Buckaroo

If you're going to go this far you might as well go over Wolly Shoulder to the Alberta hut. The best views in the Rockies IMHO. Mt Alberta and N Twin

watch carefully for the right turn off the river/creek, it's a rocky (usually)dry streambed. It starts about where the river ends it's steep cascade. Like already mentioned it's canopied by trees. If you miss that you spend an extra hour or two bushwacking. the start of Dreamer is inobvious, the dihedrals are left facing not right facing as shown in the Nelson books. The other climbs are tricky to find also.

forget the Stone-age ladder or step style aiders, get the sliding adjustable ones. Light years better. They are lighter, easier to use, faster, and climb higher on each placement. So less gear placements on each pitch. forget the pitons and hammer, there's so much clean aid to do first. solo aid with a clove hitch and back up knot, you don't need devices agree on the cam hooks but start with only 2, they are not usually left as a placement you leapfrog them, you'll never need 4 unless you're doing nothing but aid. yes on the offsets, good for flaring pin scars look for used gear, especially the nuts and beaners, it gets beat up anyway aiding. some classic lines are City Park, Stern Farmer, Narrow Arrow Direct then do Town Crier solo in a long day. (I did it on summer solstice) for City Park you need one set cams, one set nuts and 2 more sets of mid to smallest nuts including offsets. 6-8 draws, 20 free beaners, couple slings. Cordalette(optional) aid is much maligned but it's a very good teaching tool to learn placements of gear. You get to study placements up close and concentrate on just that without worrying about free climbing. It' also a necessary skill if you ever want to do the Salathe or the Nose and don't climb 5.13. until you learn to not jam nuts take a small cleaning hammer you can tap the back of the cleaning tool with. If you bounce test too hard on City Park or similar stuff they will jam. Like a little tack hammer works best. For C-2 you might want to add a couple A5 bird beaks for thin seams, you can tap them in with the small cleaning hammer. They work when nothing else will.

One set Camalots to #4 (skip the #3.5)(add the #5 if you want to climb chimney's) (#3 and #4 bigbros, again only for chimney's) One full set Metoleus TCU's One full set DMM wallnuts (the best) 30-40 Wild Country Helium Beaners (wired keylocks) (nothing else comes close) 15 to 20 spectra draws 5 or so spectra shoulder slings 2 or so double slings. 1 tech cord cordalette 1 Petzl Reverso 3 (nothing else comes close)

the cam looks bomber but you need to unclip it from your gear sling and clip it into your harness or it's not going to hold jack-crap. NO on the bolts. Trad route on trad crag, you don't want to teach newbys that there's going to be bolts everywhere they "need" them. Un-tieing and blowing a whistle? A. Darwin candidate B. Shouldn't be trad climbing in the first place, not enough common sense.

You want "selected alpine climbs in the Canadian Rockies"

Yeah, this is for all day alpine so are the Acopa JB's and Kalkulators board lasted?

I usually wear Aces, with the board last. What other rock shoe is this stiff and ankle height? Looking for a big wall shoe that's stiff.

Let us know what you used and how it went

Near exact same thing happened 2 years ago. Rap stations??? I've always downclimbed that. Maybe it's worse this year cuz of dry conditions?

there's water on the approach, an overnight bivy pack should be under 20 lbs W/O climbing gear, there's nothing really that steep on the route you can't climb with a 20 lbs pack.

Doing it in a day this time of year is assuming you know the descent in the dark. At least from the gully or so. the first time I did it we fixed 3 pitches and still ended up in the dark on descent. at least 2 qts water per person, unless it's a really cool day, if you only take 1 you will be thirsty you can cut quite a bit off the trail if you go straight when it takes a hard left along the hiway. Right as it starts to flatten a bit, if you listen you will hear the cars, road is about 100 yds away, cuts a mile west down to the trail head and a mile back east on the road if you left the car by the pond start.

Dare to ditch the pack and the 2nd rope, that's what slows you down and makes it take 2 days. Helly Hansen raingear, single layer impermeable urethane, instead of heavier Gore-tex. Roll up and clip to the harness. the 5th pitch does have a slung flake anchor midway. on your topo the belay you have marked as #7 is a decoy. It's an old anchor used to rap to a bivy ledge. The real anchor is the one you have above that's marked as alternate. So instead of a 25M pitch you get a 40-45M pitch. Practice aiding and cleaning roofs, they are difficult, time consuming if you don't know the technique. the left side of the start is def easier. only 1 pair of aiders and jumars between both climbers. The 2nd jumars with slings on the jumars, then after the aid each carries 1 aider and 1 jumar. The new slider style aiders are lighter and climb higher with each placement meaning quicker and less gear needed. Don't weigh down the rack either. Normal rack to #3camalot, doubles of finger size cams to maybe a .75camalot, maybe a few more small nuts and HB offsets. I've never taken a hook.

