Reid

Im traveling around Chile and Argentina for the next few weeks. Just finished Aconcagua with a buddy and we have our sporto rock gear with us. Can someone please recommend some sport climbing near Mendoza, Santiago, or even further away is alright since the buses are dirt cheap? Looking for something that won´t require a logistics nightmare since we just did our expedition. Also we figured we´d buy a rope down here, but were suprised to find them at best at about US $300. Any suggestions there? This is in Mendoza. Possibly Santiago would be better? Anyone else traveling or climbing around the same region right now?

Thanks Rafe, I think I'll do that. Aussie, yeah I hear you, but it's hard to put your blind faith in the anchors when you can see obvious problems with them. It could be improved is all.

I climbed silhouettes this weekend at Vantage and found (at least from my perspective) the anchor bolts to be untrustworthy for either top roping or rappelling. I ended up lowering some rope down to tag up part of a rack so I could top out on the mesa and bring up a second and retrieve gear. Both bolts for this anchor are on the pillar top. Both are in flakes that are hollow feeling and sounding. It seems the flakes could easily be removed by hand. The bolts seem to go deeper than the surface flake, but it is simply a guess (on my part) as to how far and how solid those bolts are. Someone has placed a knotted cord wedged in a crack as a backup, but it also suffers from loose rock in the area. My concern here is that a group equipped only with QD's would be forced to use these anchors. The route is three stars and recommeded by the guidebook as possibly the best on the Kotick Memorial Wall. I've used some questionable bolts and gear here and there before, but have found reasons why what I was doing made sense. Here you would be trusting two bolts as a top rope or rap anchor, both questionable and it is at least 10 feet down to the last bolt on the pitch. I don't have any bolting experience, but I think the rock just a foot or two higher is much higher quality. Could someone with recent memory of the route or local bolting experience chime in?

you have any other AT bindings to trade?

We were descending this section pretty late in the day (8pm) on Sunday. Yeah we did witness a section collapse. This isn't the snow finger in a narrow gully. This was the snow patch that one runs into below the finger. Like I said the collapse was impressive. The fracture ran through parts of the snow shelf that was at 6'-8' thick towards the middle of the snow patch. The snow fell 10'-15'. I would imagine a broken leg/ankle would be very easy to come by had someone been on it. Granted this was triggered by party induced rockfall, but a climber making the jump from the rocky gully to the snow patch could have triggered it all the same. We weren't too fond of the look of the upper snow finger after descending it, but I suppose it was safe enough. Following that we witnessed the collapse described above. That's when I decided that it wasn't too much work to skirt the remaining snow patch and travel on the talus/scree. I agree that the glacier has it's hazards. It was our ascent route and we had a couple rocks come our way. Just wanted people to know that the snow patches are melting out from the underside in places and may not be as friendly as they look. Judge the conditions, make your own descions, etc.

Beautiful photos That snow finger was nice on the descent, but for others reference the snow finger and snow patches below and adjacent to the inter glacier are severly undercut and thin. We watched a 100' x 50' section collapse (impressive) when struck by a couple rocks kicked loose from above. A group of about 4 was standing there just moments prior. That was the most dangerous thing I saw during our climb, car to summit. They're conveinient, but if I did this again tomorrow I'd stay on the far right of the glacier.

I think p2 of Rattletale at Index is similar to p1 of the gendarme but much more strenuous. 10b as opposed to a slightly soft .9. I agree that the GM route is probably a good indicator.

What would you say the slab (the one with few holds and even less pro) goes at?

Cragging or moderate alpine. Open to suggestions. I'm in Seattle and have car, rack, and rope. I lead up to mid tens. And it's my birthday that day, so you have to go if you can! This also means that I will need to be back in Seattle in time for which isn't all that early anyway.

Not connectivity necessarily, but a relevant concern (and I'm sure this is not the discussion you are hoping to aviod) is battery life and durability. The iphones really need charged everyday it seems (note that I don't own one but many of my co-workers do). If you keep it off and just turn it on to make the occasional call, probably no issue. Also durability. I do have an ipod touch (iphone without the phone function) and I'll take it with me sometimes for approach hike motovation. In one instance I ended up doing the last 1000' to Muir in some sideways rain and got pretty soaked from sweat and rain (ipod was inside my rain shell). The ipod was real flaky that evening. The screen was unreadably dim and it shut off repeatedly despite having battery remaining. It works fine now, but I was pretty sure I ruined it that night. Never had any similar problem with phones or mp3 players depsite similar rough use. I get free phone and service from work, and I've got mixed feelings about the day when they buy me an iphone. it'll probably be great until I repeatedly run out of battery and then within a year i'll probably have a broken iphone. Then again I'm not very careful with that kinda stuff to start with.

I've been wanting to make a hammock from a couple retired ropes of mine, but any plans I find online assume a much smaller diameter rope. I'm about to just make something up anyway. Anyone have any resources on this?

Squamish was empty Monday, but I ran into quite a few Americans Saturday and Sunday. Did everyone go home for the BBQ's? The drive out and back wasn't bad, just an hour wait at the border on the way back.

Great resource, thanks!

Where are the hot rope deals to be found? Online or Seattle area. I'm looking for a cragging rope so 60m x 10.x mm preferrably dry. So far the best I've found is REI.com at $139. I'm having a hard time believing that REI has the best price around right now.

