Alpine_Tom

I asked my vet about this, since our now-deceased dog used to love getting out on the glaciers. The vet checked with a doggie ophthalmologist who said that dogs don't get snowblindness the way people do. If they did, wolves, coyotes, etc would have a tough time.

Thursday evening at 9:00 PM on KCTS (the public network) there's a half-hour episode of "remarkable people" on Jim Whittaker and Diane Roberts. I haven't seen it, so I don't know what it'll say, but there isn't much on TV that's at all climbing oriented, and it beats Antique Roadshow!

Or, Netflix has them both.

Exactly! What you need to do is get a climbing gym, like Stone Gardens, to open an new location up north, around Northgate someplace, and you can append your climbing books / coffee / speaking venue to it!

This topic stimulates as much heat as bolt-chopping. Personally, I get a real kick out of reading others' registry entries. The Mountaineers 'maintain' peak registers, and keep filled ones in their library.

Sounds like the kind of guy who'd quote Edmund Burke...

The first climb I ever did was a one-day climb of Baker, the Colman Glacier route. The climb itself wasn't that difficult, but when we got to the summit, it began to dawn on my that we had just as far to go down. I just hadn't thought about the descent, I'd been so focused on the summit. It was quite the, um, learning experience, with regard to mental preparation. By the time we got to the trailhead, I was so tired, it honestly didn't feel any better to sit down. We stopped at a burger place on the way out (I don't think it was Buffalo Run) and I was just too tired to eat!

I don't quite get the logic here. If "you must not fall" then why be roped in at all? I'm no Jim Nelson, but times I've simulclimbed I've found it extremely cumbersome, since you have to keep climbing at very close to the same rate of the other person, who you may well be out of sight of. I can see half a dozen different ways you're more likely to fall or get jerked off your your footing simulclimbing than free climbing. There's no planting an ice axe on a 5.0 rock scramble. Seems to me the thing to do would be to shorten the rope down to 20-30 feet or so if you're going to do it, mostly for the benefit of saving the hassle of unroping. You'd certainly have to be much more in sync with your partner than if you're pitch-climbing.

Indeed. "They had purchased a great deal of equipment at REI before going up to Mount Hood." Bizarre. Coming from Texas, it's not unreasonable that they didn't have adequite cold-weather gear. Or maybe they had to purchase a stove to replace one that the TSA confiscated on their flight? Or they wanted to buy gear in Oregon and save the sales tax? Not everyone has the enlightened contempt of REI that we cc-commers cultivate.

More positive thoughts headed their way. Here's hoping they have the sense to stay battened down and not take off wandering through the storm, and that they end up with nothing more than a great story to tell.

Before I got my asthma properly under control, it was awfully debilitating. Particularly, running in cold weather became almost impossible. My wife suggested running with a scarf around my face. I had all sorts of really sensible reasons why she was wrong, but went ahead and tried it so I could say "I told you so" and was astonished to see how much good it did. My current theory is that it keeps the air coming into your lungs a bit moister. In any case, it's well worth trying. (Actually, I didn't use a scarf, but one of those fleece ear band things.)

I imagine it'd do the same thing to concrete or brick, right? Imagine what it could do to, say, one of those big supports under I-5 along Eastlake. Or, someone's concrete foundation.

Boy, that Betonamit sounds like cool stuff! I hope it's regulated; I could see people having some real inappropriate fun with it.

I'm going snowshoeing this weekend with a friend and his kid. They want something similar to the hike up to Camp Muir, or at least Pan Point, in terms of difficulty and openness (we did Rampart Ridge last winter, and she hated all the slogging through the trees.) Since MRNP is closed, anyone have any good suggestions closer than Artist Point?

Like BirdDog, and dvs, I've got mild asthma of various types, including allergies and exercise-induced asthma. And, like them, it seems the higher I go the better I feel. I've never been higher than Rainier, but I've never had any AMS symptoms up there, either.

