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Good links and feedback guys - thanks. The reviews look rather positive. I suspect they'll perform fine for the majority of my intended use in a new Bibler Fitzroy here in the Cascades. Of course I can always swap back to the aluminum set if I'm anticipating something more gnarly. Now, how to rationalize the purchase to my wife. Hmmm...

ScaredSilly, I have not read White Winds or Mtn. King nor do I have two friends buried on Denali. I have however read this particular book and have expressed my opinion above. You may or may not come to the same conclusions should you read it yourself. That said, and based on what appears to be a well researched and balanced account of this catastrophe, it would appear to me that: Washburn was: a) a hypocrite having climbed the mountain previous to Wilcox via the W. Butt for money (ref. the RKO film) with his wife who had no experience; and, b) had a massive ego and a clear vindictive streak which he repeatedly and forcefully directed at Wilcox. Sheldon appeared to be more motivated with servicing paying customers climbing the W. Butt at the time rather than meaningfully helping the Babcock rescue effort. Moreover, his actions, when he chose to engage were less than helpful.

Billcoe, the purchase rationale/mantra is as follows: a) its only a modest amount of money in the scheme of things; b) you only live once; and, c) owning one of these babies may prolong said life referenced in (b). Re: map scales, I've loaded the 1:24,000 scale mapset of US national parks on my 60CSx via a separate micro SD chip when I'm playing in places like Rainier, Olympics and J-Tree. I presume that you would be able to do the same for the new Colorado unit. Cheers.

Billcoe, the 60CSx is very nice for all the reasons stated above (I have one by the way and am very pleased with its utility and performance); however, Garmin is about to release the new Colorado 300 and I would give serious consideration to buying one. Its got very impressive features here: http://www.gpscentral.ca/products/garmin/colorado-300.html

Does anyone have any experiences with Fibraplex (or other brand I'm not aware of) carbon fibre tent poles (e.g., strength and durability vs. aluminum)? My new tent is a little porky for my liking and it appears that I can shave a pound with a set of these babies: http://www.fibraplex.com/tentpoles2B.asp (stock aluminum poles are 32 oz/911g vs. 15.4 oz/436g for the carbon fibre).

Krisjhn, get yourself a copy of "Oregon High - A Climbing Guide" by Jeff Thomas, ISBN no. 0-9629042-0-1. Inexpensive, but lots of good information.

Just finished reading James Tabor's 2007 book "Forever On The Mountain" re: the 1967 Denali expedition that resulted in 7 unfortunate deaths (ISBN 978-0-393-06174-1). Certainly is a thought provoking account and analysis in terms of the what the moutain is capable of dishing out. It also takes a lot of luster off the reputations of the fellows like Don Sheldon and Brad Washburn. Certainly seems like Joe Wilcox was scapegoated by many folks. I'd give it a 4 out of 5 on the grip-o-meter scale.

Typical. Your hypocritical refrain sounds something like "Its OK for me to speculate, but no one else should unless they agree with me and my sage analysis" Lighten up. I'm obviously having a little fun with a rather funny image when juxtaposed against the original message.

"You don't have to be a fantastic hero to do certain things — to compete. You can be just an ordinary chap, sufficiently motivated to reach challenging goals. The intense effort, the giving of everything you've got, is a very pleasant bonus." said Sir Ed.

Clipped from Wikipedia for you eggheads (I don't really know what all this stuff means, but I still prefer a polarized lens): "The simplest polarizer in concept is the wire-grid polarizer, which consists of a regular array of fine parallel metallic wires, placed in a plane perpendicular to the incident beam. Electromagnetic waves which have a component of their electric fields aligned parallel to the wires induce the movement of electrons along the length of the wires. Since the electrons are free to move, the polarizer behaves in a similar manner as the surface of a metal when reflecting light; some energy is lost due to Joule heating in the wires, and the rest of the wave is reflected backwards along the incident beam. For waves with electric fields perpendicular to the wires, the electrons cannot move very far across the width of each wire; therefore, little energy is lost or reflected, and the incident wave is able to travel through the grid. Since electric field components parallel to the wires are absorbed or reflected, the transmitted wave has an electric field purely in the direction perpendicular to the wires, and is thus linearly polarized. Simply stated, only light traveling in a certain direction passes through the polarizer, and the rest of the light is absorbed or reflected. Note that the polarization direction is perpendicular to the wires; the concept that waves "slip through" the gaps between the wires is incorrect. For practical use, the separation distance between the wires must be less than the wavelength of the radiation, and the wire width should be a small fraction of this distance. This means that wire-grid polarizers are generally only used for microwaves and for far- and mid-infrared light. Using advanced lithographic techniques, very tight pitch metallic grids can be made which polarize visible light. Since the degree of polarization does little depend on wavelength and angle of incidence, they are used for broad-band applications such as projection. It is interesting to consider why there is a reflected beam, but no transmitted beam, when the symmetry of the problem suggests that the electrons in the wires should re-radiate in all directions. In simple terms the transmitted beam does "exist", but is in exact antiphase with the continuing incident beam, and so "cancels out". This, in turn, seems to contradict the idea that the incoming wave is "driving" the electrons in the wires, and so is "used up" (leaving no continued beam to cancel out the transmitted wave). In fact, if we assume that there is no heating, then no energy is used to drive the electrons — a better mental image is to think of them as "riding" on the waves that result from the interaction. Certain crystals, due to the effects described by crystal optics, show dichroism, a preferential absorption of light which is polarized in a particular direction. They can therefore be used as polarizers. The best known crystal of this type is tourmaline. However, this crystal is seldom used as a polarizer, since the dichroic effect is strongly wavelength dependent and the crystal appears coloured. Herapathite is also dichroic, and is not strongly coloured, but is difficult to grow in large crystals. Polaroid film was in its original form an arrangement of many microscopic herapathite crystals. Its later H-sheet form is rather similar to the wire-grid polarizer. It is made from polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) plastic with an iodine doping. Stretching of the sheet during manufacture ensures that the PVA chains are aligned in one particular direction. Electrons from the iodine dopant are able to travel along the chains, ensuring that light polarized parallel to the chains is absorbed by the sheet; light polarized perpendicularly to the chains is transmitted. The durability and practicality of Polaroid makes it the most common type of polarizer in use, for example for sunglasses, photographic filters, and liquid crystal displays. It is also much cheaper than other types of polarizer. An important modern type of absorptive polarizer is made of elongated silver nanoparticles embedded in glass. These polarizers are more durable and can polarize light much better than Polaroid film, with low absorption of correctly-polarized light. Such glass polarizers are widely used in optical fiber communications. The best known trade names are Polarcor, made by Corning and colorPol, made by Codixx."

