alpine et

playing devil's advocate: the notion that from where you were it was safer to continue instead of retreat might imply that you dug the pit too late? In my mind if I'm digging a pit, I'm looking for something specific, and if I find it, I'm flipping it. It seems like you found it, but were unable to flip it.

I've been looking all afternoon for pictures of my closet on the internet. I have found none. I am contacting national geographic at this moment to videotape the first time the closet door opens. Judging by my cat's insistence at sitting near the closet door, I'm guessing there are cat toys in there. Anything else is just a guess.... TUNE IN!!

I feel like I really missed out on something special here by only seeing this thread now. But on the other hand, it's almost lunch time now. SCORE!!

As an FYI - much of the AIARE L1 content deals with exactly this sentiment. It's important to learn so that everyone has input. Expert halos can lead to worse decisions than the "expert" would have made in a different group of similarly knowledgeable partners...

I've had good luck finding deals on Salewas... while they've become a bit more common in the states since I got them ~3 years ago, I believe the sentiment that they're trying to price themselves into the US market is perhaps still the case. I think you get more boot/$ still... these have gotten me up Baker and Rainier: http://www.backcountry.com/salewa-raven-combi-gtx-boot-mens

I want to see the movie that the bivy bag was in. didn't know bivy bags were that cool

...and as an added bonus, I don't think anyone mentioned Rifle during this episode...

those are some beautiful pictures, thanks for sharing, and the reminder to get on down there again sometime soon.

single quad PDF maps? I think those are only available to those with AOL dial-up connections. ZINNNNNG!! I've noted a few of the responses above talking about needing to do conversions etc to use maps... and I need to reiterate how awesome GaiaGPS is... it does cost money, I think $10 (of which I get none) but it basically turns your smartphone into a high end Garmin. Seamless GPS maps. satellite if you want to as well. Get a phone with expandable memory (screw apple) and it's the best thing going! I've noted great performance with my galaxy s5, including picking my way down Muir in a pingpong ball last week... accuracy was within a few feet of our uptrack.

at least as far as Wednesday was concerned, which might not be normal winter operation yet, the gate was open well past 5... might have been because there were a larger than normal amount of people still picking their way down through the fog? LEOs were cruising around, but didn't seem to be hustling anyone along, that I saw...

Heard the issue was more about staffing than conditions, though they did receive a bit of fresh precip and road was slightly slick... don't think it needed much attention, but I've waited longer for the road in better conditions. I was also bummed, but the fresh snow more than made up for it. As for your hoverboard encounter, gotta say, those things are pretty lame. Though I'm jaded since I need to duck and maneuver through countless undergrads who are using them on campus while snapchatting people taking instagram selfies with their boxed lunches.

I'm a big fan of Gaia... have used it for 5+ years, and it keeps getting better. If you have the option of external SD card, do it, and then space is not much of an issue... I have all the places I typically get out to in WA downloaded at full resolution with no problem. Gaia is working on the link between computer planning and trip planning... they have a tool that will auto-route you on trails, saving some laborious clicking.... it's not quite there, but the only thing I've seen of its kind. Other than that you can easily shoot over gpx files from any other site (hillmap, caltopo etc) to your phone and they pop right up... I find more than the software, the hardware is the key. I upgraded from an iphone4 to a galaxy s5 recently, and the battery performance and gps accuracy is way better.

glad you guys made it down...we were rambling down the trail after being party number... 5 or 6(?) up Ragged Edge. Saw you guys rapping (pre-headlamp) silhouetted against the sunset.... looked like a long way down yet!

Which account does the film favor? Haven't read anatoli's yet, but it doesn't make krakauer look good.. I would imagine it's close to anatoli's account.

Hoping to get out to glacier this weekend and curious if others have been recently. I figure a few good deposits of snow were had up high, but hoping most of it melted off in warmer weather since? Any experience with routes via disappointment instead of going beneath and winding up on the cool? I've been up before, but we'll be traveling light and avoiding ice/hard snow would be nice.

I liked everst and loved meru. Was a bit put off after learning afterwards that they filmed some background scenes in the ice fall shortly after the avalanche. If I had known that I might have thought twice... Made me want to read anatoli's book...

Bugaboos were great a few weeks ago, but access was difficult / annoying and the exit routes back to the Kain hut were complicated by normal routes being out. Perhaps a bit early when we were there in early August, but is probably as expected for September. Still plenty of rock, though. Can't say enough about the Winds. so good.

yeaah, trip report. but i don't care about the bears. how much fresh snow did you run into?

I think solar panel performance is actually degraded by heat more than anything... cold temperatures are likely to be more problematic for whatever storage system you have. Difference might be academic, but I think you ought to be thinking more about how to keep the batteries happy. as an example - colder climates like the PNW do slightly better for PV on a per solar insolation basis than the SW because their panels get too hot and the performance degrades significantly. what type of temperatures are we talking? hard wired into a larger system or just charging and rotating batteries?

Now that this section of the climb is thoroughly documented (the level of documentation : remoteness ratio is now approaching absurdity) my excuse is that my wife was watching (took the picture above), and was yelling things about wanting to have kids etc, so I decided against doing (what for me) would have been a fun but awkward whale flop

This is the step across (actually you scramble down into the obvious notch in front of me, stand on a large chockstone and then need to pull one move and mantle onto the summit plateau). The top has some ball bearing type stones, and with my hiking boots I felt a bit insecure pulling that last move. The fall is fine if you land on the chockstone. If you don't quite land where you want to, though, it's at least 50' with poor runout on either side of the chockstone... I figured I had come far enough to scope the descent for future trips and flipped it there. writeup here of that trip if you're interested. Minimal (read zero) climbing info, just lotsa pictures.

Whoah really? I was scared leading that pitch . Over 7/4 we found the route to be just about 25m tall, meaning we enjoyed having a 60 to rap down on. We used someone else's, though, so I'm still not recommending you carry a 60m all the way up there...

Truth. These accents are usually enough to get you through a crappy work day too. Well done guys - inspiring effort!

Climbed W. Ridge Saturday... no snow you *have* to walk on, but it was soft enough to plunge step down about 500' with a pole. If I had an axe, would have plunged step a further 500' or so above as well... but it was a bit steeper. Decent snow on the bivies after Long John Tower... they'll be water there for a little longer.

Not always true. The example linked is from a super remote area and the couple had a totally clean camp. Never keep your food in the tent and if you're in an area that is known to have bears carry a canister or ursack. Glacier Peak Wilderness ain't Alaska.