salbrecher

To make the intuitions even warmer you can glue on a piece of the thin premolded intuition foam (I got it from the intuition factory) inside your boot under your liner.

6'7" 33"waist 185lbs. today i tried the cloudveil symmetry pants size L and they actually fit! now if only i could afford them...

I'm 6'7" and have a 33" waist. I feel your pain. I found a pair of old northface softshells in a consignment store that sort of fit, maybe they still make em. Otherwise sew fabric on the bottom of a pair of mediums or get the larger pair tailored. Lankyness has it's drawbacks, garrrr. Why do companys think that tall people are always fat? I've never seen these 6'6" 400LBS people that actually fit into those XXL or XL outdoor athletic wear clothes...

Probably as likely to break a leg with his crampons on and dragging his legs like that... or at least get flipped over and get in some real self arrest taining...

Mtnfreak, yes you'll still get freezing condensation inside a synthetic, but it will still be warmer than a down bag with frozen condensation. Durability, as i said, is not an issue. It would only be used a few nights for one route and hopefully never again. Jay, as said before, we are not looking to zip together 2 full bags for the reasons mentioned above. Please read above posts before posting people...

Marko, thanks for the idea, a zipped in light synthetic v shaped piece of fabric sounds perfect and light. Featheredfriends, even with waterproof coatings down bags still get wet from the inside from brought in snow on clothes, spindrift and body vapour. Durability of synthetic is not an issue as it will hopefully be used only a few nights. My down dryloft -30 bag was 100% useless after 4 of 8 days on a climb last year in alaska. even a 0 degree celcius synthetic would have been far better. Lesson learned.

PLC, can your recomend a lightweight alpine dog? 2 bags zipped together is not what I am looking for since they weigh the same as 2 sleeping bags and are colder due to more airspace than a single despite more body warmth. A 2 person bag weighs less than 2 sleeping bags and is warmer.

I'm wondering if anyone has any experience using commercially available 2 person synthetic sleeping bags or has made there own? If so what company made yours and how well did it work for warmth compared to company ratings? what was the weight and price? If you made your own, how well did it work and are there any things you would do differently if you made another one? what was the weight of it and what synthetic fill did you use? looking for one in the -4 celcius to -9 celcius range. anyone here have any experience using one on a route? good or bad experience? More of an alpine thing and less of a cuddling with the girlfriend type bag stefan

my partner and i used scarpa vegas with intuition liners and they were warm enough, just barly though. no overboots or supergators. save a fresh pair of socks for summit day. When we topped out on denali at midnight in june it was below -30c (thermometer bottomed out)and 90ishkm/hr winds. we were both extremely dehydrated. Intuitions rule. get a pair. if we didn't get frostbite in those condition i can't see people needing anything more if they have intuitions. you save weight on your boot weight with the intuition liners AND not having to wear overboots and you can wear the same boots for almost any mountain trip. it's a win/win.

The BD Cobras are really great tools that can be used for alpine, pure ice, and mixed and do all quite well. they really excell at pure ice though. not quite so good for leashless mixed but good enough. If you use them enough in the alpine for plunging and knocking snow buildup from under your crampons the rubber can start to peel up but you can tape it down with climbing tape or rip it off and re rubberize it with tool dip. I bought mine used for $250CND a few years ago and they've had heavy use ever since and are still going strong. Out of my partners tools i've tried i've never even come close to wanting any of them (rage, aztars, quarks, prophets,). The bd vipers seem pretty sweet to and i would consider buying them next. ive only held them in the store though and swung at imaginary ice. Will Gadd reccomends them too so they must be good

weird shape with rotten overhanging califlowers and some hollow shit... but it wasnt too hard or scary... you hardman.

Bolted mixed climbing was the best way for me to improve footwoork (and overall tecnique for that matter). climbing on different types of ice; thin smears, fragil, plastic, airated, and slushy ice with the protection of bolts allows you to focus on what you can get away with on different types of ice and experiment without the consequences of a fall. i was and still am amazed at how well delicate foot placements hold in all types of ice and how rarely they blow.

The ruber handles on my Cobra tools are comming off from postholing and i was wondering what would be the best thing to fix it with. i tried seam grip before but it came off again. I was thinking rip the rubber off comepletely and use hockey tape? anyone have this problem?

Pics should be working now. yes? no? probably not back in van till august or september, i'll be planting and herbiciding up north here. The ft st john peeler bar was the celebration last night...

