tvashtarkatena

That's what the mullet is for Hullet? The Cook expedition reported that Australian aborigines of the day grew their hair way out front to shade their faces. This might be the same principle at work: a wifebeater can give you a helluva case of redneck without proper protection.

No helmet required there.

When birds don't like something they just take a dump on it. Just like here.

I'd like to see some birds weigh in on this.

Coming from Atomic Kongurs (not a bad ski mind you) and Scarpa T2 telys it was like slipping into a sparkling, Carlos Castanedian world of smooth without pain, where baby unicorns frolic among giggling snow children under the gentle plumes of fragrant Volcanoes.

GF wants to get into it on a budget. If you've got an old pair gathering dust...

THere was a pair of 169s at Redmond REI for $350 recently. If you want a super light backcountry setup that's a little shorter for the trees n crud... Note: the 169s are slightly narrower (92 underfoot) than longer Manaslus (95 underfoot)

Three questinos: 1) How long are the skis 2) How much do you weigh? 3) Can you carve turns (initiate by edging only) in powder or does the rocker force you to crank? Thanks in advance... 169 cm 185 lbs full commando Skied em with a 3 day overnight winter pack - zero cranking, as effortless as you could want. Perfect crunch and launch goodness. They pretty much ski for you.

Skied the new Manaslus in the Baker backcountry this weekend. What a great ski. Feather light, nice and short, yet they ski the pow like a dream. Best 3 ski days ever. With most of my tely quiver sold off, my gear room just got quite a bit smaller, too.

pic w/manual

bump for more gear added

No, actually, there aren't.

It's the daily hours of rage that gets old.

But all that data at your finger tips just helps you point cherry pick the conditions better!

Spanking isn't the answer, Ivan. Now quietly driving away from a remote rest stop whilst the wee angel tinkles, on the other hand....

That's just because you were younger!

Regarding ice screw placement, there is no scenario where a positive placement angle is stronger than 0 or negative, per Blake's post. This was popular wisdom a while ago, based on a long standing misunderstanding of how ice screws actually work, but testing has since disproven it. Don't do it. Testing does indicate that a positive angle can make for a stronger picket placement in softer snow, hence the possible confusion, but it's probably better to deadman the picket in that instance, anyway. Ice screws do not work at all like pickets, however.

Nothing like a refreshing, mid morning dip... The assumption a solo glacier traveler must make is: if you go in, you're done. Not saying carrying self rescue gear is not a good idea, but... You haven't lived until you've seen roped glacier skiers attempt to link turns. It's an...art?

The new NWAC avi map is really kewl.

Study after study shows that parents who go for spanking also (surprise!) have a tendency to lose it and take out their life frustrations on their kids. Given their comfort for the use of violence to get what they want, these parents also tend to have more life frustrations to tweak them out than more together folks. Spankers/abusers (same same) often denigrate more peaceful parents as being 'too soft'. In reality, spanking is just a child in an adult's body indulging themselves at the expense of their defenseless, weaker children. It's a gross abuse of parental responsibility, a violation of familial trust, and, thankfully, also a crime in many instances.

I do not know if this 'alpine'.

It's high time we did something about these little money grubbing sugar whores. No mention of stick clipping alpine climbers? WHERE'S THE LOVE?

I always hope for an 'untypical' snowpack in WA.

Yup, our climate is obviously different from the Rockies. Still, it's the 'untypical' snowpacks that'll get you. There really is no 'average', only what's actually happening in that snowpack at that time, regardless of where you are. IMO, it's best to work from basic principles during each and every snowpack assessment. You'll be prone to fewer erroneous assumptions that way. The snowpack responds only to weather history and terrain attributes, not which state you're in. Wet point releases happen in MT and depth hoar climax avis happen in Wa. After 2 weeks of clear, midwinter nights following a big storm cycle, WA can start to look a lot more like MT than you might think, particularly in the higher terrain. Not as common a condition around here, perhaps, but we all live in the here and now, no?

Same question south of the 49th. Recommendations?