dave schultz

Floating an idea about a climbing / skiing trip to Mt Waddington area in early March, 2014. Let me know if you are interested. Dave

Looking for partner(s) for the Canadian Rockies. Looking at ice climbing and backcountry skiing. Prefer to climb ice for most of the days, but that is obviously condition dependent. Would be willing to change destination. Current plan is to start the drive on the 22nd and return on the 30th. I can lead WI4 and have a 4x4 truck with chains. Thanks, Dave

looking for a partner for climbing in Red Rocks. I plan on leaving PNW around the 27th of Dec and first day of climbing on the 29th. Leaving Red Rocks on the 3rd and back in PNW on the 4th. I can lead 5.9 and maybe some 5.10. Thanks, Dave

Hi Everyone, wondering is anyone has any beta or experiance climbing in Southern Italy, near Naples or the area between Naples and Corno Grande (highest point on the Italian Peninsula). Thanks, Dave

I agree, they have no real flaws unless they don't fit your feet or unless your feet get too cold in them. I have climbed a fair amount in mine in NH, NY, and the PNW with no real issues. They are a perfect alpine climbing and ski mountaineering boot, and I think that you can probably climb pretty hard vertical water ice if you are used to the feel. As a side note, the new TLT6 is supposed to have an adjustable forward lean. The La Sportiva boots are probably pretty similar (no personal experiance), but there is not a as much of a following as with the TLT5s.

What do you take on an overnight that requires over 50L of stuff?

I also have the Sterling 7.8 as a twin/double and they are fantastic.

I disagree. I will swap my bindings in parking lot / trail head when I decide whether I want to tele or AT and if I want the super fat planks or the regular skis. It takes all of 5 mintues, with gloves on. If your biggest problem is deciding what skis or bindings to use, the cost of the quiver killers is probably not abig deal. I do like the idea of putting the tech toe binding on the splitboard. I have never snowboarded, but that seems like it wouuld make teh skin much less taxing, if of course you are already using a tech friendly boot.

Hi Everyone, It is a little bit far off and advanced notice, but I figured I throw it out and see if anyone would be interested. I am heading down into Utah and Nevada for my first desert southwest climbing trip. Looking at Moab, Indian Creek, and Red Rocks (possibly hitting City of Rocks on the way down). Expected departure from the PNW would be on or arond Oct 29th and returning around Nov 12th. I am hoping to be leading a bunch of low 5.10s, mainly single pitch since my wife and dog will be with me. If I snag a partner who is willing to do multi-pitch I would rather climb mulit-pitch stuff. We have a truck with room for one or two other people Dave

I got mine professionally installed by the guys at Backcountry Essentials in Bellingham. I think it was $100 per paio of skis, and they were perfect and ensured that everything worked out perfectly. I would highly reccomend at least calling them up, but I would also say it would be worth the drive up there. If you are good with tools, you could for sure do it yourself, time wise it just worked for me to have them do it. Quiver Killers are a great setup if you have a signle set of bindings and want to swap them around. I personanly have three pairs of skis, a pair of tele bindings and a pair of AT bindings and have all three pairs of skis drilled for both sets of bindings so I can swap them back and forth (essentially six pairs of skis for the cost of three fully rigged pairs). Beyond the flexibility of changing the bindings out, they pack smaller when you remove the bindings if you are going to travel with them. They are also significantly stronger than a normal wood screw and epoxy set up that most bindings are mounted with - I cannot remember the exact difference in terms of pull-out-force required, but it was on the order of about 1.25 times the conventiional wood screw binding set up. I can think of NO reason that they are a bad option for backcountry skiing. I always carry extra machine screws in case I loose one (never happened), and I always have a tool to tighten the screws before a trip, and througout the trip when opportunities arise, just to be cautions - but I have never had a situation where I lost a screw, or where a screw was loose. Vibra-tite is a commercially available product (I bought mine from amazon.com) that you can apply to screws that helps prevent them from vibrating out of the insert as added security. Again, for anyone who has multiple pairs of bindings or skis, I find that the quiver killers are worth their weight in gold. Its also really easy to just buy that next pair of skis, because its only $100 for the bindings ... Hope that helps.

Your TLT5s are pretty bomber for ice. I have climbed many routes with TLT5s and they climb extremely well. It would probably suck to do an "approach" in them, though (I have a LS Trango lightweight boot and the Phanton Guide, so I have had the other options). Why not get a pair of PG that fit? The Spantic is an icredable boot, though it may not actually climb ice as well as you would think (no personal experiance, though). I do know a friend who was looking for a one-stop-shop for alpine/winter boots, and he went with the Spantic, and he has not been dissapointed, though he has not done a lot hard/technical ice climbing (mostly moderately technical volcano style climbing). Hope this helps.

