cracked

What crampons? The snow was soft enough that I imagine vertical points would be dicey. Though I did notice some tracks of rigid, cookie-cutter 'poons on the approach.

Excellent TR. Are any photos coming?

The alpine god MFT says you must eat more. Preferably glucose polymers. So if you don't wear goretex, don'e carry/use gear, and try to go fast and Xtreeeeem, you MUST eat GU. They might even sponsor you if you spray enough.

If you don't like a particular group of people, why socialize with them? And you must know that climbers have historically been perfectly normal, homogeneous folk who are anything but weird.

Yeah, man, sucks to be you.

Second what Lambone said. It seemed pretty cold. The hard snow created easy climbing, but since the crust had powder 6 inches beneath it, much of it was unprotectable. Still, we had quite some fun.

I was debating whether to take my Arc'teryx or the orange pack. In the end I decided on the orange, as everyone knows me for that pack.

Me and Eric8 did the NE buttress today. We wanted to beat the crowds, so we arrived at the trailhead at 4 (am). We then proceeded to lose the entirely obvious, essentially paved track and wander around in the woods for an hour. Wait, it gets better! After about an hour, Eric says "Hey, I see a light there! Must be some people camping near the lake!" Two minutes later, I notice the light moving...I look closer, and it's a snowcat! We managed to walk in a circle, convinced we were heading up the valley! So after cussing ourselves roundly as idiots, etc, we headed up the trail again, only to lose it again! THIS time, however, we follow the compass, to make sure that we wouldn't walk in a circle. After a while of bushwhacking, we see headlamps, and hear voices. We thrash in that direction, to find the trail! There were several people ahead of us. Eric immediately set off to try to pass them. Suffering from stupidity (I didn't eat enough) and a slight stomach bug, I lagged behind. Still, I gained on the others, to pass them. One was KJ (sorry, don't know your avatar), his partner, and a guy from Stone Gardens that I seem to run into everywhere (what's your name?). We put on crampons just before heading up the couloir leading to the ridge. With that, we plodded to the base of the buttress, while everybody else (with the exception of one party) headed to The North Face. Anyways, Eric led the first pitch, while I froze. I strugged up the pitch, having not touched my tools in a month, only to be rewarded with the screaming barfies. Once I recovered, I led off through substanceless powder snow, hooking trees, etc, to belay off of two questionable pins. Eric let me have the third pitch, through interesting mixed terrain, including drytooling and solid snow , though without protection, only to run out of rope 20 feet from the interesting ice step. I belayed from one bottomed-out screw, and one screw in hollow ice. Eric led off, up the ice step, protected by one entirely useless screw (I removed it by tapping the ice apart with my hammer) and a bad knifeblade hammered up into a mini-roof. I then proceeded to freeze at the semi-hanging belay while Eric tried to construct a decent anchor for several hours (kidding! it only felt like that). I followed the ice step, happy to be moving again, and we scrambled to the top. We descended the descent couloir, and glissaded down to source lake. For two guys whose experience consists of two days of bouldering at the Big4 ice caves, we thought it was a respectable performance, not counting the fuck-up during the first hour. Conditions were good, with no avalanche danger, whch has undoubtedly changed by now.

These are all signs of things to come....as a kid, I always wanted to go climbing with my dad. Come age 13, I did! Remember, a kid can make a great partner, especially if you buy them gear!!

Thanks, I guess I find all I need to know tomorrow. Sure, I'll be a circus, we'll just have to leave early. I guess I'll see a lot of you guys up there. Climb safe!

Mattp, as an alpine gumby, what is the NE Buttress like? I remeber somebody saying that it is less technical than the N. face.

So we should leave at 3? Fuck, that's early.

I could afford a groundsheet..........

If I remember correctly, at FF they cost 75 versus 60 for the BD. What the hell, I'll use the BD. If they suck, I'll spray, if they rock, I'll spray. BUT, if they suck, I will try the CV gloves. (Being a gear slut is easier when you have money. I don't.)

Problem is, once you're dead you're dead. It doesn't matter how you died. God, so many great climbers have died recently. Some that I have admired the most include Doc Bayne, Rod Wilard, Goran Kropp, and others. RIP

Loose crap? The only thing that came down when I did it was a carabiner that my dad dropped.

Not all their stuff is the lightest around. The Arc'teryx stuff is a case in point. That said, he carries all the stuff that you can't find anywhere else, eg. Golite, Wild Things, Hilleberg, etc.

Which Cloudveils? I noticed that none have leather that wraps around the finger tip-which is why I bought BD.

What's your definition of "cragging"? Whenever I am exercising, my stomach cannot handle "real" food, even when doing a moderate paced ski tour. Hell, if I eat too much I can't even go bouldering in the gym! DFA will probably back me up on this one.

If you chop all bolts you see, did you perhaps not see several of our anchors?

PowerGel, Clif Bars, and Skor. Admittedly, the Gels aren't bars, but they work better than anything out there.

I bought the BD gloves. Maybe if I own enough of their stuff they will sponsor me. Lambone, didn't you say that you don't lead wearing anything but the BDs?

I went there today, specifically to buy some ice screws. They had a bunch of 16cm BD turbo screws at 20% off, so I bought four. They were also friendly enough to warn me about their no returns policy before they charged me. I then went over to REI to check out gloves. After waiting for half an hour they told me that they didn't have any BD drytool gloves and they wouldn't have any for a while. Disgusted, I headed back over to FF, where they had many, many, many gloves. While paying for the gloves I mentioned that I had forgotten to tell them that I am tax-exempt (being from OR). They were kind enough to give me the tax that I had paid on the screws back! Plus, the shop is very well-stocked, the staff actually climbs (!), and I really like the atmosphere. (If sales increase due to this post, guys, feel free to send me an Icefloe jacket, size large.)

His limp dick makes the hand job more difficult than before.

I've wondered about this too. Which biner broke? The upper or the lower? If the upper broke, a longer draw/sling wouldn't help.