Buckaroo

Canada ice is still very good, only the stuff in the sun is starting to go. Climbed Weeping Wall right side and Louise falls in prime condition. Left and Center of Weeping Wall is getting sun bleached. Polar Circus is still in and they just Avi bombed it. Everything on Davis Thompson still very good. It was -17C(low) last Wed night. I've finally redeemed myself, back to leading grade 5. YEEEEE HAAAAA!!!!!!!! TR with pics when I get time. Get thee to Canada, there's still tons of good ice. _____________ If they call you crazy you might as well be crazy.

I will try to be more clear and succinct Most of this is from Will Gadd, I added about 10 percent I wrote level. Level could mean 50' apart. If you want specific then about 12" to 18" apart, of course this varies with conditions, I go 18" if the ice is brittle or bulging, at times you may not have any choice but to go closer but you better know what you're doing. in regards to angled 10deg downward, this is out and down, not in and down. And the angle is in relation to the ice surface not ground plane. the other big mistake I've seen in numerous trip reports is climbing ice when it's too warm. 30deg or so is usually too warm, people have died in the PNW when it's too warm.

This is a synopsis of the "leading" section in "Ice and Mixed Climbing" by Will Gadd. With some of my own insight also plan ahead. pick climbing areas and placement areas. Stem in a dihedral, or between opposing features to rest the arms. after finding a placement spot, climb until it's waist level and sink a tool at arms length above, Pick a place where you can get at least one heel down or chop a small ledge with an axe or with a crampon. Make a divot where you want to place the screw, with the other axe or using the screw with a hammering action. place the second tool level or just below the first, so you can change arms if pumped out it's important that the placement be at waist level and not above or off to the side. The hardest part is getting it started, and the most force can be generated at waist level. If you feel sketched clip a draw to the bottom hole on your best placed axe and clip the rope. start the screw by forcing with the palm. after it starts enough to stay in on it's own, wind it with the crank. The strongest screw is angled about 10deg downward. Screws hold more from the threads than any picket effect. If it's angled upwards it has more leverage to break the surface of the ice and become a weak placement. tied off screws are pretty weak, take different lengths especially if you anticipate shallow ice. place one screw about 10' above the belay and then after that to keep from hitting the ground or a ledge, typically ice is climbed with more run-out than rock. like no more than 8 screws per pitch. One thing I've never seen in print. It's a lot easier, when clipping with a draw at waist level with thick gloves, to clip the rope first then the screw. It's all about speed, so it really helps to practice. I once had an ice training wall and the best thing on it was simulated screw placements so you could dial your technique. steeper ice is a whole nother game. usually the steeper the thinner, scarcer, the placements. Don't kid yourself going leashless bumps it up a couple letter grades. You can fall safely on ice especially if it's vertical or steeper and there is technique to fall safely even on 80 degree but you have to be used to falling. One of the biggest mistakes a rookie can make is to place axes too close together, on brittle ice a dinner plate can shatter both axes out at once. From the description I think this is what happened to Joe Simpson in Touching the Void.

Has anyone been on the Mowich Lake road lately? Was wondering how far it's passable in a 2wd car. Past years at this time have been able to get to the gate at Paul Peak Trailhead, but we've had so much snow this year I'm doubting that.

At -22f a tent is cold and if it's windy, very noisy. You won't get much sleep. At any temp a snow cave is about 35-40f and very quiet, just takes longer to set up. But is sounds like you're doing it in a couple days so sleep deprivation may not matter. As regards acclimatization, not talking about your level of personal conditioning (although that makes a difference). Talking about the difference between A. Living at 5,000 and climbing quickly from 5,000 to 14,000. B. Living at sea level and driving to 5,000 then quickly climbing to 14,000. (say in 2 days) It's quicker elev gain than the body can normally adjust to. You DEF don't want to sleep on the summit going up that quick. The last 2,000 ft or so is the hardest, you will really feel it (like a 24mi marathon). Unless you take a couple of days to adjust, then it will be just like being in Colo. The other thing that makes winter hard is there's no trail on the regular routes like in summer. Be good with compass and alti, or take a GPS.

