montypiton

a simple bivvy sack will be a fraction of the weight of those coveralls, and a half-bag or a pair of puffy pants will be lighter, warmer, and to my thinking, more comfortable. if you want to run comparisons without committing too much cash, I have used mylar biv-sacs that package up about the size/weight of a cliff bar -- you can find 'em for about $5/apiece online at sportsmansguide.com. sure, they only last a night or two, but they'll give you an idea of whether you want to spend $100+ for a "real" bivvy-sac. I wouldn't consider a one-man tent unless you're willing to carry several times the weight you really need...

what scaredsilly said -- your "friends" are simply exhibiting their ignorance I'd have to disagree with your opinion of slung hexes. You can't use the wired ones for runners, if you run short, or prusiks, if the shit hits the fan. And when the wires fray, you gotta either send them back to BD for repair, or drill the unit to accept a rope sling after all. Wiring the hexes may have been good for marketing, but it reduced the utility of the tool - bad for climbing. and I still use the original generation Friends I got in 1982 - have re-slung them all multiple times, and have had them outperform some newer, more trendy units. as the man said - if they really don't like your rack, climb on theirs -- I don't see the problem.

another vote for the hexes - I like WC's curve-wall hexes - a very real improvement over the original Chouinard design, plus they weigh less. At minimum, I'll carry a range that will cover from about an inch to about three inches (probably three hexes). I don't care for Metolius' curved-wall units... I carry fewer cams, unless expecting long sustained rock sections. I've found that I can pretty much cover nearly the range of a full rack with only a pair of link cams. this makes them worth carrying, which makes them worth buying... lastly, I NEVER leave for the alpine without a warthog, or a specter (aka bulldog) or both. each can be either ice pro, or rock pro, which, like the link-cams, makes them worth carrying. I have, on occasion, belayed off anchors which included a specter driven into a rock crack, and rappelled off a warthog driven as a rock peg. In each case, one piece performs the functions of two more specialized pieces - saving me weight and bulk. you don't specify what you carry for bivy gear, so I hesitate to comment - it may be worth your while to explore bivy options with this crowd...

main difference between extreme & prime is amount of rocker on the sole. extreme has flatter sole, feels more natural for most when climbing rock. prime rocks more, so prime will walk easier. both climb well. both are well insulated. more rocker can be an advantage on steep ice for those who have difficulty keeping their heels low when frontpointing. I had the misfortune of needing both ankles rebuilt after a long ride in an avalanche three years ago, and switching to the prime has accommodated my reduced range of motion. if this is your first pair of boots, you'll likely be happy with either model.

mammut makes a device similar to the atc-guide & reverso, but weighs less and costs about half ($16) available online. works well with my 8mm twins; I highly recommend them... typically available on ebay -Haireball

as of May 13 road is entirely free of snow except for one rapidly disappearing smear about one quarter mile from road's end. rangers had told us gate would open when road was snow-free to Eightmile trailhead -- so they're late -- gate should open any second now.

one more tag for the 3C -- Kyle Flick, Bill Wicheta, and I left my house about 0100 of May 12, rode mountain bikes from the gate to the Stuart Lake Trailhead, (only 3.49 miles by Bill's cycle-computer) nipped up to Dragontail, climbed 3C, & even Old Farts like me & Wicheta were out by 0200 of May 13. Flick was much faster, but Bill and I are Old, Weak, and Lazy. Road is entirely snow free to beyond Eightmile trailhead, with one almost-gone smear of snow about one-quarter mile below Stuart trailhead. Word from Leavenworth ranger district was that the road would open when it was clear of snow to Eightmile trail. By that standard, the gate should have been open already... any day, now, I guess... no sign of open water at Colchuck Lake -- looks about a month away unless we see some WARM...

check your pm's ---- lets talk- -Haireball

Damnation - Castlerock - conspicuously absent from lists Z-crack - might as well if you're doing Dogleg & Meat Grinder... Forking Crack - Icicle Butt-rest - along with Spaghetti Sauce, The Arch, and Cocaine...

I'd second the recommend on the Marmot Precip. It's marketed as a rain jacket, so is extremely weatherproof, and you can find them CHEAP if you look a little. I'll sometimes take a softshell if I'm looking at some chimney climbing, otherwise, I prefer LIGHT - Marmot driclime is good, I recently picked up a sweet Mammut windshell, and RAB has a very attractive ultralight softshell that looks pretty sweet, too. Bottom line, though, on Denali, or any BIG mountain, carry hardshell jacket AND pants.

good point DPS - late 70's. I keep forgetting what an antique I am...

