forrest_m

a few thoughts: it depends a lot on the proportion of loose to solid material, but at the easier end of the spectrum, there’s a lot to be said for dynamic stability. I see a lot of people get into trouble on 3rd class by trying to make every step totally solid. Instead, if you just assume that almost everything is loose, you can move more safely by moving quickly. You can safely use loose footholds if you are dancing across them – by the time they collapse you have already moved on. A lot of times in 3rd class gullies, I think the best way is often to dart quickly from side to side, from stable island to stable island, and damn the torpedoes in between. your mental state is more like skiing than climbing. When it gets steeper, I’m a big fan of descending facing out as long as possible, you make better time and are more secure in many cases scooting down on your butt, even on a lot of 4th class, because you can see where you are going. You are safer from pulling off loose holds because you are palming down in most cases, not pulling outwards as you would be if you were facing in. I think the key to descending this kind of terrain safely is to be in good enough shape that you are still mentally and physically agile on the descent. You get into trouble when you get to the top and think “great, I’m done now.” [ 10-11-2002, 11:46 AM: Message edited by: forrest_m ]

<pointless rant> You tend to think of evolution as always leading to the most efficient solution, but that’s not really true. Actually, evolution involves a lot of trial and error, with a lot of mistakes. For example, there are those peacocks with the huge tails. The tail actually slows them down, makes them more vulnerable and the biologists figure that the reason they evolved was to impress the female birds, i.e. “hey, baby, I’m so big and strong that I can drag this huge tail around and still outrun predators.” But every so often, a bird is born whose tail is just too dang big and they end up as dinner. That’s what the new quark makes me think of. I picked one up in a shop a few weeks ago, you know, swinging at the air and all, and I was shocked at how awkward it felt, it’s *really* top heavy, in fact it’s rather difficult to hold it straight up in the air. I realized it was because the leashless bolted mixed M8 crowd doesn’t actually swing their tools, they just set them gently on edges and such. But it kind of made me sad; for the last many years, ice tools have been evolving in a way that made them both more efficient and more beautiful. I mean, the previous version of the quark just felt sleek in your hand, slipping behind the wheel of a porsche. I can’t speak to how well the new quark works, it probably climbs like no tomorrow, but it sure is ugly. </pointless rant>

around here, there’s always someone who disagrees, and today, mountainman, it’s me… the book 100 hikes in the alpine lakes says that aasgard pass is boring and tastless, and dangerous too. the snow creek trail lets you experience the enchantments in the right order, rising gracefully through the alpine zones rather than jumping abruptly into the alpine. ok, really, though, for prusik in a day, I’d go snow creek every time. why? because, at the end of a long day, I don’t want to think, or watch where I’m putting my feet, I just want to slog. I’m literally looking for a “no-brainer.” Snow creek lets me slog mindlessly and the angle is easier on the knees. plus what caveman said about early season not needing anything more than tennies.

or use rigid insulation to get the same R value - it's more expensive, but if it's only one bathroom wall, the total square footage is probably not that much.

aren't dewalt tools now just black & decker with a yellow paint job? i have several contractor friends who bitch about how their old dewalts lasted forever, but since they got bought out, the quality has gone way down. actually, i still use a *gasp* corded bosch drill for most stuff around the house, for me the most important part of "power tool" is "power."

workin on a professional jobsite, i loved the cordless tools. the best part was, there was this huge rack of batteries lined up in a charger and the new guy on the crew (a position i had recently graduated from) was in charge of making sure that they were always charged. fast forward a few years, forrest the homeowner blew through the entire charge on both batteries - TWICE IN ONE WEEK! GRRRRRRR! how much work you gonna get done with no juice?

quote: You have couch surfed most statesto add to this one: you feel no shame calling someone you met at camp 4 two years ago at 10 pm as you're passing through town in order to ask if you can surf their couch also, you call friends with full time jobs and "just don't understand" why they can't leave for nepal with you in ten days, i mean, come on, it's only for four weeks, they'll hardly miss you...

i imagine you get dinner for your $, it is a banquet. like a lot of banquets, the idea is to raise money for the organization involved, so it costs more than an equivalent meal in a restaurant. if past experience is any guide, the bar will be "no host" (i.e. you're on your own for booze).

