wfinley

We are both experienced and confident when it comes to glacier and have done numerous trips together to heavily glaciated areas in the past - including a number of trips with just the 2 of us. I'm more interested in your own opinions regarding 2 person teams and why or why you would / wouldn't do such a trip.

I have a question: would you do a remote glacier trip with only one other person? Remote meaning a 10 day fly into the Wrangells mountains. Heavily crevassed etc. etc. Discuss why or why not... I'm interested in other people's opinions in regards to safe practices on glaciers.

Humpy's is still packed; however the hip kids have moved on. It's now packed with sled-necks who dabble in snowboarding and Air Force pilots looking for tail (although the latter has always been there). I had noticed the Fantasies sign; it's a big stink because Anchorage is trying to pass a zoning law in regards to sign size and Fantasies is pushing the limits.

W: when was the last time you were at Koots? Frat boys don't go there - they hang out at Bernies; the local Seattle-wanna-be hotspot. Koots is still the place to go if you want to get assaulted by midgets or see skanky girls flash their boobs.

Yes; anchorage does have a dumpy 70s feel to it at times. On the bright side we have every major chain steak house in the world all within 5 blocks of each other. The outlying communities aren't much better though; Eagle River has turned into a Jesus-freak suburb of Anchorage; wall to wall condos, strips malls and Starbucks. It's everything Anchorage is minus the 70s feel. As for size; yes it would have been nice to live here when there were only 50,000 people. On the other hand there were no jobs unles you worked for oil. I imported my woman from the Lower 48. There are some up here but I prefer imports.

People have differing opinions on quality of life. For me it is being able to live in a large enough city to have a competitive thought provoking job yet still being able to easily escape into the mountains. Another thing that I really appreciate is the wildlife and the fact that one can still have almost daily contact with moose, eagles, bear and salmon while living in a large city. Couple the above with the fact that 20 minutes from my house I can be in a huge state park and within an hour of hiking be away from almost everyone. As for the city itself; Anchorage is a young city - and because of that there are alot of growing pains but it's getting nicer. Hard to swallow concepts like 'Zoning' are now being considered. Crime is an issue; Alaska is pretty isolated so everything moves through Anchorage making it a magnet for the drug trade and issues that go along with it. The housing market is tight but not overly so. A nice home in south Anchorage will cost you around 350K. 2 years ago they were selling overnight but it's slowing down. It is winter for 9 months out of the year and the rock climbing sucks. Dealing with 9 months of winter means crap like calling roto rooter when your bathtub starts spewing sewage as ice blocks the sewer pipes. Personally I wouldn't live anywhere else in the world!

Most AK Range routes are named based on aspect etc.; however Nettle-Quirk stands out because there was controversy over the FA of this route. Read Joe's little piece on it in his guidebook.

There are a bunch on eBay. I wouldn't bid over $100 though.

Just heard on the radio that Masatoshi Kuriaki just completed the first solo winter ascent of Foraker. He spent 56 days on the peak, 10 minutes on the summit and had to bivy in a snow cave on his way down! To pass the time he composed haikus including this (roughly translated) one: See the summit It is so so close But far away The interview on the radio said he hauled out 28 lbs of human waste. His quote (in broken English) "Two day out, 1 pound waste. 56 day out, only 28 pound!" Here's more info: http://www.japanesecaribou.com/ Once APRN posts the interview online I'll link to it.

Excellent! How were the crowds and beach parties? We were there in November and they were a bit out of control... made it hard to sleep at night.

Nice job guys; that rock doesn't look half bad for Chugach crud!

I've seen folks haul bagpipes and saxophones up the West Buttress... I've also seen a party pull out a whole wheel of cheese. When you see all this you begin to understand why people take 3 weeks and have to double carry everything when they climb Denali.

A few years ago a friend had a porcupine in his yard and showed it to me; in an effort to educate my dog I dragged him over to porky, pushed him up close and shouted NO in his ear. He got the message and ran. I then crawled through the dense alders and proceeded to poke it with a stick. if you've never done this it's good fun - you poke it and it bristles and sticks his or her quills in the air. Very cool to see. Anyways - the alders were very thick so I was basically hanging like a monkey while poking the critter. Suddenly the thing turned and charged me.... I was totally tangled up in the trees and absolutely panicked! The thing got within a foot of me before I managed to extricate myself and run -- they actually move faster than you'd think. Once safely back a few feet I had visions of my friend trussing me up like we do the dogs and jerking the quills out of my leg.

$20 REI booties work as well as the $80 FF version - however $80 FF booties come in neon green.

Hell yeah!!!! For those of you not up here... last week was insanely cold all over the state! At 1500' on the Kenai it dipped to -25; I cannot imagine what the AK Range was like!

