RaisedByPikas

Your odds pretty much the same with either route. In July I think the success rate is about 60% for both routes. If you are concerned about fatigue it will be a problem on both routes, not one or the other. There will be less crowds on the emmons.

How do you report spam?

So what someone meant in your other post when they said that "your climbing resume was more important than your skin color" was when you were asking for partners on intermediate to advanced climbs on rainier you should probably tell use what you have climbed. That way people that are interested can evaluate whether they think you are up to the task or not. Of course if you have a bunch of trip reports credited to your name then it serves the same purpose.

?????

i guess i should read gooder.

Did they come from the factory like that or did the cracks develop after some use? The first is QC the second is possibly an R&D issue for such new cams.

At least there is one person in this state that uses it for something other than getting sweet videos of their lines down blue groomers.

Its only a matter of time and this should probably be made a sticky along with the recalls if it is true. It is a little suspicious that Petzl wouldn't have this on their website though. The really disconcerting part is apparently how good these supposed fakes are. With the fake arcteryx stuff its really easy to tell the difference.

Check out caving gear for your sport rappelling needs.

Both of those look OK to me to use primarily for glaciers and snow fields. As long as you have practiced with them you should be fine.

Man, nothing gets me going in the morning than a heated geography debate.

Take a look at Sahale Peak for when summer rolls around. Its a good intro to easy alpine climbing with both moderate snow and 4th class rock.

I didnt mean to say there was a need and I personally don't think there is. I meant to say that if the park really wanted those buildings they could get them if they put more of the concessoners money towards them. The services that I really think are necessary/ejoyable are the waste removal at the high camps, an updated climbing conditions blog, and rangers at the two high camps. Huge fines for abandoned blue bags would be nice too but not very enforceable.

I had great service at feathered friends when my wife and I got our AT setups during their preseason sale. Also it always feels nice to use REI's parking when going to FF.

"Mount Rainier National Park receives approximately $350,000 annually from the combined franchise fees of the three mountaineering concessioners. Franchise fees from all park concessioners (there are 5, total) are pooled and prioritized by park management for use on concession-related needs. Franchise fees augmented Line Item Construction funding and helped to support the recently completed structural rehabilitation of the historic Paradise Inn, and construction of the new Jackson Memorial Visitor Center. Franchise fees have also been used for projects such as the new roof and painting of the National Park Inn and Paradise Inn electrical upgrades. Since 2008, franchise fees have funded a climbing ranger to monitor the climbing concessions on the upper mountain. Franchise fees were also used for a major renovation of the Camp Muir Public Shelter. $54,000 in franchise fees are programmed to support the climbing program in 2011. The park will use franchise fees to complete the Camp Muir Development Concept Plan and then to implement the plan, including the replacement of toilets and other facilities at Camp Muir. The renovation of Camp Muir could include a new public shelter and/or guide-client building, as well as general rock wall and soil stabilization. Over a million dollars in franchise fees would be needed to complete all of these Camp Muir-related projects." Seems like it would take less than 5 years to save the money needed for all of the camp muir projects if the climbing concessions get all of their money back in improvements. Personally I think they should just raise the entrance fee by $5 and the annual by $10. It would generate a lot more money and we probably wouldn't care as much. The general public would grumble but it wouldn't reduce visitor counts.

I wont be at the meeting however I sent them an email asking some questions and never got an answer. If you look through their budget numbers then you will see that most of the money generated by the climbing concessions does not go back into the climbing program. It goes to some pool that is then used to benefit all of the concessions in some way. I want to know what that money gets used on and why more of it can't go back to the climbing program. The bottom line is the park service is going to do what they want and there isn't much that these meetings will change.

This is what I took away too. There is a difference between a ski boundary rope and a closed area. Out of bounds is not closed.

Just out of curiosity, how close were you to the edge on that top shot?

Did you forget to post your link to knock off Nike shoes?

If you probe a boot then you are bad at probing assuming the person isn't buried feet up. I like the idea of a transceiver guiding someone to within .2m of my core so that they can quickly probe and start digging with the knowledge that they know I am at the tip of the probe. Just because you might hit other debris isn't a good reason for not probing. You start probing at the minimum distance point shown on the beacon. This means you should hit their core within a few strikes if you have done your pinpoint search with the beacon correctly. I guarantee that having to adjust your digging strategy or rechecking your location after you start digging will cost more than the 30 seconds that it takes to probe.

You also probably don't need to wash your rope that often.

If you answer yes to both of these questions then you should probably think hard about not carrying a beacon, probe, and shovel... Can any of the terrain I am going to be on produce an avalanche? Is the snowpack "configured" such that an avalanche is possible? (within reason...we can all think of some freak situation in summer that might cause slides) On the common routes on Rainier in summer its yes, no. In the winter its most likely yes, yes.

I don't have a big sample size but all three pairs of boots that I have work great, hiking, mountaineering, and ski. My wife has needed insoles in her boots but other than that hers are good too. I guess it partially comes down to how gnarly or misproportioned your feet are.

I can't think of a reasonable situation where I wouldn't probe if the person is completely buried, even if they were buried very shallow. If the beacon says they are only .2 meters deep then you will have them out quickly anyway if they aren't head down so taking an extra 10 seconds to probe wont kill many brain cells.

Regurgitating what I have read from the books and will probably learn again in my avy 1 course in two weeks... The probe points you straight towards the victim once you hit them and it precludes the necessity to rescan with the beacon when your brain says "I should have hit the victim by now... maybe I should check again to make sure I'm in the right spot. Also if you start digging and are off by even a half meter then you will have wasted a huge amount of time. Furthermore, proper digging technique says that you should start digging downhill from the victim so you don't put weight on them and to remove snow faster. The probe depth gives you a good idea on how far back to start. The entire probing step shouldn't take very long, maybe 30 seconds to a minute at most if you are quick and decent with a beacon.