tvashtarkatena

When I fly home for the holidays, I usually do it on Thanksgiving. There's never a crowd. The day before Thanksgiving is suicide. This year, it's at my place. Travel time: 10 seconds.

Thanksgiving in Seattle wouldn't be complete without a "Holidays are Murder on Turkey's" banner hanging from one of the Woodland Park pedestrian overpasses. This spectacular weather alone is enough to give thanks, but there's so much more. Happy Thanksgiving. Time to get my ass into the kitchen.

I use a Canon Powershot SD800 IS in a LowePro case. The latter is the most important part of the kit; it's predecessor, which I used to carry in it's stock case, underwent a little field dissassembly when I hauled my pack up a rock face and forget to remove the camera from the waste belt.

Panorama looking uproute Baker and Glacier from the summit

Trip: Chiwaukum Range - 'Little' Chiwaukum: A Successful Failure Date: 11/21/2007 Trip Report: I snaked my arm through the peephole in my bivvy sack and brushed the frost of the lens of the altimeter perched on my cook pot. 9 ° F. My arm shot back in through its hole like a startled tubeworm. Jesus, no wonder I was freezing my ass off. By now the moon was low on the horizon and I had about six more hours of long night to go in my 20 degree bag. No more breathing into the bag; the moisture was building up. The trouble was, as it always is on nights like this; I had to take a piss. I gave myself a count down. Then another. The third one took; I bolted upright. The shock was almost electric, then, strangely, it quickly subsided. Perhaps I was already hypothermic. I stood on the edge of my bivvy, strained for range, grabbed the extra socks out of my pack, threw them on, and dove back into my tiny cocoon of habitable environment. Six more hours of turning the cryogenic rotisserie. Six hours passed, daylight came, and the temperature was still 9 degrees. Then, suddenly, it began to climb. 12. 16. Once in the twenties, I figured it was safe venture halfway out of the bag and start heating water for the day’s excursions. Icicle at sunset Icicle closeup The day before I’d hiked into my present camp from the Pine/Wildcat Creek Trails. The snow on the 3 mile road to the trailhead was driveable by Outback. Once I spotted Big Chiwaukum’s broad west face through the trees (I recognized it from previous trips in the area), I left the trail and snow shoed up through the brush which still persisted through the 2 foot snow pack. Anywhere from several inches to a foot of powder covered a firm, compactable, and slightly crunchy base. After finding an open camp with an amazing view near a running stream, I killed the rest of the afternoon punching another thousand feet of steps towards my objective; a little money in the bank for the following day. The snow up higher was waste deep powder, but the terrain alternated between boulder fields and stubby avalanche trees; not great for skiing. I was glad I brought snow shoes instead. The Objective? After breakfast I forced my feet into my frozen Makalus and began to cash in the previous day’s steps. I waded through another 300 feet or so of knee to waist deep snow before gaining the base of a couloir that had slid several days before. Ah, finally something firm to kick steps into. It varied from perfect Styrofoam to powder over rolly polly rocks, but it was a huge improvement over the wallowing below. Sunrise Rainier Looking down the couloir. Rainier in the distance Looking uproute I gained the summit ridge with 400 feet more to go. A hundred feet later I topped out on what I thought was a false summit and, to my surprise, the terrain fell away in all directions. I’d calibrated my altimeter the day before, and it wasn’t usually that far off. I looked south to line up a photo of Rainier, and noticed that there was a conspicuously higher mountain in the corner of my viewfinder. Hmmm. If Big Chiwaukum is the highest thing around, then what’s that? And, for that matter, why can I see Larch Lake from here? A smile crept over my face. Summit cheese. Glacier in the backround I’d been lost, of course, and I’d nailed plenty of false summits, but I’d never actually climbed the wrong mountain before. Oh well, there’s always a first time. And there’s also a last time I’ll just trust just my memory, particularly in winter. In any case, ‘Little’ Chiwaukum made for an excellent jaunt and a spectacular viewpoint in a fine area. I’ll be back. Given my navigation this trip, I suppose I’ll have to . Hoar frost I will post 2 more panoramic views (larger format) soon. Gear Notes: Snowshoes, ski poles.

