Dannible

If you already have a 10 degree bag I would say just get the lightest, most packable bag you can find. Through most of the summer you should be ok with a 40-50+ degree bag, even if it's colder than that if be in a tent or bivy sack and/or sleep in all of your clothes. On cold nights you might shiver a bit, but it could be worse.

I'm glad they're finally cracking down on this, the evil of evils that children have to face every day. Busting people for possesion however, is not going to solve the problem. They need to find the dealers and LOCK THOSE LITTLE BASTARDS UP FOR GOOD. When I was in middle school a kid got in less trouble for selling exlax and telling people it was speed.

Yeah, who cares about all these places that only a few people ever go to anyway? If god wants it clean he wouldn't have put the chemicals there in the first place, jeeze.

Do you still only have weekends off? I pretty much always have to work on weekends.

So I was hoping to go to Bozeman to visit a friend and climb some ice this winter, but now I don't think I will be able to get over there until April. Will there be any ice around by then? What's the alpine like that time of year?

Apparently a few weeks ago a big angry group gathered outside the Evergreen police station after someone was arrested. I don't know the details, but I don't think anything serious happened. The Evergreen PD does have a couple of pretty bad officers that have caused a lot of PR problems over the last 5 years or so, and I think between some of the things that they have done and the whole deal at the port people are starting to get pretty serious about showing their frustration. I thought the police did a terrible job at the port, but the other night they did a pretty good job. If they had stayed and tried to get things under control it would have turned out much worse.

I was at the show and saw that go down (and was quoted in the artcle when all I really wanted to do was sell some pictures). It was pretty much about 20 people actually being crazy and the rest of the 200 or so just standing around watching. People were mad that the police were using force, but really it was pretty justified. After about 10 minutes of not being able to move the car to take the guy that they arrested to the station, I think the police were just planning on letting the guy go and getting out of there, but people just wouldn't let them go, and were throwing things at them. It was just bad luck that one of the police cars wouldn't start or something, so they just left it when they all retreated. The article says that SWAT dispersed the crowd, but really they just left and waited until everyone was gone to move the car. I'm pretty sure alcohol had a lot to do with the whole thing. It was a pretty ridiculous thing to see.

I'm selling a 95 Mazda Protege that gets 25-30+ mpg because I got a 88 Nissan 4x4 that gets 15-19 mpg. I got tired of getting stuck in the snow. Problem is the guy who I bought the truck from told me that it gets 25-30 mpg, so I figured that it would get at least low 20s. I drive a lot, and don't make a lot of money, so I think I'm gonna sell it and get something that gets a little better.

I could see how someone who hasn't done much alpine rock would want a rope at least for rapping in places. You could just skip the harder summits and follow the ridge (which is pretty much hiking for the most part) climbing whatever you can along the way.

I had to leave early, but from what I saw Obama had a pretty good lead here.

Again, be careful heading up to a volcano in bad weather. You can do it in a whiteout, but things can get pretty crazy with strong winds and snow and all that good stuff. Lots of people have died on them because they ignored the weather. Easier climbs on smaller mountains (like some on Baker HW) can be a lot of fun in bad weather.

May/June can be a very wet time of year around here. Look at the long term forecast and decide where you will go based on the weather. You might have better luck if you go somewhere east of the crest such as Washington Pass or the Pasayten Wilderness instead. If the weather doesn't look good then there is no point in going to a volcano, as the weather will likely be really bad up there.

1, but only because I've been spending too much time looking for ice that isn't really there most of the time. I'm going out for the next two days though.

A few years ago I went to J-Tree and didn't do a good job of keeping my contacts clean, so I got some kind of eye infection. By the time we had to drive home my eyes were so sensitive to light that even during the night I had to wear my sunglasses, a patch over one eye, and I had tears running down my face. Whenever another car was coming towards me I'd have to pull over because headlights made it feel like I was spinning. It made for a long drive. The first time I climbed Baker was with guy who had gotten metal shards in his eye the day before, and just sprayed cow penicillin in it to deal with it.

That's good advice. For the last few winters I made a point of going for a long run in the rain or snow whenever I had time, and I think it helped me get a little more used to being wet and uncomfortable than most people. For some reason I can't bring myself to do that very often anymore.

Yep, money is important. Get yourself a part time job, stop doing anything else that requires money, eat potatoes and rice for every meal, buy used gear, and find ways to avoid paying rent from time to time. I am 20 and got into climbing five years ago and because I have been going school and only working part time most of the time saving up for gear has been really hard. If you don't have rich parents or something like that don't count on starting fast. If you can find a cheap class, take it. I took a 10 week class through a small alpine club that cost $140 and went over basic mountaineering and alpine rock climbing and it was one of the best investments of my life. Don't worry about climbing with people your age because like you said they are few and far between (alpine people anyway).

Does anyone know anything about the ice around exit 38? I drove by today and it looked like there's some mixed stuff and a few small pillars on the hillsides. I didn't have time to get close to anything.

Sounds like a good adventure. How did the traverse to Shucksan look? Did you think routefinding was very hard? I was planning on going up there this summer but got hit by rockfall somewhere else and was afraid of choss for a while there.

Did some laps on Pan Dome today. Lots of ice ranging from good to not quite as good. Plenty enough exposed ice to place screws, but I wouldn't feel good about leading it myself because of a couple of sections of loose steep snow. Some guys were doing a route off to the right (Tabasco Kid?) that looked ok.

Word. I tried to link that with the first pitch and got within 5 feet of the top of the corner before my arms died then took a 20-30 foot fall, and several shorter falls after that. I let Blake take the chimney, which was a solid choice. I'd say 10a or b but very sustained. Fun stuff though.

I'm sure their own egos were hurting after being overshadowed by a kid.

I'd say the most fun pitch I climbed in 2007 was either Penny Lane or the 11a to the right of it at Squamish. I had never been to the Smoke Bluffs, so many good cracks. The hardest and most memorable was the second pitch of Accidental Discharge on Gunsight. Yuck.

Blake- I think Burdo said that he had heard about the first pitch variation. Where is ramp rage? Looks perdy.

I can think of a pretty big one that you and me left hanging. My goal is to find a place that doen't rain so much.