Bigtree

I bumped into the following on-line information regarding basic crevasse rescue and glacier travel skills and thought it would be of interest for newbies who haven't yet got ahold of a copy of Freedom of The Hills: http://www.acmgguides.com/html/tipstech/mountaineering_contents.asp

Alas, no. But hope to tag the summit of this beaut via the North arete at month's end with some folks. Will post the full route/pics then.

Just a test - trying to post a photo.

Excellent TR and pics. I particularly liked the cartwheel on the summit.

You can find the bittorrent for Eiger Sanction here (not that I would ever download stuff like this for free mind you): http://ts.searching.com/search.asp?h=&query=Eiger+Sanction&submit.x=20&submit.y=7. The scenery is great but the hollywood schtick was too much for me - like Clint's green construction helmet. ...and you can find Cliffhanger here: http://ts.searching.com/search.asp?h=&query=cliffhanger&submit.x=0&submit.y=0 ...and although you didn't mention it, Touching The Void has got some very realistic scenes: http://ts.searching.com/search.asp?h=&query=touching+the+void&submit.x=0&submit.y=0.

4th time lucky for Garibaldi? Doesn't really matter anyway so long as you had a good time. Ego usually just gets you killed faster. Great pictures/blog site by the way (especially the Berner with saddle bags). SH

I know its rather geekish but check out the folding solar panel at the attached link as an option for recharging on the go. I've pondered a work situation or two where this would have come in handy for charging electronics such as sat phones in remote places: http://www.canadiantire.ca/assortments/p...fromSearch=true

Here's a topo for the basic approach to the Wedge at the following link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bigtree/127692511/ (the Wedge and Lesser Wedge are located in the bottome right of the map). Maybe someday I'll figure out how to includes pics in my posts - with a limit of >/= 100 000 bytes it doesn't seem to accommodate much.

Here's an update on Elk River Trail (Vancouver Island). Left car at ~ noon April 4, 2006 (snow in parking lot). Planned camp was Landslide or Foster Lake and possible climb of Colonel Foster via S. Col route the next day. Had to mount snowshoes at about 1 mi mark. Snow conditions became deep at about 5 mi mark (> 4 ft in open and ~ 2-3 ft under cover), very saturated (re: heavy slogging) and avi prone (had to cross 3 fresh slides that had crossed the trail and made it down to the river's edge) just prior to 2nd campsite on the flats. Determined that conditions were too tough and risky to proceed further so turned around at 6.5 mi and was back at the car by 8 pm. Note that I was in the valley the first week of March last year and made it Foster Lake with ease in ~ 5 1/2 hrs, only encountering continuous snow on the trail adjacent Landslide Lake. So I'd say its a heavy, albeit more normal than last, snow year. Wasn't really paying much attention to Elk Mt. but heard lots of action up there on my way out in the early evening. I've posted a map and a couple of pics at the following link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bigtree/. Cheers.

Impressive but about as stupid as the free falling stunt that killed him leaving a wife and child or two behind as I vaguely recall.

I bought a Cinch early last year and have used it a couple of times since on different ropes > 9 mm. I found it to be light and straightforward for use; however, I find the lever too small for my liking which often results in abrupt and jerky releases. The following link is for the Trango Cinch FAQ site updated to Feb '06: http://www.trango.com/pdfs/CinchFAQ.pdf. The document suggests not using on anything < 8.9 mm. I probably wouldn't buy it again without some design modifications. As for using with small dia rope, Catbird said it best.

Does anyone know of any rechargeable AA lithium battery brands out there?

A gps is definitely not required although I hadn't been on the trail for > 15 years so it was helpful, particularly in the snow. Note that I added a topo map and gps track to my photo-set for you (http://www.flickr.com/photos/bigtree/sets/72057594080374339/). Much of the route is a fairly skookum old logging road. Directions are as follows: Hwy 1 to Lions Bay. Oceanview Road then left onto Cross Creek Road. Right on Centre Road. Left on Bayview Road. Left on Mountain Drive. Left on Sunset Drive to gate.

Thanks kweb - I appreciate it. That was fantastic footage.

Jmace, you're quite right about Unnecessary and I'm sure my partner told me as much several times throughout the day. Some kind of Freudian thing going on no doubt. I'll try and change the pic posting.

Here's some pics of an attempt to tag the summit of the West Lion on March 3, 2006 (West Lion is one of the skyline bumps on the horizon when looking at North Vancouver from the South): http://www.flickr.com/photos/62906156@N00/sets/72057594080374339/ Started climb at ~ 7:30 am from end of Sunset Dr. in Lions Bay - elev. 787 ft. Got to the base of the West Lion at ~ 12:30 pm after a long slog through fresh snow - elev 5 083 ft. With a turnaround time of 2:00 pm and a ferry to catch back to the Island we waved goodbye to the summit but vowed to come back in a few weeks for an attempt via the gully from the North West. Back to car at ~ 3:30 pm. Gear notes: crampons, snowshoes, 8 mm rope, walking pole, tech ice tools, harnesses and very small rack, and big bag of gummy bears. Used it all although we went looking for the little ice climb and could have easily avoided it. Also, should have brought a shovel/avi probe and beacon as we wasted much time avoiding high risk/avi prone areas. I'll try and attach the gps track/waypoint info in txt format to this post. PM me if it doesn't work and I'll e-mail it to you separately.

