sobo

Check out this TR from JoeMack.

Sorry, Carl. The lead levels in my drinking water must be up again. Let's just say that there were more "personalities" at work on Adams on Sunday then there were people.

If you've got 42 MR people on scene I hope some of them can ski...... We had ~2 dozen MR people on the snow. We had ~1.5 dozen SAR ground pounders to take over the litter once off the snow. We (MR) all can ski, but skiing with a litter usually works better on groomed slopes than on suncupped firn/ice, with a pack on, and handling a Cascade toboggan with a patient in it.

Oh come on, you can't tease us with a response like that then provide no details. It would be unprofessional of me to post my thoughts publicly. Please understand.

Did you know that a Google search of "Courmayeur, ice climbing" will turn up a link that sez that Courmayeur was the site of the very first ice climbing competition ever? In 1912??? See link. Yikes! Break out those Eckenstein 10-pointers, lads!

Wengen, Switzerland: Just a hop, skip, and cog-rail ride from Grindlewald and the Eiger, Jungfrau, and the Monch. Skiing abounds right out of Wengen. Think Klein Scheidig. Or try Aosta in the Alps of Italy, just across the ridge from Chamonix. It will be way cheaper to stay in Italy than in Cham. You could probably even stay in Courmayeur to be closer, but the amenities would be much better in Aosta for the rest of the family. It takes about an hour from Aosta to the cablecar departure in Courmayeur by bus (and it's a cheap fare). Ride up to Punte Helbronner (intermediate landing on Italian side - tram leaves every 30 minutes) and start your adventure from there. Or ride all the way over and down into Chamonix and start back up from the French side (but you'll need to descend back down to Cham to catch the cablecar back over the border, unless you summit the border ridge and descend back into Italy to Punte Helbronner -> lonnnnnng day). It would be dicey to trust your adventure beyond Punte Helbronner to weather, as the tramway gets shut down a lot by high winds (esp. in winter). There's plenty of ice (same as your NEI3/4) on the lower slopes of the Italian Alps around Courmayeur. I started ice climbing in Tuckerman's and Huntington's Ravines, and know what NEI3/4 is, so I'm pretty sure I know what you're looking for. Try a Google search for "Courmayeur, Italy" or search for Aosta, and look for climbing links. From there, you could probably find a guide service that could point you to what you're looking for better than this board.

Iain, Check your PMs. My response to that question is not fit to print here, as it may offend others who were present.

Hey, ya, that's a good question.

Yes, they are, aren't they? That was Beth (lighter-haired one) and Eileen (the taller one). A class act.

The pictures make it look like a red one to me...

Well, I can tell you that it wasn't George.

