MisterMo

San Juan Falls is forming rather nicely. No snow to speak of above so no avalanche hazard whatsoever this year. Several hundred feet. Didn't have my digicam today or I'd put up a pic. Short approach but you'll need at least one of the following: small boat, dry suit, brass balls.

Are you really sure it's a job you want? Most people can get by just with an income. Jobs are great for those who can't figure out what to do with about a third of their lives; many of the rest of us find that jobs really mess with our free time.

Hell will freeze substantially solid before you lose enough metal cross section through rusting to matter...unless, of course, you're doing something bizarre like wallowing around in salt. One could offer that if your climbing stuff is getting rusty it's a sign that you need to climb more, but... The only maintenance stuff you really should do to your crampons is visually inspect for cracks and sharpen with a file when needed. Don't grind with power tools unless you know how to not get them too hot.

___ Oh and the paraside plowing, I heard it costs them over a million bucks a year to keep it open and plowed. (labor, rig mateninence, sand, etc,) Figuring a 150 day snow removal season that would be about $6,700 a day. Seems a little steep but Your Federal Government could probably make it cost that much.

I was told pretty much the same thing around the time that building was fairly new. I believe it needs heat to not be crushed; I am less certain that they would need fuel deliveries during the winter. I do not recall that the building of that lodge coincided with keeping the road open all winter. My mother ski toured at Paradise in the 1940's, well before the construction of that day lodge.

Peet Shoe Drier. Made in St. Maries Idaho. Doesn't hurt your stuff, dries overnite. Had mine for years & love it. Available lots of places.

Basically what's depressing is that virtually every house and No Trespassing sign upstream of the Island Ranch is at some place where I once back in the day freely climbed, camped, hung out, partied, got hammered, got laid, or some such thing. Now those places are various persons little pieces of heaven: no riffraff allowed. The worst are the developments at Rat Creek and 8-Mile. In a more perfect world there would have been no private development above the mouth of the canyon. Widening the Icicle Creek road above Snow Creek didn't help; the Mountaineer Creek road didn't help, and you're right, the monster tunnel sure isn't going to help.

"Little pockets of houses (communities in the foothills) with all the elements of the movie "Deliverance"?- I'm not namin' names or where." Can you squeal like a pig?

Yes, I know the Icicle is liberally sprinkled with private property; and Yes, I know property owners have rights, but The Icicle is one of the best examples I can think of of how to fuck up a really cool place. I hardly go there anymore; it's that depressing.

There are nice cubes of what I thank are Galena there if you root around in the muck. There was a very serious proposal for production at that mine; it got fairly far in the FS permit process. They were going to take the concentrate out to the south on a wide trail using something called a 'gyro carrier'...some sort of low impact giddeup. This was about the same point in history as the birth of Alpine Lakes Wilderness. The proposal died (conjecture has it) from equal parts environmental apoplexy and the knowledge that from both the low cost and free rape standpoints the third world is mining heaven.

I believe it. Two (three?) summers ago the snowfields on Hinman were oddly and very thickly peppered with dead skeets. There were mobs of fat birds waddling around up there, gobbling them up. Good crystal country as well. Wire rope and such at the base of the La Bohn gap talus suggests there may briefly have been an ore tram or at least preparations for such. There is also an old mine tram grip at the big camp right before the Foss ford. I've never seen anything in print about it though.

My only trip there was right at Christmas. Dark and snowing when we arrived. Awoke to before dawn under clear skies with just a skiff of new snow. Insanely pretty, ran off three rolls of Kodachrome in less than an hour when the sun came up. Plenty warm enough for climbing when the sun was up. Enjoy.

Morris Chevrolet

He said as much. I've held on to mine for reasons which are becoming increasingly unclear. I had a use for one (a short thin) down at the river anchoring a sling to get back up on the diving rock, but the hole filled in and so I retrieved it.

...and about a quart of DEET

At the home I'm in they don't actually let us touch the computers...too many component failures from drooling. The staff does it for us. Crawford isn't in the home I'm in either. Don't have the faintest notion what became of him.

I never bet the rent on forecasts more than 24 hours out, especially in Washington in the winter. Not a high enough degree of probability for me. In the past 17 years in the ski industry we opened after New Year's once, opened on Veterans Day once, with all other years somewhere in between. So...it's unlikely that we won't have significant snowfall for a bit, but it's entirely possible.

among others these keep geting re-read: Deborah by David Roberts. Self reliance a long way from the car kinda back in the day. The Unknown Mountain by Don Munday. BC Coast Mountain approaches way back in the day.

You are entirely correct. Whoever ultimately "wins" will neither be able to claim a mandate for change, the status quo, or anything else as justification for their agenda. For those not entirely sick of my recurrent'memory lane' bullshit I miss the old original voting machines: those piano sized contraptions where you pulled levers. They produced gigantic strips of paper that showed each vote cast and totals. These were posted at the polling place after each election. There was a element of honesty in that; you could go where you voted & see the results for your precinct.

Here in TinyTown USA we once had a city council election come out as a dead even tie (31 to 31 or some such thing). Winner was decided by a coin flip in a fun little event. The sun still comes up in the morning...well some mornings anyway in Index.....

All I got too is red exxes, except for some reason your second post. Too bad. You always post good fotos.

[quote It is very awkward to stand in some stranger's kitchen in Israel at 2 in the morning with your balls and nose in a glass of ice water. Figuring the same glass of water & at the same time that would be pretty awkward just about anywhere.

No. It's incredibly stupid that I haven't. but, I haven't. Just can't make myself get around to it even though the twice annual mounting bill isn't going down.

I commute in the snow...up & down the west side of Stevens 5 days/week...and so... I use studded snow tires. They go, and more importantly stop, better than the all season jobbies especially on the typical west side snot. In consistently colder conditions the difference might not be as noticeable; if you drove less frequently in snow the need might not be as great. There is a slight fuel economy setback with snow tires. You'll romp right up to Paradise either way. I have chains for my little car but since it goes so well they've never been out of the box so can't comment. Be advised that once it gets deep and gooey (like rained on) you Subaru isn't going to go very well; of course nothing else will either.

I have a '99 Legacy (2200CC) with about 115K or so on it. The Outback is basically the same rig with some bells & whistles and more ground clearance so I will comment. Overall I've been really happy. Fantastic snow rig I run studs & drive in snow about 4-5 months a year...almost never spin a wheel, never lost control. Fuel economy 28-29 running up and down the pass, 30+ elsewhere. So far done routine maintenance, timing belt, alternator, front brakes, and speedo head...so pretty reliable and trouble free. Plenty of poop with the little motor for just me tho I drop down one gear from Tunnel Creek up When I replace this car I will get the Outback if only for the ground clearance, with the Legacy I have to be super careful on shitty roads. Lots of people in the ski world seem to run various Subarus; I've never run into anybody who had a horrible experience with theirs but they're probably out there somewhere. Oh...yeah...like a lot of modern cars they're maybe sort of "cheap" feeling. Maybe 'lightly constructed' would be the better term. Not the sort of rig you'd go crashing off thru the two-inch alders with like an old Power Wagon. But as long as you drive on roads, no worries, no complaints.