mountainmandoug

So I have an old AT set-up that I don't use, and I would rather have the money for free-heel gear. I have a pair of Atomic TMX skis, the blue ones: read about them here. http://www.mountaingear.com/pages/product/product.asp/item/103243&N=0 Mounted with Fritsch Freeride Plus bindings, like these: http://www.mountaingear.com/pages/product/product.asp/imanf/Fritschi/idesc/Diamir+Freeride+Plus+Binding+w%2F+110+mm+Brake/Store/MG/item/212120/N/1066 The skis and bindings are about five years old, I am the second owner. The skis have seen some hard use and an encounter with a rock, but still have a season or two left in them. The bindings work great and are adjusted for my 27.5 boots at the moment, and they have a fair amount of adjustment both directions. I'd like to get $250 for the above, I have a pair of Ascension skins that are trimmed to fit the skis, but they haven't been stored well so the adhesive is dirty. I'll throw them in if you want them. I have a pair of Garmont "ski mountaineering" boots, three buckles with two on the cuff, non-dynafit compatible, plastic is in good shape and all of the buckles and the lock mechanism works fine, soles don't look like they've ever seen dirt, liners look new (probably they used aftermarket liners). It would be great to get $100 out of those. I'm interested in offers and maybe trades. This stuff is located in Bellingham.

Amen to that!

For camping at Muir, I think you would be happiest with a four-season tent. It will always be cold and usually windy, which will keep air moving through the tent and reduce the condensation problem. It will sometimes be really windy with lots of blowing snow, the conditions where three-season tents seem to fail. The solid inner tent will be noticeably warmer as well. The condensation issues are mostly a problem in warmer, still, wet weather. I don't think that ever happens at Muir. For these conditions, I hear good reports about Bibler single-wall tents with the Todd-Tex fabric, I also hear good reports about Hillberg tents.

Hmmm, I don't actually own a proper tent, but it is on the list of things to own. I find that floorless shelters such as a Megamid work best for camping in most conditions, especially a lot of rain, and they are pretty light. With something like a Megamid it is much easier to get in and out of the shelter in wet raingear without getting your sleeping gear wet, and you can cook inside much more safely and easily. With the right anchors they will take a lot of wind. That said, they will not do well in a bunch of blowing spindrift and truly fierce winds. You can find that weather anywhere above treeline in the winter and potentially hign-up on the volcanos in the summer. In this weather you really want the strength, anchoring options, and spindrift protection that three-season tents tend to lack. That's what good four-season tents are all about, and when you need them you need them. In the summer I'll happily take a megamid up Ranier, knowing if the weather sucks to bad I'll probably just leave, or in a really desperate situation I can dig a snow cave to survive. I wouldn't take one up Ranier in February though. Generally four-season tents have a lot of condensation in warmer-wet weather, so I tend to avoid them in the summer. I think the best summer shelters are tarps or pyramids without floors, although bugs and mice can be a real problem. A tent with an all-mesh inner is usually the driest in three-season conditons. A four-season tent, if it is truly necessary, is a piece of survival gear. Generally people who use them to there full potential regard it as worth spending a lot of money on rather than skimping.

It's striking to note how silly this whole piece looks. It says that you have to "use" the signaling device. So does that mean that on every trip you must trigger your PLB. Are there legal definitions of "mountain climbing" or even "mountain" or "climbing". Is an ascent of a volcano entirely on skis "climbing", does an alpine rout not qualify as not "mountain climbing" if you don't plan to tag the summit but just descend after finishing the technical part? The section about guiding actually has some bad implications. In the guiding world we mostly carry satellite phones, meaning we have the ability to give detailed information to SAR if need be, which makes rescues both a lot quicker as well as usually less expensive. If this passes probably guides will end up carrying both. My experience in SAR would make me think winter mountaineers are the least in need of carying a PLB. They usually either make it out on there own or die. I think it would actually help SAR more if hunters and mushroom pickers (both sports I have engaged in just for the record) carried PLBs, as it's really easy to get lost doing them and usually there are searches each fall for people out trying to get something to eat out of the woods. Does anyone have contacts with Snohomish SAR? It seems like they might care about what there representatives are up to, and would be in a good position to respond in public. You know, when I can scrape together the money I am planning to get one of those new, small PLB's and carry it all the time. And I would never consider guiding without a compass, altimiter, map, and some means to communicate. So I guess I agree with the practices being legislated here, but I'm not sure they should be legislated, and I'm sure that this piece of legislation is poorly concieved and will be utterly ineffective. It's a wast of our representatives time and our tax dollars.

