Ben Beckerich

Yea, that was said in a particular context that should have been explained: one certainly cannot ever ignore avalanche concerns. But anyone with any avy sense at all can pretty much not even look at NWAC, this season. Let's, Matt... but I'm about to sell my splitboard!

Basically everything on Hood is soloable, if you're a competent alpine soloist. Being a strong ice climber will go a long way to ensuring you don't fall off the steps, but there's not that much steep ice to be had. The bigger issue with soloing is just having a good head for alpine - understanding where shit is likely to fall from, being able to move through shit-fall areas quickly and intelligently, avalanche assessment (don't even bother, this year), glacier/crevasse navigation, blind land navigation- visibility seems to be the catalyzing killer in most of the classic Hood tragedies... weather rolls in, people decide to hunker down rather than descend, and mysterious death ensues. Physical fitness is absolutely critical.. fatigue ruins climbs, epicness or not. So I'm saying it sounds like you probably don't want to solo at this point, based on what little I know about you. But if you're fit, there's no reason you couldn't slam out a North Face trip with a partner that knows the mountain. But dammit - you better be fit.

I didn't go.... I wanted to take a nap on the summit, build up some RBCs, and just didn't like the idea of doing it in 50mph gusts, as the forecast was suggesting. Will try again Monday... even after 10-12" of fresh this weekend, there's just nothing up there that can slide with enough mass to ruin your day, barring terrain trappage. NWAC might as well shut down.

Anybody been up this week? Gonna do a lil training run up the south side tomorrow morning.... wondering if I should do hikers or skis

Seems like this route really calls for a 3, 4 hour pre-dawn start for best conditions. The ridge is so sharp and full-south facing, as soon as the sun hits it, it's taking sun-ray punches to the kisser. Or an overcast day.. but that slims up your margin.

Logged on to check this out..... Sounds like conditions were not optimal, which makes me less jealous - but lends bigger props to you boys for getting it done anyway. Strong work.

Wow... Kid was really bold, and had a crazy enthusiasm for gnarly ice. We weren't exactly bros, but we tried to be a couple seasons ago... just never did get trips/schedules to line up. RIP, little bro... climb the big one in the sky.

Which Dasan?? Not this Dasan? http://cascadeclimbers.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/ubb/showprofile/User/23383

I used to care about ridiculous shit like this... I'm so glad I don't anymore. I'm totally OK with an all women's school banning Vagina Monologues because it doesn't represent dudes with vaginas and chicks with dicks, if that gives them jollies.

Everything from Lewis to Everette is just Seattlapolis to me, dude.

Special place.... http://abc7news.com/news/cyclist-hit-in-west-oakland-robbed-while-unconscious/474341/

Yea... the Whitewater descent just seems like a sloggy hell.. I've read accounts of people spending HOURS out there coming back around. Plus, it adds at least an hour or two on the trail also. Last time I was up there I couldn't even find a reasonable exit to the Whitewater from the knife-edge, but I didn't actually look very hard, as I descended the Milk Creek ravine to the Russel. I great approach/retreat is to take the Russel's drainage up to the moraine from the PCT- I believe it's the only spot where the PCT breaks the treeline on Jeff herself- so it's a very obvious ingress and egress. And greatly simplifies descent. The only issue I see with this is the fact that the Milk Creek drainage is sustained steep snow for a couple thousand feet, which some folks find intimidating for descent. Speaking of the Milk Creek thing... is that an established climbing route? It's not particularly interesting climbing, but it's got to be the single most straightforward and least technically demanding routes to the summit, no? If one was looking for a quick and safe bag of Jefferson, I'd think it'd be just what the doctor ordered. I've never seen any report of anyone ascending that way.. just descending.

Not a passive-aggressive criticism (like one would expect on this board [and would usually actually be what I was doing]) but genuinely just wondering what your take was: why do you say the upper schrund was impassible? Looks like there was a few places where it was continuous frozen water... just too overhung to give it a go?

Can't read your TR... Scared made it too hard.

Happy Christmas!

