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Not this year so it's only a partial. A few years back I supervised a large bulding facility dept. On the 31st we circulated a memo that informed all that the telephone system maintenance was due. As this involved forcing compressed air through the wireing to clean dust from the system, would everyone please put there phone in the trash can when they leave to help reduce the mess. I don't know which was better, counting all the phones in the trash or meeting people later that had figured it out after a day or two.

Ya, my bad it was the Coquihalla. Same tripp differant part. I think the answer is still to kick back and enjoy the ride but the TC is not as fun

Matt, There is a little to be said for the "bouldering " mentality. Climb short hard stuff and get good I'm not into climbing hard, I'm into climbing for fun. So I don't usually push it much and am comfey at the 5.10ish when I go there. This past summer I had one of those epiphanies. I was leading a summer camp class and one of the kids asked "how would you climb that?" It was a pretty stiff 40' - 50' pitch, I was kinda showin off for the kiddies and kinda takin my one shot at not coaching but climbing. I grabbed a top rope and then move by move told and showed them how to climb in a thought out manner and took breaks if I need it really thinkin through my technique. That night the guide said that I had done a 5:12 Point is the advice of not takin the guide, tell yourself your comfortable , and go for it, really works. I'd lie if I said I wasn't a little worked over but I was stoked when I found out I had jumped 5.10 to 5.12 even if the guide was off a little. Go climb like your good and have a blast

Josh, sorry to here that your venture into BC was a bummer. I would hav eto agree with your observation that in general the pepes are cool. I haven't done TC1 in a long time but the real trick was to just relax and go along for the ride. If I remember right the builder was a real shakespere fan and many of the markers were names rather than Km's I travelled it a few times (back when the rocks were still warm ) and just had to kick back and figure out what was in the guys head here. Glad to here the rest of the trip went off good

Ain't worth the powder to blow it to hell. You can't push a rope. Might as well can't dance.

Klenke, Thats the stuff I was thinkin of. I love the blue of crevasses, just not so sure I like the random observation times . The cracks I was thinking of are usually visible in the spring on lower glaciers. Sometimes if there is brief warm wet spell in winter, small to medium cracks get filled with water. When the weather gets cold again this freezes as pure water ice. Later in the spring thaw they are sometimes seen as blue streaks in the surface as the top melts to expose them. I didn't know of a problem with them. My buddy said that what he saw was more like a big patch on the surface, still never heard of it. Thanks everyone for the replies. Maybe he was seein things too

A friend stopped by today at my job and wanted to know about blue ice. He said he ran into some and remembered from somewhere that it was dangerous. He wanted to know what it was. I told him that the only blue ice I had encountered was in veins where water had seeped into cracks and then froze. The problem I saw with it was that it would signal a discontinuity in the ice. I also told him I was no expert on ice. He said it didn't look like any kinda "vein." Anybody out there know of other forms of "blue Ice" or what the danger might be (or isnt)?

Bug, your right about the realistic number. It would be cool to see a few more though, the differant routes meet at the top would be sweet hard to coordinate the arrivals though. I am also available on the May 28-30 weekend and the June 11-13. If things start to get more serious I can probably make the last one too.

If it's a plan, I want to throw my hat in too. As of right now I have weekends at the end of May and the first two in June available. If we get too many together ya think we'll get mistook for mounties?

Yah I've been around boats a bit. I use spectron 12 riggin a bit too. When I fly people I use the 5/64" spectron, 1600lb rated ultimate strength and real light weight. I like it stretching less than wire as a side bennie. A little bigger and it would be bomber on a fluke.

I think it would work. Using a long fid it is not too hard to place a smaller line inside a larger jacket, (common practice on Halyards where a larger diameter tail is needed for handling). A small lashing would serve to keep it in place. I think if I tried that I would be tempted to use something like spectron twelve or one of the braided spectra cords. Too little give for normal use but not any worse than wire. I know ameribraid by Samson has each strand urethane coated and the twelve strand construction is great at not holding water.

not exactly a "malfunction." When I was in junior high cross country the guys team was still doing their warmup calistenics, the girls had finished and where doin a few easy laps. We were doin jumping jacks and just before the girls passed by the kid behind me reaches forward and pulles my shorts down around my ankles. I didn't stop quick enough and so did a little hop followed by a faceplant. There I was bare assed with jock strap waiving at the girls who were laughing their way past on the track

I'm ready to think about a wrist worn altimeter watch. The challenge is keeping it around. I don't know what it is but when I have worn electronic watches in the past I burn batteries (usually dead within 3 months), or the electronics spaz on me. I havn't tried any in a few years as I got tired of trading them in all the time. Anybody have similar experience or recomendation that would help. I have not tried a watch only for use in the hills so I can't rule out some enviromental thing, but I would rather not buy another toy that won't work without resonable grounds for the experiment. thanks

I'd have to think on that one a little more. My immediate thought is that if you fully extended your rope and than fully extended a screamer as well, that is a lot of force resisted and you wouldn't want that to hit your screw directly anyway. There may be a slight shock load in this scenerio as the rope would not recover any significant amount while the screamer is popping.

