Marko

Ryland, Yeah, we used all of the guy points plus the climbing rope draped all over the tent and tied down, plus a high snow wall. The guy points were sewn to the fly like most tents. After a while these points started ripping off the fly and it was a downward spiral from there. Later, a couple of the snow wall blocks blew onto the tent and broke a pole which started flailing around slicing up the fabric. The other pair of us had an older Jansport tent that was much lower. It also had the guy lines threaded through the fly and tied directly to the tent body and to the poles. I don't think I've ever seen that feature on any other tent. That sucker was bomber but a pain to set up. On the other hand, this occurred at 17,200 on the W. Butt. If you're heading up that route I would say summit from 14,200 and NEVER camp at the 16k or 17k camps. It's a long day but way funner! So if you do that, pretty much any old tent will do. Just make some decent walls or better yet use the time to make a cave. If you're going to do a route where you're climbing with a tent on your back then I could only recommend the Integral Designs or Bibler, in that order. Lighter is so much funner... Cheers, Mark

Here's a spartan yet comprehensive alpine rack: 2 KBs 1 LA (optional. Well, I guess it's all optional.) 6-8 nuts pink tricam red tricam green camalot yellow camalot orange tricam Not all sizes overlap, but it's pretty rare when you can't move the piece around a little until it works. -Mark

I watched a buddy's brand-new VE-25 get destroyed in 100 mph winds up there. Several years later my several-year-old Integral Designs easily withstood the same conditions. The height of the VE-25 seemed to be a big factor. Which route are you doing? Have a blast!! Mark

"Is Slipstream on your list? or, Are you on Slipstream's list?" THAT is no shit.

You gotta fly with McKinley Air Service, the "2 babes and a bird". They are great people and they care about getting you in and out ASAP. They're also usually a few bucks less. Keli and LeeAnn used to work for Geeting, got sick of him, and started up their own business around '95. Just give them a call or email a few weeks in advance to give them a heads up. http://www.mckinleyairservice.com Tell them Ramenless sent you. And, no I'm not getting any money for this. Mark

Erik at Marmot went above and beyond the call of duty spending about 1-1/2 hours getting my Thermoflex liners just perfect. I was pretty insistent about getting a perfect fit and he was cheerful about getting the job done. Definitely recommend Marmot. Mark

A very, very, VERY cool climb gentlemen! Yeah buddy! I'm so inspired right now I'm heading out for a Guinness.

Impressive Cascade climb in impressive looking conditions. Nice. Thanks for the photos. Mark

Yeah buddy!! Very friggin' cool! Cheers, Mark

Yeah buddy!

That E Face of Pyramid looks like it'd be a blast. Hey, wait a minute, did anyone see Polish Bob's tracks? Did he really do it? We'll never really know... Mark

Yeah buddy!

Yeah buddy!

Anyone want to try the NE Ridge of Sperry or something on Pyramid or ANYTHING this weekend. I could leave Fri evening. I promise, no epics! Mark

Been playing around with the new slide scanner at work. Here's a link to the gallery with a few shots of the trip: http://www.cascadeclimbers.com/plab/showgallery.php?thumb=1&stype=2&si=Marko&cat=500&sort=1&ppuser=172 Cheers, Mark

Yup, he was also the author of that testpiece on Cavell, "Tomo-esque".

That'd be GEORGE Lowe on the North Twin, eh?

Ah hah! You finally saw through our thinly veiled charade. We thought Stuart was pretty good but wily ol' Bob picked up on it right away. For this trip we were actually warming bar stools in western Saskatchewan. We bought our photos at a truck stop east of Calgary. Shit, foiled again!

Howdy Pope, Well, if there's any reason to be impressed (which I deny) it's from our perseverence, not any alleged skill required. There was some very satisfying climbing but nothing real technical. Inspiration? That was our first choice if conditions were safer! As far as being horrified, I hear you. Actually the route up was quite safe except for the first several hundred feet which we were able to get up pretty fast, and the last ropelength to our camp below the summit. The one place we were very lucky, I mean very lucky, was the last 1500' down to the valley southwest of the West Peak: A good size slab avo had cleared the big gully down to turf. If that hadn't happened we would have had to do a pantload of rappelling down the west ridge proper. And the reason we chose J-Berg over Rockies ice climbing was because I've been having elbow tendon problems and didn't want to do any pullups... We took 2 rolls of slides but there's only a couple good ones. Can you scan slides and get meaningful pictures? Cheers, Mark

Thanks Lambone, I guess the trip was still pretty fresh in my mind at the time!

Thanks for the excellent info, hoofmarks. Yeah, if anyone's got credibility it's Tackle! Mark

Alaska...

Anyone seen or demo-ed a pair of these and have comments? The new Climbing mag has a review on 'em and they look pretty enticing. Cheers

As always, Colin is a man of susinct posts. In 24 years of "advanced backpacking", this was probably the most engaging climb I've done in the Cascades! He forgot to mention a few things: The technical crux early on (the tree climb / stem / dry-tool section), the DEEP wallowing, the cornice forming over the tent and the subsequent digging out during the first night on the route, the tent walls collecting sheets of ice on the inside every night thereafter, the DEEP ASS wallowing, the occassional clearing and stunning, stark views across to Forbidden and Torment, the wicked snowed-up knife edge section to the rap into the gash, the canyon-like gash itself, the snow arete, the funky looking crevasse bridge (Colin being the lightest you understand, and therefore the first), the steep GODDAMN DEEP wallowing, the perfect camp with clearing skies and views of only the peak tops above the clouds, the first taste of ramen since a less than successful Alaska trip in '92, the next morning Colin leading a rather heady section to the summit (30 meters of steep looseness with the everpresent 12 to 18" of unbonded snow and zero gear), the reappearence of the storm, the summit hand shake and smiles, the daunting descent ahead, the spectacular ridge traverse to the West Peak, the surprisingly looooong ridge traverse to the West Peak, the mindful pitch out of one of several "ackward notches", the camp perched on the ridge crest, the spilled pot of water in the tent (Mark), the bottomless 10-foot diameter mistery hole on the way, the brief appearance of a spectre, the 1-1/2 days it took to get from the camp below the main summit to the W summit, the blinding wind and snow, the incredible aretes and ravines everywhere, the rime, the W summit finally, the mindfuck routefinding with bad visiblility, the little slab avos we kept setting off that tug surprisingly hard on the torso of a wet tired human, the solid partner, the 600' we didn't really have to climb back up and then down, the 3-1/2' deep slab that cleared the way for a "safe" descent down to timberline, the heartbreaking wallowing, the wetness, the 900' wallow up out of the western valley, the 3' slab crown we caused but didn't ride, the dark, the guesswork on the way down, the compass, the wettest camp I've ever experienced (not necessarily Mark's best idea), the sensation of hypothermia, the fuel running out, the light, the car. Then there was the repetitive pattern of this post, sorry. Not the biggest deal in the world, but we're pretty stoked! Cheers, Mark

Looks like he scooped us Colin!