tshimko

Have I got the name right for the traverse from Eldorado to hwy 20 via Dorado Needle, Perdition Pk, Backbone ridge, Newhalem Pks, Isolation Pk, Snowfield, Paul Bunyan's Stump, Pinnacle, Pyramid? Nothing came up for a search on that name. Any help?

Likewise on Skagway....tourons!!!! I've spent time in Haines as well, and there is good alpine climbing nearby, but across the water, either across the Chilkat inlet west, or across the Chilkoot side east. Bring your kayak. North of town there are alpine peaks that don't require a kayak, but are a ways in. One can get a ski plane to take you into real wilderness for not incredibly lot. Watch for brown bears, I've come across them. There's a peak north of Haines, in BC, just north of the border, cannot remember the name, by a lake acessable from the hwy, has a good looking N Ridge (steep snow and ice) and a roughly west ridge (rock) that looked interesting (it's south of Mt Riley). A canoe would get you to the base of either.

Steve I grew up in NE Ohio (Eastlake, in fact just returned from there today (Dad died the day after christmas)), and moved out to the NW in 1985. It's true that the Puget Sound is not the scene of industrial manufacture that NE Ohio is. I was a chemist, found work out here anyway, but my experiences with the outdoors (climbing, long distance hiking) began my journey away from that kind of work (industrial)....it just took up too much time that could be use being in the outdoors. I eventually bailed from the traditional path that engineers and scientists often follow, I went to part time work, got fired (it's worth getting fired at least once in your life), I taught college chemistry, briefly took a chemical consulting position (part time while teaching), ultimately, as I was driving up to Seattle one day (from Oly) to that work, turned off I-5 at Dupont, went back south, called my employer, told them "last week was the last week", found work in product development, technology development, materials development with Cascade Designs (you know, Thermarest and all that), and have now come to being self-employed doing light construction, home repair, seismic retrofitting of older homes. Gives me more time for adventures in the outdoors. Only regret is that I did not jump off the traditional track sooner. I guess the message is that, at least for me, the PNW was a place that was conducive for me to find less traditional ways to live, to make my life more congruent...work, play, life... it's become much more connected. There are lots of climbers out here, you'll be able to find people to climb with, no matter what your ability or style. And, yes, the "local" climbing is way better than anything you will find in Cleveland.

that's the best/funniest thing I've seen on this site today

See what I'm talking about? Warlord. exactly!!! and i don't want to see any posts about how you don't know why you're getting edited/deleted/banned...it's all there in black and white. i'm downright vicious and arbitrary in my wrath so no more nonsense on spray

Think wool Specifically SmartWool slightly thicker liners sox in merino wool keep your feet comfortable, warm or cold, wet or dry, they don't compress down after a couple days use. AND they don't stink like synthetics. Somehow these sox can be worn for days of hard travel without smelling bad. I use a variety of thicknesses of Smartwool sox as the outer sox as well for all the same reasons. Synthetics will have to go a long way in advancing the technology to have me abandon SmartWool.

Nansen's story is right up with my all time favorites. The story of two men having made a Farthest North and then taking more than a year to get back to civilization is incredible. Wintering over in a cave-like shelter made from stones. The Long Walk as well. Here are a few more really good reads of truly great epics In the Land of White Death...Valerian Albanov was the navigator on board a Russian ship attempting the Northeast Passage in 1912. After a year and a half stuck in the polar ice, his observations showed that the ship was drifting north, and that it was likely that they'd never survive (and Nansen's theory about drifting out of the polar ice was still unknown and unproven). Albanov obtained permission to leave the ship; he built sledges and kayaks and about half the crew (13 plus himself) elected to join him. After an incredible time of sledging on the ice pack followed by difficult travel on mixed ice/water and then iceberg filled water as they got further south, eventually 8 of them made it to the northern end of Franz Josef land. Four chose to work their way on land, meeting up at the end of the days with the other 4 (including Albanov) who stayed in the kayaks. Eventually the four on land did not show up at the end of one day, and a search found nothing. The remaining four on two kayaks got separated in heavy weather, and finally only Albanov and his partner get to a camp occasionally used by whalers at Cape Flora at the southern end of Franz Joseph land. Adrift by Callahan (sp?). Solo sailing a small boat west from southern Europe, he is hit at night by a larger boat or a whale (he was never sure). He manages to get a survival raft and some supplies together and then that's it. Repeatedly hammered by storms, surrounded by sharks, nearly run over by a container ship that never saw him (he saw several such ships in his 89 day epic), continually having to patch leaks, obtain water from solar stills, food from fish, he kept it together for 89 days until he ran into some fisherman in the Caribbean. The tenacity of this guy to survive rivals Joe Simpson's efforts in Touching the Void. Mawson's Will, another great story of artic survival.

