Rodchester

"a) liability. those waivers you make your people sign don't hold up if it is you that screws up. Also, insurance ain't cheap but maybe you can get it for a per/client basis and tack it on to their fee. In short, you can't screw up." Actualy law suits are pretty rare in the industry and are often settled by insurance companies for "cost of defense." The law is defintely on the guide's side. The highest case in this state was an RMI case in which old Lou won...it was thrown out and never made it to trial..and it was sustained on appeal. There is also a CA case that had a similar result. I have done jury verdict searches and come up with none, that's right none. They just don't occur because America has what is called acceptance of risk in its legal system. That means the client accpets the risk and waives right to suit. Anyway...it is actually much more complicated, and I don't want to bore you.

Mike: The biggest problem you will have is getting the license/permit to operate on public land. Each Land managment entity is different and has very different/qualifications to guide. (having insurance and certain types of training are required). The Nat. Park system (US) is nearly impossible to get into. You can do it and make a living. However, you will find the US hard to actually make it happen (red tape) and South America is the easiest to guide in. Many well known climbers do it, and even less known climbers that have guided for the normal companies build up a client base and guide them privately. Under the table guiding is very common, but it is hard for many reasons. I do have some expeience in this area, so feel free to send me a PM with specific questions. Love to help you out. Also I pretty much agree with Eric's statements on this issue. Good Luck!!!

"i hear lynn is tough on her men and burns through an average of 2 per year... im certain her new bio written by greg child has more info on her love life..." Come on....tough on men? Only two a year? That’s not tough!! Anyway......the AAC is an all around good organization. It is a true non-profit 501©(3) WHICH enables you to write off dues and any other donations. (US tax payers on that one. Sorry to our Canuck Bros). Agree the rescue insurance is a good thing. Most foreign govts look at membership as a guarantee of payment so they will launch rescue. In fact, many foreign govts required membership until recently (this usually manifested itself in the need for a AAC approval before you could even get a permit. This was true until this year in Nepal). Anyway, point is that many foreign govts see AAC membership as a guarantee of payment, so they will launch a rescue. Also the AAC is active in congress. It is not as active locally as the access fund....a break-off from the AAC. The cost per year is not cheap. Also I would point out that they AAC does actively support climbers by running the hut system. The includes the AAC Teton Climbers Ranch. This lets you stay I a very cool cabin with great facilities at the base the Tetons for a mere $8.00 per night. (with showers etc.) Other faculties (in the park) cost between $90.00 and $200.00 per night in GTNP. Imagine going to Rainier and staying above Paradise for only $8.00 per night. I have my criticisms of the AAC…but for the most part it is a great organization. [ 08-17-2002, 01:31 AM: Message edited by: Rodchester ]

I believe that these are actually US Army (military) issue "ice pitons" from the 1960s. They are pound in but have no thread and the hanger does swivel. I 'kind of' collect old climbing shit and I have one of these. They were dumped "in masse" onto the market in the mid 1990s with a bunch of old regular rock pitons, also GI issue. US Gov't was cleaning house then. End of cold war. I am not so sure they are "snargs" as made by Camp/Lowe. Most of these were made by a company in Wyoming that is now out of business...that is my understanding anyway. Could be wrong. They are strictly a collector item as far as I am concerned.

Vern Tejas used an aluminum ladder to solo Denali in winter (first to summit and return in winter solo). If I recall correctly, he wore/carried it over his shoulders and was some how strapped to it, with the idea that each end would hit catch the sides of the crevasse (the top sides) thus preventing him from falling in. He also used the ladder as part of his sleeping system (it was the roof for a pit type system he had). I tend to agree with TG that many over state the damgers or have an irrational view of the dangers. There are times I will solo as well. You just have to accpet the risk and minimize the dangers when possible. Or stay at home.

Most of the media/reporters have Journalism degrees....they learn the basics of writing and making it sound a cetain way versus another way, basiucally how to write for thier audience...usually the masses. So when they write (or report), they rarely if ever have a clue about the underlying topic...but since the masses don't either, only those with knowledge in the underlying topic realize the media are idiots. 2 cents.

