ryanb

You can get the 1.8 L sumo cup for the jetboil. I think they are even supposed to start selling it in a package with the sol base eventually. Last winter I used a standard jetboil for melting snow during one of the cold snaps for two people and the (1L) pot was a bit small. Keeping the canister warm enough was also a pain. I bought the sumo cup this summer and it is great for cooking enough water to do a meal, drinks and have soem left over for washing or bathing but I haven't melted snow with it yet. The sol is supposed to be more cold resistant and I will probably upgrade at some point.

Just to offer a disenting opinion, my wife and I have been learning to ski mostly in the backcountry for the last few years. She skied a season in colorado a few years ago and I'm transitioning from a bit of XC and the occasional tele turn at huricane ridge as a kid. It is definitely not the quickest approach to downhill mastery but, if your main goal is to get out in the woods and you have willing partners, there are lots of great mellow tours that blur the line with cross country skiing (the seabury blair book is full of them: http://www.amazon.com/Backcountry-Ski-Washington-Free-Heelers-Snowboarders/dp/1570611513)...we have spent many a happy day lapping powder bowls in out of the way clear cuts. We did get season passes this year to snoqualamie to accelerate the process a bit...my first time on a char lift was a few weeks ago and we picked our way down a couple of black diamond in crudy cut up and refrozen conditions saturday. As far as turning in more conditions. I am probably the worst skier on this thread but I've discovered that stem cristies and hop turns are your friend for dealing with variable conditions on light gear or steeper stuff...they won't get you in ski videos but they work. Good four post series on the subject here: http://straightchuter.com/2009/03/steep-skiing-101/ Martin Voleken's "Backcountry Skiing Skills" also has a chapter on the stem cristie and its application to variable backcountry snow...

It all comes down to which fits more places. I actually like the grey and purple master cams better then the equivalent black and blue aliens. The heads are narrower on the master cams in these sizes and I feel I can wiggle them into narrow seems and still see in to inspect the heads. Yellow and up it is close to being a wash with a slight edge to aliens. The green alien is far far better then any other cam in that size. For whatever reason the blue master cam just seems to get jammed oddly in a marginal placement too often. The added range and narrower head of the alien let you wiggle it into a good placement and the flexy stem and long sling lets you clip it and go. It practically turns tips cracks into sport climbs. I love the blue fcu's for index cracks (clean and parallel) and I don't hate the master cam but the green alien rocks.

The last couple of years i have been skiing more then bouldering in the winter but I'll seek out dry granite if we get another powder free spell this year (OlympicMtnBoy had my contact info). Most of the stuff with southern exposer and few trees is good in the winter my favorites being the pretty and carnival boulders as they get sun longer thanks to the mountaineers creek valley. Forest lands and upper mad meadows can be good too thanks to the lack of trees and south facing problems if you are willing to posthole up to them. Twisted tree icehouse and the ridge are all right by the road which is nice.

I won't climb on link cams due to the breakage issue. I guess they work fine when perfectly oriented in perfect cracks but weathered alpine rock is full of pockets, flares etc. You will be able to safely take advantage of more placements if you spend the money on alien clones from fixe or totem (assuming they've worked out the production issues). I've fallen repeatedly on an alien in the pocket the broke a link cam on left ski track at joshua tree. It held.

They have (or had) a bunch of last years model bd and arcteryx harnesses on clearance at the rei seattle store. I think the key thing to consider when choosing a harness is how often you do hanging belays...if its a lot it is worth spending some money for comfort and you really need to go hang in the harness in the store for a while (read a guide book or magazine). If your version of alpine climbing doesn't involve hanging you can get by with whatever. That camp stuff does look nice, i'd also look at elderid if you can find them as they have a couple of arcteryx like harnesses for half the cost (the smith and creed...though I haven't tried them).

Metolius makes a nut tool with built in wrenches.

After having several platypus/msr and camelback byte valves loose essential parts or disappear entirely while in use (possibly due to high speed bushwhacking on skis or mountain bikes) I recently picked up a dakine byte valve which I am using with a hydromidary and feel this is close to the ideal combination. The dakine valve is better designed then any other valve I have used, it offers a 45 degree angle, longer barbed connection to the tube, on/off switch and no parts that easily snag or fall off (so far). The hydromidary offers a tube connection separate from the screw on lid so you can drink while you pump water with an msr filter and more easily suck the last bit of water out of the thing.

You can get nano puff pullover for <100 if you find a sale and don't care about pockets...few frills like pockets or zippers but really light and has 60 g/m primaloft 1.

I read in a review ( http://www.sierradescents.com/reviews/stoves/jetboil/sol-ti.html ) that that will happen if you have it running without water...it sounds like you had snow in it though? Maybe it could happen before any of the snow melts into water? Either way definitely email jetboil and see what they say.

I have an older black diamond 32 covert avalung (mine is yellow and has two diagonal ski carry straps so you can do either direction, the new ones only let you carry diagonal one way but do have a nice helmet carry thing that seems to keep the snow out of your helmet). Its nice to have diagonal or A-frame carry options that both work well. I tend to like the simple top loading bag style pack for most things but have found that the coverts two pocket/wet room dry room system works really well for skiing and keeping your changeovers quick and organized. Its nice to have somewhere quick to slide the skins in without having to bag them to keep them away from your dry clothing etc. I think dynafit makes some packs with a slick system that lets you put the skis on the pack without taking the pack off ... I've read it rocks for rando races and spring tours with lots of stream crossings/dirt etc but not sure how secure it is. I usually just slide my poles behind my pack and use my skis like poles for quick sections of booting as Martin Volken recommends in his book on ski mountaineering.

