Dane

You did notice this is a climbing forum and not a hunting forum, right? Hunting in the rain is the norm. Climbing in the rain is not. Classically funny stories you posted though. "I had forgot my tent poles, burned my tent, my leg, sleeping bag and bivy sack. I blew up my heater. I am camped on a moving, shifting glacier that tried to eat my tent. I forgot my lighter and my matches don’t work. I have cracked my head open. My compass and GPS are not working. My headlamp is a no go. I am now stuck in the fog on the glacier. My tent is a self-bailing convertible and I am having moonlight visits by a love sick Yeti. Not a bad tally for one day." Then "It is still hard for me to admit this, but several times I actually gave up on even trying to get a fire going. The delirium of hypothermia danced at the edge of my consciousness. I pondered crawling into my sleeping bag and just trying to sleep until the shivering stopped. I felt weary. I left the shelter, I needed dry wood. I'd spent nearly two hours trying to light a fire and all I wanted was something to stop the shivering." Loosing a tent on Rainier or Denali in a storm is so common as to seldom elicit much of a comment. I can't count the times I have full on shivered through a long night in below zero temps. Not pleasant but seldom life changing either. The kinds of incidents you posted links to seldom have anything to do with the gear you bring...much more likely only 1/2 a brain was turned on at a crucial time when full brain was obviously required. Use 1/2 your brain very often climbing and you won't be climbing long.

Most who have some experience will have down and synthetic gear in their kit. Primaloft 1 being my current favorite as a synthetic. I've owned and used synthetic bags. Own one now. But I also own and use three different down bags. The oldest of them I still use and after being cleaned by Feathered Friends looks and lofts like new. That bag is 30+ years old. The newest a Feathered Friends Vireo only a couple of years old. No right or wrong answer on insulation just a wrong choice for your specific adventure or current skill set. If you talk with even the best boutique manufactures of high end down gear they will tell you that the majority of their sells go to people wanting a warm, light weight, jacket, not to someone who is actually going to use a down jacket in the back country.

Cell service at Lake Louise and south to Banff. Zip on the Parkway, which is worth knowing.

Good comments. A few additional thoughts. I always laugh at the time frames quoted from Vancouver BC for Seattle climbers. Like Vancouver is 10 minutes away? It is 140 miles, more from SeaTac, less from Bellingham. I still hear all the time it's faster. It's faster from Spokane too Hostels? Not many hotels close to the ice fields but when I lived in Canmore we just made day trips...long day trips. Lake Louise Hostel is more a modern hotel than a Hostel. Rampart Creek...fairly primative but warm. Hard to beat Eisenhauser Junction for the Stanley basin and Hafner, as they are 20min. way. Everything else an hr. plus. But no worries one trip and you'll figure it all out. Nice hotels in Banff with decent prices and good sushi with in walking distance. Forgot this one. Gas prices are bad in WA, great in Idaho, decent in Alberta and down right terrible in BC. Some BC stations will hit your credit card for a $500 authorization on a $75 purchase! I've had it alert my CC company and lock down cards 3 times in the last three years. Radium Hot Springs area is the most common offender. Prices can and generally do vary almost a full buck per gallon! I try to plan accoringly.

Calgary airport I guess? Banff area ice. But once you get to Banff anything on the Parkway is game if you have the time to drive. Gibralter Wall at Canal Flats but we generally climb it on the way home to break up the drive. Big rush to get there of course. Things seem warmer (you think) so Cascade gully isn't always a sure bet anymore but Loiuise Falls and everything at Field is. Stanley Basin is always good. I've flown in several times and think it sucks because you spend so much time on the road (in the airport) getting back to Banff and most everything is still an hr north of that. I tend to base at the hostels. Lake Louse, Eisenhowser junction or Rampart Creek pretty much covers everything I want to climb on the Parkway. Easy weekend from Spokane. A killer 3 day trip from Seattle. It is 600+ miles one way no matter how you pencil it from Issaquah. Way easier and faster than Ouray though. Not much shorter for us than a direct flight to Geneva and a 2 hr coach to Chamonix. Canadian Rockies ice climbing? Priceless.

