EISPIRATEN

Taco wrote: ↑I haven't been on a real glacier yet so I'd like to know I'm at least safe when it happens.

After all this time why not?

Rick

In April we spent 5 nights (minus 25-35 outside) in an igloo we built at 15,000' and another night (minus 44 outside) in a smaller one we built at 17,000' in our attempt on Denali. We had spent our first night in a North Face tent on the Kahilta Glacier at 9,000' and in a snow storm that night that ...

Just 20 seconds of gental rolling here in Oak Hills. I know a ton of places I'm glad I wasn't...like below Galena Paek. I remember once when with Desert Rescue Squad we were asked to rescue a person in a cave in the Mecca Hills/Painted Canyon area because RMRU wouldn't go under ground. I had to craw...

Your tax, I mean stimulus dollars at work. Anybody out of work? Those researchers probably got a few hundred thousand dollars for that study.

Hi Taco, Glad you didn't get hit by something bigger: ...about 500' below the summit I heard some large noises that could only mean something big was coming. We both retreated off the perfect crampon snow/ice of the chute to hug opposite rock cliffs on the sides. Sure enough a torrent of rock came b...

The classic clash, tree huggers vs the pillagers. We live in a world where both are needed. By education I'm a geologist but have also belonged to such groups as the Sierra Club, Eco Defenders, Nature Conservancy, etc. While working for a Swiss mining company I looked at a mineral deposit in the San...

MOUNTAIN ROAD CONDITIONS

http://www.dot.ca.gov/hq/roadinfo/mtnhwys.htm

Drive Safe and please remember that road conditions can change quikly in the winter.

For chain and road conditions: http://www.dot.ca.gov/hq/traffops/truck ... hains.html This doesn't take the place of chains or these spider spikey things but something I do in the winter IN ADDITION TO CARRYING CHAINS is carry a soda bottle or two of sand in my car/truck. If you've spent much time i...

This is an example of minimum clothing needed for snow/ice climbing in Southern California with mittens, ice axe, & crampons.

http://outdoors.webshots.com/photo/2475 ... 3760vRVbeq

Photo taken near the top of Baldy Bowl above the Ski Hut.

Does this answer your question?

After having almost killed myself several times by going out ill equipped and with no skills I took some classes by the now long defunct Backpacker Shop in Claremont. I found I liked winter stuff better...less problems with water and heat. I went on lots of Sierra Club Angeles Chapter outings (free)...

Tim said To make a long story short, this hike was awesome!...IMO, this route is more interesting than Skyline. I know Skyline isn't a "trail" but you're more or less walking on a trail the entire time. Here you do boulder hopping, some mild scrambling (but no Class 3) and even a little cr...

FIGHT ON :shock: ...I will set up the 200lb anvil that I carry in my side pouch and place that tick right on the flat part. Then I'll reach back and grab my 25lb sledge hammer which is hanging in the loop where the ice axe is... NO WONDER YOU NEED THOSE TREKKING POLES :lol: I think the ticks will cl...

He219 claims Dawson with Mountaineering Boots, crampons, no poles. Managed 5.5 inches on that one .. But then he :wink: about it...so, just looks that high because of the low camera angle or Photoshopped it that way. :shock: Thanks for the info on uploading images...now I need to get my Kodachrome s...

Ok FIGHT ON, you lured me out with this: Oh and hey RickM, Look what happens when you use Black Diamond Hiking Poles. Check out the pic posted just above this post. Dude you FLY WITH POLES!!! Actually, if you look at that pic carefully, you'll see he is able to fly by ridding himself of those clumbe...

Any volunteers?

Did it look like any of these? http://www.enature.com/fieldguides/deta ... num=AR0100

Or one of these? http://www.werc.usgs.gov/fieldguide/lage.htm

Terry wondered Just strange that it started at the time it did. Smoldering campfires (made perhaps last weekend) have been known to rekindle days later especially if you throw wind into the mix. Causes of fires in the wilderness are many...maybe even sparks from the hard high carbon steel tips of tr...

Fight On, that reminds me of Mexico City. After we climbed the Big 3 (Popo, Ixta, and Orizaba) in Mexico, my friends flew home and I stayed for some sight seeing. My plane out was Christmas Eve evening and I was taking their rubber tired subway "trains" around the city. They were packing t...

First hike without the parents occurred in 1966 when I was going to hike up to Vernal Falls with my parents from camp 14 in Yosemite. While walking along the Merced River, I realized I left my camera in our tent and ran back to get it. Since we had been up to the falls the previous year I knew how t...

Started hiking in 1956 (with an assist from my dad) and climbing at Devil's Lake, Baraboo Wisconsin. My "real hiking" began in the mid sixties in Death Valley and Yosemite.

Fight On said Sorry. I did not have a friendowl zip lock baggy. Even I have limits. AW posted these stats: 65,000 gallons of human waster /yr Not sure if they still do this but I remember at the Colorado River on the New Hance trail in the Grand Canyon having to bag solid waste and the same on route...

Jeff, My current AVATAR shows the back (north) side of Mt Harwood and Mt Baldy. Plenty of snow up there for practice (be careful) on the north facing sides not visible from the south side. I just took the picture two hours ago from my house. A possible place for practice might be in the area of the ...

Thanks Fight On, and I did it without any caffeine by drinking root beer with my meal.

I used to carry a "Sierra Club" cup on my belt for years and would simply scoop up cupfuls of water right out of streams and lakes with no thought about it and no adverse affects. Then I read back in the early 70s an article in the now defunct climbing magazine "Summit" about a d...

Thanks guys (BDay). At any given time I have maybe 10-20. Good idea for consolation prizes :lol: I usually try to have one or two in my pack (the second one being to give to whoever thinks they are amazing when they see one). I occasionally experiment when making them by changing the number of jets ...

He219 asked It's tough using any stove in a snowstorm from a makeshift shelter. Whadaya say, Rick M? I find that's when stoves do their best. Below zero, raging blizzard, melting snow AND warming up the shelter...I'm loving it in the right kind of makeshift shelter (I'm an igloo fanatic) :D Déjà vu,...

Hikin Jim said I recently bought an OR Aurora bivvy. I've only used it around the house... There are lots of licensed roofers in the LA area :D Way back when, I tried using ponchos as rain shelters; one of the reasons I thought shelters were not an original ten essential. For a light rain with littl...

Rick's stove evolution: Three rocks wood, Ronson butane, Gerry white gas, Svea 123 white gas, Peak One white gas, Primus white gas, MSR MGK multi fuel, Hank Robert's propane, MSR Whisperlite white gas, and finally, my homemade recycled soda can :roll: alcohol. Bought 14 HG cartridges for 25 cents ea...

Rick Kent correctly noted A bivy sack looks just like a giant burrito to bears and mountain lions. Chewy on the outside, soft and juicy on the inside. To avoid laying in the mud, I once slept in my bivy on a picnic table..."late night snack" I guess. Just glad they weren't bears, are they ...

My first bivy sack was pre Gortex days...a coated nylon "sauna". I called it the condom. When Gortex came out in the 70's I bought 3 yards and made my own bivy sack (along with clothing, packs, harnesses, etc). Hiked up to Baldy Bowl in a snowstorm to try it out...had no sleeping bag or pa...