Dustin_B

leave the wands at home. they aren't necessary on the DC in July.

Keep looking - I don't do 2-man glacier travel (so far). We carry a second rope all day for a 3 or 4 man team. My buddy did a two-man team with some random idiot, other guy didn't watch the tension, rope draped down into a crevasse, got mega snagged, had to cut the rope. Trip = over. Extra rope might have been nice. Super random, but happened. okay, I'll keep my eye out for it...

I did so now I take out my "on routes like the DC" and my statement still stands. I don't know any 2 person rope teams that carry a second rope for standard glacier travel.

No offense here, but I don't know any 2 person rope teams that carry a second rope for a route like the DC. What would you do with the second rope? (rescue situations?)

Most people use a 30-35 meter rope on Rainier (for a rope team of 2-4 people). If you know what you are doing (i.e. that you do not need 50+ feet of rope between people and in fact this is quite unsafe, slower, and not necessary) then a 30 meter rope is quite reasonable and preferable for Rainier and other glaciers in the lower 48. (this does not mean that if you don't know what you are doing then you should go with a 50-m rope....) The diameter is an all together different issue. 8mm is on the thin side, but not unheard of. I for one like a slightly thicker diameter rope for Rainier (and other glaciers), but if I'm sure plenty of people use an 8mm rope safely.

was up on July 29-31. snow starts just past sch. meadows (~3500ft) but trail is easy to find and follow. (mostly) snow free switchbacks up ridge to Moro. meadows then easy to find the railroad grade. no problems staying on the trail/bootpack and then railroad grade trail is snow free (mostly). good camping between 5500 and 6500 near rocks and toilet boxes, or you could go higher of course and camp on the easton proper. easy route finding (follow the boot pack or your heart, its all easy) up the easton. no sketchy bridges until around ~9000-9300 ft. where there are a couple of 's' turns over hollow feeling bridges. in a week or so you'd probably want to go slightly climbers left and head straight for sherman crater notch. roman wall was super sugary, punchy snow. should/hopefully consolidate with time. hope this helps.

awesome, thanks!

Sold

Thanks Jon. I see nothing in the upper right hand corner of the gallery main page other then an ad, but your link worked fine. guess I'm either blind or stupid but at least I found a way to deal with it....

okay, I've done this like 50 times before but for the life of me I can't figure out how to post a picture to the gallery!? I can't find an 'upload a photo' link anywhere. can somebody help me out? thanks.

Anyone know how close to the trailhead you can get for Sulphide approach. Road conditions as of 6/1 on the national forest site say for forest road 1152/1152014 "inaccessible, drivable 5.2 miles then snow". By this weekend that will be a bit more melted out so I'm wondering how much walking we'll be doing. Thanks.

A rope was left at Alphabet Rock in the Icicle on Sunday night (October 3rd). We were there an hour after the last group left (dark) and no one came back for it so we decided to take it as we figured it would have a better chance of being reunited with its owner via the interweb. (our thinking was it was Sunday night and the group would have been heading back home and not realized it was missing until they were already home and wouldn't be coming back for it). Describe it and I'll find a way to reunite you with it. (are there any other websites I should post this?) Thanks.

Ahem..... that user name is taken.....

Darrington area?

We found a helmet at the Icicle Buttress pull off just off Icicle Creek road on Monday (April 26th) about 4 PM. You tell me brand, color, condition, decals, etc and we'll find a way to reunite you with it. Otherwise, I'm keeping it!

thanks for the input. sounds like my 5mm pro cord is a little on the wimpy side.... guess I need to bump up to 6 or 7mm!

So what do you think of using 5mm Mammut Pro Cord as a cordelette? My current cordelette is 5mm spectra (and still stiff as hell after 4 years of use). 5mm Pro Cord is rated to 5.5 kN. Can't remember what the breaking strength of spectra is. Thanks for your insights.

I bought a pair of G3 Rapid Transits last Jan (2008). About late july I noticed both skis were delaminating on the outside edge of the ski (they are asymmetrical so I always have the right one on the right foot) right at the center of the binding. Same place on both skis, right where the colored topsheet meets the white sidewall. I can see the fibers of the wood through the slit! Anyone else had an issue with their new G3s delaming? Only 6 months after I bought them too. They were on about their 100th day of skiing, but still I think this has got to be a manufacting defect and should be covered under warranty. No major side impacts or anything to suggest I could possible cause this.

you're joking right? this has got to be a troll. I've never had a lid retaining strap break and I often hang a nalgene off my harness on climbs (but I do only use the 1/2-liter size and it is the soft type of nalgene). How many people have actually had a lid retaining strap break while it was hanging off your harness? you are much more likely to kill your partner by dislodging a rock or dropping a big cam on them. If its "un-cool" to clip your nalgene to your harness I guess I haven't really lost any ground.....

I've been riding a pair of Rapid Transits for the past couple of months (~50 ski days) and I love them. For a fat ski they handle groomers really well (thanks to the asymmetric shape) and are easy to get on edge. You can make tight turns or big GS turns with them. I manage to get them to chatter at high speeds on icy runs fairly consistently, but I think part of that is my technique (so I've been told). I demoed the Reverends before I bought the RTs and really liked those as well, but I thought the RTs would do a bit better on the groomers and be a better all around (on and off piste) fat ski. I love the RTs in the powder and crud. I'd buy them again. I believe G3 is selling all there skis (are were) for 40% off for some reason or another. They started that about 3 weeks after I picked mine up :-(

Hey Brian, sorry to hear about your situation. But welcome to CA! I'm currently living in Mammoth Lakes (just north of Bishop) for the winter so if you are every up this way, drop me a line. I'll be here until early April and then again next winter (in all likelyhood). Take care and I hope you enjoy your new job. Hopefully we can hook up for some climbing adventures at some point. Dustin

Hmmmm....... 45, 50, 55 days. Not really sure. More or less riding every day since mid November. (sheepishly they have all been inbounds)

I'll be another to say that $150/month is a total bargain for what you get: personal training from awesome people in a really cool group environment. Seriously, its a bargain. Try to find any other gym where you can get as much personal training as you want for that amount. You can't. PS - Kool-aid is not in the zone.

Anyone know what mountain this is? All I know is its probably from the north cascades. Thanks.

Cool. Thanks for all the good info guys. I don't have the required certs, and I didn't ski much last season (only late spring) as I was out of the country, but patrolling definitely sounds like something I'd be interested in and that would be a good fit for me. I may try to be a liftie for a couple months and then try out for ski patrol. Again thanks.