Water

noaa conditions

this has been teased out to the n'th degree at backpackinglite as far as i can tell. also consider pocket rocket vs reactor, etc, the wind factor, if being used outside--wind screen weight and effectiveness. the reactor does a great job of this. backpackinglite core members seem to get really uppity about using an 'upright' for cold conditions--touting the vast superiority of remote canisters-anything else for such conditions is 'stupid'. they also have gone through all sorts of usage issues and CO outputs, etc. Reactor does not come out on top all around in their book, other than being a powerful brute that is consistently fast and generally efficient (though a tad slower near the end of a canister, and not the most efficient). The main stove researcher there has serious misgivings about using a reactor in a tent compared to other stoves, due to CO issues (MSR supposedly redesigned their initial version of the Reactor after getting feedback from him regarding CO issues). that said, I bought a reactor about a month or two ago without researching more than a few 'this thing rules!' product reviews (contrary to my rainman research for most purchases) and in my few uses for winter camping I've been thrilled with it. I find it much faster and easier to melt snow than the whisperlite i used previously. i think the thing kicks total ass and while poring over their forums and articles i sometimes second guess, but i know from the field the thing impresses me immensely (strictly for melting/boiling h20)

i believe it is 4 miles from the cooper spur stone shelter to the cooper spur snow park via Tilly Jane trail--3 miles to the Tilly Jane Cabins. As of 1 month ago there was no skiing to be had for the first 2 miles. Since the weather has been all over the place in the past month, I'd guess its about the same or less snow, if anything. Quite rainy lately.. Having driven to cloud cap and hiked from the snow park, going from the snow park isn't bad.

was up at timberline with some out of towners on sunday--there was a fair amount of fresh snow. if a path hasn't been put in it (doubtful), there would be some work to get up there. The climbers register had perhaps 10-15+ people who went up, almost entirely south side, this past weekend. whether they summitted or not is another story. more than snow i would say biggest deal would be hiking/climbing in white-out/fog--personally i skip those days 9 out of 10. but 1 out of 10 it seems you can unexpectedly climb above it if the ceiling is low

low altitude == as in along rivers/streams in the cascades or as in going along the appalachian trail where you might get water from a creek that runs next to pasture land for 30 miles? if you're going to be around turbid water, or water that might seriously be lacking in taste (stagnant), etc, get a filter. otherwise I'd opt for something like Aqua Mira which kills just about everything and that we've found to work excellently everywhere outwest (wouldn't use it in mid-appalachians, though, for instance). You can always use a bandana or better, a square of thin silk to use as a raw filter to get the biggest stuff like sand.

well you guys know your shit so thank you for the redirection. I think I will bend it back to shape and then get a similar strip of metal and splint it across the fracture. thanks again for the tips of saving me the rabbithole of welding--I didn't know if expensive bike frames got repaired and had thought as an aluminum alloy it may be an impossibility but thought i'd give it a whirl among the depth of CC experts. I appreciate it! Atreides how did you guess?

in portland, wondering if anyone here would have any good recs on perhaps someone who repairs bike frames? or that would be able to weld this well enough. MSR offered 40-50% off MSRP on a new pair if I ship them mine but im thinking if it could be welded for cheaper I will do that-they got plenty of life in them still. thanks much!

what an ass bitch, that sucks to read. i hope this story spreads and any of her friends back home give her hell.

you probably want to do adams, especially as the summer goes on, it is more and more of a walkup (to the point that last september i ran up it on an unexpected day off work no crampons or ice ax required)

jlawrence, nice pic..we got some of the brocken spectres as well. i think you took our picture (gal and guy up there a few minutes after you). The pic with the flash turned out great! perfect conditions for sure.

you know i got a moderate sprain going on 3 weeks ago now and it is not 100%. Probably 85-95%. That said I have snowshoed 10 miles on it (last weekend) and had to hobble 4 miles on it immediately after it happened. However for the first week-2 I took a lot of anti-inflammatories (ib profen) and I used crutches to keep all weight off it. I also iced it and elevated it and used the compression bandage. I won't rock climb as the weight placements and total lack of any ankle support in such shoes is bad news for it, but if I am wearing my alpine boots which have monster ankle support, it is pretty good. ill need to work on some ankle balance exercises once it gets to 100% to strengthen it more. unfortunately I think you are SOL until you can rotate/bear weight--as bronco said prematurely doing things that are painful will aggravate it (maybe somewhat like picking a scab?) and cause it to scar, inflame, and heal more slowly.

i have a hard time justifying buying something new when my old whatever works great and gets the job mostly done, but for instance that lumix camera really impresses me with the 'tough' properties in the small package. My A-series Canon is too bulky to fit in a pocket and even some 'snackpack' pockets on packs its too big for that..it would be nice to have a high quality cam that can fit in a side pocket or napoleon pocket with ease. but that said i hate having proprietary batteries..but its been a while since i had them, maybe they are better? (charge quicker, hold more charges over lifetime, etc?)