Tetons in Augsut are awesoem - be carefull of afternoon thunderstorms though. I was there last year, and had a bad partner match-up (from mountainproject.com) and ended up not sticking around for very long. You should look at the Grand Traverse - probably the best link up imaginable. And August is the prime time to do it.

Thinking about adding a HR monitor to the list of shit that I carry around with me. The previous thread about new altimeter watches does not really address the HR monitor feature, so I thought I would start a new one. I see two paths: (1) upgrade my current Casio Pathfinder (AMAZING watch, with altimeter) to a watch that also has an altimeter WITH a HR monitor OR (2) get a cheap, second HR monitor watch and wear both. The second option is pretty simple, just a cheap HR monitor; the first option is where I am looking for what others might be doing and their thoughts/opinions. I would not be opposed to getting the GPS versions nor is the price really of significant concern, though I am 99% sure I would still carry my normal Garmin GPS with me, even with a GPS feature on the watch (if/until I got comfortable enough with a GPS on my wrist to go without the full fledges backup). Currently looking at the Suunto Ambit2 (all the varieties), the Suunto Vector, and the Garmin Fenix. Obviously the biggest differences are GPS vs no GPS. Another significant difference is batter life, only 50hrs with the GPS variety (with GPS enabled) vs more normal length battery life for the non-GPS variety. I would like something that I can take the data off of the watch and keep for future reference. I don’t really have a typical use for it, it would be used for anything from long single push rock climbs, to fast ski tours/races, to slow backpacking trips, to overnight trail runs, to mutli-day ski tours and mountaineering objectives. Thanks

what is it with people loosing thier ropes in the alpine this early season?

Ken, that sucks about the bad partner luck. I won't be back until October; which is a though shoulder season in the PNW. I might be heading down to Yosemite or Southern California for two weeks of vacation after getting back, we could work something out there, or hold off until the winter season really sets up.

Its not too steep, I skied from the summit ridge in early March. The traverse is fairly narrow, but your moutaineering, you should be more than fine. My dog would have no issue summiting (at least in the conditions I saw in March).

Hey Ken - I can probably find some for you. Are you looking for TH lat/long, various lat/longs on the route, summit lat/long, or what? How will you be utilizing the coordinates? I shot you an email about a week ago, did you get it?

I have a BD Speed 22 that I used on my N Face of Hood trip; overnight gear, some technical climbing gear, rope outside the pack, and the side straps hold skis great. For bigger/long trips I have a BD Axis 33 (same good things as the Speed). If you need something bigger than the 33 you're doing something wrong. If you need something bigger than the 22 for a day trip, you're also probably doing something wrong. For ski mountaineering you MUST be both mega light and mega compact. I also have an Arcteryx Silo 18/30/40 - all of which are great packs, but I find the 22 to be a better size and the 33 to be a better size. If I really needed somthing big, the Silo 40 would probably be my choice, but I would probably reconsider what I was bringing and leave some stuff at home in order to get down to the 33. Both BD packs also have the small (but usable) gear loop on the hip belt (as does the Silo 30, but it's pretty pathetic for a gear loop).

With regard to slings, I carry about 6-8 single length (60cm) and 4-6 double length. I don't carry any 30cm slings (no real point, and not versatile for other things) nor do I carry any dog bones. I guess if you were going to a sport crag, dog bones would work fine. And its definitely worth getting a noseless biner for your slings, I use the DMM Alpha.

Presi Range in NH is pretty legit, though it can also be pretty cake. I did it solo in less than 24 hrs with an open bivy in mid February with perfectly clear skies. Khatadin is bigger and probably more similar to what you might encounter in Alaska.

seems pretty late for winter activities. Last year at this time it was the epic St Patricks Day at Mt Washington ... then it was rock season.

Nice TR. We saw you guys top out, we were the group that came up N Face. It was pretty incredible weather, I also wore my belay jacket the entire day. I didn't realize you guys skinned up the Palmer and left your gear cached, is that a pretty standard way of doing it?

Mt Hood on the approach at dusk. Sunrise the next morning. Basking in the perfect morning light. Michael climbing up the couloir. In the background, you can barely see our bivy site, to the right and slightly higher than Michael's ski tips. The second ice step, with some rocking spindrift and wind, way too much fun. Photo taken by the climbers on the summit of Dave popping up from the North Face.

When you say the "second couloir likewise has no ice" on the TC does that mean that you climbed through the runnels? Or did you succesfully bypass the runnels via the variations to arrive at the second couloir? Or did you mean that the runnels were free of ice? I was there about two weeks ago (http://cascadeclimbers.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/1099313/TR_Colchuck_Triple_Couloir_Att#Post1099313) to find little to no ice in the runnels, and we didn't even waste our time searching for the bypass around it. Side note, did you see evidence in the first couloir of the snow bollards from two weeks ago?

Looks like a stellar outing. Almost 10k in vertical is impressive. Congrats.