mountainmandoug

I had some similar reservations coming to climbing from a rope rescue background. Spend some time prusiking up 8mm ropes with 5mm prusiks, and take some leader falls on those tiny camp carabiners and shoe-lace looking dyneema runners, and you'll start to have faith in this crazy looking gear. That said, you should be much more careful about what happens to your climbing gear than you would your commercial equipment. It's plenty strong, but if you damage it there's not a lot of margin left. I replace my 5mm hero loop around twice a year. Have fun and be safe.

Look at http://shop.bivysack.com/ They will do custom work for a reasonable fee, and there will definitely be people to converse with about what size the sack actually is and what you will need.

I'd like to head out there if I can either find a carpool or someone to ride with me and split gas. My little chariot gets about 40mpg so splitting the trip with one other person would end up reasonable. Ideally I'd like to head out on the morning of the 7th and head back the afternoon of the 11th (alternate driving and get home Sunday morning) but I could be flexible around your schedule. I have a friend we can stay with in the area.

I have a 75cm Omega Pacific axe with a titanium head that I'd be happy to sell. About 18oz and good for snow climbing and glacier travel, used but much life left. $25

There are pros and cons to the different options. AAI probably would give you the highest quality of instruction, but it doesn't introduce you to very many other climbers and it definitely costs a lot. My own experience with the Kitsap and Seattle branches of the mountaineers was very mixed, I met some excellent instructors and climbers and some that were well worth avoiding. I've heard nothing but good reports about the Bellingham branch however. What clubs like the mountaineers do that is very helpful is introduce you to quite a few people and provide you with people to climb with. Instruction is important, but practice is just as important. Another option would be the course taught by the Skagit Alpine Club. I've heard good reports about it as well. Be sure to do your own research in the learning process as well. Don't just read one book and take it as the right way to do everything. Get decent instruction in the basics, than find some other beginners and spend lots of time practising those basics. Don't rush to progress to fast, make sure you master things as you go along. The learning process is fun, make the most of it. About leading trad: lessons would probably be nice if you can afford them. Many fatal accidents happen from gear pulling, and that is largely avoidable. Finding some partners who are highly competent with gear and following them is of great importance. Someone could probably spend a day showing you how everything works and such, but it takes a greater breadth of experience to really be good at that particular art. There is a lot of shoddy trad taking place, and a lot of risks taken in the learning process. I started leading trad without enough instruction and I survived, but in retrospect it was a dumb thing to do. You won't necessarily have to hire a guide to learn that stuff, but I would say you need to climb with some experts.

I shortend my Raven Pro by finding a shorter one at Second Ascent and selling them my long one. I guess I'm lazy.

I haven't ever owned a Subary but I know many who do, and I've talked the idea over with a few mechanics. They are a nice, comfortable, convenient platform for all of the uses you mention. The post-2005 outbacks have quite good ground clearance and the electronic awd systems work quite well. My Aunt's 2008 outback with studs all around is the best snow-and-ice vehicle I have ever driven. The 2.5 litre engine has a reputation for the head-gasket problem at around 100k miles, which tends to be very expensive to fix. Otherwise I've mostly heard good things about Subaru's engineering. The "underpowered" issue is really an issue of preference, they will all do 70 on the freeway, some will accelerate and climb hills faster than others. Reports are that the 2.2 litre engine was much more reliable, but it is extremely rare. The older Subaru's that you could put in 2wd were known to get a bit better mileage. In the 90's Toyota built a small number of Corolla wagons with all wheel drive that have a great reputation. They are tough to come by though. I've heard good things about the Volvo wagons, the certainly look roomy and comfortable, some are 4wd and they aren't supposed to be bad on fuel considering. To a certain extent little cars can get by with less clearance than bigger vehicles, since you can usually figure out a way through the rocks without touching anything. I think that's how civic's end up in such interesting places. The driver tends to be the most critical part of the operation in a lot of cases. I think that a 5-speed standard is a good choice for mountain driving. AWD is nice but tires or chains make the most difference in the snow, particularly on the down-hills. I think clearance and good tires are more useful on the rough stuff than 4wd. You might also consider Toyota Tacoma, Honda CRV, and an AWD min-van (not cool those small vans, but useful as all get out). Personally I've found that the freeway and the fuel pump are usually the crux of the driving, and my recently acquired Tercel handles both fairly well.

