Wastral

Well, if you ever go back there... I sure hope I get back there someday!!! The traverse along picket pass and up the ridge to the mustard glacier is an easy scenic stroll with one little section of class 3 to get up the last section. Getting down to the mustard glacier on the other hand requires a repel. At least it did last time I was there a couple of years ago. Of course there could have been a dead easy way too since we were doing it in lowering clouds. Brian Enjoy!

"pig of a glacier" "minerals on Challenger Shoulder, much better than anything my bro and I saw when we were in there! Now you have to go back and tag Luna peak! Walked right past one of THE primo peaks in our state. Have time next summer after I get back from Waddington for a trip into the Pickets, if anyone else wants to go. Always wanted to do Elephant Butte High Route, just never undertaken it. Something about 5k vertical just to hit the begining of said route. Ouch to heading down into mcmillian cirque instead of bouncing along the Pickett pass ridge to the mustard glacier. Oh well, next time you will know better =-)

Hmm $100 bucks for a tall tale?

Asmith. What McHale pack do you have? I am possibly looking at McHales Large load packs, (90lb+ range) The Critical Mass packs, Though Holy cow their prices. Can buy 2 Gregory Denali Pros for their price. Sheesh. Currently I use a Denali Pro by Gregory, which isn't bad, but it doesn't compress smaller for summiting anything and is a royal pain that way. Yea, yea top pocket comes off but has a gigantic buckle on it that I strip off on long trips for weight cutting considerations. And it becomes a "waist" pack which is ... ug Even with my complaints the Gregory Pro is better than the Dana Designs giant packs or the Osprey Packs. Arc Tyrx doesn't have a giant pack that actually works so... Brian

Anyone going to Waddington Next Summer? My brother and I are going into the region again and we would love to share helicopter weight with you. Food/Fuel weight. Probably around 50-75lbs worth of junk we don't want to haul into the region from Tidewater via Bute Inlet as we got Jubilee or at least 95% of it anyways last time we were there via Knight inlet. Dates would be 2nd week of July Through 1st week of August. Since we are walking in, we could have you drop off the food at plumbers hut as early as May/June possibly. If you are going up there earlier. Brian

An excellent slightly longer climb is NE buttress of Triumph. A whopping 15 feet of 5.7 easily protected with several pitches of low fifth but mostly clean 4th and 3rd class. It really requires 2 ropes to get down though no matter what Jim says in his book. Had to bail a second team off the mountain with our ropes last time I was up there. Views can't be beat. Don't even need glacier gear anymore as the route to the buttress doesn't even cross it anymore but goes under it. A nice weekend climb. Go up Sloan. Clean rock nothing over 5.6/5.7 for a little bit. Great views. Lots of elevation gain though. Another super easy "weekend" climb would be S. Buttress of Thomspson. If in decent shape do it in a day. Some people call it the w. buttress, but that is just stupid as it points south not west. Anyways, off the soap box. Its a very easy straightforward route, BUT, it has MONSTER exposure for a newbie who is not used to it. DO NOT TAKE someone up it who is not used to exposure/heights. It is also a bit loose 3rd at the top. Just go straight up the ridge. Lower section is nice clean rock. Upper not so nice. Prussic peak would be a great couple pitch clean climb on its west ridge. 5.6 I think. Forbidden is a super easy climb also. Brian

Well damn, what is the world coming too, not using a gri-gri for belaying, oh no! I still have the Original freedom of the Hills, the second edition and I might add the 5th? The first 2 editions all have the hip belay as the primary belaying method. Guess all climbers died before 1970. Guess there was never a vertical route put up before 1970 either... Lets see, when was Liberty Crack put up on Liberty bell? Oh yea, 1965 Wastral

Sure, That is the way I did Forbidden the first time. Took the 4th class gully to the west of the main normal 1st ascent gulley. Once you get out of that west gulley its easy 3rd class terrain to the ridge then 4th on the ridge with a couple moves of low fifth on the upper ridge itself. Brian