John- I'm in Leavenworth, and happy to show you around if you don't mind climbing with an old-fart. Haireball

DPS- I'll take your word for it. Not a single igloo, huh? Must be making those tents a helluva lot stouter these days. And I must be getting certifiably OLD... so OK, igloo & pressure-cooker will identify you as an "old fart" - but you'll be comfortable...

I've done the Reid Glacier Headwall, Sandy Glacier Headwall, & Castle Crags routes that late in the summer. Of these, the Reid Headwall is the most exposed to rockfall, which could be an issue. I've also seen a party climb and ski down the Sunshine route in late summer. Conditions on Sunshine would likely be similar to Cooper Spur as both face north. Sunshine would offer more varied climbing than Cooper Spur. In my experience, most routes on Hood grow more technical as summer progresses and they melt back from snow to ice; and rockfall hazard increases. For your extra time between Portland & Seattle, Mt. St. Helens is not on the shortest route, but is well worth the detour if you have a full day. You won't have time to climb it, but the park is worth seeing anyway. In Portland, Powell's is a must for anyone who reads.

Seriously consider packing a pressure cooker -- yes, it's heavy, but on a long trip like Denali, it will save more than its weight in fuel, and will enable the use of items like real rice, raw beans, lentils, etc in your menu. The pressure cooker was the centerpiece of my food planning for my two Denali trips. Listen to the guys who are talking bacon and butter. On a trip this long, you want REAL FOOD. I carried a canned ham on both trips, and was more than glad to have it! Ham & eggs for breakfast on the more relaxed days... At 14000' on the Cassin Ridge in 1981 I found two guys from Colorado frying up canadian bacon in a CAST IRON SKILLET!! They summitted two days behind us, demonstrating that pretty much anything goes... Get some input from the climbing rangers up there -- these guys do a couple of West Buttress patrols each season, so you can bet they've got the act dialed. Roger Robinson usually carried a big batch of homemade fudge from his wife... I note the suggestion that booze is currency. Actually, almost any FRESH food will probably qualify. I found myself very popular at the "Denali City Clinic" when the docs discovered I was making split-pea & ham soup from scratch in that pressure cooker -- and they were willing to trade the steak & crab that was being air-dropped to them - made for great pot-lucks! Speaking of which - DO do the pot-luck scene if you're on the West Butt - that international social scene is 90% of the fun of being there! I'll NEVER forget Peter Habeler's "hot chocolate stand" on the Kahiltna glacier in 1982 -- After getting his clients settled into their camp, Peter took a stove and a bag of hot chocolate mix and set himself up right on the ski-track, serving hot chocolate to every person who passed by "because nobody ever really drinks enough up here" Cook and eat "outside the box" and you'll have an utterly amazing trip! And about tents - the pros build igloos. Again, listen to & watch the climbing rangers. Igloos are warmer than tents, do not disintegrate in storms, and are raven-proof food caches. Tents on those big glaciers are for cheechakos.

I've got family business in Idaho the last week of June, but could hook up for the July part... what's your idea of massive?

Cinnamon Slab, Bookworm, Old Testament were all popular learners routes before the age of cams... bump up to solid 5.8,and routes like Spiderman & White Satin were popular in those days too most of the old crack climbs go perfectly well on passive pro. even more challenging classics, e.g. Moonshine Dihedral, Zebra. Shoes of the Fisherman, Wartley's Revenge saw considerable action before cams were invented. and there were face-climbs, before the bolting craze hit, that required tri-cams even after active camming devices came along -- tricams would fit in holes & pockets where the length of its axle prevented using an active cam. I agree that if you decide you really like trad climbing, that you'll want to invest in a rack of cams, but as you're starting out, I wouldn't be in any great hurry to spend the money. The newer curved-sided hexes introduced by Wild Country work incredibly well - a significant improvement over the classic straight-sided version; and even today most of the trad climbers I know (younger ones included)carry some version of stoppers for cracks thinner than an inch.

most "lowland" crags in the Icicle & Tumwater canyons are climbable now, but there's still a LOT of snow not far above -- so much of SCW could still be "mixed" ground.

food for thought - thanks. I prefer a pack a bit less specialized, but I can certainly appreciate your points. one fitting solution I've found effective is adapted from the Grivel Manu. The Manu's shoulder harness is anchored via a vertical velcro strip, so has an extremely wide adjustment range. when the shoulder straps on my old Cutter (roughly equivalent to your FISH) finally dissolved, I simply installed a velcro strip vertically on the back panel, and now just switch the Grivel shoulder harness to whichever of the packs I want to use. the system has worked well enough that I'm seriously considering modifying a larger pack I own to accommodate it as well...

