Dannible

Mine might be the aluminum one actually, I don't really know. I've really liked it, but we might try to get our hands on an MSR for this years AK trip for more volume and speed.

Nice work guys! Something drove me to look at the weather forecast there last week, and I was surprised to see a couple of good days. Glad you got in there. That is a huge piece of rock, here it is in late May:

Mine has been great. 11 months of pretty heavy use and I haven't had any issues at all (we had a distressing issue once but it turned out to be a fuel can problem). The clicker sparky thing even still works. It's treated me well down to around 0 degrees. Maybe they have quality control issues and some bad ones slip through. I've heard about other people (including you, Mike) having serious trouble.

The fat ski hating is getting me down. I don't think that I would be as into skiing as I am now if I started 10 years ago because I really think that fat skis are just so much more fun. I've basically learned to ski on Shamans (110 mm underfoot, I laughed with joy after my first few turns, and have used them in all possible conditions since with good results.) This week I borrowed some BD Gigawatts which are 135 underfoot and reverse camber, and my mind was blown. Not great all conditions skis obviously, but in real pow they make you feel like a god. Honestly I feel sorry for anyone skiing powder with anything under 95 or 100mm or so. I just can't help but think that your missing out. That said, I work hard to avoid tracked snow when possible, which makes a difference.

I'm somewhat confident that NWAC reported Considerable for those SW to SE facing slopes and high for N and NW facing slopes at that elevation that day. I may well be wrong but I read and reread that a couple of times afterwards. The lower slopes on that map are moderate. The difference is small and subject to error due to wind transport and a lot of other variables, but there is a difference. Not making excuses for the guys, just trying to get the facts straight.

Damn that sucks. Good work though, that's really cool of you.

Yeah, the road usually opens in April or May. Most do it in two days I think, but a day is not abnormal.

I think he's referring to migrant labor. I've been told that it's surprisingly hard to pick apples fast enough to make much money. Some of those guys are impressively quick. Hard physical work all day every day, and you better speak Spanish. Most of the summer work around Leavenworth involves the rafting, hotels, or the forest service.

My comment wasn't directed at you, I was answering the earlier question about their experience in the BC. I'd agree that people tend to get in more trouble in lift accessed BC. It's easier to get comfortable with a zone and maybe a little complacent when you don't have to work as hard for it. Also, you are less exposed to avalanche hazards on the approach to a line (if you are going from a lift), which means that one might be analyzing the slopes a little less. If you are skinning or boot packing long distances and up slopes somewhat similar to those you will be skiing, you are going to know a lot more about what's going on. That said, more and more people are going into the BC, both lift accessed and not, and not all of them understand the dangers. Obviously, as we see here and all too often, knowledge can't save us every time. Looking at NWAC is a part of knowing what's going on, but there is a lot more to it. I and many other people sometimes ski in the bc when the avalanche danger is in the red. You do tests, observe what's going on, ski where you think the dangers are reasonable, and be careful. When I saw the avalanche triggered by the girl that I mentioned earlier I was in the BC on my way to ski in a popular treed area that I frequent on more dangerous days when I saw her drop into a huge open bowl that I wouldn't think of skiing on a deep day. Even before the snow started moving I knew that she had done something dumb. It slid down to an ice layer and I skied down to her with many eyes on me and did a beacon search after helping her to make sure no one else was involved (though she and many others out there don't have beacons). Tunnel Creek, where the bad slide happened, is south to southwest facing and was orange (considerable) on NWAC's danger rose yesterday. Last year's death there involved someone who was pulled headfirst into a tree, but not buried. That incident specifically motivated me to start wearing a helmet more often. I skied Tunnel Creek on Saturday afternoon after hearing that another group did it. I think that the avalanche danger was probably considerable or high on Saturday. We did not dig a pit because we knew that the slopes were windloaded and dangerous, but would improve as we got away from the ridge top. We went very carefully, taking turns watching each other move between points of relative safety, and stayed in the trees where we could. We set off deep slough slides where there was windloading up high, but nothing propagated like it did yesterday, and we moved slowly to manage our slides. Another foot or so fell (plus windloading) after I was up there. I consider myself to be a more conservative skier than most of my friends who are into it, but you can see plainly that we were close to the line that day. Obviously it's a lot to think about. Something else worth mentioning is that the skier that survived the avalanche was wearing one of those inflatable airbag backpack things, and it probably played a big roll in her survival. I think that I'll be wearing one before too long. There is a lot to be said about skiing and climbing and personal responsibility and freedom and risk and all of that, but I can't keep typing forever. I'll just say that for me, and I'm sure that my lost friends would agree, there is just no turning back. These activities define our lives and make them beautiful. I've tried to tone it down and live the normal city life of work and bars and parks and gyms, but I can't erase the mountains and what they give me from my mind. This has been posted here before, it starts Jim Jack. He lived more than most:

It was a very experienced crew, in and out of bounds. World class, and knew the area better than anyone, literally. I don't have more to say here now. We're all just sad that our friends are gone.

