RichardKorry

We are going to a wedding at the Sleeping Lady in mid-Aug and I'd like to set up a few top ropes for my kids (8,5,2). I haven't climbed there in forever and am looking for some ideas. I'm thinking easy (3rd/4th class slab) to very easy fifth class that has a safe base area. I have the white guide book from the early 1990s as my guide so if the area has been developed recently I might need more beta on how to get there. Thanks Richard

I had my red Habler Leki Extremes for ~20 years till I broke one doing something stupid. I bought a new pair and love them. I find that they slip on rare occasions but I'm still happy with them.

+1 on Seattle Running Company In the past (10 years ago?) they had a video camera and a treadmill so they could watch you run and help you decide if the shoes gave you proper support (e.g. prevent pronation). They've done a lot of remodeling so I'm not sure if it is still there. Most of their staff trail runs so they can give you their opinion about what sort of shoe you need. For example, I run NW 50km trail runs and they suggested one type of shoe worked for my types of runs that wouldn't be appropriate for a 100 miler in the desert. Plus they are a big sponsor of lots of local trail runs including the White River 50m.

My $0.02 about NF Tadpole. I have a Tadpole I bought used in 1988 or so. I've put in hundreds of days over the years and I love this tent. However even quality products age so I looked to replace it. bought a new Tadpole at an REI sale but was sorely disappointed. It weighed closer to 5lb than 4lb and I found the quality of the design/sewing had really declined. Specifically, the old Tadpole was cut so it was tight when you set it up. The new style is a sloppy cut and you need to tighten webbing to make it taught. I returned it and have been on the lookout for replacement since. The TarpTent products look really intriguing. Anyone else had any experience with them pro or con?

Glad you made it back and thanks for the great TR. One of the things I've learned from my various epics and near-epics is that I never split up from my partners. More than once we missed our rendezvous and things generally went downhill from there. Your experience underlines that rule for me again. Awesome thinking about using the fumarole to melt snow. I spent two nights out in rain then snow on Shuksan in Oct 1983 while helping out with an accident. Once it became clear that we could die of hypothermia life became really simple. My body went into a different state and I was not hungry, thirsty or tired even though I basically didn't drink or eat for almost 48 hours. Once we finished self rescuing and met the S&R folks looking for us I felt *really* tired and drained. My hands and feet looked like your picture.

PM sent

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Bingo! Thanks

I have a 25 year old Marmot down convertible bag (i.e. a semi-rectangular bag w/out a hood that converts from sleeping one to sleeping two by zipping in a nylon ground sheet). This bag has been my summer bag as well as the one my wife and I used pre-kids on all our adventures. It's been great and I've added more down over the years to keep it warm. But it is definitely showing its age and I'd like to replace it. I checked the Marmot web site and even REI's but they don't seem to have anything like this that I could find. Anyone seen something like this? Thanks!

I lost my partner last minute to do Mt Logan, Fremont Gl route, for Sunday and Monday. Anyone interested in summiting on one of Washington's over 9K peaks? The route is not technical (easy glacier travel, 3rd class rock). I'll drive and provide the food and scotch. Richard

I had a 10 year old camelback bladder leak when crack developed at the screwtop opening. They have since redesigned that part of the bladder. Otherwise I haven't had those problems. I do keep them in a waterproof stuff sack to minimize problems just in case it does leak. And I always bring an extra nagelene bottle as a backup and to make it easier to fill the bladder from trickles.

I've got a free weekend day and the weather appears to be cooperating. I'd be up for the Birthday Tour (WA Pass), Mt Ruth (near Baker), Eldorado (Cascade River Road), or ???? I live in Seattle. PM me or drop me an email to richk at cray dot com. Richard

