montypiton

before ya rush to sell one, try nesting them. I long ago gave up my heavy -20 bag in favor of a pair of lighter bags that give me far more versatility. I have a 5' older Feathered Friends bag, and an older North Face bag that was probably originally rated to about 30'. The heavier bag makes a good 3.5-season solution, and the lighter one makes a good ultralight summer rig, and nested, they work down to about -30. Of course, if your bags are close to equal in volume, this may not work very well, in which case, keep whichever one you feel like you like better, and consider getting an ultralight summer bag that will fit inside the keeper for winter/expedition use. a single subzero bag is kind of a waste unless you spend a majority of your time in arctic temps.

one more objection to the one-hand-leashed-and-one-leashless described in the original post: I place the screw with whichever hand is more convenient/efficient for each position/placement. I'd have a hard time limiting myself to making every placement with the same hand... different strokes, though - use what works best for you also, I'd agree with Dane that the new tools DO make a helluva difference. back in the eighties, grade 6 ice was terrifying even following, and I never led at that level, but now, in my old age, I'm running laps on climbs at that standard - and I know I'm not nearly as strong as I was then...

Dane - interesting point about the trigger-finger support. The possibility of injuring the tendon of that finger hasn't really bothered me, because I don't really use the support for hanging -- rather it works for me as "power steering" - makes my swing a lot more accurate, especially when I'm tired. Not everyone needs as much help as I do...

for what its worth: working with mountain-rescue groups, both volunteer & professional, for forty years, in five states, I have yet to come across a head-trauma case that was caused by an object falling on a climber. On the other hand, I have attended numerous cases of head-trauma resulting from falling climbers hitting their heads. I learned decades ago,in Wyoming, from a Spanish alpinist famous in the Pyrenees as "the Snake", that the safest thing to do when you hear the cry "Rock!!!" is to immediately LOOK UP! Fernando simply pointed out that you can't dodge what you don't see... and he never wore a helmet... So I guess my point is that my experience suggests you're far more likely to sustain head-trauma in a fall than from some falling object striking you... going without a helmet is probably reasonable behavior for those who never fall...

try upholstery suppliers, sail-makers, and shoe-repair suppliers. these trades all use ultra-beefy machines. I used a pfaff upholstery machine for a custom sewing business I had back in the early eighties, and it was dynamite. If you're going to make packs, or will be wanting to do much interior sewing, consider a 'mckay -stitcher', designed to work inside of shoes and boots for shoe/boot manufacture and repair. also, the venerable "speedy-stitcher-sewing-awl", available from campmor.com, works wonders for small jobs. I rig mine with 50lb spectra fishing line these days. helluval lot cheaper than $1500+ for that upholstery machine, and a lot less maintenance...

yup, amga has been teaching this since the mid-eighties. aside from a couple of screamers,this is the only way I've carried qd/runner since about '86. way more versatile than dog-bones -- you can even tie prussiks and autoblocks with them.

I've modified several pairs of tools, including aztars, cutting down wire-rope thimbles to a "J" shape and clamping them to the grips with hose-clamps. its cheap, quick, easy to adjust -- only downside is its metal, so cold (usually not a problem here in WA). I usually install a pinky support and a trigger-finger support on each tool. I have several partners (Tom Heinz, Andy Barber, John Tarver) who've carved trigger/pinky supports out of plastic cutting boards and bolted them to the tools, with excellent results. I've never found plunging to be an issue. If the surface is too soft for picks to hold, the supports don't present enough resistance to interfere. If the surface is too low angle for picks, but hard, that's what the spike at the bottom of the grip is for. I haven't used leashes, or an adze (hell, I almost never used an adze anyway, even when I used to carry one) since the late nineties, however I did (after dropping a tool a few times)revert to using umbilicals on any climb longer than a single pitch. my current favorite tool is the DMM rebel: light, decent swing, great clearance, three grip supports (pinky, trigger, matching), and spike for plunging. Having found a tool I don't need to modify, of course I bought them.

since I tend to do painful stuff like stand up under roofs/overhangs, I ALWAYS wear my brain-bucket, and, yeah, it's pretty beat up...

on Memorial Day weekend, Stuart Glacier Couloir was mostly snow, just starting to show some blue at the bottleneck, and things were melting back quite quickly. by now I would expect at least a pitch of significant water-ice, and/or mixed in the bottleneck.

as a matter of fact, we both took photos - I haven't seen Dobby's yet, but I got a couple of keepers of him -- now if I can just convince one of my kids to help me insert them into a trip report...

