Marmot Prince

You win dude. Look if you have that many accomplishments you have better things to argue with me. I got your point, I really did and will think about it.

Look here's your intel: Bring an ice axe for april and prepare to do Needle peak instead if conditions are bad. If snow conditions are normal, a stove will give you all the water you need. You won't need much anyways, its only 2600' feet. From pics from other people it looks like there will be a spot for a single person tent at least. Definitely check the weather 2-3 days out and go down. Ok happy? I suggest you stop flamebaiting people unless you are a troll. I feel for you but statements like "You guys could be a little more respectful" aren't going to help you and probably cause people here to cry from laughter.

FYI, Although the situation about the Mt Hood deaths was presented as a noob getting owned, none of you guys must have read the 30+ page thread or the SAR reports about the climbers in question. I did. There is no good evidence that indicates any of them were incompetent or unprepared. They were killed by a series of circumstances that can occur to any climber. I suggest you read the thread yourselves, it's pretty useful. That doesn't even make sense, I never said I didn't know those skills, in fact I said I did but that even if I did...nevermind. Anyways I call epic bullshit on your 6 summits and 25 rainier ascents. I was pretty curious about someone with those summits and also all 54 14ers, so I tried to go through your posts and its literally 40 pages of spray about obamacare and is SS a scam. Yeah, I'm sure you're a busy man. Post up some identifiable pics of you on one of the summits and on Rainier, or else I guess you were too busy to bring a camera. I would be pretty happy to go with others, not ruling this out, right now I'm in long range planning. Also the information I learn about Rainier solo is still pretty useful if going in a party or even a guided group. I'm not ruling out any sort of trip, and solo is possible. I go on trips with others about half the time. I also enjoy going alone, it has a different feeling. Both have virtues. You can get alot more contemplative and focused on the climb rather than concerning yourself with others people which I tend to do. Soloing is alot more aesthetically pleasing and your speed will not be limited by people who don't train as hard as you. I have alot of hiking friends but few mountaineering ones where I am and I don't feel comfortable for others peoples safety to bring my hiker friends up big mountains. On the otherhand I have some hardcore mountaineering contacts back in the northwest but their busy working on some technical stuff I'm years away from. From this thread you might get an impression Rainier is the biggest thing out there, but the DC route and even Liberty Ridge are mild compared to stuff like this: It's possible they will come with me but also possible that they view DC as a snowy treadmill and won't be interested. I don't want to climb a big mountain with strangers. Also you should check out the yak peak thread. They burnt that guy because his goal was too easy, while my goal apparently is too hardcore. So what would be an acceptable thread to start here? It's hard to most of these people seriously. What am I proving and to whom? Most of my friends don't understand mountains. They might know everest is tall and hard to climb, but most of them will basically nod their heads appreciatively if I said I climbed Rainier or Mt Si. My hardcore mountaineering contacts wouldn't be impressed by a DC route, it's a snow walk. As for proving something to myself, well, if I solo either 3 things will happen: Conditions are good like for you and I snow walk the cattle trail to the summit, conditions are bad or I get AMS and turn around, or I have some serious accident. None of those seem like they would prove anything. Your question would be more poignant if I never climbed before. Rainier is a good respectable objective but I've keep checking off peaks for a while, some involving some serious danger and exposure. I think I just like to climb.

Actually they are pretty helpful. And your critique about "not heeding advice...demonstrated" has already been answered by me and I really don't care about to point out why your wrong. By the way, to answer your question and others here, it's pretty clear what you think about me, but you don't really see what I see of you, and it's why you are confused. Unlike you, I post here to get information. I just don't feel your critiques because they usually without content and motivated by your egos and false assumptions, which you are not aware of. I think this is revealed in many posts about my so called arrogance and comparing me to others, ie, the guy who "soloed" cassin. It's also revealing that when people are contradicted they quickly start angrily pulling out the credentials instead of walking away. But I'm not here to impress anyone with climbing. When you try to put me down with name calling, etc, I just don't feel it because I don't have an ego, or at least not one I flaunt on internet forums, which is why you are so confused. I only want to climb.

Your a pretty confusing person. Your only comparison to Rainier was colorado despite being a world class mountaineer? Despite being all around the world with the 6 summits and with 25 ascents of Rainier, you only have 2 trip reports at a local Colorado crag and you look like your about 28. Hmmmm... Anyways I have all of your list that I can use soloing except how to prevent AMS. I only know how to be aware of the symptoms and try to do things to reduce it, but I'm not at the zen like level to eliminate AMS after travelling about 9000' in a few days. I know crevasse rescue etc., but somehow I don't think there is anything I can say to satisfy you. Most of the skills are qualitative, ie, there are experts who can manage ropes extremely efficiency or read glacier terrain better than I could ever achieve, the same way I will never climb 5.14+. Well already I'm on page 15 of that massive thread. I'm pretty sad in more than one way that you spoiled the ending. The thread is actually pretty useful, with little spray and alot of tips about snow caves, etc. It's also pretty wierd to see your sig in that thread, could we change that pretty soon?

lolwut? More sanctimony over a pretty serious issue. You know jackall about what happened. Competent climbers die all the time for reasons beyond their control and this situation may or not may have anything to do with soloing the DC. Again, you don't seem to understand that to dissuade someone you have to show there is a gulf between their abilities and goals, not just shrieking and pointing to likely unrelated mistakes in the past.

link to thread and news story/bulletin?

1. Those are skills, not experience. It's conceivable to take classes that cover all of those and not be even close to prepared to Rainier. And by the way I basically have most of those down, and also won't be needing the technical ones will I? 2. Spooky. Thanks for the personal tips about rockfall and your experiences on Rainier. Yup, I know early travel is safer for rockfall and snow bridges, but the specifics on Rainier are invaluable.