This is my overall political position. I can't believe anyone cares anymore.

I've had similar experience, as a construction contractor. I was stoked about fellow climbers before I found out that the type that are interested in doing construction are the type that already have a well established pattern of life lethargy and poor decision-making. Not saying a climber can't make good labor- I'm a climber, and very squared away on the job site... so it's not impossible. Just rare. Some folks like to maximize their odds by pre-screening, and that's legit.

He doesn't give a shit about the Constitution. It's just one of about 30 different flags he keeps in his pocket to suit his current bullshit argument... many of which, as you've noted, are completely contradictory. This is why I can't humor his bullshit. I can take any ism you've got up your sleeve, but hypocriticism I cannot abide.

Yea bro... I think you're a flaming fucking moron... so if you pick up hostility from me, it's no surprise at all.

it is this aggressive attitude about gun ownership that is the most disturbing and IMO the reason why the recent gun initiative passed. If gun owners came across as sensible and responsible individuals, non gun owners wouldn't give a crap about people owning guns. NRA says that people kill people not guns killing people. When we hear such aggression coming from gun owners,(even such a minor comment such as "eat it") it is not a big leap to think it would be good to get guns out of these peoples hands. There are many pro gun activists that say the craziest shit and it scares the bejessus out of the rest of the country. A few bad apples ruining it for the rest of the playground? The fierceness with which gun people defend gun rights comes from a century of constantly battling new gun control legislation and the knowledge that there's a very mean minority absolutely bent on restricting our rights. It also comes from the fact that gun ownership is unfortunately primarily represented by conservative/Republican/Tea Party types who automatically repulse anyone left-of-center- which is more to the point; gun control isn't about gun control, it's about people control and spite. Anti-gunners don't hate guns, they hate YOU (Mr. Gun Owner), and they know your guns are the best way to get at you. How can you blame people for having an aggressive attitude? The laws on the books are complete bullshit, from a Constitutional perspective. We've finally turned the tide a bit in the last decade and the lawsare easing up and becoming more reasonable, but the topic has also become more polarized- so you have pockets of major resistance to liberalization, often founded on media-fueled and sensationalized mass shootings. But you know as well as I that the crazies you see on TV are never representative of the whole. The media doesn't interview calm people at rallies and protests- they show the asshats that are going to get them ratings and deepen the polarization that makes them billions. Dudes walking into McDonalds with AKs slung down their backs are fucking retards of the highest caliber, and DO NOT represent the American gun owner.

And you know this. You know that for every New York Times internet poll that shows a decline in gun stoke, there are 50 reliable studies that show ownership is up, especially among "assault weapons," and that stoke is mega high. There are more gun dealers, better gun laws across the nation, more gun ranges, more people getting licenses to carry, more ammunition being purchased, etc, etc, than at any other time in history. Eat it.

Good luck with that. I've never seen a new generation as pumped up about semi-automatic rifles, full-capacity handguns, and honoring the 2nd Amendment as this generation coming up. The only place I see any indication that America's young adults and youth are less pro-gun is the mouths of anti-gunners like you. Fortunately for the rest of us, saying it's so ain't make it so.

No problem with surgical drone strikes for appropriate targets. Not sure why anyone does have a problem with that. Like anything, it's technology that can be abused.... maybe it's being abused to some degree? I can't say. I know a missile coming off a drone has to be less destructive than a 5000lb JDAM, which is how we used to do "surgical strikes." It might still be death and destruction with occasional, hopefully minimal collateral damage, but it IS progress. Tsjvalphabet - I have no problem with anything you wrote above, except your weird fixation on guns. I just wish you'd accept it's an irrational fear and not even bring it up until you can articulate SOME kind of rational argument in favor of taking the one tool the People have against tyranny away from them.

What makes you think we weren't already savages?

You don't get out much, do you? The rest of the world hasn't gone completely ambiguously gender neuter, bro. The English language doesn't even presently have a way to do it without pretty drastic changes in sentence arrangement; I for one, don't give a shit enough about appearing to be overly inclusive to do that, just yet.