Dane

Thinking the same thing myself. Great shots and a new perspective on the Fin. Well done!

http://www.foursistersfilm.com/2010/07/success-in-talkeetna/ Congrads to Jesse and Mark!

Nepal Evo is one of the very best single boots ever manufactured. Good most places 9/10 months of the year. Easily warm enough for water ice and much of the easier alpine stuff in Canada during winter in moderate conditions. And a nice feel of satisfaction and over kill for anything in the Cascades except Rainier in winter. Nepal Evo is the boot of choice for the guides in Chamonix during summer climbs of Mt Blanc and many of the technical routes in the range. They typically have much worse weather and risk of cold injuries during summer than we do. Not a guide these days but I can offer these comments. Many long time guides (or most anyone who has climbed a lot in cold weather on big mtns) have really messed up feet from previous cold injuries and will wear modern dbl boots or lighter weight boots with built in gaiters (on summer snow climbs for durability) like a Batura or Phantom Guide where most clients can easily get by with much lighter weight single boots. So not always a great choice to mimic the most experienced guides working on Rainier

Not exactly true, does anyone "reguire" plastics? ....Kurt had it right the first time. He's also a working guide last I checked. Rental is a good choice. Made the same suggestion to a Rainier group myself a few days ago. http://www.whittakermountaineering.com/index.php?&gigpag=rentals_rainier Last week from what I saw many/most of the RMI clients were wearing Manooks. There are a number of lwt weight fabric and leather boots that are a better choice for a summer ascent of Rainier than plastics. (any plastic)

You're "da" man last week Nice work!

"Doing down hill rides can be fun if you live through the launch. "

Envy? You shouldn't. Sitting in an on shore flow is BORING. Doing down hill rides can be fun if you live through the launch. Catching thermals and going places is very, very cool. Sadly catching thermals does this to me Which would be ok if it didn't last for DAYs! Good luck Sobo and try to enjoy yourself!

NIce!

I solo'ed back in the day. When I first moved over here I flew a couple of times with Seattle Paragliding. Launch site is just down the road. Safe? Good record by Seattleparagliding and the rest over here. One of the reasons I think is the lauch site and landing area are very well done for the novice. (read I didn't fuck it up yet) They also have Nationals here and major events on a regualr basis. But kinda like soloing, you either live or things go really bad In the grand scheme of things it is a "cheap" sport. Go to a place like Tiger to learn. You'll want to be riding thermals to stay aloft even on your early flights. That will quickly tell you if you want more. I've done it but I'm no pilot and know it. This is right after lauch on my last flight at Tiger. We are holding elevation in a strong onshore flow.

Bill sorry not much help past what I will relate to Sobo. Sobo..try a search under Tiger mtn, Issaquah. A number of companies work out of there. All do tandems. How are you with motion sickness? A lot safer now with the better wings than in the old days. The "old days" ('70s-'80s) pretty much decimated a generation of young climbers. great place to start.. http://www.seattleparagliding.com/ http://www.tigermountainparagliding.com/AboutTiger.html'>http://www.tigermountainparagliding.com/AboutTiger.html http://www.tigermountainparagliding.com/

Sobo you are up way to late.... go TO BED! If it helps think of Minx

James those are some amazing pictures. Thanks and congrads as well!

Same one..here: http://www.stanford.edu/~clint/index/index.htm and you can print a copy for yourself.

Cool trip and write up!! Congrads on two great summits!

Hey Alex, since you asked, my comments weren't directed at you or your guide specifically. Come on guys, everyone could do better. But I suspect it is just as bad anywhere that the climbing histories were not documented very well in the 60/70/80s. Good guides? The new Smith Rocks, Robert's Colorado Ice, Ice Dance and Jo Jo's Canadian Ice come to mind. All big efforts and it shows.

