KirkW

This is the "official" route. Ya know, the one sanctioned by the forest service complete with fence posts and signage.

I couldn't agree with you more Bill. The FS should just stay the hell away. Considering they charge anyone who wants to "climb" that slag heap $22 for the privilege and they employ a ranger who allegedly patrols the upper mountain watching for poachers I was simply hoping that would mean they had some minuscule amount of beneficial knowledge. I was mistaken. Fees for that hill are total bullshit. Especially considering $7 of the climbing fee is funneled DIRECTLY into the pockets of private organizations.

Yeah, you'd think that for 22 bux per climber the FS would have their shit together and be a little better aout reporting conditions for that hill. I called them 2 weeks ago a couple of days before our climb. When I asked the woman that answered the phone and offered to answer my questions about conditions on the upper mountain her only comment was that it "is still covered in snow and might be icy or slushy" Thanks. Things were very loose for us and we set off many small point releases on our descent but we were slow and late in the day. Of course freezing level is supposed to be well above the summit of St. Helens now so you probably couldn't leave early enough to get it when it's frozen.

You are ready to do this when you no longer feel the need to ask random strangers this question. Ask the person who's been taking you out and teaching you. They are the only person besides you that really knows what skill level you are at. Also, setting a TR anchor and rapping off it isn't exactly rocket science so unless your gym friends are total idiots I wouldn't sweat it. If they are that dumb then you've got to ask yourself why you're taking them climbing with you.

That rumor is false. They moved some of it to china. They still have a facility in Salt Lake. They are also building in their own factories and not just contracting the work to China so I'd think its a bit disingenuous to try to lump BD in with the likes of ClmbX.

Yeah, that there is some real classy journalism. Their linked source is a thread at rocknoob.com full of unsubstantiated conjecture, claims of testing and pics of a couple broken hangers. I'm thinking invading china and stealing everything would be a perfectly reasonable response to this earth shattering news.

That's nice work! Still catching fish two weeks later.

Hey Ralph, I've been wanting to add some new bolts at smith too but don't own a bolt gun so could you add a couple (maybe 3) at the start of Barbeque the Pope? That second pitch traverse on Super Slab wouldn't be so scary if it had a fat bolt in the middle of it and the last time I did the monkey I actually had to reach above my head to get to the next bolt on the bolt ladder. If you could put a few in so there is always one at eye level...well...that'd be great. Thanks!

I could say the same thing about believing anything that comes out of the mouth of JK. His books are mostly fiction with a fact or two sprinkled in here and there. Just seems like a washed up has been still making noise so he gets noticed. I don't really give a shit about Mortenson and if an investigation uncovers something more than bad book keeping the I guess that would be enough for me to agree that he's a scoundrel. Until then I just hear more mental vomit from JK who obviously has some sort of personal beef with Mortenson.

JK certainly has a hard on for mortenson that's for sure. I didn't read anything in that article that looked like some sort of smoking gun. Mostly just a bunch of accusations and attempts to interpret things however 'ol JK wants to write about them.par for the course. Zzzzzzzzz.

Yesterday, fellow CC'er Water and myself, decided to inspect the cornfields on Diamond. We parked on 2149 approx 1+ mile from Pioneer Gulch TH. Skinned, booted, dirt skied rd to TH but found the forest absent of any snow requiring more boot work. Donned skins at approx 6k. Conditions on upper mtn were perfect for skinning on the way up and the bowl was in hero condition. I still went over my tips once anyway. Trees were mush and several south facing slopes were so deep in slush that traversing was nearly impossible. We hunted the stems and seeds down to 5k before giving up the dream and booting it out to the rd and skiing (mostly) back to the vehicle. Looks like this system is dropping some new snow up there but the base in the trees at Pioneer Gulch was zero before this storm so assume a boot pack to get things started if you go. An excellent day out. Some pics... [img:center]http://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/547567_10200632551232219_550684360_n.jpg[/img] [img:center]http://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-frc1/604105_10200632552472250_1975933852_n.jpg[/img] [img:center]http://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn1/536194_10200632553592278_1089996094_n.jpg[/img] [img:center]http://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/524614_10200632557312371_1528265957_n.jpg[/img]

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Did the traverse last summer and found it to be a rather leisurely, if not a bit contrived, way to waste a day at smith. Not sure about soloing it though. Or anything at Smith really. Did you do the original first pitch Ivan? The climbing looked 5.stupid on it so we started around the corner on one of the easy lines.

Thinking about a trip this weekend but can't find any trip reports newer than a few weeks anywhere on the interwebz. If I missed something or you have any first hand knowledge I'd be much obliged!

Sweet. Glad to hear people are still climbing at Smith. My only question is why are you posting this in the Mt. Hood forum?

Really? Even with zero use and stored dry the springs would go bad? I don't have much personal experience with tech bindings but that surprises me. Why would time cause this in a binding?

Tech bindings degrade at the same rate as SLCDs.

I've been harvesting like a mad man since last Wednesday. This is the bestest Junuary EVAR!

It probably does leach into your beverage but since my camelbak usually just tastes like mold I don't tend to notice. My kidneys might. I know that drinking anything other than water out of any of them requires a detailed cleanup otherwise you'll run into the aforementioned mold issue inside the tube or bight valve.

You can put boiling liquid in your standard camelbak bladder. Allegedly, you can boil water IN a camelbak but when survivorman tried it he melted a hole in his. I've put nearly boiling water into both my camelbak and platypus bladders and experienced no problems with either.

So insane that I think mandatory mental health screening of all 4 million members of this organization should commence immediately. Anyone thinking this is a good idea should forfeit all rights to gun ownership. I was expecting them to come out with some luke warm feel good bullshit but they just said fuck it and went full on crazy. No apologies. Obviously not all NRA members would be willing to die for their guns but I know that at least one of my aforementioned cousins would love to martyr himself to the second amendment. I'm also sure he'd have no moral qualms about taking his wife and 3 kids with him. "Better to be dead than live in a world with no god or guns"

Is that directed at me? I believe I was calling for perspective the other day when you were looking to revive Nancy Lanza just so you could tell her what a lousy parent she was. I don't think I've lost perspective on the situation since then but if you think I have please explain your comment. And no, I don't think my cousins want peace on earth. They're more interested in killin' shit. But if you're actually from Mantana then you all ready know this.

I've got a cousin or three that have reoccurring wet dreams of going out in a blaze of glory should the man show up at their collective doors to take their guns away. They've got lots of friends and even more guns. I'm not so concerned with the Nancy Lanzas of the world having these kinds of guns but my relatives back n the Midwest scare the shit out of me with their military/police/eagle worship. They shouldn't even be allowed to own pointy objects they're so fucking nuts. This is a hill I think a lot of the gun nuts are willing to die on. Especially given their feelings towards the re election of that black dude and their very justifiable concerns that the country seems to be turning against their bullshit in general. And...they are breeding like nymphomaniac rabbits. I don't think we can legislate our way out of this one.

We Need More Guns That is some scary shit right there. It's time to take the guns away from these bat shit crazy fuckers. I don't think they're gonna do that willingly, and they've got most of the guns. So now what?

You don't get out of WA much do you Tvash? Good luck with that theory in places like Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, Texas, etc,etc. Of course strict punishment has worked so well with drugs, murder and rape that they've all but disappeared from this country, right? You should log in under your own avatar. You're making Ivan look like an idiot.