Dane

Hummmm..... Hyping? Bad accident? Really bad accident? Shit, I can tell you from recent experience any fall can be a "really bad" accident. Been thinking about reactions to this post over night. Many of the bigger alpine routes of Canada were done in the '60s and '70s. All are dangerious even in the best conditions. I can't think of a classic N face in Canada that hasn't had a serious accident or death in the last 40 years. Conditions change in the the mtns....all mnts. Few die doing them. The Eiger supposedly was unclimbable a few years ago because it was too dry. Slipstream too dangerious because of serac fall. Andromeda Strain to dangerious because of the rock fall If you include GCC add any excuse you like. North face of Athabasca went from 5.4 to M6. The list goes on and on. But then all get climbed on a regular basis, winter/spring and summer. More so now than ever before. Only thing that has really changed is the percentage in the number of climbers out who are willing to accept the risks involved. This photo is from late Sept in 2005 A fuzzy pic but you can easily see the distinct lack of ice and the huge water/stone troughs in the lower gully in the fall of 1975. I know from the pics what year I would have choosen given the chance. And that is 30 years difference. If last winter was any inclination in the Rockies I would have never believed there was an issue with global warming. (which I do believe btw) The Rockies had a long cold snap, lots of snow and water ice every where. Up high the peaks I got on at over 10K were colder than normal with a LOT more snow. When spring did come, it came fast with warm temps instantly. I'm interested to see what happens this season. One of the Parks guys told me a couple of weeks ago it was "winter already" in the icefields....a month or so early. Been climbing in the Rockies for almost 40 years now. I have been on Deltaform 5 or 6 different times, done two routes and can be fairly confident in my assessment that not a lot has changed over the years when you look at alpine conditions is general. Yes it is drier, but then we now climb in different seasons. Not jack worth of difference between the 2004 photo and photos I have from the early '70s. Hard alpine climbing has always been about conditions. Be it the north side of Rainier or the water ice on Hood or the N face of Alberta. Having met a few young lions lately taking up alpinism I was asked to add a few (old) trip reports since there is little here on classic alpine routes. More fun than a dry old guide book and I agree the web site would be better for it.

Good point Chad. Been more than a few killed on this climb recently including some NW locals. Slipstream, Deltaform and Cavell hold the high water marks on the Mountaineering Accidents in Canada list. In my limited experience Fall was never a great season for the "gully" climbs (Kitchener and Popes are others). Most are better done in spring after the snow pack has settled a bit or winter on a good snow year. Just might be a less real ice which may not be a bad thing Those three climbs aren't technically all that hard and easy enough in good conditions ( and draw bigger crowds because of it)...but in bad conditions all can easily kill you. Never hurts to remember it is a Lowe/Jones route as well. The accident report you mention is easy to find on Google. One of many other accidents on Deltaform here: http://mountrainierclimbing.blogspot.com/2006/04/charlie-borgh_24.html. All said some of the bigger climbs have gotten easier/less dangerious with more water ice/less snow in the right season (Slipstream and GCC come to mind), some harder with less ice. If you can climb it its generally easier If you don't it might well be harder

Great call Trog!

Blackwater is a private corp with deep "insights" into many governmental venues, in many countries besides are own. Simply because the owner, most employees and all the management @ Blackwater are ex military with long and multiple contacts with all the players. PMC's pay won't be going down (at least in the near future) and they won't be going away in your life time. I suspect the pay scales (assuming equal skills) will change over time depending on demand and the local workig environment. But that could mean wages going up, just as likely as going down. But short term the contracts with Blackwater, CACI, Dyna Corp, Aegis, Haliburton or the dozens of other contractors aren't likely going to be changed or negated by Obama nor will he want to with Blackwater. Blackwater adds additional cover for DSS (U.S. Diplomatic Security Service) for a reason. Guys now working for Blackwater have trained DSS for years, while doing tier one anti terrorist jobs in our military branches. Our government trusts ALL of our diplomats to those same people and their skills just for that reason. The US military puts well over a million dollars into each spec op soldier just to get them started in their military careers. Blackwater is a perfect example of the US goverment taking advantage of that original investment. Look here for more info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_military_contractor

The guy in the yellow pants real name is Terry...but not likely that any of you will like know him by that. His buddy is Paul. But I bet ALL of you know who they are and the one climb they did together. You guys are making me feel really OLD

Point well taken. If you do the design right, pulling the girth hitch isn't a big deal, if the section of different climbing is worth the effort. Tool like a Nomic makes it less of an issue. Either way you need a hole big enough to girth hitch too easily. Also easy enough to plunge a tool while still hooked up on the spike even with elastic, a bit easier if you don't have a biner getting in the way or can easily just reclip to the head of the tool. Although it makes a better self belay clipped directly to the head if you are plunging. But works fine either way. Advantages ways..biners are easy to use, girth hitched is a cleaner set up and generally more fail safe. Disadvantage is the contraption of biner and swivel or the hassle of rehitching a different location.

