montypiton

on snow without a shovel? after 45+ years of mountaineering on snow, I'd have to say I'd go without the tent before I'd go without the shovel... as for anchoring your tent - listen to the deadman crowd. any object you can tie off and bury will work. I've even used plastic bags filled with snow & buried. count on having to excavate to retrieve your deadmen. most likely your tent would rip apart before any deadman anchor would fail... I neither carry nor recommend stakes for tenting on snow.

I'm in Leavenworth, could do Tuesday between about 0900 & 1400, (schoolbus driver) kinda short notice, I know - I'll check pm's later tonight & tomorrow morning...

got it solved. thanks.

I use "retired" carabiners - they're free...

11-worth has had snow and rain on and off all week. that said, I've climbed on Castle during blizzards, and when raining, and had fun... I wouldn't bet on anything in the Icicle or Tumwater canyons being truly dry this weekend...

I accept responsibility for the thread drift. I meant only to illustrate how my own practices have evolved in response to close calls. But I'll reiterate my suggestion that we can learn a great deal from what appears to have been a combination of a broken quickdraw AND a failed belay. We can learn the most if we have ALL the information. And I'm embarrassed to have neglected best wishes to the injured: heal quickly, and come back as soon as you can!

I have questions about the belay details: i.e. specific belay device? brand,model,diameter of rope? was belayer gloved or barehanded? was he/she burned? what was belayer's experience level (had he or she ever caught a significant fall on belay)? presuming the quick-draw was tied, which knot was used? (I have myself experienced failure of the "water knot" under load, and no longer use, nor recommend, this knot for constructing slings or otherwise joining webbing) About twelve years ago, I ledged out on a 20+-foot fall when my belayer, using an "older" slotted belay device, burnt a bloody groove into his brake hand trying to stop me. I wasn't badly hurt that time, but it was an eye-opener because every detail of the belay system was rigged "by the book". This event provided a vivid reminder that not every belay device works equally effectively with every rope. I have in fact survived TWO belay failures; the second resulted from failing to account for the stretch to be expected in a sling-shot top-rope rig using two 60m half-ropes tied together to yield 400ft single strand skinny rope in service -- broke both ankles... top-roping... Back in 1972, I survived a HARNESS FAILURE midway down a 150ft free-hanging rappel. What saved me was setting up routing the brake rope from the rappel-brake between my legs to my brake hand -- when I became disconnected from the rappel-brake, my brake-hand came instinctively to my belly (the old hip-belay movement), and I found myself sitting in a bight of rope. With my free hand, I flipped the brake rope over my head, creating a "dulfersitz" rig to complete the rappel. Forty years later, I still teach newbies to route the brake rope between their legs, demonstrating why, and having them practice this survival maneuver. After hearing a regular partner describe catching a fall where his partner's rope "auto-unclipped" from two "back-clipped" quickdraws, I started rigging most of my quickdraws with lightweight locking carabiners for the rope end of the draw. Whether we admit it or not, systems fail - sometimes even when constructed and used apparently correctly. The protocols that help to keep us safe have evolved, and continue to evolve, in response to exactly this sort of event. Accidents and close-calls are among our community's most valuable teachers. Let's hope this belayer can step forward without fear of judgment or condemnation and let us learn from his/her experience.

oops-correction -- checking back to Washington Ice, this line appears to already have a name: "Feeding the Rat". Returned on the 18th with Jens Holsten for a romp up "Fucking the Gerbil", three pitches if you solo the first short step - WI3. Both lines seemed a bit over rated at WI3 and WI3-4, but everbody knows how ice-lines never form quite the same from season to season.

oops-correction -- checking back to Washington Ice, this line appears to already have a name: "Feeding the Rat". Returned on the 18th with Jens Holsten for a romp up "Fucking the Gerbil", three pitches if you solo the first short step - WI3. Both lines seemed a bit over rated at WI3 and WI3-4, but everbody knows how ice-lines never form quite the same from season to season.

