DanO

I have been thinking about buying one, Pros they are light weight and made in the USA. Cons, I wonder how warmlite tents do in mountaineering conditions, and they are expensive.

My wife and I went out this weekend. Got the camper loaded and drove out as quick as we could on Friday, still it took too long and got caught in the start of the storm over the pass, still made it to leavenworth at 4:30pm. It wasn't that bad except most people want to drive too fast, all is great untill you hit the brakes!! Sat late morning we drove out Icicle road. Deep snows, nothing much around snow lakes trailhead. Drove out to the end of the Icicle road seen some ice along the way nothing great and I wonder how to park to avoid the snow plow. Parked at the end of the road and using the Mark Shipman, Kyle Flick report on www.wenatcheeoutdoors.com. I walked about 5 min up the road there I found some climber's trails heading up hill to the right. According to the report ice is only 30 min up hill. But we didn't bring snow shoes, BIG mistake after a exhausting wallow for a long time we found some small flows and I did a couple of easy leads around 2 to 3 grade. When you top out there is no ice or frozen sod so be warned. So we managed to get in a decent day, up higher there is more ice, not too far away but without snowshoes I figured a 2 two hour slog if lucky!! We were in Leavenworth before Xmas and found ice on millennium wall, I bet ice is still there. Bring snowshoes, ice can be found but you have to work for it. Dan

So from the info you guys gave me I can use a regular down bag in a snow cave, that is if I am careful. This is good as I like to save weight. I wonder if you guys have tips on building snowcaves? I have read about various ways to build one. I suppose I should go out and practice one weekend. I have been eyeing those igloo building tools for some time I think they are neat, would bring one for a denali trip. I am not planing a denali trip anytime soon. Thanks Dan

Hello, I have a down bag, I have tried the synthetic bags and found I didn't like them near as much as down for packablity and warmth. I am thinking more of using a snow cave in a emergency situation. Something like a summit attempt while carrying a shovel, stove and sleeping bag. Maybe better off carrying knothing and committing to getting down no matter what, this is what I normally do. Thinking about raineer or denali the slightly taller peaks where chances of getting caught out are slightly greater. I hate the weight and wondered if I could get away with only a sleeping bag, hence the question. By the way I use a stephenson's warmlite sleeping bag which has a built in down filled air mattress, it helps keep the bag dry bottom up as well more comfortable, like bed at home, spoiled rotten I am. Dan

Hello, I am not really a newbee, but never had to actually use a snowcave. Can one use a down sleeping bag without a cover sack? Will the bag get soaking wet and how long it will take? Thanks Dan

Well, You have had plenty of advice, my cheap rack was a set of hexs and nothing else, even led a 5.8 with them. Learned later after seeing them sliding down my rope(rope tension pulling them out) numerious times that I hated them. I gave them away. I suggest a good set of nuts then smaller tri cams, with this you can do alpine, then start building up a set of cams. I like BD's because you can buy the trigger kits for them and fix them yourself. Dan

I would consider how much you may sweat in your clothes and how much mosture you may put into your parka if you must use it on the move. The only thing that you have to dry out your clothes and keep you warm in the worst case is your sleeping bag/tent combo. I also froze my butt off with the darkstar, climbing in the north east, on mount washington etc. It is rated down to -40f degrees. I gave up on it and bought the best bag(expensive) I could find, to my knowledge. Stevenson's warmlite. It is a down bag, I had a light down belay jacket on a another trip on the washington range, got the down jacket soaking wet from body sweat. Also my clothes wet, this down bag being way over rated for the temp enabled me to dry my clothes out in about 30min but not my down belay jacket, it wouldn't dry out. Opinion, I would rather have the warmest bag possible and a good tent and not have bivy sack. The sack will hold mosture in the bag and slowly kill warmth, if your like me and sweat a lot this could kill you on a long trip. If you don't sweat then your case is different. If I used a bivy sack I wouldn't want to have to use it for too long as my sleeping bag would get wet. Note, if you need to dry out your clothes you need to move the mosture out of your skin and clothes, to the bag and then out of the bag into the air inside of the tent. Breathablity is really important, and if your dehydrated, AND frozen AND all your clothes are soaking wet. Then a extra amount of down in a breathable sleeping bag system is what you need to dry yourself out and after to get warm. Hope this helps. Dan

I would suggest trying on the La sportiva nepal extreme boots, put them on, I have them and I had my wife try on boots this summer and she decided they are the best. We went on about 5 trips and she had no blisters. I have had them for some time now with very little problem, took a 10 day trip early last summer with no blisters that I can remember of. They hike well and you can scramble with them and do vertical ice, best all around boot I know and they are comfortable out of the box with NO break in time. The final word though is what fits your feet so try on as many types you can. This will save you a lot of greif. Dan

This news is a shocker to me, I am a year older than Goran, this could be any climber on any weekend. I know we all have been above pro too far, no gear, no placements, nut fall out, etc. Still, I have a burning desire to know what went wrong if possible. I myself suspect the rope, I noticed that in the last few years that the fall forces of some newer ropes being sold are going back up from previous years, am I wrong? I also remember that Goran was a big guy, a little person may have survived, (I am a bigger guy myself close to 190 geared out) Big guys, and/or heavy packs need more pro. Take care Dan