Well, guess I will have to try the ol' hip belay on truely vertical rock sometime here. That is if marymoor doesn't count, which I think it does, at least for practice! I have climbed with 3 people and its a PITA, but have never actually belayed 2 at once since never wanted 2 ropes dragging me down when leading. I suppose this is easily attainable when using dual twin lead ropes of the 8mm variety. Always hate the rope management problems when at a climbing ledge with 3 people/2ropes. Hmm, maybe when I go to Waddington next summer, or try for waddington again next summer, I can lighten my climbing equipment and simply leave the ATC at home. Carabiners work fine for repelling as well. Brian

"left america" Soooo, Canada isn't in america eh? Must have flown to Europe first then back into Canada?? Brian

I was in pro mountain sports and saw a guy swipe a $60 cam and run out the door. Didn't have a backpack either... True, at FF climbing equip is behind the desk, but people are turds, and stealing a $200 down coat would be simplistic with a backpack. Sorry, life sucks

+1 to Tvas enough said Wastral

Well if any of you guys would ask a certain local climbing legend whom used nothing but the hip belay for the last 50+ years your comments might be a tad different. Ever heard of Fred Becky? No one even used a stitch plate/ATC till the 1960s. PS Joseph wasn't talking about belaying roof climbs sitting at a hanging belay station. For almost 100% of alpine, a correct hip belay is far superior to an ATC which is very slow in comparison. For pure rock climbing big walls it is different. I don't think Joseph is telling folks to use a hip belay on vertical multipitch rock walls. PPS when training at marymoor, I will use a hip belay and carabiner most of the time. It is VERY easy, it puts very little strain on your hands since you are not fighting the rope pulling it through the $#*%$))$)(#)(#)(_$)_#)_$# ATC to give slack to the lead climber. Or when on top, pulling the rope through the #*$#)(#))(@)#()(#)(@_@!_+@)$#%$%#$$ ATC. True, you have to wear a shirt or get rope burn on your back! A hip belay deos require one to pay attention to what you are doing!

I own an Astraplane and a Gregory Denali pro. The denali pro whoops the astraplane in every category. Carries better. Distrubutes weight about the same, but it wins hands down on functionaility by a GIGANTIC MARGIN. Denali pro you can take the top pocket off and use it as a summit sack. Denali doesn't have that stupid internal webbbing to transfer the load. In otherwords it doesn't crush your food. Gregory has attachment points for attaching Skis, astraplane does not. On top of that the Gregory pack does not have that stupid zipper on the side that lets water in. Either pack is gigantic and you had better be going for longer than 2 weeks because they both weigh 8lbs whereas my 50L pack weight in at 3 or lighter. Best thing about the astraplane is its 2 back pockets instead of gregory's 1 and that is the only nice thing.

If its raining why do you have a down jacket on and moving? You will be in camp. If you are moving you will never have a down jacket on because u will be sweating faster than a pig dodging the butcher. If you are moving and its raining... getting out of dodge... then your rain jacket over medium layer will be more than warm enough, probably will take it off and you will be dryer and warmer. If snowing and moving a medium layer and a waterproof will be plenty, unless in maybe alaska... In which case the layering system is completely different than down here. Snow will blow right off the volant jacket to boot. Eventually if it is close to freezing then some of the snow will melt and penetrate the volant... I have its kid brother. ANyways, if its snowing and you are moving you won't be wearing down either because you will sweat it out and make it useless. Down is to be used in camp only. One can argue that if you are traveling very light then you should not carry down at all since if you are cold get in your sleeping bag when the weather is bad. If winter time and camping with a tarp then down clothing is great! Brian

Just bought yourself 2 30m ropes... Great for moderate alpine climbing. =) Or belaying at Marymoor! My "30m" ropes were caused by a rock, yours came prefabbed =)

Personally, you want a tent with extra length for storing crap, and a vestibule so you can cook. The length comes in handy for drying clothes slings etc. If you rub against the side it isn't a tent as far as I am concerned. Just an emergency shelter may as well take a bivy sack and save weight. AKA the BD firstlight. Fine for a weekend, anything longer and your sleeping bag is screwed along with you. If you are really high up, where you don't get condensation because it freezes as ice particles,then any tent will work as long as it withstands the wind. Anywhere else in the world, AKA all of North America/Alps/New Zealand, you will have condensation more often than not. Brian

