Alpine_Tom

Anyone have any experience with Eureka tents? Specifically the Eureka Alpenlite 2XT? It's pretty light, and quite inexpensive (two plusses) and what little feedback I can find on the wwweb is fairly positive. This is a tent I'd probably use less than a half dozen nights a year, so I'm resisting spending $600 on a Bibler. I want something fairly lightweight and that can hold up to some wind.

quote: Originally posted by Thinker: surfing a bit here at work....interesting report. Can't believe I beat Trask to it, though he'd have probably just snipped the photos and posted them. Human Waste in the Alpine Environment I just added another occupation to the List of Jobs I'd Never Do, No Matter What they Pay: "Fecal Smear Research Investigator" "The purpose of this study was to place six fecal specimens each approximately equivalent to one daily bowel movement, on various snow surface gradients on the Muir Snowfield and then periodically take samples of snow from around and beneath the specimens. Additionally, follwing various lengths of exposure time, samples of feces were obtained from the surface of some specimens and from internal spaces within other specimens at various times between June and September 1999."

quote: Originally posted by Greg W: quote:Originally posted by sk: jim walker got his ass kicked by a kid named slim My point still stands: PP, Dwayner, nor Big Lou are as bad as Jim Walker. Or Slim for that matter. Greg W And let's not forget Alley Oop, who's: A mean motor scooter AND a bad go getter. Also, the hully-gully king of swing. Top that, Big Lou!

quote: Originally posted by Alex: (The register on Red is indeed gone.) The register in Chair Peak is gone as well, as of last September. It was a bit surprising to me, because Bryant Peak, the little nub just south of Chair, has one, or at least it did a few years ago. The mighty summit of Tinkham peak still has a register, however.

Personally, I'd bet they're souvenir hunters, people who think it's cool to have something like that, because they dragged their butts up Red Mountain one day. It could be they just assume the Mounties (or the feds or whoever they think up them up there in the first place) will put another one up there next week, so what's the big deal?

quote: Originally posted by payaso: There was a post on here a while back about the removal of the registers. Anyone know anything about this? I've noticed some are conspicuously missing. ... Is it sponsored removal by the park service or the freddies, or is it some puritan luddite movement to "clean" the summits? here's the thread on that discussion: http://www.cascadeclimbers.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=3;t=000040#000011

quote: Originally posted by MF206er: My neighbor has threatened to call the police over such shootings. I feel it's safe because it's not a real gun and it's contained within my property, but is this legal in the city? Legal advice or humorous responses equally welcome. I've been threatening to take my pellet gun to deal with the squirrrels (and the crows too) around our yard, to the annoyance of my wife. In Shoreline, at least, the ordinance (heh!) specifically outlaws firearms which use gunpowder. So, my air-powered pellet gun would be legal to shoot. (You can't use pellet guns or potato guns to shoot at people, however. That's a misdemeanor.) It may not be legal to kill the little critters, that's another thing. I know crows are protected, though I can't imagine why. Probably squirrels are too. But not rats. The simplest way to avoid strife with the neighbors would be to get some of those bait tunnels and bait 'em with rat poison. That would get the rats, and the squirrels, but keep it out of reach of Fido. Not as much fun, tho.

quote: Originally posted by aws: Any beta on recent conditions on Buckner? We'll be headed that way in a week.aws Did you go? What were the conditions like? I'm looking at a possible outing this weekend.

quote: Originally posted by Bug: A few years ago some folks were trundling boulders somewhere in Glacier or Yellowstone Park, can't remember which. Anyway, they killed a guy. They didn't know he was there. It's a shame "Accidents in NA Mountaineering" isn't available on line. My recollection on that was that it was a snow plow, which regularly plowed snow off the road at this location. Big chunks of snow went trundling down the slope, and folks were coming up on an infrequently climbed route, and were killed. I think.