Sad day. Two of these guys were my friends, and they were some of the most experienced guys around. It was a very experienced group to say the least. I witnessed another big avalanche in the backcountry today, set off by a teenage girl who apparently just didn't have any clue. She got lucky. Educate your kids people. What she did, dropping in on a huge, open bowl alone with no avy gear (hell, even if she had gear), and feet of new snow, was not very smart to put it politely.

Hood:

I don't think that is for the pair, meaning they are a bit heavier than I thought.

Never have tried that (don't have them with me now), but I got them used with really beat up bases anyway. I'm sure this sounds stupid but I think perfect bases are overrated. Mine are impressively beat at this point and they still feel better in the pow than all of the new skis that I've demoed. No core shots even though I don't try to be careful anymore when the coverage is low. Just burly skis. After about 5 years and 300+ days (and lots of drill holes) they are just now getting a bit floppy. I agree that Coombacks are a good option too. I've never tried them but my ski patroller friends like them for all condition skis.

This is at about 11,200 feet on Peak 11,300 in the Alaska Range waiting for enough light to see the way down. Jens is on the left wearing down, and I'm on the right with synthetic. It was about 0 degrees, and we dug in just enough to get out of the wind. We ate ramen and drank warm water and told jokes and everything was fine. He had puffy pants (I didn't) and actually slept for a bit. Happily it was only dark for a few hours. As others have said, I prefer synthetic when spindrift is a possibility, and cant afford to have both options.

I've always thought the calm part next to the candy shop would be good too. A bit of walking but that beats a bit of swimming. Damn rain, I even had a raft in my van this weekend.

As reported, some things were in in Ltown on Saturday. Sadly it started raining in the afternoon, and rained hard during the night and on Sunday morning. Apparently it was raining at 6000+ in the canyon. Tried to go mixed climbing on Carino, figuring at least that meant rock gear instead of screws, but couldn't justify it with how warm it was. Drove up the road to look around, and got up to where the road ends just in time to see a massive avalanche come down Hubba Hubba, maybe the biggest I've witnessed in Washington. Would have killed anything on the approach slopes above the treeline, and brought down some of the ice. Someone said that it had slid like that an hour earlier too. The first pitch looked really fat though, so hopefully it will survive the coming warm weather. Drury looked a bit rain affected today. It was t shirt weather in town. Hint: think higher.

Viole Drifter or Charger. I demoed them last year and was really happy with them for the weight. If I only had one pair of skis I'd probably go with one of those. I haven't paid attention to this year's skis though. And yes, dynafits and whatever new variations others have come out with are great. Way stronger than people think. My skis for the last few years have been Icelantic Shamans. I've demoed others but have found nothing better for all conditions. A bit heavy, but I'll be damned if they haven't stood up to years of serious abuse (I bought them used).

I think you'd more likely catch a Beluga or some seals where I was. Apparently these things happen. I'm pretty sure we just caught a boat. Everyone was pretty surprised about the broken biner though (or clips, as they're called in boat speak). Lots of forces at work there.

This doesn't really have much to do with anything, but this past summer while commercial fishing we had a steel biner bend open (the long side without the gate bent in half). It was holding two long, heavy gill nets together and we think that maybe it got slapped by another boat's prop or maybe the gate was pinned open when the nets got an extra forceful tug on them. Everything has it's limits.

Lots of people use plastic boots on the volcanos, which are the same idea. You might want to bring tennis shoes for the approach if it's snow free. Whatever models are a step down in price/weight/warmth might be more ideal. I use the Baruntses for most winter/spring alpine in the cascades at this point because they make keeping your feet warm one less thing to think about, they don't hinder my climbing very much, and because I own them. My only complaint is that they are pretty torn up after less than a year. They are overkill for the summer.

Nice adventure Dan. Sometimes the mountains just don't want to let you go. Awesome.

Thats sad. I met Jack in Talkeetna this year and got to fly into the range with him. I knew who he was because Huntington was one of the mountains that we were thinking of climbing, and I read about his climb many times in the weeks leading up to the trip (not that we were considering climbing the north face). Jens and I thought that it was a good omen to be flying in with a solid group of old hardmen. He's the second person who I met on that trip to die since then. Jack below his objective this year: The Moose's Tooth Jack is the guy scrunched up in the background here. I only post this because I posted it on another thread a while back: And the unrepeated North Face of Huntington:

Cool! Not that it matters, but I think that was the the winter of 2009-2010, back before the days of global warming when ice practically grew on trees. Bulletproof ice maybe, but also light alpine tools and tired arms. I was the belayer. Lancegranite- I met a guy who you work with (from Colorado I think) when I was in Talkeetna back in May. They were trying to climb Mt. Hunter. Small world.

I've climbed some of the easier flows in Lworth over the last few days. The Goatee was in, Millennium will probably be coming in in a few days, and that new route (The Penstock) past the tunnel in the Tumwater was still there, but got thin and faded away up high. It looked like the route just before the tunnel which we climbed last year might be in next week (it's supposed to stay cold until the end of the week). Hubba Hubba looked very thin from the road, but should come in. Over all it is really dry in Leavenworth. Not much snow on the hill sides and apparently not much water in the ground. I'd bet banks is ok, but I couldn't find anyone to go there with me on short notice.