Water

Trip: Mt Jefferson - South ridge Date: 10/11/2009 Trip Report: took the woodpecker TH to the shale lakes area. tried to get up on the first southwest ridge a few creeks past milk creek, but it was heavily wooded and lots of manzanita so we just scraped that and went to shale lake area for a quick evening. started up at 3am, snow through the trees...scree slog 90% once we got onto the south ridge. traverse looked a lot worse than it was to be on it. we roped up and at the start right by the red saddle with the lowest risk the snow was crumbly powder, but as we continued on quickly got better and better. placed a single picket midway across. didn't rope up for the return trip as it was later and we were aware of how the slope felt to be on. The snow seemed to have set more since the sun hit it so it was in great shape for the return. as the day went on it got clearer and clear. didn't see or hear any rock fall during the traverse either way but obvious signs of it in the snow. the 25 foot of getting over the rib 2/3rd across the traverse was the only sorta sketchy spot with red frozen mud and an inch of snow..however I don't think the air temp ever got over freezing at the top. we didn't go all the way to the north ridge and climbed a bit steeper (5.1?) area instead of the ledges. protection seemed fine in some of the big blocks, falling rock kicked by one of us seemed the biggest risk. Since we had assumed we'd do a 4th class scramble up this burnt a lot of time-but it was fun. hence the arrival at camp at 6pm, ate a quick hot dinner and packed up and back to the car at midnight-we're slow but we had a good time. next time anyone goes up there this year its going to be vastly different after the system coming through this week. we attributed our good fortune of success on our first attempt of jeffers to the raspberry crumble from the night before. in consuming the red crumble, symbolic of the mountain at sunrise or sunset..we took on its strengths. i'll spare posting my friends crumble faces just throw my ritual consuming shot up. Gear Notes: crampons, helmet, ax, rope, one picket, 2 small cams and a stopper or two. could have been fine with cramps, helmet and ax, but take your preference Approach Notes: couldn't get up onto the SW ridge due to thick brush. 5-6 ft of snow would have taken care of this, unless there is a better way

pls remove this as I properly filled out a TR instead of making one in a post. thanks

there are old mushroom hunters and bold mushroom hunters but no old, bold mushroom hunters. spose it could be applied to climbing too. aminita muscaria is generally safe, but will screw you up temporarily, or could kill you if you ate a ton, esp fresh ones in spring. the psychoactive component muscimol is not broken down in the body and can be passed on through the urine, i believe. so...in sibera i think they pass the urine round...or did at one time. when i ate them in college no urine was involved but i do recall walking and feeling like my steps were really big..so i said "i feel like big mario" (nintendo - mario bros reference for those who got it). nice TR

potter went 6:36:10 thompson went 6:39:xx Yost went 6:39:20 potter broke thompsons record by 3 minutes~10 seconds. p.s.: all these times are insane and blow my mind

is he sure the muffler broke off? you know you can break the pipe or get a gap around the catalytic converter or if your engine mounts are loose the car can make an insane amount of noise without ever having lost a part, every time you hit the gas. but if you left a muffler in the middle of any road, forest service to neighborhood street, short of trying to get someone to the emergency room, you're an idiot. (unless you don't want it anymore).

thermawrap parka is what I use year around basically. Stuffs very small, is very light for the warmth is packs. pockets are good. however it is of the ultra-light variety so it does require more ginger care than other things. i wouldn't want to scrape against too much rock or brush with it. (in fact barely at all or the primaloft will start pilling out a bit.)

Anyone have an opinion on the quickest way to the shale-lakes/south ridge area? Woodpecker hill TH to PCT and down to shale lakes? or Pamelia TH to Hunts Cove, up the 'climbers' trail by Hunts Lake to shale. The Woodpecker route gives me 7.5miles by my map. Pam to hunts gives 6.8 -- but I've done the Pam to Hunts and theres a fair amount of overgrown--wondering if the PCT would be faster even if its a bit longer. thanks

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=olympia,+wa&daddr=46.276733,-122.198181&hl=en&geocode=&mra=dme&mrcr=0&mrsp=1&sz=10&sll=46.404723,-122.218781&sspn=0.701696,1.783905&ie=UTF8&z=10 not too far to mt st helens area http://www.fs.fed.us/gpnf/recreation/trails/documents/Mount_St_Helens_Trail_Guide.pdf that PDF has all the info you need -- call gifford pinchot forest service for more details if needed/desired.

bump - anyone's feedback about snow levels/jefferson attempt this weekend? i know crumbly old things outside of a solid snow pack aren't too high on most people's list here.. but i'd take anyone else's 2cents

good job mnt dew!!! doing that exercise while in front of the boob tube is something I need to do..that is a great! seriously dont feel guilty about having some alcohol, not worth it.

anyone have their 2cents to throw at a jeffers attempt this weekend? with the 2-3 inches of snow from the past weekend and a week of sun, I'm wondering if it will be some hellish ice-glazed scree at the upper reaches, and an icy summit block. My expectations right now are that we'd get to the red saddle and probably want to turn around cause the traverse will not be neither dry or snowy enough. thoughts? open to other recommendations in ~3 drive of pdx that offers a similar challenge

