Thinker

I really like these BD Moonlights and have bought several as gifts. I like to borrow them back as backup lights for caving.

That's the thing. No one headlamp is ideal for every activity. If I'm starting up a multipitch sprot route late in the day the little Tikka is cool to throw in a pocket just in case....the Myo or Gemini would probably be too bulky for that and get left. But the Tikka would not be suitable for routefinding on a glacier or alpine route....so the big guns go along for that ride. BD Gemini: 150 grams. Burn Time: 1000 Hours with LED, 7 Hours with Long Life Halogen / 3 AA batteries. Myo3: 137 grams. Burn Time: [Xenon halogen] 4h, [standard] 11h, [LED’s] 180h / 4 AA batteries It's unclear to me whether BD's 'long life halogen' is the same type of bulb as Petzl's 'standard'. My assumption is that it is and the 11 vs 7 burn time is mainly the result of the extra battery.

It was an old Gemini. The main thing that sold me on the Myo was the focus-able beam. The Gemini has a beam that, well...ok, you can kinda call it focused when you turn the bezel...but the Myo does a radical focus with a quick twist of the bezel....and that's with the incandescent/halogen bulbs, not the LEDs. I only really use the LEDs caving when I'm hanging out waiting or working on something close at hand, so the difference in angle is not a big deal to me. The rest of the time I've got the big gun on. Glacier travel is another story. I'm usually switching back and forth fairly often, using the LEDs to look at the route near my feet and the high-beams to look around while negotiating around crevasses or seracs. If I'm not on lead then I'm on LEDs most of the time. It still don't feel inconvenienced by the difference in angle, though. I've heard that LED technology is really progressing and that within a year or two they'll be marketing headlamps with efficient LEDs that rival the intensity of the current incandescent/halogen bulbs. For what it's worth, the sales guy at Outdoor and More in Seattle that was assisting me noted that he really wished he'd have waited for the Myo to come out instead of purchasing his Gemini.

Ramuta's Shoe Repair 609 Stewart Street Seattle, WA 98101 206-622-5800 I've had 2 pair done there. The guy who does it is a climber and is occasionally out climbing, so their turn around time varies.

I did a side by side Myo3 vs Gemini test in a dark cave. The Myo projected and focused significantly better than the Gemini. It's my new favorite for routefinding, caving, and glacier travel.

why not just hook a cable around individual parts of the junk cam and wham it out with a hammer, much like removing a pin? hooking the cable around the far right or left end of the axle should do the trick and just explode the damn thing.... if that doesn't work, try looping single cam lobes and trash them individually.

We didn't make it to the big lake (see above), but we did see a couple of very small 'ponds' probably just melt water perched on top of an ice shelf. I think everybody was affected to some degree by the altitude. I know I had a minor headache the second night. One guy took Diamox because he'd had enough experience at altitude to know it was going to be an issue. We spent one night at Glacier Basin and one at Emmons Flats with the hope of acclimating a bit better. I figured it's not all that much different than climbing bigger mountains where base camps are at or above 14k. We definitely kept doing status checks on each other and were prepared to head down at any time if it became necessary. The cold and wind were more of an issue than the altitude, in my opinion.

awhile back I agreed to accompany my gf to the WA Concrete and Aggregate Assn awards presentation.....what a sleeper, I thought. She was one of the judges this year because a bridge she designed last year won one of the categories. This year there was a special category for a 'unique community enhancing project' or some such thing. The only candidate (and winner) was a skate park project on Orcas Island. Warren Miller was on hand to accept the award and give a cool little speech. Seems he was one of the primary drivers and fundraisers of the project in his home community.

try to change your permits to Ingraham Flats if you can. sometimes the rangers at Muir can radio down and make the change if there's room over there....it's well worth the effort in terms of solitude and head start. Another option is to camp below Muir in the snowfield. Even 500 feet down gives you a break from the cellphone toting masses. If you do that, be sure to hike on up to Muir and scope out the route across the Cowlitz and beyond in the daylight.

We didn't actually get into the cave system with the lake as it's in the west crater and we didn't have the time or energy to go find the entrance. I don't recall just where the airplane wreckage is; we didn't see it....nor did we see the bird skeletons observed in the 'birdroom' during a 1970 exploration. The birdroom has a small bench at the top of the room and the majority of the room slopes steeply at the angle of repose for the rocks and boulders making up the floor. One guy went down, around, and back up along the walls but didn't see anything of note. We did find a golf ball, an old decayed pair of goggles, and some other debris...nothing too fancy in the way of junk. OK, 8 photos posted in my user gallery now. here

I did the Petzoldt ridge and didn't see anyone else apart from our party on the route. I highly recommend it. You will, no doubt, see others on the Up Ex.

I hate the smell of cats. I hate that f*cking cat that peed in my favorite hat when I was 9. I refused to give up that hat, no matter how bad it smelled. I can still smell that damn cat piss smell when I close my eyes. I hate the smell of cats!!!