I had a fairly long meeting earlier this week with the Chief Park Ranger and the Chief Climbing Ranger. Still trying to digest all the info. There is a system being set up to enable the climbing rangers to down load condition info while on the mtn. IIRC climbing rangers work something like 6 days on 4 off....or something similar. And no one wants to down load reports after their trip on the mtn. Their answer is to allow a electronic bridge from Muir ot Ashford so they can do it online while on the mtn. My take from that is a Ranger at a key board are not a good use of their time. I like seeing the ability to do so but question the logic behind it. Climbing fees are about to increase again. (currently a $20 reserv. fee and a $30 climbing fee) The vast majority of personal, time and funds go to Muir and the Emmons. No surprise. I had first encouraged climbing fee increases but after hearing that every improvement was years off I wasn't so thrilled. My take is much of what could be done easily doesn't get done simply because those involved simple don't think the simple changes are worth the effort. One thing they have done is make sure the rotation schedule has rangers coming off the mtn and going straight to the info desk so their info is current.

If you didn't get one during the 1/2 price sale they are currently $269. But I saw the newest version at Whitaker's this week in Ashford. Reinforced shoulders and arms, might heavier and harder to stuff. New price is $300. Too bad as EB could have continued on and improved a great lwt climbing jacket. Instead they bailed and started to copy the rest of the herd and raise the price in the process. At $269 the earlier LWT version is one of the best high loft down climbing jackets on the planet. Now is the time to buy if you ever wanted one as the original LWT version is about to dissapear I suspect.

Last up date I heard on Tuesday while on the mtn was for Mowich LK to open is July 7th.

It is not the first time and certainly won't be the last. Sadly there are so many new climbers begging for guide books that any info is often seen as good info. Guide books that lack the history, especially easy to gather history, when someone else has or would so easily offer it is a relative new trend and sadly imo a really bad one. I have seen similar guide books praised here on cc.com by climbers that should have know better. I've chatted on email with the guide book author who was totally ignorant of the issue and obviously didn't care. He included some of the activists in the area in the side notes but no real history of the area. So just leave it out, now that is an answer. My take was his real goal was, "me, me, me, me and me and my buddies". If it had only been "me and my buddies" I wouldn't have a problem with that. I wouldn't know the difference. right? But sadly he missed the previous 30 or so years of obvious developement and why a current guide book was needed. Funny that when by just talking with three guys, all easily accessed locally or through a simple google search and email, he could have doubled the routes and info in some areas of his guide book. If he missed just the three guys I know, you have to wonder just how much more was missed but I'd bet there were 3 more, so he missed 6, 12 or 24 who knows? Funny how putting the real FA info together generally leads you to ALL the players in the area and the true scope of the climbing done and the time frames. With the access to people and information we have now, it is so easy to get the history, why wouldn't you make the effort? Not doing so, and then publishing an incomplete guide book is no service to the climbing community.

This kind of stuff happens all the time with small time publications and "new" climbers/authors thinking they are going to be the authority on an area by publishing a new guide without doing the research it takes. So what guide and author is it?

Nice picture. If it is the same crack it is a nice start and the way I have done it. We ended up traversing back slightly right through some trees (maybe two or three short pitches up) to the base of the chockstone chimney. In '79 we thought it was a new variation. And a more fun start to the B/S.

reds rock....

Always a chisel on the ST. Don't think Chouinard/BD has ever done anything but a chisel on horizontal FPs. Climbed a lot in both. On WI and mixed I don't see a differenece. Although I do find the chisel is easier to sharpen and will last longer. Love the G12 and how it fits my boots. But like the newest ST even more because of the extra set of down points, over all weight, easier to strip, stainless and the optional lwt heel. Couple of longer threads on your question here worth that might be worth looking at. http://cascadeclimbers.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/953998/Re_Sarken_vs_Sabretooth#Post953998 Euro 'pons were generally used on snice where pointy points work just fine. Grivel's idea (Simond before them iirc) was suppose to be an improvement. And might well have been for their conditions. NA 'pons (starting with Chouinard) were designed to be used on water ice. Hence the chisel which came from the even older first 12 design. But in reality both designs work fine on water ice if you keep them sharp. How long the front points are makes a bigger difference imo.

I'd wonder if the route has changed at all or if the rock fall scar could just be avoided. http://sites.google.com/site/stephabegg/home/tripreports/washington/northcascades/colchuckanddragontail

Numbers keep coming in and the percentages seem to be the same over the last two weeks.