iluka

Regarding the glaciers: - The Ruth glacier does not require roped travel. Some groups do it but I think it's unnecesssary. I've been there as late as late August and not seen any crevasses that could get you in trouble. - The Icy glacier: there were some crevasses starting to show lower down. We took an ascending traverse staying to the left side of the glacier near the rock bands and didn't see any crevasses. We passed a group skiing it on our way out and they were not roped. I don't know what this looks like later in the season so crevasses may open up more over time As for the skis: Right now, you'd have a nice descent off the shoulder of Icy down to the saddle between the two peaks and a nice descent off Ruth. Continuous snow on both stretches. You can ski along the saddle between the two. The one stretch where you'll have skis off is on the descent from Ruth down to the saddle. You drop about 1100-1200 feet from Ruth's summit down to the saddle between the two peaks. You can ski snow initially off the top of Ruth, but then have to take the skis off for that Class 2-3 stretch down from the camp spots. Snow after that, except for one short stretch of rock and heather. Aside from those two sections, in current conditions. you could have skis on from Hannegan Pass to the shoulder of Icy and back.

Trip: Ruth-Icy Traverese June 28-29, 2008 - Date: 6/29/2008 Trip Report: Brian, Morgan and I headed up to the North Cascades this weekend to do the Ruth-Icy traverse and found great conditions and loads of great views. Contrary to reports from prior weeks, the road to the Hannegan Pass trailhead is now open all the way to the trailhead as the major ruts are gone. There is one very rutted spot just past the Goat Mountain TH but passable in a Subaru, SUV etc. There were several spots with major water running over the road on our way out Sunday, however, raising the possibility of some road damage that may change things from what we found. After a few short sections of snow after the trailhead, the trail is largely snow free until the steep climb starts to Hannegan Pass. Lots of water flowing in all the gulleys, some of which have firm snow in them. The trail was washed out in one or two gulleys but no major problems crossing any of them. Continuous snow is found from the time you start climbing to the pass, all the way to the summit. Boundary camp is still snow-covered. Travel from the pass to the summit of Ruth was easy on soft snow with a firm base. Great views of Shuksan and Baker along the way. Total time from the trailhead to the summit was about 4.5 hours including a few long breaks along the way. After an hour on the summit taking in the great views, we headed down to set up camp. We followed the ridge that runs to the south off the summit of Ruth and opted to camp on the plateau below and to the right of the ridge (shown below) Plenty of room in there for multiple groups and still have space to themselves. No running water up there yet. The evening was calm and warm, with some great views of the surrounding peaks, including Icy in the waning light. The next morning, we awoke to nice views of Shuksan in the morning light and the moon over camp. We left camp at just after 6AM, an hour after a group of 6 from the Mountaineers. T-shirt weather from the time we left camp. Nothing had frozen overnight and we found no need for crampons. From camp, we followed the rocky slope that descends from the plateau. We found a cairn to the left that marked the entry point to the rocky descent. In the photo below, it's the C-shaped band of rock that comes down from just to the right of the low point on the saddle and runs between two patches of snow.. This section was a mix of Class 2 and Class 3 scrambling with lots of loose rock before we got on snow that, with the exception of one short section on dirt and rock, we were able to follow down to the flatter slopes below from where we headed over to the saddle between Ruth and Icy. Travel on the way to the saddle was pretty fast on the soft snow with a firm base. At the saddle, we roped up. The route stays to the right of the ridge separating the Spillway and Icy Glaciers. We took a gentle rising traverse up the left hand side of the Icy Glacier, cutting in front of the saddle and heading for the shoulder to the right of the summit prominences. There were a few crevasses opening up low down on the glacier but nothing that we could see on the higher route we followed. From the shoulder to the base of the summit climb to the Northwest peak took only 5 minutes of unroped travel. The route to the summit follows the gulley shown in the photo below. From the top of the gulley, you head left to the summit of the northwest peak which is just a few feet higher than the northeast peak. The gulley up to the summit was Class 2 at the very bottom but became a mix of Class 3 and 4 the rest of the way with perhaps a short section of very low Class 5. We hit the top about 2 hrs, 15 minutes after leaving camp, spending an hour while we waited for the Mountaineers group to come up. Once they were up, we headed back down the gulley. They had set up a handline for their ascent and they kindly let us use if for our descent which we did by descending with a handline (their group opted to rappel off, as did a pair that had climbed the peak the night before). This was nice to have as it's a fairly steep section and a fall would hurt. From there, we headed back to camp, returning to camp about 5 hours after we had left in the morning. Packed up, headed back over the summit of Ruth and on down the trail, finding much more water on the trail on our way out than on our way in, thanks to the high temps. Total time from the summit down to the trailhead was about 3 hours, 15 minutes. Gear Notes: Brought and used: axe, helmet, rope, harness Brought and did not use: picket, crampons Approach Notes: Road is open to Hannegan Pass Trailhead Trail largely snowfree to base of climb to Hannegan Pass, continuous snow from that point onward

