Jason4

For what it's worth I carry a 203cm probe and plastic bladed shovel in my slacker pack when I typically won't be more than a couple of minutes outside of the ski area. When I'm not bumping on the lifts then I have a metal bladed shovel and a 300cm probe in my avy tool pocket.

I would have been happy with just the amount of snow that we have if it had only been soft over the weekend. There were so many cools lips and features waiting to be played on near Herman Saddle but it was hard enough that it felt like a skate park.

Thanks for understanding my intentions and sorry to imply anything negative about guides, the ones that I know and have met are great guys.

This is ABSOLUTELY UNTRUE. AIARE courses are courses with a set curriculum and are not "guided trips." Many students who take these courses take them with partners or meet potential partners at the course. Guides who teach these courses are extremely concerned about the long term safety and well-being of the students in the course. The last thing that a guide would ever want to hear is that someone who took one of his or her courses was killed in an avalanche. The majority of the students that we see in avalanche courses are local climbers and skiers. Many of them will never participate in a guided trip, which makes the instructors even more paranoid about preparing the students effectively for the field. Guides who are avalanche instructors take their position extremely seriously... Jason Jason- Please tell me what part of what I said was untrue or disagreed with any of what you posted "in argument". I think you and I have talked in person on the same subject and while I can see very large advantages of going through a guide service for avalanche education you have not been able to give them to me yourself. As you said, all AIARE courses are taught from a set curriculum. As I said to Kurt, I'm sorry that worded it poorly and if you thought that I implied more than I said then you read into it further than I intended. Thanks Chris, you captured my intentions better than I did. It wasn't the quality of education that I intended to highlight but the motivation of the unpaid volunteers in the climbing clubs. This has become a more polar conversation than I intended. Also, thank you for the disclosure and for what it's worth I'll send people your way if I have the opportunity. Sorry to sidetrack the conversation, in regards to the OP some of your options in the region in no particular order are: Pro Guiding Service, North Bend, ask for Chris Everett Mountaineers (probably won't fit your schedule) AAI, great company, more expensive than EM, ask for Kurt Mt Baker Ski Area, it wasn't an accredited AIARE course last year but it was very similar, that may have changed this year Several other guiding services in the Seattle area that I'm not familiar with.

I can't speak for all of the clubs in the area but when I took the course through the mountaineers the two lead instructors were very highly qualified and under them there were 7 volunteers who were all AIARE instructor certified. Each of the instructor certified volunteers were responsible for a group of up to 7 students and had 2 assistants. The assistants primarily helped demonstrate techniques in the field and were expected to walk somebody out if they had to leave for some reason without having to take the entire class out. The low level assistants were not instructors.

Sorry guys, I have lots of respect for guides and didn't mean to offend anyone. I think you have misunderstood me though. My experience is that the climbing clubs teach from the same established curriculum and that they are teaching friends who they care about and see regularly. I did not intend to take anything away from the education provided by professional mountain guides. I agree that guides care very much about their clients and developing their abilities and I also agree that death would be bad for business and that guiding is not a job for someone without a passion for the mountains. I also don't think it's fair to short change the climbing clubs.

I don't disagree that the guide outfits have repetitive experience but one of the things that the clubs have is an interest in the students actually learning. At some point the club instructors and the club students will probably be real partners together and will depend on one another where that relationship will likely not happen with the guide.

AAI in Bellingham has a great reputation and they offer courses throughout the winter. I took my first avy course ~14 years ago and took the AIARE 1 course with the Everett Mountaineers last year and was very happy with the course. I had a good base of understanding going into it but was carpooling with a friend who had never taken an avy course so we had good discussion on how she felt about the course. The only downside to the Everett Mountaineers is that the course if only taught once a year and it doesn't fit your spring plan.

I would try to be more patient with new skis. I don't know how Meadows looks in the summer but I know that there isn't much in the way of grass and there is lots of scree under most of the trails at my local hill.

My everyday touring ski happens to be ~130 underfoot and 164.5cm in length. I find I have better glide than most of the partners I go out with (verified by who slides further out into the flats off of rollers) and better traction too (based on who starts slipping first on climbs). In soft snow it's not really a big deal but on firm snow and steep traverses the width really sucks. Of course I'm much happier than any of the skiers in 2 feet of spring slush when I pin my 2 halves back together and snowboard down.

Yep, I'm the same one, somehow I've managed to get the same (fairly generic) name on all the forums I'm on. I've followed your thread and mod descriptions on SB.com. It actually sounds like you've gone softer than I want to go but I'll probably follow down a similar path. I'd be interested in pictures of the slits cut in the lower boot and if you're ever up this way it might be enlightening to try your boots on if they are close enough in size to get an idea of how far I can go with it. Thanks for the help.

I tried on a pair of the BD Slants last week and the fit was much better than the TLT5. I'm assuming that the Prime will be the same fit as the Slant so I ordered a pair of the closeout Primes that are floating around on the web. Hopefully all this will work out and I'll have a more efficient split set up. The Zzeros and similar boots seemed to be too stiff, as a splitboarder I'm looking to the softest end of the AT boot spectrum and as light as possible. I'll report back after I get my kit together.

