forrest_m

wait, i thought those crags were temporarily closed while access issues get worked out? or was that just a halt on new bolts? or did that situation get resolved? not trying to bait you guys, just curious if anyone knows the lowdown. edited to add: i answered my own question, i guess it's just new development that's on hold. from the online guide website :

on routefinding: "always look around the corner" on home repair (and life in general): "if it's stuck, force it - it it breaks, it needed replacing anyway"

DPS - who is calling kick your feet in "dogma?" only you. everyone else so far has noted that it depends on conditions. for example, 2 of the 3 times i have ever done self arrest in earnest were to stop a crevasse fall by my partner in soft snow conditions. digging my feet in was essential to holding the fall in both cases. (the third time was in hard snow and halfway into trying to arrest, i slid head first into a moat - i was amazed at how fast i had accelerated) it's interesting, i have a lot more experience trying to stop crazy slides on skis, which almost always involves getting your feet beneath you and applying your edges, and i've never flipped head-over-heels, even on very steep & icy terrain. for better or worse my instincts would probably have me using the sides of my feet (not my toes) if i was sliding on hard snow without crampons, i wonder if that would reduce the flip-over-ragdoll effect? FWIW, dru is probably right that it's best not to fall in the first place, but by that argument, we shouldn't practice belaying either, right?

the problem with a large pack is that you won't be able to do the "sit up and plant your axe" technique that gets the fastest result sans pack. so i think your best chance to stop fast is to ignore the theory and roll towards whichever hand has the head of your axe and get the pick in however and wherever you can. (if you are head down, probably around shoulder level, head up maybe mid-chest?) if the snow is hard enough that you are in danger of a slide-for-life, you can probably get enough grab with it to flip you and your pack into arrest position, even if you are technically spinning the "wrong" way. as far as the crampons go, RMI tends to teach the minimum necessary, since most of their clients will never use an ice axe after they get their summit of rainier - they don't want people to waste time thinking "feet or no feet?", so they teach a single way. i would say that, as with all climbing questions, the answer begins "it depends". I tend to practice with my feet, on the theory that with crampons on i am unlikely to fall in the first place

i flew out of kahiltna with paul roderick of tat on saturday morning; our route took us through the north part of lil' switzerland because he wanted to check out conditions for a trip of his own next week - he seemed to think the pika and surrounding glaciers would be flyable (weather permitting, of course) for a few more weeks. i also heard that a weeklong NPS patrol is scheduled for the Pika the week of 6/28. so, assuming that you get decent weather, it sounds like you won't have problems getting in there.

sorry, i have absolutely no idea about your question, but i thought this was too good to pass without comment: what's the story? she get tired of you heading off to the mountains every weekend?

another vote for the HB dyneema (sp?) helmet. it actually weighs less than my foam elios helmet and IIRC, the impact resistance is significantly better than the ecrin or half dome. my only complaint is that the plastic pieces in the suspension system can poke you in the back of the head sometimes, which is uncomfortable. can be fixed with some creative application of athletic tape.

Here you go. Your turn now. I climbed the Girth Pillar in 1988. However, I spent a lot of tent time last year comparing notes with someone who did it a few years ago, because we were trying to determine if the major rockfall in 1994(?) had changed the route substantially. So… The bivy ledge at the base of the true pillar is good but relatively long and narrow. We slept unroped, but end to end. In July, there was no snow on the ledge, however we were able to fill a stuff sack with snow by rapelling half a pitch down climbers right of the ledge and climbing back up. Getting up to the ledge generates many different stories – I think the major difficulty is getting established on the rock from the Ice Cliff Glacier. This seems to vary by year and time of year, but the consensus is that the first pitch is loose, wet and dirty (people say anything from 5.8 to 5.10) with many large loose blocks; it improves the closer you get to the base of the pillar. steve cleaning pitch 2 (jumaring w/pack) From the ledge: P1 is relatively short (<100’) up the smooth face then hooking right to an obvious sloping ledge. 5.11 or A1 P2 heads back left, out a crack and flake system that turns vertical, becoming hand sized, to a hanging belay at a small chockstone in the crack. 150’, 5.10 P3 Continues up the crack as it narrows, reaching a fixed nut at 100’ 5.10 to here. Pendulum left to another crack system approx. 20’ (I think this is 11+ if done free, not that I’d know) From here, Mark and my memories diverge, presumably because of the rock fall – from the pendo, he remembers climbing on the scar (clean, newly cleaved rock, fair amount of sand & grit). We belayed in an alcove 60’ and directly above the pendo nut to simplify cleaning. P4 Easier climbing (unless it’s raining), starting at 5.8 and getting easier. From here to the false summit is much easier, mostly low 5th.

