hydroman

I'm glad to hear it's working out for you. What gym did you end up trying out?

When I was there in 2002 no guides where required. All you needed was the standard climbing permit. I went in late Dec early Jan so can’t say about the march weather. I would be prepared for potentially nasty storms by then though. Don’t underestimate the mountain. Yeah, it’s technically easy (at least the normal route) but it can get cold. When acclimatizing at base camp people were coming down from high camp with frostbite from temps around 30 below zero (F). It’s doesn’t have a lot of snow on it but it can get cold enough to give you problems if you are not prepared. The wind can get pretty bad as well. I know that near the end of the season the rangers go around and do some sort of cleanup to take care of the trash of many lazy climbers. Not sure if the season if over then and they close down or what. FYI, Pit toilets were available to base camp but not above. They have a huge toilet problem at the three high camps on the normal route. Any big rock you go behind was a mine field of hundreds of piles of poo. Besides us and better quality guided groups I didn’t see or hear of anyone else using blue bags. We spent a while talking to rangers about it and left a few blue bags with them and demoed their use with rocks. They were looking for a solution and liked the idea and gladly took our unsused extras for samples on the way out. They have a problem and know it and seemed a bit unsure of what to do. They did say they were always very impressed with americans in terms of cleaning up for themselves and not leaving trash (poo/ old food/caches) on the mountain. They pretty much said they had to really keep an eye on everyone else. It was an interesting conversation anyhow. I don’t know what route you are considering but from talking to descending climbers many said the 19k high camp was nasty and hard to find clean water. Due to this we skipped and went from middle camp (17k) to the summit in one push. It’s very doable and worth considering if you are well acclimatized. Good luck.

I've been generally plugging Crossfit on most fitness threads becuase I believe in what I have seen from myself and others. That being said the 'flavor' of the various facilities is totally set by the people who own and run it. You'll learn similar stuff, but no two places are alike. Not much of a point other than you might really like one Crossfit gym and really dislike another. I'm not dissing any other facility as I've never been to another personally, but just something to be aware of. Hopefully they are all as positive and beneficial as the one I go to.

They don't limit the amount of people per class but they also pay attention to how many people show up. For example the Monday 6pm classes started getting large so they just split it into 2 classes (5:30 and 6:30). The folks that run this particular gym don't pay a lot of attention to the bottom line as they really, really care about getting people fit. If classes get large (like Monday evenings) they split them up. They do it because they are passionate about what they do. Particularly since most folks are unlimited monthly members so adding classes only means more work for them, but no more $$. The classes are reasonable for the size of the place. It's nothing like trying to go to the YMCA or 24hr after work. I can't speak for all facilities but I know that eastside is very conscientious about working with peoples injuries. There are multiple people there dealing with various injuries (myself included, plantar faciatis). Some of these injuries are significant (low back problems, recent shoulder surgery, etc.) They are nice enough to specifically modify the workout for that person that day to work around whatever the problem is. That's going above and beyond IMO. I hesitated to join due to injuries but wish I hadn't as they were very good about working around and with the problems. If you are unsure, shoot them an email and voice your concerns.

You can do as many drop ins as you like. There is no need or pressure to become a monthly member. If you do more than 2 classes a week though the monthly unlimited becomes cheaper. Don't let the fees drive you away. It seems like a lot but as myself and others have said you can't compare it to a regular gym as it's a far cry from what you might be used to. Many people agree that the monthly fee seems low for what you really get in terms of results and what amounts to personal training at every session. The first class is free but you need to try a few to really see what it's like since it is so varied.

This isn't necessarily true and varies by facility. The facility I train at http://www.crossfiteastside.com/ does not require any 'tests'. They only require that you start in the 'elements' classes which are for beginners before you jump into the regular classes. No need to spend extra money. It's more than you will pay at a box gym but those of us on this board who do crossfit all swear by it. One of the many attractions/benefits is not dealing with the cardio treadmill/stairmaster routine. I'd rather eat ground up glass than go back to that. The crossfit routines are varied, fun and hard but you never know what you are going to get that day until you show up. It completely eliminates the boredom factor.

