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DPS

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Posts posted by DPS

  1. Interesting. My next door neighbor, a banker type, drives a big luxury SUV. He drives a mile to the Park and Ride, then takes the bus into Seattle from Issaquah. I was teasing him about needing an SUV and he said he writes it off as a business expense because it is a 'truck'.

     

    Think about it, why can a banker write off a luxury SUV as a business expense? When I worked as a carpenter and acutally used my truck to haul lumber and tools, I could not write it off because it was not heavy enough. Go figure.

  2. I was just on Baker last weekend on the Boulder/Park Cleaver route. We talked with some folks who came up the Easton and said it was in good shape.

     

    Some dude on this board reported that he did it in 9 hours round trip. The ascent and descent are the same for the Easton.

     

    Baker is heavily glaciated and I recommend roping up and carrying crevase rescue gear (picket/pulley/prusiks). Crampons/axe are bascially a neccessity. Whatever clothing you wore on Adams would be appropriate. Last weekend it was so warm I wore only a windshirt over my t-shirt, light Schoeller pants with no insulation on my legs, no gloves and a baseball cap to keep the sun off.

     

    Start early, that side of the mountain ges direct sunlight all day and the snow turns to crap. I would say plan to be on the glacier by 4:00 or 5:00 am so you top out by or 9:00 and be down off the glacier by noon.

  3. During the last few years I have come to think of myself as a has been. Upon further introspection I have come to the realization that I have been flattering myself and that I am not so much a has been as a never was.

     

    Nevertheless, trips to beautiful places with great old friends are just as rewarding as they always have been. These trips may not induce the same neural buzz that climbing a big, hard Alaskan peak does, but provide a feeling that I know I can find for many years to come.

  4. Not only are there pics, but Alex made a movie as well and I bet I don't get left on the cutting room floor like some people would do.

     

    Alex's reference to a steel headed axe is warranted. He led a very steep, exposed pitch out of a crevasse using a light weight aluminum headed trekking axe. My thought at the time - better him than me.

  5. I have done east ridge in October. I think what JoshK meant was the East Ridge is a rocky spine with snow slow slopes next to it. The summitsnow ridge where everyone gets their photos taken is snow all year around, no rock.

  6. I don't think Index is sandbagged and is in line with older rating at Squamish and Leavenworth. Look at Saber, at 5.4 is harder than the 5.6 on Great Northern Slab IMO.

  7. BTW - I remember the "There's no Time!!!!!!!!!" line from a story that someone - I think it was danielpatricksmith - posted. From what I recall, the storyteller was near the summit of a fairly casual climb on a pleasant day, chilling out and eating at a spot just before the final pitch or two of fourth or low-fifth class climbing. Shortly thereafter a party of two arrives in full battle gear, sporting enough hardware for a new line on Baffin. It's like 11:00 in the morning and the descent is trivial. After they build an anchor and the leader heads out on and sets his first piece, his belayer takes a look at the gear he set and mentions that the placement is less than optimal, and suggests that the leader might want to reset it. At this point, in the morning, under the blue skies, on the low-fifth-at-most terrain the leader whips his head around, fixates on his second with a wild-eyed stare, and roars "THERE'S NO TIME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" as though the belayer has suggested that they pause for a game of risk while rapping down the face of GasherbrumIV in a class V storm.

     

    I am not sure how accurate my recollection of the story is, but that was one of the funnier climber/belayer tales I have ever heard.

     

     

    "THERE'S ......NO........TIME!!!!!!!" yelrotflmao.gifyelrotflmao.gifyelrotflmao.gifyelrotflmao.gif

     

    I wish I could remember if this happened to me because it sounds funny as hell.

  8. Looking for beta on this route, has anyone done it? It sounds like you can ride the 7th Heaven chair lift and then make a casual approach? How hard is the climbing? Is there snow on the approach/descent? Thanks.

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