I would mostly say winter is all about the art of sweat management and not getting things soaked. It seems like there is a lot of dampness though. I primarily focus on using warm synthetic puffy clothes and mild activity to dry out my damp layers. This seems to be working pretty well and I don't usually carry any spare clothing other than socks and gloves. Speaking of gloves they seem to be the exception. I've given up on dry hands and gone to neoprene paddlers gloves for any time I really need to use my hands. They work very well when they are wet, which is good because there is no drying them in the field. I usually put them in a plastic bag and take them to bed so they don't freeze.

One way would be to tie an Alpine Butterfly with both strands of cord wherever you want the master point to be, than clip the loops of the butterfly and the resultant loop "tail" of the butterfly with at least one 'biner. I think I've actually done that a couple of times.

I recognized the name Cal Folsome, a quick check of AAJ reveals that he did the first rout on Big Four's north face in winter, and it looks like some FWA on Dragontail. Both back in the 70's. Did anyone here know him?

Sometimes in the Olympics class 3 just means that there was no reasonable way to protect the climb either due to no cracks or crumbly rock. Or at least that's my theory.

I usually use a bowline on a night with the bight clipped down with a locker. It takes one less biner and it's a bit more comfortable than clipping in.

Thanks again for coming up with this idea Wayne. Who else got a whole mountain to themselves this weekend? I'll have to take a stab at the clean traverse sometime. Darn, those 6000rs can be fun sometimes.

I have had very good luck with Nutrogena Ultrashear SPF 85. I find that using it twice a day is more effective than anything else I've used, and my former routine was SPF 45 five times a day. Put it on first thing in the morning when your face is dry. Use a lot, it's OK if you can't rub it all in.

Generally I figure that the leader calling "off belay" means only that he or she is safe, weather with an anchor or a stance. When leading I sometimes call "off belay with only one good piece in and than commence to build the rest of the Belay anchor. What I do as the second depends on many factors. If the pitch is a rope-stretcher and there is very little slack left I might take apart the whole belay anchor after the leader calls "off belay". Otherwise I take apart whatever I feel I can remove and still have a safe anchor to hang from. Belay anchors should be built to handle a factor 2 fall, but I don't need all that strength just to hang from. I will almost always take out one piece of a three piece anchor, sometimes to if I think one piece is really good (think a slung horn or the like). When belaying the leader out at the beginning of a simul-block it is different still. There I am pretty much always at a good stance and I usually take the leader off belay when there is around 6' of slack left and disassemble the belay, hopefully before the leader moves 6'. The goal is to not have the leader have to stop.

The XGK.

I live in Seattle and work a very sporadic schedule. It seems my partners have mostly turned into craigers so I'm looking for people to get into the mountains with. I lead around 5.8 trad and I'll simul 5.6. I can follow WI 3-4. I'm comforable on glaciers and steep snow. I love long trips and I'll do grade IV approaches without complaint. I used to be a SAR EMT, I've worked a bit as a guide and a mountaineering instructor, done technical rope rescue, and I'm a professional dirt bag:-). Every once in a while I get in the mood for a 20+ mile day hike. I am generally pretty layer back and flexible. I like to go fast on non-technical terrain and I'm always up to " go have a look" if conditions look marginal. Drop me a line and let's try to get out. Douglas

I've spent the last eleven years trying to come up with a glove solution that provides decent dexterity but will keep your hand functioning in the cold and wet. The best thing I have found yet are neoprene kayakers gloves. They are available in a wide variety of variants and most are not that spendy. I had a 35 dollar pair that were as warm as widstopper fleece, but I could work a bic lighter with them on and you didn't notice when they got wet. They had silicone on the palms and were grippy as all get out.The stop contact cold very well, they are awesome for digging in the snow and grabbing rock. Now I'm playing with some 22 dollar ones with a fake leather palm. I think they will last longer but they are not quite as warm. I don't feel the need to carry spares because being wet doesn't make much difference, just don't take them off and let them freeze. It's worth noting that I also tried some of the ones made by "Glacier Glove" and they fell apart quickly. You get what you pay for.

