Montana_Climber

Nah, it looks like he's just using an example. It would be interesting to find out if there are certain times of the year when the down is better quality. That would definitely influence my buying habits for my next down purchases.

I doubt it would be too hard to beat the $60-$112 for a camalot (shit, who can afford those #5s anyway), and still have comparable quality. That's what pro-deals and good friends are for....

I actually like those old BD double axle cams. I think they are easier for cleaning. If you take a piece of 1-1.5 mm accessory cord and run it through the finger pull to the cross piece at the end of the double axles (opposite the cams), you have a few extra inches to work with in the crack. Also, you only have one piece to pull with a cleaning tool as opposed to one on each side with a single axle design.

Won't the solvent in the duct tape glue weaken the slings?

hurricane hand driller will work. it takes a little practice to get a good hole. cost is about 100 bucks. Excellent choice for a hand drill. I think I was reading about a set up or maybe Alex Lowe was telling me about it but at any rate he used a Black and Decker 18 V portable, regular drill, for bolting Hyalite Canyon. He had a system where he made about a 50 ft cord to the batteries that his belayer had his hands on. The belay slave could then change the batteries for him at a rate of about 1 battery per every 2-3 bolts. He also modified the battery pack so that it wasn't your standard rechargeable battery. He upped the storage capacity so that he had a very powerful battery throughout most of the time he was drilling rather than a slow leak of power throughout the discharge. I'll see if I can dig up some more information about it.

I consider a Hotwire I have to be broken. Nothing snapped but the gate is now about 30 degress off of center. I took a 40' fall while aiding at Looking Glass in NC. The hook placement I was on blew, followed by an old fixed pin that snapped, followed by a TCU that had only 2 cams in contact (needed one of those hybrid Aliens). The bolt finally caught me but when I looked up at it, I noticed that the biner was cross-loaded and the gate was wide open. It wasn't the fall that scared me as much as seeing that thing open like that. Other than that, I've never seen a spine or gate snap when placed well. I don't consider carabiners placed on edges in horizontals into this count.

That would be called a +60 degree F (+16 C) gore-tex shell. However, I do have a TNF alpine climber's bag that weighs in at about 20 oz. It's rated to +35 F but with full alpine gear on I've stayed comfortable as low as I've needed to go.

This guy does good work. He made me a patrol jacket when I was at Big Sky.

I like my Wired Bliss cams for weight, width of heads, cost, etc. It's worth checking them out at Wired Bliss

So now to totally change the subject from this thread has gone.... I was wondering about the physiology of oxygen exchange at extremely high altitudes. Take Everest, for instance. The top has a partial pressure of 243 mmHg. Sea level is 760 mmHg. At sea level only 20% of the atmosphere is oxygen and I'm assuming that the percentages remain the same. This would mean that at the top of Everest, the partial pressure of O2 would be about 45 mmHg, nearly the exact same as the pO2 of venous blood in the body. Normally, the oxygen exchange across the alveoli is driven by a very large gradient (at sea level this gradient is about 150 - 23 mmHg for warming/humidifying air which still roughly corresponds to a gradient of about 75 mmHg difference) but at such high altitudes this would not happen according to the above theoretical values. The humidity on the summit is usually somewhere between 40 and 60% (due to being in the jet stream) so perhaps the warming/humidifying effects are not as pronounced. This of course would be assuming that there is no supplemental oxygen. Perhaps for these above reasons, there are so few people who can actually make it to the top without oxygen. Carrying your own would artificially increase the partial pressures, etc, etc.

You are correct in saying that the body is controlled by CO2. There are receptors in the medulla that react to CO2 levels. They also react to O2 and H+ levels but no where near the same as they react to CO2. At first, with decreased oxygen available, the body's stores of CO2 increase until the blood is acidic (respiratory acidosis). In turn, the brain stimulates breathing so that you blow off a great deal of CO2. This is a compensatory mechanism. Diamox is a carbonic anhydrase inhibitor (blocks the formation of carbonic acid) and is a bicarbonate sink. This helps bring down the increased concentration of HCO3- that has developed due to ridding the body of all the CO2. This balancing of the CO2 and HCO3- allows the body to reduce the stresses it is placed under. This is one possible mechanism of the benefits of this drug.

Not necessarily true. Just because you start it doens't mean that you must continue to take it. It doesn't actually relieve any symptoms per se like an aspirin would do for a headache. The best medicines on the mountain are proper hydration, proper sustenance, and proper rest. When one of these is lacking, an alternative like Diamox may be able to help restore it. In a case like lack of rest, one may feel terrible by the day's end. If Diamox is taken that night and the climber can get a good night's sleep, they should be able to recover as long as there isn't a more serious problem like HAPE. If the next day is easy and the climber continues to get good sleep, Diamox is no longer needed, even if continuing much higher up a mountain.