Duffels are a good way to go. They typically get pretty trashed on trips like this so having one that's sturdy and can hold up to a lot of wear and tear is useful. You will just carry a daypack during while moving from camp to camp. I'd pack some Diamox too, especially if your group is doing the typical fast Kilimanjaro ascent.

Trip: Mt. Deception 6/14-6/15, 2008 - Date: 6/16/2008 Trip Report: Cebe, Susan, Grace, Ken and I headed out to the Olympics this weekend to climb Mt. Deception, a trip we'd had to cancel three times in the past two years due to weather. Saturday was spent hiking into the group camp at Royal Lake. The skies cleared on the drive to the trailhead but by the time we were halfway up to Royal Lake the clouds had settled in and we had pea-soup the entire rest of the day. Spotty snow is encountered for about a half-mile below the lower meadows. Continuous snows starts past the lower meadows on the climb to Royal Lake. We managed to find a few dry spots right near the big rock at the Group Camp; otherwise it's pretty much still snow covered all around there. Sunday morning, we awoke to bluebird skies and headed up to upper Royal Basin. The snow had frozen overnight so we put on crampons for the trip up and found the travel to be pretty fast, reaching the base of the climb to the ridge within about 1-1.25 hours. From there, we climbed the steep slope to the ridge to the right of the summit (the low point of the saddle in the photo below). We initially followed the broad gulley going up to the left (above the right-most trees in the photo) but then cut back right about one-third to half-way up and moved between the rock bands up to the saddle, largely following some existing tracks. The snow was pretty firm, requiring crampons. A bit steeper than we expected but it was easy to get good purchase and maintain good footing. Once on the ridge, we took a break and spied the continuation of the route. The guide book says to drop off the ridge, then traverse over to and climb a steep slope to the left of Gilhooley Spire. The sun had just gotten onto that slope and given the firm conditions we had just encountered, it did not look very appealing, particularly with how steep it looked up top. We did see steps from a group that had been up there in the previous day or two and wondered if they had hit it later in the day when it might have been softer. Instead of going up that slope, we found a nice, easy approach that went around to the right of the spire (shown in the first photo below; the spire is cut off a bit but the right side of it is seen in the left-most part of the photo) and eventually brought us out onto the slopes on the southwest face of the peak. From there, it was easy to beat around on the rock and scree until gaining the ridge up to the summit. Just below the summit, we encountered some more steep, firm snow that had not seen the sun yet. The photo below is as we came off that steep section. Once above that, it was an easy last stretch to the summit where we had great views of the entire range including some nice ones of Constance (the "Bitch Goddess" as Cebe calls it), Anderson and Olympus, which is still loaded with tons of snow. Time from camp to the summit was about 5.25 hours For the trip down, we downclimbed a short section of steep, firm snow just to the side of the slope we had ascended and, after that had an easy trip back down the ridge, around the spire and off to the col on the ridge above Royal Basin. Fortunately, by the time, we got back to the ridge, the sun had really softened up the slope back down to Royal Basin. This was fortunate as we had not anticipated the steep snow we got on the trip and did not have pickets with us. We downclimbed the top 50 feet or so and then managed to turn and safely plunge step down to the basin. A slip up high would have been pretty bad as it's steep and there are lots of rock bands below. It's a bit easier to understand now what Smoot was referring to in Climing Washington's Mountains when he described the hazards on this peak. Once in the basin, it was an easy trip back to the group camp to pick up our gear and head out. The maps and guidebooks say this is a 6 miles walk out from the lake, but I'd felt more like 8+ given the time it took to get back to the trailhead. Approach: Trail to Royal Lake. Easy snow travel up to upper Royal Basin Trailhead to Group Camp: 4.5 hours Group Camp to Summit: 5.25 hours Summit to Group Camp: 2.75-3 hours Group Camp to Car: 3.5 hours Gear: Helmet, axe. Pickets might have come in handy had the snow conditions been different

The term is actually "aphasia." It refers to a loss of language function. There are two types: 1) Expressive -- the person knows what they want to say, understand what you are telling them but cannot get the words out; 2) Receptive -- the person doesn't even understand what is being said to them and just respond with fluent, but non-sensical speech. Apraxia is an inability to perform learned motor tasks despite having the sensory and language skills/function to understand the commands.

