johndavidjr

And on your very next winter climb of Rainier, hopefully not with a $400 "Tarptent," y'all can say how wrong I was, while having a long discussion about whether magical wool underwear is really worth a week's wages. Next August, I'll be sleeping soundly somewhere in the Olympics in delightful weather and a spacious, $19 one-person tent that weighs almost nothing. I can't remember precise quote of a prominent NW climber in the volume in "Cascade Voices" (1998) wherein he distained clients that used Goretex in lieu of crappy coated nylon parkas, which at the time, he found entirely adequate.

A cheap puptent's weight, and its functionality in fending off the ferocious summertime weather of the West Coast, compares favorably with the thrill of sleep in latest and finest jobs made by magic Swedish dwarves or hippie engineers. Builders plastic lacks netting. There is so much hype about backpacking gear out there it makes me ill.

Why does discussion of extremely inexpensive, light and simple equipment for benign summer weather engender hostility? Is it some kind of threat?

The Wenzel is advertised as 25 square feet-- quite large for a one-person tent. A NF 2-person is advertised at 27 SF. The "Ultra lights," like many widely used shelters, don't have flies. There is condensation, but if you never want to experience dampness, never camp out and do move to Las Vegas. Wenzel uses "welded" seams in floor, a technology found in some Marmot and Mt Hardwear tents. Other seams are double stitched, lap-feld. Needs sealing. Arguably more effective than plastic sheeting, another very viable summer shelter. The point is to compare it especially with other tents that are unequivocally summer shelters.

Summarize: Same fabric as Black Diamond Mega/Betamid. Weight little more than two pounds, assuming non-use of provided fiberglass poles. Ten-year warranty vs. ninety days for HS Tarptent and one year for BD. Fully insect-proof with floor and netting. Price is $19 plus change vs $265 for HS Tarptent. Totally viable tent for Cascades summer conditions up to say, maybe, 9,000 feet. Best for one person, but can be used for two people. The HS Tarptent is similarly usuable only for summer. No rainfly. Can be re-sold for at least $130....(see relevant forums).

Tis..a great deal of nostalgia about all the years camping here and there........and seriously I've always admired that owl thing you got up there...very cool and amusing. BUT let's get back to my point. A scrim of cheap coated fabric over your head, perhaps with a bit of bug netting, for less than twenty dollars.......or more than $250.....which is the wiser choice???........ My very light and dirt-cheap tent with mosquito netting was far superior to a simple tarp during July on buzzing coast of Atlantic Canada, and it performed well enough in a couple of Nor'easters and various thunder storms.

I've been camping in Cascades for probably twenty summers.. in past thirty years......and the weather in Nova Scotia that year was worse than anything I've seen high in the Washington mountains. Summer in Cascades, apart from mosquitos, is typically pretty nice, as I'm sure you realize. Nobody would want to use a $300 HS Tarptent in Cascades in winter. But an MSR Twin Peaks or Hex or Black Diamond would be certainly be useable below treeline. A $19 Wal-Mart tent would be okay along Puget Sound, where I spent several weeks camping in winter during a few years back in the seventies, using a rectangular REI tarp. Here in New York area, winter weather is extremely variable. Notably more so than on West Coast. At times, conditions are as bad or even worse than what is typical for winter in Cascades. The current forecast for Catskills over next several days calls for lows in single-digits and winds of up to 40 mph. There is also expectation of a snowfall of more than ten inches. etc. Yesterday the high temps in Catskills were nearly fifty degrees.

My daddy used to sell textiles. They used to make it all in the South to get away from labor unions. Now it's all from Asia. They don't make textiles much any more in the U.S. Mostly it's a "comodity" product. Nobody really pays attention to which factory it comes from. I purchased coated nylon puptent in 1979 for $20 and used it for seven continuous weeks in summer biking in Canada and New England without complaint. Each summer following, I used it fairly intensively until 1990, when my friend abandoned it in Costa Rica for reasons I cannot account for. I had a little problem in a Spring blizzard with this tent in 1982, and cannot recommend this design for really bad weather. I encountered people using similar coated puptents in British Columbia and California earlier during 1970s during summer without complaint. Summer weather is... normally not too bad. That's why lots of people like the three-hundred-dollar Tarptents..........

1.9 ounce polyester is a commodity product and it's not likely that BD acquires this textile from U.S. sources. I'm an idiot and rotten as astutely pointed out by your really warm, smart and good personalities. But the Wenzel tent is a really good deal. These homemade tents are really nice, but for MOST of the Cascades and all of the Sierras in summer, to say nothing of summer on Eastern Seaboard, the super-cheap Chinese versions for less than twenty dollars versus nearly three hundred dollars, offer similar performance. Black Diamond tents, disregarding lack of bug netting, are significantly better, and worth the money. Personally I used a Wal-Mart puptent intensively for more than ten years, and currently use a Hex-3 and an MSR Twin Peaks.

Wenzel's $19.99 tent and Black Diamond Mid both use 1.9 ounce polyester fabric -- essentially a commodity. Wenzel has 10-year warranty. BD a one-year warranty. The HS Tarptents, a 90-day warranty for nearly $300. None have rainflys. They are waterproof.

I've been banned from two backpacking forums for suggesting that a $20 tent http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=8136423 Is something like these tents for ten times the price... http://www.tarptent.com/products.html If you ditch the Wenzel fiberglass poles, the thing weighs slightly more than two pounds by my personal estimate..........gotta apply seam selant..

Sorry about my failed attempt at irony (not a mountain). Never mind.

Back in 70s it was fashionable in some circles of NW to express distain for Whitaker -- either one or both.....can't remember. Guess it had to do with K2 as much as anything. I'm only reporting the facts, not commenting. Beckey doesn't need more credit nor less. He needs to be spared bad biography authors, but won't be.

