Alex

Speaking of which, can anyone lend some guidance on whether air drops onto a glacier is an acceptable practice inside a wilderness area (but outside NP boundaries)?

newbee, if you are looking to get from slog to technical winter/spring alpine, here are a few routes that would be worthy to try. bear in mind that most times success on these routes is completely conditions dependent, but learning what makes good conditions is part of the learning process Moderate alpine snow and ice routes - all these are day trips -------------------------------------- N Face/NE Buttress of Chair Peak - tried and true Sandy Headwall on Mt Hood - longer day trip with lots of terrain N Buttress Couloir on Cochuck - moderate with plenty of exposure and easy decent N Face of Maude - moderate just about any time of year, with a real alpine feel, easy decent Ice Cliff Glacier - not the scetchfest it used to be, at least on in Spring. more complicated decent N Ridge of Baker - very short section of difficulties. easy decent Attitude is everything. Build your alpine skills and don't get psyched out by any routes "reputation". Go check it out for yourself, and retreat if you get too far outside your comfort zone (all these routes can be retreated from pretty easily before you commit to them). You'll find often that the routes seem better/easier than what you anticipate based on their "reputation".

After almost a whole week! of not getting any climbing in whatsoever, I left work at 6:30 and headed over. Secretly, I was anxiety-ridden, dreading my performance after a week away. I would be relegated to V0-s, my eyes downcast, dejected and rejected. All the little 16-year old-send-bots would laugh at me silently. (Not that they don't already.) People I normally talk to would avoid me and make up excuses to leave the vicinity. The chix would disapprove. I feared that after 20 minutes, my ego would be so utterly whupped that I would slink out of the gym, failing to collect my membership card for fear of being noticed at all. I walked in, and saw a compatriot streaching. But I was eager to climb, so instead of streaching, did the "new" traverse a few times. Yup, I was weak. Worthless and weak, as my boss says all the time. Pumped already, the session might as well be over. Contemplating the already-anticipated early exit from gym, I decided to try one problem that I had flailed and failed on repeatedly the last time I was in, the pink V2 under the roof. It starts with 2 campus moves. I got on it, and without thinking, flowed through the moves without much perceived effort and .. conquered the covetted problem! Fluke, thought I. However, with a success under my belt it was hardly appropriate to leave now; people were undoubtedly watching, I had to perform for both my many admirers and enemies. So, emboldend by the sweet stench of success, I jumped on a new V4 I had never tried before. I fucked up the sequence, but stuck on and with it, retreated, figured it out on the wall, stayed in balance, and finally was looking at the last dyno. In the background I kept hearing .. "yeah man! c'mon! it's a jug! yeah thats it! now send!" On the final shake-out-hold I took a quick peek over my shoulder to see what the ruckus was all about, expecting legions of teeny-boppers cheering <resident hardman and routesetter> whilst on some some sick sloper. No, it was one of those 16-year-old send-bots, and he was looking right at me!! Under pressure to succeed now, I failed miserably and missed the dyno, trying only half-heartedly. It looked arm-wrenching anyway, yeah, arm-wrenching! At this point the usual suspects filtered in, and the chix multiplied. The next 2 hours a blur, but around 8:45 I was finally out of gas, and tired too. My mission accomplished, my peers throuroughly impressed, it was time to head home and eat 800 calories of tasteless protein.

It must be a new feature the moderators decided to introduce, to reduce the Spray on the site...? But seriously, I think this latest UBB upgrade wasnt actually worth the trouble.

thats a lot of driving for a day of skiing!

sucks dude, get well!

