Water

what is a sleeping bag compartment?? does your backpack have a division at the bottom of it? If it doesn't fit in there on its own just get rid of the division (probably a zip inside, right?) and live with it. its a -25f down bag is huge no matter what, so its going to take up a lot of space, plus i believe it is possible to overcompress down..

thanks for sharing the TR. I enjoyed the play-by-play and imagine the shared experience will be a cherished memory any time you talk to one another in the years ahead. It is an interesting contrast to the solo climber of mt jefferson trip report yesterday who had so much hubris in abilities that they didn't bring a map and hadn't even researched an iota of their climb to know if the north or south summit horn was higher, leading to them making a choice that led to a near death fall and injury, but tells people he doesn't need any lectures, doesn't want anyone to expose him, and doesn't give any post-op reflection "I'll carry a map from now on/research my route/etc", so he gets a bunch of 'cool story bro' responses. you guys on the other hand lay it all out on the line with no bravado or extra ego stroking and offer reflection of your own choices yet get a stout amount of analysis from many posters (almost entirely constructive and well intentioned though). interesting..

Pm on megamid

APE, i was in your shoes (haha..pun) two springs ago and the bindings were the relatively easy part, the boots were more dictated by what felt/fit best for the cost/weight.. but the skis were just up in the air.. whatever people skied is what was recommended. are you a good skier already? especially if not they're going to get thrashed good between learning or just plain in the late spring as you're riding the snow till it turns to dirt. just so you dont plunk a grand on skis for the first go of it..nice light boots will be more value for your $. There is the winter snowpack to be had and anything 100-115 (or more) underfoot would be good. Then the spring snowpack...corn snow on adams in june...and things into july etc, you can get by with very narrow... (80mm?) As was told to me anywhere 90-105 underfoot with a bit of early rise and you'll be good for everything, assuming the weight isn't too much to tire you out. Light Light skis are going to get thrown in variable and crud snow but sounds like the aim of the game is getting down and its not like a light ski (2lb) is going to be unskiable while a heavy (5lb) ski is going to move without effort like a hot knife through butter on crappy snow. My friends with wider/heavier skis enviously make it sound like i've got balsawood toothpicks when they unload them out of the vehicle and about how they're light they are. you're definitely on track with the light-is-right approach to this, esp if not planning on winter ski touring. I ended up with G3 Saints which dont get much play but are a great ski I think. Same for G3 Spitfire which have been redone for this next season. a pretty accomplished climber/skier on here has mentioned these as http://www.movementskis.com/en/products/skis/x-series/logic/ their ski of choice.

hmm... most of the snowpack is fairly consolidated but yet there could be some postholing up high if you go the first day after fresh snow has been falling--depends how much fresh up high. that said it doesn't take much intense june sun to cycle the snow and at the least give you a firm crust for the way up in the early AM, a day or two or three after, esp with temps going so high.

nice TR. was wondering if we would hear from who we saw up there. us (2) in milk creek and on west rib. should have stuck with our original PDX leave time of 9pm instead of bumping to 10pm, along with keeping the gas pedal on effort going up (i was feeling slow having been up for 24hr+ at that point). immediate goal was just north saddle but sun on west face was our turn-around time.

what about golf shoes? they got good spikes on them.

thanks for responses folks. i was informed self registration ends sometime in the spring/summer when the climbing ranger building is staffed for the summer. So you just can't do that, and that we were SOL--but I didn't push too hard, was just querying. Was looking to do Kautz but partner got sick yesterday/def not at 100% so am refocusing with new partner on a different mountain not encircled with red tape. But ScaredSilly I like that approach, there has to be exceptions at times.. I understand the policy, kind of and have made it up in time in the past but really there are times it is not possible but a climb should not make or break based on administrivia hours when all other ducks are in a row. I am generally successful at firm/polite pursuit of this type of thing so if it comes up again will try to speak with Mr. Lofgren

Want to climb leaving from Portland Friday night. Earliest we can leave town is 4pm. Am I correct that the only option is to wait all the way till 6am sat for the rangers to issue a permit? Seems so f'd up not everyone can be there before 5pm on Friday. Already have our $44 climb pass and were on the route two weeks ago. Can't believe we aren't able to fax our info in in lieu of being there. Or is this something people just be stealth with? Not exactly my interest in a Nat park.. Personally feel this is such a safety thing to make their arbitrary operating hours control climb starts. Sunday is not looking nearly as good.

