JoshK

Good trip report, Brian! It's nice when thinks work out so well with totally new partners, huh?

I'm ashamed to say I didn't think of doing this with my 36" I have lying around. Sounds like a great idea.

I'm very jealous. Those conditions look great. I did d-tail last winter (albeit by a different route, as a ski tour) and it's an beautiful place high on that mountain and the enchantment plateau in the winter. These pics make me want to head right back.

Well, you can certainly deadman a picket as well as use it upright. Do you mean to compare pickets to flukes? In any event, I dont use flukes, so I guess I couldn't make that comparison. Pickets are quite versitile however. I have one of the 36" ones that I found as booty and I keep meaning to cut it to 24" since I never want to carry a 36" picket. I think, realistically, a 36" picket would more useful in the rockies or other places with less consolidated snowpacks and lighter snow.

Nice climb guys. The pics turned out great!

It's also worth pointing out that if you are looking for a tour that can be an easy ski up and a fun (read: somewhat steep and open) ski down, then colchuck lake would not be my recommendation. The trail is rather windy and while not difficult for a good skier can be a pain if you aren't used to skiing a trail. That said, during *GOOD* (read: probably not this weekend) conditions the ski down from the lake proper to the 2nd crossing of mountaineer creek through the trees can be quite good if you know the way. After that it's all trail though.

Style points! Sweet...extra points for clothing style for this dude!

Sounds nice. how fat is the ice in the area now? any pics?

That seems to make a very large assuption that it doesn't snow any more this month. Considering it is still february, that's not a bet I would take.

for the record...so does work.

I've always thought I have small hands, but I really like the MEC mixed master gloves as well. I did tear through one of them, but MEC hapily replaced them. The mixed master is another perfect example of MEC producting brand name gear that is *useful* unlike REI's latest and greatest fleece.

How can CC.com ever compete with that lovely winXP look alike message board?!

Oh man,sweet pics! Nice job Colin and Forrest. What an awesome place to be in the winter, I can only imagine how impressive it must have been.

I can't stresss enough what freeclimb said about lifting weights to balance out your shoulder muscles. I tore my rotator cuff in a skiing accident a few years ago and the PT told me I'd never really be as strong, etc. I said to hell with that and slowly made it stronger and stronger with the help of weights. My shoulder feels better than ever these days.

as for the drink of choice for not taking in to many calories...gin n' tonics with diet tonic.

List of what? Only those two left and you've climbed every mountain you ever want to climb?

I would agree that GW has seperated his beliefs and his politics for the most part. I don't like the guy as president, and disagree with almost all of his policies (environment, gun control, budget, abortion, etc.), but I think he has treated his job as exactly what it is, a job. I have no problem with "god" being used in remeberence speechs, etc. I totally agree that in that case the concept is bigger than word and it conveys the message as it should. I could do without the specific passages from the bible, but oh well. About Clinton, you are right, he certainly did his best to get seen at church as much as possible. His politics obviously didn't reflect the christian right's views, but I more or less get the impression that the church visits were to appease the middle ground "family values" group. It goes without saying that church-gig stuff has been a favorite with poloticians for bolstering public opinion since the dawn of politics. Somewhat off topic, but it's interesting that probably the most religous president in recent memory was Carter, who was definitely liberal. While he may have not been the most successful president (I wouldn't know, I wasn't old enough), I must say his post-presidency has certainly been productive with regard to helping the less fortunate of the world. For religious reasons or not, I think he's certainly done good for the world.

you bored and still @ work too?

That's the moral of the story...it can't be warm/cold/rainy/sunny everywhere. I was in CO a few years ago during our epic snow season and it was raining up to about 10,000 and there was about 6" of snow on the skihills in January. If you dont like the weather, go somewhere else. That's why I wish I had a private jet.

Which is exactly why I hate the christian right. They have no right to run this country based on christian ideals. So much for the seperation of church and state. I could give a shit what jesus would have done. He lived 2000 years ago. I'm sure he was a great guy, I really do, but I don't plan to live my life based on what a bunch of sorry asses that came after him wrote down in a book and claimed was the word of god. Fairweather, while I'm sure we disagree politically (I'm just assuming based on some of your other posts ), I completely agree that the president's duty is to defend this country and not pander to the religious zealots on one side or the other. Unfortunatley, bush gets a lot of his support from the christian right, so they tend to affect politics more than I'd like.

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The christian right in this country are the biggest hypocritical fools around. What they want is to dictact the lives of their countrymen based on the word of their supposed god, and use that same word to exact their will on the less fortunate of the world. Honestly, I think they are a shame to any real christian.

Let's see...a president getting a BJ from a fat chick or a president helping to run the country into the ground, which is worse... Not that either one of them should be (or should have been impeached.) I am, however, looking forward to a 18 months from now when monkey-boy will be voted out of office.

I like it when beginninger classes climb a peak a day or two before you. I tmeans nice booty skisports and I climbed shuksan by the line in dru's picture (I have several pics that look identical) and collected 4 pickets, all complete with good looking spectra runners and biners on the way down. I guess they decided to rap of it. Fine by me, but I much prefer the "downclimb and get free stuff" approach.