Speaking of Dee Molenaar, have run into him any number of times in Tacoma, once saw his slides from his 1953 K2 climb....absolute slices of history. His artwork and mapwork are incredible. And as others have mentioned, he is a great person from the old school. Used to work at Cascade Designs, once saw this old guy in the conference room, kinda looked like Fred, so I walked in and sure enough it was, he was there to scam some free gear for some adventure. Had a chance to talk with him, completely forgot that I had a copy of the green CAG sitting on my desk, could have nabbed an autograph. CD was a great place to work; how many others have run into FB at work. Spoke with Carlos Buehler about poles, once called LaSportiva to get some technical info on an alpine boot, spoke with a tech rep, who asked me what kind of climbing I was planning with the boot...eventually found out she was Bobbi Bensman, she was surprised I had heard of her Met most of the staff writers for R&I, Climbing, Backpacker. Perhaps the best was that I had a chance to work with Jim Lea, a great man, inventor of the Thermarest, and founder of Cascade Designs. Also worked with Bill Forrest at CD. And worked with many other great people at Cascade Designs who you will probably never know. Had dinner with Scott Fischer and his wife in the late fall of 1995; ran into Dave Roberts and Jon Krakauer (together!) and had a short conversation. Saw Brad Washburn and his wife in Tacoma Library, had a short conversation. Met Eric (what's his name?) the founder of Marmot, although he was the CEO of SweetWater at the time, when CD purchased Sweetwater. Had some eventual confrontations with him when myself and a co-worker discovered that the viral portion of the SweetWater product (ViralGuard) did not work. What was his name...I can picture the face.... First met Mike Gauthier after my friends and I had climbed the Nisqually Icefall in Feb, he had come up the Gib ledges that day...later we spoke in the ranger office at paradise, as we came down after the gate was locked. Have run into Mike many more times since on Rainier summit, at Muir, at slide shows of his, etc; I invited him to come speak about climbing the more interesting routes on rainier at one of our classes (he came!). He tells me he was in the same basic climbing class as myself, in Tacoma, way back when he was a smart-ass teenager (ohmigod!!??...I've let it out that I'm a Mountie...Oh well). Have met Wolf Bauer, Stimson Bullit, Stella Degenhardt (wife of William Degenhardt). This past summer on a peak in the north cascades, opened a summit register, found a few pieces of paper, including one from the first ascent in 1939, with names that I recognized, plus the second ascent party, and the third, all of which I had read about, and everbody else who had climbed that peak (there weren't that many). THAT was a brush with greatness!! I had held a small piece of history that day. Didn't actually count, but we were maybe the 25th-30th party to have climbed that peak. It's interesting to recall how much my experience of mountaineering and working in the outdoor products industry has led me to meet so many interesting people.

Thanks for the info. It's good to know how bad that area got hit, and leaves something to watch for as repairs are made next year. I've got climbing plans in there next year, so hope they can patch it together at least to mp 20.

Dru, having done maybe 8 unplanned bivies, and many planned, I'd say that you have it just right. Some thing I learned about unplanned bivies, which sort of applies to planned as well, is that the more time you spend preparing your bivy site, the less time you have to spend in it.

Anyone know if the seracs on the lower coleman are melted out yet.

As mentioned, the snow gully is down-climb-able until the snow melts out seriously. I've done it twice. Also, the rock gully that is immediately to the west of it can be rappelled with a single rope, quite obvious. An alternate if there is too much traffic in the snow gully. To get to it, descend from the notch, continue straight down instead of heading east (left) to get to the snow gully.

For the record, I'm the same guy that danielpatricksmith ran into recently. The testing failures of the Sweetwater and PUR products refers only to the ability of the iodinated resin to deal with virus. The Sweetwater filter is quite effective when dealing with the larger microorganisms such as bacteria and the cysts (Giardia et al). DPS's statement about the PUR iodinated resin products not having enough residence time is dead on. Same for theold Sweetwater viral product Previous statements about PUR's claims as to not clogging also extend to them not being as effective as they should be against bacteria and Giardia in the long run. BTW, my having left Cascade had nothing to do with the filter product. The Current Cascade product, the same old Sweetwater filter, is very effective against bacteria and Giardia (et al) and the viral product, called ViralStop is very effective against virus. I know....I developed the ViralStop. If I was to recommend a filter product, the Sweetwater and MSR products are the best out there, both in terms of microbiological effectiveness, and in terms of field maintainability. And I say that based on objective criteria, not because I used to work there. A tech tip for owners of these filters...if you pump a lot of "tea colored" water, eventually you'll come to a point where the normal cleaning will not restore flow. Unlike "dirt", the organics in the brown water (and even in clear water as well) penetrate deeper into the filter media, and are not easily cleaned like "dirt", which tends to remain on the surface of the filter media. To clean organics, add about 2 ounces of bleach (no soap, no scent, no anything else...) to a liter of water (more is NOT better), and pump the dilute bleach throught the filter slowly, and then leave the the last bit of dilute bleach in the filter overnight. Flush with clean water the next day (3-5 liters). Will be almost as good as new. DPS...chlorine dioxide is not all that the product is claimed to be. I'd stick with iodine, my homemade version which delives 8-10 milligrams of iodine per drop. One drop/liter. Also, I'd be interested in your data on Giardia in streams...where, how much, you know, all that good data stuff.

