iain

If you are a cheapskate and don't need much gripping power, you can split a skin purchase with a friend, and each of you gets one skin. You can cut this skin in half and use it as a strip down the middle of each ski. Makes for some better gliding, but climbing can be tough.

The whole way, tip to tail, if you want maximum gripping power. However, the majority of the sticking power of skins comes right underneath your foot (right under your heel, if you are climbing). Some people use "kicker" skins for more moderate angle touring, which just cover the foot area and leave the tip and tail bare. If you are planning to climb anything significant, tip-to-tail is pretty much the way to go. It will also prevent snow from balling up at the skin interface, which can be a nightmare in gloppy conditions (snow gets under the skins on the glue, and starts piling up).

to the edge

5mm is too much. I just like to have the metal edge show with maybe just a bit of base, but no more. Too much base showing and you will be rocketing backwards on steeper traverses.

it's a crappy 2:1 pulley on the anchor.

Yeah Joe's has good donuts but you have to endure some plumber's butt. It's like Vedauwoo in there

I recommend the apple fritter. One of those is good for 30k' vert. worth of skiing.

well, when it's thin on hood n.f. you can just throw the pick directly into the rock in those gullies. no hooks needed (except for a stretch near the spire at the top)

come on dude, mt hood roasters doesn't even BEGIN to compare with Joe's Donuts in Sandy. Get with the program.

I don't really have a strong opinion on this whole tree business(surely there are more important issues at Beacon?), but considering what the tree endures during the winter in an armor of rime ice and brutal winds, and the fact that it has survived growing straight out of the rock for so long, I don't think a pile of dirt is going to make a scrap of difference, apart from a symbolic gesture to the state park officials. I personally would just let it be, as it has been for years. I also agree that rap slings only attract rappellers, just the same as footprints in the snow are followed under the assumption that the person who put them there knew what he/she was doing. If there is some political reason for the sling perhaps I can understand that. It would be nice to avoid "over-cleaning" an area that has a reputation for being a bit of an adventure climbing destination. I don't like rockfall, but I expect it at Beacon, and I wear a helmet. I don't expect all the ledges to be swept clear each season. I also find it hilarious when un-helmeted climbers at the base yell up in anger whenever so much as a pebble falls down near them. Wearing a helmet is a choice we all make, but don't get angry when you get it in the head. That said, thanks for all the work that has been done out there.

no matter who wins, we lose.

great post, thanks for all the info. I am coming off 3 years on the 184 r:ex, similar to the 10ex/tmex. Looks like I should check these out. Atomic offers them w/o the stupid mounting plate now, fortunately. Amazing how the r:ex ski has become mid-fat somehow. Pretty soon we will have snowboards on each foot.

forgot to add

Has anyone here used Atomic Sugar Daddies? Obviously good for the pow but how about on the icier days? Bearable? What length do you have? Thanks.

I predict flurries of GMC Yukons in the Mt. Hood Meadows area. Intermittent sprinkles of Escalades in the median and ditches. Outback advisory in effect.

Dirty Dancing - "I've had the time of my life"

perhaps I'm exaggerating a bit

I take it you survived the 3 interviews, FBI background check, fitness test, and wallet-emptying required to be allowed to touch a belay device at that joint?

you might be on belay 10 ft up the wall when your belayer makes it to the actual kern of the kernmantle rope. (they seem to have become better about this)

check out the ropes at the PRG sometime.

Aahhh the bustling metropolis of Corvallis. I can feel the pulse of the city from here.

Okay, a poorly conceived lie then. It's unfortunate that he has not learned to avoid speaking in absolutes when answering the media. He also bristles and immediately takes a defensive posture whenever anyone questions what he has said. This makes him look like a liar (which is perhaps accurate more often than not).

It would seem this mis-worded blunder was more a byproduct of his inadequacy to control a press conference. I think few would disagree that press conferences, where GWB must actually piece together a series of thoughts in a row and articulate them on the fly, are almost universally a political negative for this president. Even his own administration seems to agree, only scheduling the bare minimum. Without queuing or teleprompter, this president does not carry himself well when he is challenged with tough questions.

If you take the "other" road to Cooper Spur, you turn off before the closure at Baseline Rd. coming up from Hood River. With the fall colors it's a beautiful drive this time of year too!