thrutch - without taking sides, i will just mention that there are some people involved in the guiding industry who believe that the AMGA exists to support and subsidize itself and who object to paying lots of money to be "certified" in disciplines that they (the guides) have decades of experience in. The word "extortion" is sometimes used by these people. Others say that these dinosaurs are standing in the way of the professionalization of guiding which would allow guiding to be a respectable way to actually earn a living in this country. Speaking of which: what's the difference between a mountain guide and a large pizza? the pizza can feed a family of four.

well, i would agree that if the sling breaks when you yank on it, you shouldn't trust it... but i also think that most of those accidents in ANAM are caused by anchor failure and out of control rappellers, not sling breakage. obviously, it can't hurt to replace or add slings. it's good public service to do so and if it makes you feel safer, go for it. i'm just saying that of all the things that make rappelling dangerous, tubular webbing breakage is pretty low on the list of things i lose sleep over. using a gear backup for everybody but the last guy is smart when using old slings. bounce testing the slings you're going to rap on while clipped to said backup is wise.

can we have a reality check here? "always replace slings with your own?" come on. i have made hundreds of raps off of found webbing, and an equal number off of single slings that i placed myself. think about it: how much force are you actually putting on a rappel anchor? 3-400 pounds, max, even if you bounce? usually less with the rope friction. a found sling, even frayed and UV degraded would have to be in pretty sorry shape not to be able to support that. most found anchors in the mountains have several old slings. even better. here's what i do: 1) examine the sling(s). occasionally you'll find that rodents have chewed on them back behind that big flake, so it's important to look at the parts that are on the back side to make sure that they are good. if the sling still has no obvious damage, a reasonable amount of its original color and is not too brittle, i call it good. the more slings there are, the less i worry about the integrity of any individual sling. 2) randomly rotate the slings around the anchor. this keeps your rope from adding to the "burned" area and distributes the load along the sling if it runs over sharp edges or something 3) i almost never use carabiners or rap rings. occasionally, i'll use one of the booty biners i've picked up if it looks like a difficult pull. but this is pretty uncommon. sure, i'll use them if i find them, but i don't believe that pulling an UNWEIGHTED rope through the slings causes much damage except in very high traffic areas. 4) rappell very smoothly. the only way to put a lot of force on the slings is to shock load them by jumping, swinging, slipping, etc. if you concentrate on moving slowly and smoothly, you will seldom if ever exceed a body weight load on the anchor. IMHO, this it far more important than whether or not you use a rap ring.

on the BG, you gotta watch out for slow walkin' people, especially in the u. village-sandpoint corridor. not so much an issue in high summer, but in spring/fall, lots of people out for a stroll at dusk right when you are cranking it out to try and catch the beginning of Survivor are a bad combinations, especially on that stretch where the trail is kind of down in a gully and/or sidehilling in the trees and doesn't get much spillover from the streetlights. some other tips: learn the bus routes that parallel your commute. then when something goes wrong that you don't have the time or tools to fix, you can hop on board, stash the bike, and still get to work on time, then deal with the machine later. one more clothes note, i plan my biking with my schedule, so days that i wear a tie and crisp shirts, i ride the bus; days i'm just working at my desk, i bike with clothes rolled in a pack. as many people have noted already, you can usually monitor your "sweat output" so that you maybe don't need a shower after a slow ride in, then take a longer or steeper route home for a workout

joshk wrote: I don't think this is strictly true, certainly not if the use can be interpreted as "news." I imagine the definition of "news" in this case would be very broad.

thrutch wrote hey distel, you better watch out or thrutch will open the ultimate can of rockclimbing.com whoop-ass on you by quoting from john long's "how to rock climb." and then you'll know that you've been put in your place by an expert.