I'm dying to get out. Would really like to work some skiing in the trip. I'll send a PM.

Be aware that a two-man team will make things more strenuous. I did the same and it worked fine, but right after arriving at camp immediately you were shoveling or cooking or whatever. Break time came when bedtime did. Make sure you like your partner. You need two stoves. We had two whisperlites and they both worked, although the new one was far more efficient and the other was backup. I wouldn't hesitate to do the same, but have the full repair kit and go through the whole routine before. A stove platform is critical. Without it our fuel useage was at least double. The aluminum disk isn't enough and so we had to improvise and use sleeping pads and such. I think a plywood base would be well worth the weight. An XKG wouldn't be wasted weight either. Our tent never saw and extreme use, but I think we got lucky with weather. Have the know how (practice, even if at 1st camp) and tools (snow bags, sufficient pickets, axes) to guy out your tent even while you are out climbing. Nothing would be more devastating than coming back from a summit push to find the tent blown away or in shambles. My food kinda sucked. It was nutritious, easy to cook, and I had plenty, but I couldn't stomach most of it at altitude. I found kinda salty carbs most appetizing (cheese-its, wheat thins, top ramen, instant potatoes loaded baked of course). Cheese slices and butter and some spices made dinner a lot easier to eat. The instant oatmeal usually made a decent breakfast (with butter). Powdered milk was good to add to most any meal, but we had to outlaw it about day 7 cause our farts smelled strongly reminiscent of it. My face mask balaclava and goggles iced up badly on the summit, but i'm not sure how I'd fix this. I don't know, experiment, have both available, you will probably want them at some point. I hated the sleds and found things much easier with minimal weight in the sled, but it was necessary. For me uphill a lot of muscle groups got fatigued more by the sled. Downhill the sled generally pissed me off and the lighter it was the more I could force it to work. Well stocked MP3 player, couple books, good partner, enthusiasm and determination, your brain, and you'll be fine. Have fun!

I did Denali last June and I put in about 3 months of training prior to the trip. I mean I was in decent shape prior to those 3 months, but that's when I got serious about it. I didn't have any kind of strict regimen, but I'd say I was running 1 hr 2 times a week, 1-2 hr bike rides once a week, and hiking with rocks and water in the pack once a week, plus cragging or mellow alpine climbs on the weekend. I think the important thing is to get your heart rate up there to increase your anaerobic threshold. Your runs should have lots of hills and you should be panting and drooling at the top of them. I think the best part about the heavy pack training is conditioning the back and shoulders muscles and building leg strength. So make sure that by the end you are approaching your expected pack weight on the hikes. To really answer your question I think my pack was about 60lbs and to the part of Si where you first break out of the trees on top was about 1:30 - 1:40 (I didn't keep real good track). Mailbox peak with the same pack was 2 hrs to summit. Have you read the physical training chapter in Extreme Alpinism? I used that as a knowledge base and then kinda did my own thing based on the ideas. I think it worked pretty well. We moved somewhat faster than average when on the move on the glacier I'd say. Overall basecamp to summit we were much faster than average but I'm not bragging about it. We should have slowed down and acclimatized more and we paid for it with some altitude sickness and a HACE scare up high. So my advice for acclimatization is to take the extra day if you feel you need it. We got antsy, bored, and sick of being cooped up in the tent. When is your trip? I just tentatively agreed to a Dec 09 Aconcagua trip.

I'll be spending a few weeks in Kelowna for work over the next couple months. I've decided that bringing the skis is a good idea with big white nearby. Should I consider packing ice climbing gear too? Any route recommendations/conditions? The unfortunate truth is I'll probably work everyday all day, so any good rock gyms? Hikes? Running in the city? ...Bars? Yeah any info would be appreciated. Thanks

I've got a pair of Scarpa avants (already spoken for) that have served me well, but would like to upgrade to something properly sized and possibly stiffer. The avant shells say 10/11 for a size (can't find a mondo size on them) and feel a little big for me. I'm guessing what i'm looking for will be mondo 28 or 28.5. Overall not real picky about brand and model, proper fit would be a huge improvement right now. I'd also be interested in upgrading my Silvertta 500's if I find a deal. I also have a pair of 27/27.5 Salomon X-Wave alpine boots that I'd work into a trade if you are interested. Let me know if you've got something you wouldn't mind parting with.

Hiking into Mystic from Ipsut would be alright. you get to cross the Carbon River bridge and see the ice cliff at the end of the glacier. I'd be surprised if you see more than one group outside of the wonderlanders.

The night photography on your page is pretty awesome

For what it's worth Crillz is a great climbing partner. Any of you thinking about sending a PM should do it.

Glad you went through with it. My entire August is pretty much already claimed by work, but let's go to Squamish for a week or so in September.

Let's say you want to climb Rainier around the last week of August because your friend, who is moderately experienced but lacks volcano/big glacier experience, is visiting from out of town and wants to climb it while he still has the chance. Which route would you choose? I'm not completly against the DC, but I've done the route and would prefer something else. Kautz ice chutes is top of the list right now.

If I remember right, there are decent bivy sites on the ridge climbers left of camp hazard about 300' lower. Much safer.