DPS

This may well be the most intelligent and civilized thread I've read in a long time.

Dane, my position is not of installing huts to make climbing more comfortable or easier, but to preserve and hopefully improve the fragile alpine ecosystem. I think using huts and some type of waste management system would be better in the long term than the current ethos of multiple camping sites, feces and TP under rocks, multiple social trails, etc.

I agree with the Pika regarding boots. A good pair of insulated single leather boots like the La Sportiva Nepal Top Evo or the Scarpa Mont Blanc GTX (or Scarpa Summit if you can find them) are going to be a much more versatile boot, one that you can ice climb in, do a lot of stuff in winter in, and do summer mountaineering in. My plastics come out for Rainier in the dead of winter and Alaska and that's it.

I think Dane's point is valid, the only way to lessen environmental damage is to lessen human traffic. There are already limits for overnight visitors to a number of popular places (Colchuck Lake, Enchantments, Boston Basin). What if huts were erected with provisions for proper waste management in these popular areas that could acommodate the number of permited visitors? Old campsites and social trails could be rehabilitated. As far as Vantage, don't you have to buy some type of permit to park there? Where is that money going? Shouldn't it be spent on some toilets and trash cans? Seems like a pretty simple solution to the human waste and garbage issue.

How about using money from those trail passes we all have to buy to build the huts and maintain the huts? There is that little piece of legislation called the Wilderness Act that prohibits huts in many areas though.

Scarpa Inverno and Omega are both solid boots. I think the Omega is probably going to be a bit more precise and climb a bit better. I have Invernos and they are very durable but a bit boxy and bulky. FWIW, I use a smaller pack than 80 liters for Alaska climbs including Denali. If it is in the budget I would pick up a pack in the 45-50 liter range. Get something light and simple without any unneccessary pockets or zippers. Something like these: http://www.prolitegear.com/millet_prolight_45.html http://www.prolitegear.com/montbell_alpine_pack_50.html http://www.mec.ca/Products/product_detail.jsp?PRODUCT%3C%3Eprd_id=845524442621955&FOLDER%3C%3Efolder_id=2534374302700149

I agree with huts. I think huts in popular areas would do a lot towards mitigating damage. Boston Basin, Colchuck Lake, North side of Mt Baker all have multiple rock tent rings and you can turn over virtually any rock and find feces and toilet paper underneath.

Thanks me too.

I would offer to take you and your friend out and do some skills training and a summit try, but I am pretty ill with no promise that I will recover.

White River road typically opens on Memorial day weekend. Before that it is a long walk/bike in, like 12 miles just to get to the trail head if HWY 410 is still gated. I have climbed Rainier in April and had really good conditions. It is very weather dependent and April is still winter on the mountain. Your best bet is to try a route from Paradise as the road is kept open in the winter. Think about Gibralter Ledges, Ingraham Direct, DC, Fuhrer Finger, Kautz Glacier. Like Feck said, if you come in April have some back up plans if the weather on Ranier is bad. April is a great time for alpine ice and mixed routes. Triple Couloirs on Dragontail, NE Couloir or North Buttress Couloir on Colchuck, Stuart Glacier Couloir on Mt Stuart should all be in good shape in April and the weather is often better over there.

I have always thought K2 skis have the best graphics. As far as that other stuff you would have to ask someone who skies more than me.

I don't think the issue is climbers following a trail, it is climbers/hikers making and following multiple trails which damages the environment particularly in fragile ecosystems like the alpine, artic, and some desert zones.

J-Tree has trail markers installed initially to cut down on the number of trails that damaged vegetation. Seems like a good idea to me.

Is that a Gremlin?

I have gone back to using 50 meter half ropes for alpine and ice climbing after years of using 60s. I really don't miss the extra 10 meters and enjoy the weight savings. I think it says something that Vince Anderson and Steve House climbed with a 50 meter half rope and a 55 meter tag line for the raps on the Rupal Face.

