woodchips

What he said. I do like my Metolius curved (and wired) hexes, but if I had it to do over again, I'd get the WC hexes in the larger sizes. I feel like I've had better luck finding good (and quick) placements for the curved hexes than the few times I've used the BD straight hexes.

We're looking at climbing in the Colonial peak area in the last week of August, and wondering about what conditions to expect up there. How much glacier travel is required to get to the west ridge of colonial? How about paul bunyan's and pyramid? Any speculation as to the glacier conditions end of august? Bad idea?

Try this link: http://service.backcountry.com/cgi-bin10/DM/y/ndHi0M75PR0Ngz0BVce0Gq It's good to bring the discount up to 50% for anything on the outlet site. I think it's good thru the 31st. The discount won't show up until you add it to your cart. There's some other good deals on there.

I, too have been eying this camera, but haven't actually used one. That said, it seems to be getting relatively good reviews. Picture quality has been reported to be slightly lower than some of the small Canon cameras, but if you want waterproof, there's only Pentax and Olympus. Supposedly, the image quality is better than the Olympus line. I tried an Olympus 850SW; the picture quality was pretty poor, and after the first trip one of the doors had a dent next to it such that it wouldn't open. So much for "Shockproof." Also, the w60 has a 5x zoom, and a much wider angle lens than any of the other waterproof cameras. I'm going to order one, I think.

Dogs aren't allowed in the backcountry (wilderness) in any NP as far as I know. In J Tree, that's most of the park; it would be pretty limiting to your travels. Looking at the map, there's a narrow strip along all the roads that are non-wilderness which does include alot of the crags. You might try to check the map against a map of the crags you want to check out.

We're looking at doing the E Buttress of cinderella this weekend, but it looks like the approach might be the crux. Does anyone know the status of access via Hamilton (Howard Creek?) I dredged up some old posts, and it sounds like this road is closed to the public now, but they were from a few years ago.

Also, if you're going to treat your water, take something like this: http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/aquamira_mcnett.html It doesn't taste nasty like Iodine, and is way lighter than a filter.

Thread Drift: I tend to agree with Jimmy. I did have ice form in my bladder this winter, but it was down around zero and blowing 70-90. I don't think a nalgene would do any better. The three things I do to ensure I've got water: bring a cap in case the hose freezes solid, blow the water back out of the hose after you drink, and bring an extra 1L bladder in case on leaks. This still works out to at least an 8oz weight savings for 2 liters. That said, for beginners, regular old water bottles might not be a bad idea, just so you have less to worry about. These are pretty good; light and no hose: http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/nalgene_cantene_water_bottle_1L.html

Anyone ever done the East Buttress on Cinderella? Beckey makes it sound enticing; 10 pitches of 5.6 on solid rock.

Copper Creek Inn is not bad, a bit pricey, but the burgers aren't a bad deal. Or, if you want quantity, you can head down to the Mexican place in Eatonville (called Puerto Vallarta, I think.) They're friendly, pretty good and greasy, and fast. They've both got .

I've seen one of my (way more experienced than I) climbing partners do this with one of my 8mm dyneema runners. I let him keep the runner when he was done. Were they talking about dyneema cord (which has a dyneema core and nylon sheath, I think) or solid dyneema runners (like the mammut ones)? I think it might be OK with the cord, as the core is pretty well protected; it's just kind of stiff.

I think any aluminum (some of them have titanium in the name, but are made out of aluminum) poles really benefit from opening them up and drying them out after a trip. I find that when it's cold out, I have to re tighten them after 15 minutes or so out of the car, and then they're good for a while. While the BD lock mechanism is nice, everything else about the Lekis is better. Also, Leki's customer service is WAY better than BD's. Leki has sent me new shaft sections on two occasions when I've broken them. BD has never been helpful when I've had problems or questions; they'll just tell you your're SOL and to buy some new ones. Dynafit uses a similar lock mechanism to the BDs.

Hey Off, Have you thought about the Petzl Elios? http://www.backcountry.com/store/PTZ0203/Petzl-Elios-Helmet.html It's lighter than the Ecrin and less bulky, but definitely more durable than the "foam jobbies". I've beat mine up pretty good, sat on it, and stuffed it in the pack among a bunch of sharp pointy things, and it's still going. If you're looking for one for cragging, who cares how much it weighs?

I was up there yesterday; snowshoes weren't necessary. There are more snowmobile tracks than boot tracks, but hopefully in a couple of weeks the road should be melted out to then end and the sled season will be over. There were alot of sleds up there yesteday; I don't know how many you would normally see up there, but there were at least 10 extra up there for the body recovery of the climber killed on Friday, so that may have been alot more than normal. The crevasses were starting to open up, but not too much.

I've had really good luck around here with a tarp/lightweight bivy/down bag combo. It really solves most of the condensation issues you usually get around here, and probably is substantially lighter than the setup you're describing. I've got the ID Micro Bivy (eVent) and it's treated me well. In conditions not suited to a tarp (winter on Hood, etc, a small tent or your Unishelter would be great.) I don't have any synthetic bags, but if I did, it would be a warm weather bag. If it's cold enough to need a -20 deg bag, I'm usually not getting wet. Also, a synthetic bag that warm is going to be huge . Of course the down vs. synthetic debate will continue to rage on no matter what you or I say. I've also had good luck with my feathered friends bag (epic shell) being pretty water resistant.

I haven't really had any problem using the Am'D for rapelling, depsite the fact that it's not a HMS biner. Am I missing something? Seems to work OK for me.

I've had the same complaint for awhile, but recently started flipping my belay biner around and using the narrow end. So far, this seems to work much better. I've mostly been using my DMM sentinel biner:

8.2 is great for glacier stuff (although more likely to cut into the edge when an actual crevasse fall happens), but is generally considered too skinny for genuine rock climbing. It's more of an abrasion/resistance to cutting issue than it is of strength. You can fold a double (8.2mm) rope in half, and lead on it using double rope techniques. You only get 30m leads, but this can be fine for scrambles.

Feathered Friends will ship stuff ordered over the phone. I've usually had them ship the same day if you call by early afternoon. They've always been happy to help when I've been in a hurry.

Thanks for breaking trail for us... I figured it was the Mounties we saw that broke trail. Didn't see anyone coming down; did you take eldorado creek down? We got a late start, and summited around 8pm Saturday. Camped out at 7400, just in time for the slush to start falling.

There is a substantial washout a little above the lower trailhead. It doesn't sound like there's much in the budget to fix anything but the Staircase road up there for this year, so Ellinor/Washington might remain a bit longer hike for a while.

Last meeting I went to, we got "off route" trying to find Robert Hall. Seems like the maps they have on the signboards on campus show the hall where it used to be, not in its new location . Not sure if that was supposed to be a test of our routefinding ability, but the real robert hall is over by the theater. Jason, I couldn't get the link to work. Anyhow, looks like another great slide show.

We were there yesterday as well. After half a dozen trips to Erie, I'm finally starting to learn my way around. The first few trips were more wandering than climbing. Powerline West is down and skier's right of Summit wall. Ask everyone you see, that's pretty much the best directions I've gotten when I've been down there. The maps in the Kloke guide aren't consistently helpful; sometimes they give you a relative location and sometimes you'd be better off without the book.

Your dad is my climbing hero too. In other news, we got my dad down his first black diamond run on his 65th birthday this winter.

Anyone? I'm interested in trying for Ingalls, just not sure how far I'll have to slog in on the road.