Buckaroo

Read "The Endless Knot" by Kurt Diemberger, makes The Savage Mountain pale to insignificance. Curran was at the base, Diemberger was in the high camp when everything went down. Fifty Favorite Climbs Himalayan Climber, Doug Scott Heroic Climbs, Chris Bonnington Eiger Dreams, Krakauer The White Spider Kiss or Kill, Twight The Endless Knot, Diemberger Mixed Emotions, Child My Vertical World, Kukuczka All 14 Eight-Thousanders, Messner

according to 50 Classic Climbs summit day was really cold and windy and Canali's feet (or toes?) got bad frostbite, but he got lucky at the hospital and didn't need any amputation. They were really sketch getting him down, it happened near the summit. His feet were swollen and Alippi gave him his bigger boots. Alippi then put extra socks in his bootcovers but couldn't wear crampons. Canali fell at some point and Cassin held him by self arrest. In the final Japanese couloir they were hit by a powder snow avalanche but it didn't take them down. The weather cleared and a plane was able to fly him out.

Cassin thanked Washburn for his photos and help on the Cassin Ridge on Denali by giving him these photos of the climb. Washburn recently donated them to the AAC and they've put them on flickr. before LED headlamps before curved ice axe picks before gore-tex before plastic boots and before helmets Cassin on the Cassin ENJOY

You need to climb a big wall, something like this wouldn't even cross your mind. If it was a first ascent or if it was a 5.13 and you were one of the few to do it maybe it would be an issue. But if you could have climbed it with or without the "aid" then why worry about it.

""how is he attached so that he doesn't have to go back and undo himself. He can just pull the rope, pop, the bag comes off and he's off the anchor."" Just guessing but it looks like the rope is tripled. IOW he's got it set up like a rap for the belay, with 2 lengths of the rope. So he does the lead then pulls it like a rap. Then another length of the rope, presumably the end is going to the pack and it's on a fifi hook. After reading his blog TR. He's tied into the middle of a 7.5. That's a twin. So he leads with it doubled in a self belay. Tied into the middle, then the rope going through a ring at the fixed belay and back to a belay device at his harness, (gri-gri?). he also mentions solo aiding with 2 pieces in at all times, so climbing with 3 pieces. But that's aiding, where you are essentially top-roping on each piece, no slack like free climbing. If Colin does it, it's probably because it's the fastest way. Climbing mostly easy ground with short harder sections that need a belay but not the time consuming full rope solo belay.

""self lobotomy when falling on hard mixed lines dude..... seen a guy at Marble Canyon pown his face with an adze"" Know what you're talking about, you have to be ready to duck your head down when you feel the tool come out, then it just hits your helmet. Generally you just keep your face away from the back of the adze, when you absolutely have to have it there because of climbing position, then you go into the "ready to duck" mode.

""Help me out re: a lead fall on this one. Do you die instantly or you suffer first?"" Actually it would be a clean fall cuz it's dead vertical but I don't ever climb to fall on ice so I wouldn't know what happens. I think in this pic it was in gift conditions, while still grade 5 it was continuous, it's usually got a thinner section where it thins to the right.

the one on the right

BTW, you're supposed to put the leash where it hangs on the front of the tool, not the back, that way as it pulls down it also pulls a little forward as well. If you look at the top hole it angles towards the front.

Why are adzes scary Marc? Why are you afraid of them? You should face your fears Marc, for fear is the mind killer. Don't be afraid of adzes Marc, ever ever ever again. And that wide adze is the shizzle when you're dry tooling and you have a wide crack you want to cam. I have a set of X-15's and a set of straight Black Prophets with 2 adzes and 1 hammer. Sorry won't part with them. Recently bought some Cobras when they went on sale when the Vipers came out. SWEEEEEETTTT. the new BD picks will def fit on the old BD tools, all the way back to the X-15

""Is it worth the "RISK"? I now it is worth it for speed."" depends on the climb. Sometimes it's safer to be faster, like when climbing under an ice cliff. If you pitch it out maybe that slows you down to where you need bivy gear. So the extra weight slows you down even more. There's also a little piece called a Wild Country Ropeman. A mini ascender placed on key pieces that keeps the follower from pulling off the leader, Colin uses these.

I like Tvash's list but would substitute the down parka for synth Mammut with puffy hood and the pants and rain pants for Marmot bibs.