To get back to greg’s original question, I have the exact setup described in EA, scarpa inverno plastic boots, purchased 1 shell size small, with intuition liners custom formed to my feet. It is definitely a lower volume/better fitting solution than any plastic boots I had previously had. They climb pretty darn well, though not as well as my leather boots (although the plastic boot setup is actually lighter than my saloman super guide 9 leather boots!). They are still a little roomy around the toe area, but I think this is actually an advantage for keeping the toes warm and for walking. It’s not so much that my feet ram into the front on descents. I basically only use this setup for Alaska because they are too warm for the cascade, lillooet in winter or the rockies in summer/fall and they aren't nearly as comfy as the leathers on trails. For ice and moderate mixed climbing, you are generally edging touching the medium with your campons, which remain the same, so the different boot size doesn’t make nearly as much difference as it would rock climbing. This assumes, of course, that you aren’t doing figure-4, heel-spurs-on-your-tools type stuff. If you buy boots that don’t come from the factory with a formable liner, be aware that 1 shell size doesn’t necessarily mean one foot size, many brands of plastic climbing and skiing boots only manufacture the shells on the whole sizes and use different liners to make the half sizes. This was true of the Scarpa’s when I bought them (2000), but may not still be true. For the Big Cold (> 3-4 days in very cold, snowy conditions), I can’t imagine using leather boots. Too much of a PITA for me. But if the Alpha or similar “technical” plastic boot now comes with a formable liner that takes into account its special shape, it sounds like an appealing thought. Anyone know how thick the liner is on them? Are they using a thinner foam to maintain “feel?” That might reduce their utility for denali, etc., although they’d still probably be warm enough for most use.

