EISPIRATEN

First ascent with a rocker. Back to my rocket science.

Like I said Alan, I am probably due for using the poles. I also have my mother's walker in the garage that I seriously thought about using on trails for when I get to that point. Seriously.

No way Alan, I was glad to have gone to plastic boots and gotten rid of my heavy double leather mountaineering boots...no chance, not possible, not gonna happen. Where are they, let me dig them out of the garage and throw them away before I think about using them again as "exercise". :lol:...

Nice try Fight On :lol: My 4x4 never gets the gas mileage that my lighter weight 2 wheel drive car gets. Get rid of those "unused two wheels" and you're left with a lightweight efficient dirt bike (a Rick K for example). Why put training wheels on it. Some how I missed seeing any ski poles...

Whatever works!

Those days are over, I need a replacement...take a "Rick K"

Great to get kids out enjoying the wilderness at a young age (my dad took me "rock climbing" when 3-4 years old). I hope she remembers it and keeps going. Sounds like your wife had an experience too (just don't burn her out on hiking).

Hey Terry, let's open up a climbing backpacking store. :) Between everything in your pack and in mine, I think we might carry more than a REI store (I worked part time for them for 6 years)...minus all the bike stuff and the running stuff and the travel luggage stuff, and the...need I say more? I mu...

Hi Terry, Are you a super ultralite hiker? I cring in private and on the net to help educate (?) but am very nice to people on missions; give them food, water, even clothing out of my pack, carry stuff for them if need be, even help carry them, even you if need be and do it for free and with a smile...

asabat said I too did some Sierra trips in chukka boots. To be really cool you had to wear striped bell bottom pants with them. I got some "waffle stompers" after the chukka boots but used an old pair of my brother's navy wool bell bottoms after the Baldy trip in cold, frozen, wet Levis. M...

Long ago I remember reading that as a rule of thumb, a quarter of your body weight was a "comfortable" backpack weight and a third was considered "heavy". I recall long ago sometimes at 165 lbs carrying 65-70 pound packs (not enjoyable but good for 1-2 weeks out). Nowadays at 190...

Hey Kathy, I'm 6'2" and I use a 60 cm axe too. Sometimes a bit short on not real steep stuff but hey, I don't need a walking stick on low angle snow (my first axe was 85cm)...dealers at that time said it should touch level ground from your hand. More like an alpinstock! :lol: Anyway, with a sho...

What a great invention...LEDs and headlamps. I got into caving when they still used carbide headlamps (what a mess!) and then Justrite 4-Ds in a battery pack you wore on your waist with the awful wire. Then all kinds of Petzl and Princeton and Pelican and REIs and... For the price I think the $15 Ev...

Oh to be young again! My first mountain experience with snow was going up Mt San Antonio solo while in high school. Got a ride up to the village, hiked up the Bear Flats trail and thought maybe I could hike all the way up and finally hit soft snow above about 8,000' wearing suede chukka boots. When ...

AlanK, very interesting: While this is true, one should remember that 1000 ft-lbs (although it sounds like a lot) is only 0.3 Calories. Compare that to dragging my 175 pound carcass up 1000', which expends 175,000 ft-lbs, or 57 Calories. (Actually, it takes about 3 times that -- because the body is ...

Fight On asks: Beyond explaining the use of poles as being a personal preference, can anyone provide any personal or tested info on hiking with and w/o them? Thanks Just simple physics shows that given the average Black Diamond trekking poles are slightly over one pound, just carrying them in your p...

I second the hand protection. I've seen a lot of bloody hands, even on a naked ascent up Baldy Bowl we wore our Dachstein mitts. I always cringe when I hear someone say they have a borrowed or rented axe when going on a climb. I began my career with just an ice axe and ended up cutting a gazillion s...

Hey Tim & Taco, I won't be able to make it either Sat or Sun because of previous comittments. And everyday I look up there I see it just melting away. You guys go safe and have a good time.

Maybe if "Taco" doesn't have his new car yet we could use his (my truck has two flats and the honda probably won't make it much farther than the shooting area, if I can arrange Saturday and we go in via Stockton. Otherwise we could do it from the lifts. Where do you live? I'll let you know...

I guess I've gone past hiker perfection cause I now go faster up hill (and it's not that fast anymore compared to downhill (bad knees). Story time: Thirty years ago we walked up to camp Muir with two climbers who fell behind the faster climbers in their "commercial guided group". My friend...

Hi Tim & "Taco", I have tomorrow (Friday) available, the 18th. Sorry about that. If both of you have Saturday, I'll see if I can arrange that. How would you do DBB via Manker?

Sorry for last minute thing. Anyone up for Devil's Backbone north slope snow/ice climb (maybe slush?) this FRIDAY, April 19? I'm thinking from Stockton Flats.

As I recall Alan, the Badwater to Whitney race did go to the summit but was lowered to the Portal because of environmental concerns (permits). Just an example of how “records” can be meaningless though the race on the “paved road” now evens the conditions somewhat. I remember the first time I went u...

This has been very interesting reading. Just how long has “Canyoneering” been a means to an end? I’ve done it for years but almost always as a means for access to climb peaks. And just recently got a chance to do some canyoneering when dropped off by helicopter for a SAR mission. I think the others ...

I don't know what it looked like this winter (moved from Ontario to Hesperia) but in descending the big "couloir" on Cucamonga Peak's south face years back we triggered one of those avalanches so common in our mountains...heavy snow that flows about 20 miles an hour following the gullies d...

Tim said ...I was able to do some standing glissades on the way down the regular ski hut trail and that was a lot of fun. I hear you there. Nothing like "Skiing" down and cutting turns on your boots in a standing glissade when conditions are just right. I don't think we had enough snow thi...

Sure fire way is to sleep on a picnic table in a mummy bag. I did so cause I didn't want to start a trip out the next morning. Awoke face to face with a raccoon with others tugging at my bag (it was actually kind of scary). Also had this happen in Yellowstone but with a bear and a similar thing happ...

Nice spring trip Tim. Love the pic [i]View from around 8500 ft[/i] of the north face. We used to play around on it in spring for later Cascades and Canada trips as it always seemed to have snow when most other SoCal places were patchy. From my home in the high desert it's hard to judge the snow cond...

Sorry "Taco", I just saw this today if it is Rick M you were referring to.

Vertical Limits 1930s style! Great TacoDelRio! I had almost forgotten about THOSE DAYS . I was in the transition period...between bowline around the waist and tying the rope to a nice 2" wide tube sling around the waste (swami belt). Even more fortunate was growing up after the Dulfersitz that...