Julian

This has to be made up as a way of trolling the internet forums.

Here's the thing: the weather on Hood can vary wildly at any time of year. You've simply got to watch for the right weather window to develop and go for it. So many of the unfortunate stories about Mt. Hood start with something like "Me and my buddies are coming from out of town so we HAVE to do Mt. Hood this weekend because it's when we bought our plane tickets for". My favorite two days on Mt. Hood were a climb on the Reid Headwall the weekend after last Thanksgiving, and taking my newbie friend up the South Side on a perfect, cold day in mid-March. For contrast, one of my friends and I got basically blown off the mountain over Memorial Day weekend while trying to get to I-Rock. I honestly think if you are looking for a lot of snow then winter/spring is not a bad time to go, if you can get clear weather. But I like the cold so that's just me.

I will second the surprisingly good quality and performance of some of Costco's clothing in terms of climbing-wear. Besides their long underwear I find their packs of Kirkland (Costco's house brand) merino wool socks to be as good as anything similar I've tried other than DTV socks (which obviously cost a hell of a lot more). I think they are 10 bucks for a 4-pack and they last as long as anything by Wigwam, Smartwool, REI. Dane, have you considered getting one of those Costco softshell jackets (that cost something like 25 bucks if I remember right) and testing it out? I've been tempted to do it but now that I'm living in South Carolina for a while won't be able to get a good chance to do so for a bit. They "look" decent (especially for the price) but I'm obviously skeptical of how they would perform as anything other than an around-town jacket.

Peak fees (even increased ones) on Denali are sensible but should be for the West Buttress/West Rib only. An experienced alpinist who doesn't need NPS to babysit them shouldn't have to pay $1000 to climb the Cassin Ridge or Denali Diamond.

aka a noose Well in that case at least we know it will hold bodyweight...

Yeah, that "rope" looks like one of those 30 foot 6mm accessory cords from BlueWater or PMI that you can buy in a package at REI.

The picture of the Aztars with the Quark griprest is mine, I can vouch for the amazing high-quality job that Dane does with tool mods. If you have an older/straighter leashed tool like the Aztar and are looking to go leashless without springing for new tools, the best thing you could do is get Dane to mod yours.

It's amazing how that beautiful mountain turns into such an ugly pile of shit for a few months of the year.

How is it the one Oregon crag that doesn't result in online bicker-fests is the only one that ranks as a world-class area? Or is that just because all those arguments got settled with fisticuffs in the parking lot and at the Grasslands back in the 80s and 90s?

Awesome stuff! You mentioned that you traversed the Newton-Clark to get back - did you get any sort of look at conditions on the Newton-Clark headwall? I'm going up to Hood this weekend with some friends and we were considering that as a possible ascent route.

That would be a very prestigious send, but I'm not sure if my level of ability is up to it currently. I'm thinking a better strategy for me would be to headpoint it: take a helicopter to the summit, practice the climbing on toprope, and pre-place gear for my final push.

Awesome, more pointless triviality for the media to glorify while real climbing accomplishments go unnoticed.

Any chance things have been made purposely more difficult/obnoxious to steer climbers to the guide outfits?

This is a weird recent development. Last summer Aliens were going for a pretty normal 40-50 dollars on Ebay. Someone sold a rack of 15 for $500 at one point that I considered bidding on.

We tried it last year in mid-August and by then it was badly out of season. We attempted to approach the cutoff by first climbing high towards Colfax and then traversing across the front of the Roman Nose. This proved to be a terrible strategy (although it's debatable if a diagonal path across the glacier would have been better given the complexities of descending that way we encountered later), as we could not find any protection and traversed loose class 3/4 "rock" (with the occasional patch of black ice underneath) with a 100 foot fall into the bottom of the moat looming. We bailed at the cutoff in the face of massive rockfall just as we were debating how to cross the bergschrund. This year I'm planning to go back in early July assuming good weather patterns, taking a more direct route across the Coleman.

Hey Colin, did you make it up to I-Rock? My buddy and I went for it this morning after reading your conditions predictions and deciding against a Black Spider attempt due to predicted wind-loading of Eastern slopes. Conditions were awful at the top of the Palmer, with high winds carrying ice crystals blowing west to east, and we both ended up caked in ice. We started digging a tent platform to wait it out, but while cutting out a block observed a 2 inch windslab slide right off the top of it, and promptly bailed.

Nice Mammut ropes have been showing up on SteepAndCheap in the past couple of days at 45-50% off.

We are going after Sandy Glacier Headwall this weekend, summit bid on Sunday. I'll give a conditions update for that part of the mountain if everything goes according to plan.

ASmith, I'm not totally sure what you are arguing here. I don't think anyone is claiming that he shouldn't be allowed to climb Everest. What they (and I now) are doing is questioning the media's priorities when reporting "climbing news". Gimmicks such as this - "Youngest ----- up Everest!", "First -insert gender/race/nationality/age combination- up Everest!" - get headlines in the mainstream media because they have this fixation on Everest being the highest. While truly impressive accomplishments don't even merit a peep. A few weeks ago two Japanese climbers made the first ascent of the Southeast Face of Mount Logan, until then one of the greatest unclimbed walls in the world, without so much as a word of their ascent other than on some of the specialist climbing media websites. Surely that deserves more attention and praise than being guided up the donkey route on Everest while sucking O2 from 7k. The other thing that seems strange is whenever anyone criticizes the attention being paid to this, they are accused of jealously. But for anyone to be jealous, they would have to actually want to spend 50 grand to climb Everest. I can tell you right now that if I had 50 grand to devote to climbing, I'd get a lot more great trips out of it than a high-altitude snow slog.

Anyone checked out the Black Spider recently? I presume that the season for alpine ice there is over, but just curious.

SteepAndCheap has the Camp Alpina axe up right now at 66.99, which is 55% off. Looks like a decent little alpine mountaineering axe.

I have a Mammut Supernova 10mm 60m dry rope. Get it (or something equivalent from them if they've done some model shuffling) and you won't be sorry.

No need, it's bolted. JH...its a mixed route. M-grade for Infinite Bliss? Do you recommend leashless tools and fruit boots or will alpine gear be sufficient?

Yes! More bolting threads!

I wish: 1. My wife would let me have a setup like that in the house 2. I had enough gear to pull it off