I believe the best warmth-to-weight ratio in a light synthetic hoody is the Cocoon Insulated hoody from backpackinglight.com. Clo of 2.5, a smidge under 10oz. It doesn't really take much down to be as warm as all of these synthetic coats being discussed. Personally, I don't think there is much of a comparison, really good down clothes are always warmer per ounce but don't deal with moisture the same way at all. If you really need something that will put up with getting wet from outside and in, allow you to dry other things under it, and keep working for an indefinite period of time while you sweat under it and get it wet, than you need a synthetic jacket no matter the weight difference.

I've not done this, I don't have a tag-line set up, but I've read about rapping just off the webbing without a ring using a single rope and tag line with the webbing tied off into a tiny loop that the knot will jam in. Imagine tying your rap anchor with about six inches extra length, than tying an overhand knot on a bight to make a small loop that the rope runs through. Probably want to tie your overhand a bit loose and than sort of snug it down onto the rope. Than I think you should rappel with both ropes through your device relying on the knot jamming in the loop to hold it all in place. That sounds sketchy as hell when I describe it. Maybe I'll have to rig it up from a tree branch and play with it to see how it works. I'm a fan of twins or halves. It is spendy to own many ropes though.

I agree with Gene, the order of desirability is rock pro, ice screws, and snow anchors. Snow anchors are time-consuming to build and rarely all that strong, and honestly I think that the preferred technique will be to practice in order to gain enough proficiency in climbing steep snow that when pickets are the only viable option you will be comfortable soloing. Usually when pickets will work you can get excellent self-belays with an axe or full-depth daggers with picks. You should be able to kick pretty good to excellent steps. In those sorts of conditions I'd say soloing, even bringing a second tool in order to solo, is worthwhile. I usually like this better than roping up and using questionable snow anchors. I do generally carry at least one picket in these circumstances in case I need to belay a follower. People vary in there comfort level on this sort of climbing. If conditions are unusual such that the steep snow is very scary to solo, (fluted sugar snow, a couple of inches of mush over a crust, or something like that) it may simply make the climb un-safe by any method.

This is one of the more seriously serious alpine adventures I've read about on this site for a while. Congratulations on a great climb of what sounds like a great rout. I'll have to put that on the list for someday. Anybody else noticed that it seems like ice climbing and beautiful women go together? Who would have guessed?

Not meaning to drift the thread to much but does anyone have any experience with the Black Diamond 12-pointer called the Serac? It's supposed to be an ounce lighter than the Sabertooth and looks fairly similar to the G-12 in shape to my untrained eye.

There's no doubt that God assigned Steph a guardian angel that is just as bad-ass as she is.

I talked to a fellow who had a MB 80 liter and loved it, he couldn't recommend it highly enough. I picked up a there 40-liter about a year ago and I love the thing, it's been a great climbing and skiing day-pack that's not to heavy and the price was right. I looked over the 60 last time I was in Jim's shop and I have to say the suspension system looks quite bomber, I think it would carry weight quite well. The packs are made out of tough fabric and thus far I've had no seam issues with my little one, I'm thinking it will last a long time. I think those are probably the bargain of the climbing pack market right now.

Cubic. CiloGear doesn't offer a warranty on the NWD packs either. Just accounting for it on our balance sheet would put us out of business. The CT5K.18 is really surprisingly durable in the rock/alpine world, but it's too easily destroyed for something you sell. We've made packs made from featherweight materials for our athletes, but we stopped going down that road because you didn't really win that much weight for all the durability you give up. I've got to remind the world that we've been working with CT very closely to get this stuff right for over four years. We tried more than 25 different stock materials before getting to where we were two years ago. Basically, it outperforms anything else at the same weight. Period. It is a monstrous pain to get the manufacturing dialed in, but now that we developed a how-to book, I think you'll see more and more of it in the market. Folks using our NWD packs have won Piolet D'Ors, golden piton awards, done many many many first ascents in AK, WA, CO, Argentina and the himalayas. IMHO, our solution is totally superior to a nylon scrim. Our scrim material -- used in the crampon pouch and the front panels of the packs and a few other spots -- offers superior UV degradation, better abrasion resistance, doesn't absorb any water (nylon scrims definitely do), and better load transfer. Oh, I did try nylons and corduras, but they kinda suck in comparison to what we use. Good luck. You probably won't. AFAIK, the best weaver of Dyneema/Spectra doesn't do anything thinner than 140d. We actually are working on a really light something, and you might see it next spring. But don't hold your breath! (The cost of the damn stuff is probably going to between insane and inappropriate.) We're also supposed to get some samples of a 40d ish Dyneema that's not a traditional woven. Oh, and it's pretty much impossible to get Dyneema and Silicon to stick together without an encapsulation... A really light something that costs somewhere between insane and inappropriate? You never let it stop you before Graham. At this point my budget makes me just a spectator in the the whole high-tech-pack-fabric market, but it's interesting none the less. I'll look forward to seeing what you come up with.

