dbb

Dru, correct me if I'm wrong but.. Mug's N Jugs is a pretty climber friendly bar, or so I've found at least. Aparently the owner/manager is the guy who made the first ascent of Honeyman falls. I think they carried more than Canadian too (don't quote me on this!) I also had one of those experiences, like your Rodchester, at the Ryenodls. The the natives oogled us to our table, oogled us while we drank our alcoholic 7-up (Canadian). Needless to say we left as well.

I've got a pair of their g-tex xcr pants with the waterproof zippers and belt. They are Mens Large, and only slightly worn in the butt from glissading. Nice pair of pants, light. $120 email me: dave@alpinedave.com [ 11-09-2001: Message edited by: dbb ]

besides, I'm sure many people without toes have climbed everest.

about 6-7 packets worth. (6-7 oz, thus about .10 cents a packet!)

jon- all those free form amino acids are pretty expensive. As it is, I can make a "tube" of GU for like .65 cents. I think that adding caffine would be a nice touch though. the main thing to getting it "gu-like" is to use a strict ratio. Maltodextrin has some wacky crystaline properties where the point between super-saturation and disolved is hard to get. The "gu" seems to be best when it's not super hard (too little water), but not a clear runny liquid.

There must be something wrong with my add function: int PinkMoney::add(int i, int j) { return (i + j)*REALMONEY%7} help, what's wrong phil?!@?

I usually make about 6-7 packets worth in one of those collagen tubes. You could make a L of it if you were THAT FREAKIN' EXTREME, but I wouldn't know about that. One word of caution though, don't eat your old homemade-GU! I had a little squirt of 2-week old stuff that was still in my pack while aid climbing the other week and totally regretted it. Sick for two days! ... I think we need a puking smilie-face.

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.

Finally got my act together and setup a permanent address for my website: www.alpinedave.com Look here for new ice this winter! <shhh>

yeah, and if you climb in lilloet a lot, you get a can or FREE GREASE poured all over them thar eggs-n-bacon!

you can check the biner and make sure it is strait up and down, but that doesn't mean it won't be cross loaded with a load. My guess is that most that clip through both leg loops and harness leave the gate of the biner facing out. It's easier then to clip/unclip the device. however, most falls pull on the biner at a 45 to 80 degree angle away from the body. This isn't loading the carabiner along the spine, and thus is compromising it's strength. In theory at least... in reality, a 7 kN strength-for-cross-loading locking biner should probably suffice for most actual belay situations. One other plus for the belay loop is that it is easier to see that both strands are clipped when setting up before a rapp.

I have recently taken up belaying from the loop because it is WAY easier to get the biner open, and I know that the biner wont be cross loaded with a fall. If you don't like the "one point" thing (which I tend to subscribe to as well), tie a small loop of 7/16"s webbing through the same path as the loop. That way you've got the 20+kN of the loop, and a good 15kN in a sling. I climbed with my harness rigged this way for quite a while, and didn't find that it got in the way. Just make sure to tie it a little smaller than the belay loop so that it will fit inside. The only problem I've noticed with rappelling from the belay loop is that it turns my tuber the wrong direction. i.e. towards/away from me, instead of left/right. This is kind of minor though.. Dave

Carolyn- I would vote for Koflach plastics. MN can get way cold, and there isn't anything to climb there except steep ice (when it's cold at least). Though you shouldn't kid your self into believing that a good steep ice boot will make for a good trail walking boot. The Koflachs come close though, with the afore-mentioned soft plastic (actually 3 different plastics) The best deal with koflachs are that you can buy them on Barrabes.com for waaaaaay cheaper than anywhere around here. Last time I looked: Degres - $99 Vertical - $160 (This is what I use for ice, and they're excellent) Acrtis Exp - $190 just go into your local REI, fit your foot out to any Koflach boot, and then order away! (note that the artic expd's have a larger outter boot relative to the other boots by about 1 or 1/2 a size)

go there now!

[This message has been edited by dbb (edited 10-15-2001).]

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.

check you private messages Iambone.

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.