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Head to Squamish - you'll have lead a dozen by the time the weekend's through

Mtguide have you tried this on skins before? I have a hunch this method may necessitate more than just spot regluing - seems like boiling water and scraping will remove ALL your glue from the area. Just a thought though

pm sent

Any one done it? cycled to Bella Coola? or for those who have done the drive, how're the roads? traffic? sorry for post-jacking, i'll head over to crazyguyonabike.com immediately and stop mucking up your Monarch thread...

I have an inkling that gas and heli costs have gone up significantly since the good ol days of 94. My Jeep Grand Cherokee (which I am unable to sell and get a nice Suba with better mileage due to the current state of economic affairs) would cost me a good $300 at least round trip to Bella Coola from Squampton - in September when gas prices were +++ it would have been around $500, yikes! Hmmm... maybe I'll cycle to Bella Coola this summer, that would be fantastic!

OJ's scuttled book plans for "If I Did It" were preceded by various working titles, including: "How I Did It" "Shit Yeah I Did It!" and "The Juiceman: Kilt That Broad Dead Fo Sho" subtitled "Anyone Wanna Get a Burger?" The book was also scheduled to come with a coupn for $6 off Isotoners

Can't speak as to the physics of it, and haven't had to use it in a real emergency rescue, but have indeed had my 100 lb girlfriend set up a 6:1 on her own with me 10 m down a hole and haul me out. Might be different in real life applications of course, as we had the rope set up with this specific situation in mind.... but I believe we also got a 9:1 rigged out of it, with some help from some firefighters from Calgary who teach rescue systmes to other firefighters... Between the 5 of us there were pulleys out the ying yang, so we didn't need to worry about where to put it, but they DID say if you only have one, make it the one doing the most travelling, i.e. at point 2. These fine gentlemen were extremely well versed in rescue.

Nice That's rootbeer in that mug for you, by the way That's quite the TR for a first time in the mountains! Excellent lingo - you seem like a natural guidebook author at some point down the line... either that Marc spends too much time talking climbing like all good growing dirtbags, or you're really Dru!

I would move Murrin from the "reasonably popular" to "very popular" category, especially on weekends as it'c closer to Van. It's a fairly large area though. During the mid-week anywhere should be relatively quiet (at this time of year at least - when are you planning on coming?). if you get up to Octopus' Garden and there ain't a crowd, you've got a nice, open, secluded area with fantastic trad routes of varying grades. Of course, these traits often lead to crowds. For group bonding, bouldering is an easy option - trust fall activities mesh nicely with good spotting practices.

Awesome! A little brown-pantsing with a 4 day icer eh... As a 1-day icer myself, I can only look forward to future brown pants days of my own, drooling and crying in envy and fear

I dunno Kevbone... did you ever hear of any of the work that went into "Europa" on the Chief a couple years ago? They were digging metres of dirt and hauling full-grown cedars

Wastral; I'll take your hard cash - I always have enough coils on me on my two-man rope team. As far as putting the pulleys as far away as possible, what about when you can't get very far away due to heavy crevassing? If the next hole is only 5 meters away... And when you say there is the "1 normal way" that works in all situations... Are you telling me my 100lb. girlfriend can pull me and my pack, a total weight of say 200lbs. out with a 3 to 1? Cuz she can't. The drop loop system does work when prussiking is impossible due to some injury, but the victim still is able to help, but this ratio of mechanical advantage can of course be accomplished without the drop-loop. Of course, if you've got 3 strong guys, just haul the fucker up...

I had a guy show me a trick - he mountaineer-coiled half the rope length or so, then daisy chained the rest around the coils, holding them all together. This way the coils can be draped around the upright thingy in your washer without (too much) fear of getting the roap caught. Personally I do it in the tub. Good shoulder/tricep work out! Remember not to leave your rope out drying in the direct sun for 12 hours in July!

thanks

nice stuff! You should see Timmy's now... all 14 year olds that have never tasted coffee, ruining the brew, and fat old ladies who have never seen a cash register yelling at the 14 year olds for only bringing you one bagel, but really they never rang the 2nd bagel in, and can't subtract $1.15 from the $1.25 you gave her....

"not too hard stuff"!??? man, do I feel like a gaper. Wings of Desire (.11b, and loooong) has thrashed me repeatedly. I never got on Gangbang, and The Dream absolutely terrified me! (good, and interesting, pro though, and I was a trad newbie at the time) got a lot of work to do...