Mt Baker is really an ideal mountain to start off with. It has all of the same challenges as Rainier (glaciers, crevasses, weather, lots of elevation gain, etc) but without the ass kicking of an extra 3,600 ft of altitude. The two most popular routes, and the best for beginners, are the Coleman Demming and Easton Glaciers with the Easton being perhaps a bit easier. The typical season starts in May and runs through the end of September. Starting in May the weather becomes more stable throughout the season and dramatically so after July 4th when the jet stream shifts. As the season progresses, however, crevasses open up, snow bridges shrink and become weaker, routes become more circuitus and icier. The trick is to find the sweet spot when weather is stable and the glacier is still in good shape. My recommendation is July (after the 4th). I don't recommend climbing Mt Baker without some instruction first. You need to know ice axe skills (self arrest, self belay, boot axe belay), cramponing skills, rope work and knots (figure eight, clove hitch, Prusik hitch, butterfly knot, water knot, fisherman's knot), snow and ice anchors (how to place effective, pickets, deadmen, flukes, ice screws, bollards, etc), route finding skills, weather reading skills, and so on. You can get a jump start on your education by buying a copy of Freedom of the hills and practicing what you can, but there are some skills you need a mountain with snow to practice and learn on. Yes, guides cost money but if you go with a good outfit and take a skills course (not just a summit bid) you can learn a tremendous amount. Think of it this way, you are already spending money on clothes, gear, and travel expenses, the guide fees are just a bit more coin you have to come up with. The other option that you mentioned is find a generous soul who is willing to take you under their wing and show you what you need to know and guide you to the summit. With this approach you really don't know the qualifications of your 'guide', they may be really great or just learning like you. Best of luck, Dan

You really don't. All those routes you have done at Index are nice and all but get real, my daughter did them all of those by the time she was 10. RUMR's kids probably did them by the time they were 4. At least by your trip reports you have posted you haven't climbed any significant alpine routes. You have a little bit of experience, just enough to think you are bad ass but not enough to know how much to need to learn. Have a litte humility. If you have to tell people how great you are, you're not. Talk - action = 0.

Avi Gulch has no glaciers on the route so roping up is not neccessary. If there is snow on the ground then you need to be concerned about avalanches. How concerned depends upon a lot of factors. Maybe check an avalanche forecast for Mt Shasta right before you go.

I agree with Gene. If rock pro is available it should be the first option, ice screws second, snow anchors as a last resort.

Hmmm, at least in the conditions that I found them in, doing Triple Couloirs with the crux waterfall pitches was miles easier and far less technical (WI 4 when we did it) than continuing up the North Face. From the top of the Hidden Couloir we climbed 3, 60 meter pitches of difficult rock climbing (5.7 in summer was our guess). The North Face bowl was compact rock slabs with 1/4" of snice and zero opportunities for pro until the exit pitches which were more rock climbing (again about 5.7 in summer). I know an accomplished climber who had the same opinion and rated this version at M4 (Darin Berdinka or Jens Klubberud, can't remember who said it).

This one is newer than the X-15 BRS that was available in 1991.

I would bet a dollar that summitchaser still lives with his parents.

Huh.

Very nice photographic study in mycology.

The NE Buttress has had two sucessful winter ascents by Steve Mascioli and Bill Billing and Colin Haley and Mark Bunker. Colin refers to his ascent as the most difficult thing he has climbed with respect to his experience level. I happened to run into Colin in Marmot Mountain Works buying new AT bindings a few days after their ascent and got the story from him. When Colin and Mark made their ascent they did it in the worst window of weather the entire winter. I believe they had wanted to do Mt Triumph but felt the avalanche conditions were too high and the NE Butt would be more protected. Their intended descent was down the east ridge and the CJ Coluoir but after days of storms while on the route they felt it would be too threatened by avi danger. Having been up the CJ Colouir twice in winter I can say that was probably a lifesaving decision. Near the top of the couloir is a bowl that collects snow and spindrift off of the NE Face of JBerg and the West Face of Cascade Peak, just ready for a trigger. They descended by traveresing west over multiple summits for miles until able to drop down the ridge to their car at the Eldorado Creek Trailhead. They went back for their cached skis but they had been buried by an avalanche. My partner and I made a attempt at it in late Dec 2000(? - the year before Colin and Mark's successful ascent). We were roughly following the 1951 route. We went after a wet Novemember and a dry, cold December. Conditions were really spectacular. We climbed perfect, plastic water ice pitches up to WI 3+/4 interspersed with snow ramps. The hardest part we found was a short, difficult mixed pitch on which we hauled packs. We bivied below the snow arete. Our stove barely functioned and after hours of melting we each got a liter of water. We realized without a well functioning stove it would be foolish to continue considering we had at least two more days to go. We down climbed and rappeled the route the next morning with a single 60 meter rope using bollards, v-threads, threaded icicles, and trees as anchors. I think you want to get on the route fairly early in the winter so you can drive to MP 20 and the ice is not buried under snow. I would plan at least three days if every thing goes very well. I would also bring two ropes and plan to downclimb and rappel the route. As far as gear, we found the rock to be pretty compact where it was showing. I would bring maybe six screws and a small rock rack with some KBs/Bugaboos and plenty of tat for building rap anchors. Hope that helps.