CaleHoopes

Seriously, buy a membership and suck it up. If you're a real gym climber, the membership is what you'd have anyway. P.S. I agree with you Denalidevo.

Frozen Ice wall OR a significant amount of ice holdz and/or a drytooling area.

Looks like you're getting out... Good deal Dane! I have church in the morning on Sundays or I'd join in. Also, I can't LEAD anything yet, so I'd end up being a useless follower. Oh well.

By the way, you can check but most of the MODEL NUMBERS of the CiloGear work sacks don't represent volume. My "40L" Worksack is the model and it AVERAGES 40 Litres. However, I can stretch it out (by uncompressing and pushing up the straps for the brain) to 65L and I can strip and compress it all the way down to 23L. So, don't be too thrown off. However, some people CAN stuff overnight gear into a pack that small - it definitely is possible depending on the route, the required gear and the choices you make. Going ultralight and ultrapackable, you'd be surprised how small you could get things to fit in a small pack.

BD Mission 75 OR my CiloGear Worksack 40B (which stretches to 65L if I want). I like BIG and LIGHT for overnights. Big to stuff a lot in and light because I don't want it to add too much weight to all the overnight gear. P.S. Both these packs are in the 3lb 12 oz range unstripped.

My condolences too. Sad day on Hood.

"DUDE.. you don't climb ALONE" - idiot commenters is right. Whatever. Hey, didn't I understand that PLB's were required on Hood? Did I misread that somewheres?

Awesome job, I was up there this weekend and saw that line and sure did wonder if anyone was getting on it! Damn, wish I was over there with you--- I was campin just above at Anvil Rock.

Anyone out there climbing the 2-3 pitch line on the west side of the lower Nisqually glacier about 500 ft north of the Fan this weekend? We could see you from over on Panorama Point - the ice looked fantastic. Looked like a party of three and we paid attention long enough to see the lead about halfway up the first pitch - looked wonderful yesterday. Was wondering because grabbing something like that means you have PICTURES. Share with the class.

I'm an owner of two Dragon jackets. I'd swear by them. If the Trinity replaces the Dragon.... then I'd go there. The problem I have with the Trinity is that its a full waterproof layer. I don't know what the breathability would be like on DryQ. Better than the last generation, but is it a good climbing jacket? Go check it at the store downtown - they should have it this time of year... MH store is your best bet.

I'm gonna start out by trying out my Sabretooth Pro's on the 40 belows. I'll let you folks know how it goes. Thanks for all of the responses! You people ROCK!

Fat Ice Deserves Photos.

Not a viper with some tape?!

Actually a pretty fun falls to top rope. Haven't set a rope there myself so I don't know what the top of the falls looks like, but a good 20-30m set of about 3 routes. Could be an ok afternoon for practice.

Kurt, Thanks a ton for chiming in! That's exactly the kind of response I was wondering about. I was sorta less interested in the "it would work" than "it would be better if you did..." I basically got the same comment you gave from John Race who's up there all the time - and a different response from Mark Allen who's up there often but doing more alpine routes than the West Buttress (need more sensitivity so the overboot is not as important). Thanks a ton! Thanks everyone for your input - I think I have a plan. Cale

So, to answer a few questions: West Buttress. I have a pair of Sabretooth Pro's with the wire front (full automatic). I might just give em a try before I do anything. If I don't like, I'll get a pair with straps. "Take your boot/overboot combo to a gear shop and see what fits" Ends up probably being the best idea. I just wanted to hear what everyone had to say about the topic. Thanks for all the great responses!

Folks, I keep getting different results when I ask people about their experiences regarding Crampon styles for Denali with overboots. I've heard "Go with all straps" and another friend said "Keep the clip in the back". I very rarely hear to use full-clip crampons. I am going to use the 40 Below Purple Haze overboots (at the moment) on top of a pair of La Sportiva Baruntse boots. I run cold, so I think this is a good approach. Right now I'm considering G12's with a strap in the front or BD Serac's with strap in front. Thoughts? Thanks if you respond.... want to get opinions here.

Dude! Very excellent trip report!

I almost always get a v-thread pulled through using a metolius runner and using the stiff part of the stiching to pull it through.

Is that what you used on your Chair Peak video? Hey, and I hope to see you at VW Redmond sometime - I don't climb above 5.10a yet, but I'm gettin there... Nice video on the Chair Peak climb. I need to put together my multi-pitch climb from Ouray but I haven't done the video editing yet.

Folks, I'm dubious about the success of HAM radios for climbers. I've taken my radio numerous times up into the mountains and tried to bounce repeaters back to Seattle. Often times the repeaters in the mountains are down or inactive - and I've only ever had success getting back to Seattle from Granite Mt. once (where I believe I had line of site to Rattlesnake). I'm actually going to Denali this summer and I'm going to purchase the DeLorme inReach device for the whole expedition to use. The benefits of this device over the SPOT: two-way messaging, confirmations your messages were received, doesn't require a cell phone to do all it's basic functions. On the other hand, the SPOT connector only has an SOS button on it and REQUIRES a cell phone to send one way messages. What I want is a lightweight good communication device for an expedition that will mean we don't spend a ton on Satellite phone minutes. The drawback of the inReach is $120/year + an upgrade downgrade option for $24... Yep, pricey... but cheaper than a full on sat phone.

Hey, any go pro owners out there monkey with different mounts for climbing? I recently climbed in Ouray and mounted on the top of the helmet. Some of the climbing is pretty good - but I'm wondering about the front mount on the helmet. Anyone?

By the way, this is one real bummer. In the old visitors center in the basement were showers which took a quarter. I remember coming off a particularly horrible day up to Muir and taking a 5 min shower for cheap (like $2). Then dining at Copper Creek feeling like a million bucks! P.S. LOL on the "Whittaker Cartel"

This was very sad. Two Fridays ago on the 6th I was at the Ouray Ice Festival and took an Advanced Water Ice clinic from Jack. He's a great guy and a great teacher. Additionally, after climbing up Camp Bird Road outside of Ouray just a few days ago, I saw Jack again and we exchanged pleasantries. I learned a bunch from him in 3 hours and he pushed me farther than I've gone before. I was sad to hear of his passing. Bridalveil falls is pretty incredible too. WI5/6 over 150m. 3-4 pitches and he was very experienced. Sad day.

Wow tvashtarkatena! Very nice response - and it totally makes sense. I don't slackline, but I really enjoyed reading about how the loads get calculated. Amazing how much load is there and even worse because of the length of the slackline.