dylan_taylor

The short answer is check out a meteorology text from the library, and read the instruction manuel for your unit. My long-winded, off the cuff answer is this: The unit uses an algorithm to calculate altitude based on barometric pressure, or vise versa. The absolute pressure is the pressure that your watch measures at your location. The "sea level barometer " is quite a useful feature. It does indeed tell you what the atmospheric pressure would be if you could suddenly jump into a hole in the ground and fall all the way to sea level. The reason this is helpful is this: Absolute pressure is directly affected by both changes in altitude and changes in relative barometric pressure (due to changes in weather), while the sea level barometer is only affected by changes due to weather (as long as you remember to recalibrate to the correct altitude). While you are traveling in the hills, your altitude is changing, but so must your barometric pressure (which is inversly proportional to altitude). Unfortunately, barometric pressure also changes over time, because of changes in weather. If you are moving for a while after calibration, and you stop for the night, your calibration might be out of whack again already. By using your map and compass (or GPS) to pinpoint your exact location (and thus your altitude), you can now compare this true altitude with the one on your watch while you are recalibrating. I won't go into the weather forcasting any more than this oversimplified concept: in short, we are looking for positive pressure changes (or negative altitude changes) to signify a continuation of favorable weather. When we see the opposite we may suspect that a less than desirable change is on the way. I especially like the sea level barometer function because: a) you could call a local airport (or look it up on line) and see what their sea level barometer is and calibrate your altitudebased on that - even in a high altitude place like denver, etc - the sea level bar. is just a normalized standard that different people at different elevations can use to calibrate or share information. Just punch in the correct SEA barom. and voilah, your watch is set for the correct altitude. b)On expeditions, I log sea level barometric pressure (post-calibration) in my notebook. It is usually in the neighborhood of 1010mBar for neutral pressure. lower means low pressure, higher means high pressure. As my position on the mountain changes, the sea level baromter always reads somewhere in the ballpark of 1000mbar, and this is only affected by relative changes due to weather, it is NOT affected by changes in elevation, like your "absolute" barometer is. c. you can brainstorm other methods of calculationg an unknown relating to either altitude or pressure Sorry for being long winded. I hope this helps and i hope i didn't butcher the explanation too much. DT

we had ambitious goals for a two day trip from the ski area towards the park glacier but pulled the plug after sampling how awful the crust was, somewhere in the head of the wells creek drainage. The ski area looked horrible. Icy, crusty, etc.

or go rock climbing

Went to baker, had high hopes, but the snowpack was heavy and sopping wet. Got some turns in, sometimes corn, sometimes breakable crust... The touring wasn't so bad, as long as you didn't go downhill Decided to head home and throw in the towl, after sampling some tasty death cookies... I suppose it's rock season again...

In case anyone is curious, here is a shot of pan dome on Nov 17. Hmmm. Get it while its hot - literally. Pun intended, i don't think it's dropped below freezing in the last couple of days and it was certainly cooking when we were touring up there today.

The ultimate solution: Vinylove! 100% waterproof, 0% breathable, and relatively disposable (only costs about $10-$15 in a marine supply store near you) Besides Center-for-disease-control orange, they also come in UN-weapons-inspector Blue!

A metal shovel is better for avy stuff, A plastic shovel is better for digging tent out in storm. on 6 Denali expeditions, I or other members of our group have broken every metal shovel made by black diamond (usually the handel breaks, on a few occasions the blade has snapped with very little prying). On subsequent trips to other places, I have broken 3 out of 3 BCA shovels taken. The only metal shovels that have done a good job of holding up to tons of abuse in our guide service have been Voile shovels. Keep in mind the durability of a shovel when you are racing to dig through tons of avy debris and you are inadvertantly prying because you are desperate. Some of us have also had good results with g3 shovels. Probes: Carbon fiber seems to be less floppy and less prone to snapping than aluminum. Plus, it weighs less so you have no excuse not to be carrying it. It makes avy rescue way more efficient, it can be usefull for pit work, and it is good for finding crevasses below your camp when on glaciers. The probes that come inside shovels suck. In the cascades, it may be more worth getting a 3m pole rather than the standard 2m size. Also consider getting a saw. They make performing stability tests way faster, easier, and more convienent, plus, they really don't weigh too much (wasatch touring makes a tiny folding saw, G3 bone saw also works very well and comes in a case that actually works)and they are good for camp work. suerte

Cross the coleman at 5000' towards the medial moraine and bedrock between the coleman and roosevelt. Sometimes, no more than a few hundred feet up and right from the andesite outcrops, are some "slabs" of ice. 3 or 4 ropelenghts when conditions are right. some years it rocks, some years it sucks. A new hole in the coleman opened up this year (more global warming????) a few hundred feet above this spot. Watch out for hangfire. If you have to wade thru large chunks of ice boulders and avy debris, you should probably rethink your routfinding.

THe other thing i wish i would have gotten are those silly little rubber crampon-covers that you get at REI that all the Musketeers always seem to have. I had always poo-pood those things, favoring crampon bags or tyvek mailing envelopes as my crampon coverage of choice, but now, with the difficulty of carrying razor-sharp fruit boots in my flimsy rucksack to and fro, it gets me thinking...