To add to the super glue builder mentioned the folks at my crossfit gym are big on using a dremel to sand calouses. The drum sander attachment. And it goes without saying, be careful. I should disclose I've not yet tried it myself.

Yeah - maybe I just don't like change but the "past 24" part of the upgrade kinda sucks IMO. I much prefered the old setup.

Some people (myself included) have found that an occasional cleanse helps lower or get rid of sugar cravings. Like many things it’s not for everyone but I’ve found it helped the cravings the couple times I’ve done it in the past. I’ve used the “Master Cleanser” otherwise known as the “Lemonade Diet” with success. I like this one because as I’ve found I can actually function while doing it. Not going to be doing any heavy activity but at least you can go to work. http://www.mastercleanser.com/

I went to school in Flag and it rocked for the outdoor lifestyle. I didn’t really want to leave except for the job problem. As I recall the town motto was “Poverty with a view”. Plus the construction/development like many places was outta site. Roughly 60k people (including school) when I was there 10 years ago and the city planners were predicting the population to triple to around 180k within 30years. Yikes! Not sure where the water will come from... Not that 180k people is bad but towns have a habit of turning into ugly strips when things happen that fast.

"How well are they able to adjust their training to people with injuries or other limitations like arthritis?" My experience is that they do a great job with this. A climbing buddy of mine has been training with Crossfit for a few years now and spent a lot of time trying to get me to come to the gym and check things out. He had realized some great gains and was starting to blow past me in the mountains. I kept saying no because of all the talk of heinously hard workouts. I have been plagued with injuries for the past five years (major plantar fasciatis, low back issues and arthritis in many joints) and was afraid that the workouts would cause me greater problems due to their intensity. When I first joined I spent some time talking with them regarding my injuries and due to the personal nature of the gym they were able to work with my issues through reduced intensity in certain exercises through scaling or just subbing in other things to replace movements that might aggravate my situation. There are a number of people in the classes with all sorts of injuries from various activities and they are quite good at keeping track of and working with that. In general I’ve found that the workouts I’ve been getting seem to be doing a much better job of preventing injury and helping to work through past stuff. I feel better than I ever have doing more traditional exercise of cardio/weights. The other benefit is the awesome group dynamic of the classes. Very positive and supportive and quite a few other climber, skier types as well. One of the great things about the program is that’s it’s scalable to anyone’s needs. There are people there who can do 50 pull ups and people who can’t do a single one. The scalability and variety of exercises allows a lot of flexibility in working with injuries. I don’t need to tell you this but the main thing is to talk with the trainer/owners and let them know what your issues are and see what they have to say. I can’t speak for other Crossfit affiliates aside from Eastside Crossfit but would hope you would have similar experiences at other facilities. That being said, the personal nature of the Crossfit program means that the ‘flavor’ of the gym is very dependant on who is running the show.

See my comments from this post. You are seeing what I saw. That being that the Valandres, while super well made bags are over rated temp wise. A similar rated WM or FF bag will likely be warmer (and a few ounces more becuase of the added down that makes it accurate to it's rating). Valandre is shooting for the lightest possible bags on the market but seem to sacrifice temp rating to brign the weight down. Again, not knocking the craftsmanship just the numbers/weights/ratings. See my comments from this post. You are seeing what I saw. That being that the Valandres, while super well made bags are over rated temp wise. A similar rated WM or FF bag will likely be warmer (and a few ounces more becuase of the added down that makes it accurate to it's rating). Valandre is shooting for the lightest possible bags on the market but seem to sacrifice temp rating to brign the weight down. Again, not knocking the craftsmanship just the numbers/weights/ratings. http://cascadeclimbers.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=734030&page=0#Post734030

Yeah, that's a good point on the draft tube, hadn't thought of that. Still, based on my comparisons I'd say the Volandre bag is still 1 - 1.5 ounces less fill than the WM bag. Also just putting them side by side it's obvious that the WM bag is well stuffed and that the volandre bag is just not as lofty and is compresses much easier making is seem like there is much less down giving and substance to the bag. For a similar rating I would expect them to look/act similar in terms of loft. Plus that 10-12 inch zipper sucks to deal with. I nearly pissed myself laughing one night at the string of curses coming from my friend in the middle of a cold night when he was trying to get out of and back into his new Valandre bag to take a leak.

