philfort

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

I saw a guy with an ice axe through him in New Hampshire. It was down at the ranger station at the bottom of mt washington. There were a bunch of people standing around him, and I thought he looked a little out of it, and then someone told me he'd punctured himself with his axe. I saw the shaft going into his goretex jacket and disappearing! At some point, someone lifted his jacket, and you could see the shaft going in his left side, and out the right side. Really gruesome! But the guy was still walking around and stuff (in fact he had just walked down about 3000ft of Mt Washington in below zero temps). When the ambulance finally came, and they put him on a stretcher, they had trouble getting him out the door because of the axe sticking out of him! Apparently he turned out ok, it had just punctured muscle tissue, not his stomach. (I guess maybe he had a bit of a pot belly!)

Well, apparently the air in the Muir hut is piped right up to the caves, because this guy claims to have ventured down there an engaged in mental telepathy for a few hours with these beings - I guess like giant

quote: Originally posted by Goat Boy: Where can one find a map of the cave system? Does it change significantly from year to year? The book "Challenge of Rainier" has a very basic map of the caves (and a whole chapter devoted to them). There's a good story about the furry alien beings that live in them.

Ingalls? I might have got you beat for wussiest peak. Mine is Chair Pk, failed three times. 1) Went in fall, std route, with just rock shoes and rock gear, but the rock was coated with ice, plus 6 inches of snow. 2) Tried NE butt in fall with too big a group, ran out of time. 3) Tried NE butt in winter, but went up "wrong way", and got foiled by bad conditions.

I'll add to the crapload of beta here. We did 3 single rappels, traversed a bit, and did one more rappel, then it was straightforward traversing back to the notch. Finding the correct gully back up to the notch wasn't a problem... it looked like if you started traversing any further *past* it, the terrain would get much more difficult. So then you'll know you've gone too far. Like Lambone, we avoided the dirty gully, and scrambled up blocky rock to the climber's right.

I think there needs to be sufficient snow pack for the approach you describe - then it's an easy traverse straight across, between 3800 and 3400ft. The "bench" you follow is obvious on the topo map.

Skied up to Heliotrope ridge (7200ft) last saturday. Don't know what it's like higher up, but the snow where we were was great. It was about 1 hour hike to snow. Looked like some big crevasses opening up on the Coleman, but probably still skiable with some weaving around... Looked like the "bergscrhund" below the col went all the way across, but hard to tell for sure from far away.

If anyone is going climbing or hiking up near Whistler this weekend, please keep an eye out for this guy, missing since last Friday, possibly after setting out for Rainbow mtn: http://www.faughnan.com/brian.html Thanks.

quote: Originally posted by BillBurning: I'm psyched, still no one's recommended a route in better condition than Liberty Ridge that has ice climbing... maybe Nisqually(?) ice fall? Ptarmigan Ridge?

I think they actually do do trail maintenance there anyway (not necessarily saying it's a good thing). Trail crews did a bunch of work re-routing the trail between the upper talus field and the meadows. Both times I've been on it, the trail was in beautiful shape, with hardly any trees down (a really pleasant hike, until you reach the talus). Sounds like it just hasn't been "cleared up" since this past winter.

Taken on 7/5

Seen from quite far away (around Hidden Lake Pk) last wknd, it still looked like it had a lot of snow. Difference between the S face and the NW face was dramatic.

Nope, we were over on the ridge between the Triad and Sibley pass.

quote: Originally posted by MountainMan: Since the summit was clouded in, and we felt (and heard) static electricity, we stayed on the summit just long enough to sign the summit register. How dangerous is that? I don't think I would have stayed on the summit for a second if there was electricity around. We started hearing buzzing while hiking along a nearby ridge-top on Sunday when the weather moved in. That was a first for me - yikes! We got the hell off immediately! But of course no lightning hit nearby (we did hear some thunder off in the distance). Overly paranoid? Is a little buzzing ok Only start worrying if your ice axe begins to glow?

Road conditions: http://66.155.42.150/advscripts/mbs_rd2_rpt.asp

FWIW, I was up in Grand Park today (next ridge to the east), and there was suprisingly little snow. Grand Park (elev. 5600ft) was only 20% snow-covered. However it's probably more in Rainier's rain shadow than the area around mystic lake.

The detail is almost as good as the USGS maps, as long as you have as good printer. It's rare that you can't make out a terrain feature that you would be able to on the originals. Some benefits are: 1) the maps you print out are more compact than a full USGS quad (and you can make them double sided) 2) you can print them out on waterproof paper, and not worry about keeping them dry. 3) you can overlay UTM grids... not all the base USGS maps have UTM grids.

"Active iceworms have not been observed during the daylight hours." ??? During the daylight hours is the only time I've ever seen them. "If a human finger touches an iceworm, it will instantly die from the heat." hmm.... ice worm movie