JoshK

I read the same thing and came to the conclusion that he was either a.) smoking crack or b.) confusing his numbers. Are you set on synthetic? If not, check out the marmot helium. 1lbs 14oz (I actually confirm this weight on a scale), and 15 degrees. I've slept in it on a very cold spring night and was super warm. It's a pricey bag, but I give marmot on this one.

I've recently switched to a blue pad. I cut it down to 20" wide and just slightly longer than a 3/4 length ridgerest. Weighs about 6oz and I sleep fine on it. Carrying 3lbs of shit to sleep on top of is plain stupid.

Are you a big guy? If not, you can get the snowbunting and save a bit of weight. It's a slightly narrower cut. I would agree tho, 0 degree is pretty versitle. go with the 800 fill down.

Oh, and another thing, their comment that they "perform well on vertical ice" is bullshit. When I was researching plastics, I found the kolflach were the most flexible of any plastic out there, which sucks for difficult technical ice. It's a slogging boot, plain and simple.

I second glasgowkiss. Do *NOT* waste your money/weight on arctis expe so you can get a thick heavy liner that will pack out after 20 days. The intuition liners are the shit. I got them in my new tourlite mountainlites, and boot+liners weigh 4lbs 8oz, or roughly a full pound lighter than any other plastic+stock liner. Not to mention that the intuition liners dry out within a few hours at night, so you won' be stuck with wet liners your entire trip. Good luck drying out those super thick arctis expe liners once they get wet.

FWIW, I'll answer my own beta question. climbed frostbite ridge today. hit snow at around 4500, and switched to skins at the top of kennedy ridge. was able to skin to about 8900 feet, where it got a bit to steep and went back to walking. very soft snow, but not horrible post-holing. super easy conditions, didn't use crampons or ice axe once. ski down sitkum kicked ass.

Whatever...it's a fucking trailrun. If you want a physical challange there are plenty of other things to do that do involve going that out of the way to a beautiful place you can't even enjoy because you are huffing and puffing through it. It's a reason to chestbeat, plain and simple.

Oh, that's sweet! Very cool. Offwhite, don't worry, it's only a matter of time before Canadia is ours. Maybe in our life time, maybe not, but sooner or later...

SF does suck. It's foggy until 2pm every day and the mountains aren't even remotely close. SD is the ultimate example of non-chaning weather. Seasons are great, that's why seattle rocks. Anybody who complains about the winter needs a winter sport and anybody who complains about seattle summers is just plain dumb.

My feet are fairly wide and I've always had good luck with technicas.

Next week looks to be cloudy and shitty...then we'll have something else to complain about.

I'll second that...witnessed plenty recently myself. The temps this week are supposed to top out tomorrow or saturday then start cooling down next week. That should do a good bit to stabilize the snow pack. Just use common sense, and travel when it's cooler in general.

"the nation's largest monolith of granite" Hmm...I've seen Stuart metnioned as the largest granite monolith in the 48-states many different times. Perhaps various state tourism boards aren't against lying??

Hahah...no doubt.

LOL...you should claim FA of the baker->rainer traverse. THat's a hellavu a trip.

I believe you are thinking of the MK1 Lite. very sweet tent. You can actually sleep two in it for super lightwegiht trips, as long as you or your partner isn't super big. This would be a sweet solo setup if you plan on moving solo through shitty weather in harsh conditions a lot.

I think it was just about this time last year when I watched a snowboarder (who had never climbed before) bite it at around 13k on the emmons and slide nearly 500 feet. I think he fell over the lip of a crevasse or two and ended up stopping out of sight. We watched this all from the sherman hut. Eventually he pulled himself together and got up and started making his way down with his partner. Two climbing rangers went up to meet him. Lucky guy...could have been killed. In any event, that wasn't meant to discourage anybody from skiing the emmons, I plan to myself, just a random story I remembered.

Going down through boulder basin, but I think the approach guys up kennedy ridge. Obviously ridges don't lend themselves to melt streams as nicely as basins do. Oh well, I think we pretty much resigned ourselves to carrying a minimalist pot+stove anyway, so now I at least get to have a warm breakfast.

Yeah, I hear ya about the springs...pretty sick. They've been this sick brownish color every time I've been there. I'd have to get my ass seriously kicked on a climb before I'd consider soaking in that thing. We'll be taking a little canister stove to melt a bit of water on the ridge, but hopefully something will be open. It's so warm that I wouldn't be surprised if we could get access to something. I'll let ya know what the conditions are like.

I'll give ya $75

plexus makes a good point, the easton doesn't have much going for it. If technical difficulty worries you, the coleman.deming is very easy and you won't have to deal with the hordes of snowmachines you'll see on the south side. That could really detract from the experience.

hey, who all has been up above kennedy hot springs lately? Scotty, I know you have. WHat is the running water situation. I asume glacier basin has flows in it. What about along the kennedy ridge trail. Lots of running water?

Where? I have never found a situation where I'd rather have a wired hex than a slung hex. I've found the "stifness" of the wire to be useful sometimes. You can jockey a hex in to a slot by holding the wire and guiding it in. They are heavier tho me thinks...

I think 13-14 hours (the RT time you describe) is pretty easily doable. There is nothing technical, so you should be able to steadily grind up it and the grade is perfect for fast effecient elevation gain. Just don't get started too late or you'll have to deal with slogging up hill in the snow. Tell any snowmobiliers you see to go fuck themselves!

Yeah, good luck actually seeing anything for routefinding with the ion. I have one too, but I leave it home when I need to more than just set up camp and follow trails in the dark.