Just take a single 60 and climb it in a day, it's not that hard to do. French free the first pitch. The 2nd and 3rd pitch are the only aid and are 30M each. A single 60 will get you off if you need to retreat.

I remember reading a European Alpine instruction book in the Renton library. It had a really good section on how to minimize lighting exposure. I copied some pages, if I can dig them up I'll post. It was in preparation for the Bugaboos.

You might find this helpful http://www.summitpost.org/mountain/rock/151101/Slesse-Mountain.html

I helped Yoder clean Spire one time around '92 or '93. We used a water blaster that had sand mixed into the water. Basically a sand blaster with water to keep the dust down. It seemed to help somewhat but it was very rough on the rock. Breaking little chunks of rock loose here and there. And keep in mind Spire is mostly rock with concrete mortar. While UW Rock is mostly concrete with rocks laid in. The sand blasting did help the polished rocks down low where people traversed all the time, roughing them up. But it didn't seem to last very long and it got polished again pretty quick. What UW rock really needs is some more of the same gravel added. It seems to be getting thin near the base of the walls. Be sure to use the exact same kind of gravel because it's rounded (river rock) that displaces when you fall, to absord falling force. Sharp rock won't work, it doesn't displace the same way. That and the beams forming the gravel border need to be repaired/redone. If your going to steam clean you might find it would have to be done again periodically because it will get grimy again right away. Especially where the rain doesn't hit.

McDonalds is JUST as bad as Taco Bell Think about Taco Bell, McDonald's and most fast food like this. There's regulations on gasoline, it has to be a certain octane to be sold. The minimum octane is something like 86, premium goes up to about 92. Octane in layman's terms measures the amount of power in gasoline. Think of food as gasoline for humans. Think of the nutritional value in food as the octane of that human gasoline. There are far less regulations or requirements on nutrition in fast food than there are in gasoline. In other words they can sell junk food with low "octane", and they do. Junk food is the equivalent of about 15 octane gasoline. If you tried to run your car on it, it would run like crap if it ran at all. If you're trying to do high performance aerobics like climbing and biking why wouldn't you want to run your race car on premium fuel? Rainier is more dangerous than other mountains in the area for several reasons. First and foremost is the altitude. Not just the peak elevation but specifically the distance from base to summit. It's a lot of elevation gain for human physiology to handle in a short time frame. When you go from sea level to 14,000' in one or two days you're pushing the limits. This applies even more so to younger people. One thing you can do to minimize the effects of altitude is to acclimatize by spending a couple extra days at 5K' to 10K' before going to the summit. I've done this with great success, it's turns a death march into something more enjoyable. It's the last 2K' or so that really is the kicker, that's why Adams, Hood etc aren't near as bad. Another dangerous thing about Rainier is icing. You can go up in summer on the easiest route, the Emmons and it will be nice kickstepping and styrofoam cramps in good snow conditions. You get to the top and a front comes in and hard freezes the upper 2,000' to boilerplate ice and it's hella hard to climb down. Your cramps better be razor sharp and uber-secure to your boots, and your axe better be sharp and you better know how to downclimb hard ice for thousands of feet. Experienced people have been killed just because their crampons were not dialed in for hard ice. Rainier creates it's own weather like this that is conducive to icing. The other volcanoes do it also, just not as bad because of the altitude. If you're caught in a big storm on Rainier you better know how to dig a snow cave. It helps to practice beforehand because it's sometimes hard to find the right snow conditions, or you have to make the best of what's available. You have to know how to locate the best place to dig, how to dig, and how to keep a breathing hole. I was solo on Rainier one time in winter and got stuck in a snow cave for 3 days. During storm you are up every hour clearing your breathing holes. If you don't wake up, you will go to sleep for good. The first snow cave I ever made was when I was near your experience level. I was on Shuksan and got caught in a 2 day spring snow storm with just a bivy sack. I dug it with the stove pot and stayed in it for about 30 hrs. People have died on the approach to Muir (not even in winter), for the single solitary reason, they did not know how and when to dig a snow cave. Hydration is of primary importance, especially when you go to altitude. You need to figure out your system to keep a steady supply of water, be it iodine pills, filters or whatever. A stove to melt snow is safe from giardia, and above timberline more certain to supply water than hoping for runoff or melt. Your expected altitude should determine whether you take a filter or stove. And remember, hydrate first, then eat. Try Walmart for the bike rack, that or one of the 2nd hand bike stores like 2nd Ascent in Ballard. Should be about $15.00 new or less used.