I don't usually do stuff like this, but I figgerd that since there were so many people up there this weekend, someone would ask sooner or later, and I wanted to put out the info before a bunch of spray got started. If you don’t already know about it, don’t worry – it was no big deal. If you do and were interested in some of the details, particulars follow: Just so you know, all references to the injured party are intentionally left ambiguous by request of the injured party. Saturday, July 10, 2004: Climber sustained lower leg injury while glissading from False Summit to Lunch Counter (LC). Subject was an experienced backpacker who wanted to "up the fun level" to “mountaineering”. This was their first time on a glaciated peak. Subject was wearing crampons during the glissade, which is being viewed as the cause of the accident that led to the injury. A complete assessment of the injury (fracture vs severe sprain) was not possible without x-ray, but injury was clearly not a compound fracture, and hence not life-threatening. Time of the accident was unclear, but was apparently late morning or around noon. Two USFS climbing rangers were already on scene at LC as part of their employment responsibilities, and climbed up the glissade path to assist subject, and with help of other independent parties, transported the subject down the glissade path to tents at LC, using an improvised rope litter and carry. One of the rangers is EMT-trained, and spent the night with the subject. A cell phone was used to alert the Mt. Adams Ranger Station. CWMR received the call for assistance at approx. 1400 hrs Saturday. The main body of CWMR was on the Nisqually Glacier at Mt. Rainier for their quarterly training exercise. This necessitated the need for calls for additional assistance from TMR, PMR, and the Crag Rats of Mt. Hood as back-up. Upon arrival of the first two CWMR members, we found 2 or 3 Wind River SAR members at the Ranger Station. We told them that the injury was not life-threatening and asked that they stand-by and possibly return in the morning as there was not enough support to start up the mountain, and the patient was stable, comfortable, and indoors (tented) and with medical care. Wind River SAR departed, but was not needed again later and did not return. Helicopter evac, while possible early in the course of the incident, was not approved by the USFS District Ranger, as the nature of the injury was not viewed as life-threatening and they didn’t want a helo inside the wilderness area. Weather deteriorated later in the afternoon, effectively ruling out all helo ops by 1700 hrs Saturday and now forcing a labor-intensive extrication. Other Mountain Rescue teams were contacted as several individuals would now be needed to extricate the subject from the mountain. Sunday, July 12, 2004: By shortly after midnight, state-wide and regional call-outs had produced 13 members of CWMR, most of whom had driven all night from Paradise to Trout Lake via Randle and USFS 23 after completing a day’s training; 7 members of TMR, who had also been training on the Puyallup River and others coming off a climb of Mt. Forbidden; 5 members of PMR; 2 Hood River Crag Rats; and about a dozen Yakima County SAR and 5 Klickitat County SAR “ground pounders” who would later prove quite valuable. Wake-up call at 0200 hrs, and a Hasty Team dispatched to LC at approx 0300 hrs with CWMR unit WEMT, PMR’s EMT, one or two TMR members (??) and 2 other CWMR in support. Litter Team dispatched at approx 0330 hours, and Rigging Teams dispatched at approx 0400 hrs. Crag Rats held in reserve. The first teams reached the subject at approx 0600, and the subject was packaged for the lower, which was initiated by 0800. Subject reached bottom of Crescent Glacier by approx 1230, whereupon Yakima County and Klickitat County SAR "ground pounders" took over litter evac using litter wheel attachment. Subject reached trailhead a little after 1500 hrs, whereupon they departed for a Tacoma-area hospital in their POV for x-rays and treatment. Mission shutdown at approx 1600 hrs. Total mission run time approx 26 hours. Approx 42 MR/SAR individuals, plus the initial independent party help and the two FS Rangers on scene. Really quite a commendable turn-out for such an injury. Almost (but not quite) overkill. It takes a lot of people for a litter-carry and trail evac. If you were on the South Side this past weekend and wondered WTF was going on there, I hope that this answers most of your questions. If I left anything unclear, ask here or PM. Kudos to all those who turned out and helped.

Touching the Void is out on DVD, picked it up on Friday at Best Buy for $20!!! It has 3 awesome 25-min featurettes included that are really freaking good. One is "the making of", one is "a return to Siula Grande...", and one is "what happened afterwards..." Go get it!!! Hey thanks, Dustin. I'll get right on that. CraigA, you really should get TtV. It's a cc.com Best Pick!

Touching the Void. Don't know if it's out on DVD yet. And it goes without saying... "Eiger Sanction" with Clint Eastwood. Quite dated by now, and there's a few gaffes, but it's still a Clint classic, and should not to be missed by any climber. A good viewing/drinking/pill-popping game would be to see how many gaffes you can pick out of the film. Although it's not a climbing movie, Paddle Frenzy (about WW kayaking) is quite a hoot. Some really awesome stunts and good tunes in that one.

Go for it. It'll be fine.

The stuff that I know about is a bit too far away from there for a day trip during a wedding ceremony (Priest Lake cliffs, La Clede highway cut, Schweitzer Practice Rocks, etc.). But you could send PMs to pindude, MCash, Dane, slothrop, and others of this board that live over that way or know of stuff in the area. They could prolly hep ya out. Places like Minnehaha, Cliffs of Sharon, and Dishman (all in the Spokane area) and such are a bit closer (~40 miles or so) to St. Maries than they are to Sandpoint.

Matt Christensen's guide to Royal Columns from ca. 1987 is great because the topos ACTUALLY look like what the rock REALLY looks like. It's like Matt got a hold of a real artist to do the illustrations, and from several different angles. They look like charcoal/pastel drawings direct from photographs. I've never found a guide that made you feel so right about which climib you were looking at getting on - better than any "photo-topo" guide. I second LUCKY's wish that they would update it. Lotsa new stuff up there since '87.

I thought that JoJo's guide to waterfall ice in BC/Alberta was quite good. As far as rock goes, I thought the old (ca. mid-80s) guide to Seneca Rocks, WV ed.

Link sez it can be shipped by ground, but not by air. See the note at the bottom of the box marked "Product Info".

