Matthew

Anybody have any info on the road conditions to Mountaineer Creek TH of for this weekend? I was hoping the road might be passible in a truck with chains up to the trailhead. Not everyone in my party would have skis and skins, and that road hike sucks. Excellent TR... I was commiserating heartily from having suffered the same fate on a February attempt a few years ago. Snow shoes + waist deep slog in pow + 8 mile approach = climbers too disheartened to attempt sketchy couloir. The icing on the cake was when my sleeping pad busted and I spent a nice sub zero night sleeping on a coiled rope... DAMN YOU MOUNT STUAAAAART!

I do enjoy the fact that car commercials today brag about figures like 22 mpg... which is absolutely pathetic when there are vehicles out there getting 50.

There's a bigger problem at work here... gas prices are just a symptom, just the same as the continuous extinction of species, the lowering of the water table, the slow ruin of ecosystems worldwide. THERE ARE TOO MANY PEOPLE. We've expanded to 6 billion living on the energy savings of hundreds of millions of years. Eventually, we will be fucked. No biggie, things will continue on.

When petroleum goes to shit in the next few decades, globalization is no longer going to make sense (economically). Local economies which minimize long distance transportation will be back in vogue. If China and India ever have the chance to reach the level of so called affluence that the US has a the moment, the whole world is going to shit - given the ridiculous energy, resources, etc that the average American uses. Hopefully we'll start to see the tide turn to more conservative lifestyles for Americans in the coming decades. The fact that all our manufactured goods are now being made in China does not bode well for the US, because many of those jobs are going to have to come back here eventually. As an engineer myself, I have yet to EVER see a product not lose quality after its manufacture was exported to China. As others here have said, it's not that they couldn't necessarily be manufactured as well in China (although right now, on the whole Chinese quality control is absolutely substandard, bar none), but more that the whole "build it as cheap as we can" mentality that is intrinsically intertwined with resorting to Chinese labor naturally breeds a lack of care for quality. The ever more disposable, ever more Wal-Mart driven US economy is just making the richest richer and the poorest poorer, more than ever. Exported labor represents a loss of middle class jobs in the US, just so the now marginalized US middle class can buy a whole bunch of useless shit at big box stores! The corporate execs moving all the chess pieces don't care... they're still getting rich. And of course Americans are too dumb or too cheap to give a damn. It's going to come back and bite us in the ass. BD is making a big mistake putting out cams from China. I watched Starrett machine tools do the same thing... built the best machine tools in the world in MA, USA for a century - now produce crap. For something that counts, for numerous reasons, I'll pay more any day to get a quality domestically manufactured product.

Thanks for the Beta Steve. You won’t remember it but I unsuccessfully *tried* to hook up with you for some ice climbing on the lower Coleman like 3 yrs ago! Never found you and hooked up with some other guys on the glacier instead. Heh heh… one of these days I’ll catch up with you. So snowshoes are essential, huh? Looks like I’ll head out to rent a pair. Thanks again… nice pics.

Anybody have beta on conditions on Icicle Creek Road and the approaches to the Stuart Couloir? Headed there this weekend and I’m trying to figure whether I need snow shoes or skis or just boots. Leavenworth rangers don’t know diddly except that the road is plowed to mile 8 (which I think leaves about 6 miles of approach for me to get to the climber’s trail…) Would be nice to just bring boots if there’s a packed trail or snowmobile tracks.

I'm looking to hit index to try to salvage something out of this weekend (shitty weather/ bailed partner for Rainier). Have ropes and rack will travel... anyone? I'm in Everett so its only a hop skip and a jump... weather says 70 and partly cloudy

Is this Seattle, climbing haven... or have I warped to Detroit! There's got to be *somebody* out there up for some action this weekend. Come on here people... I'm dying of low altitude sickness.

Better bring a headlamp, partner! And pray to the "no traffic" gods if you hope to pull that one off

I’ve been out of town for the last month and will be gone again for another two. I’ve been doing nothing but reading accounts of the Himalaya while I’ve been traveling, and now I really need to get up something. I’m only in town this coming weekend… someone take pity on me and man up on some alpine. I was thinking Shuksan or El Dorado because they are “on my list”, but anything would be good. I have no idea what the avy/snow conditions are but the weather looks like it may hold. Have all requisite gear and experience to tackle pretty much anything… ride too if needed. Would prefer staying out Sat night. Somebody hook me up so I don’t have to sit at home partnerless and pissed off this weekend reply or PM

Mt. Washington (NH) in the winter can be similar to Rainier. It is at the convergence of three frontal systems, and has very tumultuous weather; the wind is said to break 100mph on average every three days. Growing up in the Northeast, it was always about the most thing going

One more thing; a thread unto itself really: TV IS A COMPLETE WASTE OF TIME

A lexus commercial has EVERYTHING to do with ice climbing, in a roundabout way. The average luxury car owner wants to feel that they are part of the elite. Ice climbing is a relatively exotic, elite pursuit in most people's eyes, which nicely fulfills the ad's requirements. The beauty of advertising is that the details are irrelevant; the fact that the dude is climbing with the adze means nothing... so long as the few seconds that he is shown hook the customer and provide them with a vague feeling that they could be part of the sleek upper echelon like that climber (if ONLY they had a Lexus or several Lexi). The diver, the rubber suited mission impossible chick - fuck, the subject in damn near every luxury car commercial perform the exact same function! Course, I don't have a TV either, so I haven't seen the stupid commercial

The problem is, we just haven't had a *great* climbing movie in a couple years now, and the population at large is starting to forget how *cool* it would be to go climb a mountain. Not to worry though; as soon as the next flick comes out with Keanu Reeves [insert lame star of choice] wildly pinwheeling across a 50 foot chasm, only to land squarely on a sheer face at dizzying heights with merely axes and frontpoints... those numbers will climb right back up. Cause hey, thats what climbing is about!

Anybody heading out to index this morning? I'm leaving from Everett pretty soon... if anybody wants to get in on a ride or a partner. pm asap