Alpinfox

Both Deflowered and Leaping Leana are challenging for 5.6, but they aren't that bad. I didn't think LL was that bad at all, just a little run out at the beginning. Deflowered you just have to make about three chimney thrutches and then it's easy. You guys are weak sauce! That "5.7" offwidth that MisterE led last year on the west side of (intersection rock I think?)- now THAT was hard!

Index. 70min from downtown Seattle. Guidebook By the way, there is no need to post the same question in three different places on this website.

...except for the Apollo moon landing of course. LINKERATION

Ice melts under pressure you dope. A sharp angle in the ice isn't going to cut your rope. I disagree. Ice isn't going to melt due to pressure in the time it takes to catch a fall. That said, I don't think the "V" point on a V-thread is likely to cut cord, especially under the low forces of a rappel, and probably not even while holding a leader fall. Sharp ice edges are brittle and will break; I think that is the more important consideration than melting in the few msec it takes for a fall force to be applied to the ice. Sharp ice edges are a good thing to avoid with ropes. I wouldn't want to jug a rope running over a sharp edge of hard glacial ice for example. When I'm rapping from a V-thread, I back up the rappel with an unweighted screw or two for all of the climbers but the last and then clean them when the last person raps. Supposedly V-threads are stronger if you let them air out a bit (refreeze) after you drill them. AlpineDave told me that one.

Why would you stay in a hostel for $27/night/person when you can stay in a hotel (Rocky Mtn Ski Lodge in Canmore for example) for $60/night? Just get a hotel room. Cheaper (if you have 3+ people). Better (privacy, hot tubs, sauna, security for expensive gear). When I was there in late November/early December, the hotels were pretty deserted and the management was willing to haggle on the price. I don't think we ever paid more than $60/night. Or you could camp. That said, the Rampart Creek Hostel at the foot of Mt. Wilson on the Icefields Parkway is really nice (has sauna) and you can't beat the commute to Lady Wilson's Cleavage, Polar Circus, Weeping Wall, etc. Keep in mind that American Alpine Club members get the ACC rate.

Unknown climber laybacks () through the perfect jams of "Leaping Leana"; Locomotion Rock. Sweet 5.6: Alpinfox dangles like a Wu Li Master. 5.10a my ass: Sunsets are pretty:

Did you try to communicate with the lower party while you were rapping past them? "Hey dude, we are going to be directly below you for a few minutes while we rap off; could you wait before climbing again so that we don't get creamed by some ice?" The fact is that the easily accessible ice resources in the PNW are so limited that crowding, and therefore these sorts of accidents, are very likely. It's only with good communication and judgement by all parties that they will be avoided. Your safety is your responsibility (not some supposedly inexperienced other party's). You need to speak up if you don't feel safe.

I feel terrible about this. Not climbing or skiing today is going to totally ruin my two week trip to JTree which starts on Monday. Really, I feel awful. Just awful.

So what is the scoop on Ainsworth? Is it WI5? Got a picture? I don't have a guidebook for Oregon Ice (does one even exist)?

Can someone post a picture of great Ainsworth Falls? Here is a pic of Ainsworth State Park I found: And what is "The Big Daddy"? Multnomah? I found this pic on the web. I don't think it is recent. Anybody climbed that ice? caption: "Mosier Syncline, near Bingen, Washington"

He ain't bullshittin'. That's some weird wild stuff.

THAT THING'S NOT EXTINCT??? Two interesting features of the almiqui: -They secrete venemous saliva from grooves on the lower incisors (primarily to subdue their prey of worms and insects) -The mammary glands of the females are located on the buttocks.

Best ever.

I find it hard to believe that a vacuum applied to the external hand would prevent vasoconstriction.

No pair of gloves is worth $85. For leading, get two or three pairs of gloves with good dexterity. I have a pair of REI "Mistral" schoeller gloves that are good. Those cheap, rubber-coated-palm, insulated work gloves that you find at hardware stores are good too. Then get a pair of warm, cheap gloves (think thrift store ski gloves) for belaying. You don't want to be fumbling around due to thick gloves while leading hard shit. Put some chemical "toe warmers" (adhesive) on the backs of your hands in cold (0deg F) conditions. They will boost the temperature rating of your thin, dexterious gloves by about 20 degrees. $1.25. Spend the money you save on good ice screws, tools with detachable leashes, and pinky hooks (or give it to me).

Immediately after the accident, Sam sat up. At that point we put his jacket on him and put the foam pad under him. He then said he wanted to try to walk. I protested, but he wanted to give it a try. He made it about 20-30 steps before figuring out that he was not going to be able to keep it up. We then put the pad down and he laid on it. We had nothing to immobilize him with and trying to use tree branches or something would have resulted in a mess and been uneffective. As long as he laid still, his spinal cord was not in danger of further traumatic damage (although damage from swelling was a problem, but out of our control) so I was more worried about the hypothermia issue. I held his head still while we waited for the rescue. Due to some signs/symptoms that Sam presented, Sam and I knew for sure that he had a spinal injury shortly after Dave left, although we of course suspected it earlier.

Actually we didn't have a sleeping bag with us on the climb. Dave hauled up two sleeping bags (and a COLEMAN STOVE!!! ) after the accident. The stove ended up not being useful because Dave didn't bring the propane-canister-to-stove connector, but we didn't end up needing it. Sam stayed warm without the stove. I think a down jacket with hood, food, water, and a headlamp are the bare essentials. A small piece of foam pad cut to fit nicely inside your pack is a great idea and doesn't take up much room/weight. A cell phone (if it works in the area) is a really nice thing to have too. Basic self-rescue and first aid knowledge are worth getting as well.