Not even a backup screw? That's kind of odd and in my opinion stupid and lazy. What route? This year my wife started leading; back in November she lead an ice route in Eagle river and tied off at the top on a patch of slings. I got to the top and found that the slings (at least one was from this year) were wrapped around a tree that had broken off about 2 feet above the anchors. I set up a new anchor, lifted the entire bunch of old slings and rap rings off the trunk and then was easily able to kick the old rotten tree trunk loose. There was a huge nice spruce 3 feet to the right with no anchors; why people couldn't take 5 extra minutes and rig a good rap anchor mystified me.

When you grow older and wiser and find yourself still taking off every weekend to go climbing and quitting jobs every 3 years so you can take that much needed 3 month vacation you will look back on college and wonder why you didn't take the time to hook up with more chicks.

Awesome... I look forward to seeing what he pulls down. Conditions are good!!!

If you want ski information; try posting a question here; someone may have info: http://www.telemarktalk.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=24565 It is snowing like mad in Juneau right now (Winter storms shut down Juneau); however Sitka is a bit further south. PS... here's the info for Edgecumbe: http://www.dnr.state.ak.us/parks/aktrails/ats/se/edgcumb.htm

Years ago I bought a $5 radio at Sears and started carrying it on climbing trips. It's the size of an old walkman and has a built in speaker and a long antenna. I always carry wire in my repair kit and connect the wire to the antenna and in turn wrap the wire around the tent poles. It's lightweight, an endless source of music and the batteries last about 40 hours. In the Alaska Range you can pick up radio stations from all over (even in the Ruth) and up high you'll have a plethora of stations to choose from; the speaker means both you can your partner can lounge around in your bags listening to NPR. PS... I agree with fheimerd and have always been considerate of others and kept the volume low. However in regards to peace and quiet... after 3 weeks in a tent you'll be wanting to hear something other than your partner's breathing.

Nonsense; if he hadn't gone with 'Jethro' then it would have just been another Bugs TR. This story, however, is classic!!!

This is our forecast. Look great doesn't it?

Here's another one: I climbed this route at the NRG and my GF didn't follow me up to clean so she asked some random guy if he wanted to climb it. He gladly tied and and began climbing. He's halfway up when a HUGE blacksnake crawls out of the crack I'm anchored in at the top and sticks it's nose right in my face. I freeze and the snake starts waving back and forth in front of me. The guy starts screaming 'TAKE UP SLACK TAKE UP SLACK' but I'm too petrified to move. The snake stares at me for about a minute - mere inches form my face while the guy continues to scream at me. Finally the snake pulls away and starts downclimbing the route. I take up the slack and the guy stops yelling. I let him calm down and then calmly ask him if he's afraid of snakes. "SNAKES? WHY? WHAT KIND OF SNAKE? WHERE??!!!!" I explain that there is a giant black snake downclimbing the crack he is jamming and he starts screaming bloody murder. A few minutes later the snake reaches him and he starts screaming even louder. He manages to jam one fist in below the snake and as the snake is crawling down past him he jams his other fist above the snake and somehow leviates out of the crack so it appears his entire body is floating off the wall. The snake crawled past and he continued to the top visibily shaken. I tried to explain to him why I hadn't taken up slack but he was really pissed. He rapped off, packed up his gear and stomped away.

Held down by a band of maurading bikers... damn I wish I had thought of that story back in high-school.

Sobo posted a message today that made me realize that I had once joined him for an afternoon of ice climbing when he was up north about 10 years ago. I've climbed with a lot of random people over the years; most of whom I've forgotten and probably wouldn't recognize - however for some reason certain encounters stand out. Climbing with sobo was memorable for 2 reason... We climbed well into the dark and upon topping out on the second climb (Ripple - a classic mellow ice route that forms fat and sticky every year from October - March) I turned around and saw the comet Hale-bop glowing on the horizon above the canyon wall. It was a beautiful sight -- the stars glowing bright and this huge burning comet right in front of me. I think of the comet everytime I climb Ripple (which is at least a few times / season)... and only many occasions I've sat at the belay anchors and described the sight to various climbing partners. The second reason it was memorable was because sobo had a space blanket taped inside his helmet and when I asked him why he told me a long story about a forced bivy on some Cascade wall. I went home and taped my own space blanket inside my helmet and lo and behold a few years later found myself stuck on a route well after dark. It was cold as shit and after we dug a little ledge in the snow I pulled off my helmet and with pride showed my partner the space blanket that was still taped inside. Apart from sobo I've experienced a couple other memorable climbs with random people - including a rather frightening experience where some random guy whom I had never met till that morning (I called a random number posted on a bulletin board) decided to solo an ice route. Half way up his pick broke and he hung on one tool freaking out and screaming obscenities for 15 minutes until he got up the nerve to downclimb to a ledge where he could replace his pick and finish his solo. All the while I was standing at the base mentally preparing myself to watch a guy fall 100' to his death. Random climbing partners are kind of like one night stands... if the climbing or company was good then you'll have a clear recollection. Likewise if the climbing or company really sucked you'll remember the story for years! Any good stories out there about random people you've met and climbed with???