EJF

Very nice trip report. I'm a newbie and I climbed the east ridge - probably in May of 2006. There was one slabby part near the top where I was very glad that we used a rope. I was especially glad that I was roped up when I saw a plaque there for someone who had died slipping off the part that gave me pause.

On a humorous note, check out this short news clip regarding Erik's ascent of Everest:

With the caveat that I know far less than Dale Atkins does about this subject... It seems like the argument in the article is that "swimming" is bad because you aren't using your arms to create an airspace, not because "swimming" is bad per se. The flaw in the argument, it seems to me, is that "swimming" is more likely to keep you on the surface and therefore make you not need an air space. The article says: By "swimming" you make yourself more like the big corn flake that's up at the top rather than the crumb that's at the bottom - or to go with the nut analogy, more like the Brazil nut and less like the hazel nut. Here's one experiment I'd like to see: Get 50 crash test dummies with their arms and legs spread out in an X and 50 crash test dummies in fetal position. Put them on top of a slope that's about to go, trigger it and then see how many of each kind stay on top. I'll bet that there's a marked excess of the dummies with their arms and legs stretched out in an X. This is ignoring the effect of actually moving your arms, but I'll bet that simply the fact that "swimming" makes you, in effect, a bigger particle makes "swimming" beneficial. And it's probably a whole lot more intuitive than popping out into a stiff X shape when you're caught in an avalanche.

Hi Jamin, Which peak is it exactly? I looked around on the map in the area around Index and couldn't figure out which peak you were going for. I didn't see the name you mentioned, but if you give me a location (e.g. relative to a peak or a landmark that will definitely be on my topo map) I'll be able to find it. I'm just curious since I've followed this whole thread both here and on NW hikers. Thanks.

Has anyone climbed Three Fingers and then Big Bear? If so, do you have any advice?

http://www.4wheelingplus.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=744&sid=0f3fdc1e611ac3ce8a2c1af5f9e376fd