"and i'm starting to think i should go back to using the leashes" Not something any of us wants to hear. The leashless tool technology is just getting started I think. The problem with that is while we now have some amazing, specifically designed, leashless tools we also have all sorts of tools with half assed systems to make leashed tools leashless. Doesn't always work all that well from my experience. Fastest way to get bummed on leashless climbing is trying it on a half assed leashless tool and a bad umbilical hook up Hey most of us have already been there and tried that. Didn't work for us either. My answer is I use a fairly common tool with a straight shaft and a leash when appropriate and a set of high clearence leashless of tools for harder climbing. Some times that means I'll carry three tools (two Nomics and a short lwt axe) to cover the extremes of what I am trying to do...but it gives me a lot of options.

How about we stay on task.

Durability is a big deal. Needs to last the climb...hopefully a couple of seasons. Some of the factory ones won't. You can see how your effort might handle it. The idea behind good leashless tools is they are ergonmic...meaning they fit your body. Most manufactures have made an effort to design that way and come up with a cleaner ways to do things that last longer and more importantly fit your hand and support you better. I have lost count of the grip supports I have added to different tools. Some I even really liked. But hard to compare any of them with just the simple TRIGrest that Petzl now sells that is easy to bolt on. But good leashless tools aren't just one hand support but a tool designed around leashless climbing. If you want to climb leashless get a tool designed to do so...and save yourself a lot of effort. Which is the only reason to climb leashless in the first place.

Saw the credit. Nice work! I thought it rockkkkkedd!

Sounds so simple that it is often over looked. But finding a place on the ground where you can set up multiple anchor systems, place a lot of different types of pro and in different ways is very useful. Not very exciting but no worries about falling off and no ropes of aiders to fuss with that way. The better you can eye ball what is a good placement and the size of the gear needed to plug in the faster the real thing will be. Make the gear placements mindless by this kind of exercise and trad free climbing. Then you'll have more time and brain power to work on the "mess". The "mess" is the system you'll have to deal with. The easier that is to sort out for you the better. Placing good gear will be easy by comparison.

Both. Thicker (BD is trimming some of them down in new production) and different shape. Advantages to both styles depending on the boots you use. Good to have options.

great video, thanks. POJ here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1nb-YMwqwW8 Retro Power Runout is worth a look as well. http://www.patagonia.com/us/tinshed/index.jsp?src=avl&avad=3057_af41509&netid=1&src=avl&avad=3057_c10046fd&netid=1

Since no one seems awake at the wheel how about we do it ourselves? Mark (rocketparrotlet) is serious and looking for good info on how to better his aid climbing. The posts below is a good start. There are others. But lots of guys here with tons of experience on walls that are willing to help out. Here is your chance to make cc.com a better place instead of the typical slit trench it can become. My suggestion is ignore the douche bag and add something useful.

None. The straps are intentionally added by BD because in Europe the biggest market share is Grivel. Grivel's need the loop to keep their bails on because of their unique bail design. BD doesn't but they sell a lot more crampons in Europe and Japan by mimicing Grivel on the bindings. Most of us just cut them off including the guy you asked about earlier Zach. The toe straps aren't aluminum but stainless steel. Which is why some folks are best added to your ignore list.

I gotta say by the looks of it on this thread (over the last few days) and its duplicate in spray, the forum owners and moderators seem to know and placate their real audience. Too bad as I think it just brings down the level of good info shared here.

I called our local store today..coupon number is good..seems to have been an emailed coupon. Good in store only and only on one full priced item. If you don't have the coupon, someone who does you can pass it around. Then take a printed version in with you for the 50% off. If not, I was told, just ask. If any women are looking for decent gear my wife says what she has tried on is really cut very well for a woman. With the hard core female climbers they have on board with the First Ascent gear I am not surprised.

