JeffreyR

Ancient REI one, found near the wilderness boundary. It has a name on it. Tell me the name and it is yours!

How accurate/up to date would you say the Oly Climbing Guide route descriptions are? I have been meaning to get up there to check it out some time.

Glad to see the Olympics getting some action! How far could you drive up the road?

Mt Baker sunset framed by a window in the Lookout Mountain Lookout. July 2012

I did the zipper around christmas a couple years back and wouldnt do it any earlier. With the amount of snow falling right now, it may get good in the next couple weeks if it all consolidates.

I have seen the rei minimalist bivy and it seems to be pretty much the same thing except it costs more and lacks a face cover (probably not a huge deal). The army surplus bivys are intriguing, but kind of bulky. I have found directions for re-sewing them to be a better fit, which I may try.

Any thoughts on the Sierra Designs Baffin bivy? The price is excellent, but does anyone have experience with the quality? Such a low price is kind of making me nervous... I am looking for a bivy to be used with a light tarp if wet weather or alone if the forecast is good.

+1 for Adams. If you are ok with driving to the Olympics, Mt Ellinor, Washington, and The Brothers are all fun and moderate climbs. Just bring a helmet for the choss!

I have logged somewhere around 20 nights around the PNW in the past couple winters under one of those cheap blue tarps from the Home Depot. It works fine for me, but one of those nice silnylon tarps would be a lot more packable. Maybe try one while you decide which nicer one is best to blow the big bucks on...

Looks like a fine length to me... but I do have a 70 cm ax, with a leash, and I wear gaiters, which means I must be pretty outdated...

Thanks for the info! Have you tried the old trail up to Muscott basin? It has been on my to-do list for some time.

Cruel of you to post this to torment me right before my final exam week...

looks like the lower trailhead pullout. That bend usually holds snow pretty late in the spring

probably not really cheating for the recreational climber, but I would find it kind of sketch for competition climbing. I dont think the advantage will be that great and it might actually be worse in some situations due to the decreased surface area contacting the rock...

I was up on sunday and saw the guy with a kite at around 7500 ft. He seemed to be having trouble launching it, probably due to downdrafts around terrain features... It didnt look like he ever got any runs in.

I don't buy it. I have been working in a trauma ward this winter and that has NEVER been the case for any of my patient injured in motorcycle accidents (or any other helmet using activity). Do you have any peer reviewed research to back this up? (purely for curiosity/academic reasons, you are not the first person I have heard make that claim.) Sorry about the thread drift again in a different direction...

I was up in the olympics on saturday and it is a bit above normal for snow pack. The next couple months will really tell how much snow will remain in june. Last year in june there was a ton of snow on Olympus starting pretty low.

I am looking to get a snow saw for avy pits but as a starving college student I don't really want to shell out $50+ for the commercially available ones. Are there any good alternatives such as making one or re-purposing other items...?

Thanks for all of the info everybody. I just talked with the guys who were using the line when it broke. It sounds like the biner in question was on the non-tensioner end attached to a tree anchor. They claim that the gate was closed and checked. I am going with the theory that it was just a low quality piece of gear. I usually use a pair of heavy duty steel locking biners that a non-climber friend gave me thinking they would be ideal for the alpine...

I was not present when it broke, but I do not see how it could have been pushed open by any of the line. It seems from the photo that it was the opposite end from the tensioner, but Iwould have to clarify with my friend. I imagine it would be possible that it never closed correctly before having a load put on it.

Mad Rock Super-Tech-Keylock, a.k.a. Mad Rock Don't-Use-Me-For-A-Slackline http://www.madrockclimbing.com/products/product.asp?_item=100093 Supposedly this brand is rated for 9 Kn with the gate open. It seems like it still should not have failed under these conditions. I am no engineer, but that is a good amount of force...

Thanks everyone for the information and discussion. This was not my setup (I was not even present) and always use stronger gear on my own setups, but I was still surprised at the manner of the failure.

One of my friends was slack-lining and had a carabiner snap. It was a fairly short line (no more than 30') and shouldn't have been under a huge load. Any thoughts...?

The original access is closed, but there is some sort of access from the other side of the river from, I believe, some DNR land. I have not seen it myself, but people have found a new access point.

Trip: Mount Ellinor - Winter Chute Date: 12/26/2011 Trip Report: Was originally planning on climbing Mt Washington, but the road was too snowy past the lower Ellinor parking lot and i had no desire for several miles of road walking. It was snowing at the parking lot, but there was no significant snow pack until the base of the chute. The bottom third of the chute consisted of about 10 inches of snow on rock and ice. These abnormal conditions have made Ellinor a much more fun climb! (looking up the chute) (climbing in the lower section) The top 2/3 of the route were a mixture of knee deep powder, ice, and frozen scree crap making for fairly fast climbing. We summited around 1 pm as a storm was moving in and opted to descend via the summer trail since we could see several day old tracks leading down it. I pretty quickly lost the trail under the new snow and ended up BSing my way down through some cliffy and fun down-climbs. Overall a fun day and much more exciting than this route usually is under normal conditions. Better watch out for this guy... he seems like a real creep... Approach Notes: