Mark_Husbands

Congratulations.

Because they have high angle slopes made of rock with NO trees nearby.

Thanks for the recommendations.

elderberry canyon, mt. tom basin mountain 1000s of feet of california corn http://www.sierramountaincenter.com/pages/individualtripspages/wintertrips/skidescentcamps.php http://ericandlucie.com/Bishop/Elderberry/Elderberry.htm

what about Mowich face as an alternative? i read somewhere that this can be good once nights start getting colder again. not sure about rockfall.

can anyone recommend an affordable motel/hotel in Canmore? I'll be with my wife and 1 yr old (and my buddy, his wife and 1 yr old) so kitchenettes are good and dirtbag bunks are out. thanks for any recommendations.

it's called Temple Crag

The Wilderness Act allows for limited motorized use for administrative purposes only. The heli-skiing idea is illegal and silly. So too with your needless screed against the park and park employees. I have spent a fair bit of time up there. I don't hear rangers bitching about the park. I hear you bitching about your sense of entitlement to easy park access. "Pathetic!"

look into it...it's a congressionally approved purchase and exchange that will provide a new, easier (cheaper) to maintain access point, and increase protected acreage.

Surveys and public comment suggest National Park visitors are highly satisfied with the parks. The same goes for MRNP. Other polls show NPS is the most trusted agency in the federal government. Most people don't support your development agenda. At MNRP, there will be a new visitor center replacing the JVC, and some type of shuttle system to reduce parking problems in Paradise, and maybe to provide limited access to Westside road and Mowich. There will be no new visitor centers out there, but there will be a facility down near Ashford so folks can get information without driving to Paradise to do so. Information about park funding is out there, and shows about a 1-2% increase in hard funds...less than inflation. So the real purchasing power is going down. There are other soft money sources for emergency road repair--right now the Park is fixing almost every backcountry bridge in the park, and planning to shore up the big hole in Sunshine Pt. campground. Securing these funds from a tightfisted congress is a competitive process. i dont think spending money on WSR represents a wise priority at all. And your visitor center idea is the realm of pure fantasy, thank goodness. the idea that parks and park visitors can be best served by extensive development was abandoned after Mission 66. The proposal to put VCs out there would never survive the public comment period, much less the inevitable court challenge. Visitation Total Recreation Visits for FY 2004- Not Yet Reported Total Recreation Visits for FY 2003- 1,312,415 Total Recreation Visits for FY 2002- 1,267,050 Total Recreation Visits for FY 2001- 1,338,235 Budget FY 2004 Annual Budget is $9,290,000 FY 2003 Annual Budget is $9,162,000 FY 2002 Annual Budget is $9,019,000 FY 2001 Annual Budget is $8,837,000

you are out of luck "bandit" here's what's really in the works... General Management Plan The Record of Decision for the Final Environmental Impact Statement and General Management Plan (FEIS/GMP) for Mount Rainier National Park has been approved. Under the new General Management Plan, park managers will improve stewardship of park resources while continuing to provide a range of high-quality visitor experiences. Most of the park (97%) is designated wilderness and will continue to be managed according to the provisions of the Wilderness Act. Most of the structures within the park are listed on the National Register of Historic Places and will be preserved for public use and enjoyment in their historical character. The primary goals of the new General Management Plan are to better manage peak-period visitation so that it does not adversely affect park resources and visitor experiences. Key elements of the plan include the following: Establish a visitor carrying capacity framework and use it to ensure the preservation of park resources and the quality of the visitor experience. Phase in shuttle services in coordination with elimination of overflow parking to reduce traffic congestion and ensure effective visitor transportation within the park; provide shuttle service to various locations in the park, such as Longmire/Paradise, Westside Road, Sunrise, Mowich Lake, and Carbon River. Provide additional opportunities for visitors to use the park in the summer and winter, including: providing shuttles on the Westside Road, providing new picnic sites, improving interpretive facilities, and establishing or improving snow-parks for winter visitors. Replace the Henry M. Jackson Memorial Visitor Center at Paradise with a smaller, more efficient visitor center and reconfigure the parking area for shuttles. Improve the visitor information program internally and externally; use welcome centers outside the park to provide visitors information for planning their visits to the park and region. To reduce the amount of sediments and pollutants entering Mowich Lake, close the road to vehicles 0.5 mile from the lake and convert it to a trail. After completion of the boundary adjustment and development of the new facilities, close the Carbon River Road to private vehicles when there is a major washout of the road and convert the Ipsut Creek Campground to a walk-in/bike-in camping area. Recommend a boundary adjustment west of the Carbon River Entrance, including about 1,063 acres to provide for a new campground, picnic area, and administrative facilities, and to protect the river corridor. (Congressional action would be required for this action.) Copies of the Record of Decision are available from the Superintendent, Mount Rainier National Park, Tahoma Woods, Star Route, Ashford, Washington 98304-9751; (360)-569-2211 (ext. 2301) or via Email: donna_rahier@nps.gov . The Record of Decision and the Final EIS/GMP is also available in its entirety via the Internet at the National Park Service Website Mount Rainier National Park Record of Decision/General Management

