Dane

I heard that there is a new bale coming out from BD in the near future. But till then the Petzl bail solves most of it on the Scarpas. Bending might make it work on the Guides as they have a lot thicker sole to work with than the Ultra or 6000. Sitting here myself thinking I'll need to some serious bending work on the Petzl bails for the Ultras. Fit as is is funky. Boots move to the outside of the pon. Chrome Fusions? I think most love the Fusion so much they get wood just rubbing against them. Once the green is gone I think they are chrome underneath Must be hundreds of chrome Fusions out there after just one winter.

Here is my 2 cents. I actually do use the ignore button. And I know I can personally annoy just about anyone and generally do. The forum rules are in part: "that you will not use this BB to post any material which is knowingly false and/or defamatory, inaccurate.." Everyone has their own use for this forum. I have several. I am not mad nor do I have any sort of personal agenda against any member. I have no desire to see anyone get banned. But intentionally adding bad info.....isn't a good thing for anyone here and seemingly against the forum rules as well. You can easily judge "defamatory" by simply asking yourself would you say that to Mike Tyson's face When many usefull threads get hijacked into a spray fest and a good percentage of the posts in the same thread end up being by one poster patting himself on the back or answering his own questions, it makes the forum less useful, imo. But I could be way off base on that as well. We are all busy. My apologies, as the intent was to help not make things worse. There have been any number of very skilled and gracious climbers on cc.com in the few years I have been here. Many leave or even worse, never post again. I think we all loose because of that lack of involvement. Everyone here has something useful to share. Forums (most forums) are a great place to learn, gather and more importantly share communal information. Obviously not my call, just found the level of same old static exceptionally annoying here today.

Going to Bozeman for the fest? I'll loan you some sticks. Try some (all?) before you drop the coin...no real sense in buying stuff you end up not using. On the bright side I did just get back from Canada and found the Neve heels worked well even on hard water ice. Worthwhile piece of kit I think if the price stays as low as you had posted earlier.

In all seriousness. Then why don't you sit down and SHUT the FUCK up since your opinion, skill and climbing experience is useless in this thread.

You are kidding me right? You could ask this ds how many pitches he has climbed while in crampons and he'd have an answer for you. R and X rated? I quess, if you had to be bothered to actually rope up on third class.

Two boots pictured in this thread.. La Spotiva Nuptse on both House and Anderson climbing Nanga Parbat. The other pictures is a new Scarpa 6000 and a pair of Dartwins. Billy in the orange BD helmet, red jacket and chromed Fusions is using La Sportiva Nepal Evos...but you can't see them

Likely there are more than a few here who get tired of my posts. But I get so tired of one forum poster here that I am about ready to puke. There is a never ending dump of bragging, thread hijacks and bull shit with the odd really distasteful insult tossed in for good measure all from a single poster. Generally half the comments of any thread that entices him. The first to my knowledge here to blurt "you are talking out your ass", when in effect the poster clearly was and continues to do so out of his. Other's have followed and seem to think repeating the insult is some kind of badge of courage. It is annoying and REALLY lowers the over all content and level of discussion on cc.com imo. I suspect I am not the only one here that can find other things to do than be annoyed on cc.com by a single internet jerk. So in the kindest and most polite manner posible...moderators.."what the fuck are you thinking?"

X monster isn't a bad mixed tool and some actually like the flex shaft on hard mixed. Not a great water ice tool. But it is not suppose to be. Would I buy a pair? No. But have friends that own and use them. They were designed to be a tool for climbing hard mixed, hence the thick pick. I find them too specialized for my own use and the head attachment problematic. How good are they? Good enough to get up the C/M which is like 100x longer than the N face of Chair and just a tiny bit harder http://www.tvmountain.com/index.php?option=com_hwdvideoshare&task=viewvideo&Itemid=117&video_id=1718

We can only pray sc would get off the grid and actually climb something

We were at the Icefields on Friday morning. Astroid Alley got done on Thursday the 11th in a good wind storm. Wind and new snow made the snow conditions unreliable by Friday morning. Likely the best sources for up to date reliable condition reports. Felt like springtime in the Ghost yesterday with the ice building fast there amd a few things in decent conditon. http://www.pc.gc.ca/apps/psb/index_e.asp?oqava_park_id=2 http://www.gravsports-ice.com/icethreads/ http://climbingconditions.com/author/mcr/

Great addition here. Thanks Matt!

Easy mod and worth the effort Swaging wire is one way. Or you can decide how much weight load you require by cord size and be able to check and replace it easily. Almost any other method is better than the two factory versions (old or new) imo. linky below

Guess you be first this year

Rain crust? from Barry's comments "Nov 4th we left the tent at 5am. The initial bergshrund had been scoured down to summer snow by avalanches. One hundred meters higher we entered the first pillow of storm snow, got out the shovel and dug a test pit. We found a moderate shovel compression test and two easy to moderate shovel shear tests. The failures were clean pops with the recent storm snow failing on the October surface that had been rained on, and then frozen (this surface had granted us fine climbing conditions on our ascent of the Robinson/Arbic route on Mt Cromwell on Oct 19th). It appears that the snows and, mostly, the winds of the last week have overloaded that interface." 8" of snow last weekend and wind since then. From 600 miles away looks like it might be a decent weekend.

Bump for a good educational experience!

Blanchard's report posted above from Nov 3/4 was pretty sketchy so they bailed. You did Shooting Gallery on the 4th? Any better out there now Grant? Any new snow since the 4th? Wind?

Couple of thoughts come to mind. Climbing in a wet snow storm all day will get you wet if you are dressed wrong. Or being over dressing for the conditions will get you wet from prespiration. I've used my synthetic parka to dry my soft shell out in wet snow conditons after I got chilled on a belay. I couldn't get myself dried while stopped without added insulation. I also have used a base layer to do the approach in, knowing I would soak it and then changed to dry clothing to do the climb. That is a lighter and much warmer tactic over all for me. The major issue of winter climbing is moisture management. Be it clothing or sleeping bags. The reason it is an issue from what I have seen is people over dress for the activity level, just as likely use the wrong piece of kit or simply don't pay attention to the details. Soft shell in a snow storm (done it myself) is not the smart option. Doesn't matter what it is made of wet gear is a poor insulator. You stay warm by staying dry and hydrated. There are climbs I wouldn't take a down bag on and climbs I wouldn't take anything but a down bag on. It depends on the amount of care I can/want to dedicate to the bag and amount of space in my pack. Some times a very light synthetic over bag is a good answer for keeping your down bag dry and being able to dry your gear at night. But climbing into a down bag with all your wet clothing on is a sure way to soak your down bag. Staying dry and warm is a thinking man's game.

My current winter alpine climbing pack is 18L total

Conditions from the last time the gully saw a few ascents.

Sun is coming out, ice is getting thick. Edit: Hook set. I'm good, thanks.

Mike try Wiley X

http://climbingconditions.com/mcr-rockies-mt-kitchener-grand-central-coulior/

100% agreement on both. NE coulior was fat when there was almost no (as in none) snow on the NW face.

Good info, Kevin, thanks.

is the gate still open down on the creek?