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...

as part of my pre move sorting... I have also discovered a Nordic Track that I no longer need. Works fine and stores pretty small. pm me an offer -Andy

I've got an old Specialized Rockhopper you could have for $100. send me a pm if you have any questions -Andy

get stronger.... climb harder..... I have one of the old cable pull down machines from the IMA (pre remodel) that I need to sell. It is in full working order (does not come with bar/grip) 400lb stack. It needs about 9' celings and that just isn't going to happen in my new place, but would be perfect in your garage. $100 bucks and you have to move it from Lake City. I am pretty flaky with pm's and emails... but I promise I will get back to you eventually. If you are intrested shoot me a pm or at hotmail you can reach me as troubleski. Andy

digital cameras can handle about as much contrast as slide film which is less than negitive film. the camera tries to meter the world to 18% gray. So if you are taking a picture that is mostly white (like a snowfield) the camera will most likely try to under expose it and the snow will turn out light grey. (and you may lose detail in the sujects on the snow field) If you have "exposure comensation" on your camera try setting it to overexpose by 1/3rd to 1/2 a stop.

sure ... if you want to do it the eays way ...

you could always call up one of the companies you are thinking of working for and pretend to be booking a trip. Ask them about guide/client ratio. "Senior"/"Junior" guide ratio, and the level training that they have.

Watch out Snafflehounds!

What RAW converter are you using? The snow in #2 has a blueish cast to it. I have never seen "alpenglow" look blue. The sky is much more striking though in the 2nd one, but my vote for the more representive picture would be #1. -A

I have the Canon 300d it has quite a few limitations... and the Nikon d70 looks very impressieve on paper... but I think the important thing to realize is that you are buying into a system. Both of those cameras are going to obsoltete in a year (or less probably). I bought the Rebel knowing that it wasn't the camera that i wanted... The d70 isn't the camera I want either ... nor the 10d or the d100, nor really the 1d. But what I am betting on is that Canon will be the first system to offer the camera that I want, and that once they do it will last me for quite a while... The only problem is that it is a few years away still... with the 1dMkII canon is well on the way to proving me right, but only time will tell. All they have to do is get the price of the 1dmkII down to $2500 and Im there. I am counting on Nikon to give them some competiton and speed the process up. (and Minolta now too) GO NIKON! (ps that new Minolta DSLR looks pretty sweet. The built in camera image stabliization will make it perfect for all those indoor snapshot takers. I wonder what the price is going to be ...)