catbirdseat

Speaking of which, Tvash and I ran into Brian M. and his partner Matt on the road as we were hiking out. They had huge packs on and said they were heading in to do Ice Cliff on Saturday and the Stuart Glacier Couloir on Sunday, an ambitious plan. They were to be joined by Pochi and another climber for the latter. I wonder how they fared. Weather in the Icicle was drizzly on Saturday, but pretty good on Sunday. We could only assume the huge packs were part of training for their upcoming Alaska trip. Okay Brian, let us see a TR, successful or not.

That stream crossing sure looked chilly. Brrrrr.

I'll bet you are right. I know two people who have gotten speeding tickets on Icicle Canyon road.

Roan Wall? Never heard of it. Is it in Rattle and Slime?

It appears that the summit block has somewhat less snow than it did when we climbed the route last year. Same postholing in the couloir though.

How dreadful. When the cat heard it it started yowling in a most pitiable manner. The parrot started squawking.

Some of the new stopper designs such as those by DMM and Metolius seem to work better than the traditional designs offered by Black Diamond, or Wild Country. For example, the Metolius nuts work way better in flared cracks.

The crocs would get indigestion.

We weren't barbecuing steaks.

She's hardcore. I recently did my part by using recycled toilet paper to start a cooking fire.

Rockclimbing.com has ad nauseum threads on the topic. Check it out and return if you still have questions.

Again as Twight might say, "it doesn't have to be fun to be fun".

It started to feel like "failing upwards" at one point, but recovery brought new hope.

I thought that it is impossible to give consent to someone over 21 years old if one is under the age of 18.

See!? Did I tell you? Knots are SOOOOO important.

I already have the guidebook, so I definitely will go check it out soon.

Tvash forgot to add that at 2:30 am on Thursday morning I heard the voices of two persons walking past our camp. We never spotted their foot prints on the way to the couloirs, so we assumed they must have been headed for Colchuck. The most direct route to Colchuck doesn't go all that near our camp site, but either they were following our footprints on the lake, or else the sound just carried a long ways over the flat surface. Since it snowed that night, we never did see their footprints on our way out. About the road, we noted that it had been cleared and bladed as far as the big mud slide. One must assume that workers will tackle that this week. Once that is clear the few shallow patches of snow will have melted or been bladed off and road should open.

I don't think so. The only other time it has happened were in windy, cold conditions with high level of exertion.

Oly those are possibly the lamest jokes I have ever seen.

Damned if that hasn't been said before.

I crashed all right, but it wasn't high altitude sickness. I know what that feels like. AS feels like your head is trying to cave in. This feels like electricity is been jolting through your arms. Again, putting on the balaclava really helped a lot.

I am surprised to hear people make such statements. So there is a bit of third class downclimbing. That's why we call it CLIMBING. It's all part of the challenge.

A friend of mine spoke to two climbers today near Bridge Creek Campground. They had made an attempt on Triple Couloirs today but retreated from the first couloir after they heard "whumping" sounds in the snow and feared avalanche. We heard no such sounds only two days earlier. Temperatures have warmed slightly but who would have thought? Could the two inches of snow Thursday night have affected the route that much?

When you are sinking screws into old wood you need to drill a full-depth pilot hole that is just smaller than the threads. You'll find the screw goes in much more easily and it will hold just fine.

The dive reflex theory is interesting, but I thought that was a response to sudden cold on the head and neck? I ate as soon as I felt symptoms and put the jacket on one pitch or about 45 min later. The balaclava was added at the belay after that. That was where I really started to feel a lot better.