dberdinka

Looks like it's going to be an early one. The east side crew has been on a rampage with their snowblower in the last week. Follow progress here. "Day 10 - April 9 - Week 3 By the end of day Tuesday, the east side crew's clearing effort had progressed past Blue Lake Trailhead and Whistler (the last of the significant avalanche zones) to Bridge Creek at MP 159 under overcast skies in 50 degree temperatures by late afternoon. The starter on the second Kodiak snow blower broke, delaying the work a while. The westside crew's clearing progressed to MP 154-about a mile beyond the Swamp Creek sand pile, meaning the crews are now 5 miles apart. New snow and wind is in the forecast for Wednesday which may slow progress a bit."

Here's an interesting bit of climbing history I learned from Michael Stanton. In 1913 Hans Dulfer presumably used the dulfersitz to rap-inspect the 700 meter west face of the Totenkirchl (Death Church) in the Austrian alps prior to his first ascent of the same. A 24-pitch sustained 5.10 originally climbed with a few tension traverses in 7.5 hours! Standards were a bit ah higher in Europe BITD.

Twin Sisters bump! Get psyched for spring adventures. Dang that rock looks good!

Skinning up the north face of Big Four?! Wow! You guys are kind of a big deal!

Nice work. Glad you didn't get creamed by all the junk that falls off that face in the sunlight. Maybe Chris can spin some yarns here about trying to climb that wall BITD.

The latest gopros seem to solve the aiming/review problem by offering wifi and an app that allows you to view the output on your smartphone. Seems like getting the top of the line Gopro version is the way to go so it won't be completed outdated in 6 months to a year. All the reviews generally say it has the best image quality by far.

Lots of peeps from the NW apparently living the dream in Patagonia this season. Good way to kill an hour or two for the rest of us.... http://colinhaley.blogspot.com/ http://jensholsten.blogspot.com/ http://joelandneilsclimbingblog.blogspot.com/

It was an incredibly good book particularly considering it came from such a D-bag!

That video is cool. That music is horrible though!

Nice photos of Kinesawa area. Always wanted to get back in there. Days are short and the shadows are cold this time of year in Zion!

Silvretta 404s mounted on 177cm Hagan TX titanium skis. Skis are ultralight, 177cm in length with dimension of 92-69-80 and weight 1.1 kg each. Considering their size and weight they ski very well. Includes sticky purple Ascension skins and a pair of hard-to-find ski brakes which add a couple ounces but will impress the ladies. Bindings are size N (normal) and supposedly fit sole lengths of 11.375" - 13.375". All gear is very lightly used and in excellent condition. Ski bases are pristine. $230. Located in Bellingham. Buyer pays shipping and packaging costs. PM or e-mail dberdinkaATgmailDOTcom.

A friend and I on Desert Shield, Zion. Got the photo from some guys camped next to us who had been on Moonlight Buttress.

These two superficial morons and the aging mindless fucking boners that chase them around who are supposedly our best and brightest are at the core of whats wrong with this country. The constant and unquestioned hero worship of our military is goddamn ridiculous after multiple failed wars. However it makes for some pretty awesome news... ABC Affiliate: ‘All Up In My Snatch’ Petraeus Book Graphic A ‘Mistake’

BUMMER....better leave the bivi kit behind if you're heading into the Cascades...nation parks or forest service land.....

Wow! The title and subtitle of that bio is a Double Entendre if I've ever seen one. And his wife Holly ran something called the "Office of Service Member Affairs".

Can't wait to see a comparison to the mistress.....

Other than the stimulus (tax cuts and all) what massive unfunded expansion of Federal Spending did Obama enact that's resulted in the crazy ass deficits of the last few years? oh yeah basically nothing blame the deficits on the second worst economic crash of the century that he got handed from all those wonderful policies enacted by the president we do not mention. Oh and hey Republican Congress thanks so much for trying to help fix the mess! As for a second term.... 1)By doing nothing at all he'll allow ACA (Aka ObamaCare) to actually get fully implemented. That will be a huge achievement. 2)The "Fiscal Cliff" is apparently the only opportunity that's going to exist to get a bargain of some sort that will increase revenues and decrease spending. In theory decreasing at least the annual deficit. Though who knows, maybe the Dems will just capitulate like always. 3)Take away everyone's guns and microchip 'em. After that a whole lot of nothing.....maybe a visit to WA to sample some kind stuff.

#4-#6 are adequate 99% of the time. #2 and #3 can be handy on Zion aid routes. #0 and #1 are pretty much pointless. I would recommend DMM Peanuts over DMM Brass Offsets particularly if you climb on granite more than desert sandstone. Very similar but better in every respect with the exception of a very specific type of pin scar.

Any North Face Route in the Pickets (a while back someone came close on the North Buttress of East Mcmillan). Any of the handful of Grade VI routes in the Cascades. 5,000 different great mixed and ice routes on the 5000' - 7000' peaks.

My wife and I did the exact same trip (in the other direction) in mid-September. Awesome way to spend three days. Another amazing journey is the Lost Ridge - White Chuck Meadows - N Fork Sauk Loop. Put it on the list for next late summer!

Another example of the debased, thoughtless, entitled nature of the modern climber Squampton Garbage Dump

Climbing is debased. There is a massive rush to the bottom when it comes to introspection, responsibility and general awareness. Climbers can't take responsibility for themselves much less responsibility for inspecting and replacing fixed gear. The only knowledge it takes to clip a fixed draw is how to tie a figure-eight. We even offload the awareness and responsibility of belaying to our Grigris with the trade off being more static belays and a greater likelyhood of chopped ropes. It will only get worse.

To answer my own question. Continue up the trail past Sunbug Slab for 2-3 minutes following signs to the "A-Wall". 30'-40' slab with several anchors on top. Perfect place to top rope with small children.

But again thats not some much different from anywhere else. CO and CA might have a lot more alpine granite but the number of features getting any traffic is still small. Seems to me that projecting a well protected pitch of 12b on the LTW is way different than sending a multipitch 5.12 on the UTW which is way different from clipping a scary rusty fixed beak under a 5.12 roof halfway up a grade V in the mountains. Each increase in commitment results in a magnitude drop in the number of climbers willing to bother. Ultimately I don't think the disconnect is any different here than elsewhere just a lot less climbers climbing at that level.

Peridition or something like that. The Skoogs put some nice sounding routes up on it. Nice photos!