Great thread Josh, be careful of fame though. Don't climb to impress anyone else, it will get you in trouble quick. Really good story, the biking to Columbia Peak. Don't listen to the naysayers, it sounds like you're doing okay, just be careful. You have been learning from your mistakes correct? You learned that a foam pad is necessary when bivying on snow. And it sounds like you knew when to turn around which is important. Let me point out some other mistakes you're making, because I don't think you realize them. The cramping and susceptibility to cold is from dehydration, you need to drink more water. Drink before you eat cuz water absorption goes down when you eat, and maybe shed layers quicker before you sweat. You should be down to just shorts on a summer approach if you start to really sweat. Drinking water from streams is taking chances, I do it all the time, but some argue against it cuz of giardia. Usually the melt right at the bottom of snowfields and glaciers is safe. But 6 water bottles and carrying 9 pounds of water on Rainier is way too much, you need a small stove, and melt snow as you go. Taco Bell is garbage food, it's not in a top notch athletes diet. IF you're going to eat fast food, Taco Time is a little better. But any fast food has way too much salt which doesn't help with hydration. At your age it's ok after a climb but it's not a positive thing before a climb or on a bike approach. Look at the weather forecast before you leave home and pay attention to it. If you're online here posting you can go online and get a weather forecast. There's nothing wrong with Cascadian Couloir on Stuart. Sure it's the walk-up but it's a good thing to do the walk-up first if you're ever going to do a technical route on Stuart, that way you know the descent which is the most important part of any climb. When you talk about finding the trail after crossing snow on Columbia, that's called routefinding instinct. You need that near the top of Stuart because it sort of winds around some obstacles near the top on the summit ridge. Always look back as you go up, so you know what it looks like going down, especially as you go around obstacles, turn corners etc. Maybe think about a bivy sack when the weather is ok, lighter than a tent. I wouldn't even do Stuart if it's going to rain, lightning and rockfall even in the Cascadian, and low visibility off route can put you out on steeper ground when you're coming down. At your age and experience I wouldn't try to do Stuart in one day. Make it at least two and that's not counting any bike approach LOLZ! I would avoid Rainier unless you've got at least 2 or 3 experienced adults on the trip. And that means a high level of experience. The objective hazard is just really high, and the fitness level is tough for a 16 yo. Rainier is at another level compared to the other volcanoes. And clue Taco Bell ain't the training fuel for Rainier. And while your bouncing around the house for a month between climbs, stop procrastinating and fix the brakes on your bike. Alpine climbing is about having your gear straight as much as it is about anything. Did you have all the pack weight on your back when you were biking? If you did that's the hard way to go and wastes a lot of energy. Get just a little cheapy rack and put all your heavy stuff in a sleeping bag stuff sack and bungie that on the rack.

If climbing is pointless folly, then life is pointless folly. and they may very well be. dying sucks cuz life is already too short but it is small consolation he died doing what he loved

I used to just use an extra beaner on the harness on the belay hand side of the ATC, run the rope through that for an extra change of direction and more friction. Ever since an icy rope slipped through my gloved hand I've been using a prussick on the belay hand side of the rope. It gives enough extra friction all by itself and you can stop and do things with both hands, no need to hold the rope. What if a rock comes down and knocks you unconscious? Your going to slide to/off the end of the rope. For an 8 mil or smaller you need a 4mm prussick cord.

didn't someone climb Mt Elbrus carrying an ATB with spike tires and try to ride it down? bring bak da Pope bring bak da Pope bring bak da Pope

You need to get around, there's quite a bit of grumbling going on, and a lot sooner than the right woke up to bush, if they ever did at all.

""But even if he can make minor improvements at home, and pull off a couple of good moves in Iraq or Afghanisan, that'd be minor improvement and a couple of good moves."" On a positive note I think his image of being good can rub off on people who will actually be good and do good things. So what if it's maybe not his real intent to do good, if it rubs off in reality on others so much the better. It's sort of like the morals of the nation are led from the top. Does if matter if the leader's fake as long as the followers are real.

the left has been decieved by Obama, just like the right was with bush thank the corp TV for that