Nick
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Posts posted by Nick
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SOS snow shovels are the best designed and sturdiest that I have used. The curves in the forged blades make the blades exceptionally strong. All of the several handles and blades are interchangeable AND sold seperately, so you can buy an ultra light full sized blade (or a slightly heavier and cheaper blade that is still very good) and choose between a short one peice handle or a long telescoping handle, or you can buy both types of handle and take whatever seems right on a given trip. This is one of the biggest blades and strongest shovels, but it is still lighter than many other shovels.
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My dad was a newspaper reporter of the old school. I reckognise that it is very difficult to report news with accuracey and grace. On the other hand when some freinds and I had a multi day epic in a storm in the mountains some years back the local paper got almost all of the facts wrong,
and this was especially annoying because one climbers in our group was the daughter of the owner and editor of the newspaper! -
I have found MSR snowshoes to give excellent footing and traction, but they are noisy and some of the super light "trail running" snowshoes by Atlas and others weigh half as much as any of the older models.
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Too much farinaceous booty may result in a carunculated colon.
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ProLab (Fremont), among others, will put any number of your slides on a CD at a fairly high resolution (much better than what you get along with cheap slide processing services; you can make good quality 8 x 10 glossies from these "Kodak" CD'S) for not too much bread. Seright (whatever it's now called) next to Glazer's camera in Denny Regrade will do high resolution drum scans and print you beautiful poster sized blow ups from your slides if you give them enough money.
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I use a lighter Tecnica boot that I like very much (called the Bio Flex "ascend" or some such name; they are classed as a hiking boot but I use them for climbing. They are great but can be a bit cold on long snow slogs like Rainier). The altitude plus seems like a very good boot for a long low volume foot like mine. The Scarpa fits a wider foot. All of the boots mentioned in the posts above are kind of stiff and clunky for long horizontal walks (expect blisters). I am very intrigued by The new boots Vasque has out this year. They are supposed to climb like leather and be as warm as plastic. One model is a single boot, the other is double. They are lighter than plastics and sound promising (if they fit well).
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I wasn't really thinking about stakes per se, I meant to say that I would be leary of tents that cannot stay upright without guy lines, though of course you will guy any tent down with as many stakes, sacks and anvils as you can find. I have had good luck with snow stakes, but I usually use a few more substantial anchors as well whenever I leave a tent set up
in the snow. I am sure that you can make any tent work, but I have had hoop tents flop over on me due to melt out and high winds a few times. -
Here is an idea. What about combining the poles, fly and footprint from a bomber free standing 4 season tent with an ultra light single wall tent (Bibler or whatever). I would sew the fly to the footprint, set it up as the permanent base camp tent with vestibule and plenty of storage space. Set up the small single wall tent inside it as an extra warm bedroom when you are holed up at base camp, and take the 4 pound single wall with you to your high altitude camps. I would be reluctant to use any tent that depends on stakes to remain erect on a stormy peak like Denali.
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The Edelrid fits me best, so I use it, but it is also noticeably lighter than the Ecrin Roc, and the Edelrid has a simpler construction. The Ecrin Roc seems over-complicated to me.
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I like Charlet Moser tubular pickets. I slide mine up into an ice tool tube on the back of my pack and clip the eye-loop into the buckle at the bottom of the ice tool tube. It is easy to reach back and get the picket when needed. Although it is not too hard to replace the picket in the tube while wearing the pack, i is probably easier to clip the picket to the back of your harness for frequent placements.
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Don't cut the hip belt webbing too short. I find that in winter you need the extra length, both to get a good grip on the straps while wearing mittens and to allow for your own extra bundled up girth.
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I use an I-tent with one door and two roof vents. So far I find it to be a great tent. On one occasion in winter I had heavy condensation inside the tent on a windy, below freezing night; we had a light tarp vestibule rigged and kept the door partly open, but had heavy condensation inside the tent. Then someone told me that single wall tents frequently work best with the door(s) zipped closed, the theory being that you need to build up body heat in the tent to drive moisture out through the breathable fabric of the tent walls. The next time I used the tent (with no vestibule) I had to shut the door tight in a thunderstorm (40 mph winds sleet and snow on Rainier). It stormed all night but the tent was bone dry inside, no condensation at all. Maybe the shut-the-door theory has merit, in which case don't bother with extra doors (extra weight).
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I use both the aluminum and steel Stubais. The aluminum with the strap-on bindings (because you can then use the ultra light crampon with very light boots). I use the heel clamp combined with plastic toe strap binding on the steel crampons. These hurt my heels until I learned not to make the safety strap too tight. I like both crampons, but agree with the comment that the buckle on the strap (both bindings) is too flimsy. When mine was bent it stoped working, but it was no problem to put a cuple of half hitches in the strap to keep it from coming loose. If I ever get around to it I'll get some of the straps (used on most other brands) that have the buckles made of two simple steel rings. I like the Stubai crampons a lot. I would say that boots are a much more important variable than crampons!
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I have used a lot of packs and have one strong favorite for most carry over, overnight and multi day climbs (where one has climbing gear as well as bivy gear to carry). This is the GRANITE GEAR ALPINE LIGHT. This pack has all the same features as the ice sack, cold cold world packs etc.(tool tubes, crampon straps, removeable pad, floating top lid, gear loops, etc.) In fact it has every feature described by Twight for the ideal alpine pack (and nothing else); Pete Takeda helped design the Alpine Light). It is also supremely comfortable to carry, weighs only three pounds even and is cheap (second ascent). I have lugged as much as 60 pounds in this pack and it is a dream to carry. For some inexplicable reason the skinny unpadded hip belt is more comfortable than any of my padded ones!?!! The only thing it lacks is dedicated ski straps, but the compression straps serve.