It might be poor team management to allow someone to take off on the first rap not sure they knew where they were going. (dehydration could have contributed to this error in judgement) And going in the wrong direction on rap is a mistake but forgivable. Climbing without working prusiks is not. Furthermore not having a pursik on the brake side of your rap setup is just about as bad. What if she had been knocked unconscious when she pendulumed into the open book? Brake hand lets go and she slides off the end of the rope. Just the other day at the base of Godzilla met a couple of climbers that barely even knew what a prusick was, much less had them on their harness or knew how to tie them. I used to be nonchalant about a prusik backup until I slid part way down an icy rope on a free hanging rap. Never again, that's your life sliding through your brake hand, how about some backup. Part of the problem is as mentioned, a sling prusik that doesn't work in optimal fashion. Well it will if you experiment with the number of raps and such beforehand. This all needs to be done on the ground, finding the correct diameters and number of raps and such, before you get in a situation like this.

Have seen the old style TCU's bend over backwards from poor placement. Have seen a Camalot axle bend when dropped off the Nose. Don't think modern cams are going to micro-fracture from being dropped unless they get bent. But if they bend any at all they should be retired. (not counting cable stems) The broken cams in the pics are Omega Pacific, they already have a history of breaking but shouldn't be compared to the other major manufactures as they are an inherently weak design.

They've invaded our back yard, the Via Ferrata gang ohhhhh noooooooss!!!!! [video:youtube]

I'm easy The Index Traverse Eve Dearborn W/Traverse finish Drury The Pencil 2nd Ascent full N ridge of Stuart 2nd Winter ascent by any route, Mt Alberta

the sun rises in the East and sets in the West also you should always carry a compass, it's very nice in a white-out or overcast when you can't see the sun. did you take the bike? next month you'll need skis or snowshoes

Another nice TR ""Beckey calls Burgundy Spire the hardest principal summit in the Cascades to be reached via any route. I'm not sure I agree with this for a climb that can be done car-to-car in a day (what about something like Swiss Peak in the Pickets?)"" Beckey means from a technical aspect not overall grade. The easiest way up Burgundy is 5.8 it didn't have a free ascent until 1973 the easiest way up Swiss Peak is class 3 from the South. very few peaks have no walk-up.

There's been threads on the beta approach, start, and variations to Dreamer believe you were to the left of Dreamer basically you go up the gully then up and right about 200 ft. the start is to the left of a left facing dihedral. The top of the first pitch has a fixed anchor but you can't see it from the ground because it's at the back of a ledge. Just get up one pitch and look around for the anchor, then you know your on route. The good variation is about 3 pitches up, a bolted 5.10 slab and it's not really runnout. Nelson's has the topo showing a right facing dihedral, there are none. I would put Dreamer right there with Outer Space. It's just harder to find and it rains more. I got rained off twice and the 3rd attempt hit with a graupel storm on the 6th pitch. and watch out for that offwidth crack when rapping off, it's about the 4th or 5th pitch up and it eats ropes, there's about 6 of them down in there if you look.

where they fall and slide down a steep slope and off the edge of a vertical cliff but catch themselves by their ice axe and dangle off the edge of the cliff. Totally impossible. Falling at high speed your axe would be ripped right out of your hands. the rope cut thing has happened in real life, Joe Simpson, Touching the Void. But probably would not happen in the circumstances in this movie. As much as they spend on these movies you think they'd hire a dirt bag climber as a consultant to get the technical points correct.

Zermatt? Assume you're doing the Hörnligrat. There's pretty good info on SummitPost Please write a TR when you get back! photo by Fabioberni on SummitPost The Berghaus looks nice, it's got dormitory rooms also, type "berghaus" in the name box http://www.zermatt.ch/en/page.cfm/your_stay/accommodation/hotel_list

Yeah, should have said my list was not all inclusive. Thanks for filling in. Cotton is bad because it holds moisture next to your skin. Moisture increases heat convection. That's the main reason cotton is bad. Polypro and the other synthetics and wool wick moisture AWAY from your skin. When the triathlon craze came into being there was no product that worked to replace lost reserves during an extended max capacity effort. The energy gels and drinks were created to fill the niche. Citomax and the other cutting edge energy drinks are scientifically formulated and tested to bring maximum nutrition to athletes at maximum exercise levels. Gatorade is formulated to be cheap to produce and profitable. Hence the HFCS, it's only purpose is cheap and it's bad for you. There's a reason Gatorade is found in every 7-11 and Citomax is only found in a supplement store. I raced road bikes for a year. Experimented with several energy bars/drinks. As confirmed by the long time racers Gatorade was the worst of the bunch. I wouldn't even classify it as an energy drink. I wonder if the really good football teams substitute something in the Gatorade cups on the sidelines. Talking going light. In hiking/climbing as in car racing, weight savings is free reliable horsepower. In climbing pounds is what makes the difference, but when purchasing gear you have to pay attention to ounces, because that's were the differences in gear weight usually lies. On all purchases weight should be a primary consideration. If two comparable items are all the same except for weight, choose the lighter item. You can tell a really good climbing shop by the presence of a scale because manufactures advertised weight is not always accurate. Some examples. full zip Gore-Tex shell pants-----------------12 oz. $150.00 full zip Helly Hansen urethane lined pants-----8 oz. $35.00 "Lexan" 32oz water bottle (REI etc.)----6 oz. $15.00 "nalgene" 32 oz water bottle------------4 oz. $10.00 re-used "Vitamin Water" 32 oz bottle----2 oz. $1.50 (and you get a free drink) Packs are a good way to reduce weight. Most packs weigh way more than they should. Example Dana 5,000 cu ---------6 lbs. $300.00 Go-lite 5,000 cu ------1.5 lbs. $100.00 Granted a Go-lite won't be as comfortable but if you start with that you will get used to it and never notice the difference. This kind of thing may apply more to someone smaller. Smaller people having less load carrying capacity. But overall more weight will slow anyone down. Look for dual use items also. For instance Chouinard makes an aluminum snow shovel blade that slips on the end of an ice axe. Thus saving the weight of a handle. It also doubles as a snow fluke. So your ice axe is being used as an axe and as a shovel handle. And the shovel blade is being used as a shovel and as a snow fluke. Another example would be the new line of ultra-lite tents that use ski poles instead of tent poles.

