hkrhnk11

I think the festival staff and Jojo did a great job keeping the festival going despite the loss of a friend. I can only imagine how hard it must have been.

I'm heading back to bozeman sometime around wednesday the 2nd and coming back on sunday. I f anyone is interested on carpooling to save money, or even splitting some hotel fare shoot me a line. Already have one aboard, but the more the merrier!

Yeah, pretty dipshit of me. I'm usually good at taking anything expensive or shiny out of my car. Just the one time I don't and I get screwed. I guess on the bright side, I'm gonna get real good at placing hexes!

Thanks for the all the advice. I did file a police report right when I got to my car. Unfortunately I don't have insurance that would cover any of it, so I'm kinda sol. I went down to Next Adventure today, down where they buy the used gear, and they were super helpful. They actually had a form printed up for you to list your info and everything that was stolen. Yeah, having your rack stolen feels like a member of the family getting abducted. Makes me wanna hire Steven Seagal to go vigilante on their ass. Won't be leaving shit in my car EVER AGAIN.

Just had my car broken into and my pack with my whole rack stolen. Happened in SE Portland, would appreciate it if anyone comes across anyone selling stuff super cheap to let me know. Pack was a REI Pinnacle. Had all 3rd generation BD C4's up to #3, with doubles from purple to yellow. Also a full set of TCU's, 2 sets of Metolius curve nuts (older non-anodized), all marked with red tape. Also an Edelwiess Axis 60m rope (purple), in a red Metolius dirt bag. Thanks

I can say from experience that the pole configuration that MSR uses on that tent, as well as their hubba tents makes them useless in the wind. Any gusts above 20-30 mph hit that thing broadside and your kissing the ceiling. Good for drippy days and lightweight backpacking, which I guess is probably what they were meant for anyway.

I'll have to echo the others on this about always roping up. It only takes once and there's no reset button. That being said, I usually feel better about travel on glaciers that I've seen butt naked, or really late season after a bad snow year. I'll still rope up, but I feel more confident about route finding cause I have a better feel for what's under the snow. I've never roped up on Palmer because it doesn't have any crevasses.

That's a good point Scaredsilly.... maybe i'm being tossed through wormholes between dimensions like a mountaineers version of Quantum Leap, and for my next climb I'll leap into the body of a female blues singer from the 1920's. Thanks for all the positive feedback everyone.

