Marko

Right on amigo, I'm glad I know somebody that got out today... Cheers!

Sarkens. Lighter than either, great on ice and alpine, good on rock/mixed, front part of crampon seems to be made of harder steel and therefore stays sharp longer than others I've had. I like 'em. -M

Beautiful, man!

Slacker.

Thanks for the inspiring TR, and well done!

True, true.

Howdy Buckaroo, Here are a few answers: Quarks & Venoms, Sarkens & Switchblades, Civettas & Trango Extremes (?) 1 lightweight synthetic pullover for the 2 of us, Pocket Rocket & a small canister & mini-pot, 2.5 oz space blanket that I didn't tell Colin about Gu and those Clif block deals, cashews, meat, 2 qts drink each, <10 lbs each total not including climbing gear Training: Colin does a bit of climbing from time to time... I haven't been running since tweaking my back a couple months ago. Colin definitely did the work on this one. You know if you think about it, to do the traverse in 2 days I think you'd spend about the same actual travel time as we did. I don't think we did it all that quickly (because of my fitness level) given we had almost no loads and had such fine conditions. Besides, the whole thing was way too frickin' enjoyable to be any kind of sufferfest! (Except for the painful, sore feet that is.)

Looks damn sporty lads, nice work.

Thanks John, it sure was a hoot. That first shot is looking back at the north peak I think. We started up it right around daybreak but did the main peak at night. It wasn't particularly cold out but there was a little breeze that would have made any catnap real shitty. We did stop to heat some water and have a little picnic down by the lake on the way out.

8.5mm x 60m Sharp 6 cams to 2" 8-10 nuts to #8 2 KBs 1 Ti KB 1 Ti LA size 3 Ti screws 6 singles 3 rabbit runners Too many 'biners (>20 maybe, would of been fine with ~4 fewer) (Colin, correct me if I'm wrong on any of this.) Nope, no Tricams. I wasn't sure a climb could even be considered a true winter ascent if you didn't bring Tricams, but Colin convinced me that SLCDs would be more versatile in the long run. We used every piece except for one of the screws. (For the record Colin wanted to bring only 2.) Something I tried for the second time, and am now totally sold on for alpine climbing, is going leashed on the adze tool and leashless with a tether on the hammer. This allows for no pinky rest on the adze for good plunging, and quick dexterity and gear access on the dominant hand.

Yup. Basically I just tried not to slow the Haley Machine down too much. He pretty much led the whole thing and kicked all the steps. (This was an 'off the couch' climb for me...) Conditions were pretty damn good. Probably the most neve I've ever run across on a single climb, and the full moon didn't hurt either. There was a fair bit of climbing/traversing on breakable crust covering loose snow but still the best conditions I've ever seen on Index. (There has been at least 2 other winter ascents of the traverse.)

...And in the same article, how does this quote strike you? "...alpine climbing is about routes, not summits."

Yup, it been done and we had fun!

Howdy Senor Sharrett- A couple years before you guys did Surrogate Panama my partner and I tried for the first time getting in there to do the lower ridge. That ended up in failure due to illness, but was also the first of 10 or 11 trips in there to try various things, including the lower ridge. I've got to say that your CAJ article contributed in part to this addiction, particularly the photo of Jack in this killer iced-up goulotte. That was some inspiring shit! Cheers man, Mark

That is damn inspiring my friend! T.W.

The Butt was great ice where it was steep, but thin crust over a foot of loose snow elsewhere. Under the loose snow you'd either find rock or two more layers of rain crust. A little spooky kicking steps into it! (Full disclosure: I self-belayed the last two ropelengths.)

Anyone want to give it a whack tomorrow? 206-465-1432

Maybe girth hitch the long corner loops around the stakes? I rarely use it on dirt so I'm usually using skis, ice tools, buried stuff sacks, or some such.

Cheers to Brad and Barbara.

They're fabulous tents! I'm on my 4th MK Lite in 19 years. The first one went to Alaska a couple times but then blew away on Rainier when the guy I lent it to left it up in a storm, the corners ripped out. The second tent replaced the lost one FREE OF CHARGE by Integral Designs, with redesigned corners. That went to Alaska 6 or 7 times and finally delaminated completely on Foraker in 2000 when we didn't dig in at all and got hit by an unexpected scary windstorm. I bought the third one and then replaced that a year later with the eVent model when that came out. The tent's just long enough for me (5'11"), it's wide enough for 2 with gear, and sort of wide enough for 3. There's enough ventilation with the door cracked to cook in it. It's definitely cramped but I think it's just about the ideal bivy tent. Everything's a compromise, right? It's probably the lightest, most stable bivy tent there is. (Except maybe for the Stephenson tents but that's kind of different animal...) Not so great in very wet conditions.

A fairly easy way to do it is to cut a vee shaped piece of light fabric and sew a separating zipper to it so that it zips into your full zip mummy bag. (I believe Senor House has mentioned this idea.) So you unzip the mummy bag completely and zip in the vee to create the bottom of a 2 person bag. I've used this a bunch of times and it's light, warm, and cramped as hell. 2 1/4 lbs for a full on winter 2 person bag. It helps if the bag is a little long so you can bunch it around your shoulders. I also bought a synthetic quilt thing made by Golite and sewed on a windproof bottom and hood. It's about 3 1/2 lbs and fits 2 pretty comfortably. 3 of us used it in a bivy tent for a few nights up in Alaska. Worked out OK. Obviously a route with tiny or no ledges pretty much kill the double bag idea.

Is that the access for the north side or to Slesse Mtn Trail?

Ahh, crap.

No Moffat? No kidding! (How'd that final go?)