jared_j

I have a hall pass for the morning tomorrow, and am hoping to do some mellow ski touring somewhere around Snoqualmie. I'm coming back from a lengthy spell not skiing and as such categorize myself as having novice downhill backcountry ability. I'm in decent physical shape, appropriately equipped, and safe. Or at least that's what my Mom tells me. I'm down to wake up early and would like to be back in town around noon-1pm. Was thinking something like going up to Kendall Lakes, Catherine tour. Not really looking for extensive tree skiing or steeps.

Supply and demand, it's a bitch.

I think this stuff is pretty niche in application. It seems ideal for two situations: 1. Relatively low - output activity punctuated by frequent stops. I'm thinking situations where you don't wanna constantly be putting your puffy on and taking it off, but could get sorta cold sitting around. Like taking your special man or lady friend on a winter hike to Snow Lake when it's sunny out. 2. Moving in balls-ass cold conditions (that one typically does not find in the PNW) where a next-to-skin grid fleece type thing plus a breathable shell of some sort is not sufficient to keep you warm enough. It seems to offer a middleground between the "action suit" where the only way to stay warm is through relatively high-output exertion, and the "belay jacket over action suit" that's only comfortable for when you're not moving. Bonus conjecture: I bet this stuff is really nice for climbers and athletes who are gettin' on up in years and find that they generate less heat and/or have trouble staying warm enough in the traditional "action suit" that was adequate when they were younger and more flat-stomached.

Im taking my daughter to the grandparents' house in Wetsnatchee tomorrow and was thinking of cragging in the Icicle (conditions permitting) afterward. Seattle seemed to not get a big dump of precip as forecast and the radar looked like it wasn't much over there. Can any locals give a conditions update?

im pretty sure I left some Tifosi sunglasses with blue lenses at the parking pullout just beyond the second washout at Exfoliation Dome. I'd be grateful to get them back.

I know it's a mega low-snow year and all but have to ask... Anyone have perspective on whether this is "in"? Maybe looking like Sept / Oct conditions now??

Wow, you moved steeply up the learning curve. This is your post for a Tooth partner from this past February, right? "I am an advanced skiier, have had many ice, rock classes at the mountaineers and AAI I can lead 5.8-5.9 on trad, can follow 5.9-5.10 can follow WI-1-WI3, and have a bit of mixed expierience, unfortunately i dont have much of a rock or ice rack but..."

Experienced aid climbers in Seattle, what is your recommended progression of local crag routes for practicing / honing aid technique? I have no experience aiding. My goals are pretty basic - just practicing / refining systems, not pushing the difficulty / rating of placements.

Ran into a team of two successfully coming off of Liberty Ridge Sunday 6/21 heading to the summit as we were coming down (having done the Emmons ourselves). So someone did it as recently as two days ago.

Were y'all the ones with the wands with the red tape? I think we bumped into you on your way down as we were coming up. Nice work finding that little bridge over the bergschrund, I was surprised at how faint / faded previous footprints were up there.

+1 on the REI Arete ASL 2 tent for volcano use. It's pretty lightweight for being a 3-pole tent. It's more than you need most everything besides volcano high camps, but I don't think you'll ever need a more robust tent in the Cascades. It isn't cheap, tho. Also +1 on the tarp camping. I've been happy with a flat tarp in summer conditions, and have been wanting something like the Black Diamond Beta Light for ease of use (pitching a flat tarp is a little more work / thought, sometimes more than I want to expend when I'm tired at the end of the day). The only downside is bugs / mosquitos during those intervals when they are particularly prevalent.

Great name; congrats!

I know OP is about training in a hypoxic environment; I don't know anything about that but it's counterintuitive to me (hobbyist here, no medical training). I've known three bike racers who lived at low elevations and got hypoxic tents to sleep in for some timespan (usually early in their periodization). Two of them said they couldn't tell a difference - and one was a sales rep for the company selling them. A third actually was nutty enough to prick his finger and measure his hematocrit every day - the idea being that if you see a rise in hematocrit that it's evidence the tent is working (he had a little blood spinner). This guy said that the measurement was so noisy day-over-day that he saw no firm evidence of adaptation. I don't know how long he did the tent, but recall from conversation that he committed to at least a multi-week spell. I knew a couple of researchers working on this back in the day, and their opinion was that the tents for low-elevation folk didn't work because it simply wasn't enough duration (sleeping hours only) to stimulate adaptation.

I practiced some escape scenarios when I started TR soloing, and found that trying to get off the ascenders and onto rappel mid-pitch when on a single strand was more tedious than just jugging up to the anchor and then going on rappel, and comparable time-wise. FWIW, I tried Chris' suggestion early on (weight a prusik above the ascenders, mount the rap device below the prusik, then somehow transfer the weight back onto the rap device), and it seemed OK in my garage but not workable (for me) in the field if was actually hanging on the rope. I have no big wall experience and therefore my self-rescue bag of tricks isn't very diversified - the only sensible thing I could figure out was using a releasable hitch (PMMO out of some cord) so that I could lower back down onto the rap device once ready.

