Couloir

Wow! That thing is FULL!

Why is that a bad thing?

That sounds VERY tasty...are you talking going UP on Friday and skiing or up Friday and skiing Saturday?

Thuuur doooo.

Veeeeery niiice...

2000 feet of vertical! That's 2000 more than I got. Nice work. Great TR!

Interesting topic given this ongoing John Zazzara incident.

That's Slothrop! Yeah, isn't there a Budlight Real Men of Genius radio commercial for this, "Mr. SPF 50 Wear-er-er!" Seriously, unless you are REALLY sensitive to the sun, SPF 30 is more than enough (put on 3-4 times a day). Add SPF 30 Chapstick and invest in some good quality Julbo Sunglasses and you're good. Beyond that, just deal with it and have a great time. A week in the sun on a mountain does not Melanoma make.

That shit is sick! Nice work!

Awesome pics. Thanks! The NF doesn't look half bad. Though it's not cold enough to climb, it looks tasty. And so does Sunshine for that matter.

Not sure how regurgitating a story from last year and "adding a bit" [what bit did you add?] helps explain THIS particular accident. Good tips though on how to handle that area though. BTW, Brian works for KATU.

Yeah...I love reading his TR and watching his videos. Talk about a guy that goes out and gets it on a regular basis.

Don't forget, crazy in the head--crazy in the bed.

You can help someone rap safely by having someone on the bottom end holding the rope they are rapping on. If they freak or let go of the rope, you have control of how fast they come down the rope. That's how we used to do it. In terms of an actual belay, though that seems like a bit much and would keep them from descending very efficiently, it could certainly be done from the top just like you were bringing someone up. Or is this something completely different??

I've always made mine using neon orange ripstop Nylon, bamboo gardening stakes and some permanent fabric glue. You can buy the material by the yard and the glue at most large fabric stores. - Cut a 3" x 6" strip of the fabric - Run a line of fabric glue along one of the 3" sides - Place a 36" long bamboo gardening stick along the glue line and roll it about 1-1/2 turns so that it wraps around the stick. There you go. Once you get the hang of it, you can make a lot over 6 or 8 good beers. I really only carry mine on glaciers where I may be doing my own routefinding and I need to mark hidden crevasses, bridges, etc. Even then I sometimes opt not to carry them. You're right, GPS makes it VERY handy these days. Wands are kind of old school, but still have there place. I know the NPS on Rainier uses neon duct tape. Seems like it would work somewhat, but to make it big enough to see from a distance, in a whiteout, you would need to use a lot of duct tape. Before you know it, you're carrying alot of weight. Nylon is much lighter, surprisingly durable (I have some wands that are 20 years old...fraid, but still in good shape) and flaps in the wind to help you see it. I have seen some use thin metal wire as opposed to bamboo to make wands. More compact I guess. But they too tend to be heavy and more importantly, when the sun hits them, it heats the metal and they melt the snow and fall over...no good. Also, put your initials on them and make sure you carry them off the mountain.

Leash?

Nice pics! You're right, it looks like VERY good climbing up there right now. Nice work!

This is impressive. You would definitely need to have everything fall into place and have perfect conditions (both driving and on the mountain). I bought that DVD about the two guys that were trying to run the Wonderland Trail (~95 miles, ~22,000') in 24 hours. That's pretty crazy stuff.

So does rope.

As a running belay or an actual belay? This over a picket? Was it pretty soft? I haven't used a fluke in years, but I guess that's only becasue a picket always seems to suffice. There are a couple of sections that are almost better to do in the dark so you don't see what the runout is like.

I prefer the 24" SMC over the MSR for the reasons Iain pointed out. It's not much of a point, but it does help in placing them in some cases. Yeah, I have some 36" ones too, but they've been on my pack only once. They suck.

...but stick around long enough Kbiehler and you're bound to see copious amounts of heavy spray!