my point was that there is a sort of compromise plan to open westside road, but that it wont spread out the crowds in any meaningful way. it will provide easier access for some backpackers and climbers, but will not shift use from the very high density areas--because those users are vehicle and facility dependent. MRNP has areas of high visitation, but the overwhelming majority of the park is low density. I think this is good. it provides diverse opportunities. also, studies suggest that certain common recreation impacts on natural resources, e.g impacts to vegetation around campsites, increased trail width, occurs mostly at initial levels of use, then stabalizes in an "impacted condition". by spreading backcountry use you tend to get a homogenous, impacted conditions everywhere. i personally think a better course is to allow high levels of use to occur in sites like paradise, and to mange for condition that can realistically be provided there, and to manage for pristine conditions where use is currently light.

Has anyone bothered to review the new MNRP general management plan? one of the provisions is opening the westside road to shuttle only traffic. among other upsides is that the park doesnt need to worry about a bunch of private vehicles getting stuck out there after the next washout. as for reducing pressure on paradise, it wont. most paradise visitors go there because of the services and well developed trails. nor are there climbing routes on that side that will vie with DC for ease or facilities. even with the addition of shuttle access, i would expect use to remain low density. paradise will be high density.

but when will it run out?

That's within one standard deviation dude! relax.

solution: manufacturers should use confidence intervals... 10.8 ounces +/- 5%

i have precip pants that i like alot. how does the jacket do for breathability? for non breathable look at this almost homemade 8 oz. top and bottom. for rapping off a rock climb. http://www.trailquest.net/dlgcgwrainsuit.html

One more thing... its the National Park Service (NPS) and the United States Forest Service (USFS) National Forests are managed by the USFS

Exactly. DNR lands are not federal, they are state lands that have evolved from the original Washington state land grant to generate revenue for the support of schools, universities, hospitals, and prisons. DNR is (state) constitutionally bound to serve the public interest; this was originally interpreted as maximizing revenue from leases and timber extraction, but is now more broadly interpreted to include preservation of natural features and ecosystem function and so on. However the state still logs on many of these lands. In eastern washington they have lots of little chunks, in the original land grant configution, that they lease to farmers for agricultural purposes. http://www.dnr.wa.gov/base/programs.html

sverdina- what's with the Indonesian?

I kept waiting for the fart joke punch line but it never came...

that looks like the summit. i assume the hoto is from the air.

i climbed the direct (full exum) a few years back and thought it was great. has the advantage of being sunny and not requiring crampons/axes, unlike n. ridge, which i would really like to do.

In 94 i used a megamid (along with another dome type tent) on the king trench on mt. logan. with skis as anchors the thing stayed up in violent weather. one night (during a two or three day event) we got so tired of shoveling snow off it we decided to give up till morning. the wind ate away the walls we had built in front of and on top of the mid's edge. in the morning we were drifted up to our necks in our immense bags at the bottom of the snow pit. the center pole was rimed. gradually, as we continued to mistreat the mid in this fashion, the bottom edges started to fray in the nearly continual wind. when we went up the headwall we foolishly left the mid pitched with our cache underneath. after we came back down from our failed summit attempt the mid was nowhere to be seen. we started digging for our cache, and there it was. the wind hadnt taken it, but several feet of snow had forced the center pole through the fabric. having an 8X8 tarp on top of your cache makes it much easier to find. we dug it up, duct taped the hole, and kept using it on our way out.

"penny wise and pound foolish" actually, i think it means that you are a cheapskate and by purchasing crap you end up spending more fixing your screwups. e.g. hiring an incompetent but low budget roofer only to have your furniture ruined in the next big rain.