philfort

Probably because the north faces have had more glaciation than south faces, so more erosion and "scooping out" == steeper.

Probably depends on how aggressive a skier you are. I don't often come out of mine, but once I did, in a twisting fall, and it probably saved my knee from injury. Glad I had them. Also, like others have mentioned - I broke lots of skis (about a pair a year for several years) from bindings ripping out before I had releasables, but only one pair (in about 6 years) since getting releasables. Oh, and as skisports said, yes, its more weight, but as for more to go wrong, I might have to disagree. The Voile CRB is pretty simple, and in my track record anyway, more reliable than a non-releasable. As for a leash causing the ski to hit you in the leg, well, I'd much rather have that than a bad knee injury. [ 11-12-2002, 10:48 PM: Message edited by: philfort ]

Heliotrope Ridge on Sunday... it was good for November. Pretty flat light, and a little wind-crusted up on the glacier, but no rocks of course. With each run the snow seemed to get better and less crusty (?). The best snow was down in the meadows below the glacier, but it was only about 15-20 inches deep... had to go fast in order not to hit rocks.

FR 38 is blocked by gate (or boulder or something, I forget) at Wallace Creek. Those north-facing basins on the Sisters look nice.

Perhaps he traversed just below the Price glacier, then up the rocks near the Labour Day route, before ascending Winnie's Slide to the NW couloir. You know, like it says in Nelson.

quote: Originally posted by COL. Von Spanker: I read somewhere that Gin helps. The gin, or some other booze, is to counteract the off flavour of maltodextrin, if you're using that. You probably don't need that if you're using brown rice syrup, since it tastes ok, just really strong...

Before you order from potentially seedy internet dealers, read these reviews of camera shops on photo.net: http://www.photo.net/neighbor/one-subcategory?id=2

quote: Originally posted by philfort: quote:Originally posted by Cpt.Caveman: The crux is pretty intense You mean driving the Mowich Lake road? So, turns out I was right, eh? The crux *is* Mowich Lake road...

The area around Mowich Lake Road/Carbonado/Wilkeson is very scary. On a Saturday afternoon, half of all drivers will be drunk. Everytime I've been in that area, I've experienced freaky shit. Last time, a couple of months ago 1) another truck tried to run me off the Mowich Lk road, and 2) while driving through Wilkeson, the car behind me keep veering off the road and driving over people's lawns.

quote: Originally posted by Cpt.Caveman: The crux is pretty intense You mean driving the Mowich Lake road?

quote: Originally posted by Cpt.Caveman: The crux is pretty intense You mean driving the Mowich Lake road?

quote: Originally posted by Cpt.Caveman: The crux is pretty intense You mean driving the Mowich Lake road?

Yes, from Gary's photo, it's not clear where you go. There's that boulder though. Such high objective danger!

You can get this stuff at Bottleworks: http://www.unibroue.com/english.cfm

It looks like it might be barely visible above the large rock blob in the first picture? It was there in late August too, so I guess it stays put :-)

These things probably? (taken in november) http://staff.washington.edu/gregm/ipice.JPG

quote: Originally posted by Attitude: Accidents has been at REI for a month or so. Does anyone know the time frame that each book covers? It's not calendar year (Jan - Dec), since one of this year's incidents is in the new book. I covers the calendar year for the previous year; So ANAM 2002 covers accidents in 2001.

The McAllister glacier doesn't sound like the right place for "non-climbers who are more interested in hikes". I don't think there are any "hikes" there. Unless you're talking about the Cascade Pass area in general. You'd probably have more luck posting on a hiking forum, like http://nwhikers.net

I think Lowell Skoog did N face of Buckner in much less than a day a few years ago (using skis)....

The reason I got the tri-step was the anticipation of having two pairs of boots of slightly different sizes (its length is adjustable, the old binding is not). If you don't need that, then go with the old binding, since it's lighter. The tri-step is supposed to be easier to get into, but friends I know with the old binding don't seem to have any problem getting into it. Another minor problem with the tri-step is that the heel-lift gets plugged with snow, so you can no longer rotate it with your ski pole (you have to bend down!).

I will vouch for the ski ability of the TLT4-pro. I skied it on hydrogens last season, and it was a great setup. The only bad part was the pre-release of the Tri-step while skinning up. They have fixed "a" problem with pre-release caused by the boot toe pushing against the binding (not a problem with the TLT4), but the problem I have is that the pins don't close as tightly as they do on the older (& lighter) binding. Kind of weird they aren't selling the MLT4 with a thermoflex liner. They even say (about thermoflex liner) "the perfect liner for MLT 4". Also, it looks like the weights of the boots are incorrect on the lifelink site. Try http://www.dynafit.at and do the conversion from kg to LBS yourself (2.2). That's more in line with what my boots weigh. [ 09-25-2002, 02:08 PM: Message edited by: philfort ]

If you care about weight at all, nothing comes close to the dynafit system. New this year (in N.A.) is the MLT 4 a "mountaineering oriented" boot that fits the dynafit binding... from the picture though, it still looks higher cut than a normal mountaineering boot: http://www.life-link.com/dynafit.htm

The crappy first pitch of the NW face is worth it for the remainder of the pitches.

Hmm, it was nice and sunny up above Spray Park yesterday. Once back into the clouds and drizzle (below 6500ft), got to hear hikers whining about the gloomy weather... including a woman in the parking lot, decked out in full gore-tex to protect her against the refreshing light mist: "no one's making it up there today, with this weather".

Wow, cool, I guess that is the guy I saw! Memories... And you can see how he might be difficult to fit through a narrow door