skeletor

He is indeed. I'll try to swing by on Thursday...

The girls or the sauce?

Question on the booties, all the down tent booties i've seen, like the TNF ones, don't seem to have much of a sole to them. Great if you're hanging around in a tent, but doesn't seem to be so safe walking around outside. Not much traction as far as I can tell from the photos... http://www.mountaingear.com/pages/product/product.asp/imanf/The+North+Face/idesc/NSE+Tent+Booties+-+Fall+2006/Store/MG/item/204394/N/0 Any specific models of booties you'd recommend?

I guess it's only a matter of time before we see the Oregon legislature pass a bill requiring all climbers to carry a labrador with them...

Did you buy overboots for Denali? Are they sitting around in your closet gathering dust? Sell them to me. Looking for a pair of overboots, preferably 40 below K2's, size L (I wear a 9.5 Koflach boot). Skeletor

Damn, I hate those 100 minute hours...

Not to change the subject, but how were conditions on the mountain?

The Mountaineering Handbook by Craig Connelly has a lot of explanation about some of the physics of climbing, the forces of falls, etc. If I recall correctly, he's an engineer and a climber...

One of my co-workers spoke to the rangers. The donkeys have been rescued!

So are access issues to Glacier resolved now? I was thinking of hitting the Sitkum Glacier route next weekend. Can I get to White Chuck River TH and head up through the Kennedy Hot springs area to Boulder Basin without any difficulty? Anybody been up there lately?

Planning on hitting Baker this weekend. With the warm temps, any suggestions on whether Easton or Coleman-Deming would be a better route?

Sharp was trying to climb without oxygen. He supposedly took two bottles with him as a back-up. Some Sherpas from Inglis' group (the double amputee)gave him some extra oxygen, but it's unclear to me what Hillary expected the climbers to do. It's not like they could have dragged the guys down from 300 meters below the summit.

Not at all windy at the top. Gorgeous views of Shasta...

Put some pics in the gallery but couldn't figure out how to put them in this post.

Climb: Mt. McLoughlin -East Ridge Date of Climb: 5/14/2006 Trip Report: Drove down to McLoughlin on Sunday from Bend. Missed the turn off and ended up going down through Klamath Falls, so we didn’t get started till nearly 8 am. Given the weather was headed into the 80s, probably not a great move. The road up to the trailhead was blocked by a mound of snow, we could have gotten around it but we figure the road probably wouldn’t be passable to much further, so we parked at the snowpark and took the PCT trailhead in. Trail was patchy for the first mile or so, then all snow, still pretty solid through the forest, not too much post holing. We were following some footsteps and at one point just lost the track and started heading uphill. By the time we got out into the open it was pretty warm and the snow was rather soft. We angled towards the ridge and climbed up to a solitary tent. Just as we got there, the occupant came skiing down from the summit. After a brief chat, we followed their steps up the ridge and to the summit. Plenty of postholing along the way, we finally topped out a little before 2, six-hours after leaving the parking lot. Not having yet earned my pink belt in backcountry skiing, we decided to ski down the gentle south face of the mountain. Snow was wet and heavy, fighting us at every turn. Dropped down 2,000 feet in 20 minutes. Pretty sweet! As it was pretty late, we decided to keep skiing as far down as we could through the forest, over pine cones, and branches, and the occasional rock, eventually dropping down to about 150 feet above the parking lot elevation. We were just kind of eyeballing the direction back, and eventually popped out onto the highway. We guessed we were too far west, and after ¼ mile confirmed that with the mile marker. We had to walk a half-hour to get to the trailhead, for a 2 hour 15 minute descent from the top. Approach Notes: Snow cover pretty much all the way.

As of the last report I've seen, the road to Adams is still pretty much under snow. Might be a factor in your planning.

so did you go? How was it?

So this occurred to me while going up Thielsen this weekend. Why do people have to blue bag but horses are allowed to crap all over the trail. I'm sure the answer to that is that horses aren't allowed places that humans are requied to blue bag, but it really pissed me off on Sunday. I think horse riders should be required to diaper or clean up after their horse when using hiking trails.

Looks like the Sisters are getting a little fresh snow this morning...

a buddy of mine is flying in next weekend and really wants to do Hood. Anybody have any idea what the Hogsback route is like right now? I'm guessing it's looking pretty ugly. Any suggestions on routes that might be in play this week?

I can see North Sister on my way to work, and it's looking pretty brown. Haven't been up there in the past month, but I'm guessing you won't need the crampons...

Hey, Dulton! We must have passed you on Friday. We went ID on Saturday morning. Crevasses are melting out fast. There were a couple that you've got to take a bit of a leap across. I would agree they'll start leading up DC within a week. We had a team of 6 Rainier virgins and 4 summited. But man was it hot, when we got back to Muir!

I'm climbing this weekend with a bunch of guys flying in from the East Coast. While I'm driving up from Oregon and willing to camp out the first night before picking up permits, the rest of the group would like to get a hotel room or two Thursday night after their cross country flight. (They are all much wealthier than I am!) We're having trouble finding rooms this late in the game. Anybody have some idea on cheap lodging off the beaten path, not to far from Paradise? My friends are richer but still cheap.

Wands seem pretty straightforward so I'm buying some bamboo and colored duct tape and plan to make my own. Is there something I should consider in making my sticks with flags? Any advice for newbie to heed?

I did get the Salathe and I used it on North Sister about a month ago for the first time. They weren't exactly extreme conditions, but I was very happy with the bivy.