Ade

A guy a knew back in England Norman Croucher climbed Cho Oyu. He lost both his legs below the knee when he was 18. His book is well worth a read. He actually started climbing after his accident. He's very funny when you get to talk to him too... Tells this hilarious story about being in a hut in the French Alps where you had to take your boots off at the door. Of course his had frozen onto his artificial feet. So he was sitting in the doorway of this hut grunting and muttering to himself while trying to lever his boots off using his ice axe! Of course everyone else coming into the hut was just staring at him. I also met another guy who'd lost his leg below the knee in a climbing accident and still climbed at least 10a/b. So... it is possible. Both these guys climb a lot harder than many people I know, myself included. Norman personally kicked my arse on the approach to a hut in Ecuador year back and then drank us under the table for good measure. Ade

Synchronicity - large section missing low down by Sunday PM. Lots of snow slides including one out onto the Duffy Lake road. Reason enough not to try Loose Lady, Night n Gale etc. Everything else super wet and melting fast; Marble, the Rambles, Carls Berg. Some of the higher lines in Bridge would be OK if there's anything left after the snow has slid off. Could well be it for the year.

Methinks maybe Dan is leading you on there?!

I was at the Ingalls Lake trailhead with my climbing partner. He was just raving on about how nice the spare pair of socks he was taking on the N Ridge of Stuart would be for wearing at the bivvi, changing into for the descent etc... He let me wear them which was jolly nice of him. Doing the whole approach in Tevas or boots without socks would have sucked.

Vertical World or Stone Gardens.

These things are like gold dust. The normal picks are super strong but the nice thing about the Aermets was that they we thinner and didn't blunt easily. Rumour has it BD are working on a replacement. As for bending a normal pick a friend of mine lent his tools to another aquantience who proceeded to climb "funny ice" with them... you know the sort that most people call "granite". The moral of the tail if you swing hard enough you can bend pretty much anything. I saw one of the pick afterwards, had a 25 degree kink in it!

Marmot store in Bellevue has them. They evn had some reduced a few weeks back.

The best what exactly? Unfortunately he may be the only game in town after Kurt's untimely death. Does anyone know if Gulf Air are even offering a service at the moment.

In Mr Simpson's defence none of his partners have ever had serious accidents. He seems pretty safe in that regard. Thinking about how to get down before going up would seem like a top tip though.

Most people don't repeatedly second a route for half or a whole day hacking the shit out of it though do they?

Funny I thought the only people who climbed leashless were the ones doing competitions or trying to get media attention. They also climb with tools so light that they don't swing properly and picks so thin they don't take any abuse, mainly because competition routes have manufactured placements. I've tried climbing (real) ice with a Simond Scud and it's about as much use as a chocolate teapot. On and Europe suddently seems to not include Scotland, where last time I looked leashes were still pretty much in vogue.

Pandome was in last weekend but I didn't think much of the conditions, the line I took had pretty cruddy ice that didn't take screws that well. The whole route was pretty much uncovered so you get your full pitch of climbing. There's a bunch of other drips to the left and right too, they're much shorter but maybe you link some of the together. Dale? [ 01-07-2002: Message edited by: Ade ]

The Rambles in in and in no way "thin". The upper steeper pitches are wet but it's all good. Most of the other routes we looked at don't seem to have improved since New Year, based on Cpt's description, Carlsburg might have even gotten worse, the RHS seemed to have a lot of holes in it. It was raining in Lilloette when we left at dusk on Sunday night.

Worth noting that the classic routes will be the most crowded by far. There's a lot less ice in the Alps than there used to be so many of the classic couloirs aren't in any sort of condition by mid season, a case in point being the Whymper Couloir. Several of the books mentioned, including some of the AC Guides may not take this into account.

The (British) Alpine Club publishes guide to alpine routes for most of the Alps. You can buy them from The BMC online shop (I didn't check to see if they shipped to the US). There's also a bunch of English guides to European crags, but I'm not sure who does them, Chessler books might know. Ade

Geez...

If you're really considering taking that many wands you might want to consider a GPS. I'm not a big fan of gizmos in the mountains but a GPS can save you carrying a lot of wands. That way you only have to wand the really tricky bits and use the GPS to get between the wanded sections. Ade

From BC Ice Conditions Page: "Early season climbing in Marble Canyon - The reports below indicate lots of icicles, which lay down the foundation for the rest of the year,. If these get bashed off, then the ice will never get a chance to form. The ice is still not forming well and could use a few weeks to thicken and freeze before being bashed to pieces. Something to keep in mind..." Probably worth thinking about before we all dash out and spend the morning TRing the bottom of some classic to death in the pouring rain when it's not even "in" anyway. TR if you must but remember... it trashes the ice and rots the soul. Far better to go lead something easier instead. Ade

Just a reminder from the Ice Conditions Board moderators... The idea of this board is to make it really useful for those looking for good info on ice conditions in the Pacific Northwest (and elsewhere). To this end we'd like to keep spray to a minimim. If you want to post off-topic then please do it on the appropriate part of the site, like the Spray board, or on one of the other boards. We're going to start removing spray and other content-free posts/threads to make the board easier to use. So don't say we didn't tell you! Thanks, have fun when conditions finally get good. Ade

Managed to squeeze a day in at Pitchoff in the Adirondacks, NY. Super thin conditions (crap stubbies & rock gear) on the very few routes that were in. Most areas have nothing and it's due to get warm here again. Just letting you know that it's not like everyone else is having a great time and it just sucks in the NW. Time to come home early! Ade

I just acquired a Das Parka and took it out today... very nice touches. Waterproof stuff sack with attachment point on the bottom so water can't drip in Mesh pockets inside for gloves{*]Small pocket outside for other shit Big hood to go over helmet A bit more than your $250 limit but good doesn't come cheap.

Clipping into your tools as part of the belay isn't exactly recommended anyway. If you're going to do it then it should always be as a backup to the main belay. They shouldn't be weighted as part of the belay. Clip into the heads of your tools not the spikes. The spikes are only really designed to hold the weight of the tool or maybe body weight. Ade

The Alpine Club in Britain does English language guides to most of the western Alps. There web site is at http://www.alpine-club.org.uk/. You can order them by phone. Chessler Books may also have them. Ade

Mountain Review #7 (March/April 94) had an article on how to make a BOMB (Bloody Outragious Mountain Burner). Pretty straight forward by the looks of it.

R&I #109 (June/July 2001) has a training article by Vadim Vinokur. It's a pullup training program. Worth taking a look at for sure... Basically: Work out what your max number of pullups is, fingers and thumbs over bar, hands shoulder width apart. Do reps of 80% max (number of pullups) with two minute rests in between. When you can do four sets drop back to two sets and increase reps. Do pyramids to 50% max, resting for 1 minute between each rep. Do reps of lockoffs holding for 5s at 45 and 90 degrees and full up. Another variation, popular with some of my friends is doing four pullups a minute for as long as possible. You just keep trying to get four done in a minute. Enjoy. Ade