Just because there are good physiologic reasons for something to work doesn't 'mean it is actually effective in practice or that there are research data proving clinical effectiveness. Anti-tussive medications are notoriously ineffective for cough, whether it be here at sea-level or at high altitude. Also, the cough often derives from irritation down in the lower airways, well lower than anything a throat lozenge will access or a little bacitracin in the nostrils will affect. The dry, hacking cough at high altitude typically does not respond well to any of these standard approaches and often just resolves once someone gets down to lower elevations. No harm in trying any of the things you mention... just don't be surprised when they don't work.

None of which have ever been shown to work for dealing with the dry hacking cough that is common at high altitude.

While low grade fevers, fast heart rate and fast respiratory rate are features of HAPE, mental status changes and ataxia (clumsiness) are not... Altered mental status and ataxia are feature of high altitude CEREBRAL edema (HACE). Some people get both HAPE and HACE together but many get HAPE alone and would not have altered mental status etc. It's an important distinction because if you see altered mental status and ataxia going on as well, your choice of medications to treat the problem would change a bit... you'd add Dexamethasone for the HACE symptoms. Descent remains the best treatment for both but if that isn't feasible... meds are necessary.

The fact that it last several days after coming down argues against this being due to HAPE. Improvement occurs with descent and, while the symptoms can last days in very severe cases, it should resolve faster, particularly if you go down to sea-level. Someone else in the thread mentioned that in HAPE people cough up pink sputum. That is typically a very late finding in severe HAPE. Early on, before it gets really severe, many people have a dry cough. Exposure to the H2S could create the symptoms you describe. A useful bit of info to helping figure out what this is would be how high in altitude you've been on other volcanoes. If you've been to similar elevations as Hood on other peaks but no symptoms, that would argue against HAPE

If this has been going on for more than just a few days, it is definitely worth getting checked out by a physician. For something present for just a day or two, a viral syndrome is always a possibility but if this has been persistent there are other things that should be checked out.

AMR and Medic-One are fundamentally different organizations. AMR is a privately owned company whose ambulances are driven largely by EMTs, with occasional critical care nurse support based on the type of patient they are transporting. Medic-One is run out of the Seattle fire department. They only use paramedics and do not use EMTs. The parmaedics have a much higher level of training than EMTs who drive for AMR. Almost all paramedics who work for Medic-One come to the organization after having been fire fighters in the SFD for several years before hand and it is extremely rare for them to hire someone who was not trained in the Medic-One paramedic training program. The rules differ slightly for the Medic-One systems in outlying areas such as Shoreline Medic One, Bellevue Medic-One etc. although for the most part they also only hire people who went through training with the Seattle paramedic training program.

I read in an article elsewhere about this that the Nepalese agreed to close down access from the Khumbu side for a 10-day period and not the entire season. This will be certainly be a disruption to the climbing on that side but it seems surmountable in some respects. In the past few years, many groups have been putting large numbers on the summit well past the 10th and into the second half of the month. This will just require getting the acclimatization work prior to the period when they'll be closing down the route. Many groups also come off the mountain in this early May period, particularly if the weather isn't great, and head to lower elevations to let their groups recharge a bit. The big problem, however, will be the big number of groups moving up the mountain once the 10th passes. I suspect this season will set a record for the most Tibet flags and Free Tibet signs displayed on the summit.

Without knowing what the pain feels like, where it is located, what aggravates it or makes it feel better, it's hard to comment on the precise cause of the pain and, therefore, hard to comment on what is best for dealing with it. Some thoughts: - PT should not be written off because you are in good shape. Good PT work can be of benefit to very fit people for the purpose of rehabbing specific injuries or training up other muscle groups whose weakness or instability may be contributing to a particular problem. It helps, though, if the PT has a specific diagnosis to work with in developing a rehab program. - The source of the problem could be in the knee but Layton is correct in pointing out that in some situations it is a problem elsewhere that manifests as pain in the knee. For example, sometimes people develop knee pain due to hip problems. This is only something that can be sorted out with a thorough history and musculoskeletal exam. - I would not look at a cortisone injection until you know have a reasonably firm diagnosis as the utility of such a shot will depend on what the problem is. Similarly, whether or not you need surgery depends on what this is. If you don't like the opinion you get from the knee specialist, you could consider going to a dedicated sports medicine clinic. There is a good one at the UW ((206) 543-1552). They have some quality docs over there.

