Alex

anyone getting tired of decent products being discontinued like, a year or two after they are introduced??

True dat.

Actually, I heard they just went to grad school...

These are the best known/most accessible beginner routes you can do now... The Tooth - still the best after all these years! W Ridge N Twin Sister - very short climb for the very long approach. Better as a solo conditioning thing. S Arete S Early Winters Spire - combine with Liberty Bell! Beckey Route on Liberty Bell - classic first-timer's climb. S Ridge Ingalls - a fine first alpine climb, more climbing than Twin Sister for about the same approach (unless you live in the Ham). I once took a housemate up this route for his first rock climb ever, went fine. W Ridge Prussik - casual climb that wont be crowded Others ------------------- Guye - dont recommend as a first climb, little real climbing other than Improbable Traverse and the like, which would freak a newbie second out! W Ridge Forbidden - a newbie route, but with the couloir questionable I would wait til next June. N Ridge Mixup - another newbie route, but a very exposed approach the final couple hundred feet so it would depend on your bro's head space. W Ridge Thompson - long walk, but well known route. Will be a long dawn-to-dusk day trip this time of year. Lundin - another long walk for short route in the Snoqualmie Pass area. Still, not a bad choice for a quick day trip.

I am spending most of Nov in Banff but do not currently have a partner lined up for the first week I am there.

dox, whats all that brown stuff in that bong??

Just looking at the amount of possible climbing in the pictures makes my heart ache...now where's the gondola!?!

Last I checked Berchtesgaden, where Alex and Thomas grew up, was in Germany.

Canada is the 51st state...

Yes, I saw the two Fisher Creeks. The one drains directly into Grizzly and only runs a mile or two, but comes from Fisher Pass perhaps explaining its naming. The other drains Fisher Basin above Fisher peak...anyway, a whole lot of Fishers there..!

For an experienced computer professional, that figure (7,000 a month) is probably median. But the reality is that for someone to make that kind of money on a sustained basis, they have to want to work

Climb: Fisher Peak-West Ridge Date of Climb: 9/18/2005 Trip Report: Ever since I saw http://www.summitpost.org/mountains/phot...1&route_id= on SummitPost this past Summer, I thought about going into Fisher Basin in the fall. After my trip to Black Peak last week and with a half decent forcast for Sat and Sun, the idea solidified into the plan for the next available weekend. Fisher Basin, from the picture, epitomized what I thought true alpine wilderness might be: treeline tundras reminiscent of the Brooks Range, fall colors, territory that a Grizzly or moose could find appealing. Indeed, the last known Grizzly in the Cascades was shot in Fisher Basin in 1968, a year before the NOCA park came into being. Coupled with the glowing write up of Silent Lakes, it seemed like the place to go! We left Seattle at a civilized 6am and drove up to Easy Pass TH. The clouds socked in everything, but it was not raining, nor would it. This was my first time to this area, and the trail up to Easy Pass is nice, and with the swirling clouds made things very mysterious! Going over Easy Pass and descending into Fisher Basin out of the clouds was like entering into a private world, with the cloud deck obscuring everything above 6000'. We worked our way up the basin, trying to find the steep "snow couloir" that lead to Silent Lakes. I had forgotten the map but it didnt matter, in the end there is really only one breach in the large rock ramparts that could lead to the higher plateu on the Grizzly-Fisher divide, but it had already long been snow free. So much for the crampons. This is a loose rock couloir (hug cliff climbers left) that is thankfully fairly short. Finally, we topped out and encountered the upper Silent Lake, 5 hours from the car. Silent Lakes is clearly not visited often, there were no signs of previous parties except for 1 bootprint and some dogprints. The lake is crystal clear. Things were still socked in, though Black was visible through the wisps of cloud, and a cold wind blew, so we set up the tent and just crashed out for a few hours, before officially going to sleep at 7pm. Silent Lakes lived up to its name, and the night was eerie. No wind, the sky cleared and full moon shone, it was the type of night and the type of place that you could still imagine a Grizzly roaming the North Cascades, looking for the last huckleberry feast before a long winter's sleep. It was very cold, below freezing here at 7000. Despite 3 layers, I eventually got cold enough around 5am to stay awake the last few hours before dawn. The camp site was shaded by Fisher Peak all morning, which made it hard to warm up, and while our plan had just been to have a leisurly camping trip, the adventurous side kicked in and by 7am we were scrambling up the alpine heather benches that form the lower West ridge of Fisher Peak, wearing everything we had, to see if we could scramble this summit. I had also left the route descriptions for Arriva and Fisher at home, so it was more like Beckey in 1940 than anything else. The West Ridge is doubtless now the defacto standard ascent route of Fisher, though one could scarcly tell by the lack of human signs. In general there is no climbers path, there are no cairns, nothing. Every once in a while there were telltale signs of some previous passage, and there is 1 cairn about 3/4 of the way up in a loose rock couloir, but this is a fine, lonely North Cascades scramble. We summitted in an hour, with some minimal 4th class rock difficulties, but didnt stay long. Back at the tent we packed up and descended into Fisher Basin again, the morning cloudbank had finally dissapated and a cold wind was blowing. It was the first time we truely saw the basin, as the previous day it had been mostly in cloud. Moving down the valley, grazing blueberries, made this one of the finest Fall outings I've had in the Cascades, it lived up to the promise of that picture. Nearing treeline again, my wife and I worried a little about how to pick up the trail again, then I saw it.."Its the rock! The rock in the picture!" I recognized the large rock in the picture I had seen, and took my own version. The trip back to Easy Pass went quickly, and we enjoyed another perfect Fall day, eating blueberries and enjoying the many shades of reds, oranges, and yellowish greens in the alpine meadows. The West Ridge of Fisher is not a technical climb, but is an exposed scrambling route to a seldom-visited summit. If you are looking for a two-day trip filled with solitude above treeline, this is a great one into the heart of the North Cascades. Gear Notes: crampons might be useful in earlier season or in heavier snow years