Cpt.Crag: "I bet John Roskelly would call you an idiot to your face and tell you to stay home next time." What's up with that? I bet his mom would call you an idiot and tell you to fuck off in advance...oh yeah and my dad's bigger than your dad.

July 30, Then there was five.... The Spanish climber Luis Fraga's line of porters passed by our tent this morning under cloudy and snowy skies. The Spanish team was the last of four expeditions to leave K2 base camp in the last few days. The Tibetans, the two Spanish and Henry Todd's International teams have trekked out to Askole in the last 4 days and have made K2 base camp similar to a ghost town. It has snowed for 5 days straight. Doubts of a summit attempt have started to enter our minds. The Japanese, Spanish-Mexican and Charlie and I are the last to reside at base camp. The Japanese team is finished on K2 and will be leaving on the 4th or 5th to attempt Gasherbrum II. Then there will be only five climbers here at base camp to climb K2: Three members in the Spanish-Mexican team and Charlie and Christine. One of the Pakistan rules of climbing in the K2 area is all expeditions must have an Liaison Officer present with the team. A Liaison Officer is an officer within the Pakistan military that stays with the expedition and sees that the expedition is abiding by the climbing rules and he acts as a correspondent to the Ministry of Tourism if a request needs to be made from the expedition. We are on the International permit. When our leader left, they signed us off to the Japanese Liaison Officer. Now the Japanese want to leave as early as the 4th or 5th. According to the rules we are required to leave with the Japanese LO. We are trying to work out an option to stay longer, but it's hard to justify the fight when the weather is so miserable. We may try to push our stay for a few days longer to enable us for one more summit push. However we would need the weather to change in the next couple days. Overall there hasn't been much progress on K2 this season, except for the Tibetan team. They arrived at base camp late May. It wasn't until July 20th when they got as high as 8400 meters(above the bottleneck) under marginal conditions. The Tibetans reported that on their descent they took 7 hours in white out conditions to locate their high camp. The Japanese expedition spent this past week at camp 2 (6900 meters) on the Abruzzi ridge route waiting for clear skies for an attempt at the summit. They gave up and are coming down. The snow continues to fall and load the slopes higher on the mountain with deep snow. Above 6500 meters the snow has been reported as unconsolidated, "sugary, and knee to waist deep. It may take several days of sunny weather for the slopes to become stable enough for safe travel. One weather forecast we received predicts drier conditions after August 3rd, which gives us some hope. In the meantime we keep ourselves busy by reading, short hikes around base camp and socializing with our few neighbors who remain. We will keep everyone posted if the weather changes. Christine and Charlie

Lambone: "We all thought about the possibility of weather moving in, but the ceiling down low was beginning to break up, and we figured we'd have a few hours of sun in the morning." You are among the MANY that thought this way on the same day in the Cascades. Just that most of us were in positions that we could bail easily. Good to hear you are OK. To you and yours...

Tex: But I wonder how I became one? Hell I rarely get into the spray thing unless someone like RURP sprays at me first. Oh well, I don't care...this one is spray and if I'm sprayed I'll spray back. And no fair, I like Erik's designation. That would rock. [ 07-30-2002, 05:28 PM: Message edited by: Rodchester ]

Texplorer: Its just spray anyway!!! Just having some fun with it!!!

RURP: "As for guiding, I read your posts and it seems that you are relatively new to the profession. Perhaps five years or less." When did I say that I guide? Never did say that. Or post that. I've made statements regarding the business of guiding. You've always said you can do it better. Over and over again bullshit gets called and you back off or just refuse to answer. And who else's name did I name drop anway? Defensive? Try offensive. I'm the one that is laughing...and enjoying this one. Oh Yeah "No one outside of the "climbing world" has probably ever heard of Carlos B., A. Lowe, and others who have led arguably foolish lives like you and I." What the hell is this supposed to mean? I must have missed your point!! [ 07-30-2002, 04:59 PM: Message edited by: Rodchester ]

Hey, it's BURP the I know everything about guiding but when challenged I don't have the balls to put it forth....yep. BURP. The bullshit artist without enough crap to back it up. The funny is that the point of discussing Carlos being at my wedding really went right over your head. You make the simple-simon-assumption that I was bragging about knowing him. When in fact the childishly simple reality of the statement was that well known climbers are just regular people that do regular things, including come to a regular wedding like mine. What I can't understand is how you could have missed something so simple? Point made on most, lost on you.

