rhyang

One trick for lining up the holes I was taught and have used a few times is after drilling the first hole, put another screw part way in to help with aligning the second hole.

Be cool - I've met Robert, and he's a good guy, even if he is an attorney from socal What are you up to these days guy ?

Picked up a Ready Mix at a Patagonia online clearance sale this fall for 50% off. I'm really happy with it thus far for winter stuff. Guideschoice.com has them in sale right now too.

I don't mean to nitpick, but Brokeoff Mountain is 9235'. I was up there last weekend doing some liesurely snow-camping. If you go in winter, bring crampons & axe (not just snowshoes/skis) - the last 600' or so to the summit were just a dusting of windblown powder over top of rime ice. From what I've read that's not unusual. RIP Kelly James. Vibes of hope to the two missing.

I've got one on my air tech evo axe ... did a little tinkering, and can confirm that it does fit around the quark's grip.

I just put the large Grivel triggers on my quarks a month ago. They seem to fit ok. So far so good to about WI3. Haven't really gotten on anything steeper this season yet - last season I was using them leashless at WI3 and clipped in to the leashes for anything steeper. Hopefully this season my footwork will be better

It ranged from frozen streambed To large talus The Bard-Harrington Wall I and my buddy KC headed up the canyon to the base of the BH Wall, and then met syudla, who had soloed up one of the WI3 lines on Chouinard Falls and fixed a nice TR We all got a lap in and I checked out his new Taa-k-oon's. Then we each took a lap on some thin ice near the Tree Route (climbing delicately). Finally we headed back down to the BH and syudla bade farewell while we climbed the first pitch. By then it was 3:15 or so and the prospect of negotiating the talus and frozen streambed in the dark on the descent made us decide to just rap off a v-thread and head back to the motel. Next day we came back amid blowing snow, and started up the talus, which was even uglier with just a few inches of snow on it. We decided to turn back instead of breaking a leg or ankle and went to go look at June Lake. The roadside ice didn't look in, but might have been good for some drytool laps From there we headed to Mammoth where KC picked up some new randonee gear (he muttered something about having to get his wife to start working and/or tutoring college physics ) and then headed back home.

If you look at the geometry carefully, you might note that while the mega light has less floor area, it can accomodate the sleeping pads of 4 people, whereas the hex can only fit 3. That said, I have a hex I got on ebay several years ago for cheap and have used it for snowcamping and such. As for using the hex without a floor in the snow - I just cut an old license plate in half and set the pole on that. I'm sure there are other tricks.

Thanks for the info all. A couple of buddies have been up there, and confirmed what y'all have said. Sitandbefit - your profile mentions bovines. Do they have any llamas about ? Ah, never mind, I shall inquire locally and keep a keen eye out ... Lambone - apologies if my note on supertaco got you riled up. To be honest, I have not read your reply on that thread as yet, but would imagine it was colorful. Have a super day

I'm thinking about visiting Cody this winter, and wondering about cheap accomodations. Also, does avy hazard generally rule out most climbs there ? I've heard that in the Canadian Rockies there is almost always something to climb even if the avy hazard is bad, but don't know about Cody. Thanks for any info !

Got a pair of the Lightning Ascent's at a sale last winter in the longer size. I had been using Denali Ascent's for a couple seasons before that. The denali's are pretty bombproof, but with the 8" tails the rivets have been known to pop off that hold the tails on (fixed mine with a stove bolt). IMO The lightnings seem to do better at traversing in springtime slushy conditions in Sierra cement and Cascades concrete than the denali's. I don't know if the lightnings might be less durable than the denali's. YMMV

Gearexpress.com has blem/2nd C4's on sale too in the larger sizes, and also 0.5 & 0.3. Not as cheap as REI's 20% off, but pretty close if sales tax for WA or CA is added in. Modernmountainman.com has blems/2nds in 0.5, 1 and 3 (bargain basement section), and Northernmountain.com has seconds in the 0.75.

I think hemp22 was talking about the boots. I picked up a pair of the alpinist model from REI when they first started carrying them this past spring. The stickiness of the soles really impressed me - in fact they left marks on my linoleum. But the fit didn't work out.

I wish ! But I can bring one to look at if you'll be around Tuolumne ... I am probably going to be heading up and over 120 multiple times between now and winter ...

Used an MEC alpinelite 30 on Cutthroat Peak (S buttress) and Liberty Bell (Beckey route) when I came up to visit the North Cascades a couple of weeks ago. Also did some multipitch cragging in Squamish with it. No complaints, though I haven't tried using a gear sling with it - we had a light enough rack that our harnesses were sufficient. I've also climbed alpine ice couloirs with it in the Sierra and an ice chute on Mt. Shasta. Picked up a spare while I was passing through Vancouver on the way home

Soloed up Sahale from Boston Basin lower camp last Friday (8/26), and it was great (clear, cool weather). Saw two teams of four turn around, but the next day I could see a couple of other teams going up (I was in the Mt. Torment area). Partners got back from the Torment-Forbidden traverse on Saturday afternoon, and we could see a flash of metal up on the Sahale summit, so I guess someone else made it up there too. The day before (24th) when we hiked in the visibility was complete crap. It rained overnight too. btw We all came up from California and Nevada and noticed that there were no summit registers on the more popular peaks (Cutthroat, Forbidden, Sahale, Liberty Bell). Registers have been disappearing in the Sierra for a while, too ...

Nice work Doug

I picked up a pair of grivel x-monsters for playing around on mixed back in March (got them for like $25 each - special deal). They are heavier than advertised, but beefy. The flexible shaft seemed like a lot of fun for California mixed with a lot of torquing on vertical granite cracks - just did some bouldering with them though, nothing all that serious (still just a beginner at mixed anyway). As far as ice performance I only managed to follow a couple pitches of WI3+ on them in April, but they seemed decent enough toys for the price. The picks were thicker than I expected, and I'm not sure how well they will work on cold brittle stuff, but on more plastic ice they seemed fine. I think sportextreme.com is having a sale on them right now - might be last season's model - the grivel.com site seems to imply that the new ones may have replaceable picks (though a little work with a file would probably fix that on the old ones too).

Yet more idle browsing on the Grivel site - replaceable picks for Monsters ?

Looks like a new version of the Rambo is coming out too ...

I noticed this just recently ... looks a lot like the G14 ..

Brian, don't feel bad. It was a magnificent day. We didn't rush. We had sufficient gear, etc. to get down with no problem. We had a most excellent time on the mountain. My only regret is not being able to buy you and your friends beers

Maybe they didn't have double ropes... we didn't either. Took us three raps on our one 50m to get down from the fixed anchor. We probably should have downclimbed at least some of the way, and / or done a belayed downclimb, but ended up slinging an ice horn and leaving some of those crappy Ti screws (hope someone picked up the booty ) I brought a v-threader, but there was so much water running down the ice that afternoon that I didn't really find any good spots to make a thread. Anyhow the weather was so good I guess farting around rapelling just seemed like the thing to do We both brought an ice tool for the second pitch. I led it with a tool in one hand and an axe in the other, and placed maybe 3-4 screws for a total of about 40m of glacier ice (not particularly hard nor brittle, of course it wasn't all that cold that day either). I don't know if it was 60 degrees - maybe 40-50 ? It seemed like there was the potential for taking different lines. Very fun in any case, and made for a nice break from the slogging ... nice work you guys My understanding is that the route changes over time as the season progresses - I read that a month before we went up it (8-July) the whole thing was a snow slope.

placebo effect

Just curious to know how the North Ridge of Baker is shaping up this year (saw something from a month ago about the Coleman Headwall) ... thinking of checking it out in early to mid August.