You got it, the pic above is the face on Deltaform you see from the top of Mt Temple or the Sentinel Pass trail.

Mtn. is Deltaform, Valley of the Ten Peaks, CAN. Pics in the above post are from Super Coulior. The gully is a garbage chute for the entire face. As Dick Renshaw said in the Guide to the Rockies South, "in foul weather it is more dangerious than the Eiger". Also a good description in Dougherty's excellent "Selected Alpine Climbs". But, OH MY GOD, what a line! Enough alpine ice (1000m) to make it worth the 2 pitches of shitty rock to get you out of the gully. Top pic is from the narrows mid-way in the upper gully. The shot looking down is from a bit higher up, just below the rock band. The snow arete in the sun below is where you cross over from the lower gully. The other route just to the left on the face isn't a lot easier. With the simple name, North Glacier, it is long, steep and takes some effort to get past the upper ice cliff and final 'shrund. And you still have an ugly decent and a long (15 miles) walk out. Both climbs are well worth the effort! All the pics are in fall conditions. FWIW the pics aren't mine. The upper two are Greg Cronn's (who also did the 2nd on Alberta's N. face with Blanchard) during his and James Blench's ascent, taken in '81 or '82 iirc. The third is from an uncredited pic in an '86 CLIMBING ad. Gwain Oka and I did the second ascent in a storm, 6 or 7 years earlier. I was so happy when we finished the rock band and got out of the gully, I started crying. And really stoked years later to get pics from Greg.

The dude in the yellow bibs used a Curver axe and a Roosterhead for tools if that helps The guy below was politely bitching about the 300+ feet of 9mm he was to belay with as a single rope. The "dude" told me once that it had been so cold in April that his head went numb on the summit bivy....laughing the whole time and swearing it was true! I tended to believe him

That is some weak shit dude ...photo is from May of '81.

Anyone care to name these two? My partner and I have just given the dude in the yellow pants a shoulder to get over the shrund. I have zero recall as to how we actually got over I was just relieved they were heading off to the left, as we wanted to do a line on the right.

Trying to put all my old photos into a digital format and thought some might enjoy this. Can you name the climb? A hint...easy aproach, a sting it the tail and a long ass walk out. (don't spoil the fun if I just mailed these to you I have a lot more if anyone finds them interesting. Looking up..from a little over half way and down from a bit higher. The 2nd and last of the rock pitches with the cornice to get out of the gully.

I am usually good for weekdays given a day's notice.

Very fun to seem some of the old tools. The Chouinard bamboo Piolet has never been equaled let alone bettered imo. Too bad because now it is almost a shame to use them at the going replacement cost. Two Chouinard 55s and a 50 Zero from Camp (all bamboo) after Chouinard first went from bamboo to fiberglass around 1977/'78. The middle axe has had the pick welded up and recut many times over the years. Funny how I could change the upper curve profile, which made no differenece on how the tool climbed but could'nt get more curve on the bottom where it would have. With 3rd and 2nd generation alpine hammers. Kinda in the same theme The 2nd generation of "hard" ice tools. The Terro is a third gen. just before they stopped production. 1st gen was gray in color, 2nd black. Simond Chacal (hammer) and Barracuda (adze, head weights make decent hammer when required) circa 1981/'82. An unlikely pair that will get you up almost anything made of pure ice. The likely suspects today. The ones I used up or sold or traded away that I should have kept? Terro adze, Roosterhead, Forest Lifetimes, Condor/Vulture, Curver. Anyone have any of these around?

Braydon was too modest so I thought I'd help him out

Ebay is a good source for the Chouinard hammer....but most go from 150 to $200 these days. Great tools for what they are intended. But at $200 More of us should bug Bill Belcourt @ BD to bring them back at a reasonable price.

What everyone else has said. May is colder than June....early May can be really, really cold in comparison. DAS will work fine with the right combo. I like a decent jacket just to lay over my sleeping bag when the temps drop. When it is so cold you need to climb in a belay jacket it is not a great day and easy for things to go bad fast and start freezing things like feet/face/hands. But if you really want to figure out your cold weather gear just spend a a few nights out in the Columbia Icefields in Jan or Feb. The idea of a good bag, boots and a decent jacket will mean something different on day three or so while you are thinking you really should have just stayed at the hostel If you haven't been in the Alaska range I wouldn't suggest anyting too committing in a technical sense. Get a feel for the place and the conditions/temps then think about bigger projects. The West Butt is no gimme, even in decent weather and it just gets harder and colder from from there.

