Ade

Perfect weather in the Gunks, NY. Lots of routes... steep...

Dru is just jealous, no surprise there. Krakauer not only climbs better than he does but also writes better too. What's worse is there seems to be a whole load of people out there who want to read what Krakauer has to say and will even pay for it. Dru on the other hand simply inflicts his poor attempts at humour on the rest of us and we have to live with it. Doesn't he have anything better to do with his time, climbing perchance? To answer the original question... which, after all, is what the original poster wanted, not yet more spray. I'd agree that seracing is a great start. But WA is worth giving a miss to for those first forays onto real ice, too fickle and often poorly formed. Drive a lot, fly a lot. All the best destinations have been mentioned. If you're driving 14 hours from OR to the Rockies then I'd say you might as well get on a plane and then the options are completely open. Don't forget NY, VT and NH when your booking flights, some fine ice to be had there too! Later... Ade

There is indeed a guide. I even have a copy. Haven't been there yet, supposed to be like Pe-shite-stin Pinnicles but not as good. I hate to think what that means.

Colchuck Glacier didn't look that inviting on Sunday. No snow cover, crevassed and dirty, implying a fair amount of rockfall. Even early in the day we could hear some pretty large stuff moving on it. It's also not that steep, you'd have to come up with a really contrived line to make it interesting. Alex is right. The Coleman Gl. seracs definitely represent the best ice for least hiking if you want to get on something steep. Liberty Ridge... nice one. You could drytool the 3000' of loose crap from the horribly crevassed Carbon Gl to Thumb Rock.

Well since you asked: MEC Penguin outer bag 3/4 length ultralight Thermarest GTX bivvi bag Waterproof jacket & pants Food & 7 pints of water (bladder + Nalgene) Gloves & hat Marmot dryclime top Wild Things wind shirt Approach shoes & socks Camera & film Headtorch (Petzl Micro) 50m 9mm rope (on the top) Helmet (on the outside) My half of the rack (bigger than Drew's full set of wires, 5-6 cams, 6 slings) This was fine for the 3+ hr approach plus soloing the bottom pitches. No axe or crampons (minimal glacier approach), that would have been tricky. Next time I'll get a foam pad for the back of the pack and ditch the thermarest, making room for crampons. No stove. [This message has been edited by Ade (edited 09-17-2001).]

I have an Eldorado which has been on a few trips. So far most of the damage I've done to it has been pretty much what I'd expect; bent a pole, put a hole in it with a rock. No other unprovoked damage/failures. The door is alkward and in some respects the internal pole system is a pain but for this type of tent I think it's done pretty well. If you want something like the Eldorado your choice is a bit limited. Integral Designs make something similar for a bit less money an Wild Country make the Gemini, which is even smaller but looks like it might hold up better in a storm. I'm not sure I'd buy a single skin tent that was much bigger then the Eldorado though. Mine was bought about the same time as Alex's, maybe they've sufferend from QA problems recently? [This message has been edited by Ade (edited 09-17-2001).]

If you want a _really_ light sack then the Serratus Genie is hard to beat at less than 1lb. There's room for a closed cell back pad should you need one, although it doesn't come with one. Best of all it's very cheap. About $46 Canadian, so you can have four of them for the price of pretty much any other pack mentioned here. I did a two day (took bivi gear) technical alpine route with this no problem. Ade

No, A British guy called Norman Croucher... Out drank us when we got back to Quito too. I'm still clutching at the "he was more acclimatized" straw on that one.

Almost everyone I climb with is older than me... I always look at the bright side... when I get my butt kicked by someone old enough to be my dad I always figure at least I'm not past it. There's still scope for getting better not older. I guess being utterly crushed on a hike upto a hut in South America by someone with nearly twenty years on me and no lower legs (prosthetics and crutches) was a bit disasterous though.

Don't get me started on Maggie Thatcher... "There's no such thing as an innocent bystander" - Refering to people caught in riots, probably some small child who took a plastic bullet in the head. "General Pinochette was a good friend to this country" - Reminding us we shouldn't prosecute him for killing thousands when he helped Britain out over the Falklands War (because it suited him).

Not entirely true... As of 9/Sept there's a 10-15' square snow patch near the bivi ledge at half height and another larger one right on the summit. If you had a stove you could definitely use it. The Bypass/Pocket glacier occupies two sections of the cirque, both are easily bypassable, no need for crampons etc. We missed the turnout from the main road to the Slesse Creek parking spot in failing light. It's on the RHS right before you reach the turn before the orange gate.

And don't park down at the fork in the road near the old buildings. The sign there says Slesse Creek Trailhead 5km (yeah we should have tried harder to find the turnout). The Canadian Govt will tow your car leaving you a rather long hike.

You could try reading "No Logo" by Naomi Klein.

Neutrogena Hand Cream and or Bag Balm (as used by Shuana Twain) seem to do the trick for me.

I just replaced my old Mountain Technology Vertege tools with a set of BD Shrikes with the Alaska picks. I'm reasonably impressed with them so far. True the adze kind of sucks and the point on the top of the picks makes carrying them in the cane position uncomfortable (time to get a grinder to them to solve that one). The reason I went for these over the Axars is because they have an alpine pick and I really like the BD Alaska picks. The other thing worth noting about the Flies is that the pick/adze/hammer is a one piece unit making a spare pick somewhat bulky.

The Marmot Store in Bellevue stocks them but they're fairly hard to come by CCW is a small outfit so don't make huge volumes.

I just bought a CCW Chaos, the bigger brother of the Chernoble. Pretty light and carries well despite having a foam pad, rather than stays, for the back.

Jannu with Cesen is the obvious choice. Popular rumour has it that it wouldn't involve any real climbing. A few "borrowed" photos and you're done.

Megamid - Not really a mountain tent though is it? On balance I think a hanging XGK is a bit much. You'd be better off with a hanging stove, modified for cold weather with a copper heat conductor and insulated fuel can. And as Alex pointed out you wouldn't really need that for most Cascade climbing.

Marko... How does this work with an XGK? The real problem is that it's fuel bottle makes the whole thing lopsided. I thought you might be able to bend the bottle to hang under the stove but suspect that this would be hard to do and effect the fuel flow. Are you doing this with an XGK? Definitely agree on the plywood idea. I take a couple of cork coffee coasters (glued together) to stop my XGK sinking into the snow.

OK. I fess up. I have used an XGK in a Bibler. We didn't hang it we placed in on a large flat rock we placed on the tent floor on a sleeping mat. The tent didn't overheat, we had the door partially open to stop CO buildup. It was pretty damn windy outside (hence cooking in the tent) so ventilation wasn't a problem. In most circumstances I cook in the vestibule of tents with an XGK. Never had any problems with this. Obviously (great) care is advised in both th scenarios. Ade

The only problem with flying in is it's hard for everyone to hear you whining about what "assholes" snowmobilers are over the noise of your helicopter. What ever happened to doing ascents in good style?

Yeah. I'm staying at home too. I need to hone my predicting the future skills so I can help others plan their climbing weekends. When I'm done with my forecast of what routes will be free at Leavenworth at 3pm Saturday I'm going to work on the condition of the bergshrund on the Liberty Ridge fpr 7am Sunday.

I have to say I came across this particular bolt on Saturday... If it wasn't quite so pathetic it would be almost funny. Presumably nobody has admitted to putting it there? I'm sure they'd be easy to spot, probably busy bolting some trailhead parking lot somewhere to make that "safer" too. Nasty things parking lots...

Tuesday morning it was knee deep wet mush by 11am. The trail up to Glacier Basin has seen traffic and is OK though. Ade