Becky says for the South route, ascend the path on the Sahale arm, then follow the western margin of the Sahale Glacier to the final rock slabs. Climb the SE corner (a gully is easiest) to the sharp rock summit, the last bit is class 3 or 4. Crampons advisable after mid summer. Summit 8680 ft. If you can lead the glacier on Baker you should be able to solo Sahale up and down. The glacier on Sahale probably doesn't even need roping up, it's not that big like the one's on Baker. My advice though is to descend the same why you ascend. Keep an eye out for black bears, if you camp overnight hang your food at least 100 ft away.

We didn't climb Serpentine. I went by myself and climbed the descent. You weren't stupid just got benighted, it could happen to anyone. Even though you don't have pics cuz you lost the camera it would still be an interesting TR. Sometimes the forced bivy TR's are more interesting than the ones that went as planned. When you go up without a full description of the route and descent, that's called beta-min climbing, some people do it on purpose just for the adventure.

""My Goal! My family and I WILL climb Mt Rainier before the fall of 2013!"" Realistically you should be able to trim that down to 2 years or even 18 months I would start by hiking to Muir and maybe do Baker first, then maybe Adams by the easy route then Rainier other good training hikes are Tiger Mt, and Big Si. If you have bad knees pack 40-50 lbs of water up and dump it before coming back down. ""3. What are the "Must Have" things that each climber must have with them? (looking for a list of things...boots, water supply, other equipment, How much food and what kind, etc, etc)"" Boots crampons axe harness prusiks/slings 2 locking beaners top and bottom polypro wind/rain jacket wind/rain pants (prefer full zip) Helly Hansen is affordable puff jacket gaiters thin gloves ski gloves mits knit hat helmet sunglasses 2 qts water sleeping bag bivy sack or tent foam pad stove and pot (team) Food on summit day. If you climb it in 2 days, treat it like a marathon, or triathlon because that's what it is. These kinds of athletes eat no solid food on race day. Cutting edge nutrition for this kind of effort is energy gels or energy drinks. Not Gatoraid but something like GU gels and Citomax drink as examples. Always try this kind of stuff on a training hike to find what works for you before the big day. ""4. Why do people always write that they start the climb from Muir at Midnight or 1am? Why not wait until the sun comes up?"" Depending on the weather the surface snow starts to melt about 1 pm. You want to summit and get back to Muir/Sherman before that. The snow bridges over crevasses get weak from the melting. ""6. What exactly is Altitude sickness?"" When you go from sea level to 14,000 ft your body internal "pressure" has to adjust to the changing ambient altitude pressure. Like when you go on an airplane and your ears pop, that's part of the adjustment but it's throughout your body and takes days to fully adjust. Sea level to 14K is about the limit in one day and most people have trouble with that. You will feel weak and lethargic and won't want to eat anything. Other worse stuff can happen like pulmonary and cerebral edema. People have died going to 10K. For Rainier I suggest going to 4K a couple of days before, it makes it so much more enjoyable, otherwise it's a marathon effort. ""7. What is "push breathing"?"" you purse your lips as you blow out, to pressurize your lungs and hopefully force more oxygen into your bloodstream. ""9. What is your list of Newbie Mistakes that you have seen or heard about?"" Using cotton longjohns instead of polypro, big no-no. NO cotton allowed. Not taking the puff jacket, even in the summer. Going to Rainier, even just to Muir without knowing how to dig and use a snowcave. People have died in the summer because of this. Taking poorly fit loose crampons or dull crampons. Going un-roped above Muir. ""10. What are the chances Jessica Alba will be free to go with me on my first attempt?"" Every bit as good as the chances that Kim Kardashian will go with me on my next attempt.