His name is Peter Doorish.

I cut chunks of 2x4, mitre'd them on one side, drilled a 3/8th inch hole in the center, and bolted them to my climbing wall in my garage with 3/8 bolts and washers. Works well. Cheap.

hell ya

Black Peak (see my recent TR) is a good outing. N F Burgundy (see my recent TR) is also good, a bit longer and more technical. Eldorado is a classic late season objective with route options, before the first significant storms make the approach a pain. W Ridge of N Twin sister is the classic Fall midweek after-work ramble. You might look up "Mythic Wall" a new route near Bellingham, that would be a fine fall objective in the Sisters range, as well.

When I look in the mirror, all I see is yella.

Thanks, Please see NWMJ, Issue 2, Summer 2005 for the existing thread.

tape is aid

dont worry about it, the more important thing is boots that fit! I know cause I dont have any right now, and I am suffering because of it, every mountain trip the last 6 weeks in 5.10ies. I will prob make a trip to the gear stores today for yet another round, maybe i can find those Waffle Stompers?

I am really not sure how you would assume that I somehow am judging your decision here: perhaps it is not clear, but when I said my feelings were mixed I was trying to say that maybe I actually agreed with your point of view to some extent. My point, which seems to be lost on you (but not Fig8) is that if you solicit input, and then don't like the input, don't blame the others for their input! This is nothing personal here, just common sense. I can tell you with very much conviction that the sales staff at REI is not trying to just make sales on you, they make minimum wage and no commission, its not like they are making bank off your boot purchase. They were trying to help you make the right decision for whatever your needs are. Clearly your needs were not communicated effectively nor met, and you returned your boots. Why is this a big deal? This happens every day. So stop feeling guilty about returning the boots, you made the right decision for you. Alex

From Alpha to Omega in one model year, what will the next model be called??

I didnt offer mine on your question, but I used to work for REI so my feelings on this question are always very mixed. And I may very well be an idiot, I think the jury is still out

buying the latest and greatest is nice, but I'd like to take a second and plug used gear. there is nothing wrong with Grade 8's, Rambos or Rambo Comps, or even Footfangs. They are all really good technical ice crampons. If you are not climbing fairly hard ice, it will not matter that much what you strap to your feet. So go check out some of the stuff on this site in yard sale, or at Second Ascent, before you plunk down too much cash on new, overpriced, crampons.

If you can't accept other's points of view on this matter, dont ask for others opinions on what to do.