Sent you a PM...

Three words to ease this pain: Sierra Nevada granite. Plus... the road access up to the eastern Sierra Nevada and the Owens Gorge from SoCal is great all year round.

While the Republicans will clearly be happier if Hillary is the nominee, I'm not so sure it's a slam dunk they win the election in that situation. The big issue will be the economy and the tremendous economic insecurity that people from wide swaths of the country are feeling. She's got ideas/plans that speak to that insecurity while McCain not only has openly admitted to knowing little about economics but also continues to spout off about his plans to cut taxes, cut spending and let the free market reign, which I think, after the past 8 years, sounds to many people like not much of a plan at all. That and enough replays of his line that we could be in Iraq for 100 or more years and I'd say he's not such a slam dunk.

My precinct went for Obama as well. I have to admit to being fairly disappointed in the way the process worked at my precinct. It was so disorganized that by the time they did the initial tally and delegate count they only had time for a few comments from supporters of each candidate before moving on to other business like fundraising and choosing the representatives to later parts of the caucus process. A friend said it similar at her place. If there's not going to be ample time to allow discussion and opportunities to sway people's minds, let's just go with a primary and scrap the caucus.

Here's a link to the Inyo National Forest website with information about Mt. Whitney Permits: Whitney Permit Link Looks like permits are needed year round to go into the Whitney Zone, which includes the north fork of Lone Pine Creek. Quotas in place May 1 to November 1.

A friend of mine who works with S&R told me they've had some situations this season when they've noticed that GPS units are interfering with avalanche beacons in the receive mode. Has anyone else noticed this?

I can't speak much to whether there is data about one particular breathing technique being better than another but there is not much physiologic merit to the idea of doing one thing or another to fully clear out the carbon dioxide or maximize the oxygen you take in. If you have healthy lungs, they will do an efficient job of eliminating carbon dioxide and taking in oxygen independent of whether or not you pressure breathe, do a forced exhalation every 4th breath or do other things. In the end, with healthy people (i.e. no emphysema, pulmonary hypertension, severe asthma, heart failure) maximum exercise capacity is limited by the ability of the heart to deliver oxygen to the exercising muscles. Healthy people are not limited by the ability to take oxygen in or get rid of carbon dioxide through the lungs so the exact pattern of breathing will not have much of an impact.

Learn how to avoid having your next big trip to some high altitude region ruined by a bad case of altitude illness and get the latest on ginkgo, viagra and other idea being tossed around for dealing with these issues. (Some eye candy will be thrown in to prevent boredom). "Safe Travel at High Altitudes" Speaker: Andrew Luks, MD University of Washington. Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine When: Wednesday February 6, 7PM Where: Seattle REI Free to the public Questions: aluks@u.washington.edu Link

There is a guide who does tons of work in ANWR in the eastern Brooks Range who I have travelled with and is great. Macgill Adams. His company is Wilderness Alaska. Website is wildernessalaska.com. While you obviously don't want a guide, he offers a service whereby for a fee he can help you plan a route, help set up bush flights, get you maps etc. He calls it No Guides & No Gear. The webpage where he discusses what this is: http://wildernessalaska.com/No%20Guides%20No%20Gear.html Even if you didn't use this service, he has been guiding up there for a long time and knows ANWR better than most. You could always try to contact him through the email on his website for some beta. It is a sweet place to visit... hopefully you can pull it off.

R.J. Secor The High Sierra: Peaks, passes and Trails devote 5 pages to Whitney. You might also get some beta here: http://www.mt-whitney.info/index.php If you go down there... don't forget to get permits. Even if you're going in as a day trip you need a permit to go up the Whitney Portal trailhead or be in the Whitney zone if you enter from another trailhead and move into that area.

I second exactly what mneagle said. A rib fracture due to coughing is certainly possible but some of what you describe is consistent with having a pleural effusion (fluid buildup in the chest cavity around the lungs) and you need to get this possiblity evaluated. If it is, in fact, what's going on antibiotics alone will likely not make it go away. mneagle mentioned seeing you can get the clinic/hospital who did your chest-xray to give you a digital version of it that you can forward to him. Most hospitals in the US now handle their x-rays electronically but a small clinic in a remote area where you are probably doesn't. If the clinic can't get you a digital version, try to take a digital photo of the x-ray yourself and then forward that on.

Thanks to those who have helped out with the survey. We're still looking for participants so if you or any of your climbing partners has Raynaud's and would be interested in participating in the anonymous survey, please send an email to aluks@u.washington.edu and you will be provided with more information about the study. Thanks again!