AlpineK

Apparently it's a bad choice for use catching tooth fairies

I'd agree with that. The Front Range is an excellent geographic blocking feature. It makes East Coasters and Texans think they're in the mountains by giving them 14ers to hike up. I'm sure they all think they're climbing. The block helps restrict foreigners from getting to the cool places like Cascadia. I remember meeting folks there who didn't know there were mountains in Washington.

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Beyond is better. [img:center]http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2009/01/08/sports/08avalanche2_600.JPG[/img]

Yep, he was a cool guy to meet at Ski In.

I'd vote for Eldo head and shoulders above Boulder Canyon even though BC has granite. Mickey Mouse Wall is a must do, especially when you hike through all the train tunnels. The Flatirons are fun too. The Third Flatiron is a mandatory solo, but move past that quickly. There are a lot of less visited features there, and during the working week the trails there are good for vertical elevation gain hikes.

Lets see CO fun stuff reasonably close to Denver. Eldorado Canyon, Lumpy Ridge, South Platte, Vedauwoo, and RMNP. All of these have some good rock. Please note I said rock not mountaineering. The first few weeks I was there I went out with this fellow near the Petit Grepon to check out what he told me were, "glaciers." In winter there is some ice, but the big thing they love to push is the fantastic snow. Yes they do get some light fluffy stuff, and it is typically drier than PNW snow. The problem is snow base is almost nonexistent. You also get some nonstop thumping winds in Dec/Jan. This builds up big snow slabs, and leads to some really sketchy avy conditions. In winter you'd be 1000 times better off to live in a reasonable drive time from say the Selkirks (Central BC). Oh yeah they have ice in the Canadian Rockies. It's an interesting place, and worthy of an extended vacation but... Have fun, but move back when you can.

Trip: Mount Shuksan - White Salmon Glacier Date: 4/18/2009 Trip Report: A lot of funny stuff, and occasionally some cool stuff starts while hanging out with friends at a bar. I figured that hanging out with backcountry skiers was a good idea given a desire to rip it up on the weekend. Talk eventually turned to the north side of Shuksan. It took me about five tenths of a second to say, "Fuck yeah lets go shred Shuksan this weekend." We briefly discussed routes, but we decided to meet at the Baker Ski Area at 5 AM and figure out routes when we got to the base of the White Salmon Glacier. A traverse through the trees brought us to the point when we actually had to pick a route. Of course early spring snow conditions lead to funky uptracks. I skied with folks going up the White Salmon Glacier. View of Baker from the top of the Fisher Chimneys. Our group ended up being motivated enough to head up Winnies Slide. There was no skiing now. Upward movement required step kicking in waist deep snow. Yeah it's hard work, but it paid off. Here's a view of Hells Highway from our high point. Skiing was pure pow down Winnies Slide. The nice pow continued down the glacier for a ways. Eventually you have to come to terms with the season. The young fresh pow is on the way out, and the adult corn isn't fully formed. That leaves you and the snow in a rough transitional period. Just like human teenage years you get teen powder. It kind of sucks, but it does make you focus on your skiing techniques. Here's a view back at the route. After a lunch break it was time to exit the valley. In the past I've always traversed horizontally out to the ski area. This time we decided to ski down the creek bed a ways to an obvious clear cut. This was a good choice with lots of corn skiing. Looking back. The uptrack back to the area sucked, but with some work we were back at the vehicles. All and all good times. Gear Notes: Snow sliding equipment. Bring lunch. Approach Notes: I'm a big fan of helmets these days. I really liked having a helmet to wear on some of the sections of the approach.

That is a super ski run. Nice pic The Forbidden Tour is worth going back for... next time.

I never go to NWhikers. For some strange reason I decided to click on that link. It sure is dangerous over there. I'm glad I chose to descend quickly. Conditions are bad over there. NWhikers is a: [font:Arial Black]Hazard Zone!![/font] Don't go there without backup to provide thoughtful bullshit, I mean contributions!

I just want everybody to know I know this guy who did a FA on Yellow Jacket Tower. I've known him for a long time. Not that it's any big deal.

Yeah, Thanks

Right on! It's early though

I'd like to hear how that happened. The captain saw the seals and figured now was the time to jump off the boat again? In any case right on!

Hurt yourself? Or are we talking, this wounded knee. Possibly the original one? That was on a December day.

The last highway update sounds good! [img:center]http://www.danbbs.dk/~rep/pictures/animation/skianim.gif[/img]

I'm sort of on a break from climbing. I go to the gym, but that really doesn't count. Real climbing is very rare for me. Among other things I really tweaked one finger a couple years ago. The result is I get frustrated climbing finger cracks that I've done lots of times in the past. I deal with it by focusing on other long time interests. The big one for me is backcountry skiing. I've managed to ski a lot over the past year plus. Right now I'm on 19 consecutive months of skiing in a row, and things look good till August. I'm sure I'll return to more climbing, but I'm ok without it right now.

[img:center]http://xx-xy.org/seagull.jpg[/img] The Helmet, rope, and harness will not stop us! We will rid our crag of this filth!

It doesn't take a large fall at all to really mess you up, or worse.

Cute Dog Ninjas

Nevada likes whores so much the state is going to collect a tax on fucking.

(Good sliding layer + snow)+ big fucking machine = Bad + Really bad.

I try to carry skin wax with me. It's the rub in variety of wax. That helps a lot, but there are times when you still end up with problems. I've never tried any of the spray on wax.