Dustin_B

Very sweet indeed! where you alone? what were the snow conditions like for climbing/skiing?

I don't go because I feel I would be discriminated against because of where I'm from and my beliefs. Much like rope up.

yes, links work fine. to much to post it all here. get a better 'puter

Dru - where is D'arcy road? I assume from your comment that the website is yours. It is very helpful and nicely done, thanks.

To answer my own question....I have found 5500 feet of breakable crust in Feburary. I think I'm staying away from volcanoes in the winter (for skiing) until I become a better 'adverse conditions' skier....

awesome TR, nice work.

Remember that presidential election back in 2000? sheesh, that was a close one. we should all be thanking our lucky stars for that near miss...

I use both too.

awesome, thanks for the info guys.

Any one been up there recently? Does the upper portion get icy and wind swept like the Muir snowfield? or is the snow typically better?

I do the same thing as CBS, although I honestly don't think it is that hard to put a twist in!! Yeah, the overhand reduces the strength of the daisy by ~40%, blah, blah, blah.

Is there any easy ice climbing within 1.5 - 2 hour drive of Whistler? We're new to ice climbing so looking for WI 2-3 for leading or TR something harder. Short pitches are fine. Prefer short approach, only have one day. (I realize any ice that fits this description will probably be crowded). Any good books for the area with this kind of beta (beginner stuff)? Looking for specific routes/walls that are "in" that fit this description. How close is Lillooet to Whistler? I'm guessing that's our best chance. Thanks in advance, Dustin

Its easy to think about the perfect solution from where we all sit. I think Simon did what he thought was right and I doubt he would have cut the rope if he had thought of any other reasonable solutions. No reason for 2 people to die if that is truly the only option. That said, I'm sure there is a way that might have worked that he didn't try. Assuming the knot is tight against the belay device, he had both hands free, and he had just one extra biner, he could have clipped the spare biner to his waist loop (and possibly leg loops too) and set up a munter hitch with the slack rope (after the knot obviously). Then cut the belay loop (or try the wiggle the biner/belay device off). Of course this shock loads his shitty "anchor", possibly enough to pull him out of it. This might be the reason he didn't try something like this. Sounds like he was slipping slowly down already. Seems like only safe way to do it would be some way that transfers the load without shock loading (like Jason mentions). Don't know how much gear Simon would need for this (and if he had it) but I'd like to hear what Jason had in mind. Of course any solution assumes he has some use of frostbitten/mittened hands. (evidently Joe didn't even have use enough of his hands to tie a prusik knot, which by the way is a whole other discussion) Good discussion anyhow.

And got picked last in gym class

So you don't intend to watch Touching the Void then? Those guys were getting exercise while those who watch aren't! Also nothing like writing about getting exercise (or climbing) while others are out there doing it....

wrong; you're CBS, I'm dustin, and there's only one of me. (but I did just past wind)

Sorry for the thread drift but.... are you crazy? We went to Duckboys a couple weeks ago instead of the usual Gustavs. That food f'ing blows at Duckboys!!! Gustavs has much better food. My buddies agreed too. Now as far as beer selection goes, well Duckboys all the way!! Okay,.. back on track. Great pics!!!

They also raised cable prices $3 in January. Comcast can eat a dick!!

Oops, you're right now there are 11 viewing spray and 45 viewing all other forums.

Is there a way to monitor how many people visit the spray forum versus all other forums? For instance, I just checked and there where 18 people viewing the spray forum, while there were a total of 38 people viewing other forums. Viewing not posting. That is really how you can tell were people's true interest lies cause not every one that views a forum posts to it. People are claiming that the spray forum is the most important part of this site. Bull shit. If this were so wouldn't you expect to see well over half of all people viewing the spray forum. Has this ever been the case? To say the spray forum gets more traffic is not telling the whole story cause it's the same 20 or 30 people posting every freaking 2 minutes. I truly can't figure out why this whole issue makes people so angry that they want to just leave the site for good!! I guess spray is like climbing; to some people its just a hobby, to others their entire freaking life revolves around it.

As far as I can tell, nothing has changed. I come to this site for useful information found in all forums other than spray. I sometimes check out the spray forum to waste time at work or whatever. If someone goes missing from the spray forum, I couldn't possibly care less. They only affect the bannings have on me is if these banned people don't post useful information in the other forums that they normally would have. So if someone like Trask gets banned (or anyone who posts 99% garbage), I've lost nothing. People are acting like they are losing their first borns or something, what a bunch of pussy-assed cry babies. Get over it or get off. Or better yet, go climbing, then come tell us about it. That's the beauty of this site, you can lose 1, 2, 10, 20 people but there will still be enough people posting topics that interest me. Ban on!!

I ended up going with the Scarpa Alphas with the new thermofit liners. Got some custom footbeds and the liners heat molded last night. The verdict is still out, but just walking around indoors they felt pretty nice. Tried on the Vasque ICE 9000 at Feathered Friends and I was not at all impressed after all the hype those things have gotten. Certainly not $500 impressed. The liner seemed pretty manky.

I checked out the new BD tents in Feathered Friends the other day. Since they are basically the same as a Bibler tent with Epic instead of Todd-tex, does that imply that they are rated at 4-season tents? I know since they are epic they won't keep out really hard rain, but will they stand up to strong winds?

That's an insulting and offensive analogy.

I love my Mountainsmith bag. It is true to the advertised weight (26 ozs w/ stuff sac for size long) and packs down impressively small. It might be closer to a 35 degree bag instead of a true 30 degree bag. I was pretty cold in it one September night when it was 28-30 degrees and I was close to neked. I always wear at least a long under top when I sleep now! On Rainier last June it got down to ~27-28 degrees and I was fine. Great bag, I highly recommend it. The downside is that its spendy for a 30 degree bag, $270. You might also consider their sub two pound 15-degree version (can't remember what its called, 'vision' maybe). Depends on what you're looking for.