Climb: Snowfield Peak -Neve Glacier Date of Climb: 4/24-25/2004 Trip Report: Climb: Snowfield Peak - Neve Glacier Date of Climb: 4/24-25/2004 Trip Report: snowfield peak from camp at neve-colonial glacier col more pictures February, 2000 Dan and I stumble down from the summit of Colonial Peak, our minds dull and focused on the car, already lost in valley shadows 7,000 feet below. The beauty of the terrain we’re moving through barely registers, it’s only the postholing down slope after slope of fresh snow that finally gets me thinking about skis. The light bulb comes on. I stop to look around: this high valley is perfect terrain for turns. Wide open slopes descend from rocky peaks at almost every aspect. The mysterious Neve Glacier to the south promised adventure on peaks invisible from the road. Someday, I think, I’ll come back… Four years later, we stand on the side of the road, strapping skis and boot to our packs. Each of us opts for a different method, and I wonder if this is some kind of low-budget psychological test: AlpineK: Skis in side compression straps, tips tied together, with boots lashed to the back. Boots are oriented differently, one on the side sole up, one on the back, sole down. Practical, unfussy, not too worried about theory. Gordy: Skis in side compression straps but leaves his tips free. Tails at waist level. Ties his boots upside down on top of the pack with the toes pointed downward, using the ski runaway straps to secure them. By far the neatest looking package, but rather top heavy and tall. Methodical, detail oriented, possibly stubborn. Chris: Skis also in side compression straps, tips tied, with boots in the bindings. Simple system, appears ready to ski off at any moment, but a good 14” wider than anyone else. Optimist. Forrest: Skis together in pack back flap, boots stuffed inside pack. Makes a lumpy package, not optimal comfort, but a clean, low center-of-gravity package for bushwacking. Pessimist. Ok, maybe not, but I’m looking for clues. I’m the link between the others, who had never met one another before last night, and I’m hoping that everyone will be compatible. We get off to a bad start when Gordy spends the first half of Saturday calling Kurt “Colin” by mistake. On the plus side, the climber’s trail around the right side of Pyramid Lake is easy to follow and the transition from dry trail to skinable snow is relatively brief, with only a few hundred feet of step-kicking. Once on the ridge, it takes crossing two knobs to learn that the ridge is best climbed by traversing the north side below the crest. When we reach the notch at 5,400’ at the base of Pyramid’s north face, I’m relieved to see that the east-facing rock slabs have already completely melted down to bare rock, leaving the steep traverse to the Colonial Glacier exposed to slides only for two short 50-yard sections. We hurry across well spaced apart, casting apprehensive glances down at the labyrinth of avy. debris and glide cracks in the bowl below. We enter wonderland. traversing below the e. face of pyramid peak to access the colonial glacier The Colonial Glacier is hardly worth of the title, but it’s an amazing place nevertheless, a large flat basin surrounded by jagged peaks. We ski up to the Colonial-Neve col, named for the glaciers, not the peaks (this is a bit confusing, as the col is actually located between Neve Peak and an unnamed flat-topped peak to the west). But it’s a nice place, well stocked with flat cooking rocks, and we get our first view of our objective. Though it is sunny, a brisk wind is blowing, and we duck into the tents for a short nap. We emerge about 5 and make a quick ascent of Neve Peak. The afternoon light is getting quite nice as we peel the skins and ski down the icy and convex slope to the col between Colonial and Neve Peaks (see why this is confusing?) before sweeping around the corner again for a thousand feet of heavy powder in the golden sunset light. We climb back up to our col for dinner and Gordy makes up for any hard feelings by running the snow-melting operation until well after dark. chris enjoying the sunset run The night is surprisingly cold, so we spend a leisurely morning in camp waiting for things to soften up a bit. It is after 9 when we drop six turns down the back side of the col and then start skiing up across the Neve Glacier. Only the largest crevasses are visible; conditions for skinning are perfect, firm but with a velvety surface. We gain the upper bench and then cut switchbacks straight up below the summit pyramid as far as the steepening slope allows. About 200 feet below top, we ditch the boards and kick steps up a narrow, rock lined gully to the ridge, then some scrambling on third class rock puts us on the lower angled south side to scramble to the top. After the obligatory game of name-that-peak, we set off down again. It takes us longer to reach our skis from the summit than to ski the rest of the way down. The snow varies between heavy powder, corn and slush with slight variations in aspect, encouraging us to ski fast and make big, swooping turns. It’s over far too soon, and we slog back up to pack up our camp. The snow is softening fast as we set off again, but it’s still pretty good skiing until we hit the flats; Chris and I both eat it hard when the wet snow grabs us suddenly. We’re leaning back to keep our tips up, which doesn’t give us much stability in tele gear. We slide as quickly as possible down the first half of the exposed traverse, then put our skins on at the protected island in the middle before shuffling quickly back up to the ridge crest. From there it’s three turns-traverse, three-turns traverse to the end of the decent skiing. Unfortunately, this doesn’t coincide with the end of the snow, and we engage in 500 feet of classic cascades subalpinism. We sidestep and traverse on our skis to avoid sinking up to our waists, but you’d be hard pressed to call it “skiing.” We were sipping raspberry milkshakes in Marblemount by 5. Approach Notes: To find the good trail up from Pyramid Lake, follow the right shoreline. On the descent we accidentally got off onto a smaller trail that eventually got us to the lake, but wasn't as good.

maybe i need a pair too, i stopped by around 7:40, didn't see anyone i recognized, and split.

i reread my post and realized that maybe it's not clear that I WAS ALSO ON A BICYCLE. that's why i was so pissed off, from my perspective he cut ME off, and then got aggro on me because we came close to crashing.

<vent> I know some of you guys are current or ex bike messengers, maybe you can comment on an experience I had this morning. I’m coming into downtown on Stewart street. As the light turns green at Fairview, I get passed by a bike messenger, but pretty soon we’re both going the same speed; traffic is pretty heavy. Passing the new courthouse, we’re separated by one vehicle, a big pickup truck. We (and the truck) all move into the middle lane to get past a row of 4 buses stopped on the right. Picking up speed as we head down the hill, I move back into the curb lane and start accelerating – I want to beat the truck to the next intersection in case he’s turning right, so he’ll see me and I won’t have to slow down and lose my momentum. The messenger is still in the middle lane, in front of the truck, though on the right side of the lane. Suddenly, just when we’re almost at the light, he cuts across my lane into the sharp right turn onto Westlake. But at this point I’m only like 10 feet behind him, right next to the curb; I would have had to absolutely stand on the brakes to let him cross in front of me, so I squeak in front of him as he’s turning and tuck straight through the intersection. My only thought at this point is “shit, that guy’s lucky he didn’t run into me.” Three blocks later, I stop at another light, and it turns out that the guy has followed me and as soon as I stop, he starts shouting at me. He’s obviously super-hyped on adrenaline, but between calling me a “fuckin amateur” and threatening to “beat my slow ass” if I ever get in his way again, I gather that he’s pissed off because I was behind him, which meant he thought I should yield. I respond that he cut me off, but I can’t get much of a word in. He’s a lot more angry than I am, which gives him the advantage in verbal confrontation. When the light changes, I just ride away, I’m a little too old to stand on a street corner shouting insults, and it’s not like I’m going to change his mind through logical argument. But now I’m wondering, is he right? I was behind him, true enough, but in a different lane. If we had been driving, I would expect the person changing lanes to yield. But I’m not talking so much about the law, but the “code of the street.” I could probably have slammed to a stop, but it happened pretty fast and I would have had a very good chance of going down. On the other hand, if he had hit me, it would’ve been a pretty ugly accident for both of us. How was I supposed to know he was going to turn right? Was he just pissed off because he didn’t expect me to have kept up with him at all, so I shouldn’t have been there in the first place? Am I just an inferior species because I’m a bike commuter and not a messenger? </vent>

