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Everything posted by Buckaroo
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""At 18:00 hours Wiessner reached what he later reported to be 8382 meters. Only 15 meters would have brought him access to the summit ridge, which he did not expect to present any serious climbing difficulties."" ""They later down climbed the gully ..."" They went down because of Pasang Sawa Lama's superstitions about evil mountain spirits that show up after dark. "The Sherpas and the high-altitude porters can't be expected to play the role of fixing the ropes and camps on higher ground on K2." It might not be aesthetic but they can if they're paid enough, capable and willing. It's up to the leaders to make sure of these parameters. "Van Rooijen was dismayed to find, when he arrived at the Bottleneck, that the ropes had been incorrectly placed." The highest skilled porter had gone down sick. They lost time re-setting the ropes, putting their return time into the dark. AND "It was also becoming clear that not everyone was as skilled at mountaineering as they had made out. Confortola said: “At the beginning, everyone seemed to be experts, but they couldn’t do or didn’t do what they are supposed to.”" The single biggest factor, the objective hazard of the icefall taking away the fixed ropes. It's very likely all the climbers could have made it down the fixed ropes or similar (unfixed) terrain at lower altitude and without the high winds. How do you prepare for K2? Do you look at the fixed ropes as you go up and say, "could I make it down if these got swept away?" Maybe, maybe not. Do you give up because you don't have enough of a safety cushion? Some do, some don't. "There were too many who weren’t capable in the summit party." The altitude dulls the senses. Maybe like El Cap, you can climb 5.10 at the crags but get up on the big wall and 5.9 is hard. Maybe they were all competent until you took away the cushion of the fixed ropes? How do you prepare for K2 without getting on K2? "As he lay in his hospital bed last week, van Rooijen, 40, said the lesson he had learnt from the climb is that on K2 you can rely only on small groups of trusted friends." At these altitudes even your close friends can't help you. You are on your own, if you don't feel comfortable solo, you shouldn't be up there. And forget about the bodies. Everyone almost died bringing Gilky's body back and now this time the Pakistani climber Jehan Baig was trying to help recover a body and died himself. What's the sense of risking life for someone who's already dead especially in these conditions? The K2 death scenario has happened more than once. You've paid $1,000's to get to base camp, you've waited years in your climbing career and weeks at the base for the weather. You know the chances of coming back again may be slim. The season is near it's end, there's a weather window and you go for it. Who cares if there's a bunch of other climbers as long as you realize there's not necessarily safety in numbers in this situation (as has been proven in the past). You push yourself to the edge even when the fog of altitude and conditions makes it unclear where that edge is. You climb up past the fixed ropes thinking they'll be there on the way back. It's a little late too but your thinking is dulled from the altitude, you put yourself closer to the edge because you may not get this chance again. The edge is moved even closer when the ice falls and the result is predictable at that point. One thing that could be taken from the 1986 disaster is you should never go up without stove/fuel to melt water. The thing that might be taken from this year's tragedy is maybe a couple climbers in the group should have a 120M tech rap cord and a long ice screw for a V-thread just in case the fixed lines get taken out.
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Colin, Mark, and Wayne's, Southern Pickets Traverse Josh and Wayne, Northern Picket Traverse Colin, Fast N Face of Robson Solo Wayne's Mongo Ridge
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Congrats on your summit. I climbed the Hotlum-Wintun ridge back in 2002. Nice mountain, nice weather. After being used to the thick brush on Mt Rainier it was nice to climb more open slopes down low on Mt Shasta. More sunny days per year also.
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I soloed NW Buttress variation from Goat pass. pg 278-279 in Becky guide. There was only one place where it was technical, about 5.2-5.4.(just a couple of moves) After it joins the West ridge there's one other tech crux (5.6-5.7). Don't remember that much looseness on the route. I had intended to do the West ridge but mistakenly started at Goat Pass. I followed the crest most of the way, not sure where I went in the Becky photo. The upper crux on the West ridge had 2 ways to go, one 50' slab in a left facing corner (5.6-5.7), or one short steep step, about 2 or 3 moves (5/7?) Neither very exposed.
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"all I can think of when I see that crap hanging off that precariously perched rock is "sharkfin accident"" Actually someone has already died rappelling off the N ridge of Stuart. The large anchor bolder pulled off and fell down with the guy into the moat.
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for the 14ers like Rainier you need double plastics. IMHO it's better to get a middle of the line and add some expensive heat formed liners for better fit lighter weight. I used the Koflach Degrees and added the liners for a boot that's lighter than anything available off the shelf. You can climb smaller stuff but they are a little clunky. for minimum snow conditions, lower peaks, you need something like the Sportiva Trango S. Nothing comes close for performance/weight, but it's not as waterproof as a plastic boot.