Trip: Rat Creek drainage - Icicle Canyon - Date: 3/15/2012 Trip Report: "Old men on arisept" (not sure of spelling - a drug for treating Alzheimer's) - Kyle Flick, Mark Shipman, Curt Haire, Sunday, March 11. Two pitches, WI2+. Approach is 1.25 miles up Rat Creek on map, utterly miserable breakable crust & deadfall. Climb is first flow on left from approach. Snowshoes beat skis by over an hour on descent... skis might be preferable with sufficient snow to cover rocks & deadfall. Apologize for lack of pics - we all forgot cameras. Dave Allyn may have taken pictures from below - he came, but feeling sick, chose not to climb. Kyle says he's going back for more, so maybe pics will be forthcoming next week...

Looking for 3 partners to share cost of driving round trip Leavenworth - Red Rocks between Friday March 30 and Saturday April 7. Transport would be my Toyota Tacoma club-cab pickup. Estimate cost of round trip transport for four people is @$200.00/person. Estimate two days drive time each way. Most effective response is email: curthaire@nwi.net

Looking for three partners to share cost of driving round-trip Leavenworth - Red Rocks between Friday March 30 and Saturday March 7. Transport is my Toyota Tacoma club cab pickup, cost of round trip transport is estimated @$200.00/person. Estimate two days drive time each way. Most effective response is email: curthaire@nwi.net

I favor different biners for different kinds of climbing. For quick-draws on sport/crag routes, I love the ultralight biners like the nano and Metolius for the BOLT end of the quickdraw, with a more generously gated biner on the ROPE end. I agree that the Metolius is virtually unusable with gloves, but I haven't had that problem with the nano, so I do carry nanos on alpine and ice climbs. But the Metolius minis work great for clipping my umbilicals to my ice tools. They are unobtrusive, and the tiny gate keeps them secure. I LOVE almost anything DMM or Wild Country makes, so my alpine/ice rack runs to those. I like them so well I rep those companies for my local SAR unit. I detest bent-gates; and anything that doesn't lock has a wiregate. I do rig half or more of my quickdraws with lightweight lockers on the rope end. All of the other posters' recommendations are good, and I agree that Mammut may be the best value if price is a major factor. I own a bunch, and like them, just prefer the ultralights for sport and DMMs for ergonomics.

$50k is the cost of running the helicopter for that many hours - it costs the same to keep the bird in the air whether its carrying volunteers or paid rescuers... yes - it IS that hard to access air resources in Washington, unless you are climbing in a National Park, where the NPS has easy access to air support. when I rode a lightning-triggered rock/ice avalanche down the Northeast Couloir on Colchuck Peak three years ago, I waited 13 hours while the sherriff made phone calls. I was not expected to live. others have had to wait more than 24 hours,and not lived. if you expect timely air support, restrict your climbing to national parks or Snohomish county.

Besides the White Slabs - White Fright line that came in so well that year, I was aware of two parties that also climbed the North Chimney - that appeared to have some mixed passages, but enough ice to invite attention. I doubt North Chimney gets enough traffic that anyone would notice if it got dry-tooled now and then. Those two teams that climbed it mixed that winter were the only two ascents I've heard talked about... not to say there haven't been climbs made, but folks don't talk it up.

the doc was Tom Ettinger, of Cashmere - "retired" guide who taught mountain medicine for the AMGA in the '80's & 90's. I've heard great things about Tony, never worked with him. Snohomish county's short-haul program was modeled after Chelan County's. That $50k annually pays for the helicopter time to train monthly - three-to-four flying hours/month in the neighborhood of $1000.00/hour, plus the higher insurance cost. number of missions varied from year to year, but the maximum was no more than a half-dozen in one year lotta aerial searches, and yes, Pete is flying again and is authorized to perform rescues where he can land. CCMRA has helispots on Stuart, Aasgard Pass, & Colchuck Lake. The real advantage of short-haul is that the entire mission can typically be accomplished with a pilot, spotter, and the "dope-on-a-rope" three people for a few hours, as opposed to the two-dozen or so for days that are typically necessary to transport an immobile individual from technical terrain to the nearest helispot.