So, who’s fault is it, really? Is it the fault of the gumby who fell, because he didn’t know anything about self-arrest and had never used crampons? Or is it the fault of his buddy who brought him along and was an experienced climber and thought this route would be a good place to learn? (assuming that’s the scenario.) Or was it one of the folks on the rope below who was pulling, or someone above who stepped on the rope and made gumby loose his balance? Or was there some guide there, yelling at the people descending to hurry up, because his clients wanted to get up? It seems, particularly in light of the constant discussion of “charge the climbers for the rescues” that you want to be pretty careful about assigning blame, particularly criminal charges. Wasn’t there a case about ten or fifteen years ago, about a guy on Rainier who left his buddy in a crevasse, and was charged with manslaughter? Anyone remember, or is this just my fertile imagination?

What exactly does the rescue insurance pay for? Does it reimburse the local SAR guys for their time, expenses, helicopter costs? If you're not getting charged for a rescue anyhow, why buy insurance (or sell insurance) for it? Or is it intended more for other countries where you would get hit for the bill?

I wish I could come up with something more profound than "me, too." He's been such an icon to me, a great climber, a greater photographer, a moving writer. I sort of expected that some day I'd go to a photo seminar of his, or see a slideshow of his, or something. Carpe deum.

Not to change the subject, but I have to agree that the Fisher Chimneys route is about the nicest Cascades route I've been on (aside from the long drive.) No bushwhacking, a short approach, scenic, not crowded, interested varied climbing... it's got it all. BTW, I just learned recently that the basin between Shuksan and Baker is an ex-volcano, called the Nooksack Caldera, that blew up sort of like Mazama/Crater Lake. When you're up there on FC, look at it from that point of view.

I just finished reading Ted Conover's book on being a prison guard at Sing Sing, "Newjack" While certainly it's a long way from a maximum security prison in NY to a minimum security facility in Spokane (which I think is where OP has their stuff made) there are some parallels. I certainly don't think that the prisoners feel exploited, and it's probably more interesting work than the prison laundry. Most of the opposition to prison manufacturing comes from organized Labor. I expect I'm well on the left of most of the posters here, but I certainly see nothing wrong with it, particularly if it keeps the jobs in the country. You can read their side of the story at: http://www.omegapac.com/inmate.html If you're opposed to prison labor, you need to avoid anything manufactured in China, where prison labor has been an integal part of their economic system for decades. [ 08-13-2002, 10:30 AM: Message edited by: Alpine Tom ]

How about masking tape across the front with F BECKEY written on it in marking pen? Then watch those mounties stare at you!

quote: Originally posted by trask: Yep, none of the Biblers are listed for mountaineering. Damn, now what? The product description for the Bibler I-Tent Standard says: "This two-person, single wall, extreme mountain tent is lightweight, super strong, waterproof and easy to set up Ideal in all high-altitude conditions, this tent can be pitched on ledges that are no larger than your sofa! " So SOMEONE at REI thinks it's a mountaineering tent. I wonder whether the web hackers at REI are in the same time zone as the marketing copywriters. Or (it just occurred to me) maybe the customer service guy will claim that it's for use in living rooms, not outdoors! [ 08-07-2002, 03:30 PM: Message edited by: Alpine Tom ]

quote: Originally posted by Dr Flash Amazing: Try either taking it to a different REI store or calling REI's customer service department. A Sierra Designs Tiros should not have the tent poles be snappin'. That is fully bunk. Actually, he took it to the Lynnwood store first, and they said "yeah, it's a warranty job, take it the the downtown store and they'll take care of it." It was at the "Flagship" store that he ran into the hardass. He's checking with Sierra Designs (they have an 800 number for customer service) and I expect they'll be more realistic.

