chris

Thanks Breezy!

I'm looking for any photos of the the ranger's Butler Shelter at Camp Muir. Thanks!

So is it... a) worth every penny, buy a pass NOW!! b) worth the work but not the money, get a job at the hill c) not worth the money or the effort - the only high speed quads you need are the two you already have

Believed to be lost Sunday, 26 September. Possibly at the base of "Wherever I May Roam," "Moonshine Dihedral," or the right end of the car park. The Money clip DIDN'T have any money in it (I had used the last of my cash already). It is sterling silver with a cross-thatch pattern on one side. This clip was my late father's and has an incredible amount of sentimental value, and I'm still a little in shock that it's missing. Seriously big reward - far more than what the thing is actually worth - is offered if someone has found it. Please PM me. Chris

I'm starting to get excited for the ski season (as if the last two posts didn't clue you in). Tell me something. I just moved to Bellingham. Is a ski pass for Baker worth the price? 500+!!! - Stevens was only $270 for a student!! What is the backcountry like? And a little specifics - for advanced level skier, Avie III cert - what are a couple of good tours. Ones that let me see the potential? Classic routes that I shouldn't miss? at the Pub sometime... Chris

How did you get to Kluane Lake? Personal car?

Somebody remind me - what's the earliest they open the gates at Longmire? 8am?

I heard that Paul Claus/Ultima Thule is having difficulty getting permission to land in Kluane National Park because of new regulations for "international" flights. Does have anyone have contact information for ski-plane services out of Kluane Lake? I'm also interested in getting this information as a price check - I've never flown in the Wrangel and St. Elias Ranges with anyone else!

All my excitment over MSP's show inspired me to look up TGR's tour schedule. You can find it at www.tetongravity.com. Soul Purpose is only getting to make one stop in the PNW, 3 November, at the Showbox in Seattle. YEAH!!!!!!

That's right, folks!! Matchsticks Productions' "Yearbook" is showing Thursday night, 30 September, at the Mt. Baker Theater. Doors open at 7:30, and tickets are available at the box office or at the door. Check it out at http://www.skimovie.com/wwwx/home.asp. Get stoked!!!!

That's right, folks!! Matchsticks Productions' "Yearbook" is showing Thursday night, 30 September, at the Mt. Baker Theater. Doors open at 7:30, and tickets are available at the box office or at the door. Check it out at http://www.skimovie.com/wwwx/home.asp. This is going to get double-posted in "freshies" too.

As I understand it (and we know how wrong I can be) concessionaire guide services - not just on Rainier, but also at Yosemite and Grand Teton - are limited to how many people they can have at certain locations for certain times. For example, RMI is limited to the number of clients it is allowed to have camping overnight at Camp Protection, Camp Muir, and the Ingraham Flats. Their season can last as long as they wish it too, as long as the Park administration concurs. The permitted guide services are given a total number of "man-days" a season, and once those are used, their season is over. CJ, I've already spoken about my stand on guiding on other threads - I placed a pretty long rant on the original Rainier Guiding thread last year. I think the public has a right to be guided if they wish to. I do believe that I, legally and legitimately working as a guide with a client, have every right to be on a route as you do.

Actually, the 1:3 guide:client ratio is used by almost every guiding service on glaciated peaks that I'm aware of. 3:9 is the norm on Rainier, Baker, Denali and elsewhere, though I'm aware of guide services using 2:6. Mt. Rainier Alpine Guides just announced a 1:2 ratio for next year, but I'm unsure what their total group size is. I had the unique pleasure of working for a smaller guide service this summer in the Sierra's that only guided 1:1 or 1:2, depending on the technical difficulty. It was a great experience. Thanks to Coley for straightening out my bent understanding on the IBP/concession issue on Rainier. I'm looking forward to the future! I do disagree with one last item, though. The preferred alternative does decrease the total number of guided man-days allowed to occur in a given year. Go figure. Chris

