David_Parker

Right now it's in New England! Over 40" at Sugarloaf!

I'm heading to either one fairly early Monday morning 12-8. I can go either way. Anyone is welcome to join me if they want a ride. best to call 206-714-4300

Yo, Radon, I like skiing Hurricane Ridge bc, so let me know any time you want to hit it. One thing is that they seem to be very conservative about opening it if there is fresh snow and it's windy. It's difficult to predict but Mondays and Tuesdays are not good unless it's perfect weather. They do make a best effort to get it opened Fri, Sat and Sun. The real problem is you can't find out until about 8:30 in the morning and usually you want to be well on your way by then.

TLG, what you say may be true for fixed heel and knuckle dragging, but for tele, you won't gain anything on the bunny hill. It's not like the blue runs are very steep or anything, but you need some steepness/speed to drop a knee. BTW, do you tele?

Monarch icefield this summer. There were a lot of classic moments I'll never forget. When the 2 season Walrus tent blew down and he kept mumbling "hmmmm. I don't know about this Walrus stuff, I think we shoud send it back!" But the real classic was when after being tent bound most of the trip because of a broken rib he finally went for a walk one morning. He sauntered over to below a dirty rock face where shit obviously came down. It was the only spot on the whole glacier not to go and he sat down right in the debris pile and just hung out for awhile. Not sure what he was thinking at that point but we had a good chuckle over it!

For Alpine climbs in winter, wart-hogs work in frozen dirty, mossy cracks. I carry a baby angle, a kb, 2 tricams red and purple) and one of those russian ice screws on my harness regardless if I'm leading or following. I figure one of them will work in an emergency.

It's a slide and I still have it somewhere in one of my slide trays. I should find it and make it into a digital image. I'm with Matt. I do not plan to ever fall ice climbing and I don't want to climb with anyone who thinks falling while ice climbing is no big deal. It is.

I might take em. Bring them to the next event.

I held a leader fall on the last pitch (pillar) of Stairway to Heaven in Provo Canyon. Partner popped and went hard on a snarg. It held fine and another guy with my camera caught him in mid air. Haven't seen too many photos of ice climbers logging air time...classic! I got to finish the pitch after that. I always wondered about snargs, but that proved they were ok.

i believe they dont. www.borealusa.com You big Lummux, YES they do! I know because my high tops were ripped off. I tried to get Kaukulators but couldn't find them, didn't like the megas so ordered Boreal Ballet Gold from Feathered Friends. Go talk to Todd, he'll get you dialed. Not many other options I was able to find.

Dryad, skip the bunny run. Advance directly to blue run, do not pass go, do not collect $200. You'll learn faster. Flat sucks on tele skis. May as well parallel.

I heard Will Glaad will be giving a mixed cock and ice clinic over in Ouray too. Party in the hotsprings after!

E-rock, it just aint so. As an ex-Utah resident, it can say it is the greatest snow on earth. (Colorado is for people who haven't discovered Utah yet). There are cons though so what you say is valid, Our snowpack is more stable and predictable which means we ski safer and steeper shit. The Wasatch is crowded and competes with heli-skiers and resort expansion. But damn, I'll take the best fluffy light chest deep run down Cardiac bowl anyday over our best coast range snow. You never get up to your tits and need a snorkle to breathe in snow here.

Moved on to Heroin, eh Billy!

Hmmm, just realized cookies may be a good way to cross the border! Do you think they'd figure it out if you co-mingled them in a bag of (brand name) cookies. You could even play russian roulette with them!

The waterfall stop is before Yelapa which is not on an island, but the mainland penninsula where no roads go. Yeah, the waterfall trail was covered in horseshit, but I guess I had fun cause I was with my kid. I agree, the beach was better. I ordered a red snapper off the menu and the next thing I see is the waiter running down the beach. I think he went to find a fisherman to get one! An hour later I got the meal, but it was cool cause all I was doing was drinking cervesa under an umbrella. I couldn't find a decent sea kayak in all of PV, but if you could, that would be most excellent. I did take out a squirt sea kayak and went through some caves and tunnels at some sea stacks just off shore where they like to take tourons snorkling. The scuba diving was ok but the Pacific is never as good as the Carribean.