Guinness Gully is a three pitch ice climb located near the small town of Field in British Columbia Canada near the Alberta border. In between the 2nd and 3rd pitches of the climb is a low angled section of about 100m in length. In the upper third of this low-angled section there is a small cliff band (~5m tall) that spans the gully. A footpath skirts around the cliffband on the climber's left side. After topping out on the climb and rappelling the upper most pitch, my partners and I were hiking down the low-angled section in order to get to the rappel of the second pitch. When Sam was directly above the highest part of the small cliffband, he tripped and went over the cliff headfirst. He was knocked unconcious briefly, but was awake albeit disoriented, by the time I reached him. Dave and I quickly determined that Sam would be unable to rappel unaided, and could not weight his harness due to extreme pain, so we would not be able to lower him. We assisted Sam in putting on his down jacket and he then laid down flat on his back (position of most comfort) on a small piece of foam pad. Since Dave has more technical rescue training and I have more medical training, I stayed with Sam while Dave fixed two lines and rappeled to the base of the climb. He was able to initiate a rescue and then returned to the base of the second fixed line with a pack full of supplies (two sleeping bags, water, food, etc). I hauled the pack up and the gear was essential in keeping Sam warm and hydrated. Our first sign that Dave had been successful in initiating the rescue was the arrival of a Lake Louise fire truck which shined a very powerful spotlight up at us. They were able to quickly locate us because I had set my headlamp on its emergency flash setting and hooked it over a prominent tree branch. The arrival of that powerful spotlight lifted our spirits tremendously. Sam and I had a long wait for the rescue folks to arrive with him suffering intense pain in his back and a few minutes of paralysis and some other signs of spinal trauma. Eventually a group of Canadian National Park Wardens (a professional mountain rescue group) did arrive with a full-body vacuum splint, another sleeping bag, and a sled/litter. We immobilized Sam in the vacuum splint and transfered him into the sled. Once Sam was packaged, the Wardens did an excellent job of lowering Sam all the way to the base of the climb with one 200m-long static line. Sam was then loaded into an ambulance and finally given morphine after ~9hrs post-accident. We later learned that Sam had four badly broken ("burst fractures" of all three columns) vertebrae in his upper back. Statistically, more than 80% of people with three or more of that type of fracture are paralyzed instantly at the time of the accident, so Sam was very lucky to not suffer that fate. Sam's spine was imaged and immobilized at a hospital in Calgary and then, after several days, he was flown to Harborview Medical Center here in Seattle. He underwent surgery on Friday to install two titanium rods in his back and to fuse 7-8 vertebrae. He is recovering very well and is being transferred out of the Neuro ICU this evening and will likely be discharged from the hospital by the end of the week. He will be out of work for about 6 months, but is expected to make a nearly full recovery with only a loss of ~30% mobility in his neck. Hopefully he will not have any chronic pain, but that is a possibility. Sam is extremely lucky to be alive and not paralyzed. He is in good spirits, considers himself "the luckiest guy in the world", and plans to get back to physical activity as soon as possible. My heartfelt thanks go out to everyone involved in Sam's rescue and treatment, with special thanks to the Canadian National Park Wardens based in Lake Louise and my partner Dave Burdick. I don't believe that there is much to be learned from this accident. Sam simply tripped while walking on low-angled terrain with crampons on and unfortunately his trip happened at a very bad time. As a team, we had the supplies, training, and level-headedness to keep a horrible situation from becoming tragic, and for that I am very thankful. Be careful out there folks.

Thanks for the good wishes everybody. My partner (a cc.com reader, not a poster) is doing very well considering the injuries. He is very lucky to be alive. I don't have the words to express my gratitude for the work of my other partner Dave Burdick (AlpineDave), the Lake Louise Fire Department (for lights) and the Canadian National Park wardens (a professional mountain rescue group) for their speedy response and phenomenal work in packaging and lowering my partner. Also a big thanks to whomever the folks were that climbed the route on Saturday and retrieved some of our gear and the warden's gear. Just to be clear, Dave and I are 100% healthy. Dave is writing up an accident report, some form of which will probably be posted here eventually. Thanks again.

I was part of the party that had the accident. My partner is injured very badly, but is currently recieving excellent care. I'm not going to post any more information at this point. I'd appreciate it if everyone could send out their best wishes for this great guy.

Yates Rocker.

We climbed "Weathering Heights" yesterday. I led the first pitch which didn't look too bad from the ground, but ended up being an eye-opening and knuckle destroying 40 meter test of fear control. Yee-haw! We heard wolves howling on the hike out in the dark. "Anorexia Nervousa", the climb across from ours, looked awesome. We might go back and get on that one after our rest day or we might head up the icefields parkway. Temperatures are dropping now. High of -13 in Canmore today. Lots of climbs should be coming into shape.

My group climbed "This House of Sky" today in The Ghost River Valley. Good stuff; what a fun route. We climbed at Haffner yesterday. Good stuff there. Led my first ever WI4 on the first day of the season. Off to bed now; heading back to The Ghost again tomorrow.

The best job I've had in my life was ski patroller. I was in high school getting paid $8.40/hr (fast food at that time paid ~$4/hr) to.... get this..... SKI! FUCKING INCREDIBLE! And my friends and family got to ski for free.