philfort

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?

quote: Originally posted by forrest_m: harder. the problem is that paramarking works fine in most area conditions. it's only in softer, off-piste conditions that it's a recipie for face-plants. What's paramarking? Is that parallel turns on tele skis? That works fine in deep snow...but if that's all you wanted to do, why tele?

Went to Washington Pass yesterday. The skiing was fantastic - the sun came out, the snow was deep and dry, we had the whole place to ourselves, the larch trees still had most of their leaves. Did I mention the snow? It was deep and dry. October 25th, WOW! Not the absolute lightest stuff though, and trail-breaking was ridiculously hard. I'm sure by the weekend, a skin track will be established though. It did not seem to be wind affected at all, just soft stuff all the way down. Lots of snow slough avalanches when the sun hit the cliffs. There was about 2.5 feet of snow by the road at the pass, and about 4 feet up in the basin below the Liberty Bell group. By afternoon, it had warmed up enough that the snow down by the road was wet.

Climbing geek costumes: I had a friend that was a climbing route. He dressed in old grey clothes, drew cracks on himself, and attached chocks in various places. Another friend went as a huge camalot, made out of cardboard. His head was somewhere in the middle of the cams.

Appears to be piling up nicely in WA pass: http://www.seawfo.noaa.gov/products/OSOWP9

Where's the best spot in washington pass for early season skiing? i.e. smooth underfoot, and high enough that it already had some base before this storm....

wow! good job. Sounds kind of epic. Sounds like you guys had a lot of bad luck too. Two questions: 1) Why did you have to leave your 80' rope at the 40' waterfall? Ok, just one question, I answered the other one myself.

I think it's pretty tame, you can probably climb it any time of year. I've been to the base of the route twice. Once to climb it, but we got "weathered off" as soon as we stepped on the glacier, and once last month for a search. Both times I've been there, there was only 1 other party in the area. So, pretty solitude-y, and it's a beautiful area. Great views of the Klickitat from Sunrise Camp. Nice approach too. You need to pay a fee to park, since its on the Indian Reservation (that is, assuming you do the approach from the Bird Lake area, and not the south spur). I forget how much it is. I wouldn't worry too much about glacier conditions, unless you're a beginner. You can probably avoid most crevasses, and overall its not a very broken glacier. I think it would 'go' anytime. Oh yeah, I see medic566 said parking sucked. It won't now (after Labour Day). When we were there for the search last month, the only cars in the lot were from the searchers, and the 1 other party we saw. There wasn't anyone else around. Oh yeah... the road is rough. But not too bad. [This message has been edited by philfort (edited 10-18-2001).]

quote: Originally posted by EddieE: I was a Tom Clancy junkie for awhile. It seems kind of eerie to read that stuff now with all the shit going down - it's like right out of any of those books. Here's what we did to the Tom Clancy novel (SSN) I brought to Alaska (we ended up lounging around so much, we read all our books, so everyone was 'forced' to eventually read this one): It was the worst novel I've ever read. Moral of the story: Don't try to read a book that's based on a video game.

quote: Originally posted by pope: Medium/large format photography. Any hot tips from the pros? I would second Jon's suggestion of buying overseas. I've bought two MF lenses from Hong Kong, at just over half what I would pay for them here. Didn't have any probs with duty or customs. If you want something you can take into the mountains with you too ('course, then you're gettin' back into your discipline), consider a medium format rangefinder. I've got a Mamiya 7, which isn't much bigger or heavier than a typical 35mm SLR, but the slides are four and a half times as big.

Was anyone up around Heliotrope Ridge/Coleman glacier area last weekend? Snow report? A co-worker of mine reported about 2 feet of snow above 6000ft west of Stevens Pass. Must be a similar amount around Baker?

The previous party we'd heard about that attempted it, found their rope not long enough to make the rappel into the notch (in truth, maybe they didn't know they had to downclimb a pitch first?, because the rappel isn't that long), so they retreated back down the ridge. On the retreat, someone broke their arm, and their rope got chopped by rockfall. It took them 19 rappels to get off the ridge, all through the night into the next morning. Guess it's a good place for an epic....

quote: Originally posted by plexus: Phil, Friend did that route up Fisher this year. They got to the False summit and turned around when they noticed the decent gully had absolutely no snow in it. So go on good, or at least average, snow years or you have a LONG downclimb ahead of you. Hmm... the snow gully itself, where you rap into it (you don't enter it from the top), was pretty moderate in angle. It was only two or three hundred feet of 35-40 degree snow for us - I wouldn't think it would be a problem without snow, nor would it affect the length of your downclimb.

Southwest buttress of Colchuck? [This message has been edited by philfort (edited 10-15-2001).]