catbirdseat

Michael, Thanks for all the hard work you've done to make this happen. I think that the winners should be submitted to one of the climbing magazines. There are some really good ones.

How do you plan to get from Camp Muir to the Carbon Glacier? You could decend to the Wonderland Trail. You could pick up a cache at White River. Or you could do a traverse of the Emmons from Muir to Camp Schurman. You could probably beg enough food off of descending climbers for Liberty Ridge . I suppose you could instead do a carry over on your Gib Ledges to Schurman too.

That's it Dru, now I've got to get me one of those multifunctional babies. BTW, BillSimpkins carries one. It is his "poor man's Camalot #4". Regarding the Munter Hitch for rappel, I would agree that it is not to be preferred but it is good to know how to use it in a pinch.

The Aztek is the ugliest SUV and the Chevy Avalanche is the ugliest pickup, followed closely by the Nissan, which reminds me of a potato bug.

Seriously, we are going to have to build more reservoirs and that is going to create a lot of conflict. Where are we going to build these reservoirs? Which verdant valleys shall we flood? To some extent, we can reduce our need for water by recycling of grey water for irrigation, and perhaps even reclaiming sewage water after tertiary treatment, but I am not sure it will be enough. When Los Angeles was faced with water shortages, they went north and took the water from the Owens Valley. Hmmm, maybe we should look north too. Those Canucks have more water than they know what to do with anyway.

Be sure to bring the special High Lift Frisbee, since the air is so thin up there. Otherwise, it would be more like throwing a discus back and forth.

I am under the impression that when it rains at Vantage, it doesn't do it for very long. Things dry out pretty quickly there.

If trask were here, you know what he'd say, "Grow a sack, Jack".

No, no, we are going to experience a "Brush Age".

We need more sharp civil servants like the guy at Longmire Inn.

I can't remember who it was on this site (mattp maybe) who showed how there are two possible ways a munter hitch can go on a biner. One way the movement of the rope loosens the locking nut, whereas the other way tightens it. It's something to think about.

Numb nuts here forgot his skins today on a trip to Yodelin. The day was salvaged when his partner pulled out some sticky kicker wax. It was still hard work getting up the hill and required quite a bit of herring boning and side stepping. The snow was pretty good up top and I had a good time.

Anyone for Vantage on Monday? Sport or trad, preferrably both.

wha'd he do? dish! It sounds more like a request than a statement of fact.

Thermarest Guide Lite 3/4. Lightest one made at the time I bought it and its still too heavy, but most times, I take it anyway.

Mountaineer Annual Climbing Notes, December 15, 1952 by Fred Beckey Castle Rock, Tumwater Canyon Few accessible rock faces can compare with the excellent granite of the sheer south face of Castle Rock, in Tumwater Canyon near Leavenworth. Ideal for spring conditioning climbs, this face has numerous routes. Usually the sport begins from "logger's ledge" about 250 feet above the road. The many climbs of a buttress here (Jello Tower) led to the eventual completion of the "Midway" route (see 1948 Mountaineer) and later the 55-foot white overhang, class six, proved to be the key to the "Devil's Delight" route followed to the summit by Fred Beckey, Pete Schoening and Wes Grande. Around the corner on the east face Schoening and Dick Widrig worked out the fifth class "Saber" route, and in 1951 Schoening and Jim Henry established the "Angel" route beginning fifty feet west of Jello Tower. Two days and a considerable number of pitons were consumed in the ascent, which included fourth, fifth and sixth class climbng. The ascent consisted first of a 50-foot traverse to the left, a vertical 30-foot pitch, a climbing traverse to the right, another vertical pitch of 40 feet and then a precipitous climbing traverse to the right to a point 80 feet above the top of Jello Tower, ending the severities. Of interest also is a new route in the river face of Tumwater Tower made by Pete Schoning and Tom Miller (class five).

That is so totally suck!

"Poach" trails mean to drive a motor cycle on a foot path?

Climbergirl33 was seen online checking this out.

Bit...ing... my...tongue...

You are probably right. I have now idea how likely the skating scenario really is. Pickets are better where that is likely.

Lummox avatar?

For the answer to the answer to your question, I direct you to Pope, Dwayner, JKassidy - Doh! they've all been banned.

I'd have to do some experimenting to see what actually worked, but I would put a "drogue" disk on a cord to limit how far the fluke plunged, and to provide a way of recovering the fluke. The danger of this concept is that if the fluke is moving and can't go any further down, it might just prefer to pull out. Another thing one might do is improve the directional stability of the fluke by putting a longitudinal fin on it. There are tales of how they can hit ice layers and "skate" in different directions. A small spike on the tip would prevent this. There has been quite a bit of information published on ice screw testing, but not much on snow pro testing. That's not to say it hasn't been done. There's probably a whole load of proprietary snow pro data out there in the files of SMC, Yates, etc.

We once put the "student body" on a fluke, ten people, and couldn't put it out. That's about 1000 lbs peak force. I think there is a great deal of misunderstanding about flukes. I also think there is a lot of room for improvement in designs.