Some friends and I were out at Marymore Park Saturday afternoon and I set up a top rope for a couple of teenagers who who had mistakenly bought a static rope and therefore could not safely lead. In the process I accidentally ended up with a couple of their quickdraws. If you are the owner or you know who it is please drop me a line here and I'll be happy to return them.

Bump, it's still available make an offer.

Fritschi Freeride Plus bindings, the ones with ski brakes. Mounted on a pair of blue Atomic TMX 179cm skis. The bindings are in fine shape, this is there first set of ski's. I bought the set up used a few months ago and I have used it three times. The ski's have been used quite a bit and have a couple of repairs, but I think they have a couple of seasons left. I have a set of Ascension skins that are in decent shape. You can have this set up for $300 OBO. I don't want to split it up. I also have a pair of Garmont AT boots, one buckle on the boot and one two buckles on the cuff size 27.5. The shells are in good shape with soles that have hardly seen dirt. The non-thermo-fit liners look pretty much new. A whoever had them before must have used after market liners. I'm asking $120. I live in Seattle and I would prefer meeting up and exchanging cash. Give me a call 360-301-4153. I'm selling because I need the money.

My friend Steph and I did the traverse from Olympus to Bear Pass in 2007. Check out the story at her website http://sabegg.googlepages.com/valhallas and/or read the story at nwmj.com as I recall that stretch from Camp Pan to bear Pass took us three hours under excellent conditions. We ascended snow slopes above camp pan and than crossed a ridgeline to the west. We traversed just to the west of the summit of the little peaklet south of camp pan on a long-feelig section of very loose class 2-3 rock, until we regained the north-south ridgeline and the snow. We than continued south dropping down into a basin from which we had to escape somehow. We guessed at the right gully and ascended to a small notch which allowed us axcess to the snow slopes on the east facing side of the ridge. After that it was straitforeward ridge walking to Bear Pass. I must apologize if the above doesn't make sense in light of a map, mine is not nearby. I'll try to take a look at a map and retrace our rout backwards and see if I can tell you anything useful about it. In the meantime you might drop Steph a line. I believe she has a photo of the map with our rout drawn on it, and she's very good at giving beta. That will be a great trip this summer.

I am 5'11'' and 160lb and I'd say the medium is just right over a couple of baselayers, a windshirt and puffy vest. I'm not sure what the screwy sizing would be accept that it is quite roomy without layers underneath and that might be strange if you were expecting a normal fit.

I have a Cocoon Pro 60 parka from BPL. It is an excellent piece of gear. It's a bit warmer than it looks, I use it alone as my belay parka most of the year here in WA and I layer it over a puffy vest in the winter. The hood works well with a helmet and it will fit over my other layers with no problem. The outer shell is quite water-resistant. It plus my Patagonia vest weigh less than most other coats this warm. It's probably similar in warmth to the Patagonia micro-puff. I highly reccomend it.

I have used an MSR Windpro as my winter stove for several seasons now. Anytime below freezing I invert the canister so the stove functions as a liquid-feed. Note that this only works with stoves that have a generator tube that runs in the flame to vaporize fuel before it gets to the burner. The one you linked to looks like it does. I usually light the stove with the canister upright and than turn the canister over and prop it with something (snowballs can work). You don't want to turn the stove on very much, it will behave very differently with the canister upside down. Basically with the valve just cracked you will get a full roar, and you don't have as much flame adjustment as you do with the canister upright. Than when you shut it off it will burn for a few seconds until all of the gas is out of the fuel line. It works very well, and it's much easier and quicker than pre-heating a white gas stove. I seem to get around five quarts or so of boiling water from one canister, but every stove-pot-windscreen combination will be a bit different. There's a lot of really good info on this at backpackinglight.com, if you want to read up on it.

I'll take the snow stakes if you still have them. Where are you located?

I have four nieces and nephews ages five and down who are moving to Minnesota. I'm looking for parka's, snow pants, etc. in little kids sizes. I'm also looking for a down parka for my brother (men's large). What have your kids outgrown? Either post here or PM me.