A pulse is also nice, but not always required.

Just one? Oh, I've got all of 'em, sweetheart. I'm off. Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours, Fairweather.

Yes. We did Aspiring from the hut with crampons and one axe - never roped up. Some 4th, some 3rd, some neve climbing. Nothing too tech. Aspiring is not to be missed, if you can swing the weather. Choppering in can save a two day hike and help you nail some sunny conditions, although the hike in is cool, too. The DOC (Dept of Conservation) office in Wanaka can set you up with where to get maps, partners, choppers, etc. There are other peaks you can climb from the hut as well: The Rolling Pin and French were two good ones. Hike to the west edge of the glacier: it's a 6,000 foot drop and severely overhung at the top. Utterly spectacular.

This info is too late for your trip (I didn't catch your question until now) but in case anyone else has the same question: Homer Hut Mt. Barrier to Marion traverse McPherson nearby has a manky via ferrata route on it (unless they've repaired it)

Male bocks miss.

You're also wrong. There's something not a little comically ironic about a guy going off the deep end in defense of an erroneous, and fairly meaningless fact while accusing the guy who harmlessly mentioned the fact merely in passing of having a personality disorder. Wiki Linky Quote: "LNG must be maintained cold (at least below −117 °F or −83 °C) to remain a liquid, independent of pressure". NG stored in tanks for vehicular use is under pressure (3000 psi or so) but still remains in a gaseous, not liquid, form. Needless to say, special crygenic tanks are required for storing LNG. For the time it took you to type out your diatribe, you could have done the same Google job I just did and made sure you knew what you were talking about, amigo. I'm off to the mountains to take advantage of this forecast. Happy Thanksgiving everybody.

I don't think the uber-progressives latch onto a guy like Ron Paul because they're closet libertarians. Rather, they follow candidates who are as fanatical on a single issue as they are; in Paul's case, his staunch opposition to the war. They also like iconoclastic outsiders, because they feel that they and their candidate must remain 'outside the system' to be legit. Because these progressives are not want to form coalitions because it involves some compromise, they are forever doomed to vote for losers (electorially speaking).

Packing popcorn, anyone? Back to the thread: former Naderite progressives seem to be going for Ron Paul because of his stance on the war. As for his other stances, personally, I don't see him as being of much appeal to socially liberal voters.

Ummm....wouldn't that be Eastside drivers?

"The Greening" - by Cormick McCarthy

The abandoned tractor, which once plowed 40 furrows per gallon, now stands forlon, rusting, forgotten.

The more unyielding the wet, bushy ground, the deeper the hard, unrelenting plow plunges, splitting the last straining roots, which surrender and unfold to release the moist fragrance of a newly violated furrow.

They both fascinate and frighten us

Maybe we ought to start a support group, titty boy. will you be my sponsor? pleeeeese!!!!!!!!!!! Jesus, dude, you've gone 'downhill' from your Yosemite days.

Hope you have a Costco pack of fresh razors.

Maybe we ought to start a support group, titty boy.

Are these man pre-boobs? I'm just trying to learn here. Suckin In My Gut on Mellow Oregonian Pinnacle?

I noticed this, to my dismay, yesterday when listening to Green Day's masturbation song. This new policy must just be coming online. 'fuckin' became f----in, etc. Fucked up little snippets of silence where the words used to be. Considering Green Day's lyrics, it cut out about a third of the song. I'm mean, come fucking on, the song's about masturbation, for Christ's sake. What's the point here?

Trust me, if you've worked a campaign and seen how hard a huge army of volunteers strives to get every single vote, you'd realize how important each of those votes are. The reality of the biz is: EVERY VOTE COUNTS. Look at it this way; the more apathetic the general public is, the more YOUR vote counts. The more apathetic you are, the more you're handing over your political power to some fundamentalist moron with a hefty Rapture insurance policy. Taken to extreme; if no one voted but you, shit, you'd be better off than a dictator, because you'd have some dirty little politician to do all the work and catch all the flak for it.

Jesus people, get a chat room!