It is a sulfa moiety but it is one that most people can tolerate even when they are allergic to true sulfa drugs like a TMP/SXT combination. If you were interested in finding out if you were allergic, you could take about a quarter of a 125 mg pill. If you felt flushed, had any hives develop, or felt a constriction of your throat, then it wouldn't be advised to try it again. This is also something you would want to do at your home and not test it on the mountain. Diamox (acetozolamide) is a diuretic. How it actually helps you with altitude sickness is not completely known. [i haven't read the link yet so I don't know how much of this is repeat] It is believed to have its greatest effects by allowing a climber to sleep better. This allows for the body to adjust to the conditions more easily and utilize the oxygen present more efficiently. Therefore, it should be taken at nighttime, before going to bed. Since it is a diuretic, the last water consumed should be done at least one hour before bedtime and a last trip to the pee hole is usually necessary to keep you from making several more trips throughout the night.

You could always try some winter mountaineering in Wyoming/Montana/Idaho/Utah (Uintas). It consistently gets down to -30 to -40 F in certain parts. What were you trying in Nepal?

The people I've received information from are testers that do report to magazines like Backpacker, Climbing, and Rock & Ice as well as people in R&D at The North Face. Even they admit that their down bags can't stack up to some of the competition (however, they contend that their synthetics are the best). I was not implying that construction or quality is lacking in the other manufacturers. I am not sure if anyone else uses 36 SPI like Marmot. Feathered Friends, on the otherhand, cannot be beat for custom fitting and changing their templates. They all use the same quality down at 800+ and beyond. FF wins out for the features and customer service, not the workmanship as they are all damn fine bags. I personally went with the Marmot due to cost but I spent countless hours deciding between Marmot, FF, and WM.

The big problems only come with long-term storage. Sort of along the same lines as a sleeping bag but for different reasons (i.e. you don't have to worry about losing loft). Leaving a tent rolled up or tightly stuffed for a long time does create stress areas in the fabric. The best scenario is to hang the tent without any creases or folds if you have the ceiling height and the room. For most people this isn't practical so loosely storing it in a milk crate is the next best thing.

Very true about the drysuits being neoprene. These are diving drysuits. Sailing drysuits are coated nylon. Neoprene is also used in the fishing industry to make waterproof waders. However, I do not think that neoprene is inherently waterproof by itself. After working in an industry with it, I am fairly certain that in order to make it waterproof it must be melded with another fabric as a laminate (or at least coated).

I climbed the Normal Route from Dec 27, 1997 to January 3, 1998. The route had about 400 climbers on it at the time - definitely a circus. It was in the middle of their high season. I'm going back next year and looking to do the Polish Glacier this time or if I have a very strong partner, perhaps the East Glacier. I want to avoid those crowds and scree again as well.

A friend of mine from Germany topped out on March 3. He said he ended up getting a good weather window, probably right after Chilly's bad window. He went up the Normal Route.

The other option is to use the Bergscrhund for Ptarmigan Ridge. The only problem with that is worrying about the avalanches pouring in. I was holed up in that one for 2 days about 4 years ago over Memorial Day weekend. Above that point it really isn't practical until you get to the summit plateau.

I never needed anything bigger than a Cam #4 at Devil's Tower but I'm sure there's some mossy, chossy, OW crammed in between two 3 star climbs somewhere on that rock.

You know Tom Frost designed his Sentinel nuts with extra long cables so that a runner is not needed. They were hell to place due to the flimsiness of such a long cable. The short ones work great for all around climbing, especially on granite. Picture of long cable Dimensions

>>>>Bring us some pictures of Grand Ledge so we can see what we're missing! Where else in the Michigan can you get such nice sandstone? Especially since it's only 40' tall.

If the bolts were put up nearly in a perfectly straight line, the draws would do almost nothing for reducing drag or reducing the chances of a cross-loaded biner. Sewn runners are completely static if they have 3 or more bar tacks in them. I used to work in a production facility for outdoor gear and had the opportunity to test slings, screamers, etc. Since this might bring up another issue, screamers aren't sewn the same way as regular runners and have a "built-in" absorption system. In actuality, the screamers were not very consistent with breaking strengths and ranged anywhere from 150 lbs (body weight) to 800 lbs. If this was a natural route and the guide clipped directly into the cable of a nut would everyone be criticizing the placement just the same? The AMGA also publishes a list of all its certified guides so that a person can check it out if he/she desires. To become an AMGA guide it costs thousands of dollars and requires extensive examinations so not everyone who wants to be a guide will become one. It takes someone dedicated and willing to go through the hassle. I have guided before but never under the guise of being AMGA certified. I am an amateur guide and therefore did not care to spend the money and time in getting professionally certified as a guide. Instead I'm spending the money and time getting professionally certified as an MD so if you need someone to cut you, let me know.

Veaduvoo in Wyoming has plenty of off-widths that'll take a number 5. I don't know of too many other places that have 5.12 OW. Craig Leubben designed the Big Bro pieces for this area. There are off-widths that require 12" placements and are parallel splitters for a 100' or so.