i'm a huge fan of lowa mountain experts. Mine are about 4-5 years old and holding up well though i've only used them a time or two since I got into skiing. Anyways in the first few years of their life they were great even in single digit temps though I think some of the light bit of insul in them has broken down so they aren't as warm as they once were. But I've done a lot scree surfing on the oregon volcanoes which I think is pretty hard on them and they've held great. My feet sweat a lot but they were great through many summer climbs, not too hot imo. But yes the Rand has been stout, still good tread though I've probably put about 250-350 miles hiking in them. Had to re-waterproof a bit but yeah, I'd buy them again. i think they may have improved the toe welt on newer year models as well (its kind of tiny..) scree surfing north sister:

way to shoot any credibility in the foot with that statement. not normally one of the talking points at the car dealership, "corolla's high clearance capabilities". Frankly it is just totally your average car. what car has low clearance? I saw civics up there too. and an old escort. other than sports cars what exactly low clearance cars are you talking about, minicoopers, smart cars, and pt cruisers? i guess i dont see who is restricted from getting up there in their vehicle other than the people who have something that already scrapes when they go over speed bumps in neighborhoods and parkinglots, they'd know better than to take it onto dirt roads. the road actually got improved outside of those water bars--in all prior years there were a lot more potholes and general dips and whatnot throughout it. anyways, righton to perpetuating the hysterics of the road, keep up the good work.

so again, someone saying a high clearance car.... a stock toyota corolla can do it without scraping or any worry. So....just don't drive your lambo up there

posted this on TAY: "i have a 10yr old corolla and made it up there absolutely fine. The road is FINE. EXCEPT for the water bars that have been installed on the road. These seem to go in pretty regularly on any sloped FS dirt road in a burn area... I made it up driving fast between them slow down to go over them, never scraped except on way out went a bit faster than I should over one but just some light scrape on undercarriage. any talk of road being so horrible is BS..actually other than water bars (basically speed bump/dips) I think it was improved a fair bit from prior years. -snow about 1.5mile from cold springs~ and once on it was fairly continuous. used trail runners didnt take skis or boots off pack until 10,500ft. was just that much faster. " in the AM no flotation was needed. Never took ice ax or crampons out. Microspikes are a great way to do adams much of the time-its what my wife uses. In the AM fast moving in trail runners. I dont know how it was in the PM without skis on but I bet it sucked like it always does once it gets really warm and sun baked=postholing. you will be fine with parking. There is only more and more space becoming available as the vestigial snow patches melt. but for god sakes people if you want to camp out why do you subject yourself to being at the TH where it is a ZOO all night? I'm sorry your tent is 5ft from my headlights at 4:30am and we're slamming car doors.. i will never understand why people subject themselves to that

denalidave.. i had a fun event like that as well coming back from the northern idaho border crossing back into the states. Its fairly empty place.. so about 100ft past the the check i sped up pretty good (maybe 40?) The road had a bend in it and was wide and there were two large SUVs parked side by side like they were talking, half blocking the lane I was in, so I veered a bit into the center empty/divider/turn lane and went around them, my mistake as I went past I saw they were Idaho Crime Investigation or something like that. Didn't have obvious lights on the SUV or anything to give away at a distance. Needless to say the one zoomed up on me real quick (I had slowed down of course) and pulled me right over not 500ft past where I passed them. They were not doing traffic/radar but he knew I was speeding (i think it was still 25 or so right near the border until you get about a half mile down the road) so I dont think he could actually write me a ticket for going X amount over or whatnot. He asked where we're from and where we're going, we said back to Portland Oregon. He said, you going through Coeur D'alene? We said yeah (65 miles away or so) and he said, "we're going there too. You can drive in front and if you go a mile over the speed limit I'll give you a ticket." Lets just say that first 30 miles was about the most difficult driving I've ever done. Didn't help that it was hilly and windy road so I couldn't just put cruise control on 5 below the limit. At some point after about a half hour they decided they had more pressing matters and passed me. talk about some stress...

