Buckaroo

After you cross the pass at the top of Anderson creek drainage it's about 4 or 5 false summits until you get to the summit of Index main peak. I remember thinking I was almost there and it took another 2 or 3 hours. I also remember some steep snow and scrambling, not just a hilly hike. I would almost plan on doing part of the return in the dark or just do part of the ascent in pre dawn. I went up Anderson creek and summited then went down the normal route to Lake Serene. It was dark when I hit the lake and made it to the car at 1:00AM.

I have to agree with the hypothermia hypothesis, because they had warm clothes but weren't wearing them. I got hypothermic one time while winter surfing near Ventura beach, with a borrowed half cut wetsuit that was too big. The scariest thing about it is it can happen quickly and you don't realize it's happening. If someone else doesn't notice you're a goner. My friends were about 100 yards away in the surf and I just decided to get out for no particular reason. When I got out of the water, I had a very hard time walking and fell several times walking a half block back to the car. The incompetence I felt just walking makes me think it would have been difficult to swim in the surf especially if I'd lost my board. It took about two hours before I felt back to normal. Just a few more minutes in the water and I could have fallen off my board and possibly gone under, then I would have had to depend on my friends noticing quick enough to help from 100 yards in the surf. Lots of times during strenuous hiking the tendency is to take off a lot of layers to keep cool down to a point were you can't stand still for long if it's cold. These guys were probably hiking hard and maybe stopped to rest for too long and both went hypothermic near the same time so they couldn't help each other. Anyone hiking or climbing in the snow, especially places like Rainier, should be prepared to dig a snow cave and know when it's necessary. Even if all your gear is wet you can survive in a snow cave as long as you have polypro. A tent will only work to a certain extreme, but a snow cave will make it just another weekend.

excuse me, Sandy headwall

I led the hollow flake on the Salathe. One number 5 camalot, one number 3 big bro, one number 4 big bro. You're all by yourself with 1000 feet of air beneath your heels. The belayer is out of site around the corner. It's not a clean fall, depending on your gear you could hit the rubble filled bottom of the chimney or glance off the slab below. The 5 cam was useless, it got left 5 feet off the bottom. The number 3 big bro was walked up the 30 to 40 feet of the vertical crux section and left at the top where it starts to ease off. The number 4 right after that. TOTAL aerobics. You can maintain position but upward mobility is difficult. Big bros are hard to walk, and it takes several long seconds, up to half a minute depending on the rock, before it's protecting you again. They are also hard to place, practice and learn before a hard lead. Practice an offwidth chimney if you can find one down low, sometimes architecture has them, it's very technique dependent. I was thinking about building an adjustable offwidth training chimney just to hone technique, if I ever get some spare time.

Everybody is at fault and nobodies at fault. If you expect to climb OS on the weekend, without having to wait, and don't do the entire trail in the dark, you are dreaming. I've seen 7 people on Library ledge, who cares as long as you get back alive. It's a nice chance to stop and chat and catch some rays. I've been passed and have passed other parties, it's sometimes delicate but doing either one cleanly is part of being an experienced climber. If you're late to go to a fire, you should have passed. If you're resting on gear you aren't ready for the grade, especially at 5.9, especially multipitch. If you want to continue in that style do OS on a weekday. I still don't think either of the parties made any serious mistakes, after all no one was hurt or killed. was it Mr. Salathe? "vi can't ve all chust klimb?"

""Most cams with machined stops can be placed passively."" but only in very specific placements, like the pocket. From BD's web site PDF instructions for the camalot note the universal NO symbol in the pic of the camalot (figure 9) in a passive tapering nut placement , and this is with the best possible cam, two axle. http://www.bdel.com/gear/camalots.php ""BAD PLACEMENTS"" ""Figure 9 shows a unit with all of the cams extended. Though the unit is strong in this position the cams are not supported securely here. The unit could twist out and the placement can fail.""

The only cam that I know of that will not invert in a fall is the camalot. It should not be placed like a nut, only like in the picture, and this is usually a pocket where the crack at the face is narrower. Tipped out cams used as chocks can't be relied on to hold a fall, they are not designed to do so. Once it's tipped out it has no cam action, just 3 or 4 small points touching. Even in a nice tapering nut placement it will almost always rotate out. Think about it, 4 small points touching, for the cam to hold each side has to have exactly the same amount of friction, if one side has a little bump in the rock it holds better and rotating on the axle even a small amount, the other side holds less the more it rotates, boom it's out. Another factor is the direction of load, if the load is not exactly perpendicular to the plane of the contact points it's going to rotate regardless of friction. Or think about it this way, it's a nut with 4 small points and a reverse taper loaded by an pivoting axle above the points.

