Alpinfox

What? Huh? Snugtop is an ice climber now? Sniff... Sniff.... Is that French cheese I smell?

Nice shots JT, Thanks for sharing!

Nepal Extremes are INSULATED and weigh >4lbs. They are designed/intended for winter mountaineering and technical ice climbing. Olympus is a LOOOOOOOONG hike on a flat trail with a little snow slog at the end done in spring/summer. Nuf said. Edit: BTW, I apologize for the "snipeyness" of my "common sense" comment.

I would wager that Liberty Ridge does indeed have a higher rate of accidents per ascent than any other route in the cascades except maybe obscure routes that only a few people have done like the Eve Dearborne Mem. Route. In addition to the reasons mentioned previously, I believe the reasons for this are: The "rock" on Liberty Ridge is shit... big plates of basalt and gobs of loosely congealed pumice. So rockfall is more common on LR. The rock on NF Shuksan is actually pretty good (green schist right Dru?). Also, I'd say the length of the route (5000') and continual exposure on LR means if anyone slips, or a moderate rockfall or avalanche occurs anywhere on the route, chances are it's gonna be bad news. It's inclusion in the "50 crowded climbs" means you get folks from Florida on the route, and gumbies = accidents, whereas most people have never heard of Shuksan. I'd be interested in seeing those statistics as well. Is Mike Gauthier lurking?

Thanks for that post Don! I might have to check those DMM screws out. Only $40 at Mtn Tools <--- Click I find the little handle dealie on BD screws pretty useless while PLACING the screw, especially at the beginning, but it sure speeds up the REMOVAL of the screw. I am pretty much a newbie/gumby ice climber, so am I missing something? I placed one of those Grivel 360 screws once and you can get a nice grip on the head of it and the big handle was actually effective while PLACING the screw. I agree they are funky to rack/carry though. RE: N.Face of Shuksan - Unless you climb in pretty late in the season, you probably won't see a lot of ice. I've only climbed it once (mid-may) and there wasn't anywhere to place a screw. We took a few pickets and they would have worked for pro if we had placed any.

OUCH! So they don't teach common sense at Conservative State U?

OK. Mailbox it is. You haven't gotten me a job yet!

hmmm... AlpineDave and I speculated that LW and co. probably approached the route from that backside and did the route top-down. If it's a "nightmare" I guess they didn't do it that way. Sure was a lot of hardware to haul up that route. All the more reason to leave the 4th class sections unbolted.

DOOD! are you ignoring me or sumfin? Hello? ***You are ignoring this guidebook offer***

You can borrow my "Rock Climbing Washington" book if you want. I'm leaving for Leavenworth in a couple of hours, but I can leave it in the mailbox or with my housies or something if you want it. Lemme know.

Sure! I'll show up at your work and do a strip-o-gram for your boss and tell him that it's from you. That outta work, eh? p.s. Note the lack of an "e" anywhere in my name...

Weird. I remember going right up a sandy slab (a bit scary) to the top as well. Definitely not 5.10 though; more like 5.8. Guess I'm nutzy too.

DUDE! You can come over and borrow my Rock CLimbing Washington book if'n you wanna.

MattP said: 4. The descent off the back is probably not a good option, despite apparent rappel anchors that would indicate a possible route that way. The last time somebody went down there, they described it as an absolute nightmare. It is much safer to retreat way you came. ______________ Matt, could you please elaborate on the above? That descent down to the Taylor River road looks pretty easy (albeit currently snowy). Looks like one single-rope rappel and then a ~two mile walk down the road back to the car versus the mind-numbingly dull and potentially rockfall riddled 3.5+hrs of rappeling. To the person who asked about approach shoes: I think wearing comfy rock shoes and not having to change back and forth is the way to go. Ken Ford wore approach shoes for a good portion of the climb when he did it, but I tried it and didn't feel very confident in my footing, so I kept my rock shoes on. Maybe I'm just a wuss. To the Awagen guy: Dude! The unbolted stuff is 4th class! Grow some testes and quitcher whinin! I would say that there are parts of it that are definately overbolted. I suppose I'm in the minority there, but there ARE places where you could easily Z-clip if you weren't paying attention. Furthermore, I skipped many bolts and backcleaned several; more evidence that it's overbolted in spots. I felt that in some spots the bolts were more useful for route-finding than for protection. It's a fun route and I commend the FAs on their hard work and financial contribution. The Alpinfox has spoken.