On a more positive note, I bought myself one of the new Garmin GPSmap 60CSx units. Have used it on several winter outings so far this season and am quite pleased with features/performance. Its relatively compact in size; weight is 7 oz with 2 AA batteries as measured on our little kitchen scale; has an integral compass and barometric altimeter; big colour screen; and best of all, it has expandable memory that has enabled me (with a 512 Mb micro sd card upgrade) to load my Mapsource topos/waypoints/climbing routes from the bottom of the Alaskan panhandle in British Columbia South the Mexican border and East of the Rockies. Yea, battery life could be better but what's the big deal about carrying 2 spare AA's. I use alkaline rechargeables and haven't found the need to spend the dough for lithium's to-date although its a common refrain and likely the way to go for long multiday trips in cold weather. I've used earlier era gps's over the years for West coast forestry work and have found performance to be wanting, particularly with respect to that signal reception, small visual display, and lack of good topo mapping capabilities. Sure, some of the features are more entertaining than useful for mountaineering; however the topo mapping feature sure is nice (can be found on a number of different brands out there). In summary, my advice is stick with a handheld compass, thommen altimeter and a good topo if you are looking for a stripped down basic featured gps, or spend the money and get all the bells and whistles.

My interest is piqued however all I get is the message "Authorization Required". So sad. Any chance of reposting or providing some access advice?

Dru, you are quite correct in terms of location. The Flickr site mentioned a ~ 4 day trip so incorrectly presumed the picture poster had headed way up river. While I agree with your comments with respect to map reading, bushwacking etc., Nusatsum pass (and most local mountains adjacent the valley) is pretty easy to get to given the road constructed well up the west facing slope immediately below Mosquito Pass to access a large patch of blowdown timber sold and subsequently logged in the mid-90's. Cacoohtin Cr. on the other side of Mosquito Pass is also pretty well roaded and provides pretty easy access (relatively speaking given that some bushwacking is necessary) for a short 2-day up and over trip. No argument about Tweedsmuir/Rainbow Range being easy to get to. The Turner Lake chain is also a nice trip however it requires a costly flight in or a very long hike in from the Atnarko (usually filthy with bears throughout the summer months) not to mention the fact that much of the area has been burnt up in fires in the last few years. My recommendation is still a valley-based adventure.

Bernd, I checked out the pictures on the Flickr site - very nice. I don't recognize the specific locations but suspect they are around the headwaters of the Nusatsum, Noeick and Gyllenspetz Rivers (all around the Ape Lake area/Monarch Icefield MATTP refered to above). Mid-July through September is best - usually hot and sunny with strong outflow (evening/morning) and inflow (afternoon) winds. Lots of bugs as well June - July. Regarding Scott's first book, as he mentioned above, its now out of print. However, I've sent him an e-mail to see if he can spare 2 copies. I'd like a copy for myself so will keep one and will forward you the other. PM me your e-mail and mailing address and I'll advise you when I receive your copy and how much it will cost. I recently shipped a Thommen Altimeter to Switzerland for repair and it cost ~ $7-8 or so - would expect the same for the book.

Sorry - I'm in a Monday fog.

I don't know what Doug, Gary or any of the guys charge in the valley these days but suspect its pretty modest. Regardless, its a very long drive up from Vancouver (~ 14 hrs) and assuming the fellow only has a couple of days to spend in and around the valley, it makes sense not only from a safety perspective but to maximize his enjoyment.

Bernd, here's the response from Scott regarding his 2 books on the valley and surrounding area: "The first book, on the Bella Coola area, is out of print, though I still have some and could send them. MEC (Vancouver)and many of the stores in Bella Coola and along the Chilcotin Plateau (and in Williams lake) have the other. If you know how many of either book or both that the guys might want, I can send them some, or they can look for the Tweedsmuir one at the above locations.". Let me know if you are interested and I'll see what can be done.

Here’s another interesting bittorrent I found (IMAX Everest - 1998) in AVI format: http://www.torrentspy.com/torrent/511326/Everest_IMAX_1998 I use BitComment as a client to download - has worked fine for me for last couple of years - there are others if you need: http://www.bitcomet.com/

Here's links to a couple of bittorrents with climbing/mountain themes (including K2 Ultimate High and Touching the Void in dvd and avi format). Can't vouch for quality as haven't downloaded yet. Couldn't find the recent Nova show on Denali but will post a link if I come across it. http://www.torrentspy.com/default.asp http://ts.searching.com/torrent/35090/PBS_NOVA_Everest_The_Death_Zone_XviD_AC3_www_mvgroup_org http://ts.searching.com/torrent/47851/Nova_Kilimanjaro_Africas_Highest_Mountain http://ts.searching.com/torrent/179020/K2_The_Ultimate_High_NORDiC_PAL_DVDR_BAH http://ts.searching.com/torrent/309245/Touching_The_Void_LIMITED_DVDRip_XViD_SCREAM