So this winter i got frustrated with the available online mapping tools and wrote a google maps mash up to help me plan backcountry trips. It gives you: * Side by side, coordinated topo and satellite views. * Basic slope estimates at a point. * Overland distance and elevation gain/loss for trips (change the mode to path). * Point forecast at weather.gov It is still somewhat buggy but I have been finding it very useful and I just got around to posting somewhere publicly accessible (google app engine for the geeks). Check it out and let me know if you have any feedback or feature requests...I'm doing this in my spare time with zero budget but I'll try and make improvements as I can: http://www.hillmap.com/ I realize this tool is probably mostly useful to skiers but I figure you could use it to figure out just how painful the darington approach is going to be this year and how low angle the rock will be once you get there ...(actually it doesn't work well for cliffs since the horizontal change can be less then the resolution of the data and the size of the measuring circle ... though you can change the circle size in the settings to get it a bit better).

What make & model of harness has these superpowers? I just replaced a petzl adjama that started to wear through with a arcterx r320a and can fit what I need on either . No super powers are needed, though I should mention that the approach shoes fold flat (the discontinued patagonia thatcher) and our carabiners are all on the lighter/thinner side. Bulky stuff goes on a carabiner on the haul loop, water (usually carried by the second) on the back of one of the rear gear loops, slings split between the front of the rear gear loops and cams and nuts (and I too like to sew stuff up) on the front two. Oh and a blood glucose meter and insulin and some snacks go in a second chalk bag (I'm diabetic). We might bring a small pack or camelback if more water/clothing/food are needed but I've been trying to limit myself to the harness to keep it light. I have nothing against gear slings and still use them if my partner prefers or for wide stuff but I do think that more gear then you can fit on your harness is overkill for most free routes.

I used to use one for the ease of switching on multi-pitch routes but moved away from it as few of my partners who climbed harder stuff could be convinced to use one... keeping everything on the the harness is good discipline and has plenty of room. For rock climbing, I can fit a full rack including slings and draws plus nano puff, houdini, water and approach shoes on my harness without too much fuss.

I have a pair of the older version I will sell for over retail if anybody wants of offer

It is probably cheapest to just buy stiffer shoes? Five ten newton or grandstone are supposed to be their stiffest, or find some old board lasted high tops used somewhere. Climbing shoes can be stretched but i don't think anyone really does it in a controlled manner. I've heard rumors of someone pushing out high tops with a microwave and a broom stick and an old trick is to get the shoes wet and then wear them while they dry to accelerator them forming to your foot. A good resole should not effect the shape of the shoe though the shape of the last they use inside of it while they glue the new sole on can have some effect.

I have the smart alpine and once i figured out how to lead belay without short ropeing (read the instructions but basically you hook your brake hand thumb on the hook thing). I like it as a light weight alternative to a gri gri... It makes locking off nice and easy and i think it will be nice for multi pitch hang fests. It is not as easy to rap or lower with. So if your kid is going to be holding a lot of hangfests it might be nice but I learned on at atc and a young age and think that is probably the way to go.

Cascade Cobbler does a pretty good job but, at least when I tried them they weren't up to ramuta's standards. The toe was great but the outside edge was kind weird I think due to a mis shaped last or something...this was on a pair of anasazi velcro's and it wasn't a hugh deal except on hard face climbing like you get at index.

You can drop your shoes off at vertical world and they send them out to be resoled by Ramuta twice a month.

You can park right at the JY crags/boulders pull out across from 8-mile campground (which will supposedly open Friday). More updates on the clearing plans can be found here: http://www.justgetout.net/Wenatchee/21914

Last time I heard the road had been fully repaired but gated by the landowner...though something very well could have washed out in our recent rain. The WCC and Access Fund are looking into securing access to the road for climbers. If the hike deters you there are lots of other great boulders in the Sky valley closer to the road...the river boulders, camp serene, the five star boulder, the tallus at the LTW and the various boulders in the forest below the diamond gully are all worth visits. Central Washington Bouldering has instructions on finding all of these and problem descriptions for some of them but there is no online guide.

I got intrigued and did some digging on google books: http://books.google.com/books?id=9AIFAAAAYAAJ&dq=MUMMERY%20TENT&pg=PA63#v=onepage&q&f=false A floor-less tent that used old school long ice axes as poles. A black diamond beta light would probably be the modern version but I don't think nomics are going to cut it as poles.

Wow! I think this is the first time i've ever felt bad for anyone lucky enough to own a cabin in the upper icicle. Thanks for the pics and reports. I figure, If the road is just buried and not washed out they may be able to get it open this season...work on the bypass of the upper washout from a few years ago was scheduled to restart with snow melt and finish this october, though I'm not sure if the budget and equipment could be diverted?

Pics of the tumwater slide: Is the icicle slide mud or snow? Wonder if any of the crags or boulders (JY, King Kong, Carnival) slid down hill...

My dad got me started really young scrambling around at Indian rock and the other bouldering areas in the berkley hills on visits to my Grandma who lived down there. Aggressive spotting, short roping (tied on with a bowline and hip belay) on sketchy sections, and easy routes (think steep trails) to the "summits" with little loose rock were key and eventually lead to more formal top roping, bouldering and leading.