I'm a splitboarder and I have a problem... I'd like to make the jump to hardboots this year for long days in the skin track and for the spring split mountaineering adventures. I'm looking to lose the weight of strap bindings, improve side hilling, pick up more secure automatic crampons, and reduce the width of the boots for skinning and crampon security. Of course, the obvious answer is TLT5s but the more I try them on the lower my hopes are that they will ever fit my feet. I was able to try on Dynafit the Ones and Black Diamond Swifts last night and the Ones won't work for me either but the BDs seems like a decent fit out of the box. I'm thinking about picking up a pair of the closeout Primes that I've seen on the internet but reading reviews of them, especially the Cold Thistle review has me second guessing myself. Someone else has already modded the Primes for split use and they can be had for a good price. What else am I missing that's similarly soft or softer, is lighter, and will fit a wide (maybe high volume) foot? My fit issues come from my dead flat arches. My feet are the widest at the midfoot where my missing arch should be. The TLT5s left me feeling like the sole of my foot was floating because I was effectively chaulked between the two sides of the boot and just hanging. The One was better but still not doable for more than 20 minutes. The Swift didn't have that feeling but my toes felt a little squeezed but not bad.

Matt- while you have some good points I think most of that is not applicable to bouldering. I haven't been on a boulder problem yet that has sustained technical stemming, I've never looked for a good clipping stance on a boulder, and there aren't too many slabs that are actually part of the problem on a boulder that would be included in a move count. I agree that a kneedrop is questionable as a move, heel hooks and toe pulls are just as much a move as pulling with your hand. In the end I think a move count is just a general idea of how long and involved a particular problem is. I wouldn't hold it against anyone if a guide said a problem with 7 moves and I was able to do it in 5 or more likely it said it was 5 and I shuffled hands enough to turn it into 7. It's the difference between a 5 move problem and a 15 move problem that's worth noting.

I think a few people are missing the point that having a phone that works where you are for work lets people leave the desk and get into the mountains more. I dont' see why anyone would have a problem with that. I know most would prefer to leave work behind but sometime I can weasel out early or take an extra day off as long as I'm availabe to take calls and answer questions. I'll deal with that to get outside more often.

There is a Skagit Alpine Club meeting at the Burlington Library tonight at 7pm. It would be a good place to meet people familiar with climbing in this area. Burlington Public Library is located at 820 East Washington Avenue, one block south of Fairhaven at the corner of Washington Avenue and Holly Street

I've looked for the guidebook but not hard enough to find it but I know my way around the beach pretty well. There are a handful of fun boulder problems in the v2-v3 range and a couple that I've been told are v5s. The otter cave has a v3 and a v5 and the mushroom cave has a v7 with big holds but all the moves are big. The most problems in one spot will be at the firepit with a couple of different traverse variations. Some of the problems are tide dependent so it helps to hit it at low tide. I was down there a lot after work last summer but not much this summer, send me a PM and I can show you around M/W/F after 5pm.

That looks like a good trip, I wish I had made it out there a week earlier and with full snow gear, crampons, rope, harness, etc. I was up there on Saturday, July 14 and a lot of snow has melted out since you were up there. We followed the hiking trail up to Cascade Pass and then maybe a mile out the arm before turning back to find a ski route back down to Cascade Pass. We had to downclimb 2 times on the way to Cascade Pass and then hike up to the pass the same as you did. From there we followed a questionable path and had to downclimb through some slide alder between a couple of water falls. There was a route that traversed through from skiers right to left but we missed the entrance even though we had spotted it and shot pictures from above for reference lower down. You can see pictures from Saturday here.

Yes, I'm a moron and have nothing to add but does Cam know how you feel about his nuts?

Thanks Jason. Next time I see you remind me to tell you my secret.

I got pictures up! Flickr set.

Great shots Jason! Thanks all for the great day. I'll work on getting my shots online in the next few days and I'll post a link.

I was up near Rainy Lake on Saturday and the snow was very skiable and we didn't have any unexpected stability issues. The top 4" or so was sliding loose, wet, slow, and loud. As long as my partner and I didn't ski above each other then we both felt safe. We were able to ski from Maple Pass all the way to the highway with just one walk across a lake and one around a water fall on the creek that drains from Lake Ann.

I think there was a clean up last summer at Erie and I'm sure some interest could be generated in the SAC community. I know several members live in Anacortes and climb at Erie regularly in the dry months. I climbed out there a few times last summer and did not see trash then so I assume it happened sometime during the winter. I haven't been out to Clayton to boulder since the fall but I expect I'll find lots of glass in the cracks when I do get out there in the next couple of weeks.

About the only thing that I have to add (having never successfully introduce a GF to climbing)... Don't expect a woman (or anyone new to the sport) to pull moves the same way that you do. I've been spending time in a university gym lately and it's almost comical to watch 22yo guys show prospective GFs how to pull through easy routes skipping holds and with sloppy dynos.