dave schultz

Might be a well kept secret, or not, but I got all the way to the end of the road (F250) on Saturday (12/21). Should be even easier today since we haven't gotten much, if any, snow up there since. The shwack up Elderado was pretty terrible, though. The boulder/talus field had about 3 inches of snow covering everything and not enough was filled in to make it easily passable.

Anyone looking to get out for the second half of the day?

Dates: 28-29 Dec (able to leave mid-day on the 27th) (Partner Found) 31 Dec-3 Jan (able to leave early on the 31st and can come back as late as 5am on the 4th) ... Still looking for a partner. Flexible on objectives, thinking about: -Rainier -Elderado (or other Boston Basin tour, including Mt Buckner) -Mt Baker (or other Shuksan, other nearby areas) Willing to drive to Canada or Montana for some ice. Dave

I'm looking for a partner to do something this Friday, Saturday, and/or Sunday. I would be interested in heading up to Rainier (if we can get through the Longmire gate) to overnight and ski around the lower mountain (6-9k ft elevation) or go for a summit bid. Would also be interested in heading up the grater Mount Baker area and go for the summits or just look around for the best skiing. If there is some technical climbing anywhere, or if anyone is looking for some cold weather rock or aid climbing, those are also on the table. Or anything else is someone else has any other ideas .... Hope to hear from someone! Dave

Trip: Central Italy Dirt Baggin' Date: 10/30/2013-11/1/2013 Trip Report: James and I were lucky to get the chance to visit Naples, Italy for a few days at the end of October. We decided that climbing would be more fun than seeing the sights - there is always another time to come back to see the sights. Day one, our arrival, we get our transportation and head to Gaeta, only to get there after dark (it was further than we thought) and we could not find anything that we were looking for. BUST. Having failed miserably, we moved on to our real objective - Corno Grande. James is a "peakbagger" and ticking the tallest mountain on the Italian Peninsula was a big deal for him. It only being fourth class, I was not too interested, but figured it couldn’t be that bad. We made the two hour drive to a few miles before the trail head, and stopped at some town off the main road for our first, and probably best, authentic Italian cuisine (nothing like carb loading with an entire pizza). We then finished the drive a few miles short of the trail head, and slept along the side of the road. Dave with his carbs. Day two, up at the crack of dawn, after 30 minutes of hitting the snooze button, we make our way to the trail head, and carrying light packs we blaze off to bag this peak. After 1:40 of fast hiking, picture taking, and fourth class scrambling we reach the top. What a sight. It has been quite a while since James or I was able to get out into the mountains, so this was are real treat. We sign the register, ours being the only one in English, spend about 40 minutes on the summit, and then bug down the west ridge. We tagged a couple other minor ridge summits on the way back to the car. We were four hours, car to car. James, with Corno Grande in the background. Summit view. Dave, looking out from the summit. We then drove down to tag another “peak” for James – this time it was Monte Camicia. This non-technical trail took us about three hours round trip, and combined with poor visibility was not the most exciting thing. James now has something like 115 “P2Ks” – good job! We then headed all the way back south to the Sorrento Peninsula , with the intent to do some technical climbing at the tip along the sea cliffs looking across at the Isle of Capri. We stopped and got groceries for breakfast and stopped for dinner just south of Naples. The food was good, but nothing like the small town meal the night before. Our directions state that the road gets worse and narrows the further along you go; we follow it until we think that we are actually probably stuck. Fortunately there was a driveway (which was locked) where we were able to do a 19-point turn-around – if our car was 3 inches longer we would have not made it. We backed up just past the driveway and, once again, slept along the side of the road. The next morning, day three, we awoke to the sound of a motorcycle and horn. Quickly realizing that we are probably not going to be able to leave the car here while we go climbing, we get back in, and start heading out the narrow road. We then found a suitable parking area about half a mile back (which we missed the night before), and leave the car and walk down to where we think the climbing will be. We make the 30 minute walk down to the cliffs, only to find the trail disappear and no real sign of climbing activity. We wonder around for about 45 minutes until we decide that we once again have failed. Not having a guide book, or any other significant piece of information really makes it hard to find the right climbing area. Our last resort is another place, just south of Mount Vesuvius. Along the drive we make some wrong turns, driving through someone’s olive garden, but eventually making it to the right sport (we think). After asking around, we conclude that we are in the right area, and we then actually found some climbable rock. It was pretty sharp and steep limestone with bolt protected routes, which actually had the name engraved on a placard that was attached at the base of the route. We lead up some pretty easy single pitch stuff, getting about three leads each. We decide not to push anything as neither of us has climbed rock for the past 8 months. It was a mellow day, but felt great to have found the crag and to have gotten on the rock. Finally, we head back to Naples, drop off the transportation, and grab some celebratory beer. Two days of dirt-baggin’ it in central Italy could not have gone much better – except for maybe finding a higher percentage of the crags.

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 size is the backpack?

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.