Alex

unless its icy, then snowboarders are just tearing up themselves without any technique

I would not wear leather boots on Denali. Its too cold. I would wear leather boots for lower and more technical objective, perhaps below 14000, and certainly after mid-May. Ultimately, if you are asking this question HERE, it means you dont have the experience THERE, and the question you SHOULD ask is "how much are my toes worth?" If in real doubt, take a pair of each. It wont make a difference to the air service, or the cache at base camp. Alex

Bah, congratulations to Lynn! I look forward to hearing about a little tyke Hill flashing the Nose Free in a day (with mom belaying) pretty soon!

holy shit, its the Stanley Headwall of the Cascades!

wait let me get this straight we potentially have 2 innocent newsroom groupies, THE Dan Larson, AND TRASK?? showing up next week? I am soooo there! Capt Caveman, you bring Beckey and its a full hizouse!!!

not to raise the question of whats *better*, but Telemark should not be on the chart. Telemark describes a form of skiing or a binding, not a subdiscipline (since I can do Super G, freestyle, Extreme Descents etc on telemark, downhill or AT gear, ....you get the picture)

I'm happy that our media-prone visitors arent too offended yet by all the classic lack of restraint here (especially with the confirmation of gender), but lets lay off the bondage pics until AFTER they've been indoctrinated at pube club...?

Headed over to Crystal on Sunday am to sample Union Creek and Buillion Basin, knowing there was new snow and it would be cold and clear. The driver had not navigated to Crystal in a while and the navigator was not paying attention, so our early start still only got us there just in time to hook up with a party of 7 others who had left Seattle after us. Left the cars and headed up. Traversed Buillon Basin, where the snow was good and fluffy, to the ridge. There, the snow was crusty and the wind was howling, but I dropped in anyway, hoping it was only the top of the slope that was crust. Crust crust crust. All the way down, in the trees, in the open, crust. Not particularly good skiing. Only one other followed me down, and we broke trail through the crust, wind, and cold all the way back to the summit of Buillon, a long way(!), until we could get the hell out of there and ski some fluff. Skiied 4 more long fluffy runs in Buillon Basin until very late afternoon. Snow was good on southerly and easterly aspects, crust-o-rama everywhere else. Day turned out pretty nice, despite the terrible start.

last I heard, the Idiot Headwall over on the North side of Hoad was worth exploring

our route (NEB Couloir on Colchuck) hey I know that route! incidentally, it was a year ago this week that we crawled up that thing! cheers, alex

Incidentatlly 09:02 alt 8295 arrive at knob on wht river cross into wht river glacier valley; harnessed and roped from here to summit; 10:00 (alt 8500?) exit wht river glacier valley, approx 1 hour after entering. If you cross White River that far down, you are really hurting yourself! If you cross White River at the very base of Steel Cliff at 9400, there is a beautiful easy snow ramp all the way across with no crevasse problems. It basically took us 10 min to get from the W edge of the White River to the base of Steel cliff, with no rope and no worries.

The upper route is the same as normal wyeast and is certianly the crux afa exposure and overall steepness. Going through the lower Steel Cliff is max 35 or 40

Nice TR. Next time check out the line through Steel Cliff, its way cool!

When do you plan on going? Do you want to climb this week, or just in general? While everyone here is telling you "lillooet" "banff" or "hyalite", the closest water ice is in Washington State, in general. This is not a normal year, however, so it is not reliable like ice further north and inland, but that just means you will have to work hard for it. Still, I climbed 5 pitches of water ice here in Washington last Saturday. An ice climbing guide to Washington State is being published in September 2003. Though we don't guarantee a long or perfect season, we do guarantee a drive shorter than 10-15 hours from PDX. Cheers, Alex

awesome, the rockies rock

36 degrees at 3500 ft. Prime conditions for a go at Big Four, if you ask me.

hey, thats catchy! think it'll sell more than 100 units?

what are they gonna come out with next? a device that lets you breathe and not suffocate if you get buried by an avalanche or something? necessity is the mother of invention, and I NEED to be badass

Late May will already be fairly hot in southern UT. I would suggest going a littler earlier if you can, but a combination of the following in no particular order * bring good mnt bikes, bike slickrock (Porcupine Rim, Poison Spider Mesa) then go into the LaSal Mnts S of Moab and bike there two. Awesome singletrack in LaSals. * bike the White Rim (2 days) with light packs/panniers * Climb Castleton Tower, which you saw when you dropped the bitchin' Porcupine Rim singletrack. Badass. * Climb one day outside Moab on Potash Road so you can really appreciate... * climbing in Indian Creek. 2 days ought to make you realize how weak of a climber you really are. * Now that you are in shape but humbled, and on about day 5 or 6, it's down to Zion for SpaceShot et al.

yes, thats normal if you mean that a rescue attempt/search waits for a semi-decent weather window. Can't and Won't, semantics. The Mt Rainier NP rangers know whats up and will do their best. Cheers, Alex

REI was recently selling BD stinger picks for 7$ a pop. I got several years worth Alex

Dave wrote up a TR. To me the interesting thing isnt really the new routes, but the fact that the ice was so good in this area despite the recent weather. http://students.washington.edu/dbb/ice/ice_climbing3/ice_climbing3.htm

Yeah Slot is a fun recon! This taken a few weeks ago.

Explored and climbed Sat (in light rain/snow). The area we went to (base elevation ~4000) was totally in, although from a distance it looked terrible. Close up the ice was not only solid, but fun, plastic, excellent time. Really made us reevaluate what conditions need to be like to get good ice climbing in even at lower elevations on the West side of the crest. I would suggest that anyone who is still interested in getting in some local ice this year not be dissuaded by the recent weather and get out somewhere above 4500 ft. Banks Lake wont be in, but seems like there will be good ice in the alpine mountain areas like Strobach or Lake Julius etc for a few weeks still. Freezing levels are down to 2500 this week.

fwiw, I think the rock in the northern pickets is junk, you probably made a good choice. if you go in again, go in via Whatcom Pass in earlier season when there is still snow at 5000. Casual sidehilling around Whatcom to Perfect Pass.