What makes a Zen Spray Master? Apparently I am one.

I agree this thing sounds a bit odd....but we should wait until Lambone is back and posts his version of the story before we go hanging him. You can't actually trust the media and thier story on this type of thing. Wait for Lambone and give him his chance. I'll bet there is more to this than meets the press.

"Having the ropes doubled does not reduce stress, it actually icreases the impact force as the ropes have less ability to stretch if a fall happens." This has always been my understanding also.

I am looking at LED headlamps and would like some input. Specifically I have been comparing the BD Moonlight with the Petzl Tikka. My wife has the Tikka and loves it. I would like to have something with just a bit more light, but still get great battery life and stay lightweight. Does the BD Moonlight give that much more light? Also, I scanned the other thread that seemed to really pump up the Princeton. What is the cost of the Ptec and who carries them? I assume REI? How about FF and Second Ascent? Oh yeah...any others I've missed? Thanks in advance. [ 07-30-2002, 08:47 AM: Message edited by: Rodchester ]

Rescue under way on Glacier Peak 07/30/2002 KING5.com SEATTLE - Three climbers, stuck more than 10,000 feet on Glacier Peak, in northern Washington, are hoping to come home Tuesday. A rescue effort is under way to bring down the group, which has been stuck a few hundred feet from the summit since Sunday morning when the weather turned treacherous. The group consists of one man and two women, all of them in their 20's and experienced climbers. None of them were injured. It seems the weather turned when they were just a few hundred feet from the summit of one of the five volcanoes in the Cascades. They are stuck at the 10,200-foot-level of the 10,539-foot mountain and managed to summon help with a cell phone. The climbers are stuck at the 10,200-foot-level of the 10,539-foot mountain. Rescue teams are using helicopters and horses to bring them to safety. A Chinook helicopter from Fort Lewis dropped off supplies to them. “Things can turn bad very quickly. If it gets cold, they could develop hypothermia. So it’s very important that we bring them out safely and I'm certain we'll do that,” said Jan Jorgensen, Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office. The rescue started off as a two-pronged operation, with one group on the ground, on foot and horseback, and another in a helicopter from Fort Lewis, leaving at mid morning. The chopper would be able to drop supplies or even lift the climbers if weather permits. The plan was for the group on foot to meet up with hikers, share supplies and spend the night with them, and then for all of them to hike out later Tuesday. Winds will be the primary problem at those elevations, especially above the 8,000-foot level, said KING 5 meterologist Rich Marriott.

Was there a couple of weeks ago. No snow on the route at all. A fair amount of snow from the pass to Ingals lake. I'd say a fair amount still there. From the lake to the base of the climb there was also a fair amount of snow (goes up a gullly/couloir). Others we say carried ice axes. We did not and I do not think they were needed, but a slide could have resulted in a tough ride. I'd say there is still a good bit a snow there as well. As of three weeks ago anyway.

Another post from C&C: _______________________________________________ July 25, K2 basecamp Today is our sixth rest day in a row, since we returned from our acclimatization climb on Broad Peak. We've just had four days of snowy, windy and cold weather. Yesterday was the first day the sun came out. We received some bad news on the 21st, when a Liason Officer from the Tibetan team fell from just below Camp 2 down to the base of mountain. He died instantly. The LO, who had elected to climb with the Tibetans, was a captain in the Pakistani military. All the expeditions came to the assistance to carry the body back to base camp. Many expeditions have become discouraged with the weather and the lastest death, and have decided to abort K2. The Tibetans, both remaining Spanish teams, and Henry Todd's international team are all leaving in the next few days. The only teams left now are the Mexican-Spanish, Japanese, and our small camp: Simone Moro (heading for Broad Peak tomorrow), Charlie and Christine (who are all on Henry's permit). The Japanese have left basecamp today for the summit of K2, and over on Broad Peak a Korean team has started for that summit, as well. We plan to start up K2 tomorrow ourselves. The weather doesn't look too stable with high cirrus clouds forming, but we will go up in any case, and see what happens. We do recieve weather forecasts here via email, but the forecasts have proven to be very inaccurate, so it is tricky to judge when we should begin climbing. Ideally we need about five days or so of good weather for a summit attempt, but lately we have only seen short periods of good weather - a day or so at the most. In any case we will now go up and get get some climbing done. Christine and Charlie ____________________________________________

