Buckaroo

WISH it was that cold here, would def be into ice farming

You should camp at 10,000ft or something. I camped around 11k when I soloed the Hotlum Wintun. Good for sunset/sunrise viewing.

Skiers, STAY OFF our climbing routes. And you are going to look funny trying to climb waterfall ice with those long skinny boards strapped to your feet.

The father had several redeeming points. The son is just a tool.

DMM Wallnuts are better than the BD's Wait to get the #4 till you are going to climb something where you really need it. Otherwise your sizes look good. Consider some keylock beaners, little more money but oh so nice.

I think the normal route goes up near the right skyline

I don't think Shasta is much easier than Rainier. There's still quite a few glaciers and crevasses on Shasta, but maybe the normal route has less. I think Shasta gets more freeze/thaw so you have a better chance for hard ice especially late season. I did the Hotlum/Wintun with a snowfield variation. It was boilerplate ice. Pic of the NW side from a road trip back in November

The Lockheed PV-1 Ventura. Load capacity 2800 pounds. The upgraded PV-2 was 4000 pounds, sounds closer to what we are talking about here with a "modified" plane. 4000 x $400 per pound = $1.6 Million.

I don't know why more people aren't interested in Shasta. The weather is much better than Rainier. The approaches are more open forest, so you don't have to stick to the trails if you don't want. The nearest town is higher elevation for better acclimatization.

NICE

Nice shot. But I think this image is mirrored?. The lakes should be on the opposite sides?

Firefox makes it easy. Once the photo is open on any page then you right click and "view image". This puts you on the photo's page by itself. Grab the address and paste it using the "add an image" icon in the CC editor. IE is harder, in this case you have to use Flickr's link to "share". It's doing the same thing though, grabbing the photo's individual address.

I like the metal wire closet shelves from Home Depot. Plastic bins go on top and gear clipped with beaners hangs underneath. Also some coathooks screwed down to wood strips on the walls to hang harnesses, rack etc. The closet obviously for coats etc and a medium chest of drawers for socks, gloves, polypro etc. The key to all this is an 8 foot plastic folding table for staging before packing. The key to not forgetting anything is to have it all layed out in one place before it's packed. My climbing varies so much that it's hard to leave stuff packed. Road trips usually entail a couple of big duffles.

I'm disgusted with Patagonia right now. I bought some polypro base layers from them about 17 years ago and they are still usable, the bottoms have a couple small holes but the tops have none. Recently I bought the same Patagonia items, paid about $50 each for tops and bottoms. They all got holes in them the first or 2nd time out. Can you say planned obsolescence? I returned them to REI and got the house brand, no trouble so far. I think the problems with consumerism lie at least partly with the consumer. You can make a positive impact if you put forth some effort. Watch what you buy, don't immediately jump for the latest fad. Look for durability and long term functionality. Learn how to fix things, patch, sew, glue. Some technical items will become refined over time so that upgrades aren't as frequent. If you can wait past a generation of development you may be better off. Example, going from a bent shaft Black Prophet to a 2nd gen Cobra. Realizing when something is refined enough that the next gen is not worth the purchase is key also. An example is desktop PC's. For years the upgrade cycle was just a couple of years. That's now extended out to more than 5. Another example is Windows. You can and should skip every other release. Like going from XP to Win7 and skipping Vista and Win8.

Please get an engineer involved. Magnets will never work to hold crampons on. The forces are too great and the weight would be too heavy. Crampons only fall off when they are not properly fit or properly attached in the first place. I think you could work on the bail attachment. A different mechanical attachment method might have possibilities. Just look at the Dartwin Sidelocks for an example.

F that gettting old stuff, I'm going in for a new stem cell body next week.

the contest ended on Feb 24

That's when we did it. There was spots of snow in the gully but nothing you couldn't scramble around. We did the East Buttress and descended the Mountaineers route. It was a little chilly, I was wearing one of those thin lightweight puffies. Clear skies and sunshine the whole time. I set the rack down on the summit and forgot to pick it up. Got to the bottom of the Mountaineers route before I realized it. So I climbed both routes in one day. It's actually not that long of a climb either way since the base is so high. Iceberg lake is 12,650' and you hike another 500' or so to the start of the climb. Looking up from above Iceberg, the Mnts gulley is the notch on the right Looking down the East Buttress at Iceberg and all the way down to Lone Pine. If I did it again I would camp at or near the small lake middle right of pic. Upper Boy Scout you can't see Whitney and Iceberg is too high for sleeping.

We took Reno, believe it's the same distance and a lot less traffic. Plus you are starting at 5000' so more acclimatization. Above the notch is where the climbing starts. In Sept it was relatively snow free and a moderate scramble about 45 deg class 4 or 5.0 that sort of wound back and forth. Assuming in May it's still full of ice and snow.

Just did this 2 years ago, here's the skinny for doing this with overnight camping. The day permit is different and easier. It's sort of like the Alpine Lakes Wilderness permit system. 1/2 of the permits are given out in January. The other 1/2 are given out on a daily basis during the season via lottery. I believe it's 4 persons per day via the daily lottery. The trick is to go in on a weekday, Monday thru Thursday. There's a lot less people then. If you go in on Fri or Sat you don't have a chance, like 40 people, no exaggeration. We went in on Thur and there were 8 people total and only 2 others for the Mountaineer route so there was enough for everyone that wanted to go that route that day, no need to even have a drawing. The very next day Friday, there was 42 people in line for 4 permits. It's the Mount Whitney Ranger Station in Lone Pine, they have a website, the lottery is the same time everyday. http://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/inyo/about-forest/districts/?cid=stelprdb5136221 Wear helmets, the Mountaineers gulley is exposed to rockfall. I also recommend some acclimatization if you are coming from sea level, will make it more enjoyable. We spent 4 days up high before summiting. In May be prepared for snow and ice. http://images.summitpost.org/original/526496.jpg

I thought the deadline for submissions was Feb 24th?

O2 isn't cheating unless you claim you did it without and are gaining something from the climb like a sponsorship. Comparing to Lance Armstrong is inaccurate, he's a pro athlete in a competition, most climbing is not even a competition. The O2 users on Everest are a distinct minority of the climbing world and many of them aren't even true climbers, they are just doing it to get up the highest peak. Real climbers know who these Everest peak baggers are and understand that they wouldn't summit without all the support and the O2, so BFD, if they have the money then go for it.

Route-finding on the deproach of the venerable Tooth

Lake Tahoe

Anastasia, near start of Torment Forbidden Traverse