selkirk

I don't know Arch? Do you handle Muff?

Sounds like a recipe for a snaffle filled bivy

Was trying to support your point Muffy! I suppose that's still usefull information though

I'd like to add my voice to the chorus, and offer my thoughts and prayers to the family. Unexpected passings are always tragic. "For God could no longer be found in his traditional steeple houses, but seemed to dwell more vividly in the bare austerities of his earths' high places."

I think we should all lobby heavily to have warning labels removed from common household products. You know like toothpaste. If you kill yourself with toothpaste you really shouldn't spawn.

Next time just have him PM me. It'll be fun for all

Jon You guys kick ass! Thanks for keeping this place from imploding due to it's own ..... insert your favorite adjective here .....

Welcome to the dark side Kit! You'll love it here Mountain Gear I get the impression that Mountain Gear is what REI used to be. The folks there really know their stuff. When it starts to warm up, you might look into top roping stuff at Minnehaha down on the Spokane river. Some good stuff and you can't beat the commute from Spokane There is also some TRing at Treaty Rock in Post Falls and along the Spokane River just downstream of the Post Falls Damn. Talk to the folks at Mountain Gear they should have a good idea. Definitely take CBS and Weekend up on their offer. Both good guys I think the biggest part of conditioning is finding a good cardio activity that you enjoy enough that you'll actively on it's own. Either that or find someone independent (not your husband) to train with. There's nothing like the guilt of knowing someone is waiting for your ass in a cold parking lot to get you out of bed in the morning. Your husband can go, but if it's the two of you it's too easy to back out. Have fun!

"For God could no longer be found in his traditional steeple houses. But seemed to dwell more vividly in the bare austerities of his Earth's high places" from Ascent For me, climbing serves to strip away the detritus and distractions of civilization. Only what remains half way up a challenging rock pitch, or at 3:00am on a glacier has value, and all that remains are the people important to me. Climbing centers me and provides perspective that is impossible to find while enmeshed in the incessant noise of life.

Will second "The White Spider" by harrer, but I'm a bit obsessed with the Eiger, "The Climb up to Hell" (famous rescue on the Eiger) "Ascent" biography of Willi Unsoeld (teton guide, FA west ridge of Everest with Hornbein, teacher, very cool inspiring book) "Feeding the Rat", Antonio Alvarez.

Nice work mods Hopefully you banninated him.

Don't take too much offense wdsgirl, he asks for lewd pictures of guys and sheep too.

Phil... I'm not particulary familiar with all the in's and out's of MLU's but as I understand them their akin to an avalanche beacon or a tracking device, and assist in the finding of people. My own background is that I used to be a certified lifeguard, an eagle scout, have currently been climbing for about 4 years, and have been following/reading up about climbing accidents for the last 15 years ever since my dad crushed a disk in his neck climbing and here's what little info i've gleaned about rescued devices. Drowning Lifejacket: saves you from drowning. Time to drown, 5 or 10 minutes, critical factor getting to them quickly. Avalanche Avalanche Beacon: If you survive the initial trauma, survival chances drop off quickly aftr 15 minuts, critical factor getting to them quickly. Climbing accidents: If they survive the initial accident and injuries aren't immediately life threatening, chances of survival are actually very good. Time frame to get to them and rescue them is in hours or days, not minutes. The two critical points seem to be iniating the rescue and getting word out that there has been an accident, which can either take minutes with a cell phone, up to days if they have to hike out/be reported missing. The second critical point is getting to them and getting to them down. This is not the same as finding them. They're on highly technical terrain and often dealing with extremely bad weather. Getting to them and getting them down could take hours or days. MLU's or PLB's might help climbers iniate the search. But they did that with the cell phone anyway. And none of those things will help the rescuers get to the climbers or bring them down. This combined with the added weight, makes MLU's and PLB's not particularly usefull for climbing. For the non-climbers reading these posts: Once the rescuers are capable of reaching the climbers, finding them is not usually a problem. Climbers are typically on a given "route" up a mountain, in the case, the North Face gullies. This immediately narrows the search region down, to those gullies, and the descent routes. As soon as the weather breaks, if they're capapble, all three guys will have their heads out, their arms waving, and will be either coming down or actively looking for rescuers. As grim as it is, if they don't appear on their own it's probably too late already. The MLU's would be good for recovery. Further as the MLU's are only currently available on Mt. Hood, chances are these guys had never even heard of them. In my opinion the MLU's would be more effective if issued to hikers and people likely to get lost in the woods than to climbers. Just like PLB's or EPIRB's are typically taken by sailors. For those sports the hard part is the rescue initiation and the finding of them, not necessarily the getting there and getting them out. bottom line. IMHO MLU's are good for finding things, but that's not the hard part of climbing rescues.

Looks like a Turgid Pinnacle to me

My parents had an EPIRB on their extended sail to alaska, bu haven't had experienced beyond that. Any mountain rescue folks care to comment on these or MLU's? Do they make a significant difference in rescue times?

This isn't spray Pink. Runningrat, for Washington, you might consider the southside of Mt. Adams. No glacier travel, reasonably well traveled route, and it'll get you to 12,000 ft. To my knowledge the other Washington Volcano's all have glacier travel. Anyone care to speak up for non-technical outings in Oregon?

Sunshine has one lonely bolt, way the help up there

That translates to a $70 dollar rope.....

It seems like some flexibility is needed whenever your climbing. If your time frame is fixed and doesn't allow for weather your're better off having a somewhat flexible objective (i.e. weekend climbing in the PNW in the spring) . Where if your objective is fixed you had better have a flexible schedule (Denali).

Sending good vibes to the folks on the mountain, be they stuck or rescue folks. Be safe and come home!

The purple one scares me. It looks like it belongs on my keychain.

I've got Z3, Z4, and Z5 and have been reasonably happy with them. Though I haven't fallen on them yet, action is good, floppy stems good, extendable sling good, and smaller/less bulky then the equivalent TCU's (though I have TCU's in the larger sizes). Did talk to an aid climber friend who really disliked them though. She felt they tended to get stuck more easily than Aliens or TCU's.

I got out last week. Itching to lead the M5 now, but of course it's supposed to be wet all week

I'm so envious!!!!!!