jared_j

Contemplating a trip up to the Twin Sisters area and possibly some of the routes around the Green Creek Cirque. The typical TRs are from earlier season with a lot of snow cover. Curious if anyone has been up recently or has a pic or two showing the snow coverage of those basins. Thanks!

Cool job for the right person. Found this when I should have been looking for more appropriate job openings for myself...

Not sure why this would be? As long as it is installed in the right direction on the rope, it will still bite when the rope is weighted by the second, regardless of where the end of the sling holding the tibloc is relative to the piece of pro? Don't have it in front of me so maybe I'm the one who is wrong...

What about a soft shell with a less athletic fit and a thinner primaloft layer underneath? Not super warm but easy and maybe not the most fun ton move in, but also not insanely heavy. A thick puff with a burly shell is gonna be heavy. Edited to add that I haven't done rock routes in super cold conditions so take this idea with a grain of salt.

Edit: What did you use on your recent successful AK trip (congrats and great TR, BTW)? Were you unsatisfied with it in some way? I like the "Cold Thistle" strategy advocated by Dane on this board and his website for use just around the PNW. I use two synthetic layers. One is fairly thin and very lightweight, ideal as a standalone insulation piece in mild weather (for me, this means no colder than 30s), and weighing in under a pound. I have gone with the Rab Xenon X, 14oz, insulation weight 60 g/m. The other is thicker, and works pretty well for me doing winter stuff around WA when it isn't exceptionally cold. For this, I've used a Patagonia Micro Puff Hoody in the past but recently got an Eddie Bauer Igniter (claimed weight is like 16-17 oz, but I think it weighs a little more) when the old one lost its loft. The insulation weight is 100g/m. If it is really balls ass cold, you can double them up, and potentially use the lighter weight one as a layer while moving. The Igniter is cut generously enough that it doesn't feel like it mashes down the loft of the inner layer. I'm not a textiles scientist, but my caveman brain wants to conclude that layering two garments both with Primaloft 1 insulation (one with 100g /m and one with 60 g/m) insulates roughly similarly to a garment that would have weight 160 g/m (that the sum of multiple insulation layers is approximately linear). Of course if there's any compression of the loft of the inner layer, it will actually be equivalent to something less than 160 g/m. I have no idea if this assumption is valid; all I can say is that the layering method feels pretty warm to me. If I were doing a lot of climbing in cold places (MT, WY, CO, AK), I would maybe go a different route of getting something beefier or a single piece that has thicker insulation to avoid the minor futzing associated with using two separate layers. Back in the day I had a Wild Things Belay jacket and it was warm as hell and has a relatively burly shell fabric, but mega overkill for most conditions I encountered in the region.

My super-cool wife gave me a hallpass this weekend from parenting duty, and I'm trying to scare up a partner for some moderate alpine rock (like 5.7 or under) assuming the weather isn't crap. I'd like to do something with at least a moderately strenuous approach to avoid the crowds (e.g. not the Icicle or Liberty Bell Group). PM me to discuss route possibilities (I've got a few in mind but am open to suggestions).

If you're willing to drive as far as the Tetons (and if neither of you have warrants or recent felony convictions), what about the Bugaboos? A good variety of classic moderate routes, relatively simple (basecamp in one spot). Pretty outrageous setting. August should have the least bad weather. For something a little closer (and maybe less crowded / less of a focal point), Valhalla Range in BC. I've always wanted to hit Mt. Gimli .

Looking at pictures of Lemah, it looks like a fun little traverse could be done over the five peaklets. The Summitpost page on Lemah asserts the traverse has been done but I haven't turned up any reports. Anyone wasted their time on this before? I wanna know if the parts in between the peaks are scrambly or stout.

I just moved back to Seattle after a 5-year stint on the east coast where I wasn't doing much climbing. As luck would have it, I'm living in Magnolia about half a mile from Vertical World, and seeking partners to lead and TR there. I'd like to find someone who wants to climb 6-8am-ish or after 8pm weekdays.

I'm road-tripping from the east coast to Seattle mid-June, with scheduled stops in CO and WY for some moderate snow climbing and rock scrambling (I'll be solo). I've seen Mt. Borah done as a fall early-season ice climb and generally it gets described as such. With the fat snowpack this year, on paper, sounds like it could be a fun moderate snow scramble. I don't see a lot of TRs for this area in general, and none for this mountain in early season. Is there a good reason? Any other moderate Sawtooth scrambles worth thinking about? This area is just out-of-the-way enough that I'd like to sample its worthwhile offerings while driving through as I don't see myself heading back that way willfully in the near future. Since I'm solo none of the finer alpine rock routes are on the table.

Damn. Thanks for sharing, and condolences to all touched by his loss.

Ditto on Gaia. Your biggest hazard is running out of juice. There are many threads out there on how to optimize the settings on your phone to preserve battery life. I have an iphone and don't know anything about yours; with the apple device you can leave on the gps and turn off just about everything else and get dramatically longer battery life than you would on a typical day (unless you use the tracking cookie crumb thing). I found Gaia easy to learn how to use, and am pretty low tech.