Oh, hell. In order. Merv - why in the world would I talk to paying clients like that? I don't speak to five year olds like I do adults, or speak to climbers like non-climbers or speak to you like I do my girlfriend. Get real. I work really hard not to speak disparaging about independent climbers, Merv, really. I think that spending 100+ days up on Rainier allows a lot of the RMI guides to see some incredible things, burns them out a little bit towards the end, and jades them too. I don't work for RMI any longer, but I have in the past and probably will again in the future. CJ - of course RMI is going to fight this kicking and screaming. That's called good business. Climbzalot - I thought the IBP was the new process for managing private companies on public lands, in an effort to get away from the concession concept? And I can't find any evidence on the net about the other guide service not being permitted to guide on other routes. Mt. Rainier Alpine Guides offers a circumnavigation trip. I'm curious of their permits simply make it more economical right now to only offer the one trip up the Emmons? JoshK - this is whole issue is the National Park's historical mismanagement of private business on public lands. Not just here, but in other Parks too.

"fuck you too mtnfreak. How can you consider multiple guide services fighting for one route while RMI can guide on the entire rest of the mountain fair? They got a hookup, and now it's better off to get rid of that favor and allow some competition." Josh, I've calmed down a bit, but you still need to get your facts straight. RMI, due to its concession and history, gets exclusive guiding rights on the Muir Corridor. The PERMITTED guide services have exclusive guiding rights on the Emmons Corridor, and to the best of my knowledge the don't fight for space. This system was set up to allow outside guide services to build experience on Rainier so that they could make realistic bids for guiding concessions when those should open. ALL of the guide services compete with the public for space on other routes on the mountain. I am a guide, a supporter of multiple guide services at Mt. Rainier and elsewhere, and have posted here stating my points. Why cuss the guide service for taking advantage of the government's tradition? Josh, shouldn't we be cussing the Park Service? If your beef with RMI is that it has the sole concession, that's not RMI's fault, but the fault of Mt. Rainier National Park.

Your welcome, Ketch. I forgot to mention that the other guide services also have exclusive guiding priveleges on the Emmons glacier corridor. Together, all the guide services and the public have equal access to the rest of the mountain.

"And for those of you who, like me, always fuck up the approach in a new area...the guidebook map kinda sucks cuz it suggests you traverse the lower wall. Don't. Follow the rxr track to heart of the country wall and go up the trail KEEPING RIGHT AT THE BRANCHES. We not only traversed the lower wall, we mistook a left turn for a switchback and had to bushwack and drainage grovel across from the descent trail" True, but I think the guidebook authors recommended traversing the lower wall because of trespassing issues with the railroad company.

Fuck you too, Josh. RMI provides a legitimate service to the public, and I've watched a lot of independent climbers who only reached the summit because of RMI's traffic on the DC.

YYYYYEEEEEAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!

check out www.wunderground.com I've had a lot of luck with them.

Here's the deal. RMI has the only guiding CONCESSION in the park, and have exclusive guiding rights up the Muir corridor. The other guiding services (whom I can't recall) have permits - when their allotted number of permit days are filled, they're season is done.

I just want to make sure I'm really crystal clear here - I have no intentions to add rapel stations or place additional bolts - I only want to eliminate the slings on the existing anchors by adding chains! Another cool way to climb the Green Giant is with two or three friends. With a team of three and a reverso, you can climb just as fast as two, but now you have two ropes to descend with. With a group of four you would climb as two seperate rope teams, but rappel together. I've done both methods, and they work!

Sometime between 12 September and 7 October I'll be climbing Dreamer on the Green Giant Buttress and replacing all the rappel slings with chains and links. I have plenty of partners lined up for the project, but could use donations to help defray the costs. Please PM me if you're interested in helping out. Thanks

Check with Nomad Ventures in J-Tree. If he's local, they'll know him. http://www.joshuatreevillage.com/515/nv.htm

This happened to me on Mt. Hood. Here's what I did: photocopied my pass, and wrote a polite letter explaining that I missed the posted sign at 3am and was in possession of a forest pass. The ticket was summarily excused. Good luck.