Crevasse

Get a gps. It is worth it and use waypoints.

Um. Maybe some fraction of a percent might pull it off and like it but most will think of fear and loathing. Of the few times I have tried it I was full of trepidation and it put me into ski survival mode and I was just trying to make it down. If I am going to pack all of this crap in then I darn well want to enjoy the ski down and hit it hard. So I guess it is what you are in it for. Save money, weight, fun skiing... That's my experience.

I skied it yesterday, 7/13. I could skin from about 4,200’ and up.

I caught a cam in the mouth after checking a questionable placement. Busted a tooth off. Not a great moment on lead but after some time to get it together, I sent it.

I used to be old school and was annoyed when my climbing buddy started pulling out the GPS. I surveyed for the Forest Service in college and thought maps and a compass were the way to go until we got caught in whiteout on N Sister. I am normally a walking GPS but I found that even with the compass I would get off course and completely turned around within a couple of hundred feet and have to reset. The GPS was bomber and saved a lot of time on the walk out. Now I take the GPS everywhere although I rarely use maps. I pre-mark important points like trail junctions, import previous tracks or waypoints form previous climbs, escape routes like the Pearly Gates and top of the Palmer, and sometimes pull in points from Google earth. And during endless slogs it is a good time waster to check speed and distance and otherwise occupy the mind. In the field if I feel I might need to backtrack I turn tracks on and occasionally mark things like bivy sites. So to get to the point I love the GPS, carry a compass but never use it and would feel very comfortable relying on it when visibility drops. Go for it Bill

I have a friend that pointed it out and wanted to get some user feedback for him. He is a 60+ yr old gentleman who does some impressive solo backpack trips mostly cross country. I have been his return contact for a few trips. He always gives me a detailed itinerary but it can change. Seems ideal for this situation and the one with the lost UO professor a few weeks ago. I also like the tracking feature. I have had more than one trip get extended with no cell coverage. It would give the family nice peace of mind when things ran late and they could track your progress.

Anybody have or used one of these devices. Seems like pretty inexpensive insurance for solo travel. Spot Locator

One final note, when we hiked out Sunday morning, the mountain was dusted with snow above about 7,500 ft. Don’t know how that might affect your plans.

Some slings and a few pieces are more than enough gear. We liked having two ropes for the rappel out. The slings were good but most of the gear put was symbolic anyway.

Great shots guys. Thanks for taking all of the pictures. For all the North Sister naysayer’s, I had a great time on this climb with my buds and some new friends from CascadeClimbers.

I’ve been working with my 5 year old daughter at home throwing the rope over the swing set, lowering down the stairwell, and the occasional tree limb.

Having been on North Sister five times covering all four seasons, I have to say each involved very different conditions but each was a great experience. What Cascade mountain in Oregon isn’t a choss pile right now? I don’t think that means you can’t go out understanding the conditions, hang out with friends, face different but still technical challenges, and have a good time even while climbing a heap.

Did anyone end up going up this last weekend?

Searchers heading back to Mount Hood. http://www.kgw.com/news-local/stories/kgw_071007_news_hood_climber_search.61ec50cc.html

Big slings are the way to go on Jefferson.

I second the Ex Officio Boxer-Briefs statement. When you wear them it's like a mountain meadow 24/7 down there.

I have Shuksans with the Pure binding and really like them a lot. I have spent a lot of time in the BC and inbounds with them. The higher stance did take a little getting used to but now I almost think I prefer it. I would recommend a day or two inbounds to get used to the stance. I do not get the shrinking comment either. I would go Pure if I did it again and Dynafits were not an option.

Toes are aid. When I got "frost bit", my fingers felt like they had been burnt for a couple of weeks but seemed fine after that.

Blame Canada!

The trip down from Three Forks to Rome is an even wilder and more remote.

It's 29 deg. in Corvallis and supposed to get to 22 deg. tonight. Sounds c-o-l-d and icy.

I used to think old school and felt my compass was most important and gave my partner a hard time for fooling around with his gps. But now after a few, less than 50’ whiteouts I would not go out without it. I program in waypoints before I head out, log tracks for retreat mark bivy’s for future reference, and check general metrics along the way to distract from long slogs. I think they are great. I also use a rhino for the radio feature.

No trip reports from this weekend? Come on I could see Hood from Corvallis. The perfect opportunity to grab the top. If I did not have a pregnant wife I would have been out. Pony up for all of us living vicariously through the board.

We did camp at Schurman. The descent trail at Camp Curtis is marked with wands on the ridge at 9,200ft and was right at the 2nd campsite. You can see them in the fifth photo down. The trail is steep at the end but not too bad.

Climb: Mt Rainier-Emmons/Winthrop Date of Climb: 8/5/2006 Trip Report: Seven of us left the Whitewater Campground and made good time to Glacier Basin. The mountain looked bigger than it did last year. We spent a fair amount of time at the basin with the local ranger as he seemed to have been abandoned as a child and needed to go over in great detail every aspect of our permit. A couple of us were shaken out of our sleep by a small earthquake in the middle of the night. The five climbers ascended the Inter-Glacier in the morning. Some crevasses are opening up above 7200 ft but nothing too serious. We made camp and rested for the evening. There was no rush and got a late start at 4am which would give us plenty of light to route find since the route was opening up quite a bit and had heard that the parties from the day before could not get around the berschrund. It was a beautiful sunny day and short of a stiff wind a perfect conditions. There were about 12 sketchy crossings that are quickly melting out along the Emmons route. To avoid most of them we crossed to the Winthrop at about 12,500 ft and came back to the boot track at about 13,200ft. Only one other faint set of tracks were over on the Winthrop. We topped out and quickly headed down due to the wind. We followed the boot track down on the Emmons to make time. We camped at Glacier Basin and headed out in the morning. Gear Notes: Ropes, pickets, crampons, axe