knelson

Thinking you mean this...? http://www.cascadeclimbers.com/threadz/showflat.php/Cat/0/Number/465981/an/0/page/1#465981 Two guys from the Olympic Peninsula.

When you stop focusing on speed. (Sorry, couldn't resist.)

I too know I shouldn't bite. But... I know a few people that have done Rainier and Adams back to back, for speed... FOR THEIR OWN ENJOYMENT AND CHALLENGE. No publicity, no press release - just a cold beer at the end of it all. Now... I'm just one person, and I'm not in touch with the "elite" climbers... so if I know of people that have done this, then I'm sure there are tons of others. And is it sooooo far fetched to think others have tagged Hood onto Rainier & Adams, and slogged for a day plus... just to see how they do? It's not far fetched in my mind. It's the whole "we did something no one else has" attitude that Chaps® me, which you so perfectly stated. I'm sure both climbers are great guys, and as I commented on earlier, they're not the ones chestbeating here. At least not directly. I just don't see what is so hard to fathom about other folks doing this - but just not caring enough to brag about it except to their drinking buddies. And since I'm sure somebody will jump all over me... NO - I haven't done it, and have no desire to do it! -kurt

Some folks seem to be overlooking the fact that it's not the climbers that are chestbeating... it's the production team! Granted... they may be taking care of the PR for our CO friends, but we haven't heard anything here from the climbers themselves. For all we know - they don't think it's much of a deal either! But I doubt it. Kinda sucks when you can't do stuff that you enjoy, just for the pure enjoyment of it. (added later... What UTC should really be promoting is the fact that they were able to deal with the logisitics of filming this outing. The organizational skills required to pull off the project from UTC's standpoint is well worth promoting.)

So is anyone rushing their paperwork for "Cascade Trifecta®" off to the Trademark Office yet? Just curious.

Chuck's comment is along what I was going to say. Whatever method for belay you use (fireman's or an actual belay) make sure you have a responsible person (adult?) doing the belaying. If you just assign one of the kids to do it, you are now teaching TWO kids TWO different things at once. This is probably not a good thing. You could be the one doing the belaying, but unless it's a fireman's I'm thinking it wouldn't put you in the right position to help coach, etc. -kurt PS... Wow - that "Belayer Wanted" thread suddenly comes to mind.

Wouldn't that be ROTF LOL ?

Shoelaces are not part of REI's mission. Their mission is to "help folks get outdoors", more or less. This includes cruises. Obviously this doesn't include shoelaces.

Another option is those mesh ditty bags filled with snow and buried. The mesh allows the snow outside to bond to snow inside. I've also used those worthless "snow stakes" buried as deadmen in a t-slot. Just girth hitch a nylon loop through one of the holes in the middle and hitch the other end to your tent. -kurt

Yeah... I thought that too. But if you look close at the lower right hand corner, you can see the rim. Shot taken from a plane, much higher than the rim. -kurt

Remember when this looked all smooth? Wow. (Picture from the south on June 9th.) Watching this thing over the last 7+ months has just been incredible. Hats off to the folks at the USGS for making this stuff so readily available. If you haven't stumbled across it yet, here's the site: http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/Volcanoes/MSH/Images/MSH04/menu.html -kurt

Purely a guess - but I'm thinking you wouldn't need them. In past years, I've found that once "conditions" get posted on the website for a route, it takes an act of God (or a comment from this board to Gator ) for them to be removed. Things might get updated, but old info seems to still remain. Seems to me I've seen that "bring snowshoes" comment since the road opened to White River. You could always hump the snowshoes into Glacier Basin, check out conditions, then if not needed ditch them in the woods somewhere to pick them up on your return. -kurt

What mattyg said, plus... For the tape you wrap around the top to keep the slit closed, use reflective tape. Not necessary, but a nice bonus feature if you need to use them in the dark. -kurt

Very good Chaps/Divot/whoever the heck you are. The timing was impeccable. You sir, definitely have too much time on your hands! Up until yesterday when you started laying on the nice stuff a little too thick, you had me hook, line and sinker. -kurt

Thanks for the info Mark. I'm not bummed about missing out on answering a bunch of questions when the only thing on my mind would be getting back to the car! Glad to hear you looked at overall usage by including both weekday and weekends - that's all I was fishing for. I'll look through my stuff, but I don't think I have much in the way of crowd shots. We've been lucky to find days in the past that have had minimal traffic while being gorgeous days! A few years back we were the only ones on the Emmons route at the end of June on a cloudless day! Doesn't get much better than that. Good luck, kurt

Just out of curiousity - was this survey done on random days during the summer or over the course of the whole summer? Can't say I remember anybody asking me any questions. If you're report is unbiased, also curious why you're only interested in shots of crowded routes. Just the cynic side coming out, kurt

The mental image of a hamster in one of those clear plastic globes running over a cliff, and splashing into a river below is now floating through my mind. Thanks.

Shapp... You're missing my point. I said that I would do anything for MY pet. Just like you. But I guess we differ when it comes to the expectations we thrust upon other people. Before I had a kid, my pet was my kid... just as Marie commented. If I still had the little furball of a cat, it'd be like I had two kids. But which one would I rescue first, ya think.

Shapp, Wrong on both accounts. I AM an animal lover and did have a dog, cat, hamster... you name it... as a kid. Until our local coyote got ahold of our cat, I had one of those up until recently. And yeah... at some point they all bit me, but what else is new... I probably deserved it! Would I do anything to save MY pet? You bet. Would I expect anyone else to do anything to save my pet? No. Would I get pissed because someone wouldn't risk their own life (which the eventual rescuer did ) to save my pet? No. What would I have done? Probably the same thing that it sounds like did happen... keep making phone calls and networking until I found someone that would help. Even though my posts might come across that way, I'm not sooooo cruel that I'd just shrug my shoulders, walk away, and say "oh well. that's that." I know this stuff happens. A young woman was killed down near Enumclaw earlier this year after falling over a cliff while trying to rescue her pooch. The dog survived. Even with all the emotional attachments, I still recognize that pets are just that - pets. And I will always value a human life over that of an animal any day. Guess it's a character flaw of mine. -kurt

Exactly. Rescuers - of humans - need to plan for the possiblity that their rescuee will be combative... putting themselves and the rescuer in danger. People under stress do some bizarre things. And these are people who you can communicate (hopefully) in English to. Now think about this with a canine that you can't communicate with, who has no clue as to whether you're friend or foe. Glad to hear the pooch got rescued by someone, but again... seems pretty crappy to be pissing all over the search and rescue folks for not doing something they didn't sign on for. -kurt

My uneducated guess is that their insurance company made that decision for them.

No. But I'm sure they didn't hire a video production outfit to document their feat just so their kids could see a cool video. I'm guessing these guys aren't overly happy about being remotely associated with fido - with his offer of using their documentation crew for a chad challenge. But then maybe they're one big happy family... who knows - or really cares.

$$$$$$$$$ Or was that a rhetorical question? -kurt

It IS interesting how rescues play out, or don't, in the media. There are a lot of rescues that never get media attention. I've often wondered if there is some intial contact between the media and rescue coordinators asking for "permission" to cover a rescue. Sometimes, the situation might be a little politically sensitive for mass consumption. Do any of our news-working lurkers have any insight? Hats off to all the Search & Rescue/Mountain Rescue folks out there. While the emotional attachment to pets can be just as strong for some people as for kids, the folks putting it on the line need to draw the line somewhere. Fireman stopped rescuing kitties from trees looooooong ago. -kurt