Trip: Mt. Stuart - Mixed Blessing (previously undocumented) Date: 5/24/2009 Trip Report: About five years ago, I made a trip in to the North Side of Mt Stuart at Memorial Day with Travis Hammond. The weather turned crappy, and we didn't climb anything, but we did observe three undocumented ice lines on the north face of the West Ridge between the Stuart Glacier Couloir and the NW Buttress Route. I've watched those lines each spring since then, and on a quick recon on May 2 this year, found them coming into perfect shape. Had to work harder than I expected to find a partner, (Shipman was working, Tarver in Alaska, Flick had family commitments, etc. blah-blah)but finally succeeded in recruiting Bill (Dobby) Dobbins for an attempt on the Holiday weekend. Dobby picked me up at my home in 11-worth at 0600 Saturday morning, for a suitably early start on the Stuart Lake trail, then in classic CFCC (if you don't know, you probably don't want to...) form, remembered two miles up the trail that he'd neglected to hang/display his parking permit before leaving the trailhead. So I got an hour nap while Dobby (remember this guy, like me,is in his mid-50s) jogged four miles down to the car and back in his Sportiva Nepals to prevent ticketage. We still managed to stagger to Stuart Lake before noon, although Dobby was actin' pretty whipped by then. Continued on snowshoes beyond the lake to the end of the meadow/swamps at the base of the Stuart Glacier moraines, where we elected to camp and get a good rest rather then try to hump our camping gear up the steep moraine to the glacier in the afternoon sloppy snow. An 0200 start Sunday morning yielded perfect neve for effortless cramponing up the moraine, and we gained the Stuart Glacier just as the morning brightened enough to turn off the headlamps. Of the three lines I'd observed two weeks earlier, two were mostly gone, but the center line still held a decent pillar of ice reaching to snowfields that access the crest of the West Ridge. We ate, drank, roped and racked and started on the pillar. Being the old, frail, lazy guys we are, we'd elected to bring only a single 60-meter half/twin rope, so we doubled it over for the first steep pitches, and limited ourselves to 30 meters between belays. Six pitches of stellar WI3 with the odd mixed move here and there brought us to the snowfields where we unfolded the rope and climbed five more 60-meter pitches to the crest of the NW Buttress where we had to decide whether to continue up the old route, or call it done and descend the NW Buttress with enough time to get all the way out that night. Being old and frail and lazy, and already intimately familiar with the summit, of course we bailed. Unfortunately, the Stuart Deity chose that time to become obstreperous. The lovely snow chute I had identified two weeks earlier, and planned to slide down on my behind, had melted out during those two weeks. We couldn't see far enough to be sure, but the top looked sorta rocky-ugly. We started downclimbing anyway. After several hours, we came to the "edge of the world" just as it was getting dark enough to pull the headlamps back out. Not being able to see past the edge, of course we rappeled. Then we rappeled again... And again... Six rappels later, we finally tagged the Stuart Glacier in pitch darkness - and stumbled on down to our tent, arriving at 1230. Ten hours up, twelve down. I suggest following parties simply rappel the route... As Dobby kept sayin: "Ahm tard!" to which I would respond "me too; does that make me re-tard?" Tard & Re-tard, twin alpine clowns... but we did git-er-done Summary: Mount Stuart, north side of West Ridge: "Mixed Blessing": IV, WI-3, M-0 Gear: one 60-meter half/twin rope; three stoppers from 1/4" to 3/4"; three hexes from 1" to 3"; six cams from 3/4" to 3.5"; one long, one medium, & one short ice screw; one knifeblade, one lost arrow, and two Leeper Z-pegs, eight alpine-style quickdraws, and about 60' of accessory cordage which was almost entirely gone by the end of the descent... and we used pretty much every piece at least once...

Back in 1988,(when the favored practice was to "shit on a shingle" or in a paper bag and chuck it off, my partner and I simply dangled an extra stuff sack from our haul bag on The Nose. We bagged poo in doubled plastic produce bags, obtained free from the Curry Village grocery store, and just added a couple of tablespoons of baking soda to each poo-bag. Had no problems whatsoever. Kitty litter or lime may be more effective than baking soda for stench management, but the baking soda did work...

haven't done the route you're investigating, but I have been up to the BCW a couple of times -- it's a helluva hump, not enough traffic to create a recognizable user-trail like elsewhere in the Icicle. Best advice is to go prepared for anything -- and let us know how you fare...

virtually any crampon will work on ski-boots, but the best thing about ski-boots is that they easily accept clip-on crampons, so ya don't have to deal with the old strap-on variety. unless you're thinking you might want to attempt vertical waterfall climbing in your tele-boots, I wouldn't bother with rigid crampons. Your boots will be rigid enough, for the most part, to provide the support you need for steep ice -- so I'd look for an inexpensive pair of hinged clip-on crampons

"swinging leads" is the practice of alternating lead-climbers on a multi-pitch climb - one climber leads a pitch, then belays the partner who follows and cleans the pitch just led, and continues past the belay to lead the next pitch. although I can't say I've heard the phrase "pushing leads" I usually infer from "pushing" that a climber is testing or challenging him/her-self, as in "pushing the envelope" or "pushing the standard", so I would infer that "pushing a lead" may refer to a climber attempting to lead at, or very near, his/her limit.