Yup, I fell in one once at Crystal. It was hard to quell that panicky feeling. I quit using bindings with 3 pins after that. Even getting the bail undone, my boot wouldn't come out easily. You don't have much room to move around: i felt trapped without a lot of options. I don't ski too close to big trees anymore.

It seems many of the manufactures of light weight shells have gone away from pit zips and are claiming the napolean pockets serve dual function; pockets and ventilation. But I'm not convinced this ventilation is better and the cons are you have an open pocket for spindrift to blow in or water to drip in. Also, opening the pocket makes the jacket more suceptable to snagging shit on. Pack straps and gear slings also seem to interfere. Also, if I have a fleece like the NF Denali with pit zips and I layer the shell with Napolean pockets for ventilation, I have a conflict of interest. What's your take? What do you prefer?

If you can afford it, take the flight to visit the Huichols way back in the Sierra Madre? mountains. They are direct descendants of either the incas or anasazi or considered the link between the two. Check out Vallarta Adventures or don't worry, they'll find you on the beach! You will truly take a step back in time. We were some of the first white folk to ever visit them and my son was definitely the first white child their children had ever seen. It was so cool to see their eyes when they spotted him. While the Huichols relish their isolation and visiting them seems like a total violation of their traditions, it is actually they who have invited the tourists. They are renowned for their exquisit bead art and rely on the sales for income. unfortunately it has become too difficult to get the stuff to town for sale and they do better to sell it directly to the tourists up there. We were flown by a Mexican National Geographic pilot who was very infomative. My at the time 5 year old son got to be co-pilot! We even got to circle a volcano on the way back. About 90 miles south is Chamela with really nice beach and cheap Tiki huts to stay in. We were there exactly this time and we had the place to ourselves. On December 15, it will be slammed as that is start of tourist season. We actually rented a small jeep and toured way back in the mountains for a week. There is small ex-mining (now coffee) town (San Sebastian?) worth visiting. It was a very cool experience as everything is all about cowboys in the true sense of the word. Everywhere we went they were amazed to see us and "no tourists" ever visited them back there! They were so friendly and nice. It's worth it to take the watertaxi from the south end out to the places accesible only by boat. We stopped at the one with the waterfall you hike too. The last stop is pretty touristy I heard. You can go bungy jumping, hike the canyon where they shot the movie Predator (gov of ca starring) and party all night long. Still, I'd rent the small jeep and explore the remote mountains. I had fun driving back there! There is actually a huge canyon (as big or bigger than the Grand Canyon back there too.) We went in from PV and came out via a town called Talpa. PM me if you want more detailed beta.

I've seen that shit on cliffs along the coast. I would be more inclined to use ice tools, but even that would be sketchy. Pebbles and rocks held with mud....echhh!

Hey Minx, how much more snow do we need before Alpenthal opens? My kid wants to go skiing!!

The Smith turbo goggle is for people who wear glasses and has been around since the mid 80's. The problem isn't the goggles so much as their glasses. The googles are extra big to fit over glasses and the fan helps keep the glasses clear. I laugh at people who wear their goggles on top their heads when not on their face. tsk, tsk, tsk! I treat my goggles with extra care. I use a bag for storage, never use paper napkins to wipe them and don't put them on the table at lunch time.

Darn, you got it out. I was going to suggest you take the whole shebang back to REI and get all new stuff. Who do they think they are selling canisters that don't fit properly in the cup?

I don't like Bush. That being said, I gained a lot of respect for him by showing up in Bahgdad for thanksgiving and serving the tropps dinner. No President has ever stepped foot in Iraq and he went during a war! What a huge moral booster! He didn't even tell the secret service where they were going until the plane was in the air. He also said if any word got out as to where they were going, they would turn the plane around. The desire to be there must have been big to pull this off. That showed leadership. Like him or not, you have to respect that.

so why was the skagit gorge selected? hydro-power politics? what were the arguments against cascade pass? Cascade Pass was actually a better way through the mountains. Unfortunately it was the shores of Lake Chelan that killed it.