Alpinfox

I'm no metalurgist, but I bet falcon eggs are tasty.

Are you and Joseph advocating tying into your (let's say three) pieces of gear with the rope or are you advocating equalizing the three pieces with a sling/cordelette, clipping a biner to that, and then cloving your rope to the biner? I know there are methods for equalizing multiple gear placements using the rope (dog-eared bowline), but I find them futzy and prefer the latter scenario described above.

[channeling catbirdseat] PV=nRT indeed! However, hiking to a lower elevation would not result in an expansion>explosion of sealed bag contents if that is what you are alluding to. It results in the opposite. Take home question: What will have a bigger effect on the volume of the sealed bluebag: A delta of +25degC or a delta of +330mmHg? [/channeling catbirdseat]

I'm pretty shocked that A) Aliens are in the news again for quality control issues (they haven't learned their lesson?!?!!?), and 2) some representative of a gear store is sticking his neck out in this thread making dumb statements and supporting CCH and attempting to just brush aside this recent testing? That is some poor business sense you got there dude. If I were you I'd be on the phone to CCH getting pissed off, taking my aliens off the shelf, and maybe consulting a lawyer. I figured my pre-recall aliens were safe to use, but I'm taking them off my rack now. I'm sure I've at least weighted them all at some point, but now I'm not confident they won't blow at 4kN or something. Not worth the risk. In my opinion, CCH should offer to pay for shipping for all aliens (to and from) and do pull testing to 50% rating. That is the appropriate response. I also think they should also offer full money back for all aliens returned to them if people don't want to use them anymore (pull tested or not). Fuck 'em. I'm done. Master Cams and C3s are as good/better anyway and that 3-Sigma testing of BDs is looking pretty comforting compared to the monkey operation that the CCH stoner crew is putting out. Thanks to RuMR for the post.

Did they unravel the mystery of the "Y" symbol?

That saddle strap would be a great place to add your MLU holster.

IrishGuy broke the tauntaun sleeping bag story first , followed by Nonanon

I wonder what Kerouac would think of this. Hozomeen, Hozomeen, most beautiful mountain I ever seen ... but what a horror when I first saw that void the first night of my staying on Desolation Peak waking up from deep fogs of 20 hours to a starlit night suddenly loomed by Hozomeen with his two sharp points, right in my window black... Over 70 days I had to stare at it. -JK LINK

Nope, I have not climbed NF of Hood. My one attempt at it (with Fern) years ago was aborted due to bad weather. That said, I've climbed other gully-type snow and/or ice climbs with three folks with good results. There are definitely times where side-by-side climbing of the seconds is impossible and the lower climber needs to duck into an alcove to avoid icefall, but overall I think it works pretty well. I like having the third climber for social as well as safety reasons. Climbing as a group of two IS faster, I'm not arguing against that, but to say that climbing as a group of three was an important factor in the difference between tragedy and victory in this case seems a bit of an exaggeration to me. In fact, I think discussing it distracts from the much more important errors made by this group.

I do not agree. I often climb as a group of three and I think that, performed by experienced partners, it isn't much slower than climbing as a group of two. Autoblocking belay devices are awesome. Being in a group of three allows for some efficiencies, extra manpower, extra brain, division of labor, etc that can make it a good choice. For example, in a group of three, if one climber gets injured, it is really nice to have two healthy folks to deal with the situation. Climbing as a group of three was not anywhere near this group's most serious mistake in my opinion.

Obviously there is no way in hell I would ski that, but it looks like a good climb! Did ya'll ever rope up or place any pro? Beautiful peak.

60m is fine

Wow that looks like a fantastic trip!

For 165g, you can get a Petzl Mini Traxion which makes crevasse rescue and other light hauling systems a breeze.

In the case of a crevasse rescue scenario, I don't think the pulleys should be seeing very high forces. Maybe 2kN max? There are folks on here who know the physics of these systems much better than I, so maybe they will chime in. However, ropes get bent over single biners (small diameter) in much higher force situations (lead falls) without catastrophic consequences, so my gut inclination is the revolver isn't unusually "high stress".

It's like watching a preschool class.

If you've read several books about anchor-building, you should have all the didactic knowledge you need. Now go get some practical experience. Build some anchors 5' off the ground (with soft, safe landing beneath) and hang your body weight from them. If possible, go with someone who knows what they are doing to critique your efforts.

I've tried to use those things before and I was not impressed. I pretty much agree 100% with this review I saw on the REI website: The Petzl Oscillante Pulley weighs 55g and costs $15. Works well, though it is still not a "prusik-minding" pulley. Not sure how you do your crevasse rescue, so maybe that isn't an issue. I've been wanting to try one of those DMM revolvers, but never have. They make a locker version now, but its really expensive.

This time of year, I would expect that route to be pretty snowy and slow and not rock-shoe friendly.

Scheduled to be available in June. "lightest full-functioning biner in the world" * Weight: 0.7 ounces (20 grams) * Type: straight * Gate closed strength: 22 kN * Gate open strength: 8 kN * Minor axis strength: to be determined

When I climbed it last year in mid-April, it was snow-free and dry. The walk-off descent had some spots of wetness and some little scraps of snow hiding in some alcoves. My TR

That's a finely crafted TR. Very nice.

Have you climbed Mt. Rainier?

Oh? Is it? Have you ever done that? Added an additional biner to a belay device while belaying (not rappelling)? Or are you just speaking hypothetically? Did you read the first post? Fascinating. Did you read any other post in this thread besides GenePires?