yikes

My normal(ish) partner is skiing this weekend. WTF right? In any case, I'm up for anything, snow, multipitch, bolt clipping, etc. Lead 5.8 on gear and follow 5.10 or 11/A0. Have Prius, rack and rope. Based in Seattle. Let me know.

OMG, thumbs f***ing up , that could be said about so many conversations on this site. A lot to learn from cc.com but so much BS to wade through.

Looks like a sweet design but I'm a little beffudled. Because of the diameter of the sewn loops, it looks like you can't girth the BOA to both your harness and tools at the same time. Is that correct? Anyway, I don't think you'd want to because that means you couldn't easily disconnect from your tools. Right? ...and assuming you girth the tools and use a biner for your harness, now the tools are linked together by the umbilical. That means you can't put one in the pack and move with the other unless you untie the hitch. Just seems a little slower than unclipping but probably NBD.

Thanks Rad. For the record, I meant that I was embarrassed for responding to Ivan not posting the TR. I'm familiar with Ivan's approach.

Never mind, I'm embarrassed that I got sucked into this.

Trip: Dragontail Peak - Serpentine Arete Date: 7/20/2008 Trip Report: Given the recent antic TR's of late I was reminded of my own mini-epic. I suspect that I stand little chance of winning the March-TR-a-thon but hopefully I can make someone chuckle. I met up with Rafael_H for the first time at the Kirkland P&R around 4am. He hopped in my Celica and we arrived at the TH around 6am, at the lake by 8:30 and on the summit by 6:30pm. Not a blazing fast ascent but reasonable. We had a bluebird day and despite being pretty fired I enjoyed the summit. Rafael on the summit. Me (Jason) on the summit. Gratuitous panorama #1 Gratuitous panorama #2 We descended to Aasgard and beyond without a hitch but the trail was long and I was slow. We arrived back at the car around 12am. Looking forward to the snacks I'd stash in the car I felt around in my back pocket for the key... Then my front pocket... Then more excitedly I unzipped the front pocket of my pack... and finally frantically dumped it's contents on the parking lot and searched by headlight. I knew I had the key. It was the only key on the ring. I felt my back pocket again and nearly got sick when I poked my finger through a hole in the bottom. Apparently I'd rubbed a hole in the pocket and lost the key somewhere on route or trail. I slowly turned to the 6ft+ Armenian machine whom I'd met only hours ago and confessed. I didn't have any adrenalin left to flee the scene so I just prepared for the whallop. I didn't come and I slowly opened my eyes. Apparently Rafael didn't have the adrenalin left to get pissed or he is just a really patient soul. Knowing that the lady's were expecting us back, and fearing that my girlfriend would unleash the SAR, we decided that we needed to go to town that night. Neither of us had cell coverage at the TH. Of course, according to Murphy's law, that night there happened to not be anyone sleeping at the TH either. So, I stashed my pack and we started walking down the road. At Bridge Creek campground I started walking around knocking on tents and finally woke a Brit who kindly offered to drive us to town. I rented Rafael and I a room and we phoned the lady's. After the free breakfast the next morning, I was still at a loss. The towing company will not tow a car if you don't have the registration, which I left in Seattle along with my spare key. I rented a car from Wenatchee and drove us back to Seattle. The next day my girl and I were getting ready to drive back to L-town and pick up the car and return the rental. The phone rang. I could barely make it out through the static but it was a girl with a English accent saying something about a key and a hotel. Sure enough when we got back to L-town and returned the the car, I found this letter on the windshield. As it turned out, the group of Oxford students that had found my key when crossing the bridge at Mountaineer's Creek, were guided our very same Brit rescuer, a Major in the British Army. Moral of story: Always bring a spare key for your partner or be sure to know a Royal Dragoon Guardsman!

Paradox sports, link , is an organization founded by DJ Skelton and Timmy O'Neill and run by Malcolm Daly and others. I'm sure they have ideas and may be interested in your friends expertise.

Sweet, those approach times remind me of Nipigon. Only we'd be talking ft rather than m.

http://wastateice.net/ select the 'guide' link and the 'SR900' from the dropdown menu. Are you free on Saturday? I'm thinking about heading out there and I'm looking for a partner. Jason

Anyone interested? Thinking like a half a day. Have car/rope etc. Jason

Very cool. Can't wait!

Yep, definitely didn't reference the site for the prices. I'm just a data geek. /edit Oh, I've only ever owned Mammut ropes.

Mountain Tools website also has a nice data table. Mountain tools

I recently put together a list of the length, thickness and range of various rock pro. Maybe it is useful to you. rock pro stats Sorry to hear you had a bad experience at FF. I've always been met with very friendly advice. Maybe this guy just had too much coffee?

What do you have in mind? Oops, didn't carefully read your first post. I can probably only weasel half a day (AM) off work. PM me if that work's.

Would you be interested attempting the NE couloir of Colchuck? I would want to meet Friday evening and camp at the TH or at Colchuck lake and return to the car on Saturday evening. NEBC beta

You can send comments to Red Bull at link . ...though I think their concern for 'Leave no trace' ethics is exemplified best by their sponsorship of motorsports. Clearly alpine climbers are not a large demographic for consumption of Red Bull products and merchandise.

I don't know anything about the quality of these garments or about the vendor but the prices seem good. SD at the Clymb No affiliation.

That's kinda what I thought. Any defenders of the other camp?

I've more or less formed my own opinion but I'm curious what other CCers think. Do you use a transceiver for approaches to climbs (non-skiing objectives)? Do you think it causes you to venture onto riskier terrain? I guess this is similar to the argument in the thread a few months ago about PLB usage and risk-taking. I ask because I recently ran across a heated discussion on the subject over at MP from last spring. I always assumed that most people traveling in avy-prone terrain would carry a beacon in addition to good judgement. I was wrong. MP thread Forgive me if this has been discussed here before. My search was not fruitful.

I'm an inexperienced skier. I was out touring today and broke a binding while side-hilling in trees. Luckily I was only about a mile from the car and was able to boot it/single ski out relatively painlessly. My question is do you guys carry a "repair kit"? If so, what's in it? I was skiing on Silvretta 500s and stripped the device that adjusts the boot length on the rails.

Was up there today for other fun. CYA at Exit 38 is uber thin (at least as judged from I90). Kiddie cliff is in but most snow covered. Bryant buttress may be climable. The blue drip is not touching. The WI4 pitch of Chockstone was sun rotten. Didn't see Alpental falls but probably also melted from all the sun.

Re: kinnickkinnick poop

Re: Frankazoid nwac.us/weatherdata/telemetry

Nobody's interested? I'm thinking anything really, Alpental, Chockstone, Denny creek, wander around E38. Looks promising....