wfinley

I have an ID MK3 and only have one door - I've never had a problem. I think getting a lightweight tent and then beefing up the weight with a second door defeats the purpose. As for peeing... piss in your pee bottle, dump it outside the tent.... that way you never even have to get out of your bag.

Wow... that's intense. Meeting the man who had been taking care of the place your father died... I can only imagine. I hope your visit brought peace to both you and the man who had been going there.

Nice!!! We just returned from Railey... climbing was great but the crowds got old. Good to see pix from other places in Thailand!

I have the option W10... it takes great pix in good light but can be blurry if you use the zoom in low light. However... it's a pretty good camera -- and if you want samples almost all the pix posted on my site from this past summer on were taken with it. (Wanted to add... we did a safari trip this past fall and saw a rhino in low light. I pushed my film camera 3 stops and burned 3 three rolls of film but the only pic that came out was from the W10.)

25 degrees? Those poor eastern Virginians must be freezing. (PS - I heard it from a friend that ice in SNP is in! )

Who was the Christian man who bolted Denali? Anyone know where the sport route is and what it's rated?

When I was a kid our dog killed one of our cats. It was a bummer but we never considered getting rid of the dog. Unless your dog has a bad history (i.e. - jumping the neighbors fence to strangle the cat on the back porch) consider it more of an accident and just make sure you watch your dog around cats from now on. My dog is pretty good with cats - but that's because when he was all of 6 week old I introduced him to the neighbors huge tom cat. My pup waltzed right up to the cat wiggling in joy and then cat took him down with one powerful swat to the nose. Ever since then he has had a mortal fear of cats.

My wife has the Arcteryc bibs. They are excellent pants in the cold - i.e. - extended cold mountaineering trips and / or skiing when it's 0. However - she wore them once on a wet ice climb and got entirely soaked to the bone (it was the first time I had ever actually seen someone turn blue). She now only wears them when it's guaranteed to be cold and never when ice climbing.

I have 2 systems: For ice I use BD Guide gloves for climbing / rapping and a pair of Patagonia Primo gloves that are 1 size too big for belaying. For skiing I use BD glissades plus the larger Patagonia for when my hands get cold. In the past I've tried mitts but inevitably I end up taking them off to do things like clip biners or zip up jackets so I switched to the gloves sized 1 size too large. These are a bit big to do stuff like place gear in - but still fit well enough to do things like work zippers or adjust belay systems.

Are slingshots considered aid? rIjjWXstjZc

130 cm skis? How short is your wife?

Time for a bump!!! What a super fat cat! A super fat cat weighing 17 kilograms has been raised by Xu Jirong, a citizen of Qingdao, a coastal city in east China's Shandong Province. This super-fat cat has lived in Xu's family for 10 years. It has lived for the equivalent of 70 human years. Its "waist" measures around 86.7 centimeters, wider than a girl's. http://english.people.com.cn/200701/30/eng20070130_346074.html

Yes and no... if wildlife officials can quell human fears of animals that have gotten "the taste of blood" then perhaps they can quell the redneck desire to poach and shoot animals at random. Up here bear attacks are really common and a very pragmatical approach is taken towards them: if the bear attacked unprovoked then the bear is shot. If the bear attacked because of natural reactions (protecting it's young, human in the trail etc.) then the attack is justified and the bear isn't killed. If no bears were killed every redneck would just assume that every bear was out to kill him and many more would be shot. It's stupid to treat bears and cougars like criminals - but the public buys it and are to an extent thus willing to tolerate the presence of large predators.

I doubt you need this as it's only one gig... but if you do alot of these trying finding the equivalent of this survey for the state of WA: https://www.forakergroup.org/store/index.cfm?ProductID=65&do=detail

I just leave the vestibule unzipped while cooking.

I was hesitant too -- but then last April we attempted a glacier traverse where we had continually nasty storms that dumped 6+ feet of snow on us. We navigated back to the car in a complete white out using the GPS... the only thing we could see was the other rope team who continually yelled "Sk left... ski right!!". Granted we could have just holed up and spent a day or two sans food and fuel and made it back safe and sound in clear weather - but it was pretty nice to get the hell out of there when we could. This is what it looked like for 20 miles; we could barely tell up from down:

There's no heat on Denali!! Meats like salami or bacon will last 4-5 days vacuum sealed if temps are cool (70 of below). Any hotter and I'd be scared to eat them.

Correct... NG maps are not vector based whereas Mapsource maps are.

You have to buy Garmin's Map Source software (http://www.garmin.com/cartography/) and then buy the maps extra. It is possible to have a copy of someone else's software - but you have to do a registry hack in order to load it onto your computer. Here's how to edit the registry: http://forums.groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=76184&st=0&p=997256entry997256 My GPS doesn't read in my pocket. I usually clip it to my pack strap on my chest and it works. And when you turn it on it picks up the sats in about 5 minutes unless you're in a deep valley - if so sometimes it can be 10-20 minutes.

I have the older Legend (not the Cx) and it is great. It's true it doens't point out a bearing until you start moving but in my opinion you don't need it until then; if you're holed up in a tent you can always get started with a compass bearing and adjust as you move. Plus I always carry a real compass b/c I don't trust that my GPS won't break when I'm out in the middle of nowhere in a snowstorm. The barometric altimeter is a good extra; but chances are you or someone in your group will already have a watch with a barameter so it's not really that necessary. Plus give it 15 minutes and your GPS coordinates will roughly calculate altitude fairly accurately. I went through the whole GPS search last year and came to the conclusion that it's better to have a cheaper easy to use model that has long battery life then all the extras that come on the new models. All you really need is the ability to load maps and store waypoints and use those waypoints to navigate. All the other stuff is fluff.

The latter. When she was going over bulges she would sink the tool and then drop the handle so the base rested on the ice. Her previous tools had a rather aggressive point on the base that she could rest against the ice to help lever / balance her way over bulges or when hooking. When using the Vipers the Fangs were too slippery and slid left and right when weighted. However... I'm guessing this has never been a problem for you so perhaps it has more to do with style and the need to adjust the swing so you're not resting with the base against the ice.

The following article was gleamed from a link in the AAC news. It's a good read:

Perhaps -- but you missed the chief complaint: "the plastic pieces slid around when she braced the ends against the ice." How will losing leashes help this or is go leashless just the standard spray answer?

That was on page 113 in the "3 Lost on Mount Hood" thread. It was also discussed on page 132 in the "Mt. Hood events speculation" thread.

Forgot to mention: the ice we climbed was really funky; it varied from rock hard (pick bouncing out) to dinner plates to rotten aerated ice. My thoughts were that her troubles had more to do with the ice and her swing style then the tools but (as I learned) one should never tell the wife she is "doing it wrong".