Denali’s Cassin Ridge had, for me, long held a place as a route that was too technical, too big, too scary, and just too hard to even think about trying. Road trips down south, ice seasons in the Rockies, and winter aid in Squamish, slowly began to change my perception of the route into something climbable. I jokingly mentioned the route to Nick Elson after a day of dry tooling in Squamish and to my surprise and excitement he seemed just as keen to try the route as I was. Nick is a solid rock and ice climber and I knew his ability to climb 5.12 (in the gym…) would be our secret weapon on the 5.8 crux’s… I left the Rockies in February to go tree plant on the coast and make some money for the trip. While coastal planting is great for the wallet and physical conditioning it can be horrible for my psyche. In 50 days of planting over 40 were raining and our cut blocks were either just below or just above the snowline. I prayed my frozen feet and hands were a side effect of the creatine I was taking to try and put weight on for the trip. Nick miraculously sent our applications and fees in and the date was set for a May 10 arrival. I left the coast on May 5th and in a flurry shopping and packing (throwing everything in my van) Nick and I set off from Vancouver on the 4 day drive to Talkeetna. Once in Talkeetna we went to the Ranger station and prepared ourselves for a stern lecture on the dangers of climbing and the importance of safety. I nervously sat as the ranger pulled out our resumes and eyed them closely. To my surprise he looked up and said “looks like you boys have a lot of cold weather climbing experience, lets take a look at the route shall we?” The Ranger in fact, almost seemed to have more confidence in our ability to climb it then we did! Maybe he had our resumes mixed up with 2 other climbers? He took us through a slideshow of the route with pictures from the year before that I must admit, made the route look quite challenging. Acclimatization Once at base camp we sorted gear for our cash and packed up 14 days of food fuel to acclimatize on the West Buttress route. After dinner nick quickly became nauseous and promptly vomited into the vestibule. He reassured me this was standard practice for him while acclimating at “altitude”. Base camp is at 7200ft. We spent the next 5 days getting to the 14000ft camp and taking care not to push to hard. Once at 14k we set up shop for the week and dug in. Other than 110kph winds (160kph were recorded at 17k) we had an uneventful week at 14k with 2 short day trips up to 17k on the upper West Rib to Acclimatize. We spent the week reading, writing, eating, cross wording, and listening to American radio on my mp3 player. 2 weeks after leaving base we were acclimatized as we were going to get and sick of sitting in our tent day after day; despite the quality of entertainment in people watching at the 14k camp. It truly is an international jungle! There’s ALWAYS something going on up there. Helicopters flying up to pick up injured climbers, tents blowing away, team breakdowns, a guy who fell down the orient express (miraculously was uninjured), fixed line drama, craziness! With the weather forecast predicting a high pressure system building we happily packed up camp and headed back down to base camp to grab our gear and food for the Cassin. Base Camp As usual, the forecast ended up being wrong. Well, sort of. It was originally forecast to be good, but the next day was changed to a “strong” low pressure system, but actually turned out to be sunny for the next few days with a forecast of snow in the next few days. We frustratingly waited for that elusive 4 day forecast of high pressure from the north, it never came. We made use of a sunny day and climbed the SW ridge of Mt. Francis. A beautiful 4000ft IV 5.8, 60 degree snow route 15 min from base camp. More dustings of snow kept us in camp as we impatiently read the last few of our books; a depressing book about hunting and killing cocaine lord Pablo Escobar and the first 2 adventures of Harry Potters. We got our break just as it appeared Harry had discovered who had opened the chamber of secrets… Cassin Day 1 At 8:00pm that night Nick and I went as usual to the base camp manager’s tent to listen to the nightly forecast. To our surprise it was calling for sunny weather for a few days then a chance of snow and then clearing later in the week. It wasn’t the strong high pressure we wanted but it was the best forecast we’d had in a week. We also felt that after a week we were beginning to lose our acclimatization and if we didn’t go now we’d have to reacclimatize at 14k and drop 5000ft down the west rib to the base of the route; instead of going up the quicker but more dangerous Valley of Death. We quickly took down camp and discussed a few last minute gear details. 1 pot or 2? Shovel or no shovel? Fleece jacket or not? What do we need 2 pots for? 1 pot would do for our bowls as well. Nick wanted nothing to do with the shovel but it seemed I had an irrational attachment to my shovel and so ended up bringing it. In the warmth of the evening sun I left my fleece jacket and brought just the shoeler, gore-tex, and down. Neither of us brought over boots. Decisions I would later regret. For rack we brought 6 cams, 5 nuts, 7 screws, 3 pitons (#5, #6 bugaboo and a ¼ angle), and 8 slings. We brought 5 days of food and fuel for a week. My meager food was the least I had ever brought for 5 days. My food bag had 45 gu gels, 10 yogurt granola bars for breakfast, 5 sesame snaps, 5 fruit bars, 2 Cadbury chocolate bars a pack of soup and 3 dinners. We left base camp a 9:30pm and set off towards the valley of death. The valley is so called for the kilometers of serac lined valley that threaten to crush anyone who enters. In the few minutes we were at a lookout overlooking the valley from the 14k camp we saw a serac collapse and the powder rush over one of the safer spots on the route, the so called “Safe Camp”… Hard snow and a trail to follow allowed us move fast through this dangerous, awe inspiring valley. Once at the safety of the west rib couloir we set up the tent for a few hour sleep and to brew up before heading up the first crux, the Japanese couloir on the Cassin Ridge. 