griz, while your opinion on this situation is what's valid for you, you're not a spokesperson for anyone else. Motivation is a difficult thing, but I (for example) plan on taking some friends up old RainDog this year, and they will have no experience whatsoever. Are they paying me? Nope. They are people I sail my boat with, and who have expressed a stong desire to climb Rainier. I won't make climbers out of them, but I can help them achieve their goals using my own skills and experience. Am I a GUIDE? No. Can you say I or they don't belong up there? No. On that note, there's very little difference between me taking my friends up the RainDog, and someone like ChrisL and partner hitching along as a semi-autonomous party if we are up some slog route (which is what I intend to do). No one is suggesting that ChrisL be shortroped up Ptarmigan! ChrisL, while I personally am not really willing to take on more people for my trip, the suggestions made by Over40 is exactly what I would tell you: Come out here, do a trip up Adams South Side, do other trips like Hood, Baker, Glacier. Practice self arrest and crevasse rescue on each trip. Lower into a real crevasse, and prussik out! Get hip deep into it all. Build the skills. Maybe save Rainier for next year, when you can do it under your own power, with your own experience and judgement. It doesnt take all that much to climb Rainier in good weather, but its the skills you develop during these first critical trips that will help you in the long run. Getting up Adams, Baker, and Hood in one trip will be an awesome time in itself!!!

We got so nonchalant at Smith one summer that we would say "oh, did you want a belay for that?" 3-4 bolts up. talked about the best way to psych out people recent with Brian Burdo, and he said the best way was just to repeat the leaders name as they were tackling the crux..."Brian! Brian! Brian!...." Gamesmanship, a CLASSIC at Pok-O-Moonshine, by the way!

I think someone's just jealous

Next time you can relieve yourself of said torture by driving N to Jasper, and returning direct via Kamloops!

strickland, if they ever make a movie about cc.com, that casting call would be perfect!! "Here's Johnny!"

For good girlfriend routes and stuff to get your feet wet on in the Near Trapps and a bit further down the road: Tipsy Trees (.3) Minty (.3) High Exposure - which lives up to its name!! (.6) Whats that Hans Kraus classic? Horseman? (.5) Do those routes, then re-assess whether you want to get on anything harder!

cbs, in my experience placing an alien as you describe eliminates one of the better holds right there, and is a psychological piece at best. If you fall with a piece there, you are going to head right down into the slot beneath your feet, which to me seems more ankle breaker than a longer swing back below the belay ledge. The pro I ended up using is "none of the above". I place a #2 camalot in a smaller crack above the roof (out of view in this photo), directly above and slightly left of the belay ledge. You have to climb up to it a little off the belay to place it, then climb down again to the ledge and do the traverse.

Jens, Carnival Crack is good value and close to the road so easily added to any wide crack enchainment!

shit, if mvs can pose on it, any 5.3 leader can send

I had an interview yesterday where one of the questions was to write a function in unmanaged C++ that would take an image within another image and flip it horizontally, vertically, or both, given a pointer to memory, height, width and Rectagle parameters. After that, contemplating mirrors makes me

sweet! Wartleys is good!

WWDHD? (What Would Dan - Do?)

Did you take up sailing? This has been know to drastically reduce climbing enjoyment at times. Otherwise, did you meet a SO recently? If so, more important things in life might be on your mind. Otherwise, no idea.

welcome back fairweather!

I would vote for Kerry/McCain. McCain might be a republican, but he seems to really try to get shit done, whether it be with Lieberman (who I dislike) or Kerry or others...He seems to be a free enough thinker that he can be non-status quo on traditionally challenging issues for Republicans. NRDC recently did a large spread on him after he became a very vocal advocate for the global warming camp.

i hate to say it, but the american voting public doesnt give a shit they are more interested in Janet's tit, Britney's virginity, and the start of baseball season than something half a world away that is virtually invisible....in other words the lack of huge numbers of american casualties have eased the nerves of Joe Q Public, and he can return to his regularly scheduled programming. the US military learned in Vietnam that anything can be pulled off as long as the body bags are kept at a minumum...no matter the cost to the taxpayer, or what reasons are given for an oil agenda

omfg ! i knew they were lying day one, sorry if you were duped and are just now realizing it! i agree tho that the real pity is that they are all still trying to assert their rightousness and that "WMD will be found!" blah blah.

klenk-ster is smitten