dbb

I'm pretty sure she was so helpful because she wanted some of his "summer sausage".

I have a yellow eTrex and like the simplicity of it. Works awesome on big glaciers when you say "I want to go that way, for 5 miles", and you can set a waypoint out there and follow it. Having the ability to download waypoint directly from TOPO! is cool too, but I think having the ability to download the map is worth it. You have to pay more for that feature, but then you're not limited to only the waypoints you've stuck in.

The infamous kiddy cliff. Climb here long enough and you will get avalanched! eh, mike? You can top rope it, just walk around on climbers right and traverse scary loose snow to the normal anchors above and left of the climb. Last december that route was a good 40 meters long to the belay!

plenty of debris left...

I have a "short cut" way to reshapen your new cobra picks. It goes a little like this: -Swing at thin ice over hard rock. -Don't realize there is rock, and swing harder!-Damit, why are my picks bouncing off pure ice? SWING HARDER!-hmm, maybe there's rock under there. -Spend smaller amount of time sharpening your new steeper drooped pick. Voila!

Anyone know of a point and shoot that lets you push your film? I use a Olympus Stylus for most everything except skiing (and even there too sometimes). I also shoot Provia & Kodak slides but I find that they usually come out too dark/blue. I know that Provia F is a little heavier on the blues, but I think it's more of a need to over-expose. I get great results with the "constant push" of my Cannon Rebel on snow, but I don't like it's size limitations. Thus, it would be nice to have a manual PNS ("point and shoot" for those of you with sick minds ). Probably too much to ask for. Maybe I should just go in for a Yashika...

A couple came with my girlfriend's Verro harness. Thanks for the info!

Hey Dru, you've use these things, right?I've had one lying around for a couple years, and would like to try it out. I usually just clip a wire gate in for racking screws. Seems like the ID would hold the biner in place a little better... How does that little yellow dealy work?Anyone?

Feathered Friends has it. $20

Let me tell you, the "ski crowd" at Alpental calling it "slot" better watch out if the true first ascender finds them! Mr. Hard core who made the first ascent did it in the summer, solo, fist jamming ice/rock in the moat, while out on a "stroll" . (Check out AAJ ~1980, worth the read) <lame pontification >He called it the NW face. What gives with all this "slot" stuff? Wouldn't it be more useful to call it what it is in Beckey? </lame pontification >

first off, agreed capt. This is far too much spray for such an issue. In fact, the people in question are actually out enjoying the sweet skiing. crazyjz, I was actually responding to two different parts of people posts. If you read my statements un-contextually, yes, they seem to contradict themselves. Some clarification: 1)Certainly if someone were looking for Beta telling them the couloir was also called the Slot couloir and there is a description in Martin Volken's Snoqualmie pass guide would be a big help. --> book published mainstream after article was written. 2) when I read the article I come away with the impression that Phil and Greg did the first descent, though they never come out and say that --> well, if it's in a book, you add two and two together. (wait, maybe I should spell things out again for you: doh, it's in a published then maybe they just had fun skiing it.) anyhow, who cares... it's just skiing.

AlpineK, you seem to be talking to someone ("you") as if they've had some input to what you've said. I know that the article in question was written long before the new Volken guide came out (12/1/2001), and that they were in no way implying that they made the first descent. That would be like skiing down from Great Scott bowl and claiming a FD-- everybody goes there. Maybe Couloir didn't want mention of it's other name, who knows. BTW, "Discovering" doesn't actually imply first knowledge (unless that's what you want to read, of course). Definition: To notice or learn, especially by making an effort. The mere fact that it is already written up in a book should give some readers a clue...

When the ice is chandaliered and breakable, TR tons of people is just plain rude. TRing fat plastic ice is great, have at it. But when you start tearing apart a climb to the point where it could collapse in a short warm spell, I'd say there's something wrong. The other way to look at it is where one can easily top rope, someone will. It doesn't matter if lillooet hires ethics police to limit "sensless TR destruction", those climbs will still get bashed up. Therefore, I say fight the crowds until you're good enough to go where it's lead only. ... or just go to the rockies.

granite at banks lake? Are you talking about some other mystery banks lake??? That Coulee is made up of usually chossy Eastern-WA Basalt. There is some nice climbing over there, but not on granite. I think Smoot's guide mentions banks, check it out.

That's interesting that your Vector did that to you. While I was walking around Anchorage this summer mine all of a sudden shot up to 17,000 ft. I set it back down (which took for freakin' ever), but I wonder what's up with that. Bug fly into the barometer?

Assuming your talking about the usual south face... I would say that with the super warm conditions that we've been having that the rock would be pretty snow free, except for anything horizontal. Bring maybe one short axe for the long snow runout on the 2nd pitch 4th class bit, and bring your usual rack, for the climbing is much the same (especially if you climb it in boots during the summer). Here's a trip report from a couple years ago. We left all our ice axes/pickets at the base and only brought about 8 pieces!http://students.washington.edu/dbb/toothwinter.html [ 01-13-2002: Message edited by: dbb ]

I'd say go with a 0 deg down bag. The lightest you can find too. As will said, those dryloft-like shells are really only good if you're in a snowcave or a single wall tent (where it snow's all night long!) and they usually add almost a pound of weight. I have a REI 0 down bag that is only 3 pounds! (Nylon) It has replaced my "summer" bag because it's a half pound lighter, and I can carry less clothes that way. For an all around bag, I find that 0 isn't too warm, nor too heavy. Go with down, especially out there in cold, dry MN, and it'll work great.

quote: I didn't think Spokane had a branch of the mountaineers. john Roskelly came from their ranks. Though they mostly seem rank these days. [ 01-03-2002: Message edited by: dbb ]

check out my weather page for some useful links like: -banks 10 day forecast, past 10 days of avalanche reports, etc.. Weather page

I second for the Metolious FCU #3 (Orange) Those rock, and go in everywhere. A particularly common size in that crumbly cascade rock. I have 3 cams in that size.

weill, check out this page. A friend of mine who did it. I'm pretty sure that wall can go clean with offset nuts, but I've also heard of people trying to use their chock pick on some thin section on p2. http://www.cs.washington.edu/homes/cary/rainbow.html

Those routes are HUGE! They go from the crater to free standing pillars ABOVE THE SUMMIT! ... But Alas, they look like they're rotting in the sun [ 12-07-2001: Message edited by: dbb ]

Beck, what does this mean then? Does it simply follow the induction line like other digital beacons or does it have "digital features" like distance to source, but is mainly meant to be used in gid-search form? I know you can do induction with analogs, but it seems the whole point of digital is to make that process easy. Maybe I should try and rent one and compare it...

So I've been looking into buying a beacon, and I want to hear what experiences people have had with the Ortovox M2 (their digital beacon). Do people think it's worth it to spring for the digital ones over the regular analog OM1s/ F1NDs/etc.. ? I origionally learned of a regular beacon, but have been using a tracker more recently and think it's a bit faster. Also, does anyone know wheather the O-M2 is a dual digital analog beacon? They claim to have an 80m range, which is twice that of the tracker...

They're just covering the "worst case" scenario. I've run up many a teleferique in my G-10s (along with plenty of walking on rocks) and they're still kickin'! My only complaint was that they G-10s came dull-as-shit out of the box. I decided the best time to sharpen them was in a jump seat, with a leatherman, on the way to Liberty Ridge. Ugh, I might as well have been eating bad mexican food--same effect ya know... I would say that dullness is good reason to send em back (aside from them being great crampons). If you can't fully lacerate your skin with them out of the box, when will you be able to?????