I've had periodic lower back pain for over 35 years (I'm 52). I also got periodic knee pains whenever I began to train for a longer run (e.g. marathon) and never was able to run one. I did lots of hiking and cycling without too many problems. I've had orthodics for ~20 years. The first set were done by a podiatrist on Roosevelt and 90th and were hard plastic from the heel to the ball of the foot. I wore a flat spenco pad over it for padding. That helped my lower back and knees. Those died when I stepped on a nail on the trail heading up to the Grand Teton. The nail went up through my boot and cracked the hard plastic. Saved my foot though! I then went to BioSports NW which is not Prorobics on Eastlake. I had a cast orthotic that was full length. I am very bowlegged and need the anterior posted 5 degrees to get my leg into a neutral position. This really helped my skiing by allowing me to get onto my inside edge more than I have be able to before. It also helped running and lower back problems. I used these for ~ten years and had lots of success (i.e. no pain) running ultra-marathons, alpine climbing, backcounry skiing, etc. However I still had a tendency to get tendinitis in my knees and I would run with neoprene sleeves over them to keep them warm. Three years ago I got a really bad back spasms while heaving some heavy suitcases and not paying attention to body mechanics. That was a wake-up call that more needed to be done sooner rather than later. I then went to see Donna Bajelis who does a combination of Rolfing/Hellerwork and her own ideas that she calls "Structural Medicine". I'm a total info-mmercial for her as she's reworked my body. I no longer have a "sway back", back pain, tendinitis in my knees, or lots of other problems we tend to get as we age. She's hard to get an appt with and is really pretty expensive. But her type of therapy has really helped me. I still use orthotics for most everyday activies.

New Yorkers have been dealing with radio car thefts for a long time. Starting back in the 80s folks would not replace their stolen radio and leave a note on the car "No Radio". Sometimes they still got broken into with the thieves leaving a "Just checking" in response. This has been a problem as long as there have been trailheads and will continue to be a problem. I don't know of any solution other than getting dropped off at the trailhead. I never leave my wallet in the car; it comes with me. I no longer buy an after-market radio for my car; the stock radio doesn't seem to be the thief magnet that an after-market radio is. When you are on a road trip you are SOL since you have to leave your camping gear, toys that you aren't using (e.g. skis while you are cragging). You have to hope for the best. There are some threads on turns-all-year about parking problems up in Squamish area where the perps are torching the vehicles. Ouch! That hurts!

I looked at the BD Icon and was amazed that it didn't appear to have a lock-out design that prevented it from turning on. That sort of design was one of the nice features of my BD Moonlight. It certainly seemed bright. Does anyone that has used the Icon want to comment on the chances of it turning on in your pack. The Petzl MYO XP does have a lockout feature.

Steve Kobrin (www.stevenkobrin.com) was able to find me a policy that was about 45% cheaper than the best I could get through other insurance brokers. He's in NJ but everything was done by email, phone and FexEx so it was actually pretty painless.

I am still using a SunDog that won in contest 19 years ago. It is a top loader with a zipper that goes down one side that allows you to open it from the bottom to extract your shoes. I think this design offers the best of the top loader/clamshell designs. I personally would not buy a clamshell only design. My two cents... Things I like in crag pack: - enough room for a helmet, shoes, rope, rack - ability to cinch down so its small when all the above stuff is in use - top pocket for things I want easy access to - a "safe place" for keys, wallet, etc. things I don't want to ever "accidentally" to drop off from the 3rd belay. My sundog has pocket where a removable pad is and I use that as my safe place. - I like the removable pad for bivies. The pocket can also be used for hydration bladder.