I have montbell UL Thermawrap parka. very warm, the insulation is solid. i like the hood--forget if it fits over my helmet, im thinking not. Only caveat is the material, in my opinion is not very robust--i think a harness on top of it could cause some pretty decent fraying/piling over a year, if it is anything less than quite soft/smooth material rubbing on it. For backpacking I found it fine since I wear it around camp or fine for throwing on at the summit of something, but after using it on a single trip up mt jefferson it got more frays/piling than I would have expected--but again it is 'Ultra-Lightweight' so how high should expectations be. Its not paper-delicate but at the same time I think for anything that would be used in abrasion situations, a bit more robustness would be good.

while OP obviously needs to have been shot out of a volcano, picked up by a thunderbird in the air, and dropped atop Hyperion redwood before the epic category begins to be broached (and that is probably on the weak sauce end of epic for him), i have noticed an irritating (early on-set crotchetyism at 28?) up-tick in the use of the word epic, and used for mundane statements. Like calling every accidental crotch-punch/smash on america's funniest home videos an "epic fail". Epic this epic that, about at the level of epic tacos. not quite as epic as epic clams though.

bump same goes for century drive/cascade lakes highway--is it just a wall of snow past bachy? is that road a melt-out or at some point as 'summer' arrives does it get plowed? thanks

the spoons i have are not debarbed, though half my flies are. I do have trebles on a few spinners but I've rarely used them. Find a lot of luck with the wooly booger or just spoons if they are not hitting the surface. Most of the alpine lakes I've fished were originally fishless, and were stocked long ago, so when I do keep any to fry up or cook over the fire, they're rainbows or brookies. That is to say, if I was fishing native fish/river fish, and healthy populations (see below) I'd have a different attitude towards keeping and gear used. To that end I've found the higher elevation lakes that do have fish in them tend to trend towards eel shaped (starving). Some of those lakes could use to have half the fish removed, I wonder what the mortality rate/demographics are. For instance Blue Lake in the wallowas along the shallower east shore had hundreds of eel-shaped 8 inch rainbows. Maybe there were some normal fish in the deeper areas. mmmhmm got me thinking of an 8lb dolly varden taken up on upper twin lake in alaska (where that hermit-guy dick pronnoeke lived). that was a fun catch.

1/8th oz is heavy? i bring a spoon or two in case the lake is deeper/trout aren't rising. the spoons i have are single-hooked, no treble.

i fish. 4 piece spinning rod use a clear water weighted bobber to get out flies, occasionally use a tiny spoon. Fun way to chill, explore around camps.

mitochondria: no worries -- it was actually fairly entertaining to hear the talk in foreign languages than if it was two people chatting in english. just as surprised you were of someone camping out, we were of someone up there. I knew in the back of my head some climbers may come past around when you did, but at the same time I wrote it off because that side of the mountain gets comparatively so much less action. so you were speaking german...a bit of english..and czech? french? that is funny you mention the dirt, i was wondering where it came from! good to know the tent is uber visible! wish I would have inspected down on the elliot more for you guys in the morning--it turned into such a beautiful day for the most part. hot even. your alpenglow shot is fantastic! cheers

so that was ya'll, makes sense why i didn't see any tracks as I scanned cooper spur chimneys later that morning. i could imagine the pickets were crap, all afternoon and evening on saturday there was just wave after wave of very fine snow being blown over and coming down the east face...15 minute intervals of white-out 40mph winds and then clear and calm, very funny Were you speaking german? anyways, ya'll went on for a while. why to ask if anyone is there and then go back to speaking in a foreign language immediately? I'm thinking, whoevers there just dont gank my bacon croissant..im craving that for breakfast. hehe I was just testing a new tent and stove and drinking some beers on sat nite and sunday morning. so was the whole tent reflective or just the guy-line tie outs?

i use these different sources: NWAC (though they have run out of season's funding and will only make forecasts for emergency/high risk conditions now) NOAA top of magic mile - timberline conditions and the webcams at timberline webcams it says cloudy and a chance of rain for the weekend. read the extended forecast in the forecast discussion. one model has a low hitting here late sat/sunday--another has it missing the area and going up to bc. unless there is a high-pressure ridge established or an obviously huge front heading onto shore, most of the time the forecast seems like a wash until just a day or two before, and even then apt to change. have fun

michigan? oakleys? so long as the oakley block a good percentage of visible light (ie: they're pretty dark), they will work fine on most volcano climbs. higher altitude, or middle of summer spending a long time on snow, make sure to cover up the edges/gaps where light can filter in. they just cost a lot more for the fashionable O. what does michigan have to do with it?

the road did open last fall. here is the link discussing it. sounds like it was fine, one person cried about it, and by the end of the fall they had done a lot of repair and improved it a whole lot. http://cascadeclimbers.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/ubb/showflat/Number/913073/Searchpage/1/Main/70109/Words/cloud+cap+muffler/Search/true/Re_Cloud_Cap_Road#Post913073

i'll 2nd cost. glacier glasses will generally have 3-10% light transmission (97-90% blockage) listings (CAT 4-5 I think). In addition they may have some coatings that help with fogging or what have you, and of course come with little pieces of leather or plastic to block the gaps. i picked these up UFO Galaxis goggles in silver mirror which is suppose to be 3% visible light transmission, based upon the info sheet about their lenses which the manufacturer emailed me upon request. Id like to see some jublo glacier glasses that are 3% and compare.. For the price ($5-8) they are not marvels, the lense can scratch, they can fog, etc, but at that price! and they do great for blocking gaps, and making you look totally-bug eyed. And of course all these industrial glasses meet the ANSI/CE standards for impact resistance, unless otherwise stated.

i would also suggest the lowa mnt expert, as it was suggested to me on my first thread here titled 'mountaineering boot advice for a newb'. I ended up going with it cause it fit great and was priced well. my foot is narrow, low volume-to-average volume, i have no arch-a very flat foot, and narrow-to-average heels. the boots fit great. has a front toe bail too, but is semi-auto compatible just fine. has worked fine on approaches like mt jefferson. in fact i use it really any time i'm in the snow in the winter.. secondly, what i'd do is find out what foot-bed lasts were used in the boots that do fit you from la sportiva or wherever, there should be a description on their site (or contact them) that describes what general type of foot it was designed towards. then try to read about the lasts used in other brands, and that will help you decide which ones to try or not. for instance the scarpa summits are absolutely not geared towards a low volume, flat, narrow-heeled foot like mine.