Doug Shepherd

Nice job guys! It looked great last week from the valley, psyched you got on it. Those plateau's are horrible in a white-out, aye? Glad you made it back safe and sound.

Yes. I climbed with a friend last weekend who had fitted the new pommels onto the old Nomic. Said it wasn't hard at all, I didn't press for details because I don't have Nomics.

The face fabric is the choice of the company who constructed the jacket. You can bond eVent (just like Goretex) to any number of different styles of face fabric. I put a bunch of holes in my eVent jacket chimney climbing as well. It sucks but that isn't eVent's fault. It's my fault for taking an extremely lightweight hard shell up a chimney. You're right to blame the manufacturer (in your specific examples, Westcomb and Lowe Alpine) for the face fabric choice, not eVent.

What exactly wore out on your friends' jacket? The membrane or the face fabric?

Wow, that was quick. Off to a new home!

I have four Cascade and one Quad pick for the old Quarks (I think those names are right? The B and T picks) that I'm not using anymore. They are very worn, but I'm sure some handy work with a file or a trip to Dane will make them usable for a bit longer. At worst, they are beater picks for dry-tooling. Anyways, whoever PMs me first their address gets them for free, I'll just toss them in the mail.

Have you been on Home Field Advantage?

Have you been to that climb? There is NO way that falling ice would of hit Bryan even if the whole climb came down. That perspective definitely doesn't give a good idea of how sheltered the belay is. Falling on bolted mixed climbs is pretty damn common. Personally, I wouldn't want to fall on that particular climb, but have done my sharing of falling off bolted roofs when trying to pull onto the ice. That said, John needs to stop falling on pure ice climbs.

I have the Panasonic LX3 and it is an awesome camera! The HD video is takes is quite good, but is 720p @ 24 fps and you can't zoom while shooting. All of the climbing videos that I've made this season have been shot on one. The lens is the best thing about this camera and I definitely consider it a great point and shoot camera that happens to take decent video. That said, I broke down and picked up a Sanyo VPC-CG20 for 180 bucks. It shoots both 1080p @ 30 fps and 720p @ 60 fps, has a 5x optical zoom and so far seems really nice. The best feature? It weighs about 6 oz with battery and SD card. It is part of Sanyo's "dual camera" line, which shoot both photos and videos. The photos are 10MP, but are no where near the quality of the LX3. If you aren't too worried about publishing your photos and just want them for the web, etc... and want to shoot video, definitely check out the whole dual camera range from Sanyo, there are higher end models that have better sensors and more features.

The Monster 7.8mm twins/doubles are hands down the best set of skinny ropes I've ever used. I've owned or heavily used offerings from Beal, Petzl, Bluewater, Mammut, and Sterling. I am amazed at how much abuse I was able to put my first set through before I had to buy new ones, which I'm using now. The first set survived 2.5 ice/mixed seasons (average about 70 days a season), a 6 week trip to South America, a week trip to Alaska, and two alpine rock seasons. The dry coating is very very good. I got them stuck (in a pouring waterfall) rapping the sixth pitch of Broken Hearts in Cody and had to walk around to free them. They had almost completely dried out by the time we finished the walk off. I don't have any experience with the single cords, but highly recommend the twin/doubles.

The knowledge that Mark shared is hard won. No matter what you read on the internet, you need to get out and slowly strip your system down to what works. Steve was rescued in about an hour because he: 1. Had his cell phone 2. Was on Mt. Temple where there is cell phone recption 3. Was in Canada where the rescue is unbelievable 4. Had a heads up partner in Bruce Again, here's to Steve's recovery, that is what's important.

I had avoided posting in this thread, but mentioning Steve House... He had a really bad fall this past week on Mt. Temple. Here's to his recovery!

You picked two of the easiest approaches (for major routes) and also trade routes which are extremely fat this season. There is definitely big adventure to be had in the Southfork! Glad you had a good time! Head back and try out some of the harder routes next season, there's lots to do!!

Since they are stiffer and louder, you have a little harder time sneaking up on baa than a lighter boot. BUT, since they are warmer, you can lie in wait longer without getting cold toes. It's a trade-off for sure, but one well worth it in my opinion.

The 6001s are single boots, so comparable to the Batura and the Phantom Guides. The fit is extremely similar to an M11/M11+, but a bit roomier in the toes. Kayland re-did their boot sizing with the M11+ and these boots, so you'll need to find them or try on an M11+ then call Kayland to get what size you need. I LOVE them as they are very warm but low cut on the inside, so they still climb mixed and technical terrain well. Very stiff, much more so than the M11 series. I have to wear rigid crampons with my M11s, but can wear semi-rigid crampons with the 6001s.