RideT61

Sounds like Thailand comes pretty highly recoomended. Thanks for the thoughts ken4ord. I'm tring to stay away from alpine for the reasons you mentioned. She is a pretty good climber (leads 5.9 and follows 10's) but doing apline routes (which can be stressfull anyway) sounds like a bad idea. At least somewhere tropical, we can skip the climbing and do other things if we feeel like it. Any other ideas?

Hi Squid! Shhhhh! Nobody knows yet. Well, almost nobody. I haven't sprung the news on the family yet, I'm waiting until I have that little expensive cicular thing you wear on your finger. Or more appropriately, she wears on hers.

After Googling Dru's suggestions I have to say he seems to know what he is talking about. Those places look great. Anyone been there or somewhere in the Pacific that they liked?

I'm not sure what I do can actually be called "climbing". Maybe flailing would be a more appropriate term. That being said. Peak hiking since '85 Rock flailing since '98

I should have known DRU would be the first to respond, thanks for the ideas.

Looks like I'll be making the plunge soon . It is a bit scary but the fact that she suggested we go climbing on the honeymoon makes me feel better . So... here is the question. Where should we go? I would prefer someplace warm, not in the US, with lots of sport climbs in the 5.7-5.11 range (it's easier to bring a bunch of QD's than a trad rack). Cheap, clean accomidations would be nice too. Any suggestions? Thailand, Mexico, France?

There were some old bolts on the arete next to the chimney pictch of the lizard the last time I was there. I'm not sure if they have been changed or not but the route looked like fun but I wussed out because of the old 1/4" bolts and the fact that I'm a crappy climber and knew I would be falling on them...

http://www.paddleguides.com/rivers/washington/ The WKC (Washington Kayak Club) has a site. It also has a link to a yahoo page for lacal paddlers. If your interested in getting out sometime, let me know. I'm a claa III king of guy and have a few friends who are much better.

Sewn runners (not home made ones) are stronger. Realistically though, that should never be a concern, if your generating enough force in a fall to break a runner (>22kN) your doing something wrong.

I mispoke. I meant eVent not epic. eVent is very breathble (relative to other wpb's and very waterproof.

A few intesting thoughts so far. I agree, simple is good. The pack will be sleek and light without a frame (just a removable bivy pad)and about 2800 cubic inches. As for Dru's idea. Maybe with enough helium in my pack I could solo 5.14! The idea of incorporating a harness into the system is interesting. It would be nice on the climb but I think it might be a bit uncomfortable on the approach. It would save some weight though. My hipbelt will be removable. As for the fabric choice, I'm not using 100% spectra fabric, I'm using 140 d ripsop (only the ripstop gris is spectra). 100% spectra is MUCH more expensive and not THAT much more durable.

Thanks, already included. Wow, you guys are just full of ideas.

I wish I had 30 (or more) days to volunteer.

I'm making an alpine pack (something like the Andinista only a bit smaller)using a simple harness and hipbelt from a lightweight pack and some ripstop dyneema fabric (by far lightest and most durable for the price ). I have a pretty good idea of what I want but thought it might be interesting to see what ideas I could get out of this place. The pack will have: A removable pad, utilize 3/4" webbing (instead of 1" to save weight) an extention collar and removable floating lid, 3 point haul pounts... what else should I consider?

What was it Colin didn't like about the epic tent? I test lots of fabrics at work and know that epic does have better breathability than other wpb fabrics. Below freezing no wpb fabric breathes because the water vapor freezes and can't pass through any wpb fabric.

Chestbeater, He admits it is arbitrary. He has a goal and is doing it as well as he can. First of all, the boat is not that expensive but is is true he didn't built it himself. Where should he draw the line? She he make his on climbing gear? If so, should he mine the metal and smelt it himself. Should he have not only built the boat, but cut down the trees and milled the wood himself? Your right, he isn't doing it in the purist style possible (in my opinion truly pure style is almost impossible). He is just doing it the best way he can in memory of a freind who died whilke he was belaying him. Is it perfect no, but I doubt you made the podoium your preeching from.

Sorry Chestbeater, but your facts are wrong. Erden did ride back from Denali and he also brought along all of his personal climbing gear for the trip. Does it compare with Kropp's feat? Who cares? Erdan seems to be enjoying it. By the way, have you heard about the rest of his plan? In my opinion circumnavigating the globe with bikes and rowboats (not to mention climbing the highest peak on every contininent along the way) is pretty impressive. Even if he does have to make a few compromises as to what he brings along. I suppose you think he should hunt all of his own food too?

I do ingnore it. It's the rest of the dumb bastards out there that think they need all the new crap I pity. Between my job in a lab and time on the mtn, I know what works. I just think it could be much better if designers were engineers instead of artists.

I haven't. Metolius has to wait until BD's patent on double axles expires next year before they can even market it. Apperently they didn't know this until BD told them. Oops, must be smoing a little to much ganja down in Or.

You mean you can afford to but the crap marketing tells us we need. I hate marketing!!!!

I don't have numbers but it is not as bad as I thought it would be. I'd say a bit heavier that the equivalent Camalot.

Aside from the usual suspects: Tooth, Chair Peak, Index, TC on Dragontail and the other stuff in the "Selcted Climbs" books, does anybody have any favorite alpine winter routes. I've been thinking that the west ridge of Stuart might be fun if the avy conditions on the approach (an omnipresent concern in the winter) were minimal. Any thoughts?

I break climbing gear for a living. I addition I get to test out outdoor fabric and other gear on a regular basis. The obvious advantage to this is that I have a pretty good idea of what gear (climbing/camping/clothes) works well. On the down side I am now aware of how poorly most designers are. If they concentrated a bit more physics and funtion rather than visual appeal gear could be much better. Unfortunately, most companies make gear that sells instead of gear that works. This is most true when it comes to technical clothing.

I've managed to get my hands on one and play with it quite a bit. It is easy to place and reasonably good action. It is obviously a bit on the heavy side but considering the range it is a fair trade off (particularly on easy alpine climbs where you don't want/need to carry much gear but need to cover a good range of sizes). As an added bonus, the cam is very resistant to walking when placed at the smaller end of the range. This is because of additional lobes in contact with the rock preventing it from having a "pivot point".

Ruth for the views of Shuksan Coulchuck NBC-sick fun... but not too hard Cannon Mtn. N Couloir-long late spring run Anything it the area North of Lake Weantchee (Entiat Dakobed mtns-tons of lines from sick to mellow with nobody around)