Couloir

Here are some data points at Muir today...chilly. And the weather for Sunday/Monday is not encouraging at all. Especially since you've never been there. Be careful.

From Mike's Blog:

Or even better: iIlLL3My-QI

I've done it. And it's not easy. If the snow is soft, forget using your adze. If the snow is hard, forget using your adze. You eventually end up using anything you have (helmet, pack stays, anything hard). It's usually very inefficient. Carry a METAL (not a plastic, which is fine for soft snow) shovel.

Although if you are looking for climbing advice, look no further than CC.com. And of course good speculation.

It's strange to watch the kid wiggle his tongue right before he latches on.

We had a friend that didn't want to vacinate her 3 kids. She also breast fed them until they were 5.

I always carry wet-ones for just such occasions. nothing ruins romance like the smell of fresh feces or three day old urine. Also, check the panties for racing stripes, a good indicator of general hygienic habits. Or just ask, "do you wipe from front to back, or back to front?"

Did he have sort of a "come hither" look on his face?

Either post this as a new topic or pick up a copy of FOTH they have several good pictures of them.

Your neighbors must think you're crazy! The wife wasn't all too impressed either. "WTF are you DOING?!"

Great shots jmckay!

Wow! Very nice Tony. What kind of camera are you using there? Awesome shots!

FWIW When I bought my first tibloc I set up 3 different ropes off my house (I have a corner of my house that drops ~28') and I wanted to see how well it would work. 3 ropes: 10mm Mammut, 9.5mm Edelrid and some bulk 7mm line I use for runners. Carabiners were BD OvalWires. I had a 10mm attached as well as back up in the event of failure. Even if I decked, I'd land on a thick ivy slope so the damage to me would be minimal. I allowed ~8'-10' of slack on the Tibloc and essentially stood on the edge of the roof and jumped. BTW it was a Saturday afternoon and the Mirror Pond was tasty and probably had somehting to do with my motivation for even attemting all of this. The Results: the 10mm and the 9.5mm held just fine. But the 7mm ripped the rope hard. It held before I decked, but it really ripped the sheath hard. I was expecting this because I think the limits on the Tibloc are about 8mm?? I also did the same "experiment" with my old ascenders and Gibbs ascenders. Not sure if it was because of the surface area involved, but these both worked marginally better than the Tibloc. Anyway, this was far from scientific, and I couldn't give you any measurements (Kg) of force, but at the time I was really curious how this simple device would work.

There are LOTS here!

To help minimize--though not completely eliminate--the moisture, make sure you have good ventilation without sacrificing heat retention. Also, make sure you smooth out the ceiling and walls as much as possible. Any little "peaks" will be where water potentially drips. Also try and not press directly against the walls while you're sleeping, or waiting out the weather. A bivy sac is great, and some sort of a barrier between that and the snow will also help keep you even dryer (and warmer). I also echo Clavote, synthetic bags will be much more useful in a snowcave than down.

Simul-climbing with a running belay is the best compromise between a full belay and being unroped.

They're showing it in several science classes here in Portland Public Schools. However it is being criticised on the basis that there is a "slant" of the information, and that Al Gore isn't a scientist but a politician. I haven't seen it myself. I plan to. But to me the critisism is unwarranted. Hell, when I was growing up every science film we ever saw could be construed as "slanted" one way or another. I say show it to whomever and have a disclaimer (if necessary) saying this is the opinion of a vast majority of leading international scientists. However there are others that say...[fill in the blank]. That should satisfy everyone.

Interesting clip. Nothing too emperical here. Maybe more entertaining than anything else. Apologies if this has already been posted and/or sprayed. 2guWbO0Z_Hc

I've been happy with my Aztars (not the ex), though I would limit them to alpine along with some mixed and drytooling. I wouldn't recommend them for any prolonged ice climbing however.

That's setting the bar pretty low isn't it? I think I made it.

I guess when you are a good musician, it doesn't matter when you feel like popping your wife in the face. I'm sure she said something to set him off.