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After I went over the hill I was looking for an edge to try to come closer to keeping up. Energy gel, specifically GU. It has the highest content to weight ratio of all the gels. A good energy drink mix also works, like Citomax. When on a hard approach/climb I don't eat ANY food until dinner, it conflicts with the instant digestion of the GU. That's why it works so good, it's near to pre-digested. If you eat hard food it diverts blood to the digestive system. I feel like a 20% increase in energy this way. food for dinner is dried cup-o-soups, taken out of the cardboard cup and put in a zip-lock(way cheaper than the freeze dried meal packs), bagels/baugettes or any other hard bread, dried instant potato can thicken soups to a stew. Olive oil for fat. I'm a vegan so for protein it's soy or almond cheese, an alternative is canned fish like herring or sardines. Salmon, beef, deer jerky is also good. For longer trips you have to up the volume. More than 3 days you start to eat more, your body demands it, up amount by about 1/3. On the 10 day ptarmigan traverse we had one old timer with us who brought 1 pound of butter. We were all laughing at him at the trailhead but near the end we were all begging for some of his butter.
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It's all about keeping the gene pool at the razor's edge. Somebody has to do it, otherwise we would descend... So it's okay to die of heart disease because you don't exercise, or diabetes caused by coca-cola, or from pharmacuticals cuz you can't handle reality, or in a car accident because you don't know how to drive in your "safe" rollover SUV? 11 is a pretty small number actually from the total population of climbers.
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Hi all ""How accessible is the sport or trad climbing around Seattle? Can it be an afternoon outing or a weekend?"" yes to both ""And the ice routes? Ok, I don't expect these to be 30 mins or so away from the city."" WA ice comes in for a few DAYS per year on average. Lilloett usually comes in, it's 5 hrs away. Banff is 13 hrs away, ice climber paradise The rain is not as bad as they say, it's WORSE. Probably why we were the first to have an indoor climbing gym. actually it's the short winter days combined with overcast skies for sometimes 2 months in a row during winter that can cause S.A.D. (seasonal affective disorder) The sun lamp companies do good business here. but it's a climbing mecca. Rainier is good training for the bigger ranges and we're central to the Canadian rockies and Yosemite.
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Met Potter briefly in '99 on the Salathe, we were on our 2nd day at El Cap Tower. Dean and Jose Perea blew by us on a speed record attempt. He seemed like a nice guy, we talked to him later in camp 4. I don't care what anybody says, he can be a tool all day long. He's a bad ass climber. Base jumping by itself is a deadly sport, it took Jose. To combine that with on-site(?) solo 5.12+ and live to tell about it, that takes big balls I don't care what anybody says.
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BEAR WARNING. NO food in the car. Not even one night. Food goes in the provided bear boxes. NO food smells, this includes fruity perfume, like your shampoo scent gets on car headrests, they'll tear up headrests thinking there's food. Black bears there very smart. Smell cookies factory sealed in bag, in trunk. Bust out side window by leaning on it or peel down door from top. Climb into car, rip out back seat to get to cookies. Then they teach their cubs to do the same. There's always glass on the ground in the parking lots. At first I thought vandals. But it's animal vandals. You're sleeping in camp 4 late at night and you hear doooosssh. The sound of another car window breaking, another fool left food in his car. Friend of mine accidentally left food in his 4x4 van. Bear peeled the door down, he had to drive 150 miles with no door, to the nearest junkyard. After dark they'll come right up to your table while your eating to try to get food. We were there cooking and bear just walked right up and stood by the table, didn't even see him coming. Looked like he was thinking "hey where's the food?"
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-40F during Jan on Blanca Peak CO. High desert plains. -40F during Arctic front in Banff, ice climbing. Slept in truck, ice on inside of windshield. Trans shifts like glue. Had to put cardboard over radiator to get engine warm enough so heater would work. Tried to sleep in heated bathroom at campground but ranger ran me out, back to the freezing truck. Winter climbing in Banff people take a Hibachi to the trailhead, put under the oil pan to warm the engine for starting. I've heard Siberia gets so cold that tires crack if you hit a hard bump. Anti-freeze doesn't work, you have to drain and fill the coolant every time you drive. Even metal gets cold enough to be brittle.
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(without the stem) Looks like good training for the hollow flake on Salathe. It's fun to explore at Index
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Fall on Ride the Lightning (Tieton, Goose Egg)
Buckaroo replied to Rock Kliembber's topic in Climber's Board
You weren't taking antibiotics lately were you? LINK US drug watchdog wants tendinitis warning on common antibiotic The US Food and Drug Administration has asked manufacturers of antibiotics in the fluoroquinolone family to beef up warnings that taking the anti-microbial medication increases the risk of tendinitis or tendon rupture. -
Yeah, now if I can just get back up there and get something done.
