Ben Beckerich

Has anyone gotten on 'er yet?

I would love to learn to ski, but I plain do not have time. Not now, not for a while. I just barely get out for resort boarding once or twice a season, how the fap am I going to learn to ski? I tried to teach myself AT skiing last year. I put together an AT setup with Silvretta 505s and just started going up on them, then having to come down with them. What better way to learn to ski, and do it in climbing boots, then to just go climb stuff and have to get back down? Not sure how many times I went up, trying different boots (to include Invernos, which just made it suck both up AND down), different methods.. but always on shit variable snow and usually in the crap weather a winter climber usually climbs in FAIL FAIL FAIL FAIL FAIL, FAIL. Horrible, awful, exhausting, painful, pride-wounding, demoralizing. I suspected it would be, as all my skiing friends told me I was destined for failure. But I have one of these personality types that just can't take peoples' word for things. Then I discovered splitboarding. Already being a competent snowboarder, this has become my winter mobility solution, and it's totally rad. Do you board??

Yup... My now-9, then-8 year old sported Contact Straps on his snowboard boots on Hood last year, and I didn't even have to size them all the way down. Teaching them how to not get their 'pons snagged on their own accessory loop at 8 instead of 24 = good parenting.

You guys are adept at baiting, but suck at DEbating.

I'm afraid it's worse than that. Those who ARE calling John Wayne gay think it's an insult. And that's why they're doing it.

You obviously care enough to put it on a public form for discussion. Just say'n. I thought you guys were quicker than this. What's my "point?"

So your hero was a shade of gay, so what? Why is that so bad? Calm down there sailor! I'm not sure why you blame others for wreaking your childhood delusions. The facts are always stranger than fiction, most people learn that with age. He can still be an image of toughness and masculinity for ya...those can be gay too. You're missing the point entirely. I already said I don't care if he screwed dudes, or even if he would have called himself "gay."

And I think it's fairly rare for people who engage in homosexual activity to "be gay" to begin with... Just as hardly anyone can be classified as entirely heterosexual, just as few can be classified as entirely homosexual. You have people who generally prefer heterosexual sex, people who generally prefer homosexual sex, and then everyone else somewhere in between. It's not at all uncommon for men claiming to be heterosexual in lifestyle to like to engage in homo sexual activity. So even if he did once, sometimes, or even frequently screw dudes, he might still not have been "gay." Calling John Wayne "gay" is nothing more than a deliberate attempt to smear him, to shatter the contemptible hero-image we have of our boyhood icon of American toughness and masculinity... "haha, dumb American (says the croc-wearing, ear-gaged anti-American American)- your straight, tough hero is a dick eating fag." That's how it feels, anyway. I couldn't care less what or who he did in the sack. Or all my other dead boyhood heroes so many spitefully antiestablishment types have tried to do the same thing to. It's the nature of the attack I don't care for.

Or, maybe he was gay. This is totally irrelevant to my question. I'm sure all sorts of people we'd never suspect have all sorts of varying sexual proclivities. People chose to keep that stuff private for their own reasons. You don't "out" someone because they're gay, you out them for your own agenda.

Is it that gay people love him too and want to claim him, or that antiestablishment-for-spite types can't stand the rest of us having any kind of classic America childhood hero?

Pah.. Too quick for me, Rob.

Nevermind. Off topic.

Super small scale?? I'm going with Pete on this one. Say what you want about the NPS ranger corps., but parks like Rainier are WAY cleaner/less messed with than nearby FS land. As someone who spends a lot of time on FS land outside of Granite Falls/Concrete/Darrington, Pete is not off the mark. If you can get near it in a truck or dirtbike, the methheads/rednecks aren't to be underestimated. I don't know, man. I just don't see it. I haven't yet spent much time in WA wilderness areas, but I've spent a LOT of time in Waldo, Jefferson, Sisters, wilderness areas, as well as Hood Natl Forest, and all up and down the Willamette Natl. You occasionally find trash and trashy people on the roads, but step 10 feet off and you're in unmolested, pristine wild. Tweekers and rednecks do their mething and dumping and shooting on the road.

While these things happen on a super small scale, they just don't really happen in wilderness areas. There're still laws, and you can still have Forest Service patrols... they're enough to keep our wilderness areas wild, I'm sure they'd be plenty enough to keep Rainier wild too.

Pretty funny that they can close a mountain. I get the "shutdown," but actually barring access to a mountain most of us would surely prefer unserviced to begin with is absolutely nothing other than spite. Walk away from the mountain... No service, no rescue, no guiding... And leave the gate open.

What's the overall grade like in either direction, from rainy or wa passes? How rideable is it overall? I'll be on a split, so it won't be quite as simple as just locking heels for the steeps...

Well crap... maybe I can coax one to give me a tow in.

Only going about 20 miles in from Ross Lake, so an east side approach is out. Sleds, eh? So it's probably a pretty hopping route, even in the winter, then? Lots of BCers, climbers, tourists... for some reason, I pictured it bleak and lonesome. Guess I didn't give it much thought. Well that's cool... should be skin tracks and breadcrumbs and snow bunnies to enjoy

Howdy Looking for some road beta for ye ol' North Cascades Highway during the closed months. What's the highway like around Jan/Feb skiing in from Diablo? Where exactly does it close on the west end, and what's parking like there? Skinning in 20 miles or so, what's the road going to look like? Does it stay pretty flat and road-like, or does it just pile up with snow and avy debris and blend into the slope (is it 20 miles of uncomfortable side-hilling)? Thanks

I've climbed with a few guys I met on CC.com... all have been good guys. We've all heard horror stories, obviously, but I think the percentage is really low.

All that said, if you think you'll be doing long winter trips without skis (because you're insane, or under compulsion of gun.. masochistic, member of some heinous cult... ), then you will need a warmer boot- Spantik would be a great option, if your feet fit them. From what I've seen, you generally fit Scarpa or Sportiva, but only lucky men fit both.

I've got a pair of the the new Guides... They're not a winter boot, but they are warm for a single. They'll probably be pretty comparable to the ones you just got rid of... I didn't have the Guides in the red, but I did have a pair of the 6,000s in red, and they strike me as fairly identical, aside from color. My understanding is that they changed membranes, and adjusted the footprint.. I'm no boot expert, though. I did do some winter climbing in them this season, even a couple overnight trips. I'd have no problem taking them on any of the routes you listed above (and have climbed some of those in them), if you climbed each during the normal season for each. I wouldn't do multi-night winter trips in them, but that's what my AT boots are for anyway. My current lineup's just like yours - Lightweight summer boots, TLT5s, Phantom Guides... with the new thick liners I'm ordering for the TLTs, I think basically all of my bases are gonna be more than covered, this year.

Switch back to poles and forget it?

Howdy I don't actually have anything specific in mind, so if you do, lemme know. Looking to keep it easy... I don't even really know where my trad ceiling is right now, and not looking to push it on an alpine climb.. so 5.7, 5.8 tops. Easy North Cascades 5th class Also down to do some steep glacier ice... Adams Glacier, Baker North Ridge Jefferson Park on El Jeffe would be thumbs up Washington? What else? Please be fit and SANE. Ability to solo 4th up to low 5th and AI3 big plus too.. savey timey

I've got an email out to Intuition asking which liner they'd suggest for my app... Looks like that's the best way to go Thanks guys