It is, or at any rate, that's where we climbed when we did NWFC last year. You can see the Great Gendarme on the skyline above. The NWFC climbs straight up to below the GG (where you would hit after rappelling if you were doing the original N. Ridge). Looks like more ice this year, maybe that's just wishful thinking.

poetic justice, perhaps?

i took a navigation class one time from an old USGS dude who told us that while the current definition of the green areas on the maps is "marketable timber", back when most of the original work was done, the definition was "six feet tall and thick enough to hide troops." (much of the impetus - and a good deal of the funding - for the mapping came from the military)

i know that some people get really obsessive about the food, and like to arrive on the glacier with 26 days worth of meals individually bagged and labelled, but that's not my style. anyway, plans always seem to change, as long as you can break out some lighter weight "climbing meals" out of your food supply, you're golden. for me, the key to happy base camp living is to not plan too much ahead, just bring a lot of different stuff and improvise. it's hard to go wrong by combing a starch (instant potatoes, instant polenta, rice, instant beans, whatever) with a sauce and some protein (cheese and/or meat/fish). hit the bulk section of the fred meyer in anchorage and let your imagination run wild. (better to spend $50 on food that you don't eat than to eat the same thing for 8 days straight.) bring a lot of different stuff for variety. it's always fun to try to reproduce a restaurant meal in camp - a good way to kill time on bad weather days. we once spent about 6 hours trying to make tortillas from corn flour and water, worked pretty well but required a lot of trial and error before we got the consistancy right! i second (fourth?) the tasty bites. mix w/couscous and wrap in a tortilla = yum + easy clean up. too heavy to carry beyond the landing strip, though. another big favorite is to mix 2/3 couscous with 1/3 grated parmesan cheese. add salt & curry powder and you get tons of energy and virtually no cooking time. also good with a small envelope of tuna or some other meat thing. i had really good luck this summer with some of those "easy thai" meals you can buy in the supermarket. time consuming to make and a bit fuel intensive (you have to boil AND fry), but in base camp neither is really a big concern. for lightweight climbing meals, crush 4 top ramen packets into a sandwich-sized ziplock with some TVP or protien powder. add all the flavor packs. not gourmet, but 1000+ calories each and very light & compact. chase it with a 600 calorie halvah bar and you're in twight heaven. (i can only stomach this diet for a few days, but it sure is packable)

josh - a few suggestions: since this is a hard tour make sure that all members of your team are up for it. you should think about camp sites, because it's not always appropriate to "pitch a tent" just anywhere.

didn't john bouchard do a long article looking at this aspect of the event a while back (in outside i think?). IIRC, he follows the military group that's out looking for them basicalyl hour by hour, and makes it pretty clear that they made some decisions (i.e. cross a defended bridge) that they would not ordinarily have made because they were being pressured by the higher ups to rescue the tourists. while the americans did eventually escape on their own, the escape was only really possible because the kidnappers were under so much pressure from the military. on the other hand, you could make this same argument about practically any military mission, i.e. soldiers go somewhere where they otherwise wouldn't go and put themselves at risk because the commanders have decided that some larger goal is served by them doing so.