I'm with ken4ord. The Lipton dried pasta noodle dinners (must be a bazillion variations) in a bag. Skip the part in the directions about milk and butter. Substitute more water, or add olive oil for fat. Add some dehydrated veggies that you can make at home or buy at an Asian food mart. Toss in a can of Swanson chunk white meat chicken (in water), add some "mystery spice" (dried basil, oregano, rosemary, cracked black pepper, salt, and crushed red peppers), heat through, enjoy. Clean up the pot by twisting it in the snow upside down. The can lid from the chicken makes a reasonable simmer plate if you're using an MSR-type "single-speed" stove. Put the lid directly on the burner to deflect the flames and create "sort of" a simmering condition. It's all pretty light, and the trash packs up tidy in the chicken can, which you can then flatten. Bag it with empty noodle package to reduce leakage potential. What always bothers my partners is that while we're waiting for the main course (above) to cook, I'm already eating some soup out of my mug. Take along a mixture of dried soups (I like to go with one Cream of Chicken and one Chicken Noodle per night, or double up on Tomato or Green Pea). Use two envelopes per 12 oz. mug. Boil up water for soup and pasta dinner, pour off enough water for the double soup. Enjoy that while your partner(s) wait around for the main course, hungry and freezing, while you're delectably slurping up hot soup! It's like having appetizers that no one else gets to eat! Be careful not to get too smug, or you may end up wearing your soup.

I think I need to get a bit more up to speed -it's been a while since I've climbed ANYTHING, need to replace gear, fingers ain't what they used to be, legs mushier than I'd like etc etc -maybe next spring... sounds nice though.... Ohhhhhh, don't count yourself out that quickly! I'm no spring chicken myself anymore, ya know. Former trad hardman aging very poorly, 40-sumthin first-time Dad and all that. Ya! I get out a lot! HA!

Oh GAWD, I could go on and on about why I hate the Dry Shitties! You poor sap, mortomr. I left the Dry Shitties cuz the climbing sucked so bad. I feel fer ya, bud. Seriously, take these guys up on Spring Mtn, Vantage (Frenchman Coulee) and my stompin' grounds, the Tieton basin. FYI, a few years back (3 or 4?) the property owner behind Two Sisters rocks complained to the County about climbers there, and the County, in it's infinite stupidity and against the myriad outcries of "FOUL" by the climbing community, closed the area to climbers (only climbers! - not hikers!). Even Andy Fitz and the Access Fund couldn't get it opened back up. That back-sliding, fudge-packing bunch of fahqin county commissioners heard only one word - liability. No real reason or truth provided. It's kind of a choss pile anyway, but that wasn't our point. I've had several fun times out there when I first moved to the area 15 years ago, and that was where the local climbing club (I-MAC) used to bring newbies to the area to introduce them to the rock. I even have a photo of my then-fiance' TR'ing a route there on the front page of the local weepsheet - above the fold, no less! The place had a history, but no more. Go to Tieton or Vantage for your closest bets to good routes. Spring is next in distance. Devil's Canyon is CHOSS! It's OK if you have a strong deathwish. Check out these folks. No real hardmen there anymore, but a good place to find some local partners. And here's another link to Kevin Pogue's site (climbing home page) which gives route descriptions for Spring and a link to the map that cman already posted. PS: I'd be up for a trip to S. Fork of Clearwater (Lightning Dome) just about anytime you're interested (later in summer - too hot there right now). Three and a half hours from Dry Shitties, free camping, no trail park pass bullshit, no permit bullshit of any kind. Watch out for the locals, if'n ya know whuddahmean. Check out Location #13 on the map. I've got the topo. Not too much trad stuff there, as you can imagine from Kevin's photos, but it's a slab/face climber's wet dream.

I already did. Ignorant Pursuit at Royal Columns. RC a cragging environment? - check, Off width? - check, 5.8+ is "5.9 or so" isn't it? - check Easily top-roped by doing adjacent routes or hiking up the left-side trail - check, Has dual anchor chains/rap station - check, Can be TR'ed with a single rope - check Conclusion: Enjoy!

Another vote for Tieton (Royal Columns, exactly): Ignorant Pursuit, 5.8+, immediately left of the Render Us Weightless Roof. Inside flaring O/W. Pro really sucks, if you can find any.

Now that's got to be the best compliment of all. Spend a weekend together on a challenging route in some pretty tough conditions, and have your sufferfest buds speak highly of you to strangers. Righteous, Bruk!