5 hrs later and not so refreshed we hiked the short distance to the base of the Japanese couloir and Nick started up what was one of the tougher pitches of the route; a short vertical section over the bergshrund on extremely rotten ice was a difficult and eye opening pitch. We had assumed we would be able to simul-climb the 9 pitches up the couloir but the amount of ice and rocks being knocked down the narrow gully and attention demanding nature of the climbing forced us to pitch out 9 calves burning, pick dulling, energy sapping pitches to the first and very small Cassin Ledges camp at 13600ft. This small rocky ledge is about 4ft by 10ft and just fit our bibler tent. Cassin Day 2 The next morning nicks lungs felt like they were being squeezed in a vice, and he was in obvious pain. Not exhibiting any other signs of pulmonary edema and not wanting to go down we took a rest day and hoped the problem would heal itself We ate a half dinner to conserve food. Cassin Day 3 Nicks lungs felt sufficiently good enough to continue and other than a large amount of blood in his shit that morning (still no clue what that’s from) felt good to go. One mixed pitch led to a 5.8 pitch that would take us to the start of the cowboy traverse. The cowboy traverse is a 7 pitch knife edge ridge that starts steeply at 45 degrees with steep drops on either side. The last 1/3rd of the ridge is a less steep corniced ridge that requires traversing at 60 degrees. This ridge is extremely difficult to reverse and once completed commits one to the 6000ft of climbing to the summit. Conditions on this feature vary from year to year and even within the month. It can be unprotect able snow or calf burning blue ice that takes bomber screws. Luckily we found it in nearly perfect condition with a few inches of bonded snow on top of ice screw protect able ice. The small amount of snow on top of the ice allowed us great rests and secure climbing and we were able to simul-climb the arête in 2 leads to allow us to swap gear. The winds were now picking up and snow began to fall and we decided to pitch camp at “the most spacious camp on the whole route” , a flat spot at the top of the arête and at the base of the snowfield leading to the first rock band. Cassin Day 4 A short pitch through a shrund took us to a snowfield that led to the base of the first rock band. 3 mixed pitches took us to a difficult mixed/mostly rock pitch (off route) followed by another distressingly steep mixed pitch (possibly off route). My technique of pulling on gear came to an abrupt stop when no gear could be placed to pull on. After much thrashing and swearing and a disturbingly long time later I belayed nick up. We simuled up the next 2 pitches to the top of the first rock band where a short snow slope led to, as the guide book says, a “small exposed bivy” at 15700ft. A small ledge had already been chopped and even after some more chopping by us the tent still hung distressingly over the edge by a good 10 inches. While chopping the ledge Nick put a fist sized hole in our single wall tent, possibly to increase ventilation, I assume. We anchored the tent to screws and axes and tied, mostly, everything in, including ourselves. Strong winds and snow kept us awake most of the night. Lack of snow to build a wall now left us exposed to any winds that ripped across the mountain. Cassin Day 5 By morning, blowing snow had accumulated halfway up the tent wall on the side against the ledge wall and was pushing us, and the tent, further off the ledge. The wind was now howling outside it was quickly obvious we could not move in these conditions. I boiled a liter of water each and locked ourselves in the tent. By noon the gale winds had blown most of the snow clear from between the tent and the ledge but unfortunately the snow had also acted as a stabilizing force for the tent. The winds would at times nearly flatten the tent and threaten to rip us off the ledge. By evening the snow had stopped but the winds had further increased and the situation was becoming more serious by the minute. That evenings forecast was predicting “an extreme high wind warning for the upper mountain and a strong low will persist over the mountain for the next few days. Fuck. Snow was blowing in the vent hole nick had created and high winds all day and night had shaken any condensation off the walls onto our bags. My -30 down sleeping bag was now a very heavy and expensive nylon sheet; with a frozen ball of down on either side of the baffles. Damage control, Nick and I flipped to see who had to go outside and tighten guy lines make new guy lines, move the tent in, tighten it in and try and prevent the destruction of our sole shelter. I lost. As quickly as possible I tied string and slings and equalized our tent but no matter what I did it still seemed to that the major gusts would flatten the tent if someone wasn’t bracing it. It was at this time I noticed we might have a small problem. Our windscreen had blown away. No big deal, I couldn’t seem to find the pot lid either, hmmm. My heart slowly began to race as I realized that our only pot was no longer where it had been and that all three were probably airborne over the south face of Denali. At least that’s one (or 3) things less that I now have to carry. I told Nick in a good news bad news type way and all he replied was “At least we have the stove”. Indeed. That night the wind continued to howl and we both stayed up all night with our backs against the windward wall trying to brace it and find a position comfortable enough to allow some sleep. None would work and we eventually resigned ourselves to staying up and bracing and catching ourselves dozing when a massive gust would come and threaten to throw us off. Neither of us talked much. My mind was racing. My