dbconlin

The feathered friends Hummingbird is lighter than the Marmot for about the same price (even if you add a couple of oz of overfill to bring it down to 15F). I have a FF bag and I love it.

sunny and beautiful right now (and yesterday) Still a fair amount of snow in the hills, but climbing S facing rock is definitely a go. Last time I checked road was closed at 8-mile.

Here are some photos I took while we were scoping the North Grove. The first two are looking up at the face from left to right. On the first (left) photo, the possible North Grove route is the gully at the far right and is not really visible from this angle. In the second photo it is all the way to the left, also not visible. We continued traversing to the west (right, looking up the face, as in the photos) and finally got a view of what we thought would be the route: We decided to can the North Grove and go do the North Face instead. On the traverse back below the face, Kurt and Scott (Scottgg), triggered an avalanche which took them for about a 100 foot ride downslope. They both were lucky enough and fought hard enough to stay on top of it, and ended up uninjured to boot. I took some photos of the crown, but they didn't come out (whiteout conditions). The crown was about 1-2 feet deep and 80 feet across. We decided to can the route and headed back over to the NE Buttress, which Kurt and I had both climbed the week before. On the way back, Scott triggered another avalanche and we decided it was a good decision to get the hell off of the north side. Back on the NE side snow conditions were considerably better. We tried a direct variation to the first pitch, which ended up harder than it looked (poor, rotten ice or snow on rock, little pro). The rest of the route was easier than it had been the week before. Here are some photos:

I think rose is very versatile for relatively bright conditions, but able to handle gloom/flat light (I used to live in Colorado). For more consistently flat light conditions, I would go with orange (perhaps better for Washington).

Do you really need boot dryers with thermo liners? Maybe its just me, but I find that very little sweat accumulates in my thermofits, and I recall reading (and its been my experience) that thermo liners do not soak up moisture at all. I would think if you are in a place with electricity, the room temp would be warm enough to dry them overnight.

I would seriously consider towing a sled across the glacier with all of your boots on it. This way your pack does not become too cluttered with boots hanging off here and there. Also, it has the advantage that you can use any standard skiers boot bag if you wish, with no special attachments for your pack.

No, I poached it off of a previous TR!

Climb: Chair Peak-NE Buttress Date of Climb: 3/18/2006 Trip Report: Dan (danielpatricksmith) and I headed up to do Chair Peak on Saturday. There were no fresh tracks on the approach and the area had received a moderate amount of new snow, so we had to break trail. This turned out to be quite a wallow in some places even with snowshoes. As we approached, the weather turned quite foul: At the base of the climb, we debated turning back due to the weather. We waited a while, chatted, and had a snack, and the weather began to clear, so we headed up. The first pitch (up the gully) was delightful: After that, the climbing was okay, the weather returned to foul, and wallowing was endured for much of the route. At the 4th belay, a soloist caught up with us and turned out to be Kurt (wazzumountaineer), so we joined forces for the last couple of pitches and the rappel. The ice step above 4th belay (see route photo) was getting a little thin, but Dan got a couple of screws in and surmounted it with no problem. The descent went smooth and we returned to the Alpental parking area where the sun was out shining in stark contrast to the conditions we had experience en route. Overall, a nice route, that would be even better with less snow, more ice, and more sun. Gear Notes: -flotation for approach -couple of screws, few pitons, small rack of nuts, and some med-small cams Approach Notes: snowy wallow above the lake

If they don't have rust when you buy them, they will after you use them. It is usually superficial and can be removed (if you care) per fenderfours suggestion above.

small cams & nuts can be handy on the bottom 30 ft of hubba hubba right now.

anyone know a local (as in western or central washington) shop that lets you demo ice tools and that carries bd cobras and grivel alp wings?