the axe you have pictured looks great to me - the bend of the shaft doesn't look too radical/aggressive... the slider may be overkill for most conditions, but will be very nice to have if you find yourself swinging the axe while frontpointing for any length of time -- the support for the trigger finger works like power steering for the pick. I expect you could use or remove it according to what you expect to be climbing... Keenan - my first Mjollnir disappeared with a partner who insists he doesn't have it... he dropped a picket on that climb, maybe he dropped the hammer, too. I snapped one up on ebay dirt cheap a while back -- worth watching for...

my feet run about "D" width, and Scarpa tends to fit too wide for me... might be worth a try

not quite isothermal yet, but certainly trending that direction...

almost any small version of a grain-scoop will work. On Denali, and other trips where I've pulled a freight sled, I've even actually carried a full-sized grain scoop... but size/weight prohibit this if you're backpacking it. my experience has been that durability varies inversely with weight - not usually a problem as long as you never pry/lever too aggressively on the handle... I own one of the original Life-link plastic-bladed shovels that is still going strong after 30 years - 12 of those as a professional ski-patroller at class-A avalanche areas... but ANY shovel will break under aggressive prying/levering. If I think I'll have to deal with HARD snow, I carry the old-fashioned military style "entrenching tool". fairly heavy for its small size, but in the hoe configuration, it beats the hell out of trying to excavate a tent-sized platform with the adze of an ice-axe. and you'd never believe how fast you can move avalanche debris with one! (or excavate a snow-cave) As recently as the mid-nineties, Stevens Pass was issuing these to their professional patrollers. Some scoffed, but I never saw one break on the job, like many of the newer more fashionable "avalanche shovels" did... of course, most failures were due to "user error", but hey, users are gonna make errors, and I prefer to have a tool that will survive the occasional error.

I'll inject a more cautionary voice here -- and suggest that for the climbing you're describing, your raven pro is perfectly adequate, and may be paired with an ice hammer for steeper, more technical ice. I wouldn't jump into full-on waterfall tools unless you honestly intend to take up extremely steep/hard ice. You didn't specify the length of your raven pro. Unless you're extremely large, or extremely small, anything between about fifty and seventy centimeters will work for nearly every mountaineering application. For self-arrest, be aware that any tool with a curve or bend in the shaft will make it more difficult to keep the spike clear of the snow -- so if you do invest in a more "aggressive" tool, make damn sure you practice this maneuver, and know what to expect, before you need it. I have to agree with Dane that a 60cm "classic" axe is an excellent general-purpose choice -- short enough to swing for the occasional vertical step, long enough for a cane on any slope steep enough to warrant one. My seventies-vintage 60cm Forrest Verglas (talk about heavy!)paired with a first-generation Chouinard alpine hammer was perfectly comfortable for the Cassin Ridge (1981), and saw its share of WI4-5 closer to home. I wouldn't jump into waterfall ice tools unless you intend to climb waterfalls. But if you really feel compelled to spend some money on a new toy or toys, look very closely at what DMM has to offer. The DMM Rebel has been my tool of choice since 2008. It will, believe it or not handle EVERYTHING - from a boot-axe belay to new-age mixed & dry tooling. Yes, the curved shaft takes getting used to for self-arrest, and might be downright dangerous for that maneuver without disciplined practice. But no tool I've seen even approaches the versatility of the Rebel. Don't take my word for it. Find and demo them. Come to Leavenworth, and you can demo mine. In fact, if you feel compelled to buy, I'd recommend you refrain from buying ANY tool you haven't demoed. but for what you've described, I wouldn't feel compelled to replace what you already have. just pick up a decent alpine hammer -- find an old Forrest Mjollnir and you've struck gold. Its heavy, but you'd never believe how well it works. Gotta wonder why nobody ever made a knockoff after Forrest went outa business...

skied up Stuart Lake trail to Argonaut last week, & found some of the most challenging snow conditions I've dealt with in 50 years of skiing. breakable suncrust to about 4500', then windslab of varying firmness and depth higher up. our ski-track set up hard enough, and the crust was ugly enough, that I took off skis and walked the section from the Colchuck trail intersection down to the bridge on the trip out. there was no track up the Colchuck trail as of April 6. If I were going into the Enchantments very soon, I'd elect snowshoes over skis. climbing? I'd expect to wallow above about 5000'.