How much does run pace correlate to speed in the mountains? Other than if you're fantastically fit or grossly out of shape having a bearing on both.. For instance I don't run at all but am of average speed compared to range of people I've climbed with, handful faster and handful slower. Some of the slower are runners.

It would have to be really really bad not to get a car up there. Think I saw on TAY someone took their accord or civic up recently. Ive taken my corolla on all sorts of roads people said I need a truck or SUV for. Never been skunked on getting to where I want nor stranded. Drive slowly and smartly. Half the SUVs I see in town only have an inch more clearance than my car and.

over in Michigan/Ontario going to Windsor from Detroit for a bachelor party because the drinky age there is 19 and we had a few guys under 21 with us. They asked if any of us had been convicted of a crime or some sort and one guy (over 21) answered truthfully. He wasn't driving, but was a passenger. He had gotten a DUI 4 years previous in Wisconsin -- ie no pending litigation, etc, completed whatever he needed to and had a fully legal drivers license, etc. Needless to say the Bachelor party was spent in ole' Ypsilanti Michigan and was mostly dry for those under 21. In retrospect it would have made a lot more sense all of us just to say no, him included. In a previous time (Fall of 2000) a girl in our group stupidly brought "Pipes.... with Resin" (verbatim Canadian border patrol words) across. They told us we shouldn't do that, gave us the pipes back, and let us continuing on our way to a 'music event' (a rave) in Toronto. Go figure

haven't been on the route before. no current conditions info avail from rangers. Original plan had us thinking the chute was going to be icy enough to justify some pro and at least a second tool or two, and that we'd do the whole route in our standard climbing boots. But with the post-holey warmth..and the refresher cycle of winter conditions for a few weeks back, thinking this might really be more of a snow climb. thus we're really leaning to bring the skis and skin up the turtle/towards hazard. Beyond that curious if anyone has any feedback on skiing the kautz itself, or upper part? Spose if it is spicy we'll take'm off for that portion. appreciate any feedback, thanks.

in all prior years my corolla made it in just fine. but thats previous years--there is a chance the road underwent some major washouts due to the fire/etc. anyone who went up this weekend want to report?

Yo thanks for that-you are correct-i try to get placenames and geography correct so appreciate the correction. i updated the title of that picture

i think you're good on parking now that sno-park season is over, not sure a NW forest pass is even needed. also unmentioned is a helmet--fortunately that piece of gear requires little in the way of training but I'd generally recommend it from the hogsback up, or even just below crater rock if there are signs crater rock has dropped stuff off. re: roping up: not unless you're placing protection (pickets) which anchor the rope to the slope. Otherwise imo it is useless, plus it slows you down, requires you to focus on shit other than your footwork and self belay, and exposes you to more risk. here is the 'hard' part of climbing the southside--go as fast as you safely can. you go up from the hogsback, the thin line coming out from crater rock.

did you do shasta and adams when they were melted out and just all on rock then or did you have experience using crampons and ice axe? because if you feel you have those skills down sufficiently that is really all you need for the southside of hood, to feel secure (enough) using those items on a slightly steeper slope. If you have no experience with those tools then you should acquire them and find somewhere without consequence to practice using them.

http://www.turns-all-year.com/skiing_snowboarding/trip_reports/index.php?topic=28663.0

thanks for sharing, a good read. i think the foremost thing is the amount of relative risk given it is a youth, no less your own daughter, was higher than you'd or most parents would like. The headlamp was unfortunate but it seems like even if hers worked maybe doing the short-short rope was the most prudent travel method for her--she may have been stumbling down in front. But it doesn't sound like conditions themselves were an issue, even the cold, I'm sure you could have built a protected spot and/or given her some of your warmth layers. Not sure if you had a small stove but hunkering down, giving her your puffy and making some hot drink could have gone a long way. I'm not a parent but when working with kids I get pretty anxious watching them climb fences or do anything where there is even a slight chance of injury so I can only imagine how I'd feel with my own. However in a paradoxical way, exposure to risk is one of things things that can actually be really important in life.

http://cascadeclimbers.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/1019769/7/Mt_Hood