DPS

Are you making fun of me now? That acutally happened to me once.

Couldn't leave well enough alone.

My wife thinks the sexiest sport is Men's Competitive Housework.

And cue insults for the subtle cheast beat in 3..2..1.. Nice work on the solo in early conditions. The one time I attemped to solo Chair I watched Bart Paul sketch on the first pitch. Lowell Skoog and Mark Kroese were cued up behind me. I muttered something about 'discretion being the better pat of valor' and slunk off. And cue insults for the not subtle name dropping in 3..2..1..

I would decide what your major objectives are in terms of mountains/routes/tours and figure out what gear you need to complete the objectives. If you have everything you need and are simply looking to upgrade, a high quailty down sleeping bag is always a good long term investment. Same with a good pair of boots. Also, a floorless shelter is a great, low cost way to cut weight dramatically as is a light weight butane stove (Snow Peak, MSR Pocket Rocket are tough, light, and relatively cheap.)

I climbed with a fellow who had done quite a few cutting edge canyon descents back in the 90's. He said they used 11/16" tubular webbing to rappel on.

Looks like serac fall off of the Nisqually Glacier, taken from the Muir: http://www.turns-all-year.com/skiing_snowboarding/trip_reports/index.php?topic=22534.0

If the snow is better lower down, park at the large parking lot before you get to Paradise (can't remember the name). Boot up to Steven's Canyon Road and ski into Reflection Lakes and the Tatoosh and pick a bowl or line that looks good.

Wow, looks like you may have a decent weather window. Dress warm, summit temps into the single digits. Brrrr. http://www.atmos.washington.edu/data/rainier_report.html

Probably fine but winter road closures can add up to 24 miles RT if going in via White River. Roads are plowed to Paradise all year.

The route finding should be fine. The exit shute might be icy and the crevasses above Gib Rock will be thinly bridged and weak.

A couple of things to remember: The weather changes fast this time of year and usually for the worse. Choosing a route that starts from Camp Muir gives you a weather-proof shelter should the weather completely go to hell. There are maps available from the rangers that have compass bearings from prominent land marks on the Muir Snow field to aid in descending from Muir in a white-out. Choosing a route up FF or Kautz puts you 'out there' a bit more and I would question the integrity of the snow bridges on the Nisqually. If you decide to start from Camp Muir, your choices are basically Gib Ledges, Ingraham Direct, and Disappointment Cleaver. Gib Ledges could be a good choice, but I would make sure Gibralter Rock is well iced and isn't shedding. Ingraham Glacier would likely be melted out into an impossible maze. DC could be good, but when I attempted it this time many years ago, the Ingraham Glacier was melted out and made it impossible to access the Cleaver.

It depends upon the quality of the sleeping bag and how warm/cold it is that year. Unless your sleeping bag is unusually large, it is warmer to drape your parka over the bag.

I'm not exactly sure if I climbed Washington Dihedrals or not. Here is a topo with the line Nick Strait and I climbed about 10 years ago. If that is indeed Washington Dihedrals then I can say it was a moderate ice and mixed route. We soloed most of it and roped up for the last couple of pitches of mixed rock/snow/ice.

I have found Summitpost.org to be a good resource for planning trips to California. This is a good start: http://www.summitpost.org/sierra-nevada/176773

The only copy I ever saw was at the Redmond Vertical World.

Lowell, My mother was a librarian. She would occasionaly bring home old climbing literature/movies/magazines. I recall a couple of Steve Marts movies with you climbing Golden Horn and and I think another mountain. Any chance we might see these put on the web?

This was just hashed out in this informative thread: http://cascadeclimbers.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/1040440/Re_Easier_Steep_Snow_Ice_Climb#Post1040440

Me either, but that sure as shit doesn't stop him. He embodies every bad joke about mountain guides. Sandy, sorry your trip was ruined by bad food.

Got a man of the people Says keep stoke alive I've got time to burn and waterfalls to climb keep on climbing in the free world

Anybody know if the NE Buttress on Colchuck has been climbed in winter? Looking at photos of it in winter it looks like it does not really form ice, just snowed up rock.

I wrote an article on summitpost that was an outline for an alpinists education. Apparently, Reinhold Messner 'Likes' it on FB: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Reinhold-Messner/23286622286 http://www.summitpost.org/view_object.php?object_id=756518&confirm_post=4&page=1

Interesting to know, Dan, we have similar tastes in bailout choices. Neon orange 6mm? I bought 60 meters of the stuff and left it all over N.A.

In case Peter Chapman's and our line on Mixup http://cascadeclimbers.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=413393 should end up in Burdick's guidebook, I would like to retroactively name it 'The Angry Wives Club'.