MisterMo

Big pile of late sixties/early seventies climbing hardware amid the even bigger pile of crap I've accumulated over the years: see attached. Air up the tires in that Sprinter van, load your pockets with cash, and stop by. We're in Hamburger Flats, roughly beneath the Golden Arch. yard sale.pdf

I've toured on Mustagh Atas for three seasons now. I'm really happy with them. They' re really light, ski well in a variety of conditions, and are wide enough for my tastes. My only hesitation would be skiing them hard in hard conditions because I'd be afraid of breaking them. I use Dynafit skins on them which are light as well (for skins) and climb and glide as well as anything.

It runs in cycles. Car prowls/gas thefts are not uncommon; home burglaries are fairly rare. After not too many years in the community it's not too tough to correlate the rise and fall of theft epidemics with the arrival/departure of certain individuals. The more difficult, never ending task is to come up with sufficient evidence to hold them accountable. When a theft loss occurs it's really important that it be reported to the Sheriff, each and every time. They can't/won't do anything if they do not know the problem is happening.

Ok, now that everyone's had a chance to vent, and believe me I understand how angry that makes a person, how about some more useful info on a regular ongoing basis such as: Crime reported to Sheriff? Posted description of what was stolen Description of suspicious persons Description/plate number of suspicious vehicles You're not going to wish those sorts of problems away; it's going to take some sort of persistent vigilance. Yeah, I know you just want to go climbing rather than be on some sort of social crusade, but.......

In that case, me too. However The PUD FAQ on the project on their website states that flows would be maintained and that in periods of low river flow no water would be diverted at all. They give a design capacity of 2,500 cfs for the penstock. I don't have flow information for the South Fork at hand but I'm going to seek it out. To me that's one of the big nuts of the issue. If one can divert enough to make the project pay and leave a reasonable natural flow then I'd be pretty positive about the whole thing. Of course, one could argue til eternity about what constitutes "reasonable natural flow". There's a bunch of question and answer info on the proposal here at http://www.snopud.com/Site/Content/Documents/sunsetfalls/SFQAv201203.pdf

probably because it's not in the middle of the most scenic area on highway 2. Massively scenic. No doubt about it. There are already large concrete structures at the powerhouse site as part of the fish traps, no great loss there. The penstock would be a tunnel. Which pretty much leaves only the diversion structure to agonize about with respect to scenic impact...for those who can get within viewing distance... Coming up on a rainy weekend, here's a little challenge course for you: Drive on up and see if you can get within viewing distance of the dam site, penstock site, or powerhouse location without passing a "Private Property", "Keep Out, No Trespassing", or "Private Road, No Public River Access" sign. Perhaps such an expedition will better prepare you for a discussion on scenic impacts. Beyond that, I'm not blindly in favor of the thing; there are a lot of questions that need to be answered. What bothers me right at the moment is that the vibe I'm getting a lot of is "Eek, a hydro project! They must be stopped!" when I think there needs to be an objective look at potential benefits and problems and an honest effort to see to what extent the problems can be addressed and mitigated to an acceptable level. I honestly believe that when you consider the alternatives hydro power comes out looking pretty good.

I am sorry, I do not remember who we flew with. It may well have been Tweedsmuir if they have been around that long. Out of Nimpo Lake they are probably as close as anyone to your destination. If you have multiple loads it would help lessen costs to fly out of Middle or Bluff Lakes. If you go to either Dumbbell or Ephemeron I would greatly appreciate your posting a photo or two. I would be interested in seeing how far the Tellot has receded in 38 years. Enjoy

I was in a party that flew in from Middle Lake to Ephemeron Lake and out he same way except we shuttled from Ephemeron to Dumbell because we could only take off from the former with two on board. This was in 1974 in a DH Beaver out of (I think) Tatla Lake. It was super cheap; I imagine that the economics of fixed wing vs chopper haven't changed even though the numbers are up. We did an air drop near the Tellot hut and spent one night on the walk up. It was a reasonable day down to the lake for pickup. Dumbbell lake was marvelous with swimming and dragonflies after two weeks on the ice. Wonderful, fascinating country with endless climbing possibilities. Go there.

I used a MinNewt 200 all last winter and again this fall & am very happy with it. Plenty of light in pitch darkness up to 25mph or so and good battery life. No issues in Index downpours. Takes several hours to charge; plan ahead.

I've got about a hundred days on Dynafit Verticals in the past year with no problems. This is in area and out in all snow conditions. I'm big, 6'/200lbs, and ski hard but smooth. I run DIN 7-8 & almost never blow out. They're a bit fiddly: I've got a nagging inner sense that some really nasty future day while trying to get them ON or upside down in a tree well somewhere trying to get them OFF that I'm really going to hate them. In the meantime they're light & work just fine. Before that I spent a number of years on Fritschi Diamirs with no problems either. I was more nervous about them due to the many plastic parts but they never let me down. Can't comment on the Markers, save that the published weights make my old legs hurt.

Stevens is owned by Harbor Properties. There is no affiliation between Stevens and Intrawest nor is there any longer any connection between Stevens (or Harbor) and Schweitzer.

Second that and :tup: on climbingskinsdirect. I'm running their 115mm on a pair of Bakers and I'm really happy with them. At $105 they're pretty reasonably priced. You do have to come up with your own stuff sack........ I ran teeny little skins for decades (albeit mostly on teeny little skis) & I think they're just fine in most winter conditions where you either have soft snow or a good ski width skin track. Full width skins really shine when it's hard and you're only getting the edge and a little of the ski base on the snow. Of course, in such conditions you can often just take the silly things off and walk..........

Second the intuition liners. Pro Ski service in Seattle has them in stock (or at least they did las weekend when I got mine) and are very cool people to deal with.

That's not an odd view of Sloppy (Klawatti) is it?

The rock step between Boston and Torment basins I remember as classic third class: exposed and neither difficult nor trivial. I've only been down it, with a fairly big pack, never up.