Rope up. Its good practice. One can get completely roped up in under 15 minutes if you are moving slowly, under 5 minutes if you already have your harness on. Besides you need to drink water and put on sunscreen right? Anytime anyone in the group feels awkward, rope up. Its fast and easy. You are all moving at the same speed anyways. Humor aside: The only exception to roping up is when you are confident that if one guy slips he will simply pull the other guy to his death. In which case, STOP, retreat, or decide to belay very short sections. Remember snow does not hold like ROCK PRO! For instance in super slush/super steep powder or if you don't have enough pro for a steep section of 45 degree hard snow/ice. Not enough pro and continuing climbing is just to make yourself feel good. Go up to alpental, the upper ski section (almost 35-40 degree snow), and practice catching someone elses fall with a heavy pack on your back while your partner is headed down the hill on his back. Good luck. I have been in super thigh deep 45 degree slush, and we should have unroped, because if one slipped the other could never have stopped the fall. In fact in such conditions the rope just gets in the way and tends to pull the lead climber off the hill!!! I could barely stand as it was. It was the next thing to wet avalanche conditions. Should have probably stopped, but after a week in a tent... I never roped up going across the Cache "glacier" , Lousy "glacier", triumph "glacier", or the blumps under Forbidden, and numerous other flat "glaciers" because honestly if they aren't large they aren't really glaciers. There are exceptions of course. Heck we jumped into the "crevasses" on under Forbidden because they made nice "chairs" for resting on our way up. They(glaciers labeled on the map) were jokes in other words. Any long trip in mountain country, I always wear my harness 100% of the time anyways for extra padding and the rope is sitting in the pack so may as well use it if you are traveling over steep snow or glaciers. Brian

Nice, now make that same map into spire measure. =) Then we get to see how much work it is to the top of each peak. Brian

North side has possible good turns either to Gold Lake true north or North west back towards Hester Lake. Last time I was up there in June and snow level went all the way down to Gold Lake. Brian

Awesome trip in great conditions guys!!! Can't wait to quit working and actually get to enjoy awesome winter conditions! On a side note... Always enjoy pics of well used old school friends... Nice "tie-off." Isn't it a lot cheeper to tie off with webbing instead of the rope??? My wallet says ouch, if a guy fell right there off belay. Brian

I was originally looking for avalanche stuff. How I found the others I dont know. The related window would be my guess. At the time I was watching the after reports of an avalanche where someone had died and they were investigating the snow pack for why, what, where, and how it happened. Brian

The youtube videos were posted from the AMGA guys. I forgot to put that in there. Oops. They also have videos demonstrating rope management, abalakov anchors, avalanche preparedness, Pro placement, rack useage, etc. Brian

60m rope = ~200feet If 40 feet apart in your scenario you have 200 -80 =120 div by 2 = 60feet coils on lead/rear guy So have 60 feet +40 feet = 100ft of rope 84 feet is used as drop loop due to streching of the rope leaves you 16 feet to make z and tie packs and yourselves to ground. Say an 8 foot z(2:1) = 16 feet, anything shorter and you can barely get the rope stretch out of the system before resetting. Can't even make a 3:1(z on a z)for a 6:1 with the drop loop. Leaves you negative feet to pull with and tie yourselves in on a 2:1 on a drop loop making a 3:1. A knot for the anchor takes another 2 feet out leaving you with minus 2 feet to pull with. For a total of minus 4 feet since with using prussics as hand grabs only takes 2 feet of rope to pull with. Of course who goes in 3 man climbing groups??? No one. Not to mention your scenario doesn't work. Takes 1 leg 1 arm to prussic out anyways. So, if we assume he can't prussic out then he can't attach the loop either and you are sending a climber down for first aid and piggy backing him on your back. Brian PS. Yes, some teachers know what they are talking about, but it still means one must contemplate what they say and take what they say with a grain of salt PPS. Youtube is a great spot to learn crevasse rescue placement and how to due basic avalanche awareness training.

To Joseph PH: I have stated previously that I don't blieve that ANY corporate CEO or officer should make more than 10x what the average worker makes. The only exception would be someone who created their own company like Bill Gates who took all the risk to make the company work. IN that case they should be able to make whatever their hearts desire. This corporate thievery by top exectutives has got to stop. Its thievery couched in "contract" terms. They destroy the company in the long term to make the company look good in the short so they can take their bonus's and run. Brian