catbirdseat

Stefan, I hope everyone got their chance to break trail!

Sorry to say, but it is expensive unless you get generic. Price varies a lot. http://www.zithromax-us.us/ $108 for 6 - 250 mg brand name tablets http://aclepsa.com/zithromax.shtml?ref=bowfrommi $27 for 6 - 250 mg generic tablets

I love the way bright orange and red webbing looks on trees. It's so much more festive than drab old chains, especially those boring anchors that try to match the color of the rock.

Tell Fred that he should go on Zithromax (azithromycin)for that bronchitis. It's related to erythromycin but has typically fewer gastroinstinal side effects and you only have to take one pill a day. Often only three days of treatment will do the trick.

No carpel tunnel problems now, but I did tweak my left right finger bouldering about 4 weeks ago. It has almost healed completely. I forgot to ask Jens why he recommends never taping fingers. That is not what the experts recommend.

It appears that she was the only person to summit all winter. Hannah = Rainier Winter Climbing 2006

Are we talking about Public Policy or Individual initiative here? If you want to talk about the former and how legislation could make a difference, I'll tell you how. I've said this before. If the insurance industry were forced to provide liability insurance to individuals rather than vehicles, people could afford to own more cars. They could afford to have the F350 for hauling steer manure or the jetskis on the weekend and a hybrid car to get to work during the week. It shouldn't cost twice as much to insure two cars that belong to one person. Yes, they give "multicar discounts", but they are trivial. The most efficient transportation cars get on average about three times the mileage as the least efficient. This could have a huge effect on CO2 emissions.

Saturday was six hours in whiteout conditions to Muir Hut. Out of six people in the hut only two made the attempt on Sunday. Pochi said they made it not quite to the top of the Cowlitz before they turned around. They were post-holing badly and it was blowing like stink. She said she'd write a TR.

DMM Revolver, 44 grams Petzl Ultralight Pulley Plus BD Oval Wiregate 10 + 45 = 55 grams CMI Blue Pulley Plus BD Neutrino 50 + 37 = 87 grams I just bought a Revolver. I'll report back after I've tried it for crevasse rescue. Divot reported that it didn't work, because it was an "unstable platform", whatever that means. An experienced friend of mine says he likes to use the standard blue pulley for the self-tending prussik end and the revolver on the resettable prussik in a Z-Pulley set-up. I would expect that the Revolver would have somewhat more friction than the Blue Pulley, but since it (the pulley component) is rated at 11 kN and the BP is rated at 20 kN, the two must be used as described.

What!?! It will never replace the mighty Chair Peak! Never!

That's great news!

Global Warming is essentially the same as the Tragedy of the Commons. Substitute the global environment for a common sheep pasture. No one has an incentive to do anything because there is no way to get everyone to comply.

Sounds like a really strong effort. Thanks for the report.

Right on, brother. I got mine too, modest though it may have been.

The McClellan Butte trail runs northwest on the Iron Horse Trail for 0.4 mile, crossing Alice Creek, before leaving the IHT (turning left) and running parallel to the creek. After about 3/4 miles the trail crosses another road. Turn left and follow this road another half mile until it crosses Alice Creek. Immediately after the crossing, there should be a logging road branching to the right. It goes east for half a mile before it switches back to the SW and eventually ends about 150 ft above the south fork of Alice Creek. From here you would schwack west to the base of Kent.

Gary, I think that I have figured out how you got off track on the approach. There are two railroad grades. The first one is the John Wayne Trail. There is a second one that might have been a logging railroad(?). That one is the one where you should have left the trail and run along it to just past Alice Creek to pick up a logging road that parallels the creek.

Below the col, it only showed scant evidence of suface sloughing, but further to the east below the cliff bands there was more significant avalanche activity in the chutes, some of which might have occurred while we were on the route. By the time we crossed them, the sun was low in the sky and things were setting up hard again.

For you history buffs, I have something to add. We spotted some old iron artifacts lying discarded in the woods near Alice Creek not far below an old railroad grade. One of the pieces appears to be a firebox of some kind. The other, is round and quite heavy. Cast into it is the inscription Hutchinson, San Francisco, 1883. Does anybody know what these objects are about? I can only guess that they were either part of a locomotive or steam donkey or possibly some sort of machine used in the construction of the railway.

Pochi and friends were up there with plans to climb Gib Ledges. I haven't yet heard how that went.

Lay-backs. Doh, I forgot, that's not really a technique!

You gotta be kidding!

Climb: McClellan Butte- NE Couloir Date of Climb: 3/19/2006 Trip Report: On the last day of winter, Kevork, Atsuko, Bill and I decided to climb McClellan Butte by the NE Couloir last reported by Toast in 2004. We talked about trying the Exit 38 approach used by the skiers last week, but decided to go with the trail at Exit 42, because Bill had been that way five years before. We left the trail at about 3,500 ft, traversing right NW through trees a short distance to the couloir. We found the couloir full of unconsolidated snow from last week. There was about 18-24 inches of new on top of a harder layer. Climbing up this was pure drudgery. I was at one point in favor of bailing, at which point Kevork pointed out that "it doesn't have to be fun to be fun", using the not so immortal words of Mark Twight. I replied, "well this IS winter climbing", and we trudged onward, sometimes in boots and sometimes in snowshoes. The snow became somewhat firmer as we climbed and near the top of the couloir we began to penetrate to a much harder layer beneath. Kevork did a wonderful job of breaking trail almost the entire way. The guy is an animal. I hate so see what he's like when he is in shape! We roped up for the pitch of mixed climbing at the top of the couloir, placing a fluke and a crappy stubby ice screw as well as tying off two trees. Our route was on the left side of the summit. I used a lost arrow and a #9 hex to build an anchor. The summit had a nice view of the NF of Kent Mountain, which Gary_Yngve had recently reported on. It looked nice. Our decent was down the south ridge per Toast (roped-two pickets) to a col then down the east face to about 4,100. We picked up a nice snowshoe trail that quickly took us back to our departure point. Sorry no pictures. No one remembered to bring a camera. Gear Notes: Used 1 fluke, 2 pickets, 1 #5 LA, 1 #9 hex, slings for trees, crampons, 2 tools

Accomplishments like this don't come every day. In case you haven't read it already:

No, but can I interest you in some Beanie Babies in excellent condition?

Hey you don't have to be Zack Hoyt to get out and enjoy some winter climbing in the Cascades.