Great pick of climbing the root ball of the tree to cross the river. That looks suspiciously like the same tree Steph and I used in 2007. I sounds like you found a better rout up the hillside than we did, ours was bad. Certainly one of the coolest places I've been. Way to get there and back, even without stove fuel. Ironically the "Camping Gaz" fuel is the harder stuff to find on this side of the pond. Congratulations on your unemployment and grand adventure.

In response to Grahm's post on Cuben magic cloth, I think it's worth noting that Z-packs doesn't promise that much durability, and I don't think that they actually provide a warranty. I'm honestly surprised to see cuben used by this many pack makers, as it has some huge challenges in that application. One new company has resorted to developing a new modified fabric with a layer of woven nylon in the mix to make a better pack fabric. Only time and experience will tell. I think at this point the two people with the most knowledge of making things out of that stuff are probably Ron Bell at Mountain Laurel Designs and Graham at Cilo gear, and they both remark on how tricky it was to figure it out. Personally, I've always wondered if a lighter woven spectra fabric might be the best way to build lighter packs, maybe a 40-denier spectra or dynema with a silicone coating? I've never heard of such a fabric though.

Nice work guys. I do have to agree Jiri, that summit is one of the most "alpine summit" feeling places I have ever been.

I live in the 'Ham and have an annoyingly predictable M-F work schedule. Like trad and alpine, alpine more. Maybe we should go climb something?

I haven't been up Washington but I've lead a fair bit of Olympic choss and this is what I've found works for me on that sort of rock. Don't fall! Avoid using a rope as much as possible because it pulls loose rock off, skip simul-climbing on easy terrain because it can make it more dangerous. Don't fall! Don's sling the detached rocks, I've found that I never really like slinging anything that will fit inside a double runner. On ridges it's nice to have several cordalett's sometimes, since you can sling a big enough piece of mountain that it might hold you. I think the tendency to sling small horns in the Olympics is bad and should be avoided. Don't fall! Take small gear, little nuts and small cams and a pink tri-cam. When everything is broken often you can place gear in the horizontal crack underneath a large boulder or horn in such a way that force on the piece will try to lift the rock. I think this is a better bet than slinging the thing and having the leverage force wanting to pull it loose. Don't fall! I generally have used nuts from say a BD #4-#10 or so, and Metolious cams less than an inch (smaller than yellow). The most confidence-inspiring cracks are often tiny. I have not found that I use bigger cams at all. On a serous rout I'd be very inclined to take small pins And most importantly of all, don't fall!

I'm looking for a partner for a one day alpine climb somewhere in the North Cascades. Possibly N Face of Shuksan, N Ridge of Forbidden, NE Face of Sefrit, or make me a suggestion. 360-301-4153

Spending another few seconds to tuck the tails of the straps back under the tight part of the strap can fix this problem.

I don't think the bottom has ever been in the used sailboat market. The expensive aspect of boats is the upkeep, so they are often for sail cheep just to get out of the costs of moorage and maintenance. Have fun with her and stay above the water Dan.

I guided Olympus last summer, and I once climbed if from the west (but that's another story) it's a very cool mountain, I think it may be the most scenic glacier climb in the state. I highly recommend camping up on the mountain, and if you have extra time going up five fingers or middle peak is cool to, although you need to be comfortable scrambling on choss. I don't recommend using a rope on Olympic slate, as useful pro is hard to get and the rope causes dangerous rockfall. It would also be worth traversing over to the pass at the head of the Hoh glacier, and possibly camping at Camp Pan if you have time. The main summit is fairly decent sandstone and will probably protect ok with whatever you brought, I've just climbed up and down the low-fifth unprotected but of course if that's not in your comfort zone than don't. Certainly you could fold a glacier rope in half for that one short pitch. Probably take some paper to leave in the summit register as it was low last time I was there. It's best to leave some weather days in the plan as the weather is never completely reliable. If you do get good weather this is a really awesome mountain adventure.

I'm free on Sunday and itching to get out. Drop me a PM, especially if you are into alpine....