Interesting article at the beginning of the thread. And yes, personal hygeine is important in prevention. Note the lack of actual Giardia data in backcountry (i.e. many miles from the trailhead) streams...there's a reason for that. The amount of water needed to be filtered and analyzed in order to determine a decent Giardai count is in the 100's of liters. So sampling needs to be done in the backcountry (or try packing 100's of liters from each stream out to your mobile lab at the trailhead!!). Processing the 100's of liters in the backcountry requires more than a few pounds of equipment that you need to drag up that trail to that backcountry stream, also quite impractical. Thus not much actual data on Giardai in the type of water sources climbers in the backcountry. If you'll note, almost all such data comes from streams you can drive to, not the ones you and I use when we are out in the Cascades or Olympics, or Sierras for that matter. Is there Giardia in streams in the high backcountry? Probably. Does anyone really know if there is enough to cause people to get sick? Nope. Tad has his info on the PUR products a bit wrong. PUR was manufactured by a company called Recovery Engineering (an industrial filter manufacturer) out of Minnesota, and was bought by Proctor and Gamble, a few years ago. P&G wanted the PUR brandname for home filtration products. When the whole deal with problems related to the use of iodinated resins came up (more on that in a minute), P&G bumbled around for a while thinking it was an easy problem to solve (it isn't...I know, I've tried), but eventually sold the backpacking filter line to Katadyn, with the proviso that Katadyn lose the PUR tradename within a year (P&G wanted the PUR tradname for the home filtration business). So the old PUR products are still out there, just not called PUR any more. I used to work on water filters for Cascade Designs, maker of Sweetwater filters. I was behind Cascade's withdrawal of the ViralGuard product (the iodinated resin portion of the product, not the mechanical filter part). I also developed the current Sweetwater purifier product, called ViralStop (if I remember the name correctly). Iodinated resins (or other chemicals) are used to deal with virus (like polio) which are orders of magnitude smaller than bacteria (like e.coli), which in turn are orders of magnitude smaller than Giardia cysts, in turn somewhat smaller than the active Giardai microorganism. It's relatively easy to filter out Giardia and even bacteria, nearly impossible (at practical flow rates) to remove virus. Thus virus are dealt with chemically. The iodinated resins as used by Sweetwater, and PUR, and frankly everybody else, don't work as well as they are required to, in order to prevent viral contamination. PUR (P&G) tried to get more contact time with the resin by pumping slowly, and double passing. It never really worked. For virus that is. Not sure if the makers of the old PUR products ever admitted that. Other stuff for those who care: --Virus in backcountry water is generally not a problem. --While backcountry water does contain some animal virus, virus is generally species specific, so animal virus is not a problem. Although what with mad cow, west nile and a few others, those generall accepted lines are being crossed. -- Some sources tell you to boil water for 10 minutes. That's bogus. As the original article mentions, one minute at 170 F (about 75C) will inactivate all pathogens, and thus just bringing water to a boil will be more than sufficient. Even at altitude (bp of water, 100 C at sea level, drops almost exactly 1 degree C for every 1000 feet of elevation gain). Me? I carry a very small dropper bottle with a solution of pure crystalline iodine in alcohol such that 1 drop contains 8-10 milligrams of iodine. Make it myself. One drop per liter and 30 minutes. Never been sick from water. Carbonation kills pathogens given enough time!!

There's something about the conscious act of tying in with a figure 8 that appeals to me. I know someone who was handed a figure 8 on the end of a toprope, clipped it to their locking biner, and at the top of the pitch, leaned back to be lowered, and fell to the ground. Unfortunately the locking biner was on their gear loop.

Great view of S Cascade Glacier from LeConte. Sentinel and Old Guard are easy too. I've done the bivy bag, but a tent is nice if weather looks iffy. I'll be in there in mid Aug, will do a N side route on Formidable (btw the view of formidable just after traversing the red ledge gets my vote for one of the best in the N Cascades) and N side of Sinister (well, and Dome again I guess....nice short easy but quite airy traverse out to its summit).

Like they said, it depends... on the route on your abilities I've only done the W Ridge and the NW face of the N Ridge, both with boots only. And I'm not all that incredible of a climber. Regarding bivis, there's always something...some near the summit just below on the W Ridge, and plenty of opportunity at the notch at the base of the W Ridge...plenty of room at the top of the NW face of N Ridge

This is the best piece of writing I have seen on this site. Original?? If so to you dru

I hear that people are using a double overhand knot to tie two ropes together for rappels. Anyone know of good testing results on this knot compared to other commonly used knots like the double fisherman's?