fenderfour

I like this thread. You have a raft of local climbers advising against climbing the route due to safety concerns and you have some non-locals who are completely disregarding the advice. We really are just trying to hoard the sweetness of the route for ourselves. On a serious note: Fuggedaboudit and jcclimber - Be careful up there. Move fast and be safe.

$15 at Target (Say Tar-jay) Gerber Ridge, 1.4 oz

Neat, but not what I would call full strength at 4-6 kN.

REI cheapo padded gear sling ($15?). On alpine trips I will usually use a 1" shoulder sling. There's less bulk and a little less weight. For aid I use a double sling with no padding. I need to pony up $80 to get a nice bigwall rack...

Update: He didn't schedule me for Thursday, so I emailed him today saying that I can meet after 11:30 on Thurs. He emailed me back saying to meet at 10:30 on Thurs. I emailed him back that I can meet after 11:30 on Thurs. Maybe this is why I have no desire to play the mandatory games with women -- I'm already spent playing games with him. Sounds like a cop-out to me.

I have always clipped past with one biner as you described. There is a way to twist the rope as you are unclipping that will clip the rear part of the rope in as you go by. It would be near impossible to describe without showing you. One way to reduce the sketch factor is to have 2 pieces clipped into the rope at any one time. That means more pro.

That is so horrific and disgusting and awesome, all in one.

O positive makes you ordinary.

Blocked by snow. It's not terribly deep, but you will get stuck if you are driving anything less than a full-on 4x4 with aggressive tires. When I say full on 4x4, I'm not talking about something you would buy at a dealership. In short, sack up and walk the mile. One of these would do the trick:

I scouted road conditions last weekend. The road to Colchuck/Stuart Lake TH is blocked about 1.25 miles from the TH. The trail is pretty good to the Stuart/Colchuck split. The trail continues toward Stuart Lake. The way to Colchuck hasn't seen traffic in a while. The snow aon the way to Colchuck was knee-deep mush on Sunday afternoon. I didn't make it in to check conditions on any routes.

stinky weaselteats - the second best avatar name ever behind thadsboner.

Most cams with machined stops can be placed passively. I would never use them this way unless I had to. But then again, if I had to, I'd hammer a cam in like a bashie if it was going to save life or limb. I would recommend that you read the literature that comes with the cams. The manufacturer knows their product a little better than the average joe.

This is the outing that always pisses everyone off. The whole class will be inhabiting the Icicle Canyon on 4/16 and 4/17. We stay in areas like Mountaineer's Dome, Clamshell Cave, Playground Point, and Madsen's Dome. As a small consolation prize, we stay away from Castle Rock. We had an unpleasant exchange with a gentleman on Mt Erie who intended to teach some young boys how to climb. I'm sure those boys learned a lot that day, including how not to talk to people if you want something from them. I'm not thrilled that we have an outing like this, but it's a necessary evil. Please bear with us.

I think the conversation is about truly frameless pack such as the Wild Things Icesac and the CCW Chernobyl. They have no internal stays, just a bivy pad.

70 liters is a big pack for alpine. If you like a frameless pack check out the Golit Gust or Jam.

knock-knock-knock.... Postman: Special Delivery, sign here. CBS: <signs> Sweet! The new issue of "Barely Tied"

Dammit! I was going to have a nice quiet weekend with my friend acting as ropegun to get me up Deirdre and Banana Peel, maybe even toprope Burgers & Fries.

Well, I haven't died yet, but I will stop using it. To tell the truth, I hadn't even noticed the knot roll in the manner described. EDK All the way!

The American Death Knot is another option - A figure eight knot tied with both ropes. Leave a long tail with this one as well.

Steve Fox has a list of winter summits and their relative avalanche potential as well as their relative level of exposure. Find it HERE

Cascade crags was reducing their inventory to focus on climbing. They liquidated all of their paddling stuff, non-climbing clothing, packs, etc... I know, Alpine is climbig too, but they don't see it that way.

I've been really happy with the Patagucci stretch element jacket that I picked up on the cheap from reioutlet. I have a simple windpro fleece that I usually layer under it and a Feathered Friends Helios jacket for when it gets cold.

Wa Pass closed yesterday while we were screwing around. The road didn't seem to bad as my Subaru made it out without incident, but it was closed nonetheless. FYI - We saw about 12 inches of powder fall yesterday in the Cutthroat Peak area.

I sweat like a pig while I'm climbing and I get some gnarly cramps in my quads and hamstrings. The sport and sport-recovery drinks didn't do anything to help. I tried Emergen-C and it didn't help either. Finally I tried dramitcally increasing my salt intake while climbing. I figured that I was losing a lot of salt in my sweat, and I just needed to replace it to feel better. Now for the nasty (sounding) part: I carry a dry boullion cube in my pocket and nibble off a bit from time to time and wash it down with a swig of water. No more cramps. It's way cheaper and lighter than a bunch of drink packets that make your water bottles smell funny.