The hardest routes in the Cascades The North Norwegian Buttress (has it even been climbed to the full summit?) If you're talking how many time it gets climbed then Eve Dearborn would maybe be a candidate, but maybe just because of conditions, with global warming it may never get climbed again. How about just adding "in winter"? Has the full N Ridge of Stuart in winter been done yet? How many times has the NE buttress of Sleese been done in winter? How about the N Norwegian Buttress in winter or Liberty Crack Free in winter? How about adding "free solo"? Don't tell me there's nothing hard in the cascades.

Good question. Rainier 2 failures before first success, 12 failures total, including 8 on one route, 3 successes Liberty Crack 4 fails before 4 straight successes Chair Peak 5 failures before 3 straight success and then the last fail Mt Alberta 4 failures Climbs that I'm happy to have nailed 1st time NE Buttress of Slesse (twice) Salathe N face of N Index in summer (solo up and down) Stuart full N ridge NW ridge Ice Cliff Glacier Adams N face of NW ridge Hood, Coleman headwall Shasta Hotlum-Wintun Ridge Assiniboine NE ridge Outer Space 8? times Drury Weeping Wall Murchison Proffessors

Michael 8-9 as is, 9-10 with a little polish, reminds me of Twight with a touch of macabre thrown in. You should have played in "meat grinder of the Christ", I would have been yelling for help before crawling through a cactus gauntlet. I've been through the masochistic nurses bit, they left me on an unpadded xray table for what seemed like hours right after I tried face skiing on asphalt from a 60mph motorcycle launch. I think they notice your a self abuser or are trying to play tough guy so they just pile on. You can't scream at them because you need their help at some point. You learn from your mistakes or you wind up dead. I finally learned to identify and avoid the circumstances that lead to accidents, luckily before dying. In this case it would be not having the descent sussed before the climb and unplanned soloing on chossy rock. It's also good to tell your story, maybe some newbies can learn without the same drastic consequences. Don't shorten your story, if anything make it longer. The mags are mostly a bunch of posers anyway, besides your published right here. Publicity and fame aren't worth it anyway and so many times lead to tragedy. I've seen so many people who've been published on a large scale and soon thereafter wind up dead. I can name at least a dozen climbers just from memory who died shortly after being widely publicized. I know in my lifetime for a couple of different reasons I've been on the cusp of being widely publicized and some trick of luck or fate has always happened to stop it. I think it has to do with your identity being given out to far too many people for your guardian angel to keep track of. One way this happens is with a photo. The Native Americans in some places instinctively avoid photos especially ones that show their eyes, it's your identity. It's also best to write things down right after they happen when they are freshest in your mind. In this case it would have been like a journal as your ordeal unfolded. A rough draft which you can then go back and polish at your leisure, but the facts are the most detailed and accurate this way. With "at least you didn’t have to cut your arm off!" people were trying to say it could have been worse, I know you were thinking, hey this is ffing bad enough.

"Were they overweight to start with?" Yes the survivors Willi Bauer and Kurt Diemberger were overweight to start with. Julie Tullis, Alan Rouse, Alfred Imitzer, Hannes Wieser and Mrowka Dobroslawa were all normal to lean to start with. "Were the missing climbers accounted for?" Not sure if all the bodies were found/recovered or not, don't think so. The best account is Diemberger's "The Endless Knot", a tragic and illuminating tale about what can happen when people tackle the 8,000 meter peaks.

"Bullshit, bullshit. Fat does NOT help you climb." Depends what your climbing. On K2 in 1986 7 climbers got trapped at the high camp on the shoulder of the Abruzzi in a late season storm with no extra food or fuel for water. The 2 that made it down alive were considerably overweight to start with. The other 5 all lean climber types died of attrition and exposure either at high camp or on descent.

Depends how much hiking/climbing your doing. I know on the Ptarmigan traverse that we spent 10 days on I ran out of food on the last day. Of course that's 60 miles and climbing about 8 or so alpine peaks. Also some fatty foods like butter or olive oil. Canned fish seemed to hit the spot also. If you plan your meals like a normal long weekend trip you'll run out of food. After about 4 days hiking/climbing you start to eat more each day. Of course if your flying in and out and not hiking much this info may not apply. Tent bound you can make a chess set out of paper and pen.

any of them (in WA) BECAUSE THEY NEVER FORM!

That's sad. Rest in peace. Where are the International Cliffs? Alpental isn't even open because of low snow. Were these guys cross country skiers or downhillers that climbed up to ski? We were at the top of the big lift almost all day and didn't see any of this. Must have been a big wind load, most of the stuff we were on had the ground cover showing through. Just goes to show you can never be too careful.

