gslater

Your blue line back up the creek toward Ingalls is correct. It'll just feel like a nasty slog back to camp after coming down Cascadian. As for routefinding on the WR itself, well, all I can say is don't bother paying too much attention to any cairns you find. They're everywhere (as are really choice bivy sites). I think there's some kind of correlation between the number of seemingly random cairns and the number of bivy sites.

Completely snow-free, and probably has been for a long time. I guess I did see a very few small patches of snow along the road last weekend. I'm sure the trail is just about completely snow-free for a long ways as well, although I haven't been up it.

Gary - You're absolutely right; it would be impossible to know how far to go without actually having the specific projector to try it on. But I doubt I could do anything that would make the apparent color WORSE than what a DLP projector would do to it anyway... ;-) Whidbey - Digital doesn't suck. Just think of it as a really handy way of getting TO the print stage, where you have something that you can keep forever. True, the digital "negatives" might not be as permanent as the analog negatives, but I don't think the JPEG format is going away any time soon.

Similar to my previous post, if the concern is the poor color saturation of a DLP projector, you can perhaps compensate by bumping up the color saturation of all the photos in Photoshop or Elements. Kind of a pain in the butt, but it should help. In Photoshop (full version, not Elements), you can probably automate the saturation adjustment process for doing a whole bunch of pics.

True. The usual culprit is a projector that uses DLP technology. If a DLP is used in the projector, it'll usually have the DLP logo splashed prominently on the outside. DLP systems tend to not be very bright, so to compensate, the color wheel used internally spends extra time projecting white light, which means there is very poor color saturation. We have all DLP projectors at work (even expensive ones), and I hate them because all my pretty Excel chart colors get washed out.

They've revealed what most climbers are actually doing when they head in to N. Cascades NP: CNN story

Oh bollocks. Because it's old doesn't mean it's poor data - I'd venture the errorbars for their measurements were less than those on the GPS receiver Over a small area, sure, but not over the range covered by a typical topo or bigger. All those little errors add up in a hurry, and the technology back in the days of yore was good, but not where it is now. Not trying to slight those who did that sort of surveying back then; my grandpa was one of them. I'm sure they did a fabulous job with what they had. But if the old methods were more precise, then why is everyone migrating to GPS-based measuring? Convenience, sure, but nobody would give up substantial precision to get it. I bet someone out there has studied this issue extensively. May have to spend some time digging around for it, as the boss is out all this week...

Elevations are indeed the least "reliable" part of the GPS system, but with a GPS receiver that does statistical averaging over lots of samples when it thinks you've stopped moving, and given sufficient time (a few minutes, at least) the GPS will be pretty damn precise. Much more precise than any decades-old survey, that's for sure. But then again, I probably wouldn't spend much time worrying about it. It's all completely debateable about how accurate (as opposed to how precise) the reference datum is. The main downside to GPS for elevation use in wilderness navigation is that its numbers are regarded by most people as absolutes, and they got sidetracked by how their GPS numbers don't match what's printed on the topo. The relative elevation differences from one point on a topo map to any other point on that map are pretty damn accurate, and that's just fine when you're using a barometric altimeter and frequently recalibrating it against the topo at known points. If you're using the GPS for your elevation data while trying to navigate using a topo, the difference in elevation numbers can be confusing.

ive had cops pull their guns on me a couple of times, and no i did not threated them or any one else, the fact is some cops are trigger happy, shit their is a video somewhere that shows a dude that was on the ground with one with one cop on top of him cuffing him hes not fighting at all and the cop on him is twice his size and another with a gun drawn. dude on the ground got shot by the cop. You don't have to threaten cops to have a gun "pulled" on you. They "pull" their guns all the time, as would you in many of the situations they are put in. Sure, some cops are probably a bit "trigger happy", but you should go for a nice urban overnight ride-along some time. It's not that hard to get to go on one, and it definitely alters your perspective. With all the hassles and career risks that cops face every time they get even remotely involved in a shooting situation, it's amazing they're willing to remove their weapons from their holsters at all.

Beef jerky time!!!

Obviously, any situation where you lose your view of a significant part of the sky (cliff, canyon, whatever) will adversely affect the ability of a GPS to accurately determine your position. But when you said "a big rock", I guess I was envisioning a standalone large rock out in the middle of somewhere, not a cliff that blocks your view of the sky. As for weather/snow/etc., I remain very confident that any modern 12 channel receiver won't have much problem determining your location.

You know you're in hipsterville when your primary music venue is named after a tire guy.

There was an article in the Oregonian a couple of years ago about a group of Nike-sponsored runners who were living in a house in Portland that was modified and equipped to create a hypobaric environment. I think it created a pressure roughly equivalent to 8,000' or so. They'd do all their training outside at essentially sea level in PDX, but "live" at an equivalent higher altitude.

Hmmmm.... I doubt that. With what kind of GPS did you have this experience?

Where in Lake O is this?

Using the REI card for business travel is the way to go... $330 dividend here.

I was wondering how long it would take until someone spoke up with this response. Turns out it took far longer than I expected...

Nice GPS track in that last photo. You should do people a favor and post the GPS coords for the entrance to Leuthold, since people sometimes have a hard time finding that when visibility is less than perfect.

Iain - When was that pic taken?

And it sucks batteries having to use the LCD for composition.

With the glacier as broken up as it is, there's definitely a risk of something coming down on you if you tried to traverse underneath. Those slabs under the glacier also looked pretty dirty and not much fun. Or maybe that's someone's idea of fun...

That's what "work" is for...

Watched the most times? For me, those would have to be the movies I refer to as the "new classic" comedies: Caddyshack (At least 80 times. My brother and I can turn the sound off and quote the whole movie) The Jerk (At least 40 times. It was my family's semi-official movie for years) Stripes (at least 30 times) Vacation (at least 30 times) Fletch (at least 30 times) Animal House (at least 30 times) Trading Places (at least 30 times) Airplane (at least 20 times) Blues Brothers (at least 20 times) Sixteen Candles (at least 20 times) Ghostbusters I & II (at least 20 times each) Ferris Bueller's Day Off (at least 15 times) Groundhog Day (at least 10 times) Planes, Trains & Automobiles (at least 10 times, and each year at Thanksgiving) A Christmas Story (at least 20 times, including each year at Xmas with my sister) Spinal Tap (at least 10 times) Waiting for Guffman (at least 10 times) Better Off Dead (at least 20 times) Austin Powers I & II (at least 10 times each) Beverly Hills Cop (at least 20 times) Zoolander (at least 20 times) Meet the Parents (at least 10 times) Dumb & Dumber (at least 10 times) There's Something About Mary (at least 10 times) The Wedding Singer (at least 10 times) Happy Gilmore / Billy Madison (probably 5 times each) Wayne's World (at least 10 times) And probably several others that I'm just forgetting. Of course, these weren't all full, sit down, beginning-to-end viewings. Lots of them were the "flipping through channels and then see that Fletch is on so I have to watch it to the end" kind of viewings.

That sounds just like the place. Little bastards...

We found a bunch of pissed-off yellow jackets at different locations this weekend on our trips into and out of Sloan. I got 6 stings at one location on the way in, and one on the way out. Another person got 6 stings at the same place I got mine. We probably totaled 25 stings total in our party.