Yeah, Rainier is most likely safer than Iraq!! Not saying you shouldn't try it, just be aware of what you're up against. The statewide avy forecasts don't necessarily apply on Rainier, you have to be able to read the snow. Sometimes we get a clear spell in February. Remember for an official winter ascent you have until the vernal equinox which is Mar 20th this year. When you dig a cave placement is key. One time on Sunset ridge I mistakenly dug too close to the base of a face. It started snowing during the night and the sluffs coming off the face buried my breathing hole so deep had to dig the cave diagonally out and up about 10ft. In a big storm high up tents are out of the question. The wind will shred them or you get buried and may not even realize it, it's VERY quiet and you just never wake up. It's very hard to wake up every hour during the night to clear a breathing hole. You better have a reliable watch alarm. You are already very tired and the alarm goes off and you just sit there like FFF it. I put a watch under my cap so I can't ignore it. My last try got to 6,000' from the Mowich lake road approach. Bivied, (was going to dig a snow cave at 10,000 the next day). Had an umbrella over my bivy sack. It started snowing and in less than an hour I was totally buried. I had dozed off and woke up and freaked out. Dragged my bivy under a nearby overhanging rock. It snowed 18" that night. Retreated the next day and my car was buried. Luckily some 4x4 Toyota trucks happened by and towed me like a sled to where my tires would touch the road. Make sure you have something to cover your face to breath through and goggles and good mittens. And just in general about climbing Rainier. It's not like CO 14ers where you hang out and start at 5,000 and climb to 14. It's the equivalent of a 24mi marathon (in summer) if you climb it in 2 days from sea level because of altitude gain. If you hang out at 5 or 10 thousand for a couple or 3 days to acclimatize the effort decreases dramatically. Winter is harder for 2 main reasons, colder air is harder to breath (energy spent just to keep warm) and the snow is usually less consolidated.

Did a solo recon last sat. The approach is heinous due to the recent show, snowshoes are okay at first but the slope below the climbs is too steep for them, spent over an hour swimming uphill on what would be normally be a relatively short approach. The ice isn't all that great. Not sure what their named but the 2 lines I looked at are sort of thin and have a lot of snow on them. I soloed up about 20' but turned back because of too much unconsolidated snice between fair sections of ice. The other thing that sucks is the logistics of the gate, you can't get an early start or come back late. Got run out of the place around 6Pm and the ranger lady made me put on the chains even though I didn't need them. Lucky she didn't give me a ticket, several years ago a stater left me a ticket for no chains on my parked car at paradise, never even saw him face to face.

Rainier in winter is serious. Can you live in a snow cave for days? Can you wake up every hour during the night to clear the air hole while the storm is trying to cover it up? If and when you run out of food/fuel can you descend with 30' visibility in a storm? Climb it in summer first, it's still serious even then. I've never got lucky in winter. Got to 12,000' once and there was a steady 60mph wind, higher at the summit. And that was good conditions. Usually it's just snowing. Even the highly experienced are rolling the dice in winter.

It's not granite there are a couple of other routes there you can TR there's also a nice ground level traverse off to the left if you're solo

This would be about the hardest time to do the traverse. The NF bowl is an exposed rock face made up of small steps, ranging in size from 1" to 4 ". The edges are all very rounded and the rock is really smooth. The best way to climb it is free solo, because for about 2 pitches there is almost zero pro. It's only 5.6 but it hardly ever dries out this time of year. I soloed the NF in June one time, completely dry, can't imagine doing it wet. Could be done, but not by me. And like Becky says, the wetness increases rockfall. Even if it's not raining you get soaked because the brush doesn't dry out this time of year. If you don't know the descent then it's going to take you 2 days, because you're going to be in the dark by then with the short days. Now your carrying more gear for overnight and combine that with wet rock. If you want to get a taste of the mountain this year do the East route of Main Peak. That's the normal descent from the traverse and it really helps to climb it and know it before doing the traverse. I just wrote a TR on the ascent of the East Route a few weeks ago. And here's some other links to TR's on these peaks. Trip Report Old Trip Report Old Trip Report

