then up the SW ridge of Dragontail. But the Colchuck could be worse than Asgard. It will depend on snow and wind. I am leaving Friday and will be in Gustav's Sunday noon to meet family. If anyone is interested in a twin solo let me know.

righto. liposuction and climbing at or above 19000' are supposed to be the only ways to eliminate fat cells as apposed to shrinking them. I think you are catching on.

Check your PM's.

This article does not address the question of when the body starts decreasing the number of fat cells vs. just shrinking them. I have no trouble losing weight. Eat less run more. The problem is that I still have the fat cells and they pop right back to plumpness with even a hint of laziness. This is why it is so much harder for us fat people to lose weight and keep it off than it is for people who have never been over weight to keep it off. I am still looking for a used copy of 'High Altitude Medicine and Physiology'. Then I will document my claims. $98 from Amazon is the best price I've found so far.

Forget the boots. How much for that cool carpet?

Many years ago, in a far away place, there existed a band of climbers much like those of the current thread. There also existed a pristine crag of exceptional quality with only two free routes on it. Both were trad. As technology progressed, power drills began appearing on rocks of all persuasions and the war began. It did not matter that the trad routes had been up for 25 years. It did not matter that the crag was 4.5 miles up Blodgett canyon and 600 ft up the talus. Nothing mattered. They had drills and they used them. Beside cracks, on rappel, before test climbing, etc. Beware.

A few years ago I was sleeping peacfully in Hidden Valley campground when I heard the baleful cry of a road slug grandma searching for her lost Fifi. The calls went on and on- "Fifiiiiii", ..............."Fifiiiiii", ......................"Fifiiiiii", ..........."Fifiiiiii", ............."Fifiiiiii", ............."Fifiiiiii", .............."Fifiiiiii", ..........."Fifiiiiii" - as she walked closer and closer and got louder and louder. A mild mannered young climber finally took pity on the poor forlorne woman and enlightened her as to her Fifi's whereabouts. "YOUR F_______ DOG GOT EATEN BY CAYOTES LADY. WILL YOU SHUT UP AND LET US SLEEP!!"

Good advice. Also, check out the pub club on this site. You can meet the posters in person and hear about them from their competition. Pretty safe, until you leave the bar.

My teenage son is a rippling monster. He uses none of that shit. He eats a balanced diet, adds a100mg tab of B-12, 1200mg C, and alot of water. Can't keep a case of tunafish or a dead cow in the house. But here is the point------ He has wanted to try creatin and other stuff on occasion. When I ask him why, he says so he will look better. The girls are already falling all over him. I think it's all in your head. Don't let that marketing fool you. There is no substitute for a good diet of lean meat, greens and limited carbs. This shouldn't surprise anyone.

If you walk up to me and sniff my crotch, I will respond appropriately. No one is safe.

4 lbs. It is a Kelty Hollowfill bag in brand new condition. It was used three times and only once without a vapor barrier liner. No stains, rips, or quirks. Fits me snug at 5'11". No room for boots. Too warm for me in the PNW.

It is a Kelty Hollowfill bag in brand new condition. It was used three times and only once without a vapor barrier liner. No stains, rips, or quirks. Fits me snug at 5'11". No room for boots. Too warm for me in the PNW.

0 degree bag, $40. vapor barrier liner,$20. Flame 60cm ice ax, never used, super light weight aluminum, snow only, $50. Tree climbing spurs,300'rope,harness & lanyard, all for $150. Barter or trade.

Custom Boots in Fremont will give you the best foorbeds I've used. Alpine, telemark and hiking are all improved. Tell Jim, Bug sent you.

Wud sumwun pleze rite this thread in purpl cran and post a picture?

I believe the reference book on the topic is "High Altitude Medicine and Physiology" by Ward, Milledge, and West. I have the 3rd Edition (2000) sitting in front of me. They say: The barometric pressure at the Earth's surface and at 24 km is essentially independent of latitude. However, in the range of about 6-16 km, there is a pronounced bulge in the barometric pressure near the equator in winter and summer. Therefore, Everest at 6 km has more oxygen than Denali at 6 km. They say the cause is a very large mass of very cold air in the stratosphere above the equator. Cool. I'll go get it. See you all when I'm skinny. Maybe.

http://www.a1nutritionals.com/

Bingo. Ditto. In one of the many things I read last year before going to Denali, I remember reading that carefully calibrated equipment was used to compare the barometric pressure on Denali to similar altitudes in lower latitudes (measured by GPS). Barometric pressure was less on Denali by quite a bit.