Trip: Mt Hood - Sandy Glacier HW Date: 5/22/2009 Trip Report: In an attempt to avoid the crowds of the SS, explore a different side of the mountain, and do so with an sub-alpine approach, a plot was formed last week to climb the Sandy HW starting at Ramona Falls TH (aprox 2,400'). After watching the weather from tuesday blow through and hoping for clear skies and cold temps, we pulled the trigger wednesday morning and headed out to fill our guts with some knarly diner style breakfast (which would later become the object of fantasy the following mornings). Afterwards we were off to drop our getaway car at Timberline Lodge, then stop by Zig Zag ranger station for some road access beta. Hearing that the road to Ramona falls was clear, we were soon at the TH, geared up and on the move a few hours later than we hoped. Soon we were confronted with the usual river crossing bs, a.k.a. the "Sandy River slack-log" What would have been easy trail was soon choked with patches of snow, forcing us to eventually snowshoe up around 4,500'. The late start and snowshoeing through increasingly deeper snow soon took it's toll, and we eventually were forced to choose a campsite around 6,000' on Yocum Ridge. At that point we opted to add an unanticipated day to our climb, stretching our food and fuel supplies pretty thin. As night fell on our first camp, springtime shin-deep mash soon turned to sturdy crampon-o-licous styrofoam. This coupled with a perfect view of our route made everyone anxious to climb.. The following morning we were up at dawn to begin the trek towards Sandy Glacier across sexy untouched snow slopes.. From Yocum Ridge near 8,000' we spied what looked to be an amazing bivy site completely sheltered from rock and ice fall in all but the worse conditions. We also noticed a surprising lack of said rock and ice fall on both Yocum and Cathedral ridges, except for one troublesome rock and ice band around 8,500' and well to the north of our eventual camp. We roped up and crossed the Sandy Glacier without incident. Looking for that perfect spot.... We opted for a snowy knife-edge ridge (looked like a mini hogsback) that we we dug our platform out on. Definitely a cool exposed bivy site... That evening we while melting snow we ran out of fuel, leaving our pastas hard and our freeze dried meals dehydrated. (Q: Has anyone ever tried to re-hydrate a freeze dried meal with cold water, and if so how long did it take? ) We saved what little snacks and water we had for the climb the following morning, and went to bed to the sound of distant rockfall with stomachs growling. The plan was to start out on the route by 2am, hoping to reach the crux pitch by first light. The slopes outside the tent door were 40 to 45 degrees and 6-8" of snow on top of a hard melt/freeze layer, making for decent kick-stepping. We made good time up the wall and arrived at the crux just when we had planned. Just as we turned off our headlamps the soft morning light showed the way through rock outcrops and rime fins, followed by steepening slopes and better alpine ice. I remember thinking to my self that the conditions were consistently-inconsistent. Powder, rain crust, powder over rain crust, snice, and short but sweet sections of bomber alpine ice. Topping out from the crux (pre-crux photo didn't come out)... Me and "Big-E" on the upper HW, courtesy of my man Taylor... The wall is definitely sustained, with 40-45 degree slopes to the crux, followed be 50-55 degree slopes to the top of the wall/bottom of the Queens chair (note: the Queens chair and the SS descent was the worse icefall of the whole trip!) Us on the summit ridge... I'll save everyone the pain of the ubiquitous summit photo. We descended the SS via the staircase worn into the old chute from all the recent traffic, and were at the car in a couple hours. All in all an amazing trip, and a real ass-kicker coming from 2,400' feet but made for a satisfying climb. Rise up fellow climbers, and just say no to the south side slog!!! Gear Notes: 2 pickets (barely used-more dead weight) 3 screws (never used) 1-30m rope (glacier crossing, never used on route) 1 ax and 1 tool (could use 2 tools, although sometimes it was nice to have an axe) 1 leaky thermarest, a.k.a. "the orange tortilla" Approach Notes: Snow shoes (in retrospect they we could have gotten away without them and just put up with post-holing, especially since we had an extra day. Had some moments when I wanted to jettison some extra weight and would fantasize about "losing them" off my pack. Yocum Ridge turns into a snow slope around 4,400'

Looking for a partner for something on the west side monday morn. I've been up the Reid before, would like to do the Sandy but might not have the time. PM if interested.

Maybe it's this guy!!! I had the same thing happen to me last year. Cabbage hit right by my feet, and it probably would have really hurt or even killed if it hit the right spot. I wanted to run up to the top and strangle whoever threw it... I would like to believe that a sign would work, but I think signs are for law abiding citizens.

Nice work Lub, and sweet pics. The man has really put your wallet through the ringer on your last two trips to Hyalite.

I got my Level 1 cert through Three Sisters Backcountry and was very happy. They also have a Level two course(which I think already happened).

PM sent

I hiked the PCT through OR and WA in 6 weeks in '05. Any non re-supply day I would hike 28-32 miles, which left no time for "hanging out", very little time to eat (usually on the run), and forced me to sleep in less than optimal campsites. Basically means your walking from 7am to 10pm. As far as permits, if you hike more than 500 miles on the PCT the PCT association "recommends" that you buy a thru-hiker permit from for $5, which means you don't have to obtain multiple wilderness permits along the way. I had one, but nobody ever asked me for it. They also say you need to apply to the Canadian government for a permit for access into Canada via the PCT. I had one of these too and was never asked for it. I figured that I had time to get the permits so might as well, but you could probably skate w/o as nobody is really patrolling 2,500 miles of trail or knows your itinerary. You will need to carry your passport to get back into the country. Feel free to PM me if you have any more questions. -Tyson