Yeah, not likely to fly here but they haven’t yet lost a sense of personal responsibility in NZ. They also realize that accidents are part of life and not always someone’s fault. I spent five months there about 10 years ago (unfortunately before I climbed). I stopped right where this thing is and took a guided ‘glacier walk’. They handed out super old hobnail boots and some big dude with an long old school wood axe chopped small but adequate steps up and down the glacier for us. It was all beautiful, sculpted blue ice with lots of running water and tons of small slots and huge gapers everywhere we were walking. There wasn’t much( or anything that I remember) in the way of a safety lecture. They just assumed people were smart enough not to fall in the crevasses. Being relatively new to international travel at the time I remember being amazed that they were allowed to do a ‘tour’ like that. I was comfortable but was thinking the entire time how easy it would be for a bad, bad accident to happen given all the gumbies and pretty sketchy terrain. It was refreshing to see something run so differently. I asked some locals about that and they gave me the impression that in NZ you can’t sue for monetary damages when accidents happen.

All three are very nice, high quality bags. I would go for the WM (ultralight series bags) myself as I think they have the best combo of high fill weights and low total weight. Be sure to compare fill weights and not just total weights for similar rated bags. Based on comparisons between some of my WM bags and my friends Valandres I think Valandre overstates their temp ratings. That’s just what I gather from looking at fill and loft as I have not slept in the Valandre. Below is a snippet from something I posted a while back on the same topic. Regardless of weight and fill the bag has to fit you so buy with that in mind over all else IMO. Both WM and FF are made in the USA which is nice. Valandre does indeed make an incredibly well made bag. Just consider that though nice, not all ratings are the same. If you take the Valandre Mirage for instance +20 degree 1lb 7ounces. It's the lightest 20 degree bag you'll find. It's 3 ounces lighter than then the Western Mountaineering ultralight, also a 20 degree bag. Where is the 3 ounces of difference? If you compare material weights and dimensions the bags are quite similar. The only real difference is the zipper. The Valandre has a zipper that's like 10 inches long compared with a full zipper on the WM. Still, zippers don't weight that much and don't account for 3 ounces. I know, since I have a lot of these raw materials sitting around at home. (I make my own gear for myself and some friends) The difference is that it appears the Valandre is short an ounce or two of down compared to the WM (or a similar FF). 2 ounces is a huge difference when it comes to down. My point being that watch out when buying an ultralight bag as some manufacturers really cut things to the wire in order to have the lowest weight listed on their hang tag at the store. A buddy has the Valandre and though it's an awesome bag it isn't a 20 in my book. At least not for an average sleeper or compared to FF or WM.

thelawgoddess – try this one. The two folks who run the show are awesome. http://www.crossfiteastside.com/

Yeah, if you compare the cost to your local YMCA or regular gym it seems overpriced. This thing is that you can in no way compare a typical gym to Crossfit. I won’t get into the details but will say that it seemed expensive to me as well when I first tried it out and I was hesitant to spend the money. Now in my 6th month at Crossfit Eastside (near Microsoft) $150 a month seems like a bargain for what I get and I would easily shell out more than that if they asked. The price is a bargain for what you get in terms of training, education, equipment and an incredible environment to work out. For most, once you start there is no looking back and you’ll be hard pressed to go back to a regular gym and subject yourself to the crap that passes as ‘fitness’ these days. Crossfit workouts can be brutal but the gains you make are amazing and you’ll be hooked for life. The extra dough is a small price to pay for true fitness and good health.

