Alpinfox

Sport: a locking biner on a good bolt is ideal. A non-locking biner is fine too. If you are really worried about the bolt, leave another biner on the second highest bolt in case the higher bolt fails. If you are really cheap, or have lots of time, you could put a piece of webbing through the bolt and rap off of it instead of using a biner, but DO NOT LOWER OFF OF WEBBING. The friction could cut the webbing. Trad: It's ideal to find a tree or big rock/horn you can sling and rap/lower from. Again, DO NOT LOWER OFF OF WEBBING OR CORDELETTE. Rappel only. If you must leave gear, leave the cheapest gear that will make a safe anchor. One bomber nut and a biner is probably the cheapest thing you can leave, but you might not feel comfortable rapping/lowering from a single piece. Do whatever it takes to make a safe anchor, even if that means leaving multiple cams. Your life is worth more than any gear (unless you are a republican voter) and that way you make the booty hounds very happy. You may be able to come back the next day (or the next year!) and get the gear, but the point is that you are still alive.

Wow! Great pics!

One of my other talents is that I can do a great impression of "HAL" from the 2001 movie. I figure that would come in handy for idling away the 50 year-long approach flight.

There are some great Xmas presents available at Target.com these days. Who knew they were so progressive!?!? edit: Damn, they removed it. The link in my post used to go to a listing for "Marijuana" on the Target.com website. I guess one of their web developers played a little joke. The description was pretty funny and it was listed in the "Entertainment" section.

Hello sir, I would like to be considered as a team member for the Olympus expedition. My qualifications inlcude having once eaten (and enjoyed) a package of astronaut ice cream and having only a mild fear of enclosed spaces. Oh, and I've climbed some stuff too. Please advise me on the training regimen I should begin for this trip.

I would think it would also be difficult to prusik past such knots. Probably not a big deal if there is only one or two of them though. I like F8's tip about a knot close to the climber to quickly clip to an anchor.

The drytooling area in the Alpental valley is called "Rap Wall". It is above source lake at the head of the valley. There are four or five routes from M5 to Mhard. jja's picture from a few days ago: There is a picture of Roger Strong climbing there in the most recent R&I magazine although R&I messed up his name and said that Alpental Valley was in Alaska. Cheers.

I camped on the mountain and enjoyed it. Saw a pine martin and did quite a bit of trundling . It was a nice place to hang out and I hoped we'd get to see some of the UFOs that live in the mountain, but no such luck. When I hiked the route in late June a few years ago, this gear would not have allowed one to get to the summit - it was too cold and windy. A decent insulating layer, warm hat, gloves, and good wind shells were required for the upper reaches of the mtn due to wind. I don't know exactly how much more driving the CC route requires vs the AG route, but my guess is 1.5-2 hours. I have "Climbing the Cascade Volcanoes" that provided servicable driving directions, but I don't have it with me right now. I think it's worth the extra driving.

Go back to hippie land you commie!

A -20deg synthetic bag must be ENORMOUS! Try doing a search for "Denali Gear" on this website and you'll find several threads. Griz is correct that there is a large temp and storm difference between early May and late May. For late May/early June, when most people do the W. Butt, A Parbat parka should be fine, but I'd definitely take a couple of layers to go underneath it. Any plastic boots with intuition liners would be fine and overboots would make them even more fine.

So what is the quota? I trimmed mine down to < 50, is that good enough?

I used to live WITH a volcano! Lowell, Thanks for the info. It was a great program; really fun to watch. I hope you don't mind that I have drawn attention to it even though I don't think you have anything to be embarrassed about.

Thanks for the correction Mr. Klenke. Allow me to reply in kind by highlighting you're grammaticular error above. "DAMN IT JIM! I'M AN ENGINEER, NOT A ENGLISH TEACHER!"

Had a hankerin' for some outdoor rock climbing. I guess I haven't admitted that winter is here and that I should be going ice climbing. Sat climbed at Royal Columns (Tieton) with Squid. A bit chilly and DAMN did the sun go down early! Enjoyed the swingin' nightlife of Natchez! Sun climbed at "The Cave" (Tieton) which is south/southwest facing, so we thought we'd have some sun and warmth, but it was a bit cloudy and chilly. Good stuff there including some licheny cracks that we top roped that weren't in the book. Fun! A pic of Squid on some climb at the columns:

I was purusing the Seattle Public Library's catalog for climbing related items and came across a video called "Golden Horn". I put it on hold and within a week it was waiting for me at my local library branch. I just watched it and would recommend it to all of you. It is from a TV series called "Exploration Northwest" hosted by Don McCune and this particular episode features Gordy and Lowell Skoog making the first ascent of Golden Horn's north face with a camera crew led by Carl Skoog in 1979! It was really cool to see some of the gear they were wearing/carrying - EB's with high wool socks and knickers, 1st generation friends, etc. There isn't much information about Golden Horn in my first edition red Beckey, but it looks like a pretty cool peak in the WA Pass area, despite some crappy rock. However, it lists the first ascensionists as Gordon Skoog and Jim Walseth. Who is this Jim guy? Was he one of the camera crew? Why isn't Lowell and the rest of the camera crew listed? Care to comment Lowell?

Files should be less than 100kb. You can open it in MS Paint or Photoshop and resize it. I hope when the gallery comes back the pictures will still be there!?!?? Last 25 posts search?

You are correct. 51% of US voters are idiots apparently.

HOLY SHIT! I agree with S_H.

I'm bettin' he has a good enough sense of humor and a thick enough skin to not get run off by a mildly acerbic comment like: "OldManRock is a month late and $100 short, more like ripvanwinkle than oldmandrock. " but thanks for playing the role of Mr. Sensitivity NOLSe.

I just downloaded it. I think it's better than most mariah carey songs though.

A nice thing about the clear creek route is that with the predominant wind coming from the west, you may be somewhat sheltered from the full force of the wind. When I climbed the CC route (late June), we didn't see anyone else on our route and we were nice and cozy in wind shirts until we got to the summit block where we had to don our shells and insulating layers against the blasting wind. When we got to the summit there were lots and lots of shivering folks wearing gore-tex, balacalavas, big mittens etc that had come up the AG route. So, CC route = fewer people and potentially warmer conditions, but you have to drive further.

Looks cool. Take a "magic carpet ride" from spaceview all the way down to street level. $30. 7day trial version is free. They have 15m resolution for all of US w/ greater resolution of most major cities (Seattle, Spokane). I think the sideviews of terrain features will be a really nice tool for identifying peaks. Might even put Klenke out of business! I don't think it does USGS-style topo maps that can be used for navigation though.

Attached is a picture of the N. side of Colchuck in early September. I think the NBC is just out of the picture to the right?

Hey Peter, Thanks for posting that. Link to email Bill Frist Link to email Ted Stevens Bill.Young@mail.house.gov tom.delay@tomdelay.com dhastert@mail.house.gov

"Your eyes" aren't the only things you shouldn't touch after chopping Jalapenos.