eternalX

No. I just want to find somebody who is also interested in doing a winter climb of rainier that feels comfortable evaluating avalanche conditions. I'd find it educational. I don't need somebody to tell me what to pack and how to get to the top.

I understand that climbing like most other things, a lot of it is experience, but often there are some good rules of thumb. I'd be interested in either reading material or anything that sticks out in your mind to focus on when you're climbing. Cheers

Nnot paying for someone to guide me up Rainier. If you're interested, great. If not, there's really no need to post.

Anybody interested in climbing Rainier sometime in the next couple of months? Preferably somebody who can effectively evaluate avalanche conditions (as I cannot).

does anyone ever carry a little funnel for loading up a bladder. i always end up spilling half my melted snow when pouring. --tim

Uhhh..you didn't like the rave/nipple scene? I thought that was hot. The new trailer on the web site is pretty crazy. tickets went on sale this morning for IMAX and it's already sold outfor friday and saturday of the opening.

So you're saying that if we're new to climbing we might be beaten to a pulp, but will get beer out of the whole thing, right?

Remember to save as a JPEG (.jpg)and not something like a TIF or otherwise uncompressed.

Rands Vegas System

Verizon and TMobile got rated best in customer service. Don't forget about the phone. Ericcsons are notorious for shitty reception. Nokias known for the opposite. AT&T has a pretty sweet new deal on a Nokia (24 bucks) that features EDGE tech, which will be the next upgrade to the network. THe phone is small with a color screen too.

coated in your own sauce? that's gross dude.

I could probably help with that. We host a system for managing, presenting, and tracking digital audio video. I'm sure i could swing an account pro-bono. Let me know if you're interested, admins.

I stand corrected. I went to VW and they do use grigris. I think their setup is much better then the Stone Gardens place for beginners. The people at VW were much more friendly as well. However, the Stone Gardens bouldering area is so much bigger. I think my roommate are going to get a family membership there. Also, I agree with the comments about starting with bouldering.

Heard about it on the short 3 mile drive to work. Couldn't figure out what was going on at first because they kept talking about the governor sealing up the space needle. THen a co-worker says something like "It's like a fucking Tom Clancy novel out there" as we walk into the building. Spent the morning refreshing The Drudge Report and talking to friends on IRC. Finally, 4 or 5 of us left work and walked across the street to the Pyramid to drown our sadness in pitchers of micro and talk about the whole thing as it blazed on the TVs above. Some people kept working. I don't know how. We have a pretty cool office, I couldn't believe they didn't just send everybody home when it happened.

I'll tell you why it blows: Let's say you've never been climbing before and you're sitting around on a rainy saturday thinking "Hrm. I want to try this rock climbing thing. I'll check out Stone Gardens." So you grab your shite, a friend, and head down to the gym. You ask what you need to do and the reply is, take a class. So great, those classes are only available at 7pm M-S and it's now 2pm. On top of that, it's 45 bucks. So much for an inexpensive way to spend the day. So you leave. Will you ever come back? Maybe. I bet a lot of people don't though. And that's a shame because until you climb a few routes, you won't understand the joy of climbing. I would think as a business owner, you'd want to get as many people in your gym as possible.

yea...you have to get instruction on how to belay, which they won't do for free, and then take a test 24 hours later. This was at Stone Gardens. In phoenix, they make you watch a 15 min DVD and then supervise the first few climbs. Afterwards, you're good to go. Seems like that would be the way to go for newbies.

Why don't they use grigris? Seems like they could get more beginners involved if they did. The whole waiting 24 hours would turn a lot of people off. Or are they just trynig to get people to sign up for a class?

How is it that I can't afford that camera with a job when you can without?

I dig it the most

All of my witnesses live in the Niagara Falls area along with all the girls I've slept with and as such you'll not be able to contact them.

Whadda they got up there, a roadblock or just some state partrol directing you around the closure? Out of work Air Mashalls are leading everyone around and checking for weapons. Actually, I think they put a few wands X-over the boot path and then there is another boot path leading to the DC route. It all worked. I didn't ask questions.

heh. Actually i was at REI to get a belay device for my buddy and a pair of boxer briefs. No more gooch prooblems for me!

Glad we started on saturday. It calmed down on saturday afternoon. Heard about the wind at Shurman and talked to some people who lost a tent and gear. Sunday's weather was awesome!

TR for Emmons Route (2 people): Arrived on friday at white river at about 3am. Slept in the car. Woke up at 8 am and we're off on the trail by 10:00 (had to get permit pack our stuff up. other member had flown in that night from phoenix and his flight was delayed until 1am). We climbed up the middle of interglacier at the bottom. I 'd stay right of the rocks and on the snow next time. Too much ice in the middle. Probably the only part of the trip that had a littel rockfall danger as some guys broke some rock loose above us. Really minor though. Just stay to the side of the rocks (duh). Roped up about halfway up the glacier. If you went right off the rocks you'd probably want to rope up at the bottom. Couple snow bridges, one is pretty sketchy, but the crack is pretty small. the bridge will be gone in a few days though. Several holes in it already. Also a few sketchy bridges once you get off the moraine onto the home strecth to Shurman. Somebody fell through the other day with no rope and almost plunged to his death according to the ranger. Luckily, his pack made him just fat enough to get stuck. Use your common sense. Again, the cracks are usually pretty small. Arrived at Shurman by 4. Left at 4:30 am for the summit (after spilling about 2 liters of water! Only had a liter each for the hike up ), whereas everyone else left at like 1am. Sun broke at about 7 and it quickly got hot. Should've started at 1! I thought we were crawling up the mountain but we made the peak by 10:45. Actually passed a few groups on the way down that started at 12:45. Total slog all the way down. Thing to note: The Emmons route now joins up with the DC route at about 13000-13500 because the top of the Emmons route is closed for the season. I think this added some distance. Back at emmons flats by 1 and took a 20 minute nap and packed up the tent. Started down at 3:40 after talking to some people and dropping some weight and back at the car by 7. All in all a great trip, but learned some good tips. 1. Start earlier from Emmons Flats (you all know this i'm sure) 2. There is water at Shurman. Don't need to melt snow. 3. You do stupid things badly when tired. I took a little digger on some ice towards the end of Interglacier. 4. Work sucks Cheers

Ya know, sometimes the purpose of asking questions is not so much to hear a formal "this is the correct answer", but rather start a debate and hear what falls out. Having asked what might seem be a very basic question (not saying it isn't) in the NEWBIE forum, I've learned about a few things I've never heard of (multiple knots in the rope AND Lone Rescuer) and what people think of them. As far as GPRS is concerned, it does no good to bring a cell phone that only supports GPRS if there is no GPRS service. Will I find that out once I'm there? Yea. Is it a horrible question to ask? Maybe. Is it hard question to answer "yes" or "no"? Apparently. Not having lived in the PNW for many years nor having many people to ask the silly questions that might be normally brought up over beers at the Wedgewood, I come here. Having said that, I will answer your question. I do not have a ton of experience. I have spent a week on the Kahani (sp?) ridge in the winter, jumping off little ridges and setting up pulleys, along with trying to climb Whitney in Dec. My only previous glacier travel was part of a 4 man team last July when we climbed Olympus. At this point I feel comfortable enough to try a mountain like Rainier with the same people. Don't hate. Spray.