I've used both of these shoes, and feel they are pretty similar in terms of performance when sized for comfort (flat toes). The Mythos feels like it is a hair softer than the Nago. This makes it edge a little more poorly, but smear better (feels a lot better to me). The Nago has a slightly more asymmetric design for pushing power to the big toe - Mythos is more symmetric. In theory this makes the Nago better for standing on small edges; this may be true if sized tightly, but this difference didn't seem to be material to me when sized for comfort. The Mythos stretches so much that it can be challenging to get the right size the first time.

The concepts will be very familiar if you've read up on training in other endurance contexts like running or cycling. I'd go so far say to say this book is essentially Joe Friel's "Cyclists Training Bible" but for climbers (though this is a little bit less cumbersome than that text). I was surprised by Twight's mea culpa about high intensity circuit training. He basically says that he was unable to experience year over year gains on such plans, and has reverted back to a plan that favors volume. Interesting given that this style of training is very much in vogue. I recall an earlier thread discussing shorter high intensity circuit style plans (a la Mountain Athlete), and John Frieh made the comment that short workouts aren't sport specific enough to prepare you for long moderate days in the mountains (though they are good for all-around conditioning). This book rhymes with that view.

I was referring to your post about how things aren't totally random, that there's a reason why things happen. I read this (and still do) as an at-best optimistic assessment of the activity of climbing and/or soloing. Taking the view that there isn't randomness/Knightian uncertainty in the system when you're climbing leads to a dangerous paradigm (in my opinion). It reads like something a person who feels invincible would say. So I put those words in your mouth in my head, perhaps unfairly. BTW I'm coming from the opposite end of what you think. I took a lead fall on an ice climb in the Ruth a few years back, got away super lucky with only a tib/fib fracture; the whole thing felt slow-mo enough that I thought I was gonna buy the farm (pitched off after a short traverse, fell over ledge into unknown terrain that was fortunately overhanging so I didn't splatter on a bunch of rocks). So I empathize with your plight (see my post much earlier in the thread).

This might be the most foolhardy example of "sh** climbers in their early 20s say" I've ever read. Stay safe out there!

The longer you climb and engage with a climbing community, the more accidents you'll hear about. If awareness of accidents around you changes how you make decisions as a climber, that's probably a good thing. What you call being "unnecessarily fearful in certain situations" could be "more aware of possible consequences that I didn't really consider before". I'm assuming that you're using a litle linguistic flourish here and not experiencing a panic attack on lead. A more experienced climber than I once told me that hearing about accidents is "positive feedback". I asked if that's positive feedback, then what's negative feedback? His reply: "Taking risks which you aren't accurately assessing or weighing, and repeatedly getting away with it."

Black Diamond made a tent for awhile that had the Firstlight Fabric, but the design of the Ahwanee - it was called the Lighthouse. The footprint is a little bigger in both dimensions than the Firstlight, and it has a side door and a third pole across the top. I am not a big fan of the side door and big pole, but it is only slightly heavier than the Firstlight and I value the extra floor space. As long as you're not getting battered by winds along the broad side of the tent (which could catch the awning), you should be good. I see these for sale on eBay and craigslist from time to time (that's how I got mine). It looks like the party of 3 on the Huntington trip report in the AK forum used one for their trio (very cozy, no doubt).

Wow! What tool is that strapped to the Arcteryx pack (in the shot of the packs in the plane)? It looks like an ice axe without any sort of head.

Whenever I've wanted a glove for climbing that was heavier than a liner or an OR Vert, I've opted for something with a gauntlet because that was all l had. Seems like undercuff style gloves are popular for skiing (or at least on teton gravity). I always found the gauntlet fussy, and now in the market again for a warmer glove and thinking of something undercuff styled. Primary use would be general climbing use in colder temps, moderate alpine stuff. Am I missing something? Doesn't seem like most gloves marketed to climbers are designed this way .

Crosstraining is the jam.

Haters gonna hate.

I saw this hand specialist at Virginia Mason in Seattle one time when I had an A3 pulley issue. I can't remember if she climbed but her kids did and she was knowledgeable about climbing as it related to medical stuff.

In thinking about the appropriate tool for stuff like Liberty Ridge or N Ridge of Baker, I came across this accessory for Grivel axes (was thinking about a pair of Air Tech Evos). Anyone have experience with this? I can't tell if it would stay 'up' out of the way near the head of the axe easily or be a PITA. It'd be nice to have the option of the trigger from time to time and still have something easy to plunge. I know horses for courses and wouldn't try to use such a tool to climb hard steep stuff. Also wondering if anyone knows if there's a hacky way of getting such a thing to work on BD Venoms.

Met my wife on I Saw U's skeezier cousin, Craigslist Missed Connections (Z-Man, I think I told you that story one time). Photos like this make me miss living out there. I hope you guys know how good you've got it!