Such high standards you have? Myself I only read the King James Bible.

Somewhat better article by Timothy Egan appeared in NYT in 1990. Is Egan a better writer than Krakauer? He may have more range, but possibly less depth. Or might be just slightly better. Or somewhat worse, much worse.....whatever....stupid question. I guess I hope Krakauer someday writes Beckey's biography, or Egan. Sure thing that lesser writers will do it also, some of them maybe real hacks. The current NYT article is good enough, but fairly run-of-the-mill. At a somewhat recent lecture tour, Beckey said Krakauer "is too busy making money" to write Beckey's biography... Nice to hear in current NYT item that Mr. Beckey is still trying to write. He's a suprisingly literary and intellectual guy to judge from his books. Must've read lots of novels, though hard to imagine this from his reputation and public speaking. NYT via Seattle Times 4340 words (very long for newspaper article) 27 May 1990 I'M LOOKING FOR Beckey. From peak to valley, from glacier to meadow, from fang to overhang, I hear nothing but talk of Beckey. His name echoes off the salmon-colored granite walls of the North Cascades and rustles through fields of waist-high wildflowers. In the alpine villages on either side of the international border, the barkeeps and minimart merchants all know Beckey. They've seen him, oh yes. Just yesterday, or was it last week? Don't tell me about Beckey, son: I knew him before he was a statue. In Marblemount and Mazama and Hope, tough little mountain towns pressed against the vertical edge of the Cascades, Fred Beckey is the rarest form of legend: one who's still alive.

I have zero ezperience with these packs. My view is, regarding relatively small packs is, it hardly matters what you've got. I carried a Lowe "Snow Peak 50L" pack quite a bit and thought it was just okay. Then I switched to an MEC Brio 50L+ for a bit. They are both pretty good. The MEC pack fits better. MEC has frame sheet which I've removed for longer trips. If fits better and is slighhtly larger than Lowe pack, which came only in a single size. These are fairly small packs and given reasonably minor weight, the choice is trivial. If you load them up, it may start to make a slight difference............

The Web site is separate from downloadable catalog, which has several square feet of purple prose and nudist photos from 70s. Also, if product warranties matter, Stephenson's is sub-par and there are credible allegations of poor customer service in link above. maybe I've got a lower-than-average tolerance for sales hype.

The thing that most immediately jumps out is their very free and highly repetitive use of superlatives in describing their equipment: "the most versatile, simplest, and lightest tents made...performance never equaled.....Most ROOM, for sitting and working ...STRONGEST POLES -7178T6 is much stronger than those in any other tents....The lightest, yet strongest tents made. WARMLITE tents can survive in winds to 160 mph. Extraordinary! " Boy, I'll say! Next time a Class V hurricane hits, I'll move out of my trailer and into a Stephenson WARMLITE tent!! "No one else has the balls to install practicality and make radical experiments in the face of losing the large market of gullible consumers." Ouoooh...balls...yeah baby!!! Sounds like an advertisement in The Old Farmer's Almanac....(my favorite magazine!!!). (Get Rich With Chinchillas!!....Grow Giant Tomatoes!!) Also, regarding Stephensons Warmlite, this link is worth a look; maybe not so cool: http://www.weasel.com/jack.html Let's stress, however, that I imagine their tents are good, extremely expensive and -- a bit delicate perhaps???.... I saw one once at a col in the NCascades (in typically benign summer weather), and an acquaintance used one for a period of time, and liked it okay. They offer a 30-day warrantee.

From what little I know and have directly observed, Warmlight tents are probably okay. In my personal and somewhat informed opinion, their advertising is obviously dishonest. Because of this (I don't like being treated like a fool) and a few other lesser factors, including price, I would never personally consider purchashing their products.

Will open a store very soon. Meantime can you send money??? It will be great. You will love it.

JD I'm sure that's all true, but fortunately, it doesn't change the fact that Olympus has never been climbed in winter.

Despite admirable work that obviously went into the 2006 edition, these answers aren't-- shall we say?-- optimal........ My historical question is, what percentage of the copy from '06 edition, and the several earlier editions, is from Beckey's 1950s work? I'd really like to compare a re-print or facsimile edition of Beckey's first guidebook. I doubt it will be forthcoming. Perhaps it's merely rude and I ought simply not to say this, but having worked a few hours to purchase this latest edition, I'm still thinking of donating or selling it somewhere and keeping my earlier edition.

I love the historical notes in guidebooks. I own both the most recent Oly book and one from the 1980s. Had thought of ditching the new book, because it was mainly the old book in a less attractive format. Am very attached to my older copy, which is holding together pretty well. Also, I love the fact that Mt. Olympus has never been climbed in winter!! Don't change it!!

Imagine, for example, that the North Cascades Highway 20 had never been built and Washington Pass access remained as it was when Becky first climbed there. Or God Forbid, the Cascades River Road were closed. What then? I've been to all these places multiple times and probably without the roads, perhaps I'd never have had the opportunity. Another guy from New Jersey that you locals wouldn't have the chance to run into out there in the endless "wilderness." Is that a bad thing? The other extreme would be perhaps the Alps, where I'm told there are cable cars strung all over the place, and approach hikes are entirely optional. Alternately, in Canada, helicopter use is much more common than in the '48. I'm probably being a bit unrealistic at an arms' length distance of 3,000 miles. But it's a depressingly small world, and I'm of the opinion that these little slivers of so-called wilderness in Washington are enhanced by difficult access. Therefore, I assume you catch my drift.

Other than to contrast him with Manning, I didn't mean to say much about Spring at all.