CaleHoopes

Crocs are overkill. Open toe sandals or nothing. Don't forget the swim shorts too.

I wouldn't be surprised that focusing only on Crossfit reduced someone's bouldering performance. The only way to increase bouldering performance is to BOULDER.

Marmot Mt. Works in Bellevue (good sale racks too). Don't forget the OR store (yeah, only their models though). I wouldn't boycott REI though... sometimes they have great sales and such - plus they are across the street from Feathered Friends so you can hit both in one stop. FF has better selection of high end brands and REI tends to stock the lower end versions of clothing by your typical brands. Also, for a couple brand stores: Mountain Hardware Outlet & Patagonia Outlet are good stores too. They carry the items that's in their catalog but not common in other stores. The new Ueli Steck line at MH is pretty nice IMHO (and they have the latest "best" competitor to GoreTex in that line: DryQ). Good luck!

I think I actually trashed my rope a different way. This last weekend we did some training with sleds up at paradise. I forgot to totally screw the cap on one of the bottles for the stove (XKG) and when I pulled the rope out of the sled, it was soaked in white gas. DOH. Anyone ever have that happen to ya?

Here's what the park service sees. You can clearly see the big chunk of broken up ice at the top of the chute. Is it also just me but is the rock melted out over into the chute more than usual? Also, doesn't it look like you could traverse under that breakup to climbers left and then navigate above the hanging ice wall? Anyhoo... nice pic from the NPS from 5/1:

This makes the route sound kinda nasty. I'm wondering how it will be this weekend. I guess I'm gonna find out.

Thanks! That's some decent news - about the Ledges. Make sure and bring some probes to make sure those bridges are good. Thanks to anyone else who has beta. We're looking at the Ledges this weekend if the weather holds and the route goes.

I have a team looking at Gib Ledges this coming weekend. Anyone have beta on Gib Ledges, DC or ID?

Jorge is amazing. What he does in his ultralight is pure real adventure. For someone who lives at 480 feet, hearing of his flights at 20k in open air while photographing is totally spectacular. Good stuff - gotta go back to get Chimbo and finally get up Cayambe.

Really appreciating the tips! Keep em comin!

We got the Trangos too Skoolsukz. When do you fly on? (or at least scheduled). Scared -> Yep, some booze is a good idea. A little flask with 151 or schnapps or somethin...

UPDATE: I just had the Hawk Vittles Hash Browns, Sausage & Egg and its the best camp meal I've ever tried. Fantastic!

DPS, you rock. That's great stuff!

LOL. DPS... No advice for me? I don't have it all figured out either.... ;-)

Lance, I'm also heading to Denali in June. We fly on June 4th and are driving up there before that. For food, I didn't want 21 days of Mountain House. Therefore, I started looking into all sorts of options. Currently I'm trying out meals from Hawk Vittles (http://www.hawkvittles.com) and PackitGourmet (http://www.packitgourmet.com). The meals from Hawk Vittles are actually quite good - although the cook in bag method is bunk. I cook em in a GSI Fairshare Mug. I've currently tried the Linguine with Mushroom Sauce (Needs Spice), Spicy Chicken (Good), Cowboy Pasta (Good) and Bison Stew (Ok). Today I'm trying out the Hashbrown & Sausage breakfast. Excellent stuff. Packit Gourmet is AWESOME. They have some really interesting meals - however, their greatest add is that they sell items in bulk. Like just freeze dried meat, fruit, vegetables, etc. I've bought packets to replace the MSG in ramen and bought individual items (like dried onions, olives, vegetable mix) to add to ramen. Good stuff. They have a breakfast smoothie that I bought but have yet to try - it'd be nice to take some dried fruit, drop it in a smoothie, mix it up and get 400 calories quickly in the morning... COLD. Also, they sell the HORMEL pre-cooked bacon. This stuff is SHELF STABLE (unlike some of the other pre-cooked bacons). And if you can get a few minutes in the cooking pot, you can crisp it up some. Bagels and pre-cooked bacon is going to be a common meal for me on the mountain. Don't forget the spices and olive oil. I've bought a small little plastic bottle with a screw-on lid for olive oil. Considering that it's 250 calories an oz, it's good stuff to add to meals. I've found that all the meals I've tried above benefitted from spice MIXES - like Mrs. Dash. I plan on bringing: a mexican spice mix, an italian spice mix and a generic savory spice mix (like montreal steak mix). Finally, I'm heading over to Cured in Leavenworth to grab some shelf stable salame to take with us. Their stuff is totally awesome and won't get bad up on the mountain. Feel free to contact me directly: caledh@gmail.com We are an independent climb of 6 folks and we have high hopes but know we might just be getting a month long vacation. Ping us - maybe we can wave at each other as we go up and down the hill! Cale Hoopes Sammamish, WA

Skeletor, I'm sure your question was directed to sharp_end. However, I went guided on my trip and was very happy with IMG. Phil Ershler basically loaded up down to Ecuador way back and developed this as an international climbing destination and the other guide services followed. That means that IMG's trip is a little special - you get to go to off the beat places, meet amazing people and such. You're even more lucky if you go on a trip with Phil. He has a lot of insider knowledge. The best part about an IMG trip is interacting with Romulo Cardenas. Romulo is a famous adventurer, mountaineer and guide in Ecuador - you might have seen his picture in a Patagonia calendar before. He's an amazing climber and an excellent guy! Finally, IMG trips introduce you to Jorge Anhalzer. The Anhalzer family is a famous one in Ecuador. Jorge's passion (other than climbing) is to fly around the volcanoes of Ecuador in ultralights alone and take amazing pictures (panoramas & such). Jorge's work is stunning: http://www.jorgeanhalzer.com/. Anyhow, my trip in 2010 was fantastic.

I'm a big fan of the OR Extraverts. Cheap and great for ice. And not too cold/warm. Kinda perfect. Also disposable (based on price).

Very happy with my Nikon AW100 for climbing (P&S). 16MP & 1080p. 5oz. Lookie: http://www.nikonusa.com/Nikon-Products/Product/Compact-Digital-Cameras/26293/COOLPIX-AW100.html

Excellent work. I've stood on top of Cotopaxi and been darn near the summit of Cayambe (damn bergshrund collapse). Anyhoo, looks like a great trip. I bet Pinchincha was awesome! To climb up and see all of Quito must be incredible!

Hmmmm. Fermented gu doesn't sound like a bad idea. A little buzz with my performance hit...

Very nice. I'm heading up in June and it was nice to see a fairly good representation of the experience. Nice work!

KOMO's website always attracts the worst trolls. That SolomonUW guy should really get a life. Looks like the injuries were definitely significant. Good luck on the recovery!

Yeah, never needed more than 2 liters for summit and back to camp. I guess it's different for everyone, but I haven't had a stove on summit crawls.

Picking up mine today and using this weekend. I'll give a review when I get back.

Very nice writeup IndianolaTom. We can all learn a lot from your assessment. Hoping for a great recovery for him as well! :-)