The boots are perfectly comfortable, and no sharp points hit me in the feet. There are no T-nuts (or any nuts) on the inside, i used stainless steel drywall-type screws, and i predrilled the holes into the plastic bottoms of the boots. I took the boots to the hardware store so i could make sure i didn't buy screws that were too long ( that would hurt! ), but hey, it was just a jury-rig solution, nothing special, and nothing pretty. Jesse, I think you are on to something with the T-nut idea. There are nuts that look like T-nuts, but without the little friction-activated sharp hook thingy's that are on real t-nuts (the kind designed for wood) Instead, there are T-nut-like nuts at the hardware store (kind of like the nuts you see inside of a newer pair of downhill ski boots) that you could use. If I had to do it all again I would go this route. Just drill the holes all the way thru your soles (yes, into the inside of the boot) insert the nut into the hole from the inside, and screw in a machine screw (maybe even allen-head if you want to make it look as fancy as those jobs from La Sportiva, Lowa, Kayland, etc...), cover it up with a regular cheap insole or superfeet or whatever, and you are ready to party. The toughest part for my little project was drilling thru the metal on my bionics. I went thru a couple of bits. I drilled more holes than I needed, in case I ever wanted to change the configuration of the 'pons, or rotate the front bit a little less aggressivley. Good luck. Someone with more creativity and tools could do it far better than I did.

It took a few hours and a few drillbits...

aquadog

Skins on twin tips are great - there is way less drag (Elevated rear tip keeps rivit, metal junction up off the snow...) Most brands should work fine. BD clipfixes might even work though they fall off my normal skiis all the time anyway. Don't forget the duct tape.

I'm glad to see something like this happening. I hope it works. Unfortunately, I do not have much faith in the self-policing skills of the hords of front-rangers and SLCers who commute to the creek on a weekend-ly basis. I fear that even with the BLM's proposal, many slobs will forgo wagbags and continue to shit behind every juniper tree, leaving the ubquitous brown-crusted snow-flower blowing in the breeze as a sign of their passing. All those climbers know how to climb, camp, and party, but i get the sense that most creekers are relativly ignorant of proper waste management methods and Leave No Trace techniques. I hope the BLM proposed plan works. It would be a wonderful thing if climbers could show up 5 or 10 years from now and find it in the same (or better) shape than it (the Bridger Jack camping area for example) is in now. Only time will tell if Human Nature can be improved a little. Best of luck to the Friends of Indian Creek.

1. Quickdraws or slings? My selection of draws is a random assortment of whatever I have found, and not lost, over the last few years, and whatever i started with once upon a time. About 50% sporto-draws, and about 50% shoulder-lengths trippled up. (s0me are mammut skinneema, some are older spectra slings, and some are tied 9/16") 2. How many is good to start out with? I suppose it probably doesn't matter how many you buy, if you assume that your partner will have some too, but if you can afford it, buy enough to make your gear self sufficient. Thay way can choose to take your rack and draws if you know your partners rack is held together by duct tape and weedwacker cord. And even dozen ought to be a good enough amount. Thats what I try to have on hand. Though many will disagree, tied 9/16 shoulder lengths work fine in the alpine, are cheap, and are easy to untie when bailing, tying around trees, making v-threads, etc. Just check your knot tails periodically. As far as stories of gear pulling out cuz somebody used dogbones instead of extended shoulderlengths, i agree with a lot of people here that it is silly to blame gear falling out on draws that are too short. It was probably shitty gear to begin with. When climbing a crack that will take lots of nuts, I think it is a good idea to "trap" the nut placements by placing a cam (with short draw or no draw) at the beginning of the pitch or the beginnning of the section that will go mostly nuts, then place another cam with short or no draw at the end. This makes the rope run in a very straight line over the nut section, and short draws even on nuts should never provide enough levering force to pop the nuts out. The cams with short extensions should be in bomber parallel placements that will facilitate omnidirectionality and dissuade walking.

ricoh GR1-s

As memory serves you lowering increases the force on the anchor by a factor of 1.6 (when compared to a simple rap). Rapping has 1/2 your bodyweight on each strand. Lowering has your bodyweight on each of the strands (roughly). Lowering creates a pulley effect on the anchor only if it is redirected. Lowering a person from a device on a belay anchor and rapelling off the anchor put the exact same force on the anchor, provided no one bounces around. Lowering off of a sketchy anchor is actually a decent technique as long as that anchor is backed up by another. Then it can be removed once it passes the guinea pig test.

like these fine B. Washburn masterpieces... (Forgive the image quality. aren't these things pretty old after all?) west ridge and and southeast side...

you should check out the washburn photos?

It was great last week. Getting colder and more brittle (more realistic!)

Coleman Deming side is in suprisingly good shape, tho the recent storm brought rain levels above the summit (rinsing away any late-summer snow accum.) The Glacier travel is relatively straight forward, even for october in a drought year. The first 1000' vert above the hogsback camp is predominantly ice. Make sure the 'pons are sharp. Firn line is at about 7800' and slots are easy to get around. One leaning "bridge" still remains between two slots at 8500'. But it is super solid. A bit of bare ice still lurks on the roman wall. Good luck. -DT

take a picture of your feet and post it here for all to see...

Also, i don't know if it is like this elswhere right now, but the bees are awfull on the approach to bear. I was stung once on the way in, once on the way out, and my partner was stung twice, several miles apart, on the hike out. There were times in the forest above bear camp, where the ominous sound of buzzing could be heard throughout the forest...

I tried to make the route easier by throwing all the shitty holds off.

So those were your sticky dot tread shoe prints that were leading us off into the devils club... My friend and I just climbed the DNB on Bear on Wednesday. THe climbing certainly isn't super cruxy, but then again, there are only two to three 5.10 pitches out of 20, so it can't be that hard. But I thought the rock sure sucked, the choss-climbing felt sustained to a wimp like me, and it made routefinding tedious. We got off-route at the snow-patch and did our own choss-fest to gain the ridge crest. Complete with big pendulum traverse and A0 stuff. We camped next to Ruta Lake exactly where your first picture is taken. We were afraid of not finding water. I am glad we did it. Perfect camp sites, and only an hour back and forth to the notch. The berries are still incredible up there and the salmon run was incredible in chilliwack river!