AlpineK

Tree + Chainsaw + Crane

Only to remind me I don't like tele skiing.

Tele skiers do get a good kick and glide. It's a good system for lots of skiing with rolling terrain. From my limited tele experience I've tried to use that style with my AT setup on low angle terrain where you don't want to always lock and unlock. With the AT setup kick and glide works you just have to remember you have very limited torque on the toe piece. You can do easy tele turns, but easy is a very important word to remember while doing that style of skiing.

Start? You're already late. They were selling lift tickets last week. Mt Baker Ski area was packed with the downhill crowd.

Making climate predictions is a little sketchy. I'm sure the statistics are in favor of El Nino, but is it a weak or strong one??? It'll be interesting if it's strong and really hits in January right before the Olympics

Belated Happy Birthday from me too! You deserve a vacation [video:youtube]

At the last Ski In we skied Willow Creek. To exit the route there was a lot of terrain that was tight and rolling. I'd never skied with a Splitboarder, but on this trip jshamster was with us on a split. Maybe he wasn't quite a speedy as us skiers, but he didn't cause us to get pissed of sitting and waiting. I believe he said his bindings weren't up to too much kick and glide, but he had a system that worked.

I've the station at Rainy Pass. It's in the trees just above the parking area, so it gets some protection from wind events.

Nice video Bob. A mix of ice and climbing at Yam

Coffee helps prevent skin cancer

The US did get out of Vietnam in a hurry. Getting out of Afghanistan will just put us on equal footings with Britain and the USSR.

Ski Acres on Saturday [img:center]http://i330.photobucket.com/albums/l422/drochette/Fall%202009%20OEC/DSC00215.jpg[/img] Last year in December I heard the winter was going to be a neutral year. Later they decided it was a weak La Nina. I guess the answer is who knows. Hope for the best.

Yep the highway is open to other means of transport just not cars or trucks. To say that this year is different is silly. The whole reason the highway gets shut down any year (not just this year) is based on use of the road and state budget. Otherwise there might be a ski area at Big Sandy. You can still cross the Cascades in winter; it just takes longer to get to the Methow. I really like the access to information on the highway conditions available here. Thanks Dan

Paradise today [img:center]http://forecast.weather.gov/images/wtf/sn100.jpg[/img]

There was about 5 inches on the ground at Ski Acres yesterday.

Last year while driving across the boarder we had to go inside for more questioning. While waiting for the guard we checked out the display of things not to bring to Canada. It turns out packaged crocodile meat is illegal to bring, even if it's nicely packaged. [img:center]http://www.phat42.com/gallery/d/20699-2/Image360.jpg[/img]

Fantasy like this [img:center]http://epguides.com/FantasyIsland/cast.jpg[/img] or this [img:center]http://starsmedia.ign.com/stars/image/article/945/945010/ricardo-montalban-20090114030110258.jpg[/img] Ricardo did it all.

I like this web camera better [img:center]http://images.wsdot.wa.gov/us2/Stevens/sumteast.jpg[/img]

I hear REI is moving their flagship store to Renton.

I took the Victoria Clipper once. It's a good way to get to Victoria, if you don't plan to drive all over Vancouver Island that is.

If we're judging Sarah Palin by Miss America standards then she would not win. I agree, she ain't that good looking.

that's part of what's fucked in the new rome - gladiator contests were generally free for the public yeah but u didnt get to have kickass tailgate parties though... In the modern age nobody needs to get free access to sports. The poor just have to walk to a bar with a TV and buy a beer on game day. I bet the rich Romans got better seats.

I think we can all agree that devices that alow you to both float and slide on snow rule. The alternatives of postholing and slowshoing suck. Slowshoes are better than nothing but AT skiers can use either mountaineering boots or AT boots if the main objective is to climb a route. They both have positive and negative factors to consider. If you can both splitboard and climb stuff that requires crampons then you have all kinds of snow travel alternatives open to you. The only difference is that splitboarding is relatively new, so there are more bugs to work out.

I'm pretty sure J Tree will be powder free on Turkey Day. I have froze my ass off over New Years one time, but there wasn't any snow.

No text to 911 right now I believe. It'll change eventually. Last May while skiing near Stuart a woman in our group tweaked her left leg bad enough she could barely walk. We got cell reception from Longs Pass, but not 100 feet below the pass. Line of sight between you and a cell tower is a big deal. The end result was the group worked together and got the woman down to the lower creek. Search and rescue met us with a 1 wheel stretcher for the last few hundred yards. We did most of the rescue, but it was nice to know we could reach the outside world.