Gary_Yngve

yes, wedgewood alehouse... Trog, MattP, me, maybe others...

Wedgewood Alehouse 8515 35th Avenue N.E. (I can't seem to find WB&G in google, so I assume it's really the alehouse.)

Belaying would result in going slower, which would require either carrying more supplies (making technical stuff even harder, or going even slower) or risking weather / increased objective hazard.

Anyone else chiming in to break the tie?

For folks concerned about stats, FWA needs to be defined formally. For folks who just wanna climb, they can have a wintry ascent whenever they feel it so.

Can we use Dan (D a n) again?

New Year PubClub today! I no longer have a Tues evening class to TA! If you're thinking about showing, you can give your suggestion where. Some possibilities are: Ballroom, Latona, Kangaroo&Kiwi, Nickerson

Was Saddam well hung?

But the DHS made SAR folk study and pass NIMS/ICS tests... you mean the material learned for the tests wasn't practically useful?

Those aren't Mounties. No helmets.

Was it half-eaten, or half-remaining?

There are women involved in SAR, and they fill all roles. The gender imbalances of the past are slowly fading, and as more women get into climbing and the outdoors, more will volunteer for SAR. The highest percentage of women in SAR units I've seen are horse and dog units. Mountain Rescue has women who are solid climbers and can haul 50lb packs. When in the field I don't think about man or woman. I think that I can trust this person in being safe and getting the job done. Also, if you remember the Cindy Wysocki incident from a month ago, Sgt. Sidney Jackson jumped out of the helicopter to get to her. She rocks! http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2003440917_hiker21m.html?syndication=rss

My point is that they'll begin a search and will likely scout first, whereas if you can send specific info via cell/satphone, you can get a more specialized response. Like if you call 911 and hang up, they'll call you back, and if they can't reach you, they'll send a patrol car by. They're not going to send every possible response your way. If you hit the button, they may not respond with a heli with hoist capability, but if you call in and say you have a critically injured patient who needs immediate evac, they probably will. Dunno what they do about a beep when it's dark or weather is bad... anyone know more?

With an altimeter, you also have elevation. You can identify local slope curvatures to figure out where you are on a map. And often for navigation you don't need to pinpoint your location, as long as you know that there's a route from your current location to the next "wayarea" ahead. Coming down from Camp Muir in a whiteout is a classic place where a compass is useful.

There's been so much new snow that they may be buried until the snow melts in spring/summer. As a searcher, you want to find the person, hopefully alive, but even if dead, to bring closure to the family. At the same time, all the rescue volunteers have jobs and family of their own that they have been neglecting.

The religious comments don't bother me, even though I'm not religious. This forum certainly isn't about being PC.

kjlfaiejlifli, part of the reason may be that many of the old-timers know each other personally, having been tied to the same rope, or at least having shared a beer. When many new people come on, especially who don't have any identity beyond a bunch of random letters on the keyboard, it's like getting our party crashed. Not surprisingly, some of the locals in this dive bar can be a little surly. Also, I think many climbers feel defensive when folks question what happened up there. Anyone who's been climbing for a long period of time has seen or heard of a number of accidents, most of which had no answers. We're used to not speculating and being patient and waiting for the reports to come out in due time. We feel that we wouldn't have done anything differently than the three on Hood, and some are disturbed by all the gawkers here. Other climbers have noticed that this year has been a rough year for our own... there are two missing climbers in Tibet now, including one of Seattle's own. The climbing community is very tight -- the network of climbing partners probably just has three degrees of separation. Though we may be hard on the outside, we're soft on the inside, and we're coping with yet another climber now resting in peace.

Here's some JTree stoke (I fixed the images that had gotten mislinked at some point): http://www.cascadeclimbers.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/ubb/showflat/Number/562348/page/4#Post562348

Because the media does it doesn't make it right. Suppose your parents died in a car accident, and I speculated that it was because they were DUI. Would that be appropriate or not?

I see four issues with speculation: 1) some speculation can be disrespectful 2) some speculation can be baseless and purely clutter, obscuring more informational posts 3) if not careful, some speculation can be later interpreted as fact 4) some speculation can be judgmental, and it's poor style to judge someone who cannot defend himself That said, speculation should not be outright prohibited. What you're seeing is polarization from a bunch of people on both sides who have emotions running high.

We got lucky with the weather. We hiked up in pouring rain and were shivering by the time we set up our tent. The day we hiked out, the clear skies were replaced by haze from the Pasayten, and then a storm blew in. So, yes, our four days of climbing were timed perfectly. Of course, we carried at least eight days worth of food and a bunch of ice gear we didn't use.

Aren't like 50% of all emergency room visits drug- or alcohol-related? I'm sure the govt or insurance (i.e. all of us) absorbs most of that cost.

Landshark, self arrest consists of levering the pick of the axe into the snow while you are falling to slow you down and stop you. It needs to be done quickly and aggressively to have the greatest chances of success. If one person can't arrest, and the others are tied to them, then they may be able to catch the person's fall once the rope goes tight.

Yes, I heard of that too. But I still want a verifiable answer to how the phones do this. Some possibilities are: 1) triangulation from cell towers 2) triangulation from GPS satellites 3) superhero freezes time, finds you, and tells your phone where you are I think it would be really cool if my phone could tell me where I am when I have NO cell reception.

Thanks, Jason. Here's a better link. http://support.vzw.com/faqs/VZ_Navigator/faq.html#item8 My cellphone (KRZR) supports it. I'm still not convinced though that my cellphone talks to satellites. I think the confusion is that we say "GPS coords" when we really mean "UTM coords." I'll see what more juice I can dig up.