markharf

www.turns-all-year.com. Queries are most effective when accompanied by description of your skiing interests, abilities and experience.

This is absolutely right. I crampon a lot with old, beat-up running shoes and aluminum ("Big Red") cramps. Usually I'm carrying skis and boots, and usually I'm moving pretty fast, to the surprise of those wearing full-on gear. This works for anything non-technical, especially if someone else has kicked steps or if the pitch is relatively mellow. In warm weather I don't worry about getting my feet wet either: what's it matter? On a hot day, my feet will get completely sweat-soaked in plastic, leather or goretex anyway, so I pay no attention unless I start to seriously posthole. I've always got dry socks and ski boots for the downhill. On the other hand, I'd hesitate to advise that a beginner (especially one with an apparent selective hearing disability) do this. I'm reasonably experienced, carrying alternate foot gear, and prepared to accept the consequences should I misjudge the weather, the route, my own fitness, or anything else. What's more, technical ascents are another story, as are cold weather and high altitude. Baker on a nice day: no problem. Rainier: probably not. Stormy weather: you'd be asking for trouble, but with the benefit of experience would probably be ok. Water ice.....laughable (but you wouldn't be using aluminum crampons regardless of your footgear preferences). [/opinionated pontification]

Have a TI-82 and it's getting dusty. PM if interested.

You sound a bit out of your depth. If so, best proceed with caution, especially if it's also out of your friends' depth. climbing conditions: http://www.shastaavalanche.org/reports.htm avalanche report: http://www.shastaavalanche.org/advisory.htm Plus, as everyone will tell you, The Fifth Season. There are also a few guidebooks. Don't know your route, but I've skied on Green Butte Ridge (which is the direct route from Bunny Flat to connect with Sargents Ridge somewhere around 12,000 feet), and I sure wouldn't head up that way without snowshoes or (preferably) skis. Enjoy, Mark

Hydration and bananas—one before, one during.

Yeh, I remember their goose down parkas and sleeping bags. Back then, Abercrombie and Fitch sold overpriced gear to old-money hunters and fisherman. Retail outlets reinvent themselves, for better or worse. Often they do go bankrupt, at least temporarily—whether from mistaken reinventions or failure to move with the times. If there's a demand for climbing gear, someone will be along to sell it. That "someone" might not be REI forever.

http://www.nps.gov/lavo/

Rusumo has changed since I last saw it, early in 1995. Here's a trip report of sorts. The Road to Rusumo In Rwanda, the road to the border at Rusumo drops east out of lush volcanic mountains into hot, dry lowlands, the vegetation becoming sparse, the soil dry and cracked. In each town is a church, and it was to these churches that people fled for sanctuary during the genocide— dozens, sometimes hundreds of men, women and children huddled inside each one. The killers came with hoes, shovels and machetes, and they cut tendons so that people could not flee, then took them outside one at a time and hacked them to death. This was tiresome work, and when the killers grew weary they stopped to eat and smoke and talk. At the end of the day they went home to sleep, returning the following day to continue: working steadily but without haste, sharpening their tools and killing their neighbors. In some cases this went on for days. They say the smell was terrible, and that the rivers filled with corpses. It is ten years since I rode through those lowlands at night—darkened buildings and empty fields and death in the wind—and listened to the stories the survivors told each other again and again. Some looked for the ways of telling that might heal; others spoke only of the evil that resided in those others, a half-million strong in the camps just across the Rusumo Bridge. Later, I rode through the camps and I saw those people too, and I saw the people who had come fleeing earlier massacres. Ten years ago—and twenty and thirty—they came, fleeing terrors real and imagined, the implements of cultivation and harvest, the hard and unseeing eyes of their neighbors. There is a Rwanda in every place I have been, and in all the people I meet. (Mark Harfenist)

My highly opinionated take on the situation: In a general sense, one who needs to ask advice about cheap airfares on a climbing website should probably stay clear of revolutions in progress. On the other hand, your status as a wealthy (relative to local standards), American, noncombatant tourist will usually protect you. Besides, with certain notable exceptions, civil wars are sporadic in nature: bits of fighting here and there, incidents of sabotage etc., interspersed with life more or less as usual. Local people adjust to circumstances and get by as best they can. If you're flexible, so can you. Think: localized shortages of essential commodities; disruptions in transport and commercial activities; extortion by Maoists, police, soldiers, and opportunists; breakdowns in communication infrastructure. This could be great fun for you, the tourist, or a major threat to your life and limb—depending on your skill at negotiating these sorts of situations and your dumb luck. Are you ready to go hungry from time to time, talk your way through roadblocks manned by teenagers with AK-47's, keep an ear to the ground and adjust plans accordingly, suffer periods of exceptional boredom, and be satisfied in the absence of phone/email/post contact with the folks at home? If so, it's a nice country with good people, trekking and scenery, and they'll be happy to see you. If not, well, assess your risk tolerance and roll the dice. Most likely you'll be fine. Hope that helps.

Five hours? You started....where, exactly? Milano's?