sleeping bag was useless. I put all my clothes on and shivered in my nylon sheet. Both poles were now badly bent in multiple places. If the tent collapsed we’d be fucked. What the fuck were we going to make water in? The mental math of rapping 3500ft with one rope and sparse gear was to unappealing to think about. Not to mention reversing the Cowboy Traverse. Besides, Nick and I are both Taurus’, stubbornness is our strong point. Cassin Day 6 I woke out of a half sleep to find my lungs killing me. They felt like what Nick had described to me on day 2 at the Cassin ledges. I hoped it was from crouching all night to brace the tent but took a dex and diamox to calm my now racing mind. Some time in the morning the wind eased up and we decided we had to move. Our shovel blade would have to do to melt water in. Any water we had to melt from here to the summit would have to be melted in our shovel blade. This time consuming process took over 2 hrs to melt 6 liters. We packed up camp and headed up the second rock band. By the time we’d melted water and got moving it was the afternoon and we only went several pitches before getting to a sheltered bivy at 16500ft; the last for several thousand feet. We decided to stop here instead of risk another exposed night above the rock band. My lungs were killing with every breath and I was glad not to be gaining much more than several hundred feet elevation since the last bivy. We camped on an abysmally small ice ledge next to a rock wall but at least it offered some shelter. After repeated failed attempts to heat water enough to cook our dinner and even trying to heat it in the foil container we resigned ourselves to several spoonfuls of cold, slushy, crunchy, Mountain House Kung Pow Chicken. Motivation was gone, food was critically low. I lay awake all night listening to my lungs and my grumbling stomach. The lower half of my body hung off the ledge. Morning couldn’t come quick enough. Cassin Day 7 and 8 We debated having a rest/storm day but with no dinners, not enough food to last, and a ledge that closer resembled a sloping couch we would hardly be recovering enough to warrant a rest. My breathing seemed so constricted that I didn’t want to spend another night on the mountain. We joked it was summit or fly (as in a rescue helicopter). We spent the next few hours brewing in the spindrift and wind and then packed up with the goal of carrying over the summit to the17k camp on the West Buttress. 2 more rock pitches led us to the top of the second rock band and the end of the technical difficulties. All that separated us from the summit was 3700ft of non technical snow and rock. After a long break we set off up steepening slopes on hard wind slab to frustratingly slow knee deep wind drift. We seemed to be going maddeningly slow according to the topo elevations. Nick broke trail through a tough deep section and my wheezing lungs could barely keep up. We stopped around 18000ft to listen to the 8:00pm weather report on our FRS radio. Partly cloudy and 80kph winds above 17k was the forecast. The best it had been all week. After a Chuck Norris joke and listening to some ranger talk we set off with renewed spirits. I drank the last of my now frozen water and had a last GU gel. In the increasing cold and high winds, melting more water on the shovel would be next to impossible. We resigned ourselves to pushing over the summit. Luckily my energy seemed to be increasing and nick and I pushed hard to the summit in the increasing midnight cold. My feet slowly lost warmth and stopping became unbearable. I had to keep moving to keep them from freezing. Landmarks kept coming quicker than expected and nick and I quite quickly found us at Kahiltna Horn at 20000ft; just 320ft shy of the summit! The wind was now howling over the summit ridge our thermometer showed -30C and with the wind at over 90kph the wind-chill was down to over -65C.We ditched our packs and raced the few hundred feet to the summit. Nick told me he felt like shit, and had trouble keeping his balance. Not unusual for the amount of food and water we had consumed over the past few days but also a symptom of life threatening cerebral edema. Excitement turned to the urgency of getting down. We got back to our packs and nick flopped on his with a tiredness he’d never shown before. I took out a dex and diamox pill and he quickly took them with the last sip of his water. I yelled through the wind we had to get down and we quickly put our packs on and headed down. Unexpectedly, we found ourselves breaking trail through knee deep snow, I though this route was a highway?! We later found out that no one had summited for 8 days because of storming conditions and high winds. No shit. The pace was agonizing, my lungs would burn if I walked to fast and nick would collapse in the snow every few hundred meters. After a few hours of that we made it to Denali Pass and could finally see the first signs of people! I broke off in knee deep powder and only after several hundred meters realized there was a wanded route to our left that would hopefully offer firmer snow. I began to cut over but the exhaustion forced me to stop every few feet and collapse in the snow. Nick, feeling renewed energy in the lower elevation took over the breaking and dragged my now exhausted ass into the 17000ft camp; 17hrs after leaving our high camp on the Cassin. We set up the tent and melted some water in a borrowed pot and collapsed in the tent for a few hours. My lungs still hurt and after a few hours sleep we packed up to get to the warmer 14000ft camp where we had a fuel and much needed food cash. I scrounged some tasty waffle treats and some chocolate from a party who was bailing and nick and I savored our first non gu food in a while. We continued with renewed energy to the 14k camp and spent a long time just sitting on our packs in the warmth staring at nothing and everything. It was over. For the first time in days I felt relief wash over me. We’d made it. Stefan Albrecher

