dalius Posted March 20, 2003 Posted March 20, 2003 I just went to go see Beckey's climbing slideshow last night and he actually mentioned the Snafflehound. He said how aweful these things were and how they chewed through some of his ropes and will pretty much eat all of your gear. Vicious things. Forgive me for being naive, but I've never even heard of these things before cc.com, and I just thought they were Dru's invention or something. What in the hell are these creatures actually, and are they really called that? Is there some other common name given to them? Any biologists out there? Just curious, cuz I don't think I've ever seen one before. Quote
JoshK Posted March 20, 2003 Posted March 20, 2003 Last I had heard, snafflehound was beckey's general term for rodentia you find in the alpine. I've used the term to refer to marmots, mice, squirrls, and this huge scary fat rat I saw on the summit of Eldorado in the middle of the night once. Quote
snoboy Posted March 20, 2003 Posted March 20, 2003 Fred's invention I think. Ported to cc by dru and ray. They are real, they are everywhere! Quote
catbirdseat Posted March 20, 2003 Posted March 20, 2003 The term Snafflehound was not of Fred's invention. I too was at the lecture. He mentioned that one of his climbing partners made it up long ago (I can't recall the fellow's name), and Fred sort of promulgated the term by using it a lot. He told a story about how they put in three fixed ropes one day and then next jugged up them, to find that snafflehounds had chewed two-thirds of the way through one of them. I bought Fred's new history of the north cascades and had him sign it, "Watch out for the snafflehounds". There were at least two guys in line who had ancient versions of the Cascade Alpine Guide from a time (1949?) when it was a single volume and a slim one at that. They looked pristine. One guy said he found his copy in a garage sale. I was thoroughly impressed with Mr. Beckey. His mind is as sharp as a tack. He has an amazing ability to recall place names, which I suppose shouldn't suprise anyone who has used his climbing guides. The show had slides spanning a huge geographical area from Alaska to Mexico and from the Olympic Penninsula to the Tetons. I got a kick out of seeing his old 1957 T-Bird in several shots. Quote
Szyjakowski Posted March 20, 2003 Posted March 20, 2003 isn't it true the biggest and baddest snafflehound lives on Prusik Peak? Quote
Szyjakowski Posted March 20, 2003 Posted March 20, 2003 can't you see him up on Snafflehound ledge? Quote
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