Went up to the ice near the top of the big chair lift at alpental today (wed) it was very thin but sweet. Too thin for screws so we top roped it. It's about 50ft tall with the bottom half WI3 and the top 4-5. the bottom half was thin ice over slab the top was chandeliers pillars and mushrooms with two small roofs. Never had so much fun on such an insignificant looking climb. We ran laps on different lines, you can really work on your technique when your not worried about pro. Did quite a bit of hooking, primarily at first to save the ice for multiple laps but toward the end of the day (and into night with headlamps) really noted how much energy it saves. You're all pumped out cranking a roof and you reach up and swing repeatedly to get a good stick, it's tiring, when hooking you just reach up and crank, sweet. The last headlamp pitch I think I hooked about half the placements. weather report said winter storm advisory, never saw it. It was gusting a little and a little graupel snow but no storm.

It's been below 25F for almost 9 days, mostly in the teens, according to NWAC YEEEEEE HAWWWWW, HAVE AN ICE DAY!!!!!!!!! Looks like we might "hook it up" this year

"What you may be offered in a moment all eternity will never give you back." Schiller kill your TV "To find adventure on a tame planet, the children of comfort plunge themselves into ever more bizarre escapades." Whilhelm Bittorf "I don't watch movies, I live a movie."

""I agree that wet shafts are slipperier, which is why I 'm wondering how tools can be modified (at home) inorder to negate the slipperines"" try some Xcountry ski wax, the sticky kind, works good when it's wet.

Tax return is burning a hole in the pocket. What are some opinions on one piece down suits? Was thinking about a long winter attempt on Rainier and maybe eventually Denali. Small, low body fat and starting to feel the cold with my age. The only thing I'm worried about is the down getting wet, but I guess you carry the thing to high camp and just use it on summit day.

"The secondary points are to far back. This doesn't give enough stability to the placement." I've heard that but have never noticed a problem, my arms always give out first, especially on the 500' 5's. I guess it's just perspective of never having used anything better and having got used to holding my feet still. Switchblades were a vast improvement from what I was climbing with before. " that modification looks like a cut rope waiting to happen. " I suppose, although the edge isn't that sharp, the rope would have to be under tension and/or be pinched between the edge and another object, but anything is possible. In that case a better mod would be to make small teeth on the curved surface instead of a continuous edge. FWIW the sharp edge did improve performance.

Black Diamond Switchblade crampons have one flaw. The lateral brace between the front points has a flat surface on the front of it which sometimes hinders good penetration. You have to take a die grinder or file and sharpen it. For best grip it should be sharpened at a downward angle so the sharp edge is on the bottom.

The White Spider The Endless Knot by Kurt Diemberger Fifty Favorite Climbs

"A problem for who? Climbers, thats it." ha ha. Rising sea levels threaten all low lying costal habitation. Changing weather patterns and water shortages threaten farming that feeds billions worldwide. "I just think that because we have had a few years of some warmer weather everyone wants to jump on some global warming doomsday forecast." The current warming trend has existed since the initial consumption of fossil fuels, almost 100 years. "its much too soon to predict this" disagree, and when do you suggest we start trying? "What happens if this warming trend is normal, this may be the next path the earth goes down, probably better than another ice age." What happens if it's not normal and we ignore it? "Unfortunatley we dont control this..." "it seems as though you are declaring yourself an expert and have decided that global warming is caused by humans" Petroleum reserves were formed over geological time during the Carboniferous period from 354 to 290 million years ago. Man has consumed about half of all known and predicted petroleum reserves in a period of 100 years. So a form of solar energy that was accumulated and stored over millions of years has been released in only 100 years. All the greenhouse gases and some of the heat energy accumulated over millions of years has been released in a relative nano second. "...and this is the problem people have, along with change people just cant accept it." Damn straight, people just can't give up their wasteful consumer lifestyle and their gas wasting SUV. " You might as well get over it,the earth will change, climate will change,and hopefully humans will be able to adapt quickly enough." Can you say "dieoff"? "If you want something to worry about why not worry about our water supply" Directly releated to global warming.

Tie in short to a 50m to facilitate crevasse rescue At least an ice screw each. Ice axe each, maybe one hammer. It's a dillema, maybe a straight black prophet and bring a hammer head for it. Prefer plastics but one step down would work. The key is to have bullet proof crampons. People have died on Rainier because of faulty/dull crampons. You go up in OK conditions and then the thing freezes hard once you're up, even the easy routes can become treacherous. Would never go on Rainier without an insulating jacket, prefer man made fibre. And wind jacket and zip wind pants. You've been to 12,000' on Baker but remember it's that extra couple thousand feet that's a kicker on Rainier from an aerobics and weather standpoint. Sept is getting colder, the air is thinner. The snow gets melted off the glaciers from the long hot summer then gets covered by the first snow of the season. Powder covering the crevasses can make it tricky.