dbb

I use a daisy (single) girthed into my harness. Most anchors I make use a combo of a clove hitch and the daisy on seperate pieces. This has a few advantages because: you're tied in via two seperate points, you can have better multi directional anchoring, and you have a natural "screamer" built in. Those loops are only rated to 2 kN each, but the sling is like 20+ overall. Imagine (god forbid) that a fall is enough to rip out the clove hitch piece(s) and start tearing into the 2nd (daisy) piece(s). I'd sure like to have that thing start ripping out at 440 lbs/F one stich at a time than all the load, all at once. Also, if you want full strength loops, tie your own. I agree that TWO daisies is excessive, maybe somewhat dangerous, but more approperiate for multi-pitch sport.

What's all this snow doing to the rock at WA pass? anyone been up there since the weekend?

Ditch the bivi sack, not the sleeping bag. But make sure it is a light sleeping bag! On a bivi this summer on forbidden I had a bivi sac/down jacket combo (no pad either). Sleeping on the rope was okay, but even on the warm night I got decently cold. (sleep is important, remember?) Friends wearing sleeping bags only were toasty warm. my down jacket = 1.5 lbs, and bivi sack =- 1.5 pounds. In other words the weight of my 0 deg down bag! True, a jacket is more versatile, but when have you pulled out your down on a sunny day?? also, buy scholler (better yet, scholler extreme) and not gore-tex. you can get away with 90% of summer, and ~70% of spring/fall climbing with simply scholler pants & jacket. Far lighter than G-tex, and combined with a light weight impermeable shell, every bit as good. However, don't rely too much on that "beading off" effect with the scholler. It lasts a good couple months only. like Cpt. said, take only the essentials. Figure this out by leaving it at home. When it sucks, you didn't sleep, and you hate climbing, put that last thing back in.

I think this thread has gone around before, but... I have a set (3) of the mini-robot cams and they are great except for their low range of usability. If you check their website and compare it with something like a metolious TCU, you'll see that the robots cover about 1/2 the range of a metolious. On the plus side, the robots are cheaper so you can buy more! Then again, I've noticed that the small ones are more difficult to set properly due to the previous fact. The larger cams of theirs have a simmilar triger to any U shape cam, except there is no room for your outside fingers on a "3-finger" placement. Thus they have big one finger bars. I'd imagine that lack of range isn't too much of a problem with the larger sizes...

FYI, this is what the upper part of the NW couloir of Eldorado looked like this weekend. The lower part didn't have much ice at all though, and what you can see is mostly fresh snow or 1" ice.

A year or two ago I tried to get to the Mole from the Colchuck lake TH (Described in Beckey I think). It was really easy going until we hit the rat creek valley. We descended and were unsucessful in trying to cross the farthest East fork of the creek/waterfall. However, it looked like you could do a high traverse near the dragon's teeth and have a relatively brush free route onto the mesa. One other catch is that the area around the colchuck TH burned, so you might encounter more fallen trees and what not. Otherwise it's open medow/rocky and straitforeward travel. I'm not saying I'd recomend this approach (because we got spanked in rat creek), but it might be worth another look...

Dru, were you the guy with the long hair and goatee, or the team behind them with the new yellow rope?

. [This message has been edited by dbb (edited 09-25-2001).]

though bring crampons if you're doing the upper ridge only. Ice axe is optional because it is not steep, but good luck trying to cross that glacier if you bail on the lower ridge.

N. Ridge of Stuart, decently warm bivi on the summit with no bag.

After following bear trails on an approach all day in the Coast range, we suddenly came upon a bear den. A bear den with a severed bear arm and bloddy skull! Apparently Canadian bears have the right to "bear" arms.