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The Dynafit bindings are great. Mark your boots with a sharpy to show were the prongs go. The Scarpa laser boots are excellent, much better than a soft pair of Dynafit boots I used to use. I ski on light skiis because I spend most of my time going uphill in the backcountry, but if you want skiis that turn well for agressive skiing in the crud a lot of people think the K2 Shuksans are best.
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Check out Mariner Kayaks (only on Westlake in Seattle). They also have a good website. If you are big you probably want the Mariner Max. This is both stable and very maneuverable. It is a great boat. Like all Mariners it doesn't need a rudder and so is particularly good for river use. The coaster or the Express are also great choices.
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Last year in June we drove up in the afternoon, left the car at 6 pm, bivied at 9 pm, got up at 5 am or so, went to the summit (knife edge of fresh soft untracked powder on the arette) and got back to the car at 6 pm. That makes a 24 hour round trip, subtract about 10 hours bivy time for a 14 hour round trip climbing time. That shouldn't be too hard in a day, but the way we did it we got to do the high route earlier in the day for better conditions. This year I happened to be coming down off Sahale on a day I knew my freinds were due back from Eldorado. It was kind of late and their cars were still in the Eldorado Creek parking spot so I went to look, and sure enough, the hot weather had turned the Cascade river into a raging torent. My freinds were trapped on the other side. We rigged a tyrolean traverse and brought everyone across. On a really hot day even the side creeks can be tough to cross late in the day when the melt is in full flood. If you think you might be trapped this way, it might be worth leaving an old rope in place to get back across on your return.
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We were first up the DC on Monday, 7/8/02). The fresh powder wasn't a problem. It stayed cold (our drinking tubes all froze) and windy all the way to the Columbia Crest (8:30 am). Aluminum crampons worked great (including some excursions off the cow path). People without anti-balling plates had extensive balling as the snow warmed on the descent. My anti-balling duct tape worked OK, but I had some snow balling, people with anti-balling plates hade none. Fabulous day. I am not sure how useful this information is as every day is differrent!
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I have used three Osprey packs and they were all extraordinarily comfortable load carriers. Osprey seems to be particularly good at building packs that keep weight close to your body and that ballance well. I still use an Osprey Zealot whenever I need to carry a load. It is a great pack and I am still mad that they stopped making it. The aether 60 is probably the closest thing to the Zealot that they make now (though the aether 60 is smaller). I am disapointed with the apearance of the new Osprey packs, and the larger sizes are too heavy, but if they are as comfortable and versatile as the older models then I'd get one. I would agree that the Ospreys are typically a bit over built for lighter loads, but I just take the internal frame parts out of mine and it turns into a basic alpine rucksack much like the arcteryx. The internal frame makes it great for long volcanoe aproaches with a heavy load, and then you just strip the pack down and cinch it tight for summit day/steeper climbing.
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I frequently carry 30 to 40 pounds in frameless packs on approaches to climbs and on ski mountaineering overnights. I have used frameless Granite Gear rucksacks with 35 pounds, an Osprey Zealot with the frame and padding removed with 45 pounds, and a Granite Gear alpine light which has no frame and an unpadded webbing hip belt for loads up to 40 pounds. All these frameless packs were comfortable to carry with these loads because I pack them in such a way that the weight is close to my back, and when the side compression straps are very tight the whole pack stiffens into a fairly rigid chunk which carries much the same as a framed pack. I find that the tailoring of a pack, and the use of well designed compression straps, is more important than frames and padding. I have not used the go-lite packs, but I would choose one of the models that does include compression straps.
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Grivel just came out with a bunch of new and/or updated ice tools. They have two new lightweight alpine/steep ice tools that look great to me (see Grivel web site or Pro Mountain Sports in June). These new tools have a Fly-like shaft shape, take the standard line of Grivel picks (which are excellent hot forged picks) and have a really nice looking pared down head design (fully modular, e.g. hammer/adze and pick are both changeable). Grivel handles are skinny and easy to grip. The lightest of the new tools is reported to weigh only 18.3 ounces at 53 cm and with the standard steep ice pick. These tools come with a new and improved leash. The ultra light version ("light wing") has the same sort of open-ended aluminum alloy "spike" as the air-tech racing axe. The light wing looks like the ultimate alpine steep snow/mixed/glacier ice tool. There is also a rubber handled version with a steel pick that weighs 23 ounces. This looks like a great alpine tool for climbs where you'll run into more water ice.
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Tool tubes are handy, I like them, but just about every other characteristic of a pack is more important to consider.
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Second Ascent has MSR tents.
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I like the Granite Gear Arete. Cheap. Comfortable with a reasonable load (35# or so). 2500 cubic inches, two loops, 1 daisy chain, quick release compression straps connect to a back flap for a shovel or whatever, wand pockets, good sized top pocket, lightly padded waist belt doesn't get in the way, and it only weighs a bit over 2 pounds. You will want a bigger pack for overnight trips. For some reason the small Granite gear packs seem to carry loads better, and less obtrusively, than a lot of flashier packs that I have tried.
Climbing Related diversion
in Climber's Board
Posted
Condensed Version:
OK Oval but
spray about
chestbeat gonna climb on the Border
talk about Gear
Do you shaft Friends
bag harness ethics.
is it OK if you helicopter gossip
which hand to use for butt scraping
Guides .
10) what is a better crack
mix personally i use
it would be possible to traverse all 3 index peaks in a day, spraying the route you climbed.