Maine-iac

PDK thanks for the site; thats what I was looking for. davidk sorry you felt like you had to give up mountain biking. I'm sure the armor you had on prevented many more injuries as it displaced much of the impact forces around your entire body. I'm not about to stop skiing or jumping off things. My specific fall was just a weird accident not caused by how hard I was going at that particular time just bad luck. Who knows what would have happened if I had on some protective gear but having the gear will help lessen further injuries; and that's why i'm looking for some.

Cross posted from the skiing forum, but ideas are ideas and the more the better! After a recent cliff hucking experience that left me with a plate and 11 screws in my shoulder I feel it is about time to look into some external aid. So the question is what are people using for armor? I'm interested in hearing about knee pads, spine protection, and helmets and any others I might be missing. It seems like POC has a specific line up for explorers like me: Link Giro seems to lack a little on their upper end protection design wise; or am I wrong? Thanks for the help and ideas! Only 8-12 weeks before I'm back in action.

After a recent cliff hucking experience that left me with a plate and 11 screws in my shoulder I feel it is about time to look into some external aid. So the question is what are people using for armor? I'm interested in hearing about knee pads, spine protection, and helmets and any others I might be missing. It seems like POC has a specific line up for explorers like me: Link Giro seems to lack a little on their upper end protection design wise; or am I wrong? Thanks for the help and ideas! Only 8-12 weeks before I'm back in action.

I pre-bought my tickets...

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How tall are you Kimmo? 173 doesn't seem that bad. Once you get into the single digits you will notice that those unplanned bivies are actually quite cold and painful because you have no fat to cushion your ass and keep you warm.

Another quick point is that you can leave from paradise at an early time as well that way you can relax up at Muir for a few hours longer. You could easily have 12 hours of rest time up at Muir and still manage a 2 day climb. When going on a guided trip you are buying two things: a summit and safety. While the summit is not guarantied it is placed over "having fun" on their list of priorities. Also with a guide your margin of safety becomes much larger; both during the summit climb and from the learning of technical skills during the pre summit seminars. A guided trip will get any person (as long as you are fit and the weather holds) to the summit. But with a personal trip where you spend a great deal of time preparing and learning everything yourself, well imho you will get more out of that.

Just had surgery today. They put in a plate and 11 screws. Now the count down begins....

Good to hear about the recovery times. The doc said that surgery is a must because the two large parts are overlapping each other by 3cm, displaced by 200%, and I've got that third part of the bone in there as well... each one of those things by itself could warrant surgery and ive got all three of 'em!

While skiing at Baker over the weekend I fell backwards off a cliff (12ft of airtime) and landed on my left shoulder snapping my clavicle into 3 pieces. Currently it looks like a Z, with a point poking out of the very front/top of my mid-shoulder. The break is protruding forward, so it looks like a weird extension of my pectoral muscle. I am going to the DRs later on, so will update this, but I was wondering what sort of recovery time I may be looking at, and any other helpful recommendations. Thanks.

I tried the foam roller and cried. Guess i'm not man enough for it, so be warned if your ITs are strung tighter than a guitar string it's going to be fun. When i started back up with physical activity, outside of normal everyday walking and biking to class/work I did it at the gym not outside. I did this because I can control everything on a treadmill, and change things very slowly, and know that every different time on the machine i will be going at the same exact pace. I did a week or two at 20 minutes, then 2 or 3 weeks for 30 minutes (3x week). I'd walk for the first 5 minutes, then jog for 5 then walk for the last 10 (good pace, right around that point where you can not comfortably walk before having to run). I did the same thing for the 30 minute time frame, (5@walk 10@ run 5@walk 5/10@ run 5 @walk). I would increase the gradient while walking, but I ran on the flat. After 5/6 weeks of that, I was ready to 20/30 minutes worth of running, and then could proceed like normal for increasing running distance. I also got a pair of trekking poles which are awesome for the downhills because thats what tweaks the knees.

Nepals are awesome! Almost out of the box I put on 15 miles. I have heard great things about that entire line up from Sportiva, i'd get the red ones if you were going to more summer hiking than anything else, silvers for spring/fall and the yellows (Nepals) for year round awesomeness.

Im looking into some Alaska Guiding and was just wondering if anybody has any experience with either Alaska Alpine Adventures or St. Elias Alpine Guides? Any thoughts?

This may be a silly Q, but have you taken a serious amount of time off? I've had IT issues before, and the first time it just went away after a month of so of tapered training, icing, stretching and massage. And the second time it flared up after a day of hiking where I gained/lost 10k (20k total), again I had to wait and wait before I could do anything again. I now take precautions when starting up the training from doing nothing for a long time. FWIW I used one of those total knee brace things that goes over your entire knee. Also I made sure to do balanced stretches, like if I am stretching the medial part of my leg, stretch the lateral part as well.

