pete_a

Savaiusini, Just curious, did you use the TLT4 boot when you went to Denali or the Dynafit All-Terrain boot? I just picked up a pair of TLT4's with thermoflex liners for dirt cheap and thats what I'm planning on using as my boot when I go to Denali next year. Just trying to decide whether to throw my Koflach boot shells in my sled and ditch the Dynafit shells at 14k camp or just use the TLT4's the whole way up. Thanks! I'm probably going to use a short mid-fat, like a 178cm Tua Sumo...figure that will be a good match with this boot.

For some reason I thought that the 555 was only compatible with AT boots, not climbing boots....maybe I'm wrong though. Seemed like for a long time the only climbing boot compatible AT bindings were the ones with the wire bail on the toe. Anyone know for certain?

Looking like there could be a wee bit of snow coming in on Sunday, but I'm thinking we're all still a couple weeks out from having the usual early season slopes...north side of Baker...muir snowfield...etc, in shape to start getting some actual skiing (instead of the yo-yoing of a tiny 200vf patch of clean corn like I was doing last weekend near baker ski area) hoping for high speed gs turns and freshies by mid-October. [ 09-27-2002, 12:01 PM: Message edited by: pete a ]

Never heard horror stories about those boots blowing apart before. Anyone else had this happen? Philfort, you've got the TLT4's, right? any durability problems with them?

Hey Philfort, I hadn't been able to find the dynafit.at site before, thanks for the link. So would you recommend going with the older dyna binding instead of the tri-step? The only advantage of the newer one is its easier to get in and out of it, right? And yeah, it stinks that the MLT isn't available with a thermo liner right off the shelf...seems like it makes perfect sense to put the two together...bet they bring out that option next season. [ 09-25-2002, 02:26 PM: Message edited by: pete a ]

I'm in the market to buy a rando setup this season too, been doing lots of homework on the issue. Buying the gear mainly to use on Denali next summer where I don't want to use my tele gear...anyways... The pre-release problem with the dynafit tri-step binding that some folks had last season has been fixed, according to a few websites and the life-link rep I spoke with. The older dynafit binding has never had a major problem with prereleasing while skinning. Something to consider is that the lace-up MLT dynafit boot cannot be purchased with a thermoflex liner, while the lightweight TLT4-Pro buckle boot can be bought with a thermoflex. The difference between the MLT and the TLT4 with the thermo liner is only about 2 or 3 ounces per boot and the TLT is going to ski a lot better. The Life-Link rep I spoke with said that Mark Twight tested the MLT boot and didn't like it cause he couldn't lace it tight enough to make it ski all that well, and that Twight actually used the TLT4 with a thermoflex liner on his most recent ski mountaineering trips to Alaska. I know some folks who own the TLT boot and ski it with boards as wide as the Tua Sumo and seem to do just fine. Of course you can always look at the Dynafit all-terrain boot, lighter than the Scarpa Lazer and supposedly better too. Just something to think about. [ 09-25-2002, 01:12 PM: Message edited by: pete a ]

Thanks for the info. We're just going up the West Buttress...like just about everyone else...I figure my first trip to Alaska will be exciting enough without taking on something tougher than the West Butt. If we are lucky and have a successful trip, then I'll start wanting to look at something like the Muldrow glacier or West Rib, or a ski decent of Orient Express.

A group of my friends and I are in the early stages of planning a trip to Denali next summer and are looking at placing a huge sleeping bag and jacket order with Feathered Friends. They offer a 10% discount for orders above $2000 and a 20% discount on orders above $5000 and I just thought I'd throw a message up here to see if theres another expedition in the works that might be interested in consolidating orders to get the 20% discount. Drop me an email at peter_alderson@hotmail.com Thanks!

A group of my friends and I are in the early stages of planning a trip to Denali next summer and are looking at placing a huge sleeping bag and jacket order with Feathered Friends. They offer a 10% discount for orders above $2000 and a 20% discount on orders above $5000 and I just thought I'd throw a message up here to see if theres another expedition in the works that might be interested in consolidating orders to get the 20% discount. Drop me an email at peter_alderson@hotmail.com Thanks!

Congrats guys! very cool trip! if anyone is interested in taking a crack at Olympus is a single push...hopefully under 24 hours...either the weekend of Sept 7-8 or the 21-22...drop me an email, I'd still like to give it a try this season. Swissman- curious what you guys chose for footwear. I imagine you did the approach in running shoes and carried some boots for the glacier, if you had another strategy I'd be curious to know what you did.