I'll see what support I can drum up among the dry-siders. We owe everybody one after all the help we got with the Peshastin Pinnacles...

I use my old climbing ropes for boating; for lashing loads on my truck; for safety lines on roofing jobs and in tree-stands when hunting; for tow ropes for my cars; to suspend swings for my kids; for dog-leashes; to construct exercise apparati; as clotheslines; to direct the descent path of trees when felling; to suspend game animals for field-dressing; ...you get the picture...

This is good news - I've tried over the years to get rid of that thing, but never could get it to move. It was getting SCARY old - hate to think of what that wire might or might NOT have held... good riddance!

pm sent...

Colchuck Lake will have snow, was still frozen two weeks ago. Trail in is negotiable without snowshoes or skis -- boot-packed. N. Face of Dragontail looks fairly dry, but I'd expect occasional snow and or ice along the route. Haven't been on the face this year yet, but have done mixed variations on routes on this face in April of some years, and enjoyed them. Just understand that until July or so, these climbs more resemble "classical" style mixed routes than alpine rock-climbs. You know -- boots & crampons rather than rock shoes...

I've used elephant-foot (half-bag)systems for bivvy's, but found that I actually save weight by using an ultralight down bag, instead. I may not be totally current on models, but I believe Feathered Friends, Western Mountaineering, and Marmot all have ultralight models that weigh in at around a pound. I've not seen a half-bag that weighs that little, and with a half-bag I have to carry a heavier coat for the top half. The ultralight down "pounder" allows me to carry a lighter belay jacket which, worn inside the light bag, keeps me adequately warm to sleep; and the combination weighs significantly less than a half-bag and heavier jacket... A bonus to this system is that I also get to use the "pounder" as a liner in a light three-season bag to produce and expedition-weight combination for alaskan/or extreme-winter trips. I don't have any experience with aluminum crampons. I often throw a pair of yaktrax in a pocket for the odd questionable snowfield, but if I expect to need crampons, I carry steel. I've actually worn out several pairs of steel crampons over forty years of alpine climbing, and I can't imagine aluminum holding up to any amount of abuse on rock...

Echo the recs for the shorter/less-committing routes in the Washington Pass area. Serpentine might be a bit much for an "introduction". There are short routes on Ingalls Peak that make good day-trips, and the ridge routes on Forbidden might also be appropriate. Both summits of Silverstar finish on rock, but the climbing is less than fifth-class, and you may wish for something more technical -- still, it's alpine rock, just easy... There are also shorter/less committing routes on Dragontail and Colchuck that are worthwhile, and good routes on Argonaut and Sherpa as well. The South Face of Argonaut has a number of short easy fifth-class lines in stunning surroundings. If you've "always had bolts for belay" on your trad routes, it may be worth your time to get used to building omni-directional belay anchors from scratch before you need to do this on an alpine ridge or wall...

for years I modified ice tools to "juice" their feel and performance -- I wanted a pinky support and an index-finger-trigger, with a sticky grip, but less concerned with the full-length sticky-grip shaft, a meaningful spike and acceptably comfortable head for plunging in alpine conditions. When I demo'd the DMM rebel, I felt I'd found a tool that required no modification. It has the only factory-grip I've seen that has the pinky support, an adjustable index-finger-trigger, and a third trigger/support for matching. Three seasons and three sets of pick later, I still feel the same. I only wish the picks were easier to obtain. For ice-bums on a budget, the Trango Scorpion comes pretty close, as well. this is not so much to disagree with Dane (he makes a pretty compelling case) as to suggest viable options for those who might not have the financial ability and shop-resources to buy the most expensive tool out there and then modify it...

I've climbed with both, and both work well for alpine and pure waterfall climbing. I'm fairly sure you'd be happy with either tool - however, consider that, at least in the US, Black Diamond replacement picks are vastly easier to come by (just more widely available)than the Charlet products. Given that you can get a great deal on either tool, this issue would tilt me towards the viper... nothing sucks worse than being unable to obtain new picks for an expensive ice-tool that you really love -- I've been there...

I skied in to Stuart Glacier this past weekend, and had no real trouble with the mountaineer creek trail. Got a reasonable view of the n. side of Dragontail, and have to say that TC looks pretty dry... Argonaut, Sherpa, and Stuart all had attractive-looking mixed possibilities, though...