bloodwater the crony repug CEO pays off the crony repug politician, essentially purchasing the right to a no bid contract. Costs are GROSSLY inflated. Goons are hired and restraining laws are removed so there won't be any costly repercussions. enron's MO to the bone, don't break the laws, just remove them then commit the crimes scot free. but they can't stop there because greed knows no limits, they even break what little laws are left. of course all this money spent is just borrowed at taxpayers expense. Like the 9 bil that disappeared shortly after we went in there. or the 9 bil that enron stuck Califa for, and then Arnold was cheated in there and the first thing he did was shut down the AG's case to get the 9 bil back. or like the 3 trillion missing from the pentagon books, that death skull rummy reported about on 9-10. timed so the story would disappear.

Got bit when I went into the Pickets, nest on the ground, not like "domestic" yellow jackets down here. They bit and when swatted they avoided the swat and came back to bite elsewhere. I was also running and they chased along. Sometimes year to year weather differences make a difference in populations. One year at the house there was a soccer ball sized nest on the eaves of the garage, and another large one on the neighbors house. Haven't seen anything close to that size before or since.

""Guess I don't get it."" I've never climbed it, but was under the impression that it rarely comes in condition simultaneous with avy danger being low. From talking to the locals that seemed to be the best time to climb it. You almost have to live there, it's probably like the EDM, you have to be ready to go at a moments notice.

""WASHINGTON -- The House passed a bill Thursday that would make all private contractors working in Iraq and other combat zones subject to prosecution by U.S. courts."" "I suspect Bush will veto it." NO KIDDING?

""Keep in mind that Iraq is a violent place."" Yeah it is, especially after we bombed the crap out of it back into the 3rd world, after we perpetrated Abu Graibe and collected and distributed pictures, to poke the hornets nest, yeah it's violent now. ""For every incident you hear or read about, whatever the nature of the incident, there are perhaps hundreds more that go unnoticed. It is the nature of reporting"" embeded in the green zone is hardly reporting. Or are you talking about the defense department report on the incident that was ghost written by a blackwater employee? """The ROE dictates the level of force permissible. This ranges from alert behavior to the right to repel deadly force. The force continuum is similar to your rights as a civilian."" Do the Iraqis have ANY rights, when blackwater is accountable to ZERO laws? Do Eric Prince's huge contributions, mostly to repugs, dictate the (ZERO) level of accountability to any laws with respect to their actions? ""There are hard and fast rules, but in war, "" It's not a war, it's an occupation, we are not going to "win" it, just maintain at a low level. More crony defense industry profit that way. Rules?, there are zero rules that apply to these people. ""Some people tend to see this whole issue with such a jaded perspective that they are almost totally unable to see past their preconceived notions. Dru, you are one of those people, and therefore you tend to not get listened to much. Your spew is tired, tired, tired. "" ad hominem homina homina homina Let me get this straight, a bunch of mercenaries with ZERO accountability. In other words, yeeeehhh haaaaaaa, no rules, we can do WHATEVER we please. The human (if you can call them human) nature of these individuals means they aren't exactly boy scouts. Let me also get this straight, we are turning our voluntary force over to crony profiteers and paying them 10 to 20 times (tax $'s) as much as regular army and NOW we have to send the FBI (more tax $'s) to monitor their crooked asses? And stop calling them contractors, call them what they are, MERCENARIES. KILLERS FOR HIRE.