Thinking about climbing Little Tahoma as a high glacier traverse from Summerland to Paradise. Seems like most folks climb Tahoma via the Whitman and Fryingpan glaciers I figure this portion of the route will be relatively straighforward, but I am curious if anyone has recently accessed Tahoma via the southeast side by traversing the Cowlitz and Ingraham glaciers below Camp Muir. Wondering how difficult the crevasse navigation might be. Thanks!

I've always wondered if anyone traveling solo on glaciers and has no choice but to cross a sketchy snowbridge ever bothers bringing a shorty 8mm rope, tying it off to an anchor, crossing the bridge tied to the rope with a prussik or ascender, anchoring the rope once across the crevasse and then retrieving the first anchor. Seems overly complicated I guess, but it would be one way of not having to entirely trust a ladder or 'pole' or some sort as your only means of not falling in. IMHO, if travelling solo or unroped, skiing and skinning across a glacier is almost always preferable to just walking, unless the glacier is melted down to bare ice or neve.

Sorry about posting info that ended up not being true...I called three times last week and got the same answer from the park service every time....this isn't the first time I've experienced an information snafu with opening dates at rainier. I was up there on sunday too...hiked in so early that morning that the clouds hadn't arrived yet and could see all most of the mountain from spray park except for the top thousand feet that was in a wicked looking cloud cap. I think I got some great photos of the clouds ripping across the north side of rainier up on ptarmigan ridge and the willis wall. Never saw another skier up there that day, but I was on the trail at 6am...drove up anticipating that I'd be mountain biking the last five miles, but was suprised to find I could drive all the way to the lake. So I was skiing by about 8:30am and on my way out by 2. That wind was crazy though...I tried to hike up Ptarmigan Ridge to get a view of the Russell glacier and was getting knocked down above 8500ft... Great skiing right now, about on par with what it was like up there two years ago this time of year...much better than last year! Lowell, it woulda been great to bump into you! sorry I missed ya in the clouds somewhere. [ 07-31-2002, 01:16 PM: Message edited by: pete a ]

Park service website had been showing an estimated opening date for Mowich Lake Rd to be July 22nd... I called today to ask about the road and the opening date has been pushed back to the end of July/start of August. So if you want to head up there be prepared to walk or bike about five miles to get to the trailhead. Anyways, I just wanted to pass along this info since its not currently on the park website or the road conditions phone recording.

well, I really wish I could write that after many attempts I finally got in a ski descent of the Emmons...but the weather crapped out on us on Sunday morning and we only managed to ski from 12,500ft. A cloud cap descended Sunday morning and by 7am we had pretty bad visibility at times and it was snowing...some friends of mine who were about a 1000 vf above said it was very icey and conditions were getting worse. So we figured we better just turn around and ski what we had already climbed rather than get caught in shit weather. We did run into a guy on randonee gear on the inter glacier who had skied it on Friday, said the snow above the schrund was icey sastrugai but still skiable (think survival skiing style turns though...) but that below the schrund was good, he had sunny weather which softened the slopes below the schrund and climbers reported corn snow conditions too. From what we could see the snow above where we turned around was still nice and smooth...it just needed a couple hours of direct sunlight to soften up. From 12,500ft down the skiing was pretty good, there are a few crevasses close to the bootpack but most of them are small and there are a couple spots where you are directly above the fall line of some pretty big holes, but all things considered skiing down was a hell of a lot of fun, not to mention I think it took us about twenty minutes to return to Schurman. We all skied with either a whippet pole or had an ice axe duct taped to a ski pole just in case, we also had two ropes in our team of three in case the rope carrier fell in a crevasse (the second rope was 35 meters of 7mm static line, the rope we climbed with was 35 meters of 8mm 'ice floss'), and we also all skied with a couple ice screws just in case we fell in something...whether you choose to take those safety precautions is of course totally up to you, but we felt that they made sense. Best of luck if you go, I'm sure it will be in good shape next weekend if the weather is stable and warm. I think I am done for the summer...I've spent several weekends trying to get it and I keep coming up short...maybe its time to move on to other mountains this summer and save a shot at the emmons for next year...or maybe after a day of rest I'll reconsider and I'll be back up there next weekend. [ 07-08-2002, 08:41 AM: Message edited by: pete a ]