Similar to my choices Chad. Started using hinged crampons with plastic boots. Thought was with rigid boots, crampons could flex a bit with little loss in performance. And the set up was a lot lighter. Compared several pair of rigid to the newest flexable crampons last winter, changing crampons on each pitch while soloing Professors. Had forgotten just how good rigids were on pure ice. The current generation of rigid soled boots with flexable ankles work very well with rigid crampons.

A few here will remember when hard ice climbing demanded rigid crampons. Chouinard, SMCs, Lowe Foot Fangs and Grivel made them as well as a few others not so well known. Grivel and a few others are still in the game. I held a pair of the newest Rambos and the BD Cyborg yesterday and was surprized to find the BD weighed more. How many of you have used a rigid in the past and why did you change to a hinged or semi rigid? Your personal preference for ice, mixed or alpine?

I have Grivel's, and proto BD's. Not a big fan of biners (although the mini key ring biners do work well enough on the home made rigs) or swivels. Both of their rigs work fine if you want to clip in and out of the umbilical and need a set that works on multiple tools/positions. With or without elastic works fine as well imo. On bad days the elastic will likely freeze up anyway. Big fan of girth hitch straight to tool and girth hitch straight to harness..full strength and super low profile with a little sewing Light, simple and easy enough (and cheap enough) to make it tool specific.

I have a 1.5, 2, and two 2.5 that I am going to part with if you have need of anything smaller.

Grivel Helix, best of the current screws out for water ice. Easy to rack as well. Close second is the newest BD with a crank. Add the Grivel 360 if you are talking alpine ice. Buddy and I tried all of them last winter over a couple of weeks in the Rockies and the helix came out the surprize winner by fair margin. Tube size, tooth design and durability, hanger design and finish all were part of that decision. Bottom line if you aren't climbing with the current generation screws you are wasting a lot of energy.

Just a thought but we should always be responsible for our partners. That is why we call it a partnership. Rope "teams" should be making joint decisions. If not the skill level of the partnership is likely pretty one sided. If you don't feel up to the problem and can't get get up and down it at your skill level then you might as well be guided. Nothing wrong with that unless all of a sudden you need to have the skills and ability to get up or down the route without your more experienced friend. We all have done it but it might just save your ass to recognize the fact if you aren't jointly making decisions. Also never wrong to say, "Hey, you might want to save this one for later." Better to do that before the first fall than after you need a rescue. Lately I have climbed with a bunch of "internet" partners. And I've seen some really sketchy leads because of it.

I was using Joe Friel's writings as an example and definition of periodization if that helps. Basic outline is transition, prep, base, build, peak. It can easily be applied to any sport. You can do the cycles in a month or so or apply it over a year as I do currently.

a) on a scale of 1-10, how structured your personal training regiment is? Very structured (9, as in daily recovery/ workouts) now but little emphasis on climbing. Climbing is simply cross training on my program. b) if you've seen a payoff from "periodizing" your training schedule? I've climbed for years, easy 5.12 trad and hard ice in the past. Trained then by climbing/running. Basic idea was the specificity of training from the eastern block reasearch. If I was only using "climbing" now as workouts yes I would periodize that training for specific goals. c) do you use a modified version of periodization, don't use or even disagree I now use a pretty straight forward periodization program. Been doing it for 5 years and out side of injuries getting stronger and faster every year. Big help in coming back from or preventing injuries I think. But it is not a climbing specific plan. What fitness i might have for climbing comes from my periodization and general fitness level at that point in my training plan. FWIW my experience is climbing has been pretty specific. My thought has been if you want to get better at climbing, climb. Periodization and peaking for a goal is hard enough when you have relative control of the environment. An example is peaking for a road race 12 weeks out. Depending on the style of climbing...say alpine, much of the time frames are definded by the conditions and weather. I have spent weeks at a time tent bound....hard to peak for a climb in that kind of situation. I know Twight suggests it and has done it. I have held true peak form for 4 or 5 weeks before abilities drop off (doing triathlons) but never on a a long climbing trip and never without being in fairly controled environment. (Rock climbing in Yosemite could be a good example of a built/power/peak in periodization depending on your stay) Basically I need to do specific workouts/work loads every day to stay at that level for a "long" period of time. One of the things I wonder about now is if a combination of a periodization general fitness program (crossfit) and an additional climbing specific program in combination wouldn't be the best of both worlds.