mountainmandoug

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.

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.

Sounds like a good day out Stewart. I'll have some time to kill around Leavenworth next week if you might be in the area and want to do something. In any case have fun in Yosemite.

Congratulations Steph!. That looks like an awesome trip. I'm glad it worked out so well. Drop me a line and lets talk about some Gargoyles.

I use this same set up with an MSR Windpro. It has been great down to zero, and theoretically it would work down to -40. The burner of the Windpro is the same burner as the Simerlite and it has the generator tube to vaporize liquid fuel. It does occasionally have that problem with the valve stopping up and you have to keep playing with the valve to keep it roaring. Otherwise it is so much easier to use and more efficient than white gas. There's a lot of info on this at backpackinglight.com.

I'll be in the area and I'd love to get in a bit of climbing. I lead around 8-9 and I can follow most low 10's. I have some new cams I want to play with. Give me a call 360-301-4153. Douglas

Last summer I traversed from Camp Pan on Olympus to bear pass, this is fairly simple and it took us all of three hours. It's got some tricks to it on the North end of the traverse but nothing to difficult, a bit of 2-3rd class choss (you basically go over one of the peaks) and there's one place you need to pick the right notch across the ridge. I soppose if I dig out the map I could give you a detailed description. Climbing Olympus would probably be around 3-4 hrs from camp pan I soppose depending on the glaciers condition. You might give this friend an e-mail sabegg.googlepages.com, as she's been to that area a few times. I'll try to find the map and post a better description tomarrow.

I've used those big Petzle Prusic Minding Pulleys (PMP) for rescue work with big (12mm) static rope and 8mm prusics. They worked flawlessly, the nicest ratchet you could ask for. It really does depend on your rope and your cord though. Reportedly the little blue Petzle PMP is the best of the small ones for skinnier ropes. Always try before you fly.

I've mostly used carabiner brakes on thick static ropes, and it works fairly well and it's cheap. Break racks are great, although you usually only use about three bars. Figure eights work ok but they do twist the rope and in lots of situations that's a problem.

There are some state, county, and federal laws about when one can park along the road and when one can't. Usually they amount to that it's legal to park on the road if you do not block traffic and there are no signs prohibiting it. It is possible that deputies involved could have actually been illegal in enforcing an un-signed no parking area. Even if they had a foot to stand on legally I do think that towing people's cars in that circumstance could be argued to be reckless endangerment. One of the people involved could probably talk to a lawyer and sue the county. Possibly someone could talk to the prosecuting attorney's office about charging the deputy with reckless endangerment. That would be sure to shake things up. If you're friends are cited, it might be possible to talk to a civil defense attorney at no charge. It seems to me that probably this could be addressed through legal channels and most likely the people who's vehicle's have been towed could get damages paid by the county to cover the cost of the impound. If all that doesn't work, by all means raise hue and cry in the media (something I'm not a big fan of because of all of the inaccuracy involved), talk to your state legislators (who do love to get involved in stuff like this, they actually don't have a lot to do otherwise when the legislature is not in session), and do your best to un-elect the Sheriff next election. Make sure he knows why. Law enforcement are not tasked with endangering the lives of the public and they must be held accountable if they do so. That's my two cents and I hope things get resolved. Keep us posted on how it goes.

You might consider joining a SAR organization since you have that background. You will probably meet quite a few potential partners there and get to know a lot of folks. I'm letting my mountaineers membership lapse as I've found it's more fun to go climbing without the club, and often safer with a small party. But some of my partners are people I met there. This board can be good to. I found I had better luck responding to posts than posting in the climbing partners forum.

I assume terrible rock anywhere in the Olympics, and I was looking for difficulty rather than danger. There are lots of 4x routs in the Olympics (and probably some of them are considered that due to the rock being so poor it wouldn't hold gear). I'm wondering if it isn't probably something in the Needles.

A question that came up recently. What is the technically hardest mountain in the Olympic Range? That would be the peak with hardest standard rout, not the peak with the hardest approach or the hardest rout.

I am contemplating the purchase of a half rope for mountaineering and I'm trying to decide weather to spend the extra $15 for double dry. Does anyone have experience with the difference between dry treatment on just the sheath vs. the sheath and core?