Maybe they could take some of the million$$$ they're wasting bulldozing and rebuilding the perfectly good visitor's center and use THAT to fix the roads. Then they wouldn't have to raise the pass costs.

Not to get back on thread, but Wallace Stegner had some very valuable things to say about the continuing need for the existance of wilderness, whether people 'use' it or not, that it's presence is an important component to the American character. Below is a link to the original letter, which was later turned into the essay that I originally read. (God, sometimes the Internet just blows my mind!) http://www.wilderness.org/OurIssues/Wilderness/wildernessletter.cfm

Thank you, Mr. Sandall and Chris. It's easy for us to get all wrapped up in ourselves here, and all analytical, and forget that these were real people, tragically missed. The world has lost a bright candle, and I am very sorry.

My understanding is that climbing ropes tend to loose their stretchiness over time. So, although the rope won't blow on a fall, it's more likely to blow your pro. At least, that's what folks like Duane Raleigh say. So, you could play it safe and buy a few screamers. Or be like me, and climb so cautiously that you never take any serious falls...

John Scurlock is aid.

Truly a giant in the northwest. Maybe even more than Fred Beckey, he deserves to have a mountain named after him -- Fred inspired hundreds of climbers, but Harvey inspired thousands of hikers, and worked like a gadfly to keep trails open and maintained. My favorite book of his is "The North Cascades National Park" which so far as I know is still out of print. I found it at the King County Library. As usual, photos by Bob and Ira Spring, and text by Harvey Manning. Inspiring stories about taking his family on climbs.

Anyone but Dick Cheney* ought to agree with that statement; I certainly do. One of the easiest ways to accomplish this is to drive a car that gets better mileage. So, where have the 40mpg cars gone? I drive a '94 Ford Escort wagon that still gets about 40mph on the highway. It's getting old, though, and I've been looking to replace it. But its replacement from Ford, the Focus wagon, gets (they claim) 30mpg on the freeway. I've looked at the Honda Element, it's smaller but only gets 26mpg. The CRV is about the same, and the Forester... Why the hell can't anyone make a car bigger than a roller skate that gets over 35mpg on the freeway? * And no, I'm not slamming Cheney, I'm paraphrasing him. What he actually said was: "conservation may be a sign of personal virtue, but it is not a sufficient basis for a sound, comprehensive energy policy."

My feeling about it this is: it's pretty obvious that the climate is warming. We may not be able to prove conclusively with double-blind tests that human activity is responsible, but to take the position that we can keep on driving our Hummers to Starbucks with the windows down and the air conditioning on full blast until someone can prove to Rush Limbaugh's satisfaction that human activity is at fault is just recklessly stupid. But mostly, it's shortsighted and selfish, which is really the issue. If it was about making someone else (Palestinians maybe, or South Africans) change what they're doing, we'd be behind it 100%. But if you're asking *ME* to turn down the thermostat or take the stairs instead of the escalator, well, hell, I don't want to, so I'll just say I don't need to. I work in a two-story building, and the stairs are right next to the elevator. I'm regularly surprised at how many people take the elevator, even though it's slower. If Gore was going to distribute his movie free, how would he do it? Movie theaters aren't going to let him use their premises at no charge just because he's not making any money. If it was put it on PBS free, it'd get a 2% share, and the conservatives would complain that it just proves what a liberal bastion PBS is, which arguing that they need to show some Phillip-Morris infomercials for balance. And, imagine the controversy if they tried to show it in public schools! Next thing you know, you'll be wanting to teach evolution!

Fun TR. Thanks for sharing it.

I was out at Levenworth this weekend with the family, and took off Sunday morning to go scrambling around on Mountaineer's Dome. While up there, next to a crack that had a couple pieces of pro stuck in it, I saw a bronze plaque affixed to the rock, in memory of Lori Olson, who was 'set free' May 1992. I assume the Mounties put that there. And naturally, I'm curious if anyone has any information about who Lori Olson was?