Well this isn't a good stroy but it does seem to fit my luck lately: Wopper and I went to do Vesper Peak. Slept at trialhead in truck on Sat night. Woke up early Sunday (5:00 a.m.) and started the approach. Halfway to Headlee Pass it became pretty clear that it was going to be a wet and miserable day. It appeared to be one of those days where if you waited till noon it MIGHT burn off. So...we turned around. Went home. Took power nap. Judging from the weather in Seattle the rest of the day it was a good call. Not exciting at all... On the way down three guys passed us going up. Not sure if they drove on and got on the route.

July 20, K2 basecamp Hi from K2 base camp! We just returned from a successful acclimazation climb on Broad Peak. On July 15th under cloudy, dark skies, we climbed to the 6400 camp on Broad Peak. The weather reminded us of a normal Washington Cascade day. The next morning, (16th) greeted us with clear skies and crisp air. We climbed higher to 6800 meters, where we dug a platform and set up camp. Later in the day we climbed higher to 6900 meters and scouted the route above. From there we decended back to camp and enjoyed the rest of the afternoon sun. The next day we moved our camp to 7300 meters. We cut a platform for our tent in the icy slopes beneather the summit pyramid. We brewed hot drinks, made dinner and prepared to go higher the following day. We woke up at 11pm to cloudy and stormy skies. We felt it would be difficult to navigate higher, so we made the 18th a rest day. The skies cleared in the evening. We received word by radio that the Koreans and other members of the K2 International expedition where going for the summit of Broad Peak from 6400 meters in the morning. We left our camp at midnight to climb towards the top. We took turns breaking trail in the deep snow. The Koreans caught up to us at 7700 meters and took over making the trail. We reach close to 7800 meters when our friends from the K2 International team caught up. At this point, just below the col, we ran into poor snow conditions and everyone decided it was safer to descend. We were back at our tent by 6am. We warmed up a bit before breaking down camp and returning to K2 base camp. It took us the rest of the day to get there, since we were carrying heavy loads. Our plans are to rest for the next 5-6 days at base camp drinking plenty of Starbucks coffee and eating alot. After our climb on Broad Peak we feel we are sufficiently acclimated for an attempt to summit K2. Now we just need to be well rested before our K2 attempt. We recieved news that the Tibetans made a summit push on K2 today. They reached approximately 8400 meters, fixing rope through the bottleneck and reported knee-deep snow. They turned around because they were exhausted and encountered high winds, it is reported. Our plans are still to climb the south face via a variation to the Polish route. We hope to climb to our stash at 6400 meter around the 26th. Weather permitting, we hope to make the climb in 5 days, but we are prepared to spend more time on the face if necessary. We are not using fixed ropes, oxygen or porter support. Now it's back to drinking coffee, lots of reading and preparing for our climb ahead! Christine & Charlie

Check that link....

Stone gardens in ballard and is pretty laid back environment. Vertical world is not actually in Ballard, but on the north side of Magnolia

July 14, K2 basecamp Christine and Charlie here at K2 base camp; still waiting for good weather. We climbed to 6400 meters on Broad Peak on July 9th with hopes for a summit push. Unfortunately we got hit by a storm early morning on July 10th. The weather didn't improve, so we returned to base camp later in the morning. On July 11th all Broad Peak and K2 expeditions celebrated Aga Khan's Birthday. Aga Khan is a highly respected religous leader in the Baltro region. Large feast was prepared by the cooks of all expeditions. Afterward all the expedtions and L.O.s showed off their dancing moves. Well now it's a waiting game at base camp. The weather forecast isn't too promising! We hope to go back on Broad Peak tomorrow. We heard the German Broad Peak Expedition may start their summit attempt tomorrow, as well. They must leave base camp on July 21st for their journey back to Germany. Hopefully sunny skies will come soon....