trumpetsailor

How long do the modern variants of high strength fibers retain ~90% of their rated strength, when kept unused in a cool, dry, and dark location? I've spent a few hours searching the web and have found few empirical breaking strengths with anything approaching reasonable statistics. It looks like the manufacturers would prefer that webbing be turned over every 1-2 years. I'm, in principle, a big fan of the lightweight runners and slings that are now available, but I worry about aging. I tend to do, at most, a few alpine climbs with a very light rack and a few roped-up trips on glaciers each year, so I'd like to get 4-5 safe years out of my investments. I'm considering expanding my rack somewhat and some gear, like Tri-cams and sewn runners, comes with the choice between nylon and Spectra/Dyneema. Which is going to give the safest (and lightest) bang for the buck between now and 2015? Thanks!

There are essentially two groups working on gravity at UW - I work for the other one (at CENPA on campus). If you're curious about what they're doing in the tunnel, read on! What's a fifth force? So far as science is aware, there are only four forces: gravity, electromagnetism, the weak force (important to some nuclear decays/neutrinos, etc.), and the strong force (what really holds a nucleus together). Experiments like the ones done at Index are looking for tiny forces (weak, even compared to gravity) that would be due to some new physics we don't yet know about. If there is a grand unified theory to be found (one that tacks the theories of all four forces together into one package), then it's very likely that a "fifth force" exists, but it's going to be really feeble. How do the experiments work? These experiments are a search for materials that are pulled by gravity a little differently than their inertial mass would suggest. In everyday life, we're very accustomed to the observed fact that something with lots of inertia (hard to move if you push on it, even if it's on wheels) is also very heavy (gravity pulls on it hard). Physicists do not know why this is true. This notion, called the "equivalence principle", is a key foundation of General Relativity, but it's only based on observation. Searches for a fifth force, then, look for a gravity-like force that depends on the composition (protons, neutrons, feathers, yo mama, whatever) of a piece of matter but not its inertial mass. This Equivalence Principle turns out to be really true: If you drop any two materials in vacuum, experiments at UW have shown that the difference in their acceleration is less than ~0.0000000000003%. Why Index? The experiments done in the tunnel there look at forces that pull sideways (gravity attracts all things toward one another; it doesn't just pull "down"). It's therefore advantageous, for a gravitational experiment, to be near a huge cliff. That way, there's a whole lot of mass on one side of the experiment and you can test whether or not two materials are attracted differently toward it. It's also important to know what the cliff is made out of, since the strength of any observed fifth force will depend on the cliff's composition too. Furthermore, precision physics experiments like underground caves and basements where the temperature/environment is very stable. I don't work in their lab, so I don't know for sure, but I wouldn't be surprised if the "Radioactive Materials" sign is there to discourage vandals. Most of the materials involved in gravitational research are as innocuous as tiny chunks of aluminum and titanium. Thank you so much for helping to fund this kind of work (our lab costs about $0.003 per US taxpayer per year to run). On the good days, it's as good as putting up a first winter ascent. In return for funding basic research like this, occasionally you get things like GPS, which are pretty rad, and facts like those stated above.

Awesome. Thank you!

Have a fun and safe trip! The forecasted winds at the summit seem lower than I was expecting. Saturday sounds mighty fine!

Thanks for the info! I've got the Wood/Coombs book. Where do you get your best forecasts? Anything other than NWS? http://www.weather.gov/view/prodsByState.php?state=ak&prodtype=discussion

Once you're in the right drainage off the upper mountain, it is easy to find, especially with good visibility and bootprints. Rocks can, and do, ski the Finger unimpeded. Too far skiers left, and you'll be in the icefall. Too far right, and you'll be on the steeper Wilson Headwall or perhaps in the Thumb. Weather might be mean up high this weekend.

Are there any good resources for learning about Aleutian weather/mountaineering? A number of skiers from down this-a-way are curious about favorable months up there.

Rogers is one of the three big Canadian wireless telecoms, if that's of use. They're gearing up to profit from roaming charges during the Olympics, so I'd bet that if you can get signal, you can make a call... Check with your carrier to be sure. "A narrow and deserted street in deep shadow, high houses, innumerable windows with venetian blinds, a dead silence, grass sprouting between the stones, imposing carriage archways right and left, immense double doors standing ponderously ajar. I slipped through one of these cracks, went up a swept and ungarnished staircase, as arid as a desert, and opened the first door I came to...." - Conrad Safe hunting, Colin. .

