Alpine_Tom

A number of years ago, I hiked up to Camp Shurman with some friends. There were four of us: myself and my friend Fred, who had glacier experience, and a guy from Fred’s work and the guy’s wife or girlfriend (I forget which) who had no experience. We roped up hiking over the Interglacier, despite the dozens of other folks we saw not roped up. Lunch at Camp Shurman, then headed down, and decided not to rope up, because travelling roped with inexperienced people is frustrating, and anyhow, it’s a “dead” glacier, right? We were nearly across the glacier, a hundred feet from rock when, right ahead of me, Fred punched through into a crevasse, his rope securely stowed in his pack. He instinctively caught himself by his elbows, and his feet were dangling, he said later, over what looked like a very deep hole. I was just a few feet behind him; I plopped down on my butt with my feet in front of me to brace myself, and reached my ice axe out to him. He grabbed it and I pulled him out, the other guy (I don’t remember his name) pulling on my back. It wasn’t wasn't until the adrenaline rush subsided that I grasped just how horrible that could have been. We had no rope: it was in his pack. There weren’t very many others around by that time, as I recall there were only a few folks off in the distance. Overall, a cheap lesson not to screw around with glacier safety.

Hey, Juan! Long time no see. I can't do Rainier in a day these days, what about Baker? I'm available Sunday or Monday.

check your messages.

I haven't been climbing much the last couple of years, for good reasons and bad, but the idea of missing another summer of climbing is starting to severely depress me. I'm looking for a partner for Mt Baker, the Coleman Glacier route, or Park Glacier if it's still in. I could be persuaded to do the N. Face of Mt. Buckner, since it is apparently feasible. my cv: http://home.comcast.net/~tbreit/climbs.htm

A co-worker came to me this morning with a surprising story. She lives on Queen Anne, and there's been this bundle of 'stuff' she assumed was climbing gear sitting in the bushes on her way to work, which has been there for several days. So she gathered it all up, because it's supposed to rain, and brought it in to work to ask me what it was. There's a full rack of well-used nuts, several cams, a bunch of new-looking slings, a wide variety of old and new caribiners, nut tool, etc. My immediate thought was that it had been stolen, although why it would have gotten dumped in the bushes is less obvious. If anyone has a lead, or knows of someone who has had a similar loss, let me know, at tbreit99-at-yahoo.com. Many of the pieces have similar tape markings.

What was the snow conditions on the descent like? Did you need/ want crampons or ice ax?

I did it mid-September nine years ago, up the Clear Creek route. It's a long scree slog. http://home.comcast.net/~tbreit/shasta.htm

That's a fun solo climb, I've done it a couple of times. But I bring a rope because I'm a coward about downclimbing and I'd rather rappel.

I think it had Jim Wickwire in it? I remember getting it from the Seattle Public Library on VHS years ago. My recollection is that it was filmed the year before Wickwire's successful K2 ascent. I don't know if that's enough to find it in the SPL collection if it's even available anymore?

God help me, but I'm starting to wonder whether going back and trying the SW face route would be worthwhile!

The article said he called on a cell phone - I wonder what cellular provider he had? Last couple times I was up there, my AT&T phone had no signal whatsover (but great reception on top of Dragontail!)

The difference between 'security' and 'false security' can be pretty hazy. Seems like it would depend on the precise conditions -- if you're ascending exposed ice, then ice screws might actually help; if it's marginally hard snow then a picket might help but might not, but you wouldn't know until it was too late. Is it better for one to fall and two to be able to rescue them, or risk one fall taking all three down? If the lead climber slipped, there isn't a cascade hardman out there who could hold him after he'd fallen 150' or so of 45-degress slope, picking up speed. Then, God help the third! If the guy in the rear slipped and fell, and there was a few feet of slack, he would likely yank the middle guy off his feet before HE could have a chance to get an arrest position... My personal feeling is, if there's no crevasse hazard, you're safer not being roped.

I'm just coming back from about six months of wretched neck pain, which all started with a minor crick in the neck, back around Christmas. (I guess I'm lucky that up to now never really understood what the phrase "chronic pain" meant.) YMMV, of course; I tried massage, naturopathic massage+manipulation, huge doses of Advil, and accupuncture, but it was the cortisone shot in the neck after a diagnostic MRI that finally put it right for me. At the risk of trashing an entire profession, I wouldn't trust my spine to a chiropractor.

I was on Ross Lake with my son's Scout troop last week, and spent a lot of time looking and wondering at Hozomeen. Thanks for the photos. Did you come in through Canada, or take a boat up Ross Lake?

My untutored view is: an ATC usually isn't subject to sharp shocks while you're belaying, so it's hard to envision it breaking. On the other hand, aluminum fails catastrophically, so you're not going to see a small crack slowly growing larger each time you catch a fall, the way you might if it was steel. Someone posted a while back a report on tests that were done on caribiners that had been found at the base of walls in Yosemite; the upshot was that dropping a biner a few hundred feet isn't likely to weaken it significantly. Of course, as mentioned above, "Isn't your life worth $25?" So, when in doubt, only use it for belaying, not rappelling!