A pre-rigged prusik on the rope is pretty handy if and when a proper crevasse rescue situation arises, and would only get in your way if preposterously rigged (like with a really long piece of cord). Perhaps you're referring to people having a Texas-kick style system of foot loops pre-rigged (a la the illustrations in Freedom of the Hills)? To OP, I'm assuming you're referring to pre-rigging some sort of chest harness but not running the rope through it while walking on the glacier; it's there to clip yourself in the event of a crevasse fall to help keep yourself upright. The "old-school" chest harnesses that the rope goes through all the time I've never actually seen done in practice (though I've only climbed locally and a tiny bit in Alaska). The chest harness setup (as I described above) is most often used in situations where a heavy (read: overnight) pack is being worn on terrain where crevasse fall risk is hard to mitigate (e.g. crossing snow bridges, or times / locations where there's concern that there are hidden crevasses under the snow that climbers could fall into). In the Cascades, I think of Rainier and Baker as being examples of this terrain. This sort of travel is common in the "greater ranges" (Alaska, etc). Many climbers moving over glaciated terrain during the summer climbing season may choose a to forego the chest harness setup if they're on glaciers that aren't heavily crevassed or if it's late enough in the season that the crevasses are visible and there isn't much concern about lurking hidden crevasses that one could pop through.

Thanks for having the courage to put your story out there - I hope you guys didn't sustain any frostbite / cold-injury that has longer-term consequences. I, too, have that ResQLink model and appreciate learning that there was some trouble with getting a precise location on y'all. This link is from the ACR website explaining how the device is supposed to work. I'm curious if the 'bouncing' of the signals relates to step #3 (repeated satellite passes updating / processing new info)? Or step #6? Or it was sending GPS-based lat/long directly via the satellite signal, and it was this data itself that was inaccurate or bouncy? I know you don't know the answers to these questions right now, but I have thought of the ResQLink PLBs as being as close to a 'failsafe' device with respect to functionality as you can get (in contrast to other competing products on the market like SPOT or DeLorme). It'd be great if more detail from the SAR staff could be provided about what exactly the issue was (if they know). I'm curious if there was similar difficulty in precise SAR location of the recent party on Stuart that initiated a rescue from their PLB?

Can I get to the Breakfast of Champions anchors (to TR it) from the top of GNS without shenanigans?

This weekend I fell victim to one of the classic blunders - the most famous of which is "never get involved in a land war in Asia" - but only slightly less well-known is this: "don't just choose your own adventure down into the White Salmon basin on your way to Shuksan's north side in a low-snow year". I'm pretty sure the axe got ripped off my pack in some slide alder either in the valley proper, or on our way out (ascending to the 'high' approach normally used for winter access). Reward: a few 6's of your preferred craft beer or whatever.

http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/old-glory-insurance/n10766

Big takeaway: synthetic vs wool sounds like personal preference. This person's view: Not all synthetics are created equal (nor are all wools). In my experience, the breathability of Patagonia Capilene 2 is worlds different than any of the other synthetics of similar weight available. I notice this most during high exertion (e.g. running or going uphill hard). I've only tried Patagonia's and Ibex's wool offerings (and that was 3-4 years ago), and neither held a candle to the Capilene 2 in terms of breathability (sample size N=1). Breathability of a baselayer isn't the end-all be-all, of course. I care about it much more when wearing it trail running in the Issaquah Alps than I do trudging steadily up the volcanoes at a moderate / low intensity.

Mt Hunter from an odd angle (from the south)?

Class. Best wishes for your recovery, Josh.

What about Mount Temple / Temple Ridge as described in Nelson & Potterfeld's Selected Volume I book? I like W Ridge of Prusik, but wouldn't take total noobies up there. Temple has the climbing feel but is easy to get on and off of. Also noobs (in my experience) struggle with friction-y climbing, of which there is some on Prusik. Finally, relative to Prusik, you're unlikely to have other parties in good weather.

I've had a few of the Cilo offerings, and like their 30L the best. I think the 45L is really tall and probably overkill for a lot of the stuff around here. Your post has me intrigued about the 30:30 or a 40B. If I have to schlep more than 40L-ish of stuff and I'm not doing a carry-over, my preference is to pack it in with something bigger and comfier (like a cushy Granite Gear backpacking pack), and bring along a small pack to do the actual climbing with. Yes, this is probably 1-1.5 lbs heavier on the approach, but is worth it to me when on-route. Caveat: I'm super skinny and have prominent clavicles, and have always struggled with comfort carrying larger loads in the bigger ultralight-style packs.

Anyone been up in this recently? I'm thinking about it as an alternative to the regular N face route. Sounds cool, curious if nature has tried to re-take it with lichen.