For sure? No, but ablation zone ice is visible on the lower White Salmon at a similar elevation. I'd assume the Coleman icefall is partially filled in with a mix of consolidated wet snow from before the rains and unconsolidated wet snow that has fallen since (maybe 6 inches or so, with more expected by Saturday). To me that suggests there's seracing to be had, but I'd watch where I stepped. Post a report if you go, with particular attention to trail conditions and snow levels for us hard-to-please skiers.

I've forgotten the details, but generally if your use of a roadway or other property has been continuous and obvious for an extended period, you are considered to have a valid claim to continue your customary use. However, large landowners have lawyers who understand this, and preserving their exclusive property rights can be as simple as announcing a closure for a day each year. This closure might pass unnoticed by the general public, but you'll see notices posted in, for example, the public notices section of the classified ads in local papers (right there next to the ads by which people try to separate themselves from the debts of former spouses). The above is based on my memories of years of legal maneuvering about access to pre-revolutionary roadways on a certain island in New England, so while the general principles are likely to be the same, the specifics may differ. In other words, don't get your hopes up, but valid claims do sometimes stand up in court. Remember, though, that major corporations with a half-billion dollars at stake tend to be able to afford better lawyers than those who spend their leisure time rambling around the Twin Sisters range.

"Off-road skiing?"

As I understand it, Oregon permits are honored on any vehicle within the state of Oregon, but only on Oregon-registered vehicles within (at least) the state of Washington. That means that Pete's Oregon permit will not be valid on his Washington-registered car parked in the Marble Mountain sno-park...which is closed for the foreseeable future anyway.

Sorry, been too long since I was in East or Southern Africa. Used to be cheapest to fly through London bucket shops, but probably no longer true. I used Airbrokers International once for African flights and got good prices, honest service, knowledgeable advice...but this, too, might have changed. If feeling adventurous, try the rock in north-central Mozambique (Nampula Province, as best I remember).

Africa is a big place, made even bigger by the lack of transportation infrastructure in many areas. Where are you trying to go?

My best was a Northface Mountain Light parka, but 10 or 12 years ago, I did a climb in the Canadian Rockies with a guy who described seeing a VE 25—poles and all— flying across the sky one day. He chased it over several ridges, turned it in to the National Parks office where they held it for a month before returning it to him. Returning from our climb he found a Nikon SLR in a case sitting on the morraine. I was in front, and had stepped right over it without noticing.

This is pretty funny. There's a lot of "crap" posted over there because opinions differ. Cman recommends G3's with tail hooks; I recommend purple Ascensions (BD) with no tail hook at all. Both of us can probably make a compelling case for our preferences. We agree on the width: 90mm, trimmed to fit. Next poster will probably recommend something else entirely—maybe Glide-lites or Low Fats—and before you know it you're back where you started: overloaded with "crap." If you don't want to sort through it all, stop researching and make your purchase, following his advice, mine, or someone else's arbitrarily. In the end, it's not going to make much of a difference; far more important will be learning the skills to use whatever skins you choose with speed and efficiency and without undue stress. Good luck.

Done it a couple of times in practice. The first time I was uphill from the crevasse and taken by surprise; that was awkward at first, but no real trouble. The second time I was downhill from the crevasse and I really didn't even need to arrest; I just got down in the snow and dug my toes in a bit. As long as all your gear is reasonably handy (prussiks on the rope, biner, slings, pulleys and anchors within reach) you should be able to hold a fall while setting up an anchor and putting your partner on it...which is not to say you won't be tired by the time you've yanked him or her out.

You sure like to prepare in advance. Try The Mt. Shasta Book (Selters & Zanger). Costs 12 bucks at Amazon, and includes a good map.

Where's your shop? What's it called? Will you be doing any other shoe/boot repairs? Specifically, what about re-stitching telemark boot liners which have seen better days? Reinforcing blown-out eyelets on light hikers? Etc. etc. etc.

Time the conditions right and you'll feel like a hero. An hour too early or too late in the day and you'll want to give up skiing forever; too late in the season and you'll face thousands of feet of shingles followed by thousands more of knee-deep suncups and runnels. That aside, JoeMack's estimate of difficulty sounds good to me, at least for Clear Creek. Brewer Creek and Avalanche Gulch (and Hidden Valley, so I hear) routes have steeper sections, but nothing terribly threatening. If you're determined not to puke, spend a day or two at 5000 feet before climbing. Hope that helps.

Actually, the Clear Creek trailhead (southeast side) is usually not quite melted out by late May. Expect an added mile or more road-walking in a normal snow year. It's still doable in a day, and it'll definitely be less crowded than Avalanche Gulch. Brewer Creek (east side) will probably involve walking a few miles up the road to the trailhead, but it's another nice alternative. The north side trailhead tends to melt out earlier. Late May is getting a bit late for skiing Avalanche Gulch, but it's probably fine for climbing. All of the above routes are basically long uphill trudges followed by long downhill slogs. Skis make the whole process worthwhile.

Nicest aurora I've seen from my own well-lit neighborhood in Bellingham, that's for sure. Bright pulses crossing the entire width of the sky, mostly white but with hints of green. I was thinking about how the Inuit claim they can hear the aurora as a sort've a hissing sound, and how their old shamans were supposed to be able to converse with it, to summon it close. It's easy to believe in magical possibilities when the skies start to dance.

http://www.sel.noaa.gov/pmap/pmapN.html