Mark_Husbands

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.

http://www.mtntools.com/cat/rclimb/biners/dmmrevolvercarabiners.htm pulley biner

i just bought a MS wisp. AAC members get a discount, which made this the bargain bag for me (i think they say 1lb 5oz but i havent weighed it.) used it this weekend in icicle crk, warm enough at around freezing. so far i like it.

the future is a rack of micro-robots that climb ahead of you and place themselves cleanly without harming the rock or delicate cliffside vegetation.

the future is an inflatable down sleeping bag

I dont doubt he's a skilled climber and I take your word for it he's a good guy. but you gotta have a sense of humor about Boulder...and the ML gear prices are very high, come on.

"The Magic Line is owned by Fabrizio Zangrilli and is based in Boulder, Colorado" - from website Boulder = image = marketing = $$$ (e.g Nuptse alpine pack = $315, "m jacket" = $315) maybe fabrizios alfa romeo lease is $315/mo we shall assume these products to be of the highest quality, but will never afford to know

I think the G12s are a good first choice. i have a pair with newmatic bindings that i like for classic mountaineering. because the steel is good and the points pretty long they work on ice also, certainly until you want to invest in a steep ice specific crampon (i have G14 and like them).

martin, you have the mind of a true gear analyst.

they both have their application. coming from the sierra i never used to believe that snowshoes had a purpose, but now i do. the purpose is to slog through timber, or handle variable (bad) snow conditions with a heavy pack. that is, they are better than falling alot on skis. in open bowls skis will almost always rule. the uphill travel is smooth and rythmic, and you slide downhill. but if you have to go over snowy logs and boulders, snowshoes might be better.

Snow conditions above the ledges were perfect stiff snow going up and coming down. Crevasses were no problem at all..stepped over one or two, and over one bergy down on the Cowlitz. The chute was cake going up but nasty slush coming down, the whole ledge area was hot and slushy with airborne pebbles. the chute below the ledges, well, it just looked like more of that 35, 40 degree snow down there...definitely recieves junk from several sources...the Rock and the ice cliffs to the left. if i knew the mountain better, maybe next time, i would come down some other way, Ingraham and Cadaver or Cathedral Gap, not sure. Or i guess a really early start would do it. Our approach was too late to contemplate a truly early start.