troubleski

I sweat a lot and have struggled with this for a long time. I recently got a Patigonia ReadyMix and have been pleasently supprised. The one overwhelming advantage of a hood is that you don't have to keep taking your helmet off to vent your head. I try to do with as light a hat under the helmet as I can so that I can take the hood off and let off some steam.

1 mitt found blowing away on 6/13. Let me know if you want it back

yeah... the cup that protects the bottom of the pot seems to work pretty well for this, although you can make your own out of a pop bottle if you intend to drink out of the cup.

The coolest thing about the Jetboil is the fact that the pot attatches to the burner allowing you to lean it up against rocks, or just hold it, to keep it from spilling. It seems to do a good job making water, but 1 liter is a little limiting. The ignition has worked just fine for me as long as the fuel has been warm enough. Ive used it on Rainier a couple of times and a little warm water on the fuel would get it going. I would still bring a lighter but more likely you will be using it to "prime" the fuel.

Yeah. the moon was great. Without it I don't think we would have seen the ice coming, and I probably wouldn't be writing this right now.

I was on the team above you that got hit. Nick and I both got hit actually. We were left of center when the serac broke loose and it looked like everything was going to fall to the right. I remember looking at the blocks in the moon light and thinking... glad Im not over there. Then one refrigerator size block bounced left and was coming straight at us. It broke in to TV sized chunks and I took one on the helmet, pack, and arm. Knocked me out of arrest and down a few feet before I could stop again. We sprinted over to the rock further left and licked our wounds. I remember thinking "I hope those guys weren't down there." But we had been looking for headlamps and had come to the conslusion that you guys had either stayed in camp for some reason or were already ahead of us. We climbed for another hour or so, sticking to the far left. The left side was icy in places and we slowed a little bit. The good styrofoam was out to our right but we were too scared of more icefall to head out there. Stuck my leg in a hidden crevase.... etc. The clouds finally came in and we couldn't see where to go. Time to bail. Needless to say we didn't linger in the Gully. The first time we saw you guys were as you were crossing the Wilson on the way back. Glad you are ok. I didn't actually see your hand in the parking lot. That looks like it HURT!

This year isn't over yet. We could still get some lucky snow. Go to: http://www.skimountaineer.com/CascadeSki/CascadeSnowNWAC.php and comapre the 80-81 season to this one and then to last year. 80-81 started bleak but ended reasonably close to last year. Plenty of time to build some strong snow bridges (as opposed to the weak ass ones like I punched into last weekend ) keep your fingers crossed.

Just to Clarify a little... Depending on how a particular mfg rates its rope... a static rope with a rope with a 244lb working load can have a breaking strength of between 244lbs and 1220lbs. A breaking strength of 1220 lbs is starting to get you in the ball park, but to really make an evaluation you would need to look at the rope's constrution (double braid vs. Kern-Mantle) and handling characteristics. But why not just get a rope designed for the task. Pro Mountain Sports has them, and I think Feathered Friends sells the stuff by the foot. its pretty cheap.

I girth hitch a dasiy to my harness and then girth hitch the other and around a locker. This seems to avoid the 50% detachment problem. That said, on anything more than 1 pitch I tend to anchor in with the rope anyway. But the Daisy is still useful for many things and doesn't seem to get in the way for me so Ill probably keep on using one.

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not sure I would call Maytag and Top Drop class IV at this water... and not sure you could get a raft with 6 people over Husum right now either. I don't mean to dis on the White Salmon, it is one of my favorite rivers in the state. I am just not sure that it is worth the ~5 hour drive from Seattle at 800cfs. If it was right down the street I would run it every week. A

yeah... but the White Salmon is down around 800 cfs right now. Still runable... but pretty much a class II. My memory could be skewed of course.... Hard to beat the scenery of the White Salmon without leaving the state though... A

If you are looking for a trip in Washington, you are pretty much stuck with waiting for the Tieton in September. Its pretty continous and you can get pretty thrashed up if you go for a long swim, but it isn't a bad choice for a beginning rafting trip assuming that you are both up for an adventure. And there is pretty good climbing to be had in the valley. For what its worth I took my little sister on her first rafting trip on the Tieton. If you are worried wait until later in September when the flows are lower. But be warned ... it can be a bit crowded. There is still a bunch of stuff running out of state. All the above sugestions look pretty good. If you are up north check out some of the runs in Canada. You might check out the Thompson in BC for a nice day trip. -Andy

via snow lakes: no snow to the lake short patches of snow on approach (NE of the lake) soft snow traverse on the North Side descent (fine in rock shoes on 6/29) Ice axe may be useful for fending off goats.... lots of goats -Andy

only 5 more years??? you must be forgetting Jeb.... we will be blaming this on a Bush for the next 12...