America has the worse diet in the developed world. America takes the most pharmaceuticals in the developed world, there is a connection. It all really started to go south in the early 90's when they deregulated drug commercials on the television. That and the conventional doctors who know absolutely nothing about nutrition. Always treating the symptoms, never the root cause which is usually poor diet. allergies are amplified, aggravated by poor diet. white sugar is in many processed food and now high fructose corn syrup is also, which is linked to the huge rise in diabetes. aspartame----neurotoxin, especially when heated like during storage or in hot tea or coffee. fluoride, neurotoxin, sedative ====================== the good vitamin C is the best, from 4,000 to 8,000 mg/day, the MDR is way low. greens are healing, like spirulina or spinach or wheat grass juice

The main thing I look for in a trail shoe is traction on wet rock. None of the regular running shoes have wet rock traction. Only some of the trail shoes do. It's more of a rubber compound than a plastic one. Usually it's black, anything that's colored is usually plastic. As wet as it is around here it's a must on the trails.

""the bullshit-o-meter is pegging"" "The irony, the irony! " but nothing specific...

"Huh?" Fairweather in a nutshell

""Please pardon me in advance if I can't summon the interest necessary to engage in a point-by-point rebuttal"" the bullshit-o-meter is pegging ""and settle for a bit of light and oh-so-easy mockery instead."" you are as weak as your stance

"Can anyone conceive of a society resembling Orwell’s 1984?" ""You mean like the former Soviet Union? China circa 1945-1985? The North Korea of today? Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge? "" none of these have, the TELEVISION as a primary method of control, also the transmutating enemy, now it's the "war on terror", next thing it will be a war on evil. we must defeat the evil.

If you can't argue with facts JayB make stuff up....

""ordinary thought"" YES JayB, you hit it RIGHT on the head!! you are an ordinary American. You are the result of the dumbing down in the schools. Your "ordinary thoughts" are the result of years of mainstream propaganda. so sad... ""so far outside the walls"" YES JayB YES, I'm HELLA far outside the walls of your bubble, thank God!

""The funny thing about the "unseen-powers-dominate-the-masses-yet-I alone-have-seen-through-their-plan archetype" is that it's so cliched and formulaic"" And yet your "rebuttal" is so non-specific, you can't or won't address any of my specific points as to their truth or validity. ""and derivative and predictable and....[ahem]mass-produced.."" Alternative news on the internet is totally and amazingly diverse. The SHIT you eat for news from the TV is absolutely mass produced by only 5 military industrial complex companies or companies with direct ties to the MIC. ""that I actually predicted that the comeback would include a reference to the red/blue pill dichotomy in "The Matrix." ©"" If the analogy is accurate and well known then why not? Alternatives to what you've been led to believe for so long are just too inconvenient and uncomfortable, so you just reject them out of hand without any critical examination. The truth is people don't want to know the truth, if they did they might have to do something about it. ""Your dissent is so fringe, so far beyond the parameters of ordinary thought, so far outside the walls"" Remember the Nazi rule, propaganda only has to fool 90 percent of the masses. I guess in your case you would see the other 10 percent as fringe. You are inside the bubble that is American mainstream perception. Some of my points are actually well accepted anywhere else in the world. For instance in Canada, the thought that 911 was an inside job actually made it onto the TV so that anyone who cares to notice such things will be awakened to that perception. Another case in point, one of the 911 researchers uses ONLY mainstream media news articles. All he does is compare the massive discrepancies in all the mainstream news and knowledge that is out there. So how is it fringe to catalog mainstream news articles? ""that you instinctively frame it in terms of...a plot device lifted from a popular Hollywood movie. Do you ever feel like the human equivalent of the Hasbro Oiuja Board?"" how much of your reply factually addresses ANY of my points directly and how much of it is just an ad-hominem attack?

""you mean the Zionist-run banking complex? I thought they controlled every media outlet, so, no there is no alternative."" They control, or maybe influence is a better word, about 90 percent, and almost 100 percent of the television. The best alternative is the internet, although there is a lot of printed material it's not as accessible to most.