My partner and I spent 10 nights in a single-wall dome even smaller than the firstlight on the Cassin Ridge in 1981. I am 6'0", and the tent floor was 6'x4'. I don't recall being particularly uncomfortable during that period, but then, it doesn't RAIN on Denali in April/May. I now own a Firstlight, andregularly use it as BIVOUAC shelter. I don't use it as a "basecamp" tent.

short notice for this weekend, but we should be able to recruit somebody in the Wenatchee - Leavenworth -Ellensburg - Ephrata community -- I'll circulate your request on our email bulletin board, Matt.

Having been on both ends of helicopter short-hauls,I have repeatedly witnessed the value of this resource. The Chelan County Sheriff's department, assisted by the Chelan County Mountain Rescue Association, established the first VOLUNTEER short-haul program in the U.S. in the early nineties. It saved lives, but was too expensive for the county to maintain (not enough taxpayers in the sparsely populated county), and was discontinued by a newly elected sheriff in 2001. The new sheriff elected in 2010 has stated his willingness to reestablish the program (the county owns the helicopter - leased it to other agencies after program was discontinued)if the CCMRA can fund it. When the program was operating, we flew training operations once a month, year-round. The cost of training operations, missions, insurance, etc. is estimated around $50,000.00 per year. The CCMRA is currently engaged in a fundraising campaign to meet this challenge. The Chelan County Mountain Rescue Associaton is an independant 501c3 non-profit corporation which assists the Chelan County Sheriff's Department with technical mountain rescue by recruiting, training, and equipping skilled volunteer alpinists. CCMRA's operations are funded entirely by generous donors. Our volunteers pay no dues, donating their time, skills, and their use of their personal equipment. Your cash donation is tax deductible. When Chelan County flew its own short-haul missions, these missions usually took about three hours from the phone call, to the ambulance. Ground missions since the short-haul program was discontinued take that many days. Military helicopters may be used if the county can demonstrate that no civilian resource is available. Just inventorying civilian resources by telephone often takes a full day before a military helicopter can be authorized. The fastest military response I've seen was about six hours last July for the woman who slid into a moat on Asgaard Pass. Stuart... Dragontail... Colchuck... Prusik Peak... Snow Creek Wall... think about it... Donations may be sent to Curt Haire, Boardmember, Chelan County Mountain Rescue Association, 1380 Commercial Street, Leavenworth, Washington, 98826. Make checks payable to Chelan County Mountain Rescue Association. When we finish overhauling our website, you'll be able to donate via Paypal. Let's get Rescue Pete Peterson (best damn pilot!!!) back in the air.

A sweet route, and undertraveled. Is the exit pitch any better when it's frozen?

Now that's my kind of crazy! Welcome to the CFCC (if I told you, you'd have to kill me...)

Shipman, Wicheta, Flick,and I climbed a fun WI3 flow tucked up against the upstream edge of Eightmile Buttress on Saturday. Thin in spots, but pools and blobs that accepted screws. Funnel was fat on Sunday,& right hand line was as described above. Amazingly, we had the whole place to ourselves!!

best ice on that face is generally April - June. The most ice I've ever seen between the Hidden & second couloirs was the first weekend in June of about '99. The whole junction was one fat blue bulge and my partner and I cursed ourselves blue for hiking in geared for a rock route...

snow and ice in Hells Canyon at the end of May would be possible, but very unlikely -- it got its name from being a hot place Quarryographer steers you right

interesting - but it's not gonna convince me to run out and buy a gri-gri or cinch... a climber could accomplish most of the described functions with an alpine clutch ("garda knot"), and I'd probably rappel with a carabiner brake rather than have one partner rappel on single strand, and the second re-rig before rappelling. one point I did like - when short-roping (simulclimbing) I have for years kept the rope threaded through my belay device. This simplifies giving a quick temporary belay to my partner at virtually any point (assuming we've kept protection between us), and also simplifies rope management by permitting my partner and me to vary the length of rope in service between us without having to untie/retie coils. a well done article - but I still prefer the simplest tool with the greatest versatility -- I've tried a number of the new "guide-style" self-locking belay devices, and currently climb with a Mammut Vader, which sells for about half the price of the BD & Petzl versions.