I am relatively new to climbing and the site and have learned a lot from on here--it is a great site. Among message boards, and I have been on plenty for all sorts things in the world, it is by far one of the most fierce, but I think that has it's merits in too. Not many dull folks, which can't be said for a lot of other places. thank you so much for providing the venue and well developed tools! Really look forward to the wiki when it comes around.

you must be doing something so amazing to save weight by doing that. i understand long-distance hikers cutting the toothbrush handle off, eating only dry cold food, etc.. but their life is not in jeopardy by drilling holes in things, cutting straps off, etc..only comfort compromised. drilling in climbing gear sounds not worth it. how much drilling would save you how much weight? and would that be worth the risk?...

and sorry to hear about your wife's connection to samoa -- that is tough. I was confused honestly why that upset you so much till you explained she's Samoan. hope her family is okay..

keep up the good work amigo.. i had such a 'problem' once while way up in the mountains in venezeula with my friends right after college. cept it was external and bleeding--oh my god talk about a bad time. i ended up having to ask my friend's old grandfather in caracas who was a doctor for some advice once we arrived there--and then i layed around the house for a few days while my friends went around the town. misery! *and thankfully never again!* I will echo what the two previous folks said--seriously. I think it is great you are eating bran and not having any brews in the house but I don't think you honestly have to go that hardcore so quickly (unless you are loving it--then by all means keep with). Basically if you are feeling like you are depriving yourself/fighting with your desires and if you are labeling drinking beer or not walking 1 day or eating at mcdonalds (cause the fam wanted to) as 'BAD' then it kind of sets up a whole feel-bad-shame cycle when you do partake in those or when the three of them line up. None of that is bad - what is bad doing things to excess-or not being consistent (8 beers and BBQ 2 days in a row, then 2 days of starving yourself). All of it is 'okay' - in moderation, especially at the start. You could look at making some short-term and long-term goals like "this week...9 beers"...or "6 beers" or whatever...and a longer term one "in 3 months I can walk 3 miles with no next-day pain" "in 5 months I only drink mt dew occasionally" etc. keep up the good work, stay positive!

type a few of these questions into google: rainier gear list what is altitude sickness push breathing alpine start you won't get all your answers but it will help start to fill things in.

have a good weekend mt dew! have fun! you're doing very well and eating a few times throughout the day will give your body the energy it needs and help it to be burning calories more efficiently throughout the day. when most of us starve ourselves, (ie no breakfast or lunch) the body responds by thinking this is a 'famine' and it must conserve energy, hence long term lots of that starving behavior with sudden large quantities of food, the body is geared to 'store store store' and not to burn. good job on the soda too!! just don't hard on yourself (if you're that kinda person) IF you do wake up and feel like a soda or now drink 3 or 4 in a day sometime-its not the biggest deal. you are looking for making lots consistent small changes over a long time - so long as the trend is in the right direction small aberrations won't matter much and are only worth learning a bit from and moving on.

one of the worst things i do for my health is not sleeping enough. i will consistently stay awake, piddling around with little things around the house or on the computer, sleeping for 3-5 hours a night. then on a weekend sometimes I'll sleep for 9 hours and feel caught up a bit but for the most part I feel like sometimes I'm screwing myself, sleeping 3 hours on a weeknight with work at 8am the next morning.

yeah! they would have to sell it for $40 to get me to bite on that.

http://www.steepandcheap.com/ everyone just LOVES the pretzel zefurrr ropes!!!! $119 hahaha

okay thought so, it seemed so ludicrous

what the hell...? is this for real? feedback from experienced folks?

mountain dew, AWESOME! Starting small is the way to go! Do a few little things, even if its only a few days a week, it'll help to break old habits and start making new ones. Going out for a walk is a great way to get the ball rolling on the exercise! I've had friends who tried to quit smoking, start exercising, and start starving themselves and it was always a failure because they didn't moderate. Just instead of having too much food, smokes, sitting...they went for the other side--not enough food, no smokes, unrealistic exercise regime. I'm sure you'll have tough days and better days..in time if you keep it up though, the positive changes will start to snowball and you'll find it'll be easier and easier to ride that horse to the finish line and beyond. keep up the good work!

fair nuff, sounds quite reasonable to me. No insane prognostications. With that said, between the current economy and health insurance costs over the previous decade, this issue having been relatively ignored for too long, there is plenty of argument that 'nudging' over time is ineffective, especially in the short-term nature of politics. Health Care is at a head, hell, it burst long ago... clean up with a single square of TP or a dump truck of legislation saw-dust dumped on it... i too wish I knew the best way that could actually be successful in politics and in practice.

So with a good idea, but zilch for application for it, and acknowledgment that there would be comparable vehement opposition to such changes if they were advocated at the national level -- you fault obama for.... ...and i realize there are faults, but, you would do better how?