denalidave

I have a Kelty that has been good and has survived 2 kids, not sure the exact model name though. It has a plastic frame that folds out so it is free standing. I was thinking of selling it now that my youngest is 2.5 and able to hike on her own most of the time. Seems Kelty has a lot of nice kids packs. Hope that helps.

I used to climb w/him a lot when I lived in Vegas and he taught me much of what I learned about trad climbing... too bad I have forgotten most of it since I had such a long hiadus. I sure wish I could get down to RR again but its pretty hard with the little wee ones now.

I'm envious, but you guys did'nt get the fun of a hanging with a sick 2 and 4 year old.

I'm down, er, up for it. Ken?

I'm pretty sure he is still climbing there. He is an old schooler. Have not seen him in almost 10 years but he used to be a craps dealer at Caesars. He may have retired by now though. Last time I saw him he said he was hoping to lead 5.13 by the time he turned 65, I think he was 63 at the time. Mike Ward knows him well , great climbing partner if you need one when there... One of the trad die hards that finally jumped on the bandwagon and started going to the climbing gym. After that, he got really good. Must be about 70ish now but I'm guessing he is still pulling hard.

In N America: Bugaboos/Canadian Rockies, Wind River Range, Red Rocks, J Tree and Alaska Range World Wide: Dolomites, French/Italian/Austrian Alps & ???

But, that does allow me to stop in LV on the way or way back and get in some climbing with Karsten and a few of the old locals. JH - Do you happen to know Wendell in Vegas? IE - the Dean of Red Rocks.

Ken/Ivan - I was thinking of heading to smith around the 21st-23rd if you want to climb down there? However, so far the weather call for rain but you know how that goes... Wait & see. Beacon is always good though too.

Probably one of the bazillion rope catching chicken heads there?

Very nice Joseph!

Now I don't have to feel left out.

Bacardi 151?

I did that on a trip to SLC in Oct and they let me on w/draws, harness and belay device.

Not my all time favorite but I saw one that made me laugh last week. "Look honey, another pro-life war supporter".

Sweet!

I can sometimes get out mid week but it is hit & miss. Let me know if you are heading to Beacon and I may be able to swing it. I live about 5 minutes from there and want to get out whenever possible.

Did you get proper authorization from Jim's office?

How do you know about Rancho Relaxo? Did Jim give you a tour? NO but Jim gave Ken a tour, who then gave me the tour. He did have his lawyer call Jim's lawyer to clear all the red tape on it though so it was all good.

IIII AMMMM IRONMAANNN!

Yeah, he was a cool cat but a trouble maker too...

I'm not much of a cat guy but we just lost one that thought he was a dog. When my wife brought him home he was all skankie and covered in mites. His eyes were still closed when we got him and he modeled after our black lab when they opened. He'd follow that dog everywhere, even on walks with us. If you threw the frisbee he try to swat it out of the air too. Then he go munched by the coyotes at about 3 am and it did not sound good for Scrappi, although it was over quickly... He was a fisty little bastard though!

Just did the whole corner then Ken wanted to rap down the west side from the top to catch the sunset at "Rancho Relaxo". Had the whole rock to ourselves but the trail was packed with tourons of course.

It was perfect!

We sure got alot more than $30 worth of use out of ours and they do hold up well as long as you are keeping them on the snow. If you put a load that is at all high profile they tend to flip over easily though... which is an obvious pain in the ass to keep fixing. I think we even had em rigged up with a shovel or something on the back to act as a brake so they would not slide back on the hills. Can't really remember the jerry rig we made though.

Did you check out the one REI sells... http://www.rei.com/product/609482?vcat=REI_SEARCH . We used them doing the north side of Denali and they were great until the 30+ mile tundra slog on the way out, at which time they got holes underneath from all the rocks we had to pull them over. I'd probably still be using it now if the snow had not melted by the time we descended. They were a lot bigger than the little kid sleds too. The ones Pink mentioned are nice but i'm guessing the REI ones cost much less.