ScaredSilly

Thanks for posting this link. Decently written and sheds some good light on the situation.

A little on site video ... http://www.king5.com/news/local/Climber-still-missing-after-Mount-Rainier-avalanche-95737794.html BTW as for the OT guiding/cancelation/refund comments. Guiding has nothing to do with the situation. It is all about paying your money for a service that is condition dependent. Ever go to a concert and after one set the lead singer pukes and goes off stage? NO REFUND. Ever charter a fishing boat that goes outside the harbor and then turns around cause conditions sucked? NO REFUND. Had either not come on stage or left the dock you would have been rescheduled (not refunded). The examples could go on ad nauseum. The bottom line is that while most have cancelation policy rarely is there a refund because you have hired someone for their services.

Of the folks on the hill I wonder how many are "locals" vs visitors. Obviously, the missing climber is a visitor but how many others are as well. I would venture that many are visitors and have planned their vacation around a climb and thus go when the weather is good though conditions are questionable. The same happens with backcountry skiing after a good dump.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA .... If going to Muir a bivy sac is fine - but IMHO only because if the weather is shitty you can utilize the public shelter. In general, for the Cascade peaks where one can not easily descend when a storm hits I prefer a tent. The reason being is that Cascade storms are wet. So if caught out your outer gear is wet and then climbing into a bivy sac with wet gear it just stays wet. At least with a tent you crawl in take the wet stuff off, fire up a stove, get a brew, and dry out a bit. BTW - After doing Curtis Ridge we ran into a party of four coming from Liberty. Cause of the weather we all holed up. We all crawled into our tents and were waiting it out. About an hour later a group 3 came along with bivy sacs two of them ended up in tents cause of exactly what I described above.

The guy went blind ... and was being assisted down but was taking too much time. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/everest-team-forced-to-leave-sick-british-climber-to-die-1988979.html

The Kautz can be a cruise or a slog all depending on snow conditions. We took our time and did it over three days in mid July. Seems like we took five hours to get to a camp at around 8k-9k and then slept in before walking up to Hazard in may be three hours. Not super fast but we got up the next morning left Hazard around 6am, post holed through some sun cups and made the summit around noon including a side trip over to Point Success. We carried over, went down the DC and were back at Paradise by 6pm. Mark - take three days and make it fun. Late afternoon going across the Nisqually is fine the slopes heading up towards the Turtle may be a bit soggy but you are not on them for long. The nice part is that you get a long rest the next day at Hazard which is great for acclimating making the summit day nicer. The infamous ice step is quite moderate for the person who is comfortable with 45 degree glacier ice. We did it with a single 60 cm ice axe. Early season like it will be for a while the step will be snow covered.

I have a half bag made by Wild Things. Weighs in about a pound. Perfect for summer bivies when combined with a bivy sac. Unlike my other bags which are down my half bag is synthetic. One comment if you have not cut it already having the bag come up to your rib cage is better. Then you have overlap with a jacket. Which at night things slide around so no cold spots.

Nice little video. Funny I rarely use my headlamp at night once climbing on a glacier. I find the natural light is typically enough and my eyes adjust that while I may not see fine detail up close I can see farther.

Should have fucking left her ass in the snow.

In other words you bought low alcohol piss water swill beer. Cans of Shapiro hold much better as they are slightly higher in alcohol. Plus they're bigger!!

This is better ... http://www.climbing.com/news/hotflashes/superb_new_route_on_mt_logan/

Hmm, lets see warm sunny spring May weekend with lots of people on the SS. Sounds like the perfect storm for people avalanches.

Neither ... Carbon River. And it is open year round. It is just the first six miles that ya gotta walk (or better ride a bike).

Nice write up. Got lucky, really lucky.

I received an email from WSDOT seems they were under the (mistaken) impression that the west side electronic message sign at Newhalem went into operation about the same time the one in Winthrop was parked on the shoulder by the ballpark and programmed. That was about 1 p.m. on Thursday afternoon (6 May). As a result of my email, they checked and found that the Newhalem sign was in use at another project until it was placed Friday morning (7 May), so Thursday westside visitors didn't see (or have the opportunity to ignore) a sign. They assumed it was a Westside group of climbers who were up in the spires on Friday. The signs weren't the only method they used to let people know of the planned 3 hour closure the next day - By about 1 p.m. on Thursday, a statewide highway alert was issued to the media. The USFS, NPS and NOAA Radio were notified along with WSP and appropriate county officials. The NCH website was updated. The WSDOT Traffic and Roads and our Mountain Pass websites were updated. 5-1-1 and the roadside Highway Advisory Radios (HARs) at Twisp and Pateros were updated. They also send out the e-mail to those of you who are signed up to receive the personalized North Cascades updates (almost 3,000).

Read the second (currently the most recent) comment: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/travel/2011810216_northcascades07.html?prmid=obnetwork Sounds like the climbers were dawn patrolling before any signage was put up.

Kinda of interesting. Around here, the Cottonwood Canyons in Oootah. They just close the the roads and start shooting. That said UDOT does sometimes give some warning a few hours ahead of time. However, if you get out in the BC before they are shooting well you are fair game. It happens now and then because of folks doing dawn patrols (been there down that). So I have to ask what kind of signage was out? Was there a chance that the "climbers" would not have seen the signage? If the signage was that obvious then why not issue a citation - obviously there must have been a vehicle. Again in our canyons there are sections that are no parking or stopping during the winter months.

Great write up!!

Done: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2010/04/26/international/i220605D58.DTL&tsp=1

Sheeeeeet, you boys need come to OOOOOOtah. We ain't got no silly bestiality laws, you can have your wives and uwes too!!!!

If you are not a museum guy you are probably not a flower guy either. My Grandmother just loved the Tulip Show I would probably head south into Belgium and drink beer. Antwerp has some great bars. I do not know of any WWII site in the Netherlands but there are some in Belgium such the Battle of the Bulge. Which for me holds some interest as my Great Uncle was a specific target for the Nazis. He was second in command of the Quartermaster Corp. and to disrupt the war machine they went after him and those in his charge. BTW The Anne Frank and Van Gogh museum are quite nice and are certainly worth seeing.

What he said, all depends on the weather. I have had rain during a May attempt. Seen dry very dry condition over M-day. Roll the dice and pay the man. In other words hope for the best and prepare for the worst.

I doubt many have been over recently. But for this time of year I would start at T-line and ski over to the route via the Newton Clark then descend the S. Side.

http://www.kirotv.com/news/23113628/detail.html?hpt=T2

Dane, why not make it full strength, the cost is in fab not the metal?