Climb: Degenhardt & McMillian, South Pickets-S Ridge Degenhardt, W Ridge McMillian Date of Climb: 7/15/2006 Trip Report: I've lived in Washington for over twenty years but I've never been to the Pickets. I finally visited the Southern Pickets with my friend Chris Bretherton this past weekend. We hoped to climb Degenhardt, Inspiration S Face and W McMillian W Ridge over four days. Weather spoiled our plans for Inspiration but we had an excellent time over all. We drove to the Goodell Creek trailhead on Sat picking up our bc permit in Marblemount on the way. We parked at the far north end of the group campground and had some initial confusion finding the start of the trail. The unmarked trailhead leaves from the middle of the campground just north of the large boulder. We consulted the Kearney description and moved the car to just south of the campground to the start of the abandoned logging road. Three guys were gearing up for Terror N Buttress in super-light fashion. We followed the road pushing through the overgrowth for about 1/4 mile till we hit the well maintained trail from the campground (!). The road approach is great with nice views of a major sluff on the opposite side of the river that wiped clean most of a hill side. We had a brief lunch at the second stream and got water for the climb. The location to head up the ridge is well marked with a fire ring and large cairn. The trail climbs the next 2400' in consistent fashion except for some traversing of wooded ridges or laternal moraines at ~3200'. The trail runs next to a large talus slope at ~4000' and after that the next 1000' is straight up with lots of root/tree/bush handholds. We suddenly popped out into the heather with nice views of the southern pickets at ~5000'. The trail from there to the col at 6200' is pretty good. We lost the trail at the second creek crossing. There you should cross the creek then head upstream right along the stream for about 300-400'. The trail comes and goes and there are a few cairns as well until you leave the creek in an upward traverse. We dropped into Terror Basin, stopped to say hi to two guys planning on Inspiration W Ridge for Sunday, and continued our descent another 100' to set up our tent on a lovely rock slab with stellar vistas. We took about 7 1/4 hours which included about 1/2 hr exploring trying to find the trail by the second creek. Sunday we headed up for Degenhardt via the Terror Gl. which was well covered (on 16 July) so we didn't bother to rope. There are some open slots that we were able to do end runs around. We scoped the approach to the S Face of Inspiration and then headed towards the Barrier which turns into Degenhardt's south ridge. We went to the top of the glacier and got onto broken rock, heather benches, and (after taking out the rope) unstable boulders on steep dirt to reach the crest of the S ridge. A short steep section on the ridge was surmounted by a leftward traverse along a ledge system (also roped) which took us to easy scrambling on the west side of the ridge. We did a few more short exposed pitches where the ridge steepened near the summit and crossed some small gendarmes. The roped climbing was mostly 4th class with a few spots of low 5th, but the rock was sufficiently loose in places that we both felt a rope was worthwhile. We didn't find a summit register but we did find a tiny plaque under a rock left by relatives of Degenhardt (his sons perhaps) when they climbed it in 1991. We enjoyed the views and then descended using rap stations we found. We cleaned up old slings at the first station and removed one superfluous biner at another. Our 55m rope sufficed for the rappels. Monday we awoke to clouds shrouding Degenhardt and Inspiration with wisps heading up from the valley below. We decided to bail climbing Inspiration as the wind and the darkening cloud layer sapped our desire. Plan B was to head off to bag W Ridge on W McMillian instead. This is a delightful climb that has great sudden exposure as you come on to the final ridge of the summit. The clouds boiled over the notch and the ridge with the sun periodically showing through. We experienced a Brocken Spectre which was the second time this year. The previous was backcountry skiing at Crystal in January. We returned to camp and headed out to the car this time following the trail mostly without incident. We got to the car after about 5 hours. We ran into a couple of guys packing up for 4 days of "exploring". They had just spent 4 days bush-whacking up McMillian Creek drainage in search of adventure and fueled by a desire of getting away from folks. McMillian Creek is a damn good place to go and not to see anyone! We bid them good luck as blueberry/raspberry shortcake was calling for us at Cascadian Farms down the road. At the col at 6200' above Terror Basin Terror Basin Terror Glacier Chris climbing on the South Ridge of Degenhardt with Mt Baker in the distance Brocken Spectre on McMillian W Ridge Gear Notes: 55m single, light rack, ice axe, crampons Approach Notes: Trail is in great shape. Snow patches near the 6200' col. I wish I wore gaiters on the approach in to keep the dirt/snow out of my boots

I've done it in Mid-August in a slightly higher than normal snow year in 1997. I would guess that this year would have similar conditions. We encountered no crevasse problems. We only roped up once on the Le Conte to get around one crevasse. Otherwise everything was filled in. We did witness two large ice fall/avalanches. The first was traversing over to get onto the Le Conte. A house size chunk of snow slid off slabs high above our traverse and came down about 100 yds in front of use. Yikes! The second was on our approach to Dome from Itswoot Ridge. This was the size of subdivision and we were about 1/4 mi away. The ice chunks in this one were quite impressive. We went in on Sunday night and came out Fri afternoon and only saw people Mon AM and Friday PM. We hit lots of bugs at most of the campsites. In 1997 someone had done some major pruning in the Bachelor Creek drainage so the trail was OK. You don't want to get lost as the whacking is very slow through the 2 miles of slide alder. It's an awesome trip that I'd be happy to do many more times.