quote: I've decided that this is my favorite climb in Washington, excluding Yosemitei didn't know yosemite was in washington. did we annex it through some tim eyeman initiative or something?

i hear cavey is a toothophile...

ted, you’re probably right, hell it’s all voodoo to me… actually, I think the cycle of hyperbole has yet another layer, because the way I understand it, governments in poorer countries who get hit hard by el nino (peru, columbia, etc.) use the NOAA predictions (which as you note are simplified & glorified in part to ensure continued funding for NOAA) as the rationale to ask for additional aid money from richer countries.. to “go for the gold” in your words. card houses atop card houses!

high tolerance for suffering combined with a short memory. Only half kidding, actually what I think makes a good partner is finding someone who is motivated to do the same things you are. If your goals aren’t in line, one of you will be frustrated and the other pissed off… a great partner is amped to do the same routes as you, over and over, regardless of how tired, scared, etc. you both got last time. Also, someone who can Deal With Shit while Keeping Their Shit Together (especially when Shit is Falling Apart). But the trick is figuring out who is going to be able to do this without actually suffering through an epic.

terrible ted wrote: quote: "El Nino" has some slim meaning for dry farmers, fisherman and graduate students of oceanography and atmospheric sciences but, as a practical matter, it's useless for weather forecasting.ted, your point is well taken about el nino forcasts not being much use for planning your next climbing trip, but i think these forecasts are a lot more useful than you seem to think. In fact, the program is often held up as an example of the kind of "practical" science that appeals to politicians who might balk at "basic research." "weather forecasting" includes a lot more than predicting clouds or sun for next weekend. arguably more important are long range forecasts - and the el nino forecasts have become some of the more reliable in this area - which are what governments and other organizations use to make decisions like "how much money do we allocate to emergency services this year." NOAA's el nino prediction program has been credited with saving (or helping to save, anyway) thousands of lives and billions of dollars over the last decade by allowing both wealthy and poor nations all over the western hemisphere to be more prepared for weather fluctuations. what does this have to do with climbing? well, nothing. but since my wife works in the NOAA el nino prediction lab here in seattle, i feel obligated to set the record straight.

dear k.rose, maybe this is stating the obvious but perhaps it is because you have 7 posts and the Cpt. has several thousand and therefore people "know" him and "care" because they are "friends?" sincerely, forrest_m

IIRC, in the intro to Sky Valley Rock, it says that the cliffs themselves are all state DNR land? I don't know about the parking lot. I was under the impression that this had all been resolved a few years ago when some crisis was resolved when the access fund determined that it was state land? But according to Greg, someone posted here recently that this was not the case. Can you give me a pointer to the thread you're talking about? I'm being dense and can't seem to find it...

golden horn looks pretty sweet from across the valley. i don't know how bad the rock can be, everything else around there is at least decent. (he says, trying to conceal the sandbag behind his back). on the summit of hardy, we found a film cannister with a note in it saying someone had done a complete ridge traverse from GH to Hardy over Methow Pass - that sounded neat.

a old man and his wife are having problems with their sex life, it just isn’t what it used to be. so the man goes to a sex therapist for advice. the therapist tells him to hire a young man from the neighborhood to come to their house and wave a towel over them while they make love. the man is a bit puzzled, but he picks a strapping youngster and gives it a try, but it’s no use. no improvement. he goes back, and the therapist sighs, and says, well ok, have the young man make love to your wife while YOU wave a towel over them. this seems to work much better, and soon the young fellow brings the mrs. to a screaming orgasm. the old man is very satisfied with himself, and taps the young man on the shoulder and says smugly: “now, sonny, THAT’S how you wave a towel!”

yeah, but the weatheroffice reports for jasper are always like "mix of sun and cloud" or some ambiguous thing like that = robson and the icefield make their own weather and the weather dudes don't have any idea. they're pretty good at telling you when it's for sure gonna a be bad but lousy at predicting when its for sure gonna be good.

I think denny mt. is more euro: skip the approach by taking a chairlift right to the crux of the route, then ski down.

