kroc

Good advice for an out of towner is to heed the forecast. My ex wife encountered a vicious ice storm/whiteout in Aug. That's when the size of the volcano can make finding your tent or not walking off a cliff or onto a glacier a challenge. While the weather hardly competes with the himalaya, the broad, low gradient, featureless S slope of Adams makes it possible to get lost when you can't see. When I climbed Adams I wore shorts (no glisside ) no axe, and never put my crampons on. Great views. If the forecast is poor go do something on the eastside of the cascades. That's my advice, please don't be offended.

I'd be suprised if you get ICU or ER right out of school these days. If that is your wish, maybe a medical telemetry unit. Tough floor, but I recently saw a friend who graduated 2.5 years ago, went right to tele and now floats in ICU. She doesn't want to work nights, so she stays in tele rather than going to ICU. My commute is a 8 min walk: small apt, but right downtown. You can almost certainly plan on working nights, 1900-0730 3 days a week; working every other weekend. That is typical at swedish. There is sportcliming that can be done in an easy 1/2 day from Seattle and a great trad crag pretty close; with traffic dinner might be on the later side. Climbing on the west side of the cascades is always uncertain until almost july, but you will get days in. Also in eary summer it doesn't get dark until almost 10PM so you can stretch a day out.

Hi Chris, Sucks this is going on. I wasn't thinking MRI believe it or not. Seems like an x-ray would be worthless, especially given your home poke/prod test. If you end up seeing an MD and they want an x-ray get out ASAP. I guess I was thinking about a freind at work. She had this nagging running pain and picked the brain of many doctors at work, none of who are sports/joint specialists. Many different thoughts. Then she goes on a date with a sports doctor and he gives her an obvious (after the fact) diagnosis over dinner. (A calf muscle hernia of sorts). Didn't give her a fix though, because there isn't an easy one. My very non professional advice is to avoid all movement that causes sharp pain. If climbing in the gym causes it use a hangboard and weights to keep strong, but rest the ankle tissue as much as possible. Hope its ligiments, not tendons, recovery time will be shorter. The good news is that it sounds like skiing doesn't hurt, maybe because the ankle is almost in a cast. It's a good year for that, I go at least once a week, let me know if you want to carpool.

Sounds like ligament or tendon issue not a break. Why not see a doctor? I'm guessing you have insurance. What you don't seem to have is a good diagnosis. Forget primary doc. Call in and ask for a sports medicine MD. I'm sure you can get some good recomendations. If you don't have good idea what's wrong it is hard to know what to do and what to avoid. Why wait a couple weeks?

I'm an RN at Swedish in Seattle, they are still hiring new grads. In fact, Swedish, Harborview, Overlake, Virginia Mason, and Valley all are expanding or just finished expanding. The hospitals are trying to catch up with area population growth. Although they perfer not to have to pay to train you, they have to fill positions. Agency nurses are expensive. In the rural areas you are looking at it might not be so easy. Keep trying and good luck on the NCLEX. You can PM me if you have any questions.

I second "ski the whole mountain". If you can afford it, maybe a couple of private lessons would have value. The instructors could spot technique flaws and give you exercises to work on. I would want to make sure my money was spent on a good one, not sure how to research that though. Are you getting a pass? Nothing beats days on the hill.

I spoke with somone today at Swedish hospital who knew the victim in his capacity as a diabetes educator out at Neah Bay. She told me that his classes about living with cronic illness really helped her and her family. Nothing but nice things to say about the man, sounds like he made an impact out there and will be missed...

75% of Reno inhabitants are confirmed psychopaths. It could be higher depending on which study you use...

Anyone approach this climb from the east, from the elbow lake TH? (forest road 12) This would avoid all gate closure issues. Does anybody climb this route? Fred seems to think highly of it...

Not much of an occupation. Sounds like more of a police action. About 25,000 US troops were in Somalia, compare that with almost 250,000 to start the Iraq war...

I've seen two people in the last 30 days with gangrene in the toes/amputations due to poor lower extremity circulation secondary to tobacco use. Not pretty.

SW ridge of symmetry spire was a fun one day 5.7. Steep but positive holds. N face of teewinot had great exposure, but more loose rock on the easy pitches than usual on a 'classic' route. It does feature cool cave/tunnel through the mountain. I always wanted to get on the garnet traverse route on shoshone spire, but can't speak for it's quality. In June I would plan on S facing routes.

Fed-x style mailing envelopes can provide an extra barrier to place a poop bag into. They are quite puncture resistant. There is only so much you can do about the smell. If you will only use them a couple times a year, pvc tube seems like a reasonable expense, just toss it in a dumpster after a climb.

Buckeyes showed Oregon a bit more D than a typical Pac-10 team. Sounds like the ducks return a lot of starters, maybe next year..... GO BUCKS!!!

I'm reading Tom Patey, read this a few days ago: " Mike Taylor and I had long been fasinated by this face, the more so after meeting with Mac Smith , that redoubtable bloodhoud of a climber...In answer to our question, he assured us that was nothing there worth the walk from Derry-it was all rotten and loose and were it otherwise would have been climbed long ago. Knowing Mac as we did,it was immediately obvious that he was only waiting an opportunity to return. We could delay no longer."

In no particular order..... Mixed emotions, G. Child This game of ghosts, J. Simpson Games climbers play, Wilson Climbing in North America, C. Jones The ridiculous mountains, G.F. Dutton Climbing anchors, J. Long The mountains of my life, W. Bonatti The cascade alpine guide, Vol 1-3, F. Beckey Climbing tales of terror, T. Knight Fifty classic climbs in North America, Steck and Roper

Another point to remember is that in some other mountain ranges the bad weather tends to come in faster than in the cascades, with more electrical activity. Not always safe to use 15+ hours to get up a route. I think the general idea is to treat simul-climbing as a solo with a slight chance of survival. You can also try to anticipate short difficulties to try and get a normal belay in. Sometimes you have to cover a lot of vertical and that's why a big route can be more serious that it's hardest technical rating may suggest.

Thanks for the beta.

Im thinking about trying the moonraker. Does getting there still require a 4WD HC vehicle? We will have a ford focus, and the driver would prefer not to punish the car to badly. While Im at it, how steep is the descent snow ramp? And how feasible is it to summit Athelstan from the top of moonraker and what would that entail? Thanks for any info.

sklag I'm with you on tape gloves. I too work in a hospital with direct patient contact. I am pretty much around something gross, infectious, antibiotic resistant or a combination of the three on a daily basis (days I work that is). As added bonus, I wash my hands or hit the purell when I enter and exit every room, beating down my hands so much that even small wounds take much longer to heal. I feel I simply have to wear tape gloves. Does it let me get away with sloppy technique? Absolutely. But what can I say? If anyone is willing to change bandages on a gangrened foot infected with MRSA with big gobies under their gloves, more power to ya; but I feel I have a get out of jail free card and I want to play it. I climb with people who jamb hard sans gloves and I'm impressed, but they have all said that they tore up their hands getting that smooth style, so I guess that ship has sailed for me. So tape up those hands, jam hard and when you see people using gloves that don't have our excuse make commits like: "It’s pretty poor form to use that tape you know, almost like stepping on a bolt. I feel terrible that I am forced to use them myself, just another sacrifice I make for the good of all humanity. What is your job?... Engineer?... Huh." Then as you turn your back mutter :"that pussy should never be wearing tape." That's what I do.

PM'd

PM'd

PM in.

We got our 4th.

Stevens friends and family four pack weekday season passes are $1000, that's $250 each, plus tax. Two friends and I are looking for a fourth. Details of the pass are on the stevens website, PM me if interested. -Jeff