What would you choose and why? BD Firstlight ID MK1 lite Bibler I-tent

I tried a Pieps DSP in the store and the "found victim" function did not seem to work. In fact, I could not get it to work very well at all. Granted this is in the store, where there are a lot of complicating factors, so I don't know. My girlfriend has the Tracker. Any Avy rescue professional will probably recommend that one, for beginners or experts alike. The world speed record was set with this beacon according to pros at the Colorado Mountain School. I have the Mammut. I love it. It isn't quite as user-friendly as the Tracker initially, but once you learn to use it, I can use it every bit as fast or faster than most people can use the Tracker. I agree most of the user-programmable options are useless, but of course, you can just leave it in the default and never worry about those. Most avy pros I talked to said that the Mammut is the only option they would consider besides the Tracker. Also it is considerably lighter and more compact, if that matters. Hope this helps. David

Hi- I just returned from an overseas trip and am ready to jump back into climbing. I am an experience climber lead moderate trad and sport, WI4/M5. I particularly like to focus on alpine climbing, but will climb all types of routes for "training purposes" - even bouldering. To get an idea of the kind of goals I have, I've been eyeing routes like Chair Peak North Face, Triple Couloirs on Dragontail, Stuart Glacier Couloir, Ptarmigan Ridge on Rainier. (OF course, I would want to start out with mellower routes for a "first date", but these are some of the routes I would like to do as the season progresses.) I recently moved to Washington from Colorado (1 yr ago) but haven't done much climbing since due to injuries last summer. I consider myself recovered, have been doing my physical therapy, and am in good physical condition. Anyway, I haven't hooked up with any steady partners yet and, hence, this ad. I am looking for partners of any experience level, as long as you are physically fit, ambitious, and psyched to go climbing. Also, first aid and avy rescue familiarity/training are a plus. I have all the group gear we would need and am willing to 'show the ropes' to a novice, if necessary. I even have some personal gear to lend. If you are interested in this type of climbing and need a partner let me know. Send me a PM, telling me a little about yourself, and then we can swap numbers. Thanks, Dave

Has anyone climbed the NE Butt route and stayed on the ridge for the upper half (instead of veering left onto the face)? If so, how is/was it?

beal joker 9.1 x 60 or mammut revelation 9.2 x 60

buy the red and pink tricams and some slcds (aliens or camalots are what I prefer)

BD Sabertooths could climb anything. They are available in step-in and hybrid designs and are in my opinion the most versatile crampon out there.

Yeah, I wonder how it compares with the new Petzl MyoXP, a single high-watt LED. This headlamp looks sweet, about 1/2 the weight of the Zoom (with batts). It has a "diffuser" you flip up for around camp (broad light), flip it down for nighttime navigation (focused beam) and you can push a button on top which "boosts" the output for momentary routefinding purposes (up to 20 secs, I think). Still, on the specs, it only throws light about half as far as a zoom (but I think that can be subjective and depend on the quality of light). Also, the light won't fade as fast because it is LED.

I demo'ed Bionics and M10s before I purchased crampons. I actually would have prefered the Grivel G14, but they did not fit my boot due to the curl on the toe piece. Between the first two, I hated the Bionics and loved the M10s, which I bought. If I was doing it over again, I would also check out some of the new PetzlCharlet crampons, which do not have replaceable front points, but are lighter. If they fit your boots, I would really really look at the G14s.

Hey thanks for the ideas. I tried "grabbing" my cord with the teeth on an ice screw...didn't work at all! Wish I had had the ingenuity/experience/advice to try the above recommendations on the Kautz last July.

I agree, and that rope would be the Beal Joker (9.1) or the Mammut Revelation (9.2).

yeah, WHY?

I say Yes to: foam mini-pad (perhaps used in conjunction with pack, etc) epic (or other ultra- ultra-lite bivy), maybe down jacket firestarter handwarmers "rasta kit" NO to: stove fuel beer porn (or swimsuit issue or lingerie ads) mp3s

Does anyone have any experience with the Scarpa-made thermo liners for Alpha Ice plastic boots? How warm are they?