I couldn't resist. Here's a stylish pair for you...worked for the inuit for thousands of years...

For the record, my credit card was refunded by Moosejaw this morning. Nevertheless, I found my experience with them off-putting given that I could have used the tent over the holidays and having to pay for something I hadn't been sent/received.

Don't worry about looking like a dork. Styles come and go - function is what counts. 1 pair of all purpose sunglasses should be fine. My preferences re: specs are: 1) polarised; 2) 100% UV blockage; and, 3) > 80% visible light reduction.

I was recently in the market for a comfortable + bomproof bona fide 2-man tent. I was very interested in both of these tents, but particularly the EV3. However, after reading a number of owner reviews I concluded that: a) the EV2 was too small for 2 (i.e., really just a solo tent akin to my Bibler i-Tent, albeit with more length); b) owners found the integrated vestibule on both the EV2 and EV3 somewhat impractical (e.g., the benefits of the added length for comfort/living area were offset by the tendancy for collecting snow/rain from entering the tent/gear storage and the need to hang stove for cooking); and, c) a couple of folks experienced snow press/collapsing concerns around the door (design flaw? and concern of the PNW area). I ended up buying a Bibler Fitzroy + vestibule instead.

Just a few words of caution regarding my recent experience with www.moosejaw.com I ordered a new Bibler Fitzroy tent + vestibule through Moosejaw.com in mid December after seeing their advert here: http://www.spadout.com/store.php?stpr_id=725 The savings were compelling so I took a chance. Unfortunately, several weeks after placing the order and the immediate $721 charge to my credit card I was advised that the tent was "back-ordered from the vendor (i.e., Black Diamond) and would take at least 4 weeks for delivery" Staff have admittedly been very personable, but sensing I was being shafted (as in we're out of stock and will no longer honour the advertised price) I cancelled my order a few days back and have since purchased through e-OMC (I ordered it from http://www.e-omc.com/catalog/products/2528/Bibler-Fitzroy-Tent.html yesterday on-line and it was shipped today - stellar service) for a few extra dollars than the Moosejaw.com price. With some luck I hope to see to a refund show up on my credit card relating to the cancelled Moosejaw purchase. Caveat emptor.

Being a chip of the old block, the kid is likely just as corruptible as his parents. If so, the party should love it.

Obviously you kept your wits about you despite losing your head and jamed it back on within 13 secs (ref. following quote from Dr. Ron Wright, most recently Chief Medical Examiner of Broward County Florida: "After your head is cut off by a guillotine you have 13 seconds of consciousness (+/- 1 or 2). The first time I ever learned this was when I put a patient into ventricular fibrillation. The "no blood pressure" alarms came on and the patient said "what is that?" I said I suppose you will find out soon enough, and he did. The 13 seconds is the amount of high energy phosphates that the cytochromes in the brain have to keep going without new oxygen and glucose. This is reasonably well known to the forensic community, but not often found in the literature. I believe I touched upon it in one of my articles on asphyxia. At any rate, not only can you blink, but you can do two for yes and one for no; and it is said to have been done.").

Just got back from a week of backcountry skiing north of Vancouver (some hut based). Lots of stuff to be mindful of; however, top of list for me over the last week (especially if travelling alone as I was) is: - a good, but adaptable, plan with modest objectives; - disciplined moisture management techinques with respect to clothing and clothing management (i.e., you can get away with remarkably little clothing if you focus on layering and delayering as necessary to stay as dry as possible); - yummy food to keep your body fueled and happy; - solid/dependable gear; and, - humbility (i.e., put another way, do your best to look for and avoid potential risks (like avalanches) so you can live to play another day, but leave lots of room for error).

This is so wrong for so many reasons... Ah well, in a land of 300+ million I guess there's bound to be some outliers.

Footage is from the opening scene of Warren Miller's "Journey".

You're a comedian Billcoe. "Sir John A McDonald" for Q1 and "11" for Q2.

I'd be surprised if you make it onto a plane with a rack of any kind these days. I was flying down to Palm Springs out of Vancouver just before 9-11 for some climbing at Joshua Tree and almost didn't make it because the US custom guy figured I could possibly handcuff someone with several wire nuts and redirect the plane to Cuba or something (seriously). After grilling me with retarded questions like "who was Canada's first prime minister?" and "how many points on a maple leaf?" he seemed satisfied that I was a harmless Canuck. So, pack your gear into your luggage and bury it deep, including that chalk that looks remarkably like cocaine.

I'm really screwed than at 5ft 10' and 125 pounds Rather mystifying since according to my calculations you shouldn't even exist. Go straight to the fridge and don't stop eating until you hit 198.65 lbs.