I'm leaving tomorrow morning to take a shot at skiing this Emmons this weekend....I'll make sure to post a TR when I get back. I'm expecting to find the glacier still in a great shape, saw it from Steamboat Prow a couple weeks ago and then the 'corridor' looked crevasse free and the rest of the route appeared to avoid any major crevasse crossings... I'm just hoping that the top 1000-2000ft isn't a total sheet of unskiable ice, which I figure it could very well be. [ 07-05-2002, 10:31 AM: Message edited by: pete a ]

check the trip reports from a couple weeks ago. A couple parties (including a group I was in) made it up the west ridge. At the time the NW face still had tons of snow on it, and my party as well as the other we saw descended the west ridge via raps and simul-downclimbing...thats what I'd recommend. Photo from the trip I was on here: http://www.jeffstreet.net/Climbing/2002-06-15%20%20Forbidden%20Peak/tripreport_selected_photos.htm

when I did it about this time of year two summers ago....I hiked the entire approach to Boulder Basin wearing running shoes and carrying my skis and telemark boots. We booted up the Sitkum, brought ice axe, crampons, and one picket+prussiks each, and a 8mm glacier rope. Never bothered roping up though but took the rope up with us..I believe we did wear crampons though, and used a ski pole and axe most of the way. Skied off the summit, and all the way back to the basin. Hope this helps. Feel free to drop me an email if you have any other questions. peter_alderson@hotmail.com

Looking for some info on if the south side of Maude is still skiable right now. Anyone been up there this time of year? Any info would be appreciated. Never been up to the Entiat range area...any other good places to go to get some turns and take in the view? Thanks!

thanks vegetablebelay, guess I'm skiing somewhere else this weekend and Maude will have to wait for another season.

Hey PackOnMyBack, Nice to meet ya! Glad to hear you guys got down without any troubles. Our descent took a little while in the coulior...as our 50 meter ropes didn't quite reach the second rap station and we had to rig an intermediate rappel anchor to reach all the other slings. That probably ate up an hour or so of time on our descent and put us well behind you guys.

Great trip report, thanks for posting it. You guys hiking out Friday night, right? Just curious...three friends of mine and I were hiking in to the trailhead Friday night and passed a team of two around 9:30pm on the road who said they had attemped the West Ridge of Forbidden....wondering if you were them. My group bived at the trailhead, got up at 4am and successfully climbed the West Ridge route in a rather brutal but entirely do-able 17 hour marathon trailhead to trailhead. There was another party of two climbing just ahead of us who also pulled off a successful one-day trip (except they didn't sleep at all...just arrived at the Eldorado parking lot at something like 11pm and went straight on through.) We were lucky that we had this party a couple pitches in front of us to do the problem solving for us as they found a route around the patches of snow still clinging to the steeper sections on the north side of the west ridge. Hell of a climb, incredible weather, no crowds, could be the best trip of the summer for me. I should add that we were fortunate to find the trail on the way out which made for a easy descent back to the road....I'm sorry that you guys had to bushwack all the way down...yuck! [ 06-17-2002, 12:18 PM: Message edited by: pete a ]

Looking at doing a two one-day trips this weekend to ski as much of Dragontail (and Aasgard Pass) and Cashmere Mtn. as possible this weekend. I haven't been up to the Enchantments yet this year and want to get in a trip before 8 mile road shuts down for bridge construction in mid-July. Anyone know how much snow is left up in these areas? Is Aasgard Pass still skiable? Any ideas how much skiable vert. is still possible on Cashmere? Any info would be greatly appreciated! [ 06-11-2002, 11:05 AM: Message edited by: pete a ]

Hi all, My team of four has shrunk to a team of two for an attempt at skiing the Emmons glacier route on Rainier this weekend. Although I never feel comfortable roping up with folks I don't know, I'm looking to see if any other folks who are thinking about taking a shot at skiing from the summit this weekend and would be interested in climbing in seperate rope teams and joining up for the decent. Please feel free to drop me an email if you are thinking of heading for Camp Schurman Saturday and skiing the Emmons on Sunday. Thanks!

hey Heinrich, Thanks for the info. I'm still not sure if I'll give it a go this weekend or not...kinda keeping my fingers crossed that the route will get a little new snow on Thurs and Fri and be in prime condition this weekend...but I try not to get too optimistic when it comes to climbing plans on Rainier.