"Any hints about how much and how consolidated the snow is up high" Lots and none...not a great week for anything alpine in a day trip from Seattle. Try Vantage and play it safe. I heard it was a new record for over all precip. Felt like it on Tiger Mtn today. I was looking to start my Arc in the morning.

much new snow on the approach in the last 3 or 4 days

No question a boot/axe has limitations. I would never use one to belay a leader. But it works great as a top rope belay on moderate ground. Like anything in the climbing world you need to know when the tool or technique is appropriate for your skill level and in what specific conditions. Great technique, easy to use and teach. Much harder to get the experience that tells you when to use a boot axe belay over other techniques. Two guys, CF and GS posting on the boot/axe giving seeemingly distinctly different opinions. If I was a beginner reading the comments I would think both opinions were pretty fringe and ignore the boot axe belay all together. Better I think for the beginning alpine climbers to learn the boot axe belay. Then practice it in a safe environment to learn the limitations of the technique and your own skill level. Boot/axe bealy aint much but some times you don't need much to make a big difference in the mtns.

thanks

Agree. 60cm straight shafted tool was my guiding axe everywhere except water falls. And I climbed a lot of water fall and steep alpine ice with that axe or a 50 cm model of the same. The boot axe belay is a lost art and shouldn't be.

Bill rocks!

I didn't know Joe past a few email exchanges. But he was always willing to answer any stupid question I had on some obsure route no mater where he was in the world or what he was doing when I asked. If you look through his Supertopo Alaska guide it quickly becomes obvious that Joe had one of the best Alaska climbing resume's ever put together. I really admired that...but even more I admired that he was always willing to share what he had experienced with anyone that asked.

Got this in an email a few minutes ago...hated to open it. "Joe Puryear died while ascending Labuche Kang (7,367 meters, 24,170 feet) in a remote region of Tibet." Joe will be missed. My thoughts to his friends and family.

Damit Frieh...don't be telling One of the more condition specific local climbs. Red line in full is typically not done. All the pictures are from that climb. http://cascadeclimbers.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/854656/1 http://cascadeclimbers.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/872396/Re_Need_Dragontail_N_E_Coulior#Post872396 "John Frieh mentioned to me from his climb, "The M5 is easy too... more like M4." On our ascent I found two places got my attention while following, the beginning and the end of the upper headwall gully because of the lack of ice. In between those two points something more like WI 2+ or 3 and M3. Mixed grades are suppose to relate to rock. M3 being 5.7, M4 being 5.8 and M5 being 5.9. Obviously top roped, parts of it felt like 5.9 or M5 to me." Too bad no one else bothered with the intitial gully pitch or pictures. "Pro wasn't that easy to attain on our ascent and most that lead at a 5.7 level would have had their hands full in the upper gully." Our pictures of the full red line are from a couple of days after the video. That first money pitch is steep and looks like this from the belay....with no extra camera tilt. The photos here show the obvious place where the gully splits mid face..right hand snow is the green line in Ade's picture below and it continues around the corner to connect again mid head wall, 60m from the top of the gully. Left hand snow ends at the head wall and a hidden gully entrance where Craig is heading in this picture to complete the entire red line. The hidden entrance is the vertical step in the first picture of the thread with the nice pink granite block on the left. Above the initial "hidden" gully entrance on the red line you get a tight gully that breaks out on to a little arete and changes over to the right hand gully and a small snow field. The YouTube video shows this section clearly. The gully above again tightens down and gets more difficult as you progress. It finally opening a bit at the end becoming almost a face while still following a vertical crack and flake system. The ending is a distinct horizontal flat. I hooked both tools there, standing on rock with monopoints and peeked over, onto a easy angled snow slope with Craig comfortably sitting in belay. Daniel and Dave's pictures. N side traverse and up to the rap boulder and decent gully Daniel's video form the same climb as most of the pictures 11/24/08 [video:youtube] [video:youtube]