The real challenge would be Neve AND spearhead sub 24 hrs...

looking for ice and mixed partners in the canmore area. I lead WI 4 and easy mixed. Would like to do Professor falls, Louise falls, Coire Dubh integral, or mixed days at haffner, grassi lakes or grotto. I have car and gear (need a few more screws) but no contact info so if you leave yours here or PM me i will contact you. Stefan Albrecher salbrecher@hotmail.com

I'm thinking of buying either the bibler eldorado or the integral designs MK2 and was wondering if anyone has used one or both and has any reason why one is better than the other for wind, snowloading, functionality, workmanship, breathability, and overall strength. I have a 4 season double wall hilleberg I use in most situations but want either of the above tents for specific alpine climbs and to use on my double portaledge. Stefan

I'll be working in Holberg near Port Hardy for a few months starting Sunday and was wondering if there's any climbing or bouldering anyone knows of around there?

The ant's are still there, not nearly as many.

Anybody else done this route? I'd love to hear your story; I don't think you can do this route and not have a story! It's 4 pitches of chuck pratt 1960's 10b crack, bombay chimneys, and squeeze! I've never been so worked on ANY route before! I backed off pitch 1 which is layback flake and crack. Pitch 2 is the crux with an unprotected squeeze (you can get the # 6 in a few ft above the belay WAY back in the chimney) and finishes with a body belay on a chockstone backed up with 1 alien behind a flake. I was stuffed in the crack seconding and actually wondering what we would do if I couldn't climb this thing. there was no anchor to rap off if we the leader had to come down if i couldn't make it. It took ALL my strength the make it up that squeeze. Pitch 3 is a bombay chimney that you have to turn around in, then mantle and friction onto a slab. The leader is looking at a fall onto the belayer and chockstone from 10m up. I've never been sick to my stomach from watching someone lead before! The first 3 pitches are .8-.9 but are by far the crux. Pitch 4 is a 10b but at least you can pull on gear . Dave (the guy who took the collar off a dead bear we found on the approach) told me it was an .8 and I headed up glad to be able to at least lead a pitch. Needless to say I decked on a ledge from 15ft after ripping an alien! I tried another way and made it up after pulling on some gear. This was such a spectacular route despite following all but one pitch. The crack on the right is called crack of despair and is the same grade but more chimneying. 90% of this route has almost no gear even with our #5 friend. The route topo says bring gear to 3 inches! I bootied a nut a dave talked to the guy who left it... over a year before we climbed it. Surprising for Yosemite, unless you've climbed it.

I think that 30m ropes are a good length for roped team of 2 even if you each take a few coils. If you each take 5 coils of 1.5m each you still have 15m of rope between the two of you which is about right in most cases. If someone falls in just prepare to self rescue and prussik out. In the unlikely event the person is knocked out you'll be able to make a 2:1 pully with 7.5m. I rarely rope up on skis on glaciers and hope my forward momentum and dispersed weight keep me out. It's thought provoking to look back and see snow fall into a slot you just skiied over!

I once rapped off a gear loop... It held

I scored 3 nuts, a wiregate biner, a daisy chain, and a rivet hanger on a single trip to yosemite . I left a wiregate biner, a rivet hanger and a copperhead

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