I also have the Gust and I like it. A lot of the newer GoLite packs have a lot more "features" but are also getting up over the 2lb mark. I like the lighter weight packs. I've used the gust for everything from a two week-long PCT trip to two/three day mountaineering/alpine trips. I think it's a damn fine pack and I bought it from Jim at PMS. It's not as comfortable as the Dana Designs Astralplane I had before, but it is about 1/5th the weight! So I don't mind. The stock foam "framesheet" is a piece of flimsy crap and is best replaced with a piece of thicker foam cut from a ridgerest or similar pad. Weight Function Comfort Durability

Hey, please share your pics! My REAL belay chick (not the one in the photo) is pretty hot.

I've seen cracks around the base of crater rock right on the standard route. That was pretty late season though... Global warming anyone?

:beating-dead-horse-picture: Neigh!

Hmmm... I'm not having the problem described above, so it can't be purely a server issue. I had this problem several months ago (several other people had the problem at the same time) and I believe it had something to do with the cookies? To one of you people having the "no icons" problem: Try dumping all of your cookies and see if that fixes it. To dump cookies: In MS Internet Explorer, click Tools, Internet Options, Delete Cookies.

Hooray! Thanks Jon! I just used the new feature and it worked perfectly! I agree with Kinky that it would be nice to be able to edit photo comments.

Another everest hottie: I have the last four posts on cc.com! Are you people CLIMBING or something!!?!?!?

It is my understanding that the original ski-to-sea DID start at the summit of Baker and WAS changed due to a crevasse fall or something...

Oh really!? Hmm... I thought they were one in the same. OK. Duely noted.

I was an EMT (license is expired). Basically, anything that is gonna really be lifesaving is too big and heavy to carry in the backcountry and most of the shit in a 1st aid kit (bandaids, triangular bandages, gauze, antibiotic oinment, etc) is either not lifesaving or not necessary for a short trip (up to a week). If I ever need that stuff (I hope not :fingerscrossed:), I'll have to improvise with clothing, sleeping pad, etc. I don't carry a pocket mask because CPR doesn't work for traumatic arrest. My first aid kit is percocet, ibuprophen, a bit of duct tape, and a bit of cloth tape. It fits in a film canister size thingy. A friend of mine, and climbing partner, is one of the head docs at Harborview ER. I asked him what he carries in his first aid kit: Percocet, ibuprophen, and tape. I think people (usually the Mountie types) spend too much time worrying about 1st aid and carrying a bunch of silly shit just so they are "prepared" for an emergency. Fact is, if shit hits the fan in the backcountry, you ain't going to be able to do much unless you brought an IV setup, type-matched blood, and a pharmacopia (and know how to use it). Getting the patient to a trauma center is really the only thing you can realistically hope to do. With that in mind, a cellular phone is probably the best piece of 1st aid gear you can carry (though I don't carry one of those either). RURP... I mean Alpinfox... has spoken. p.s. I think one of those superlight alluminum space blankets might be a good thing to carry on all trips for keeping shocky patients warm and for unplanned bivys. I don't carry one, but I've considered it.

AlpineDave and I climbed Infinite Bliss yesterday. Good fun. As we were preparing to leave the car, up drove ChucK and Jeff H.! ChucK didn't seem too happy to see us and said something to the effect of, "Oh no, the picture taker people are here!"... So, in honor of ChucK, here is my photo TR: ChucK is an excellent belayer: Jeff H. leading the first of two 5.10 pitches on the route: AlpineDave on second 5.10 pitch (crux) of the route: While leading this pitch, I broke off a small thumb hold right at the crux that I was pressing on; somehow I didn't fall. I don't know if most people used that hold, but maybe I just made the route a touch harder? There is quite a bit of camera tilt going on here, but since my 'puter is down, I don't have photoshop and can't fix it. It's a bit steeper than it looks here . AlpineDave showing off some manboobs on the summit of Infinite Bliss: Main peak of Garfield in the background. Name those peaks!: I think the tallest one on the right is Kaleetan and the tallest one on the left is Snoqualamie. True? Thanks AlpineDave, ChucK, and Jeff! p.s. For those who are interested, our split times were: 7:50am - left the car 8:30am - started at base of route 3:30pm - summit 6:45 pm - back at the base of the route no rapping in the dark! ChucK and Jeff beat us by about an hour.