“should” is a pretty strong word, it’s necro’s challenge, he can set the dates however he wants. I was just pointing out that given those constraints, graybeard might be the toughest, but for logistical rather than technical reasons.

given the required time frame, I think graybeard might be the hardest tick on Necro’s list. the other two have good road access all winter, but GB poses a serious logistical challenge, unless you happen to own a snowmobile. isn’t it more in the eastern euro tradition to have a prize for the first ascent or repeat of some coveted route? the “last great problem”? not criticizing, just curious, does it really help your motivation to publicly declare your tick list, many months in advance? I’ve always kind of felt the opposite, that talking too much about a challenging route before you get up on it is kind of bad karma or something. I always feel like I ought to keep my mouth shut until I have something to talk about... (again, I don't mean this as a flame, more self-analysis)

Just bringing it to the top – we leave Friday, so maybe I’ll just answer my own question…

assuming that you're talkin' about the west side descent... from the summit, maybe 2-3 hours to get through the technical part of the descent. it's pretty straight forward but has some exposure. we only had to do 2 single rope raps. another 2-3 hours down the trail. depending on how tired you are. that side of the mountain is very dry! fill your water bottles with snow on the summit if you can (there's often a remnant cornice you can quarry), 'cause there ain't a drop until you get down to the road. once on your bike, it's maybe an hour (under normal circumstances, see below) to the highway, another hour back up the road and 45 minutes or so back up the dirt road to your car. the dirt road portions do not get much traffic, at least not as far up as you are leaving your bike. down lower, maybe, but i wouldn't rely on it, you might be waiting a long time. funny story, we came down on a very very hot afternoon, so we stripped down to our underwear for the bike ride out. in addition, we were wearing our climbing helmets, with the rope, rack, etc. tied clumsily to the bike racks. looking like a couple of freaks, we came around the corner to find a canadian army truck blocking the road. two female soldiers in camoflauge are leaning up against the truck, smoking. they were blocking the road to traffic while the army did artillery practice. they obviously thought we were a few cans short of a six pack and wouldn't even talk to us. so we sat there in our underwear (while they decided whether or not to shoot us?) for almost an hour before they opened up the road and let us go on...

If you’re just backpacking, I’d say (mostly) screw the freeze dried and carry some real food, or at least more real. I took some european friends backpacking last summer and I couldn’t believe how light my pack was without climbing gear… so I promptly loaded it back up with good eats and booze. I wanted to make it a memorable experience for them, since they’d never been more than a mile from the road in their whole lives. I recommend: 1) Tasty –Bite meals (indian food dishes in foil retort packs, you put the unopened package in boiling water, open and eat, make some instant rice to go with it and eat with pita bread or naan), 2) Cook pasta with some real veggies, then for a sauce squeeze in a whole tube of that salmon pate-in-a-toothpaste tube you can get at Bavarian Meats (across from the Pike Place Market) or Trader Joes and stir until it’s a creamy sauce. 3) Cook pasta with some real veggies, then for a sauce bring real homemade or storebought pesto, make sure you pack it in a very tightly sealing container like a small threaded bottle or it will end up in your pack. Throw some sun-dried tomatoes in with the pasta water, they will rehydrate and be very tasty. 4) Those semi-dried Bear Creek soups you can get at the supermarket with some sausage or something in it. I particularly like the “potato cheddar” flavor. Bring some real bread. 5) Make couscous, but substitute 1/3 grated parmesan cheese, cook like normal, and add canned chicken, curry powder and some diced green onions. This one is actually pretty darn light, I carry it a lot on climbing trips, but it’s tasty and filling also.

Canal side, left-most wall. There’s a big layback rail that’s easy; now try using the parallel feature to the left… texture only for feet. Pretty airy at the top. Other classics: the Gong Show (opposite side of the same wall, go around the huge block in the center using anything you want but not touching the huge block with your feet. With every revolution, do some pullups on the block as you pass under it. Repeat until you fall off.), the two-handed dyno on the left side of the huge roof. Plus the cracks 3” deep, abrasive lined cracks that don’t kill you make you stronger.