JoshK

Dalius s too! Talk about trial by fire for a guy's first real experience with mixed and crappy snow&ice climbing!

How much of the crapscadian coulior is still skiable? the top portions looked awesome.

Yeah, man, we made it....finally. If you can believe it, it took us another 6 or 7 hours or some such from when we saw you guys on top. the conditions were incredibly nasty to say the least. *everything* required excavation and the rime "ice" was all completely worthless. some pitches required hours of clearing. the only good side was the weather really didn't get bad...just cold. I was good meeting you guys and thanks for the nice easy to follow path back to the sherpa!

So, would a good example be the GPS that Joshk got from REI and then threw away on Mine Road cos he didn't know how to use it? It was mail-ordered dipshit.

It's gonna be terrible in there. I'd really recommend all parties stay away from the stuart range this weekend. Your time would be better spent cragging or hiking with your aunt.

A weekend warrior, IMHO, is your typical REI shopping wanker who gets out maybe a few weekends a year tops. If you climb every single weekend (i.e. 2 out of every 7 days) you are still doing pretty well in my book.

I've noticed the exact same thing, Mark. This winter was particularly odd in that it snowed almost none below 2500 or 3000 feet. Then between 3000 adn 4500 or so there seemed to be less than average. The higher you got, it seemed, the snow pack seemed closer to normal. I'm hoping this will mean roads melting out quicker, with the high alpine choss and skree continuing to be covered with snow for a while.

Yeah, it's direct. I'd say one glissade would get you back down to camp in, what, I dunno, 15 or 20 seconds?

I might be dense, but it seems to me that a fall just *before* the clip is gonna have the same result no matter how the hell you attach the rope to the piece...meaning that particular piece is going to do no good.

The more specialized your gear getss, the less circumstances under which it can be used. This is why I call bullshit on wanker stuff like this. I'd rather keep it simple and be able to carry as little gear as possible and do as many things as possible with it.

Somehow I find the act of politicians simply being politicians a *lot* less scary than a single party using federal agencies to accomplish political ends. One may be annoying, but it perfectly legal. The other than is completely illegal.

BWAHAHAHAH...dipshit.

I assumed Matt was referring to the decent down the Sherpa glacier, not the ascent of the ice cliff. I cannot imagine choosing to go *down* the ice cliff glacier in september, other than by accident.

Also, while not it's intended use, I can't count the number of times I've been able to sling a horn and use my extra long (12 feet, doubled) spectra cordalette to aid in tricky downclimbing. Although making up for being a sucky climber is probably not the prime reason to decide on an anchor building helper.

I dunno, a plain on cordelette/webolette seems a hellavu lot more versitile than me. I've gernally found getting and setting good placements to take more time than the equalization of the pieces with my cordelette.

Maybe I misunderstood your wording PP, but Jim Nelson writes the Selected Climbs series, not Beckey. Both guys

When do you plan on going? When I get home from work, I could probably find a picture I took about 2 weeks ago that could show the cornice. In my opinion it looked like you could get past it, but you would have to work for it. It appeared overhanging enough that you couldn't climb over it due to it being made of fairly soft snow. It looked like your best bed would be to attempt to climb the rock on either side of it or get yourself a good belay and started tunneling through it Of course, this was what I was guessing from a mile or two away, so it may be completely different than what I thought. I think if you are determined to do that route and you get all the way to the cornice, you'll find a way through it.

Can I add another recommendation? The new superlight stove from coleman, the F1Ultralight, I believe it's called. Lighter than all the ones mentioned (by a few grams at least), pretty stable and folds down well. I got it for a replacement when my old canister stove busted and I've found it pretty cool so far. In all honesty, i bet all of these ~3oz ultra light canister stoves do about the same job.

You guys are all confused. Do it euro-style and paraglide off the top. You'll be back at your car in 15 minutes.

Thanks Mark, appreciate the comments. Yes, I have been looking at the east face of goode for a while. (ok, I lie, I've been looking since I saw it from liberty bell the other day ) It looks like some great climbing to be had. One small correction, the information for both goode and dome is in the green book. At least it's that way in the versions I have. -josh

Steve, yes, the approach is the same up until the point where you begin actually climbing up the ice cliff glacier itself. I did the approach yesterday, albeit up the wrong branch of the mountaineer creek, and snowshoes were not nescessary. Some moderate postholing was to be had lower down in the forest (I bet last night's hard freeze solved this), but above about 4000 feet the snow was hard as a rock. Awesome walking conditions.

If you go for it...go fast. The bottom half is threatened constantly by the ice cliff itself, and the top half is threatened constantly by a huge cornice this time of year. I also thing shit can sluff off from the walls forming the north ridge. I was up there and interested in doing the route a few weeks ago, but came to the conclusion I would enjoy it more a bit later in the season when it was more ice than snow and also a bit less threatened by that cornice. Whatever you decide, be careful and have fun.

The one very nice thing about cameras which take compact flash (none of the really small ones do) is that storage is dirt cheap. 512mb for less than $100. I can store ~260 5megapixel, low compression JPEGs.

Allison has a valid point. Just as much to the point is the fact that marmot's "900" bags are awesome bags with great quality shells and down fill. Are they any better than readily available 800 fill down bags simply because of the "900" fill down? No, I sincerely doubt it. But that doesn't change the fact that last year's versions of the same bags (marketed as 800 fill) kicked ass also.