philfort

waaaaa! They've removed nearly all their ski gear from their website... it will be available again in "just some days"... been like that for two weeks now - what up!?

quote: Originally posted by mikeadam: I dunno...sometimes I'm pretty amazed at the feats of people who are terminally dazed on weed. The canadians win snowboarding olympic gold medals on weed.

Or if a parent went with their young child up to Muir?

quote: Originally posted by jordo: You can take anything back there! A buddy of mine who works there often describes their return policy to customers as:"if you've got and old stained couch, bring it back and say you bought it here." Hmm... I think their return policy is a little more stringent than REI. I returned a goretex shell, because the goretex was rubbing off inside after less than a year. They accepted it, but said I couldn't return a jacket again for the same reason, because that was normal wear. A woman beside me was trying to return a shell that she couldn't get a stain out of. They would only refund a certain percentage of the jacket's cost to her. Anyway, to remain on topic, I've got the Chugach pants, and I like them so far. I wore them a lot in Alaska sitting around base camp.

Here are some climbing peaks for May 18-20th: Mt Goode (near Bridge Creek)Mt Rainier (near Eatonville)Concord Tower (near WA pass)Dome Peak (near nothing)Mt Terror (near Inspiration Pk) I think there are some other ones too.

I don't have that problem. But I always see "This feature is not working correctly" on the title page above the 5 most recent posts. And the "Last 25 posts" and "Last 40 posts", which I used to use to navigate the site, have been broken since the change. Am I the only one seeing this, or is this just not fixed yet?

Didn't mean to deter you by saying I didn't see any ice worth climbing. When I've been there, I've been concentrating on that terrifying rock stuff, not looking for ice to climb. Go there, it's an impressive place. And only about 1.5 hours from Seattle, not 2 or 3 as TimL suggests. http://sports.yahoo.com/parks/acts/19/wa/0605/13011.html Aha! 1 mile trail, I am right! Yeah, probably pretty safe right now, until we get some more big snow storms. More cool info, with cave maps:http://www.glaciercave.com/html/bigfou_1.HTM [ 11-06-2001: Message edited by: philfort ]

The approach is about a mile. If you can do that in five minutes, well.... you're pretty fast. It's an extremely popular spot for rural folk to take their families/girlfriends/boyfriends to. Usually tons of people wandering around. I have been there several times - usually after having done somethign else in the area, we walk in, green Beckey book in hand, and marvel at the headwall above the snow accumulation, which sports "class 4" routes up nearly vertical, wet, unprotectable slabs. Get a road map, go to Granite Falls, and take a left at the end of town onto the mountain loop hwy. There are signs, and large picnic/parking area. And the mountain will be pretty noticeable too. I've only poked in the entrance of the caves, never gone in. Big chunks fell from the ceiling while we were looking in. I don't recall seeing any obvious stuff to boulder around on without going in the caves though (just lower angle stuff on the surface of the snow/ice accumulation). But maybe I'm not remembering correctly. Maybe on the sides of the snow? Moat? It's obviously a dangerous area to approach if its snowing, or warm, since you have 4000ft of 45 degree terrain above you.

I thought Fred did get the 1st ascent of NE butt?? Here's a common one: "A piton was used for safety". I was at a recent slide show he gave, and he actually said this during his presentation. There's actually a pause in the sentence, as in "We used a piton... for safety."

Sunday: Climbed this awesome clearcut slope. Actually, I got scared partway up, and didn't want to go any further. My partner continued a ways, but turned around once it got steeper. Said it would have been nice to have crampons and two axes, because the snow make the ground real slick.

quote: Originally posted by JERRY SANCHEZ: YOU CAN HIKE UP MT. SI WITH YOUR ICE CLIMBING PLASTIC BOOTS LOL! Those Mt Si jokes never get old!

Uh, couldn't you ask your brother-in-law for the name of the book? And how he got it? Or did it just appear on his doorstep one morning with the cover ripped off?

quote: Originally posted by dbb: The one problem with the friend-shipping idea is that you still get reamed with the 14% tax (7.5 regular, and 7.5 GST (?)). You can get that back at the border crossing duty up to a certain amount. I'd say just go up to squamish or lilloet and make a trip to MEC out of it. Hey, your math is off Alpine Dave. 7.5 + 7.5 = 15!

There weren't too many crevasses up there this year? I recall looking at the basin heading up to the ridgetop several weeks ago, and seeing a number of them - where it had been totally smooth last fall.

The tri-step is a little heavier, and from what I understand, it has two benefits: 1) easier to slide into.2) It's adjustable over 3 boot sizes, while the standard tourlite is a fixed size once its mounted.

quote: Originally posted by dbb: don't eat your old homemade-GU! I once ate some of mine that was about a month old. Suprisingly - it had fermented, instead of gone mouldy! It was actually ok, kind of like gu-beer.

I would guess you'll want skis or snowshoes. I was out in the N Cascades off highway 20 on the 25th, and again on the 28th. Both times, the snow above 4000 or 5000ft was extremely deep and you wouldn't be getting anywhere w/o skis or shoes. On the 28th, the snow was also completely water-saturated on south-facing slopes (at least to 6000ft), and I saw at least one climax avalanche. Obviously things will change, but even though there isn't much snow in the passes, there is a LOT at higher elevations. Seemed to be 3 or 4 feet above 4500ft, and I bet there's tons more above 6000ft, since that's where the snow level has been at recently. Maybe the upper reaches of Glacier get enough wind such that it packs the snow though, i don't know... but I suspect you'll encounter deep soft snow below treeline anyway...

No, I would disagree. The people I know who alpine skied before tele'ing, picked it up much faster than those who didn't, and were able to ski tough terrain a lot sooner. There's a lot in common in both forms, in terms of balance, upper body stance, yadda yadda.....

quote: Originally posted by Pencil Pusher: Hey, what the heck is a big-lou? Some sort of discarded candybar? An acronym for something? What? What?????? It's that mythical HUGE outhouse, somewhere out there....

Maybe it turns to mud in winter?

Does anyone know anything about the forest fires up around Marblemount? Thought it was kind of weird for this time of year. On Thursday, a hill side was in flames just south of Concrete. Lots of flames and smoke. Then on Sunday, just south of Marblemount, lots of smoke coming the hillsides. Big cloud of smoke over the valley. What's up? Are these prescribed burns? Surely they couldn't be natural with all the rain we've been getting??

hmm... guess it's Monday - I didn't even think of that. Guess you just need a friend somewhere in BC (or anywhere canada).

Make friends in White Rock, BC and Blaine, WA. Ship it to White Rock, have your friend drive it to your Blaine friend, who then ships it to you. Or maybe Dru can start some backcountry smuggling runs from Chilliwack to Yellow Aster Butte.

quote: Originally posted by David Parker: I too am searching for schoeller pants and (maybe)jacket. So far Cloudveil and LL Bean is the only company offering it in the US I can find. Apparently, the fabric just hasn't taken off in the US. I thought Cloudveils prices to be high. So if anyone has beta on where to find schoeller at a good price, let us know!!! You can order schoeller jacket and pants (2 kinds) from MEC for under a hundred bucks. They no longer ship climbing and ski gear to the US, but they still do ship their clothing. Only takes a few days for it to get to Seattle. The jacket is $125CDN (80$-85$ US?).Look on www.mec.ca under Mens->Activewear->Climbing [ 10-29-2001: Message edited by: philfort ]

quote: Originally posted by Charlie: Just wondering, what is everybody planning for this winter? I'm planning mine and looking for ideas? Ice, Ranier, Hood, backcountry descents.... Wait a sec - Are you trying to trick us into divulging our secret winter projects?