dbconlin

red and yellow aliens are the most useful cams EVER. that was before grey, which is betwix the two, so it is probably really useful too (but I don't have one). I have a green which sees occasional use and blue which sees rare use. unless you are doing aid, i say no to blue and black (at least to start).

Nice, lets see the pics!!

Climb: Rainier-Liberty Ridge Date of Climb: 6/25/2006 Trip Report: My first Rainier Summit! (3rd try in last year) scottgg and I climbed Lib Ridge this past weekend with blazing temps and a small herd of other lib-ridgers. Starting from Whit River CG, we hiked/slogged to Thumb rock on Saturday. The lower part of the ridge was a real b**ch due to super soft snow and increasing exhaustion. We leap-frogged the leads with two other parties of two who were approaching around the same time. Thumb rock turned out to be a bit of an encampment, with 7 (seven!) parties of two (fourteen!) people hanging in the sun. So many tents barely fit. Scott and I had brought bivy sacks, so we needed a slightly smaller platform, but it was still a squeeze. Everyone else hung out and had a good time, while I contemplated my increasing nausea and headache and what that would mean for the next 24 hrs. I had been downing as much aqua as possible, but it didn't seem to do the trick, what with the heat and all, and the headache was not going away. The nausea on the other hand came and went. I don't know what to attribute it to. Every time I tried to have a bite to eat, it came back. Sucks to endure that in such a beautiful setting, not being able to enjoy it at all. Around sunset, I went to bed with no dinner and we definitely had our doubts about a summit bid the next day. But retracing our route to White River CG did not sound appealing at all! I awoke about 1:30 am Sunday to the sounds of our nearest tent neighbors (Jens and I guess tanstafl [sp?, hi...]) preparing for the summit push. Scott had set an alarm for 1am, but I guess slept throught it. GOOD NEWS! NAUSEA GONE! HEADACHE GONE! However, I went back to sleep anyway. I woke again at 2am, got Scott up and we prepared to leave. All things considered, I was feeling great. Left Thumb rock at 3am. Thanks to Jens for leading the way up and to whoever has climbed the route recently for kicking all those steps!!! Made our going much easier. We simulclimbed the whole thing, basically, throwing in some screws in the steeper/icier sections. Views are awesome as you are ascending the ridge. After summiting liberty cap, descending to the saddle between it and the main summit, we took the direct line up, departing from the steps that traversed over to the Emmons Glacier. Made the summit at 9:15 am, took some photos, had a rest, and started descending the Emmons Glacier at 10. Back to car at 3. Very tired. Still sore. Some pics: Sunscreen! Approach to St. Elmos Pass Scott checkin out the route Still a ways to go Must...drink....water... Dawn on the world Oh, yeah! the headwall Taking a break,high on the route Still going... Top o' the cap Liberty Cap in the background Obigatory summit shot Signing the register Gear Notes: 3 screws 4 pickets (didn't use) ice axe + tool (each) SUNSCREEN Approach Notes: very long and winding road

but heavier! A friend who works climbing retail had the following experience testing this tent: EV2 had much condensation inside, while a Bibler tent on the same trip/conditions did not

Yeah, they are redesigning the vw tdi to meet california emissions, to be released as a 08 model in fall 07. so you gotta wait. they will have rabbits (the new golf) and jetta sedans and passat sedan/wagons, but no jetta wagon (according to a salesman at University VW). Diesel Subaru would be KILLER, but that would be a much longer wait. If you like SUVs, there is a Jeep Liberty Diesel.

i think awd is overrated too. my girlfriends toyota camry with studs in winter feels much safer than my 4x4 toy p/u. i think a vw jetta wagon tdi (diesel) would be very ideal. lots of cargo space and great gas milage (46 mpg), can run biodiesel. too bad they don't make it anymore and trying to find one used is...hopeless.

I prefer Camalots for some of the reasons already mentioned, especially range and smootheness. However, the tech friends are lighter. I only own one of the latter and it is about the same size as BD #4. I have been very pleased with this purchase because for such a huge cam, the weight savings are very noticable.

Nice job on this--looks like a beautiful route in a stunning setting. One question, though: According to the Beckey book, it looks to me like the Nisqually Cleaver route would go more like this (green line): Did any of the recent parties climb this line? If not, and according to the topos presented, it seems to me that these routes would more properly be considered variations of the Nisqually Ice Cliff. Or am I missing something? Is the Beckey guide misleading?

umm, how does this work? don't you need the ropes for rappelling? wouldn't a double rope rappel be faster than twice as many single rope raps no matter how effeciently you conduct the latter?