I have probably taken 8 weeks off from climbing after ever so slightly tweaking my middle finger. Before I climb again it will be 10 weeks of no climbing, but those extra 2 weeks is just because my local wall is being rebuilt and it finishes in another few weeks.

pm'ed

Oh yeah been there as well, but had forgotten. It is just across that bridge in govy camp, on the way to Ski Bowl East. Nice place with nice couches, beds, and a cooking area. The guys a nice guy, I just showed up and got a bed. It might be worth calling him up though.

Good question. I slept in a car since the area was kinda full. If its empty I say go for it. People have some massive rigs there so I'm sure you could argue for having a tent and a car. I would not leave my tent up all day without being near it. If you don't mind the drive you can go up to T-line and put a tent in their lot, but again I would not leave anything up during the day.

You can sleep in the Meadows parking lot. Just put your car in the RV section near the entrance and you are good to go (have a snopark pass). It can be a little loud and sometimes rowdy when the employees get off of work, but its never that bad. I slept there for around a week once.

Here is what I'm writing for what other information I think should be in the registration room. Weather (current and future including freezing levels) and avalanche reports (I check beforehand, but always like to recheck). It is very nice being able to look at previous climber's registrations to see how conditions are, and what routes have been climbed and how many people will be climbing on the same route that you intend to climb. As for the room itself, current photos of the mountain would be nice, maybe photos of winter and late spring conditions. Also information relating to the Hood triangle with bearings on how to get down. It would be very easy to reproduce these with arrows showing what directions/declinations (major landmarks) to travel, this could be done for any route on the mountain. Also large scale topo maps of Hood just for last minute reference, with key landmarks labeled. Hell, put in a vending machine with PLBs, MLUs, SatPhones, Radios, whatever rescue thing you want, make it payable via credit card and don't charge a penny for it unless they don't return it. If its free and convenient it will get used. Also, I feel that your question about the electronic system is slightly misleading or worded incorrectly.... Am I having to register using both paper and electronic? Or does the electronic take the place of paper? How are you going to mitigate the temperature affects for an electrical system?

They should plow right to the rim year round. I've been up that way a few times in winter and they tend to be a little slow at plowing it out, but it does get done. Mt. Scott has some good lines from what I've heard, and its best to get at Scott from the road not from the visitors center. It looks like there are some sick lines lookers left of the visitor center down to the lake near Wizard island. Probably a bitch of a hike back, but for those turns i'd probably do it.

Just ask your significant other to "pinch some fat" and you will be shown for free where ya have it. Rules: No time at all or pinches multiple places quickly keep going to the gym Under 5 seconds to find it 8% - 10% Under 10 seconds 5% - 8% If she can't find it then <5% On a serious note- You might try looking at UW's human phys lab to see if they have any studies going on. Quite often at UO we have various lactic threshold tests or VO2 tests going on. I think I have seen some tests including measurement of body fat. AND they typically pay YOU to take the test.

Fuck 'em. You seen this hills across the road?? That's where the goods are. I was at Willamette pass a few years back, they had just gotten 4ft of new snow over the week and I was not about to wait in line for first chair. Some buddies and I started skinning up, and as the patrollers were going up on the lift they were all yelling at us not to be doing that. I made sure to yell extra loud as I got first tracks down their run. Everybody at all resorts get cranky with up hill traffic. When I have a resort day, rarely do I bring my skins unless I am truly going out of their boundaries and just using their lifts to save me a few hours of walking. When I want to skin, I don't even think about doing it at a resort. They are two separate things in my mind. The FS likes the money and Bachelor is full of rich people from Bend.

I'll take a 13cm and 17cm of the express turbo ones.

If you legislate it for Hood you sure as hell better legislate it for the entire US. I took it upon myself to be medically trained and rescue trained, my friends did the same thing. Climbers and hikers going into the larger ranges tend to have similar views on it, e.g. be as self-sufficient as one can. Hood is a different story all together. It is 50 minutes outside of Portland, over a half-million people can see it from their windows and it has a 4 hour gradual walk up. Rainier does not, and thus can not be categorized in the same way Hood can. Before I am legally forced to carry something I want to see the climbers hut at Hood kept up better. Keep it stocked with bluebags and registration forms. Have a forest service personal checking on the #s every day, have published route conditions and avalanche forecasts. Make it safer for people who don't know what to look for while preping and climbing. Why not have forest service people up there occasionally to check up on things? Fact of the matter is people will die in the mountains due to either controllable or uncontrollable events. The greater public needs to understand this. In the last few deaths the climbers have generally been experienced and an accident has occurred. I chose to climb Hood on friday morning as well. The weather window was large enough for me not to be overly concerned. I knew roughly when that window would be closing and I chose my route accordingly.