Pre-kids I climbed alot. I ran into this insurance climbing nonsense while trying to get a short term policy to cover a 6 month vacation that included lots of climbing. Post kids I got a policy since I was able to truthfully say I hadn't been climbing for two years. I've restarted climbing and wanted to get another policy but found having climbing (and reaching 50) really jacked up the prices. I found Steve Kobrin on the web (he's located in NJ) and he was able to get me a policy that was 1/2 the price I was being quoted through local agents. It's still not as cheap as not climbing but it was much more reasonable. I've seen his add in the climbing rags as well. Although he is an insurance agent (i.e. he will try to convince you to buy as much insurance as possible) I found him easy to work with and he got me the goods so no complaints. Regarding lying - if you had a big policy the insurance company will certainly spend a little money to see if they can legally not pay you by voiding your policy. Insurance investigators will do this for fires (could this have been arson?), etc. It's in their financial interest to do a minimum of reseach. You might have luck trying to get them to explicitly paying out for climbing accidents. I tried that but didn't find any interest. You might try bringing skiis along on anything you do so you can call it "ski mountaineering" not "climbing".

I think before the recent detours were installed around Glacier Pk this segment was ~68mi. Seems like it is now around 74mi. I'm certain this has been done sub-24 hours. In the ultrarunning world doing 74 miles in sub-24 without support would not be that unusual. I read about a guy that did the Wonderland Trail (~90mi) in just over 24 hrs unsupported other than he left himself 2 caches. Here's a segment from a website http://www.montrail.com/assets/Misc%20Copy/horton_log.htm that describes David Horton's hike day-by-day. Here he does ~97 miles in 2 days. This is after 2500 miles he's already done. Day 64 – August 6 To Trinity Trailhead on Temporary PCT Detour Route: Three Days to Go A satellite phone call came in last night (at 2239) after we had already gone to bed. Then, we left for a hike up White Mountain in the Inyo National Forest at 5AM. Thus, my apology for not getting this out until our return tonight. Krissy Sybrowsky left a message indicating that David Horton completed 51.0 miles in 18:19 with a 0400-start yesterday, 8/6/05. This was his hardest effort yet on the PCT. He should now be at 2540.2 miles total on the PCT (with 56.3 + 30.5 + 39.1 miles to go the next three days to the finish). Scott Jurek paced him the whole day. If I understand the message correctly, Scott McCoubry met him/them with aid part way during the day. Stephanie Patterson and Krissy met him/them at Boulder Pass and then went back 11 miles with them to the finish. John Wallace and Patti Haskins set up camp. Day 62 – August 4 A tough day shared with Scott Jurek. The two completed 46.4 miles in 15 hours and 23 seconds. They endured 13,600 feet of climb and 11,200 feet of descent. Tonight they will camp on the trail with the mosquitoes. Leah Jurek, Jon Wallace and Patti Haskins hiked in all of the camp gear and were making dinner when the duo arrived.

My well used 14+ year old NF Tadpole (I bought it used in 1991) is still working well except for the zippers. The sliders were wearing out and it was starting to get difficult to prevent the zipper from separating. I brought it back to the Seattle NF store for a warranty repair and got it back with new zipper and pulls in 2 weeks. So even if NF just makes poser gear these days they still stand behind their good stuff from long ago... I bought their new version, Tadpole 23, last year but took it back to Return Every Item. The quality just isn't there anymore. They used to cut the tent materials so the tent would get taut when you set it up. Now they cut it with lots of slack so you need to pull all the webbing tighteners to tighten it up and it still isn't really taut. And it was almost a pound heavier than the old one = about 5lbs rather than just over 4lb.

Toast, read your PMs

As a fellow old guy I can really appreciate this TR! Great suff! Ibuprofen - The staff of life. == We call it Vitamin I... the drug of choice

I was surprised that noone else had been there but since there isn't any class 2 way up I guess it shouldn't be that surprising. Did you climb any other of the Top 100 on that trip?