iain

it would be good for this site to have a keyword search for trip reports, like the photo gallery. As is, to get a good search on johannesburg you have to try every possible mispelling of johannesburg, along with j-burg, j-berg, jay-berg, jayberg, j'burg, j'berg, j'ürg, etc.

I have the Towers which are very similar. The toes are definitely cramped but very comfortable. I hate the GoreTex liner and think the leather Ferratas might be a better idea. The liner just makes my feet wet from sweat unable to get out when it is hot and no gradient across the liner (which is pretty much when I wear them). But they are great for low 5th class stuff. They work well with aluminum crampons on steep snow too.

Seems more like he was there on "business"

I have found that in recent years, Snowdome on Mt. Hood is a crevasse-infested annoyance by midsummer. Perhaps someone has been up Sunshine recently to prove me wrong?

wouldn't that be Bataan death march?

We slipped past the bouncer at the base of the climb.

Hal Burton, his associate Mr. Macchiato, and I went to climb the SW face of Early Morning Spire this weekend. We left the Eldorado trailhead on Cascade River Road late that afternoon. This trail climbs steeply, enters some granite boulder fields, and finally opens up into typical alpine heather and granite slabs. We missed the easy drop over the ridge at the top and wound up in a steep gulley, where we rapped off a tattered old chunk of webbing. Since we were using one of our thin 1/2 ropes through webbing, of course the rope got stuck for a bit and an epic pulling contest ensued. Magically, the rope suddenly fed through very smoothly, much to our delight. We felt rather sheepish when we got to the base of Eldorado Glacier where an obvious, well-beaten path led to a nice walk down from the ridge. The sun was setting at this point, so we hustled across the granite slabs below the glacier and cut up to the Triad/Eldorado col. We encountered some fairly straightforward climbing up to this col, but falling would be quite serious. I believe we may have forced a line up here in the dark and there is much easier way to the left somewhere, but we were in a hurry to get close to the climb w/o having to do the glacier navigation Tikkafest game on the other side. We ended up bivying on a ledge above a cliff, in the middle of the Triad glacier. We started off around 5am, easily traveling down and around Marble Creek Cirque and up the snow gulley to the climb. There was no moat to deal with, and accessing the spire was easy. The entire climb is dry at this time, and I think this is a better time to climb the route than later in the year, as Nelson's book suggests. The climbing itself was quite straightforward, though there was some confusion about where we were exactly at times. We encountered a few brief moves in a chimney that were in the 5.9 range. We simul-climbed the 5.5 pitches and traverse to the ridge, belaying the 5.7ish? crack to the ridgeline. We simuled the rest of the ridge to the summit. On the descent we found easy access to the snow on the north side of the col between Dorado Needle and the spire. We had to jump across a bergschrund, but not too difficult. Downclimbing the col on the south side was a wet boulder and scree affair that turned to loose cobbles in mud. We descended a glacier with some small icefall areas and climbed over a pass between Eldorado and Dorado Needle to the McAllister Glacier. Easy travel from here to the ridge to Inspiration Glacier, and a full-on race to get back to the bottom of Eldorado Glacier before nightfall. We descended the heather fields and granite talus in the dark, and capped the day with a extreme headlamp descent of the steep trail to the Cascade River. We were back at the car by midnight. A great weekend climb, but start earlier than we did.

Is "down down" better than regular down? It's a down jacket by FUBU when you want to be down like the other playaz on the block. It is particularly down when it's 900 degrees outside, or raining, and your jeans are baggy enough to hide a piece or ten.

apparently Thinker commutes to work daily in the Budweiser rocket.

much like your avatar picture chuck. mine, on the other hand, brillantly represents the idiom of the post 2001 anti-snaffleists, much as monet's waterlilies is a definitive work of the impressionist era.

some poorly-timed gas at the belay ledge frequently inspires some speed ascents in fine style as well.

used to be a place in corvallis called suds'n'suds where you could get loaded while doing laundry. I was too young to understand the brillance, much less take advantage of this establishment, unfortunately.

hmm looks like mtngoat's been awakened over there...

go launder your dogbone draws, pixie.

I find pulling on gear and stepping on bolts gets me through stuff that no motivational speaker can help with.

amazing how easy it is to run out of rope on a lower or rap like that. seems totally stupid and obvious at face value, but happens a lot in ANAM

nice friday entertainment.

looks like it would reel in the chicas too

someone let me know when the "good peeps good times" thread gets to page 2 so I can stop having to scroll by mr. natural's ass

with a whip and a YEEHAH dipsh*t

what idiot drives around in a black helicopter besides airwolf? not the best camo.

jeez the nerds are out in force

his avatar says "suicide. do it." charming trask!

the bible college chicks over at hoth base across the street would have their way with him