spionin

i wonder what he means by "radical exclusion". i think the extent of "radical", and what we may consider essential for ourselves may mean different things to different people. i think the pedantic, critical, and prescriptive approach here is inappropriate. in a previous thread (i think it may have started with a question about post-exercise nutrition or something), dean karnazes's diet was used as an example of not discriminating (and practically inhaling ham pizzas on the run). my personal favorite example of an elite athlete who excludes a whole category foods is scott jurek. arguably a much more accomplished ultramarathoner than karnazes, and a vegan. many people would probably consider his diet "radically exclusive", even nytimes called his diet "extreme", but i think it'd be hard to argue that it doesn't work for him. just an example. it's not a "bizarre diet", as gadd puts it. but i think that the laissez-faire approach that's advocated here seems somewhat mocking of those for whom mainstream meat and potatoes diet is not right.

susan chan (i think that's the name on it) - i have your nut tool. let me know if you want it back!

totally agree with above comments. we had a party of two last august, and simuled with a 30-m glacier rope (essentially putting the same length of rope between us as a doubled over 60m, as gene suggests), 3 screws. i used two aztar tools, my partner had a quark and a c.a.m.p. corsa nanotech (ultralight axe), and we both loved our respective setups. good luck!

climbing partner as a bird feeder? nice report and outstanding photos!

unbelievable. amazing!

i'd be surprised if the fluxring was made out of titanium (since it's a very poor heat conductor, and its purpose would be to transfer and disperse the heat from the source, it'd be extremely inefficient). i'm guessing it's aluminum, just like in the regular setup. from the description it sounds like the cup is made of titanium. i'm not sure what the heat transfer coefficient of Al->Ti is, but i wonder if cranking the heat up too high fried the aluminum and the plastic just by the virtue of them being available heat sinks. and since titanium doesn't distribute the heat uniformly, maybe having heated up a small spot due to the tilt has caused the water to evaporate rapidly, and scorched the snow. did the bottom of the cup warp? if the Ti cup was allowed to fry dry, it'd be bluish (oxidized) and likely warped. was this on the first go? p.s. as noted above - don't place your fuel container directly on the snow, it'll make things more efficient. p.p.s. was confused looking at the picture at first, then realized that it's upside-down.

hmm... i'm pretty sure from your pictures, and the recent entry in the rainier climbing blog that the ice was set to "kill" mode this weekend.

wow - amazing photos and vid, miss hazard

wow - awesome pictures, everyone! alpine - stuart range, wa ice - pre-dawn, reaching for a screw. cirrus mt, canada. bouldering - going totally core in richland, wa. (photo taken by my mom) cragging - val zephyr sends at banks lake, wa scenic - mt baker, wa skiing - standard fare. paradise, wa

nice! safe! much better style than the prior weekend.

...blue sky and white snow should complete the color requirements happy upcoming birthday zman!

the crazy hat - yes! but not on top of a puffy hood??? nice job dudes! -veronika Anatoli. Or Kunz. Zat iz you? the honorary russian!

ah, nice! it was definitely busy up there - lots of groups and everyone having a good time. good job, you guys.

no, he is. he's just multitasking

the crazy hat - yes! but not on top of a puffy hood??? nice job dudes! -veronika

Trip: mt baker - easton Date: 6/5/2011 Trip Report: my little brother, who had never climbed a mountain before, recently decided that he wants to do rainier. so it was my duty to show him the ropes, provide a dose of reality, and try to kick his ass (the latter mission not accomplished). i decided to take him up baker. since he's getting married in two weeks, this was also like a demented pre-bachelor party (he's going to cabo next weekend for the real b.p. and some more sunburn, a little more his style). anyways. since i had done my other two descents of baker on skis, he decided that he wanted to drag his snowboard up as well. thankfully, rei rents full strap-on style vasaks, which fit his boots perfectly. his moon boots were also very comfortable the entire time, which was very fortunate. the approach goes through hwy 20 to baker lake road (about 22 miles from i-5). the road to baker lake t.h. (3200 ft) was still snowed in to about 2.5 miles. b/c of heavy snowmobile traffic, it's full of moguls and burms, which make the approach very tedious. the constant exposure to exhaust and the high-pitched "eeeeeeeee" isn't awesome either. the freezing levels this weekend were above 10k ft, it was very sunny and warm. the snow on the approach was very mushy and soft. the skins on my skis benefited from skin wax, and pavel came to appreciate his snowshoes. we made it up out of the woods in fairly unpleasant heat and constant sun, supplemented with regular water intake and generous sunscreen applications. our goal for the day was to make it to about 5500 feet, to treeline. we picked a nice spot, and i set off to do regular camp chores. pavel did what he does best - relaxed and sun bathed we spent a few hours learning snow skills, walking with an axe, walking on crampons, walking in a rope team, self arresting, and placing pickets and clipping off to them. i figured that we could turn around on our summit attempt if i saw crevasses, if anything felt marginal, or we were tired. we started climbing at 3:30 from our camp at 5300 ft. the severely softened snow had firmed up overnight, and crampons made for fast progress. took a few quick breaks, constantly assessing our comfort level and speed. based on times in previous reports, we made nice progress. i was very impressed with his tenacity and persistence (apparently, soccer and yoga make for a decent mountaineering training regimen ). i also made sure he kept focus, was ready to self arrest if needed, and was paying attention to his foot placements. we continued to have food and water, he did totally awesome, never got sloppy, and i felt comfortable enough to continue unroped. saw quite a line heading up the coleman deming, as we slowly made our way up our side of the roman wall. we were on the summit at 10:00. the views were wonderful - incredibly clear. we cheered with our summit almond joys, and started down. represent'n the initial part of the descent was a little unnerving. i made a few sharp turns on the scratchy, icy steep part of the wall, but also had a few falls and made use of my whippet. around 9000 ft the snow changed to an amazing, buttery softness, and we glided down in pure joy. so much so, that we flew past our tent, and then had to hike back up and search for it for about 45 minutes. d'oh! lower down, around noon at this point, the snow became quite sloppy, and we set off a wet slide. i could see it forming and got pavel to move off the slope as quickly as he could. no falls, but it was a little unnerving. we packed up and started a grueling descent. back by the car at 16:30. the road had melted out about a half mile since the previous day! as usual, stopped for a mandatory beer (and growler refill) at birdsview brewery on our way back to seattle and got treated to some live bluegrass renditions of beatles in their beer garden. great weekend, and needless to say - i'm totally proud of my bro! Approach Notes: two miles of walking up to the trailhead on sunday. follow snowmobile tracks up.

holy jeebus, woman. glad you survived the grand adventure!

went up easton this weekend. the road is melting out quickly (big difference between saturday and sunday). about 2 miles to TH, as max said. the road is all burms and moguls due to snowmobile traffic, it's really kind of exhausting.

hilarious. looks like an awesome weekend. how many were in the sled dog pack?

like matt said, i think you're a little ambitious with the number of stops. just doing a quick calculation (14 cities x 3 days per city) is 42 days. and your travel times can get longer (and more expensive) than you suspect. so you're definitely looking at being there through august, if you are still considering all the destinations. another thing is that just like here, you won't be able to easily get to some climbing areas without a car. one place i found to be somewhat accessible was calanques. i can't remember the bus route number, but you can catch a city bus to the university of the mediterranean campus from downtown marseille (near the fish market), and it drops you off literally at the trailhead. then again, there are lots of cliffs with different degrees of accessibility, some of which are accessed from other towns (cassis, etc). just an example. maybe start with a big map of europe and mark your "cultural" destinations, and figure out how you're getting between them (train, bus, air). then look at the map here: http://www.climb-europe.com/areas.htm and see whether there are any climbing destinations that are nearby, or at least not off track. figure out what are your options for getting to those places (city bus, renting a car, posting a note in a local climbing shop about ride sharing?). it'll save you time and money. check out "rock climbing europe" falcon guide. and keep in mind that some places will get really hot in july. are you planning to solo or hope to run into people who'll climb with you? some places get more traffic than others, and you might want to check into crowd situation before you take a few days to hitchhike into some cool off-the-track crag only to end up not being able to climb anything. good luck.

awesome pictures and a very informative, straight-forward report. cheers and thanks!

great picture and nice stoke! been looking forward to going there this august while visiting family on the right coast!

beautiful weather window! and thanks a tonne for the beta!

there's an article in 2010 ANAM about a woman who took a lead fall, and one of her cams got caught. the cam was on a gear sling, which in the course of the fall strangled her. i was just trying to look up this particular incident on google, and it brought me to this mountain proj page, which has the same discussion: http://www.mountainproject.com/v/climbing_gear_discussion/to_gear_sling_or_not_to_gear_sling/106903530__1

hilarious! good job dodging tickets (oh, and the awesomne climb, too)!