UC San Diego a few years back I was in a class on airflow dynamics, we had a hilarious discusion of farts "following" you as you walked do to the windshadow effect. This led to a discussion of breaking the vacumn by performing a piroette while you advanced. Informal testing showed that it worked. We followed later with advanced theory of "transfering" the fart to someone else. If they are walking a differant course and you do your piroette right behind them it is possible to have your deed carried away on there tail. Not a great way to pick up the woman but who cares, it's all in the name of science. College was such fun

Strnge but didn't find it on a trip, A few years back I was working at a boatyard. I got aservice call to fix a pump. When I went out I ended up at about 500 ft altitude about 4 miles from the closest water. This old guy had started building a 30 meter Barkentine up there and was still going at it. No docks so we had to climb a tree to get on the deck so I could fix his grey water pump

I think this one worked out well. I had been "negotiating" with some of the local prop owners that were a little hesitant. When I was able to produce a copy of the law, they were cool with me exploring and possibly developing. Good on that, I havn't found any good rock yet It's all good. The way the law reads the owners are not to charge a fee of any kind. If the property use is for gathering and removing firewood they may charge a $25 admin fee. I guess if a garden a new route I have to leave all the wood at the base.

Not the natural celestial stuff, but, about 5 weeks ago I got to see just how much junk there is up there. I was east of Lake Whatcom wandering in the woods a little over an hour after sunset. When I looked up I did a double take when I reckognized that I was seeing Three satelites all in what looked like a very loose formation.

I don't think the deal is about someone thinkin him a gonner. I figured the same, not too many come out after four days of no food or water especially if they started with no gear. for comin out alive and keepin his act together. I see the deal bein about sayin he was stupid for a day of skiin. If we find out later that he went out intending to epic he made a stupid decision, if he was lift skiin and planned on stayin close it wasn't stupid. Let's give him a chance. Hindsight is 20/20 as the man says. Thats how we all learn.

Scotty, your right about the climbing and similarity. I figure wer'e arguing the same point. i will admit upfront that I don't always carry everything I am "supposed" to. I do take what I think I need. When I go with a partner we take what we feel we need or we don't get along too good. Sometimes I epic cause I didn't bring the right shit, sometimes I bring way over just cause I'm taking a newbie that don't know crap. I do think it a little harsh to second guess someone elses decision if ya don't know how he came to makin it. Even if it is true that I was stupid, I don't want to here it without a chance to with my accuser.

Arlen There is a device that is similar to that. AlpineK would be the one to ask. The Arborist folks use a device that goes around a tree limb and then they run the climbing lines through the rings. It's function is to save friction on delicate species. It comes out of a tree pretty good. I would think it would get hung up on the way down. The tree folks tell me there is even a way of putting it on from down on the ground (heaving line?) without ever being at the top. Alpine you know anything about these?

K4 I think the friction would come in the Bachman, the turns that you take cause the fibres in the cordolette to be across the fibres in the rope. That gives real good bite if you need it but, if your knot is a little tight the action of raping could wear on the cordolette. If need be I would rather retire a cordolette than a rope but i would probabley use a differant technique if the rap was sketchy and I was going to ride my back up anyway

That gizmo made by the guy up at Henry Field (snohomish airport)? A while back I saw something like this, he had it strapped on his back and was wearing a parasail. He was trying to pass it off as an ultralight not havin much luck tho. suffered periodic crashes

Damn Kids, now I'm gunna have to get up off my lazy ass and get busy. My Niece was by yesterday for a christmas visit. She had to show off her engagement ring and all that. Then She says that the plan is to get married early summer of 2005 (he is scheduled to spend time overseas, Army) and delivers this little bomb. They want a special honeymoon and plan to summit Denali, would I please go with them. We had a brief chat about it. I haven't been on anything taller than Shasta in 12 yrs. They have never been on anything taller than that. I took em up Shasta last year their both pretty decent. It was cool that they wanted to have me go with them. They met rock climbing and we have done some lesser peaks as I can take em. We talked about gettin in shape and all that, both of them are pretty stoked about it. I plan on a more serious talk soon about "Denali ain't quite the same as Rainer" . So we'll see how it goes and I may pester some of you about gettin it together. Oh well I didn't want to get fat anyway.

I had to vote for always, not quite true. I like to check out new stuff as often as possible. The cordolette always goes when it's new. If I am headed to somewhere I've been and i don't need it, I usually leave it behind.