Ade

If that was Trog and co we met them on the way in and out. More wallowing there too.

So Stuart and I were in there today. Half a foot of soft fluff on top of an unconsolidated base. By the time we reached the base of the west face it was postholing when out of the trees. The base just hadn't consolidated enough. Lots of wallowing basically. It was pretty cold lots of ice drips had formed but quite a bit of running water too - more than whe we climbed the face last year. What we could see of the upper pitches of the EDM and Murphy's Law - a long way away at the base. Neither looked like they formed continuous lines, although the very top of the EDM was hidden. Several of the top pitches of ML looked like bare rock. I think we need some more warm cycles and wet snow to fall and then another cold snap to bring things into condition on the west face at least.

The forecast says it's not going to get much above 20 during the day and will be around 10 in Index tonight. You saying that isn't so?

Persis might have something to say about that.

Forgive me. You seem a little confused...

Could enough now but the condition of the crux pitches is anyone's guess. It's supposed to warm up a fair at the weekend. I'd be concerned about getting in a 2000' high couloir with half a foot of new show in it - if you assume that Index got about the same as Stevens on Wednesday night.

6" snow at Stevens and Snoqualmie. On top of the 70" Stevens reported in the past week. Might be better skiing than climbing.

Great man, some amazing climbs and fantastic photos. Shame that so many of the pictures aren't available any more.

Sweet!

Well, that was certainly insightful analysis. Probably writes for Rock and Ice...

You're both on meth.

I think you mean "Get Some, Go Again"

There are no rules. Go out and climb and have fun but for the purposes of recording ascents if it's outside those dates generally, except where otherwise noted (e.g. Scotland), it's an ascent done in winter conditions not a winter ascent.

It's not like soloing, there should be gear between the two climbers. Otherwise you just increased your risk.

Correct - Scotland is the odd one out here.

Simul-climbing increases your risk compared to pitched climbing - as any fall might be a lot worse - but decreases your risk compared to soloing. It's also only slightly slower than soloing - you have to stop to place gear and eventually the leader runs out and you have to regroup and start again. It's a tradeoff - increased chance of injury from a fall on easy ground vs risk from more time spent on the route.

400+ pictures, mainly of the Yukon, BC and the North Cascades. http://www.ademiller.com/climbing/

Why bother? By the time any of this is slated to happen The Rapture will be upon us and the World will have ended but our souls will be in Heaven.

Winter ascents take place between the 21st Dec and 20th March. Outside these dates you can have winter conditions but it's not a winter ascent.

So 11oz of fuel melts 45 pints of water? At room temperature with warm wet snow maybe, in theory. In reality 1.2oz per person isn't nearly enough. Yes. Anything that heats the cylinder improves performance. You don't have to heat it that much just get it to a point where the gas mixture stops separating. There are various things you could try but at the end of the day you want a stove not a science project.

Yes, I added a cozy and heat exchanger to a Pocket Rocket. It definitely improves things but isn't as good as an XGK especially if you're cooking outside and its very cold. I also carry a spare pump sometimes as this is really the only part of the XGK that can actually break. Having said that I've been using XGKs for 15 years and never had one fail completely on me.

Good point about cooking. The above assumes you are not cooking anything. Tea in the morning and a hot freeze dried meal, one Alpine Aire or similar, between two people in the evening with a couple of brews and melting water for two nalgenes each for the next day. So basically you're using the stove to melt 4 pints of water and get another 4-6 pints for hot drinks. I pretty much always use white gas in the cold. I tried a MSR pocket rocket in the cold last winter and even with some modifications it still pretty much sucked.

It's a function of how cold it is. For cold trips I take 1/2 a cup (4foz) per person per day in the hill. For somewhere really cold you might want more. I usually carry a bit more that I need - like an extra day. I'd rather rely on being very good at retreat than carrying additional food/fuel/gear and being slow, if you're going too slowly then bail early.

You just hang out with the wrong crowd. Yawn.

Yawn.