northvanclimber

when i took a mountaineering course, i was taught that this type of overhand knot was called a "flat" overhand.

east ridge of alpha is nice. if pressed for time you can speed up the ascent by bypassing the technical rock on the left with some fourth class scrambling. also, finding the actual trail that heads up to the ridge (instead of just bushwhacking your way up) also speeds things up nicely. i've got some photos and a rough outline of the route online here: http://gallery.antiflux.org/v/lavina/album858/mountain123/album974/

i've found that the increased range of the camalots can be really helpful when putting the cam into a crack that is narrow in the front (ie, on the outside), but gets wider in the back. the ability to contract the cam lobes quite a bit lets you get the cam past the narrow outer lip of the crack, but then open up to a reasonable size inside the crack.

everyone seems to have their favorite knot, the overhand knot (aka edk) with long tails, and pulled tight (all knots should be cinched up tight or "dressed" to make sure they don't untie) is my favorite just cause it's less likely to snag on something when you pull the rope. double fisherman's works well too, just a real pain to untie after repeated rappels. just my two cents .

i've found rogers to be pretty good, but no coverage in lillooet . probably not that unexpected, but kinda sucks when you're out ice climbing in winter. not sure how telus or bell compare...

where's that flying from? we just paid about 250 (can$) from vancouver with aircanada.. westjet was the same. flight seemed pretty cheap until all those taxes got added..

for mountaineering, where you're just on snow and ice and not hitting anything techical, a half rope is often nice and light and perfectly strong enough... but, beware,if you're dragging it over lots of sharp rock or will hit any real technical climbing, a light single rope's probably the best (9.2-9.8 ought to be fine). half ropes also suck sometimes for prussiking and they stretch a heck of a lot too so some would argue they're not the best for glacier travel.

was up on the rambles left (lower tier) and on the rambles center's lower and upper tiers on dec.18-20. both areas were good, but the rambles center did have water coming down in some parts of both tiers. took a quick peek at honeyman falls and while there's a lot of ice, it looked thin in places and pretty wet. the other route near honeyman (can't remember name) was fun, but thin in spots. too bad it got so warm suddenly! it was -15 at the rambles on sunday, and then -3 by monday.

Yeah, it's in Masters of Stone V. You can watch Dan miss the dyno and fall back to the previous hold. Kinda freeky to watch!