Rad

Ditto. Thanks for posting

Are you "Master of your own world"?

A friend did Colchuck last weekend via the Glacier and said conditions were good. Plus the permit season for overnighting hasn't started yet. Good place to look look around at bigger challenges for next time too I assumed, perhaps mistakenly, that he was looking for rock routes.

Those will be covered in snow. Snow Creek Wall should be fine, but it will be CROWDED. Icicle Creek had more climbers than ticks last weekend! (And I saw plenty of ticks)

The art and science of route setting at the Feathers? Naah, not here Art: Deciding which piles of choss could be good routes if cleaned and which ones should remain undeveloped choss. Science: Placing bolts and anchors so that climbers will be safe.

Folks, the reality is that route development is not consensus activity. No route developer I've ever met polls climbers to ask if a line would be worth developing. They have a vision and inject passion, hard work, and their own money to try to make it happen. Sometimes the results are great. Sometimes they're horrible. You can't please all the people all of the time. Personally, I try to think about what the near-term and long-term impact of developing a line will be. There are a lot of elements that go into the science and art of route development. There are a lot of mistakes to avoid, and there is usually not any training or mentoring for these people. I'm not an expert, but if you have questions feel free to send me a PM and if I can't answer your questions I can at least connect you with smart, experienced and thoughtful people. I would at least hope that anyone embarking on this understands that climber access to public lands depends on being good citizens and resources users. One or two bad acts can quickly undo a lot of good work by climbers working with land managers. Climb on, brothers and sisters.

I was disappointed in the NYTimes piece. The events of this year need to be viewed in the context of the Steck incident last year and a long history of wealth disparities and tensions across the client/guide/sherpa caste system. The best article I've seen on the Everest mess is the interview in R&I: http://www.rockandice.com/lates-news/enough-of-misinformation-the-truth-of-everest The last question and its answer say it all: "Do you think any teams will climb the South Col route without Sherpa support this season? No, highly unlikely unless they are true climbers. Certainly not a commercial expedition."

Beautiful

Maybe a big plastic owl on ledges for popular climbs would encourage birds to choose another spot on the wall to nest...

Matt, Can you post it here when it comes out. Thanks, Rad

Thanks. Maybe someone should post this at the trailhead by the Country so it will be seen before people hike up the hill. R

Ben's blog suggests parts of the UTW are closed due to nesting falcons. Anyone know what routes are affected? Thx

Awesome Ben! Congrats on Hazel, school, being healthy, and your route. What could be better!

My 2 cents: The world is rapidly shifting away from laptops and PCs to mobile devices. Probably the biggest single thing you could do is to improve the UI on mobile devices. The NYTimes and Facebook have done this nicely. Granted, they are large players. Mountainproject has also gone over. Don't get left at the desk when people go out and climb!

New policy looks fine. This is just the next step in the nice-ification you've been doing for some time. I sometimes worry that you'll be cutting out the dead wood without replanting anything to take its place. And I like Ivan and Tvash despite -nay, perhaps because of - their brash behavior. Do you have a plan for attracting new eyeballs and posters? Is cleaning out the deadwood the first of many steps along that path? Here's a possible next step: add a bouldering forum. There's probably a lot more bouldering in the PNW than ice climbing, and the bouldering scene seems to be growing faster than any other aspect of our sport. Surely content on ethics, environmental stewardship, new areas, and land use issues will be of interest to readers. Another idea: think about making the site more like a wiki, where people can contribute and connect content. At present it's all little dead-end threads that are not cross connected except by Google. As an aside, I've never found the search tools useful within the site and just use Google to find threads I'm seeking. Some better organization and searchability, with indexing and keywords, might make the site a better planning tool. That's my 2 cents.

Actually, Ivan, you've captured the biggest way I save weight: don't carry water. Look at the map and identify water sources along your route. Hydrate well at the trailhead, plan to hydrate at each water crossing, carry as little as you can in the intervening regions. That said, serious dehydration will cause you serious problems, so be careful. Other messages above sound very reasonable.

But who can unlearn all the facts that I've learned As I sat in their chairs and my synapses burned And the torture of chalk dust collects on my tongue Thoughts follow my vision and dance in the sun All my vasoconstrictors they come slowly undone Can't this wait 'til I'm old Can't I live while I'm young?

Confuse what you can of the ending And revise your despise so impending 'Cause I soak on the wrath That you didn't quite mask I'm getting it clearly through alternate paths Or mixed in with the signal you're sending

If accidents and tragedies don't rattle your cage and make you think, then you need a brain, like the straw man, and a heart, like the tin man.

Tvash: the door is black. Rob: But the roof is red! Tvash: No, idiot, the door is black. R: Roof is red yadda yadda yadda T: Beebly bobbly bum! R: Kibbly Kobbly Kum! Zzzzzz.

Might want to watch this forecast as part of your prep: http://www.nwac.us/avalanche-forecast/current/mt-hood/

I know someone who was rear-ended hard in a car, was offered a ride to the hospital, and refused to go. He then tightened up over the next 48 hours and has had lingering back problems since. Adrenaline was probably what had him feeling no pain immediately after the accident. Later on, insurance refused to pay anything because he'd denied care at the scene. Might have been better to go to the doc right away to get checked out, or so he thinks now.

I agree also, sometimes its nice to enjoy the alpin slowly I agree as well, but it's sure nice to climb wo bivy gear on your back.