Jake_Gano

Thanks all. Bingo. That picture is telling. I'm solid and wouldn't worry about soloing it if it was just me, but I don't think my brother has ever worn crampons before. I think I'll just throw ~100 feet of half rope and a picket in the pack. If we don't use it then "training weight" will be good for me.

I'm headed to PDX to do this with my brother who lives down there next weekend. Couple of questions: Light hikers+strap-on crampons ok? Or, phrased another way, is there any real ice climbing/front pointing? Are most folks roping up at some point? I'm solid on steep snow/ice but I'd feel like a dick if my brother got killed because I was too lazy to carry a rope.

Thanks Brandon, exactly the kind of information I was looking for. I'm meeting a friend down there to do the Lib Ridge (weather pending) or back-up plans of something on the east side. We'll probably be melting about ~3-4L/person/day some of which will be boiled.

What's the story? Does this actually help you recovery faster? I know it feels good when my muscles are sore but so does drinking three beers and nobody seems to think that aides in recovery. Everything I read on the internet is anecdotal ("I works great for me" ). Without a useful comparative analysis to a control group that doesn't really mean much to me. So is foam rolling legit, or just the latest acupuncture-type pseudo-medicine crap?

I'm headed south in July to do a 4-5 day trip with a friend where we will be melting snow each night. We decided to use his MSR Pocket Rocket instead of my white gas stove. I have no experience with canister stoves; I've always owned white gas stoves. How much fuel should we bring? I'm hoping my friend will have a good idea how much fuel we'll need... but I don't want to count on his opinion alone.

Nice

Anybody out there ever broke a plastic toe strap? My G12s are 10 or so years old. I'm not a heavy user but they do see a dozen or so days out a year.

Thanks for posting that Pup. I didn't know John as well as you or many others on here, but I always made a point of stopping in to Hyperspud when I was back in town. What the article didn't mention was the John climbed a number of first ascents of rock routes in Idaho, particularly on Lightning Dome. He had a reputation, despite being a gear shop owner, of climbing with a rack that looked like it belonged in a museum! He also had an encyclopedic knowledge of climbing routes and Hyperspud was the hub of the local climbing/outdoor scene. Way back when dinosaurs roamed the earth and MountainProject hadn't been dreamed of yet, I'd come into the shop and pick his brain and pick through the copies of hand-drawn topos behind the counter. At one time there was a collection of 80s VHS climbing tapes he'd loan out. Maybe it's still there. I donated one or two to that collection when I left town. Yeah, and he had one hell of a laugh.

John was a good one

More on Prindle: http://sethdadams.blogspot.com/2012/10/two-trips-to-prindle-sept-2012.html

I thought so too, then less than a year ago I broke a B-rated pick that had less than one season of use on it. A guy in the party ahead of us on the same route broke the handle off of his Grivel Matrix. Alpine climbing is tough on your toys! I can't really fault BD here. I've never been accused of climbing delicately, the ice was pretty thin, and I should have used T-rated picks, carried a spare, or both. I think you can run the quark w/o a hammer, if that makes any difference.

Stretch Neo Pants are great for some things. I wore mine all day yesterday doing some pretty wet ice climbing without major complaints. But for what you describe (summer alpine) there are better choices. I still prefer a very light stretch woven softshell, with cheaper and very light rain pants maybe in the pack, based on the forecast. More versatile and no need to tear up high dollar pants bushwhacking, sliding on scree slopes, etc.

What's everyone carrying for a rope on LR. I'm flying down this summer to do it with a friend. Should I use my old chopped-down half rope (8.5 by about 30m) or pony up the $ for a new 9.skinny by 60m single? How much actual belayed climbing do most parties do?

Birdland was cool. Recommend 70 meter rope. Crimson Chrysalis is good as well. We were down there in late Feb or early March and it was just cool enough to keep the Californians from gang-raping it. Be mindful of stuck ropes, and bring a headlamp up the route. We started late, topped out at nightfall, rapped the whole thing at night. One headlamp did the trick but two would have been smarter. If it's too cold or windy to climb skip the casino seen and drink beer in the Goldstrike Canyon by Lake Mead. Lots of cool hot springs and good scenery.

I know Sobo had (has?) a hard on for the South Fork. The North Fork, I don't know... Apparently I was more stingy with photos before the digital era. The only picture I can find is on the summit and doesn't show any of the sexy granite around.

I use both gauntlet and non-gauntlet style glove without a preference; how well it climbs and appropriateness for the temperature are more important. Depending on what you mean by "colder" temps, I'd disagree with Keenwesh about Punishers. I use mine for ice climbing down to about 0F, beyond that I need something warmer. For colder temps, OR's Alpine Alibi gloves are pretty immaculate. They climb almost as well as the Punishers and are much, much warmer.

In about 2006 (plus or minus a year), a friend and I climbed the Elizabeth Finger in the Black Canyon of North Fork of the Clearwater River. I first saw this granite thumb in a book of photos of the Clearwater Mountains in a gas station in Orofino. I don't recall the name of the book or author, but I have a copy somewhere. We sneaked around the "back" and climbed one pitch of 4th or easy 5th class to the summit. We didn't have time left in the weekend to try the much larger southeast face, which overlooks the North Fork of the Clearwater River. The we guessed the face was about 5 pitches high, and consisted of highly knobby, slabby, highly featured granite. We asked around and no one had heard of this feature (including JC at Hyperspud who has done about as much climbing in the region as anyone), so we presume we made the first ascent. I'm posting on here because I'm not in the area any more, and I doubt I'm going to make it back that way to back the bigger face any time soon. I hope that someone else can get back there and put up quality routes on the Finger or any number of other granite outcroppings in the area that could yield multi-pitch routes. Also, if there is any other climbing history in the area, I hope to hear about it. The road in the photo is Black Canyon Road, off of 250 east-northeast of Orofino. It's a long drive. Maybe I'll find some photos of the climb scan them in. This was an era when dinosaurs roamed the earth and I didn't own a digital camera.

Killer report, looks cold! We did some very tenuous drytooling around the P3 snow mushroom later in the year. Pretty much everyone was aiding around it. I'd heard a soloist climbed the snow mushroom the week before us.

Just a guess... Mount George, AK/Yukon border?

Durability of primaloft and other synthetics is mostly a concern for sleeping bags. Repeated stuffing and such. A lightweight synthetic jacket is one of the handiest pieces of clothing you can buy. I wear mine almost year round, and go through one about every other year. The outer shell, or more ofter zippers, seems to go long before the insulation.

I'm planning on being in Germany next September and was planning on popping down to the Austria or northern Italy with my wife. I'd like to do some hike-up or scrambling peaks. Any suggestions? Also, we're thinking of doing a hut-to-hut backpacking trips (around 4-5 days). Are there any hut-to-hut trips with good mountain scrambles along the way?

Also, I walked back to Cooper in pretty cold weather and still saw lots of water running down it - it's a pretty high volume flow. FYI

North Idaho has a handful of climbs around CDA and Sandpoint. Never climbed at Banks but it's probably better than anything in North Idaho. I remember some climb just north of CDA on the east side of the highway near some an amusement park. There are a handful near Sandpoint (don't remember names or details) and Cooper Falls which isn't hard to find info about with a google search. Best bet - keep driving east until you hit Montana.

I think Smiley's got bought out by Omega Pacific. OP made screws for a while that looked a lot like the old Smiley's screws.

What's the best guidebook for Squamish? The Marc Bourdon book on Amazon is over $80... what's up with that? Is there a better book?