RaisedByPikas

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.

Considering all sewn harnesses and slings use bartack I would say so. I guess you could tie various knots but that would be bulky. I'll go ahead and assume that you are also planning on double backed buckles and not the pinch type buckles or belt type that most dog packs use.

Whippet arrived as described and fast, Thanks.

PM sent about the whippet.

Seller posts Item for sale Someone agrees to pay. Buyer sends payment via whatever method agreed upon. Usually once payment is received the seller will ship. Sometimes a seller may ship prior to receiving payment if they trust the buyer or its a cheap item. Everyone is happy. If you are the seller you essentially have no risk because you don't have to ship until the money is in your bank account. The only thing paypal requires in a dispute is proof of shipment. Paypal will not usually require the money to be held, you can transfer it immediately most of the time. Never count on paypal to actually get your money back in a dispute. That being said I have never seen a scam on this site or any climbing forum for that matter. I wish I could say that about every internet forum. There is an old warning about someone on this forum however. Basically sales on internet forums are based on faith if you are the buyer. Buying from someone with no posts that is selling poorly described rack might be riskier than buying from someone with many posts and several trip reports. People who are regulars on these sites usually want to keep a good reputation.

This may not be a big deal to some but it looks like it will be difficult to change the heel position with a ski pole tip like you can with Dynafits.

Yeah, if he had stopped just a foot or two to the left then he would have been carried down into the couloir instead of up onto the ridge.

Saw this on TAY.

Can anyone scan the portion that describes the sniffing and paste it on here?

The boots will get you where you want to go are definitely overkill. Wait until you actually have the skills and money before buying gear for Alaska. You will need a lot of goose feathers and much more expensive gear than just good boots to go on winter trips or up north.

I'm guessing by "north face 20 degree bag" he is talking about a synthetic. It will be really hard to fit all of your gear in a 45 liter pack with a big synthetic bag so I would stick with the big pack. Also, I would buy boots for late spring/summer mountaineering and skip the plastics. By the time you have money for high altitude or winter trips then you will probably have money for better gear. If you buy a bunch of overkill stuff right now, your trips will be less enjoyable and probably less successful because you will be bogged down with a bunch of heavy 4 season gear. There is nothing wrong with only buying lighter duty mountaineering gear and limiting yourself to the warmer seasons. Given the choice of 4 trips all in the summer or 1 trip per season I would definitely take 4 trips in the summer. Most early season mountaineering is best done with skis or ice tools, both of which are expensive. Now that I've read more about your situation it seems like your best bet for the long run will be to buy the minimum amount of gear that you need for a 3 day guided trip on Baker. The money that you would have to spend on a tent, crampons, boots, and an ice axe will pay for the guide. You will have a much more enjoyable trip and you wont be worrying about whether you are doing something wrong or endangering yourselves. I can almost guarantee that you wont think you wasted your money even if you don't summit. You've got 7-8 months to save up an extra $5-600 (plus tip), I'm sure you can swing that some how.

I'm guessing that without really big snow shoes or skis its going to be an exercise in futility no matter what the avalanche conditions or weather say.

However if you are serious about mountaineering you will eventually need to hire a guide to learn glacier travel or take a class but those usually last a few months.

Mt Adams is pretty straight forward navigation wise and it should take 2 days although strong climbers can go fast and light and do it in a long day. Do a search for Mt. Adams in the trip report section (or on google) and anything that has "south" in the title is what you want. There is no glacier so no need for a rope/harnesses, its hiking up snow slopes, maybe 30 degrees at most. You will want to go probably by mid to late july depending on the snow, after that it becomes a long dusty slog. If you have backpacking experience, practice the neccesary snow skills down low and are in decent shape you should be fine as long as altitude or weather doesn't get you.

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If you want a peak that a beginner can do with little practice and no guide, look at the Mt. Adams south side route. The only non weather related skills you need to know is how/when to use crampons, how to self arrest, and how to glissade. A competent person can learn these from reading freedom of the hill and watching the better youtube videos and then you can practice them on the mountain on the first safe snow slope you get to. Oh, and buy your gear off of online forums like this one, it will be much cheaper.

http://cascadeclimbers.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/users/10597/Jamin

Read rule #1...

Yeah, they still haven't answered my email asking for more specifics on what the rest of the franchise fees are used for. It seems that climbers are generating enough money for the park but the park isn't appropriating that money correctly (at least not from a climbers perspective).