catbirdseat

The post by Richard_noggin in the Bike Thieves Suck thread triggered an old memory. I used to work in a laboratory that was adjacent to a manufacturing floor. Someone on second shift had figured out a way to jimmy the door to the lab without our knowing it. At first he/she sabotaged computers and monitors with acid. I asked that a camera be installed, but when management did nothing, it got a lot worse. I was having my first cup of coffee that morning. I took a sip and this strange hot feeling swept down from the top of my head in a wave. I started to feel dizzy so I sat down. I took my sweater off. I was still losing it so I went to the floor. The next thing I knew, I was laying on the floor with people standing over me. Then I hear someone shout, "Wei is passed out at her desk!" We had been deliberately poisoned by laboratory chemicals! Wei and I spent a few hours in the hospital until our blood pressure returned to normal and were sent home. The detectives interviewed a few people, talked about lie detector tests, but basically gave up after a week or so. They never caught the culprit. He/she had put the chemical in the coffee machine the night before and when we brewed it, it went from the reservoir to the pot. More than one sip and it would have killed me. Scary shit, man.

Trish is making way too big a splash for a newbie. Who have we not seen much of lately? Where's ChrisT anyway?

I was Mark Twain who once said, "Better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to open your mouth and remove all doubt".

I e-mailed the fellow yesterday and have not heard back from him yet.

I know how it is. You're in that hut and turn in early. Then you wake up at midnight and look at your watch and then again at 1 am. You are all hyped up and ready to go my friend. Finally, you say, "screw it, let's get out of here", at 2 am. It's a long, long night.

I may be up to going back for more punishment next week on Gib Ledges if the weather cooperates and we get some more snow. It's going to have to be primo to get me out, though.

On Rainier (S. side) it is very firm wind crust, but at high elevations (above about 8,000 ft) it is drifted into sastrugi and there are exposed sections of glare ice. Muir Icefield, I mean Snowfield is a nightmare to ski right now. It needs some fresh snow, badly.

Fucking get this thread back on topic. In the climbing Forum I try to post only when I THINK I know what I'm talking about. It doesn't mean I do, but I try to be ernest. When I post to Spray, I have a much lower threshold for spewing forth uninformed opions and that is how I think it should be. So Muffy, if it's spray, feel free to ingore Dwayner if you like. You are taking him way too seriously.

Trask, since you don't mind rain, you should go climb Stilliguamish with klenke tomorrow. He always seems to plan a trip in the Verlot rainforest whenever rain is forecast.

Matt, I surprises me to hear you say that you would never trust a picket to hold a fall. I would say that it depends entirely on the snow conditions. There are many situations where they are bomber in spring and summer snow. Granted, in winter conditions, you'd want a fluke or some other protection like a tree. Daler, you said: I disagree. It cannot produce more leverage on the piece than would a sling tied directly to the same hole as the biner. Furthermore, the cable is plenty strong enough to hold when used in this fashion.

That's a really good question. Presumably the cable is for when the picket is used as a deadman anchor. If you could get the cable to bite through the snow when pounded in yes, but otherwise it would cause the picket to pull up and out. You would have to cut a slot with your pick perhaps. Maybe other more enlighted individuals could add something.

I should think that at lower latitudes you'd get ice but at higher elevations. If there are fewer mountains of the appropriate elevation, or if access is poor that would explain the lack of ice. Mt Hood get's good alpine ice, but I assume you are talking about water ice.

Congratulations. That's way cool and way scary. Sounds like a "just don't fall" type of climb. Don't know if I would have had the balls to do it. You said pickets would probably not have stopped a fall. Do you think flukes might have?

Trask, you are an old guy too. He's criticizing you and everyone who just happens to know how to use a fucking keyboard as though it doesn't matter. Well get a clue, it does matter and I'm not the first person who has been bothered by all caps or no caps.

I think it is treading on thin ice.

A question that comes to mind is why did you all start so early? In the winter when you have to do your own route finding, it is a lot easier if you can see where you are going. The only reason people start so early in the summer is to avoid falling through snow bridges softened by the sun. In winter it doesn't really warm up that much in the day, so there isn't as much reason to climb in darkness. If you're talking about Gib Ledges, you aren't coming down that way anyway, so you don't care, as long as you get past the rockfall danger while it's still cold.

Well, I think it was more like 15 degrees on the summit, but it was nice if you were in the sun.

Mark posts as marek, which I believe is the Polish version of name Mark.

Leave me out of this. Brian Burdo is a better climber than I'll ever be. I'm just a neophyte just starting to make his way.

This is the Newbies forum. I think we should save the kidding round for the Spray forum if we want this to be a useful place for beginners to come for information.

I agree with everything people have been saying. The key thing to remember is to match the pro to the snow. Large surface area for soft snow and small surface are for hard snow. A deadman takes too long to place for routine protection, but it is what you should use for crevasse rescue, unless you are on ice, in which case you'd use several equalized screws.

There is a special place in hell reserved for bike thieves. They have seats that are red hot pokers...

Marek is a very experienced and solid climber and we seemed to agree on almost all points. I can't think of one thing of importance that we disagreed on. I would not hesitate to climb with him again.

You have to jump two or three crevasses less than about two feet across. The snow is very hard. We met a solo guy named Dave and he chose to join us. Careless_Ev, is that you Dave?