I've heard that the MSR canisters IsoPro canisters work better under cold conditions. This may be a good reason to get em, but most of those kind of stoves work with any canister. Dave

I would say that the around-icy lake is a better approach for the route. You drop down over the glacial pass and around right below the route. This is compared to crossing below the entire N face, which may not be as desirable... Also, there are great bivi sites along the lake, as well as a year-round snowfield. As for the route, I'd suggest as late as possible in the year, and climb the left hand side for more challenge (AI3?). Climbing on the left is pretty easy, with only a few steep steps. If you go later in the year, the rock climbing/scrambling on and up to the East ridge is more interesting. my two cents..

Dude, Fred has been looking all over for someone to do that Monarch trip

you must also realize that Mark Twight is absolutely crazy. Just keep reading his book...

my guess is not this year. Assuming that things are a month+ ahead of schedule it is probably melting out as we speak. I heard that last year large parts of it melted down to rock. With this low snow year I'd bet those will be emerging pretty soon. on another note, has anyone around here done the infamous descent (on feet) from the Maude-Jack col? what about ascent?

For carryng a SLR I've used the chest pod system. Using a triangular looking sundog (or other) camera pack, rig up your own packstrap suspension system that hangs it around your neck and loops behind your back. This keeps the "pod" close to your body. This system does have it's limitations, especially when you're rock climbing. Otherwise, I carry a little Olympus stylus for point and shoot. It does decent slides, and great photos in general. here's a picture of some unknown photo bandit with the aforementioned system.. As you can see, carrying too big of a camera can make it hard to get up sometimes!

I believe that the current system on Mt. Rainier fits the needs and palates of most climbers out there. We pay the $15 fee to have those rangers up there on the mountain. They're there to save your butt when stuff happens, not merely to check permits and enforce quottas. If all they did was check permits, I think the program would be a little less accepted (do I hear a NW forrest pass?) My guess is that these rescues generally do not impend much of a cost on the NPS beyond the salaries of the climbing Rangers. Rescues are generally short lived (compaired to searches), and not terribly resource intensive. As it's been said, helicopters used for rescues on Rainier are Chinooks which come as "training" from the military. Rescue insurance is great, but where are you going to use it around here? Rescues outside the Park are generally done by county sherif-lead mountain rescue groups. These are volunteers, along with the use of county helicopters. The public flips the bill for the copters (usually), and they sherifs don't want to charge because they're afraid people won't call in the future if that precident is set. Rescues inside the Park are covered by the military and your climbing fee. Does anyone know if someone's been charged for a rescue on Rainier since the ranger program started?

Anyone have suggestions on how to transport stoves and empty fuel bottles through the airplane system? Seems like different companies have different policies--we're flying continential. I had thought of mailing them (USPS), but have people been hasseled for putting it in their check lugage? Thanks

That rocky gully left of 10k insect wall had some massive rockfall recently. I don't know if there were any worthwhile routes there before, but house sized scars were left through the moss on the wall.

This show is tonight! here is a map of where the HUB is, for those of you who do not know the UW campus. Parking can be had in the E1 parking lot (for ~2.50), or on the street for free, seeing as it's after 6pm.

I recall that from looking at the CAG that there were some 5.6-5.8ish routes on there with some loose climbing and some solid climbing. I'd guess that it doesn't get done a whole lot..

One good starting point is to buy the "Washington Rock" Falcon Guide book. It is a survey of most rock climbing areas in Washington, and seems to be just what you're looking for. As for recomended areas, Probably the best sport climbing around here is to be found at vantage (aka Frenchman's Coulee). Steep columnuar basalt, in general. Great trad routes can be found at many of WAs popular areas: Index Town Walls, Leavenworth, Vantage, etc.. Royal Columns has many crack climbs, but only a few are in the range you indicated. As Paul said, trad climbing at Squamish kicks ass. There is more there than could fill your entire trip (lifetime?). Plenty of clean 5.6-5.8 cracks and face climbs, as well as .10 clip ups..

Don't forget the classic Red Wall routes at Smith: Super Slab - 5.6 two pitches and change Moscow - 3 pitches, some .6, option for .7, and 4th. you can easily hook these together in a day if you're not stuck beind the rest of the world