You are right. It’s all still marketing. I may well have been sold on the ‘feel good’. Believe me that I’m well aware that all these companies are trying to get me to buy their stuff. I don’t just believe everything I read like the happy little chickens pecking around the yard that provide my supposedly ‘free range’ chicken. Still, I climb and spend most of my free time outside so I need gear. That being said I strongly believe in making an educated choice. Patagonia wins my vote. I don’t shop by price. I shop based on my conscience and from everything I can get my hands on it appears that Patagonia by a long shot does their best to operate in a manner that other companies should emulate. Someone else mentioned that really doing the right thing would be to buy used. That’s not a bad suggestion and has a lot of truth in it. I typically buy new, though I buy as few things as I feel I really need and use them until they are threadbare and falling apart. Patagonia stuff in my experience lasts a long, long time and is better made than other gear/clothing makers which means less of my time spent pulling out the sewing machine and fixing the stuff. The longer it lasts the less I need to buy and the cheaper it becomes for me and the world. I follow that philosophy with most material things. I bought my vehicle new, take good care of it regardless of expense and it still drives like new at almost 190k. This has nothing to do with being self righteous to justify my buying expensive stuff. If you came over to my place you would quickly realize that I’m not much of a consumer. I’ve practically live like a monk and have slept on the floor since I left my parents house 13 years ago. In fact I typically cut the labels off my gear and make much of my own stuff to begin with. I definitely believe there is too much waste in the world. Part of it is because substandard crap doesn’t last long. Part of it is because people buy too much stuff. I try to do my part. I spend a lot of my time sewing and repairing all my friends gear for free just so that it won’t end up in the dump.

I use to flame Pataguchi all the time citing their way expensive fashionable stuff. A couple years ago a friend lent me “Let My People Surf” by Yvon Chouinard. I read it and was really impressed and after doing a bit more research I find myself going out of my way to purchase most of my clothes from Patagonia. Yup, the catalog has a lot of non technical street clothes. I’m actually pretty psyched about that. Like most of us I have a job to go to and need to wear non climbing clothes during the work week. Accordingly I’m really happy that Patagonia offers a place where I can buy clothes from a company that sets a great example of what companies should be, but than few are, or give a crap about being. You folks can flame them all you want about high prices and street wear but if you do any research and actually think about it the reality is that the stuff costs exactly what it should. Yup, I buy mostly Patagonia. I'm certainly not made of money or any highly paid IT person. I just have my priorities. Anyone with half a head on their shoulders knows full well that America is stuck in a Wal Mart mentality and that most only care about cheap goods no matter what the societal or environmental costs. The fact is that the costs of most of the crap we buy doesn’t reflect the real, true cost in the long term. Cheap goods are cheap because they come at the expense of others less fortunate and the planet. When a company like Patagonia actually devotes an enormous amount of time to everything they make and exactly what the impacts are of every decision, it costs more to make stuff and the extra cost get passed on to the consumer. And no I’m not talking about Patagonia just giving some proceeds back to the community and environment. They carefully consider everything. Where their materials come from, the longevity of a product, the environmental costs of how far and by what method things are shipped, packaging, where they locate their stores and what type of buildings they use and how they are refurbished. They also pay their employees decent and provide a better perks. That all costs money. If you don’t want to pay so much than simply go to REImart and there are plenty of manufacturers who sell a similar shirt or jacket for less. You can pass the legacy of your decisions on to future generations because you were too cheap to pay the extra $$ for something that is in fact well worth the extra money. Or hey, why don’t we all just suck it up and buy one pair of pants and wear them until they are worn out and can’t be repaired anymore rather than owning 4 pairs of cheap pants. Anyone who bitches about Patagonia’s prices should look in their closets. If you own more than one version of any piece of outdoor clothing than quit your bitching because you are one of the problem not the solution. The stuff may seem expensive but when you buy one good quality item and use it and repair it until it can no longer be used than you will see that the price really isn’t that much. In the book Yvon even laments the fact that much of the technical products are not affordable to the people that they really are designed for. Problem is that they cost what they cost when you do business in a responsible manner. To offer lower cost goods you’d have to simple cut corners and pass off the real costs to others like 99% of businesses today. Sad but true. Sorry about the rant but I’m just tired of people complaining about how much things cost. Good stuff costs good money and people usually just buy too much crap in the first place. It’s companies like North Face that really burn me. It’s unbelievable that suckers go and buy their crappy China made down coats when you can go to Feathered Friends and buy something custom made by people making a fair wage here in Seattle for the same or less money. In the end it’s really all about priorities.

