iain

Yeah that debris field was wild! It looked like seracs at first. It must have happened mid-winter, because it was there and partially-buried last time I was up there in February.

helens 3/21 trip report

wasn't she the subject of one of the biggest sprayfests in cc.com history?

wow that sounds like a great ski. did you set up a shuttle?

what a memorable onsight that was, everyone cheering as the chains were clipped in victory

post deleted for the sake of entertainment

if it took you more than 3 hours you suck. insert i. saddle chestbeat times below here. the reid headwall can mean alot of things. There's different ways to go through there and finish all the way on west crater or back over by leuthold. Unless you were finishing by headlamp and wondering where you messed up, I'm not sure why this info would be useful.

the fact that the gollum climbing photo is making the rounds again can be directly blamed on Dru, who attempted to spam me with it for simply saying the bestist climber is the one who is funner than the others. ( Think that's from some climber called Alekslow or something?)

Climb: Mt. St. Helens-Worm Flows Date of Climb: 3/21/2004 Trip Report: Well the freezing level was through the roof but I didn't want to go "cragging" just yet, so it was off to Mt. St. Helens for some spring skiing. As much as I like powder, I love hanging out in a t-shirt taking off skins rather than huddling over my pack trying to pry them off with mittens in a howling snow storm. There was the usual parade of 2-cycle monsters in the parking lot, along with some serious tv watching going on in the mobile homes as pops was out on the steed. There is still great snow coverage to the parking lot on Swift Creek trail. Here is what the current coverage on Helens looks like The skin up was great, nice and warm. PNW spring skiing in full effect. Skins were glopping up just enough to set some fierce skin tracks, but not glopping up enough to slow you down. The top was quickly reached. Spirit Lake and Rainier Mt. Adams is still holding a lot of white The ski down was very nice for the top 2000', but became rather slow farther down. No complaints here though. Sometimes a high freezing level is just what you need to get you to enjoy a laid-back spring-like weekend in the mountains. Here's to spring skiing!

Climb: Mt. Hood-South Side Date of Climb: 3/20/2004 Trip Report: I love the south side climb, but you would see a grown man cry if you found me up there without skis these days. I had a meeting at Timberline at 0830, but I wanted to get a bit of exercise in before I sat around for hours over by little zig canyon. The solution was to leave Timberline at 0215 and get a south side ski in. Conditions were very good for climbing. Skinning conditions were great, and I got to the top of Palmer by 0315. I had the upper crater to myself, and was on the summit around 0600. The first climber of the day was approaching the hogsback as I was coming down. Here's a look down the hogsback from the gates. The blob on the ridge is my skis (I didn't think the 0600 summit ice festival would be a fun ski). The first climber of what would surely be a busy day is approaching. Here's a view of the Columbia River from the summit at sunrise as it lazily makes it's way to the Portland superfund site. The ski down from the hogsback was miserable, as would be expected that early in the morning. However, some new snow had been wind transported to the depression between Illumination Saddle and Triangle Moraine, so cutting hard skier's right at Crater Rock paid off somewhat, but not as much as usual. I pleaded for the fresh groom on the Palmer like those bitchy teenage ski racers at the summer camps. Here's a shot of Hood for those wondering how much coverage is up there right now. Plenty. Note the exposed rock below Steel Cliffs, and note the HUGE streak of debris that has been blown across Wy'East! Looks like we had some serious wind late last week.

the battery thing is a bad setup. It stings when you have to pay apple to get this performed on ipods that they no longer support with the latest software updates. I think the style statement came before practicality in this case. that, and they didn't want to make it too easy to upgrade hard drives I guess.

Funny the folks at Headroom Headphone (some serious headphone audio junkies there!) don't seem to think so. With or without a headphone amp, the iPod holds its own. It's all about the mp3 encode in the first place. I run the iPod with Beyerdynamic 250's and it sounds sweet.

I have the original one, and I don't know how I lived without it now.

be still my beating heart

nice alpine bratwûrst. If you could change the color of each of those 4 gollums you'd have a nice andy warhol.

If I was having fun, I would be a good climber. If I was having the most fun, I would be the bestist -Alex Lowe

You know who the best climber is? Well Alex Lowe said it was the one having the most fun.

I believe it was Alex Lowe who said, "The best climber is the one having the most fun."

"The best climber is the one having the most fun." -- Alex Lowe

I have a Patagonia Ice Nine Jacket I would like to sell (I have too many jackets, not enough finances!) This is Patagonia's premier bombproof jacket, one of the few they made out of 3-layer GoreTex XCR. Retail price: $460 Color: Pop Orange Size: Large It is like-new, only been worn a few times, all above treeline in snow. There is some epoxy residue on the left chest where a portland mtn rescue patch used to be. It is not sticky or anything, just there and could be removed. I'll get a picture up here of it and you're welcome to come take a look at it. I'd like to get $250 for it. Here it is in full-on conditions at a staging area at Crater Rock during a rescue last year in January!

it was the RCMP right? Probably his horse was naying for some hay or something.

OMG! HAHAHA! I had not seen that before.

hey you get up to 29000' on the hillary step and let's see how well you manage the fixed lines........that is the hillary step isn't it?

If he can find a way to make a living doing cool things outdoors, w/o hurting anyone, more power to him