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I remember a couple of short 5.6 bits, definite route finding also, might be tricky if it got dark. You definitely have to drop off the ridge right and left to get around cliffs and near the end go way left(exposed), unless you want to go direct on the ridge and do some loose 5.7 near the glacier.
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Has anyone done Vesper this spring/summer? Was wondering if the snow is clear to the trailhead, and if the N face slab is snow free yet?
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[TR] Mount Rainier - DC Route, Ingram Flats BC 5/19/2008
Buckaroo replied to doumall's topic in Mount Rainier NP
Nice pics, brings back memories. Rainier is probably more serious weather wise than anything in CO having climbed both in the winter. Rainier is 14,400' and you start at sea level(acclimatization wise), CO you start at 7,000'. Ranier makes it's own weather, this winter in one week it snowed 4', 22" in one day. temps can get very low on the summit especially in winter. I've have metal freeze to the skin at 9,000' in winter, with overnight temps of 25 below at that alt. and calculated at 40 below on the summit, not counting any wind chill. Rainier sometimes has high winds, upwards of 70mph and this will be from 13K up. It also has the nasty habit of icing up. It will be nice and warm even in summer and a cold front will hit and the upper 1 to 2K ft will turn to boilerplate ice. Your crampons had better be sharp, even on the walk-ups skilled climbers have died from this cause. Another thing that happens is wind gusts, lost a tent like that. It will be clear blue sky and dead calm, and then above 10k or so a big gust up to about 50mph will abruptly hit for about 30sec. If your climbing up high you'll be forced to the arrest position. Then it will be dead calm again for like 10-15 min, then gust for another 30sec, this can go on for 1/2 the day. It's easy to lose gloves etc. -
. . . . rope eating nano-bots?
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If you want duct tape that will last several seasons, go to a builder supply and get "code graded" duct tape, it will last forever. But a ski pole may not be the best place to store it, some up and back routes you leave the poles at the base. I have a thin kids bag that comes up to mid chest, put the puff jacket over upper body. You can find bags at thrift/2nd hand gear stores if you don't want to cut something more expensive. When shaving weight look at the packs empty weight. Go-Lite is about 2 lbs lighter than most. When big walling sew a loop of thin webbing to everything you need to clip in, (stuff sacks, bivy sack). On drawstrings retie typical overhand knot with a figure 8 and clip that also. When really thrashing like glissades and bushwack it's nice to have the stuff on the outside of the pack, like axes, cramps, snowshoes, tied in 2 places on each piece. Like the regular pack tie-ins, and then an added strap that runs through everything for backup. On low angle rappels with twin ropes a rope bag is nice, especially if there's a lot of loose rock. After you've gone over the hill you need something to help you keep up. The best thing I've found is GU, it's got the highest nutrition to weight ratio. On hard hike/climb days eat ONLY GU and water until dinner. I get about 20% better performance this way. Olive oil with dinner is the best nutrition to weight ratio for recovery at night. It will also keep you warm at a forced bivy. McDonalds is not food, you might as well eat the container. Tree bark has more nutritional content.
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[TR] Index Upper Town Wall - Green Dragon 2/2/2008
Buckaroo replied to racsom's topic in North Cascades
Way to go... good training for winter alpine. seem to remember cam hooks being good on this route, also be aware of the mandatory, easy but runnout, free section on the last pitch. Y'all know why they call it Green Dragon don't ya? Cuz it's green and it drags on. -
The last time I gassed up at the crossing in winter was in Jan, 12 years ago. ""If you're leaving one country your entering another. "" No, I'm saying that the US officials searched us as we were leaving the US. Not Canada as we were entering. AFAIK only communist countries (up to this point) search their citizens as they LEAVE the country. It wasn't like they were trying to deter terrorists. It was like a checkpoint within the country to round up "prisoners" for the burgeoning prison industry.
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also the CBP (US Customs and Border Protection) is screening and searching as you LEAVE the US. They didn't have a building, just cones in the road and a bunch of SUV's Labled CBP and drug sniffing dogs. They were pretty rude, "pull up over there", "go stand over there", "hands out of your pockets" They brought in a dog and he got in the car and tramped all over our gear. He didn't find any drugs but he did find the food. "come on boy, come on", dog didn't want to get out of the car. Then we had to go through the Canada officials too, but they didn't search us this time. What's up with that? searched while leaving the country.
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One little heads up. "The Crossing" at the Icefields Parkway and Davis Thompson Hiway junction is closed down. This is the only gas station for miles so gas up before you go on the parkway. Don't depend on this gas stop being there as it has been in the past.