Check these out. Though carbon fiber, they are not skinny like the 2 section BDs. Fairly rigid and super light at ~12ounces/pair. They've been working for me fairly well. Probably rigid enough for using as a megamid center pole or something along those lines. http://www.rei.com/product/749458

"Everything I read and many experienced folk with whom I speak say that you need a serious 4-season tent for summer climbing on the volcanoes in the area; that at least a 3-pole design is necessary to deal with the high winds. and possible snow loads. Is this not correct and/or overkill? " I'd say that's bs. For all but a serious storm high on a volcano a well staked (and guyed) out 3 pole 3 season (not convertible) tent will do on any cascade volcano in the summer. And if a serious storm is expected than you probably shouldn't be out anyhow. If your criteria is bombproof as you said in your initial post than yes, this tent will fit the bill. Still my 2cents is that tent is overkill for 99% of what you will encounter around here in the summer. I’d be pretty hard pressed to carry a 7-8 lb tent in Washington. In fact I've never carried something that heavy on any trip winter or summer around here. If you find yourself getting dumped on unexpectedly one night just set your alarm and get up and shovel the snow off every few hours. No big deal. For the odd occasion that you plan on being high on a volcano with really high winds just borrow or rent a 4 season. Carrying 7-8 lbs for backpacking seems nuts these days.

Is there any way to get a partial zipper on one or both sides of this bag or does the design make it impossible? I’d like to order one but am concerned about the ventilation issue. I like the shared heat principle but I’ve had issues sharing bags with serious overheating when there is no way to get some ventilation in the bag. The ounce or so that a couple quarter zips adds seems well worth it. Not to mention making it easier to enter and exit without totally upsetting your partner. Any thoughts on this?

I agree that the new system sucks. I've already been burned by it once this year. You are forced to buy permits a min of 2 days in advance (thur for a sat summit) and the way the weather changes around here you can be out of luck quick. Forecast went from sunny to crappy the day before my trip but there is no was to get my money back. You are simply out the $22, no refunds, no transfers. Conversly if the weather suddenly changes for the better you can't get a permit last minute. LAME.

For long trips Cottonelles (baby wipes for adults) are a mandatory item for me for keeping clean and reducing chafing. Vaseline also worked well during long thru-hikes. Neosporin helps if you don't catch it in time.

Like everyone has said before, you are targeting a very small audience with this bag. If you want to make it commercially viable I think you really need to make it very attractive to thru-hikers. That being said, you must keep in mind that while some hard core climbers may put up with no frills for a few nights to a week on a hard route, thru-hikers are going to be using these things for 6 months straight. Some hikers will want the lightest thing possible and won’t care about a zipper but I think it really needs to be at least an option. Losing sleep for 6 months because your significant other has to wriggle out of the bag once or twice a night sounds like hell. A couple of different widths would be nice as well so that bigger folks can roll around and not be waking each other up every time. The hoods need to be workable for people who roll from side to side during the night. For thru-hikers, 0 is too warm. They would be shooting more for a 20-25. But as you said the down fill can be adjusted. I've thru-hiked various long trails and have also made a synthetic version of this bag for a 2000 PCT hike. I really liked using the system to save weight. Personally, I would not consider buying one without a zipper. I also found when designing and experimenting that getting the correct shape on the top and yoke is key. Just a straight across cut and a rectangular yoke don't work very well. It needs to be well contoured to fit snugly around the shoulders/neck. I've been trying to get around to making a down version of this bag just like you are proposing (but with zippers). Alas I never seem to have the time. If you make one I'll likely buy it, but for backpacking. For me though it's got to have zippers and it needs to be wide enough to be reasonably comfortable. I climb a lot but certainly not hard enough to warrant spooning with my partner. I typically just carry a 16 ounce WM Highlight for most of the season and deal with being a little cool some nights and pull out the 20 for winter. How much would I pay? $400-450 Give or take. $500 tops. Otherwise I will just make it.