frozen lifts

Seriously? You must want Kamping with a K, as in KOA? The upgrades you get for $5 is a dude keeping out the crankers and cleaning up the garbage. Don't you remember what a shithole that used to be?...I can remember camping at the park in the 80's in the grass next to my car, but times change. You guys crack me up. Ivan, Poverty? are you joking? You own a rack, a car and drink Pabst, you know nothing about poverty.

Come on, you guys will all pay $5 for a good beer but you won't pay $5 for a toilet, garbage service, recycling and a guy who keeps out the crankers? The days of free camping are over, throw down a five and stop whinning.

Are all the bolts that close together there?

WOW! Weather, conditions, hang it out factor will make this climb go down as one of the top climbs ever!

Mr Pitts, while I think it is great you survived this ordeal and I applaud your ability to walk out on your own, I find it amazing that the weather sites you got your information from did not mention high winds and possible rain and snow at 8,000 feet by noon on Monday. I know everyone is going to think I'm an ass, but I can't beleive I am the only one who recogized weather over the top of the mountain at 6am showing signs of the approaching storm to come. When you see the "hood" or the "jet stream" back off and try another day. Also, don't forget to check the avalanche conditions with the NWAC their weather and forcasts are damn good and might just save your life some day, that is if you carry the proper gear. Did you guys have any avalanche gear like a beacon, shovel, probe, knowledge?

American skiers, snowboarders and snowmobilers have been watching extreme movies starting back in the Scott Schmidt years in Warren Miller movies and now the X Games. Kodak courage has changed the face of skiing, climbing and many sports and now anything goes... They saw it in a movie and it didn't kill them, equates to "I can do it too". This has led to a complete lack of respect for warnings, rope lines, boundries and closures. I see how powder skiing effects normal people in ways you would never believe. It's got an effect similar to cocaine, people can't get enough. Our instant gradification society with our microwaves, drive throughs, cell phones and i-pods have forever changed the expectations of people. Personal accountability has gone out the window. All of us should slow down and enjoy what we do have. Take time to educate people about the risks and when you see people doing stupid shit, call them on it and make people accountable for their actions. Rescue costs should be high and be paid for by those involved. Poeple who survive rescues should spend time being educated at their expense and be required to pass on their education to others.

Don't you see that the ski patrol is trying to do their job and you are disrupting it? The pressure of throwing bombs is hard enough without people who are skinning around and may be in the line of fire. They have a users permit that should allow them to control access in or adjacent to their boundry for this very reason. Put yourself in their shoes and think how you would feel.

Do you still have those? I would use them if you won't. Let me know.

Does anyone know where to find kids boots that would be crampon compatible? I can't find anything good for kids in any sizes under a womans 4 or 5.

You think cigarette butts are not garbage.

Contrived?

Before you panic and turn in your season pass, keep in mind this video was taken from a destructive test being performed on a lift which was being removed. They were using that opportunity to test different senerios and caused this problem by bypassing many systems to allow the test to show the potential. Most ski areas actually have competant maintenance people who know this potential and work year-round to avoid these types of problems. When you look at ski lift safety, the number of accidents and deaths is much lower than most any other form of transportation. The reason the lift got out of control like that was that they were rolling the lift backwards with the main low speed shaft disconnected. This meant that the normal service and rollback brake were essentially disconnected from the lift. As they did the test, one of the engineers inadvertantly pushed the normal stop button, which was disconnected and allowed the lift to build up speed in reverse without hitting the emergency brake. This is why there are other switches and devices to prevent this. Redundent systems are in place on ski lifts to prevent this type of accident occuring during operations. Similar to climbing anchors, never trust you life to one piece.

Wow, congradualations on safely getting down the Black Spider! That route has been on my list for winter climbs for years and I always find a way to chicken out, tons of loose rock raining down from all directions. Keep this in your memory banks for future epics. I hate to bring this up, but your decent route was directly below the snow cave where one of the missing north chute climbers was found last year. Had the rock fall conditions been better during the final search; this was one of the hot spots we wanted to check for their remains.

Ice is forming at Pete's. Some of the smaller seeps look climbable.