I like the smell of..... Thunderstorms, my climbing shoes (really), beer brewing, leather on sweaty horse flesh, good Scotch whiskey, shot gun shells after they've been fired, and french press coffee.

My buds and I spent Tues and Wed nights in the east crater. Explored the caves all day Wed, made it into the 'birdroom' approx 300 feet below the crater surface. Last year the passageway to the birdroom was so small that neither of us wanted to make the crawl, this time it was fine. LOTS of loose rock in the steep passages, almost took out one of our guys. You pretty much figure you're toast in there if anything serious happens. Small 'alcoves' form around some of the steam vents near the surface. One of these served as our cooking and socializing area. If the sh*t hits the fan up there they are the perfect place to wait it out, out of the wind. From what I've read, these alcoves must be where many of the first climbers overnighted on the summit, as was the tradition for many years. My hunch is that the ones they used were near Register rock, as some reports indicate the snow/ice level in the crater was a bit higher a hundred years ago...but that's just my speculation. For a good read of those early ascents pick up 'Mountain Fever' by Aubrey Haines, 1962, one of the most comprehensive and well documented accounts of the climbing history of Mt. Rainier. I was pleased with how well the Bibler stood up to the constant wicked wind up there. Full heavy packs all the way to the summit sucked big, but I needed the workout. The sunsets and the clear stary skies alone were well worth the effort. I'll post a photo later if they turn out. The EW is in good shape. The route the guides currently take swings way right over into the saddle. We went a little right, and continued up. On Thurs morn while we were headed down several parties looked very disturbed when I told them they were following our wands, which we were in the process of pulling. One team pretty much pleaded with us to leave them, so I left a few widely spaced wands thru the tricky part for them just in case. Sorry for leaving the litter on the hill, Mike, but I thought it was better than having a bunch of lost gumbies up there that day.

He should start posting trip reports here, he'd fit right in. Trask's real identity has been discovered at last.

Hulkie! You told me you had that beast under control!

Well, 'Dahl says the police made no effort to arrest or detain the teens. "Cops were flat telling them just to shut up and walk home." ' If that statement is indeed true, then they are locals, and I doubt they were 13 and 14 year olds. And if I may stretch a bit, they were probably children of the dregs of society who couldn't afford cars, weren't smart enough to know how to steal one, or who simply found the municipal campground a handy place to gather....maybe with the tacit approval of the local RCMP. In any case, the RCMP at the scene seem to have recognized the kids if they told them to shut up and walk home....just my take Dru.

there's another report with video at the KOMO site So, I have to wonder.....will the kids who eventually get charged with this crime be out for revenge, despite the welcome that the greater Squamish community is extending to international outdoor recreationalists? If the group that attacked Shannon and friends was numbered at 50, that had to be a significant number of the total number of people that age in Squamish.....it's not that big of a town.

Mike's a pretty funny guy in person sometimes, too...Gaston, do you know him?

The rolling would likely be very dependent on rope diameters, difference in rope diamters, wetness of ropes, and a host of other variables that weren't tested in that study. I'd bet the knot still rolls at significantly less than 1000 lbs in some cases.

The flight from Dutch to Atka Island is a good one too. A little twin engine Cessna flying thru the fog surrounding Atka on the approach. We tried coming in low, just above the water and had to abort. I knew from the topo there was a huge ass volcano right there and hoped the pilot knew where he was in relation to it. 2nd day was better, clear weather, crosswind on the landing made it exciting. I've only been to a few other places where I was happier to see a plane coming back to pick me up. On another trip north, the landing strip at Barter Island/Kaktovik is built on a sand spit, literally 1 to 2 feet above sea level. I thought for sure we were landing in the water until the last second when I could see runway underneath us out my side window. From there we choppered into the ANWR to the Jago River Delta (really just a short hop). We could see the pack ice in the Beaufort Sea on the horizon. all the polar bears SUPPOSEDLY went out with the pack ice a few weeks previously, but you really never know.... We asked the pilot if he would take us out over the pack ice, but he declined and noted that the particular chopper we were using only had one engine and that it would be prudent to stay near land. There are great views of the Brooks Range from Kaktovik. Walt Audi is a legendary bush pilot there who shuttles rafters, hunters, and climbers all over the area. Here's a photo of Walt's hotel

My fist time into Dutch was gutwrenching. The 737 wing looked like it was going to catch the hillside on the approach, on the other side it looked like it was going to hit the water. As soon as the wheels touched down the pilot had do decelerate more than I've ever felt one do before....seatbelts mandatory. It wasn't nearly as bad in the 1938 Grumman Goose...whatta plane.

A sliver of Mt Reindeer thru a gap in the downtown Seattle skyline, Darth Vader bldg, West Seattle Bridge, Monorail, a bit of the Sound, and some of Belltown. Oh....and the Brothers if I take about 6 steps from my desk.

Go to www.google.com then type: "weapons of mass destruction" then hit " I am feeling lucky" instead of search. Then read the whole error message.

common injury in sports where athletes wear jerseys and grab at them, i.e. american football. http://www.mgh.harvard.edu/ortho/JerseyFinger.htm