Alpine_Tom

Another astute CC.COM poster child redefines bitching as someone points out a 500% fee increase? Going from $200 to $500 isn't a 500% increase, it's a 150% increase. Personally, I don't think the increase is going to fund anything new (like heli flights) just to pad the coffers. Of course, the price of gas has about doubled over the last couple of years, so their costs have gone up...

So, then, what's the point of climbing ANYTHING if you can't convert the grades accurately?

Well, if Marmot or PMS would carry heart-shaped carabiners, we wouldn't *HAVE* to go to REI. Does Vertical World stock them?

Well, I didn't make it to the couloir. I assumed, though, since I was wading in power on the ridge, that it would have been a lot worse in the couloir where there wasn't any sun. Maybe I was wrong. Were you the ones with the skis?

Climb: Cannon Mtn Attempt-North Couloir Date of Climb: 2/19/2006 Trip Report: It was more of a snow hike than a climb, but heck, it was a beautiful day for it! Got to the trailhead (which is now on Icycle Road) around 7:30, and headed out. The approach road is closed, of course, but well packed down from snowmobiles. Got to Stuart Lake trailhead by about 8:30, put on the snowshoes, and started up the fire road past the gate. The road is actually in pretty good shape, aside from some washouts and patches of slide alder. If you decide you want to give this a go, do yourself and others a favor, and bring along a machete! Eventually, after the road switches back and goes through 50 yards of especially heinous slide alder, you leave the road and head up the hill, due south. It was clear that the snow was way too powdery and unconsolidated to try the N. Couloir, unless I wanted to drown in powder snow, so I headed on up the NW ridge. By 1:00, I was at 5500' over 3000' feet from the summit, so I turned back. On the way back down along the fire road, I dropped straight down the hillside, and gained the road somewhere east of the bridge (I found a log to cross over) and headed back down. A beautiful day in the hills, great views of Cashmere and Stuart. Gear Notes: snowshoes, ski poles. Approach Notes: road to Stuart Lake trailhead was closed, but easy walking.

Yeah, where's Muffy when we need her? I think this guy said he brought a couple of beagles along. As much as I enjoy hiking with our westie, I wouldn't carry her in my pack. He must have brought dog food along as well, and a water dish... no wonder his pack was so heavy!

Hey -- maybe that's why Fred didn't get invited to Everest - they thought Beckey was a first name! "Annapurna -- a Woman's Place" talks about the same thing (what, 20 years ago? 30?) with men telling women that they had no business on high mountains, etc. I recall one woman on the expedition saying she'd been on a Denali climb where the guys on the climb said if she wanted to go along to the summit, she had to sleep with each of them.

It's probably not up to the classics -- Cliffhanger or Vertical Limit, but NOVA has a show about climbing on Denali this coming Tuesday (1/17) In an exploration of extreme medical science, NOVA ascends Alaska's Denali -- aka Mt. McKinley -- to try to solve the mystery of high-altitude deaths on one of the most dangerous mountains on Earth. NOVA chronicles daring mountain rescues and emergency medical evacuations as it accompanies an expedition team of researchers and experts employing the latest NASA technology to investigate the potentially lethal diseases that can attack climbers anywhere in the world. My 8-year-old is a total science nerd, so we'll be watching it.

Someone want to educate me on what "rock crawling" is? Does it involve 4x4's? "Professional rock crawling?" There are people who get PAID to drive these oversized Broncos off-road?

I've been interested in Mt. Garibali since I read in Fire and Ice that it formed partly on top of the continental ice sheet. It looks like it'd be a more interesting winter climb, sort of on a par with Hood, but I can't find any trip reports of it. Does no one climb it? Or is it one of those climbs (e.g., Mt. Pilchuck) that you don't bother reporting on?

sh*t -- that's like over eight cubits! Seriously, I'm glad everyone's safe. It's been a brutal year in the mountains around here.

I just got it from KCLS as well. I thought it has a couple of interesting insights, but like most photography books not written by Galen Rowell, fairly basic.

8.)"You're a climber? Boy, I've always wanted to climb Mt. Rainier."

That's wild -- I bought some of those ice screws at the Bend Army surplus store years ago, for $1.00 a piece ("hundreds of uses" the sign said.) I have yet to find a piece of ice they will actually screw into.

I can't imagine it mattering, unless you're trying to get into a magazine. Of course, I still think 5.8 is pretty far out there!

Cool! I've wanted to do that string of peaks for a while now. But I'm an out-of-towner, so I might have to wimp out and do it in two days.

I rapped down the E. gully, and it was so choked with rock that it would have been suicidal to do it without being solo. You couldn't move without knocking down rock. I manged to cut 10' off the end of my rope during the descent. Rap down the NE buttress.

I back the idea as well. As well as a benefit to the local climbing community, it seems like it might be valuable to the family members, folks who may be struggling with their loss, wondering why their loved one died out in the mountains, to see the effect of his or her life on others.

I'd expect some bare ice below the roman wall. It's not terribly steep there, but it can be pretty disconcerting, and it's probably prudent to have ice screws and be prepared to use them on the descent.

Try Gearexpress. http://gearexpress.com/

The trail is called the Heliotrope ridge trail. Take hw 542 (the mount baker highway) From the Glacier Public Service Center, travel east on The Mt. Baker Highway 542 for approximately 1 mile to Glacier Creek Road (Forest Service Road #39). Turn right on F.S. Road #39. Follow F.S. Road #39 for about 8 miles. The parking area and trailhead are located on the left hand side of the road. A toilet is provided at the trailhead.

Would that be a major chord, or a minor chord? Augmented, perhaps?

There are a lot of stairs, and it's otherwise a fairly rough trail, by wheel standards. I'd expect it'd be more work dragging a jogging stroller up there than just sticking the little one in a baby backpack.

Mark Twight talked about it in "Extreme Alpinism" I think, and when I read it, I thought it would be a great idea. Certainly an ice axe shaft is plenty strong for a shovel handle, as long as it could connect securely. Sounds like that's the reason BD discontinued it.

That's pretty alarming. But looking at the diagrams, it's hard to envision getting a biner cross-loaded that way, unless the belayer is completely out to lunch.