Also, note that the Slot on Snoqualmie is frequently descended on skis. Essentially every suggestion here has been skied, some of them several times a year, but it's possible that someone might pop in above you on the Slot (the walk-off for the Slot is the skin-up for the skiers), especially after a storm.

FWIW, Edge wireless may refer to the push-to-talk/data band for Verizon. I think the edge band/protocol also gets used for some of AT&T's wireless broadband. Googling suggests that there's also an Edge Wireless company that's now part of AT&T in the central West. Have fun - come home safe! !

They still make it - can't imagine them stopping anytime soon: http://www.patagonia.com/web/us/product/das-parka?p=84101-0-823

Heal well Steve!

Thanks for the heads-up!

YEAH! Thanks for the stoke. Lucky, lucky guys! .

Sweet! Nicely nicely done .

MOUNT HOOD, Ore. - Rescue crews on Sunday helped retrieve a climber who fell and broke his leg while on Mount Hood early Sunday. The man, 27-year-old Kristopher R. Haskins of Seattle, was apparently hit by something and fell a "significant distance" about 5 a.m. while climbing in the Sandy Glacier area on the mountain's southwest side, according to Detective Jim Strovink, a Clackamas County Sheriff's Office spokesman. The man's climbing partner called 911 about 6:45 a.m. and reported that the injured climber was conscious and breathing but suffering from the leg injury, Strovink said. Rescue crews, which included members of Portland Mountain Rescue, Mountain Wave Communications and American Medical Response Reach and Treat specialists, were summoned to help. Teams went up from Lolo Pass to reach him. The injured climber was airlifted by an Oregon National Guard helicopter to Legacy Emanuel Hospital in Portland, Strovink said. His condition was not immediately available. http://www.katu.com/news/local/49386797.html Very best wishes to Kris for a quick recovery!

http://www.koinlocal6.com/news/local/story/Mt-Hood-Climber-Rescue/c2-Zpj-OuE-PaBjcPh-lGQ.cspx GOVERNMENT CAMP, Ore. - An eight-hour rescue effort ended successfully Sunday afternoon, when an injured climber was airlifted off of Mount Hood. At 6:44 a.m., the Clackamas County Communications Center got a call from a person on the mountain, reporting that 27-year-old Kristopher Haskins, of Seattle, had taken a long, hard fall and had apparently broken his leg. The caller reported that Haskins was conscious and breathing. A rescue effort was quickly launched. The accident happened in the area of the Sandy Glacier, on the southwest side of the mountain. A command post was set up on the Lolo Pass Road. At about 11 a.m., a National Guard helicopter flew to that command center. At about 2:30 p.m., it took off with Haskins on board, bound for Portland's Emanuel Hospital. At 3 p.m., Haskins' mother, who lives in Yakima, Wash., was notified of the successful rescue. Kristopher Haskins is employed by the University of Washington in Seattle. From KOIN.

PI has an article: http://www.seattlepi.com/local/6420ap_or_climber_falls.html They tend to update the articles as they learn more.

Thanks for the stoke, Dan! Mmm. Long stretches of uniform corn....

Clever man. Surprised to hear that it works. CJ and Whitehorse ... what TR will pop up next?

Good use of the window! There's very little like an exploratory solo outing when you need the world to make sense. Bunny-related ailments can be the very best and hardest kind. Good luck .

Sunday found ~6-8" of fresh at Cold Springs, more than that near the Crescent Glacier, boilerplate and some blue ice with powder drifts on the Lunch Counter and up Pikers, funky blue ice rime formations across most of the cap (far more than late winter-summer), and slightly powdery boilerplate up to the summit of Adams. One of our group blew an edge and took an impressive sliding fall coming down Pikers. Crampons bit nicely. Everywhere with good snow had rocks beneath. Skis are scratched but happy. St.Helens looked snowy with rocks on the cleavers.

Inspired. Thank you.

Awesome.

Agreed.