Ok fine, sorry. FYI this is yak peak in may 2008, I don't recall the snow levels that year. So, is there water? I think there will be! Yak Peak by Tim Gage, on Flickr

Ok this raises some eyebrows. If you lived in the area you would know the entire peak will pretty much be covered in snow and ice in April.

Because a vocal minority of people on this board love their e-authority a little too much and seem to think their tenure on this forum gives them the right to make assumptions about newcomers, when the opposite is the case.

not even close. MarmotPrince is Rainier to moosejah's rubble pile. edit: by the way, you people are pretty paranoid with those troll thing. You see trolls everywhere. I'm thinking considering the low level of dialogue you offer and your lack of reason for being here, maybe you are projecting a little too much,

I've been to the needle in November, it was a good hike and a great view of yak peak. To be honest, yours is a trivial question if you're asking for travel in summer conditions. On the other hand, it could be impossible to hike up in winter. What time are you going? I would guess camping on the top is possible if weather is good, obviously not if any storm is possible. If winter, what you want is a trip report with recent conditions in the area and a backup plan (needle is good) if it fails. It will be a good trip.

*hands moosejah flamesuit* I better step it up in my thread to take some off you.

Look, How many glaciers did you cross on the 14ers? I've never been there but the hardest mountain by the easiest route is class 4 and with fifty-four of them that says something. Those peaks are rubble piles on a tall plateau. It's really not informative to tell someone they don't have enough experience when 1. You won't describe the experience you need 2. You don't know the person your talking to I'm not going to reconsider my attempted Rainier trip, because I'm not attempting it, ie, I'm before the stage where you can reconsider. I'm considering, ie, I am not attemping anything. You need to understand I'm perfectly willing not to go if people can explain why it is so extremely dangerous in good conditions if I'm willing to accept the crevasse risk, which people can and do. Mentioning the 14ers doesn't really give me much information. I know they are significantly different than Rainier. I'm from the northwest and where i'm from, the glaciers start at 3,000'. I've travelled on a many glaciers, probably a total of 40 hours on them in the last 3 years, although they much more mellow than Rainier. I've also worked on 40 degree snow for days where a fall would not be arrestable. (now waiting for the inevitable spray which quotes one of my sentences about prior experience out of context)

Not really. All mountains I know of adhere to the laws of weather, climate, physics and gravity and that sort of shit. Not really, but if you think you know all mountains because you can climb one I'm not sure why you are wasting your time here.

A little unfair, I'm asking a question why people do alpine starts on a mountain. If you're suggesting its incompetent not to do one, well looking through the answers, it seems like alot of people don't. I've done alpine starts myself and I know plenty of reasons why to do them. The question is: is there something "special" about Rainier that requires alpine ascents. This is a reasonable question to ask. There are plenty of reasons why you might still be on terrain later in the day, and if that "special" something about Rainier happens, you could be in alot of shit. Every mountain can be very different and even if you've been up a few big ones in one range, going to another range has special problems that even experienced climbers might not know. I don't expect you people to read Socrates but I don't think that questions -> ignorance.

Good points. Well it seems theres alot of variety on start times. On the cattle routes I guess I will choose a regular start rather than 2 am start when I'm fit and prepared. An important factor to also consider is how early my new mountain pug can get up.

dammit, hate to admit it but you know your pugs

The pug looks very attentive, probably don't need a screamer

Thanks for the hands on experience, it's a great compliment to summitpost that I've also been reading. It's funny how SP seems to state an ice axe is optional on the easier routes when people fall all the time.

You mean like aid climbers or something? More like inner city kids without the opportunities most of us had. This looks pretty cool.

I'm planning a trip up Mt Shasta as part of training for another Volcano in the northwest, which will remain a secret, but it starts with the letter R. Obviously I'm only going up Shasta in good conditions without recent snow fall. Avalanche Gulch is the standard route, but I'm wondering if people have experience of the other class 3 routes, espiecally at that time of year. Concerned about minimizing rock fall, avalanches etc.

I agree there are ways to take the load off the belayer. But a brief look at any climbing crag suggests that leader falls are still painful and potentially dangerous. Surely we are not arguing about this? You're right that maybe a load limiter at the belay device isn't optimal. But why wouldn't one at the climber be useful? Again, as I stated before, the device does not have to be a screamer. The screamer was an example of a load limiting device to help understand my question. I'm discussing a hypothetical device that trades some extension for a reduction in the peak forces. An elastic band for example does this and does not require replacement. Also you probably wouldn't be using this in sport climbing where the bolts can take any reasonable force. Why do you climb on dynamic ropes and not static ones? Few people get injured in most climbing falls. I'm not saying the "design dynamism is insufficient", I'm asking why couldn't there be ways to lower the fall force further. Not sure what to say here. I've climbed with alot of people. Although we all enjoy the feeling of climbing, I know the majority don't consider the possibility of accidents a plus. I don't understand the responses in this thread. I'm asking why wouldn't taking some load off be useful? Are we really arguing that people die or are seriously injured every year when protection fails? Why do people spend $$$$ on trad gear and why is new gear constantly entering the market if falling on gear is not a problem.

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/shovel lolwut. What is this really about? Definitely sounds like you have alot of experience and some useful advice I guess the consensus is that a snow claw can be useful in some conditions and definitely is better than nothing. I wonder if people have ever used the snowclaw for other purposes, it is advertised as a splint. Maybe it could also be used as part of a sleeping pad system in some way (since the curved shape creates an air pocket above the ground). I