ktschmid

im gonna have to agree w water on the inexpensive pants and i would add inexpensive gaiters (cheaper than front points) if you're just getting started because unless you have experience walking in crampons from somewhere else, or you have ballet-like grace, you will probs put a front point through your BD front points.

this is all great info. just so happens i was climbing this weekend w someone who had a (new but not the newest) quark w the pinky rest on, and an older grivel racing wing w a slider (which i recognized due to having looked up trogs great suggestion). they said the grivel was plunging way better and they preferred it for the conditions today. so basically i have to decide between noah's suggested trade-off, sacrifice quality plunging for a tool that i'll be happy w on the really steep stuff, which kinda comes down to how fast do i want to go steep. such choices, thanks for all the great info, still thinking

i cant go saturday but ive dreaming of getting somebody to be a rope gun so i could follow on this route. going to hood tomorrow but if the weather is crap like it might be maybe ill be back in time to go sat, and if so im pm ya, but, then again, you'll surely have found a partner by then. good luck finding somebody, have fun

thanks for all the great advice! that new quark looks pretty great but is a bit out of my price range unless i find a used one. does the lack of a pinky rest (or any other type of rest) on the aztar make it hard to go leashless? i don't know if im so crafty as to make a pinky grip. i wonder if the grivel horn would fit on it... NoahT what you say makes sense but i would still wonder about how well some of those (nomic or fusion) could plunge? by open mind to technique do you mean no more plunging? Is there anything you all have used where the pinky rest switches/detaches so as to get out of the way pretty easily, maybe w/out a tool (like is needed on the quark)?

this probably could go in n00b but i thought it might get more attention here: i'm starting to get to the point mountaineering where i'm climbing stuff where i'm either borrowing a tool from someone or wishing i had a tool (to second w along with an axe). so now, naturally, i'm thinking of buying a tool, but low and behold, there are 786597659875 different styles and types! Advice? B4 WHAT ARE YOUR GOALS?... here are my goals, well, more like thoughts. i'm just starting and i imagine i will want to move along to all kinds of climbing, mixed, waterfall, you name it, but my wallet cant even handle thoughts of a "quiver" so id like something really versatile. that beign said, right now i'm concentrating on mountaineering. a lot of stuff ive read says most folks eventually go leashless, but i also want something, that, when i get a second tool, i can leave the axe behind and still plunge into the snow with the shaft. i was thinking that for now i want a single tool that i can use along with an axe, but maybe this is a bad idea, and i should get two tools at once? most importantly i need something on the lower $$$ end. this post is way too long for anyone on here to have actually read this far =) thanks

Hey Ed, wanted to say it was really great climbing with you. again! soon!

I was thinking of heading up the SS this weekend as well, well, I was thinking of heading up the North side till I read this: http://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.php?lat=45.36266359991396&lon=-121.70379638671875&site=pqr&smap=1&unit=0&lg=en&FcstType=text which says, at 9000', a low Friday night of 57! can anyone let me know, with it being this warm is even the south side not feasible? will the old chute be a mess of icefall even way before sunrise? thanks

sent a pm

There's a port-o-john at the top of the palmer i think

Next time is this weekend!

Hey! Glad to see you made it to the summit! We (the party of 3) were so confused when we got to the top of the SE ridge and saw your tracks just DISAPPEAR (when you went into the moat I think). We couldn't see you anywhere. We were very confused. We ended up only doing part of the terrible traverse because we accidentally mistook a random chute for the bowling alley and headed up too early. When we got the summit of that chute and saw that we missed the real summit by a long shot, we decided, due to it already being mid morning and the deteriorating snowpack, to call it. We were so confused by the fact that we couldn't see you anywhere, we thought you two had been abducted. Nice pics! Thanks for the great TR which solved our mystery

Would be a later start, I'm driving up from Portland if someone would want to share a ride. 910 599 3988

i might head up helens for the first time sunday, has anyone been up recently and could recommend crampons, snowshoes or both?

Anybody wanna head up helens, worm flows / swift glacier route, though monitor is fine if its accessible by then, on tuesday the 4th?

weather!!! now with the road closed to adams and helens with no chance of being plowed until NEXT WINTER, i'm wondering what kind of mountains i might be able to climb which are non-technical, fun, and perhaps have glaciers somewhere on them so that they qualify to get me into the Mazamas (this will give me a better chance to get on some of their climbs). oh yeah and also the roads are clear to the trailhead. also important. i imagine old snowy and ives peaks are pretty snowed in atm too. and yeah i'm gonna wait till the avy level drops too. any recommendations?

forest service page says as of yesterday the road to marble mt was closed (http://www.fs.fed.us/gpnf/recreation/mount-st-helens/). i was hoping to go up tomorrow night, anybody have any up-to-date info?

i am also new to portland and looking for a climbing partner, but i'm a total newb, i've done a little rock climbing (actually in your part of the world oddly enough, i lived in oz for 6 months) and taken one alpine climbing course here but havent done much more than that. i hope to do helens in the next couple weeks though im up for anything really and definitely up for hood. pm me or email me ktschmid AT gmail dot com if you wanna go climbing!

Hi I'm new to mountaineering and after taking a couple classes (PCC's Alpine Mountaineering course) would love to go climb something this Sunday, Does anyone else want to get a Helen's climb in before you have to pay $20 for the permits, maybe Worm Flows? Also are you ok with going up with someone who hikes a lot but is new to mountaineering? i just moved here from the east coast, and i don't really know anyone else who climbs....yet I'd be happy to climb something else that can be done in a long day, isn't too too far from portland, and is appropriate for a n00b, aka not too technical, though i can belay 5.11 without issue You can PM me or email me at ktschmid AT gmail dot com, thanks -Karl

Hi I'm new to mountaineering and after taking a couple classes (PCC's Alpine Mountaineering course) would love to go climb something this Sunday, Does anyone else want to get a Helen's climb in before you have to pay $20 for the permits, maybe Worm Flows? Also are you ok with going up with someone who hikes a lot but is new to mountaineering? i just moved here from the east coast, and i don't really know anyone else who climbs....yet I'd be happy to climb something else that can be done in a long day, isn't too too far from portland, and is appropriate for a n00b, aka not too technical, though i can belay 5.11 without issue =) You can PM me or email me at ktschmid AT gmail dot com, thanks -Karl

i'm also sorry to hear about that Brandon, best wishes to you and your wife... i'm a total newbie but would love to come learn about how to set up z-pulleys if some people get together anywhere near the portland area. i promise to read up on it though i haven't ever practiced it before. i was actually hoping to take oregon peak adventures class on glacier traverse and rescue weekend after next but can't now. this sounds like not a replacement but at least a consolation prize, which would be awesome. PM me if it happens and you're willing to take a newb along