In response to Stemalot's trouble finding the Backside... the 2005 McLane guide has always led me well, if anyone's planning on avoiding these areas due to navigational problems - I imagine alot of folk had troubles finding it in the prior issues. There is amAZing rock back there.

A little late in the game on this, but 'spray-away' I shall. As a Squamish resident and acquaintance of the guide-book writer, I will say with confidence there is zero probability that he either stole beaners or left anyone with a "dangerous anchor". The author in question is not only an ethical climber (of course, climbing ethics are always debatable) but an ethical man - I could not conceive of him stealing anything. And I don't see how he could have left the FA'ers with a "dangerous anchor" - either they built it dangerously or the story got misconstrued, as the owner of the local guiding company is surely not going around vandalizing anchors. Likely a case of misunderstanding.

Just got back December 12th... and yes to both questions. Puerto Natales is a major city, you will find anything you want there (except camping in close proximity). In the Torres, depends on how long you're in there for - are you doing the W circuit, and if so, how many days are you planning on? There are major hotels in the park, and even the organized camping beside the road has full facilities (i.e. showers, wind/rain shelters at each campsite, fireplace with grill for asados). At the refugios along the W, at either end there is power for sure, but I can't say about the 'interior' ones - I'll consult my Torres map when i get home from work for ya. Any other places you have questions about? My wife and I cycled from Bariloche to Ushuaia over 2 months.

What's a #9 VG??

I have been an instructor for several years (not actively recently), and an avid alpine skier for 19, and backcountry-er for 5 or so. Not to toot my own horn (well, maybe a little - 'toot-toot'!) but I am a capable enough skier to enter big-mountain comps (and qualify) and had a brief (like 2 second) spot in a small company's ski movie last year. I would second the opinion that a day or two of private lessons is a great way to go, albeit an expensive one, but I would suggest getting a good stack (10ish) days of lift-serviced mileage under your belt first, skiing with a BETTER SKIER THAN YOU ARE. Sorry for the caps, but this is by far the best way to improve, an noone else has mentioned it. Not a ton better than you, but just enough so you constanty have to push to keep up. I was awarded instructor of the year in my pod at Whistler in my first year teaching there when I was 19, and it was due to positive comments by my clients and by my clients' parents about the rapidity of their improvement. With kids, I would give maybe two or three drills in the course of an entire week of lessons, with adults, usually one, maybe two a day ONLY. The rest comes from finding terrain that is challenging yet fun, and making them chase me down it. You will get stronger, faster, and more endurance like you wouldn't believe. When I am skiing with better skiers than I am, I notice improvements day by day. However, it helps to know the terrain too, because it's tough to ski when you're just chasing a coat and not able to read the terrain - which raises another point. Learning to allow the terrain and skis do the skiing will allow you to get way more out of your legs than the average skier. Again, this takes simple mileage. Although with the snowpack we're stuck with this year none of us will be skiing anything that requires these kinds of skills anyway... And finally, if ski mountaineering and technical descents is your goal, these are great ways to improve. Find a buddy who is a show off and follow him/her through increasingly difficult tight trees, gullies, billygoat rocky areas, maybe some small mandatory airs etc. But for 97% of backcountry skiing, these skills will be limited in their application to simply strength and balance training. In which case, skiing normal resort style with a moderately heavy pack is a great idea too - but don't fill it with snow, just fill it with normal stuff and put it on your lap on the chair... sorry for the rant everyone!

Nothing climbing related comes to mind (at work suffering from brain drain and all...) but I'll offer up this off-colour offering anyhooo; "I ski my 192s almost all the time. It's sort of like masturbation: there's times when it's probably inappropriate, but I do it anyway because it's so much fun" Twoplanker, a TGR forum dude

Nice work! I climbed this last year as my first big multipitch/quasi-alpine route, and will agree that the "opinionated description" on Bivouac is fabulous. The only problem we had was the approach to the first pitch - we didn't find the "left facing corner" (if my memory serves me right), as there were several. We each tried a couple of things, and ended up soloing our own lines to the start. Also, my partner missed the first bolted belay, ran out 70 m and most of the gear, and belayed in the crack with two stacked nuts. We took 8 hours car to car, swinging leads, including a scramble to the summit and some poking around up top, and only moderately efficient rope management.