Seems like it's a regular topic here about how egregiously people abuse the REI return policy. Well, they may be changing their policy. Last weekend I went on an overnight climb on Mt. Hood and it was quite windy. (I was with a 12-year-old, and it was his first big mountain, so we were taking it easy.) Well, we got down from the summit to discover that three of the tent poles on our Sierra Designs Tirus tent had been broken from the wind. (This is the same weekend that bad weather socked in Lambone and his harem on Glacier Peak.) The tent came from REI, and it’s marketed as a four-season tent, and Fred, the kid’s father, who’s tent it is, took it to REI for a warranty replacement of the poles. And they said… nope! This isn’t a mountaineering tent, it’s a four-season tent. It’s not intended for mountains. Not under warranty. (It’s about a year old, I think.) The funny thing is, on REI’s website, this tent is sold as a winter/high-altitude tent. Does anyone have any reason why we SHOULDN’T get ugly about having them cover it under warranty? If it was on the upper slopes of Everest or someplace dire like that, I’d have a hard time arguing with them, but this is Mt. Hood, in summer. Sure it was windy, but the weather was moderate enough that Michael, who’s small for his age, was able to summit, so we’re not talking 80mph winds here. The tent was pitched properly, with the pegs in (and rocks on the pegs)

quote: Originally posted by Goat Boy: Where can one find a map of the cave system? Does it change significantly from year to year? I think there's a line drawing of the cave system in "Fire and Ice," a book about the Cascade Volcanoes. Good going, Thinker, that's something I've wanted to do for a long time! Apparently before 1900, most summit climbers spent the night up there just as a matter of course, and eventually took to hauling along waterproof raingear so as not to get drenched by the steam.

quote: Originally posted by Dwayner: That 3 hour time for Rainier seems bogus. (Maybe that's one-way). It's more like 4.5 hours roundtrip. (Craig Van Hoy?) Look in the last edition of the Molenaar Rainier book. That's pretty darn fast. - Dwayner I happened to have Mike G's book with me at work when I read this, and he mentions that Chad Kellogg, a climbing ranger, did it Sept 1, 1998, in 5 hrs, 6 minutes, parking lot-to-parking lot. A few years ago I was leafing through a book that had a bunch of Rainier climb records. The one that sounded most impressive to me was Liberty Ridge, car-to-car, in under 24 hours. (Seems like it was 19 hours?)

I tried this a few years ago, with the first edition of CAG. He lost me with "leave the trail at the clearcut..." There's a book that just came out last fall, called something like "75 Scrambles in Washington" that has a route description for Baring. All the route descriptions in the book include GPS readings, I think. [ 08-07-2002, 11:52 AM: Message edited by: Alpine Tom ]

There are two kinds of lighters out there; the old style flint-type (cheap) and the newer piezoelectric (sp?) that's more expensive and may be the wind-proof one you used. I had the identical experience at Camp Schurman, my brand-new lighter piezoelectric lighter not lighting. Fortunately we had matches too (unfortunately, I left the freezedried food in the car, so all we had was some dried soup and hot chocolate ). The cheap (89-cent) lighters work just fine, in my limited experience.

I've heard KTK is the group to join. Don't know if they have a post in orygun yet, but I understand it's growing fast.

Was up on Sharkfin yesterday, and it looked pretty tough. Both the N. Face ® and N. Couloir (l) routes had gaping bergschrunds below them, and the N. Face route (which we could see better) had several gaping cracks on the way up. You could probably navigate up around to the left, but I certainly wouldn't make any recommendations for next week. There looked to be lots of rockfall on the face as well. I'd been planning on doing Buckner this weekend, so I was pretty interested in looking it over. I don't know about permits; I meant to ask at the ranger station about permits on Sahale Arm but didn't. The Boston Basin trail is shorter, and much more pleasant, I think. We only saw one tent pitched, (but it was a Thursday.) in the "who maintains Boston basin trail" thread, a N. Cascades ranger posted, in part: I'm not sure what all the fuss is about though regarding the permits. For the vast number of excellent climbing days we've had this season, there were Boston Basin permits available. They are available the day of, and one day prior to the start of your trip, first-come, first-serve. After hours in Marblemount, they are available by self-issue outside the station. Saturday nights and some Friday nights are indeed tough if you don't arrive early. [ 08-02-2002, 11:46 AM: Message edited by: Alpine Tom ]

quote: Originally posted by otherguy: I'd like to report that Trask had an accident in his pants. He went number 2. Wasn't that in LAST YEAR'S "Accidents in NA Mountaineering?"