Rainier_Wolfscastle

Thanks for the tip. Picked up a new Primaloft sweater. Great item. Wore my old one out.

I have an 2 door I-tent and haven't needed a vestibule so far. Although cozy, a hanging stove works really well in this tent.

Western Mountaineering Highlite and Ultralight models are available in 5'6" length. All the Feathered friends can be ordered in "short" size if you don't mind waiting for them to make it. Moonstone's regular size for ultralight bags is 5'9". I'm sure there are many others too.

Looking for partner(s) for Liberty Ridge. I live in Utah, and can't find anyone local who can go this year. We tried last year but got skunked by shit weather (prehaps why no one wants to go this year). Have plenty of mtnr'ing & ice climbing experience. Prefer to travel light & fast. If you need a second or third climber, drop me a PM. Later, Mike.

the Trango extreme is great for ice/mixed climbing. Not to bulky, plenty of ankle flexibilty, and fits just about every type of crampon. If you have the $, you may want to check out the Trango Comp also. My buddy has these and they are rediculously light. Either one will work OK for alpine, as long as it is not super cold, and you are on the move most of the time.

Looking for one x-15 bent shaft to make a pair. Needs to be a hammer. Orange or red version. With or without pick. Reasonable condition and price. Thanks.

If you want a really huge heavy duty duffle, you may want to checkout the Patagonia Black Hole II. You can smuggle a small family inside it. The TNF duffles are nice, but I'd avoid them just because the Gaint TNF logos on every corner make it easy for theives to identify the bags with the "good stuff" in them. I work at the airport and can identify these bags coming off the planes from 50 ft away. I'd ship / carry your goodies in something more discrete. If you don't require the heavier tarp material, MEC duffles are inexpensive and well made. Another inexpensive choice is the good old army duffle bag. They are super durable, but you have to dump everything out to get to something at the bottom. Just my .02

If you decide to buy a bibler I-tent for year round camping, get the two door model. It provides alot better ventilation as air can flow between the doors on each end. No condensation problems in clammy or wet weather.

Some Vans & Raichle snowboard boots come with Intuition liners in them. I bought a used pair on ebay for $10, removed the liner, baked it, and put them in my Invernos. They are well over a pound lighter now and seem quite warm.

I'd wear the mountaineering boots since you will have to cover alot of terrain on foot after you ditch the skis. Since you will be spending alot of time and money on this trip, you might as well pony up for the right bindings for your mountaineering boots. Get the Silveretta's (404 or 500) or buy some used Ramer bindings. They can be had for cheap. Here's a pair I found on ebay: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2716706387&category=36265 Fritschi also made an AT binding (FT-88) that accepts mtn boots. You might be able to find a pair of these on ebay also. I think they were designed for military use (white ones). I have a pair of these (mine are red). They are heavier than the Silverettas, but are bomber, cheap, have DIN release, and a heel lifter. Mount them on some short thrift shop skis.

I was checking out this jacket at the local shop yesterday. 9.5 oz ! for a down jacket. It's half the weight of my moonstone jacket (which I thought was light). Anyone pick one of these up yet? The nylon is paper thin.

This seems lame to me. If you pack is the right size and you are using the load lifters properly, the shoulder straps should not be digging into your shoulder blades. If the pack doesn't have load lifters, then it probably wasn't designed to carry a ton of weight anyway.

The X-15's I am talking about are Orange with black rubber handles. They look like these . They are heavy as shit. About 4-5 years old. I thought the newer all rubber ones were black prophets? I've owned the BP's and they are alot lighter than these beasts.

Good: Sturdy, accepts all current BD picks Bad: Really heavy tool. They may fry your shoulders/arms on long/steep terrain.

For anyone interested, here's a link to some pics I took at Ouray last weekend. I didn't take a whole bunch of the competition, but there are some of the climbing. Enjoy. http://home1.gte.net/4mkempt/index.htm

I could see where that would be annoying. Are these tools seconds or something? I can't imagine BD would have designed the leash this way. How about getting the upper part of a standard Andriod leash and use that instead. You will be able move the clip up and down as you please. Of course, it's not quite as tidy as the Viper Andriod leash setup, but whatever works.

How do you become the "Official" supplier of great emotions? Are there other companies providing "great emotions" without government approval? I don't get their motto. Who would describe their climbing/mountaineering experience as being full of great emotions? Must be a bad french to english translation or something like that.

Aren't the Trango S and the Trango Extreme S different boots? Sounds like previous posts are considering them the same boot. I thought the Trango S was the red one with no toe bail, and the Trango Extreme S is the new version of the old Trango Extreme. Correct me if I am wrong.

Try ebay. I think there are some euro retailers selling them in all sizes for around $250

I usually belay with the reverso in auto lock off position off the anchor, but I find it is even harder to feed in this fashion if there is already alot of friction from below. I was pulling slack from climbers side. It may just be a case of the weight of 2 full water logged ropes below.

Anyone got any special tricks for dealing with friction from wet half ropes? I was belaying a second up an ice climb from above with very wet half ropes through a reverso in low friction mode (rounded side) off my harness, up thru a directional, and then down to the climber. The route was pretty straight vertical ice. The friction on the ropes was hideous. Got more of a workout pulling in the slack. I added an extra biner to reverso and the directional without much improvement. The directional above me was adding quite a bit of friction, but I didn't want to remove that from the system since it would be painfull to catch a fall directly off my harness. I guess I could have used a pully at the directional, but this seems like alot of junk to carry. Anyone got any special tricks for dealing with this? Since there was so much friction, prehaps a hip belay w/directional? Never caught a fall on steep terrain with one of these.

I find this jacket too warm for 90% of my winter activities, so may it find a better home. This is a MEC belay jacket in size medium. It has a gore dryloft shell and is filled with 6 oz/sq yd primaloft PL1 insulation. It has a big insulated hood to fit over helmet. Plenty of pockets and a snow skirt. Aside from one little 1/2" boo-boo on the right arm it is defect free (see red box in pic). Jacket has always been stored unstuffed. It is slightly oversized to fit over your "action suit". Good for belaying ice climbing, sitting around in the cold or wet, or if you want to look like an idiot in the mall. $100 firm + shipping, or may consider trade for scholler material pants size medium. Belay Jacket Pic

I can't imagine these would be warm enough for use on Denali as they have no removable inner boot for warmth like plastics. Also, they would be tough to dry out everyday without a inner boot. Doesn't Sportiva make a boot called Olympus Moon's for extreme cold?

Thanks for the reply. Sounds like what I am looking for. I ordered them and the suspenders. I agree with your comment about the pooping door. I used bibs for 5 years and never used it.

Anybody own these? Good or bad comments? I was thinking about ordering a pair. Do the cuffs fit easily over AT boots? Thanks for any replies.