I had a brand new pair of REI poles once. They were made by Komperdell. The tip on one pole broke the first time I used it. I returned it to REI and special ordered some BD poles. They have never failed me.

Well, we were planning on pretty much simul-climbing the entire thing, so we didn't think 3 would be too slow. We ended up belaying pitches in a couple of spots along the ridge, which did slow us down a bit, but because this pertained to a very minor portion of the time spent up there, it didn't seem to make much difference in the grand scheme of things. Sounds like the rock ridge portion of the route would be a lot harder in earlier season conditions.

I have large to Xlarge hands .. love it .. I will agree that with a heavily insulated glove on, the clearance between the Horn and grip is a bit tight but not a real problem I agree too. I did some window shopping this past winter, and even with my big hands this is the pair I'm buying in the fall to replace my cobra's. ...and what are you doing with those cobras, we all want to know...

Yes, good advice. I would look at 10.0 - 10.2 for all-round rope.

save 1/4 lb (per tool):

yeah that one

cobra

i'm very happy with my sabretooth anti-botts, much better than those on my m-10s (which of course are not in consideration here...) i do believe at least the vasaks are lighter, but better...??? It may depend on what you want to climb. I think sabretooths are very good at steep ice as well as moderate. I have not tried the others, but my impression is maybe not so good on the steeps.

quark

sabertooth

thanks that seemed to work.

I do not know we these *&^%$$ pictures never work...

Climb: Mount Stuart-Stuart Glacier Couloir Date of Climb: 6/3/2006 Trip Report: Scott and Luke Gullberg and I left the Stuart Lake TH early Sat AM (2:30) under clear, starry skies. After a couple of hours hiking, the sky started to lighten, eventually day broke, and finally we made it to the mountain that was our objective for the day: We took a little rest, filled our water bottles from the last liquid water we expected to encounter, and headed up the snowfields below the Sherpa and Ice Cliff Glaciers, towards the col below the North Ridge. We took another rest and geared up for the Stuart Glacier. The bergshrund was easily passed on the right and we headed up the couloir. The going was easy and we simulclimbed up until the constriction. In the constriction we encountered two pitches of moderately steep and somewhat rotten alpine ice and snow, which we belayed. Above this, the going got easy as we ascended the widening snow bowl. We attained the West ridge, took a break, and put away our tools. 4th class scrambling led up to the right (south) side of the ridge, where we angled left and regrouped. I was not sure whether the route crossed back onto the north side of the ridge, as the guidbook suggests, at this point or if we should climb higher still on the south side. Looking over to the North side the climbing looked more difficult, mixed and exposed. Scott decided it would go, though, and he took the lead and led us through steep rock and snow bands with neither crampons or tools. After one full belayed pitch, he got to a good belay, with good access above straight up to the ridge crest again. We followed and then I took an easy lead on nice rock up. Here is Scott coming up to the ridge crest: Above this we continued along the ridge until we reached a couple of steep cracks, which we recognized from previous route descriptions. The cracks were ackward with packs on and in plastic boots, so Scott had to ditch his pack to lead up through this crux. Luke followed, keeping his pack on (good on ya, bro), and then the two of them hauled mine and Scotts packs pack up before I followed. We then climbed easy rock to the summit. It had been a long day already (left TH at 2:45, attained summit at 2:00) with a lot of time spent on the approach and climbing rock along the ridge (kind of ironic that the routes namesake makes up such a minor portion of the overall route), and we still had to descend. We headed down to the east to the pass above the Sherpa Glacier. Moments before we got there some skiers had left for their descent down the glacier and we never saw them again, but it looked like a lot more fun than the tedious descent we had ahead of us. We downclimbed the steep upper part of the glacier, then trudged the rest of the way down, filling our water bottles from melting glacier along the way, tired, but it was easy going and still a beautiful day out. The rest of the descent back down to the car took about forever, but we finally made it, returning to the car after nearly 18 hours. Overall an excellent day for the route and a very awesome route made all the better by excellent climbing partners who kept going in spite of extreme fatigue... Gear Notes: Few pickets medium rock rack water purification Approach Notes: approach is long and mountaineer creek sucks!

OH, yeah, and something like 40% of Americans cannot afford basic health care. Having a job is not the same thing as having a good life...

aliens rule!

I dropped one of my approach/descent shoes from over 500' up in RMNP once due to it backclipping itself when I sat on a ledge. Watched it sail down, yelled "rock" for lack of anything better (I knew there was a party below), and marked the spot it landed. Had to descend steep scree/talus and some snow with one climbing shoe on, but I hiked back (uphill) to the base of the climb and found my shoe, luckily, because there was a 3-4 mi hike out after that. Never did get my sock, though!