EISPIRATEN

The National Wx Service says 30% chance of snow on Sat/Sat night and 20% on Sunday. http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/forecast/MapCli ... -117.71327 If you look at the link above, you'll see that I plugged in the approx. lat/lon for Iron Mtn. The NWS will then give you a "point" forcast, i.e. a forc...

Thank God we have TDR looking out for our rights (and our lefts).

Coyotes are everywhere you look. I've had good luck in early morning hours. Deer are fairly common. I see a lot of them at dusk. I even see them at Griffith Park. I've had several bear encounters, but there doesn't seem to be a pattern. You could just wait by a dumpster... I've seen Big Horn Sheep s...

pilot wrote: ... but I guess if you've got the guts and the skills...

And the quads!

Unless things have changed, you do need an adventure pass for the E Fork area. Not sure if things on Iron Mtn. are ice/snow free. This recent trip report https://eispiraten.com/f ... -asc-0.php doesn't look very snow free, but it's about 3 or so weeks old. As for Wilderness permits, well, they reall...

Very cool. Thanks for the link. Sounds like the next access date is April 19. Sounds like they're doing it once a month? Not bad. I remember getting chased off when I tried it some years ago before they started allowing access.

D: Actually, that's pretty neat. I thank you for sharing that. It's really an encouraging thought that my dad's death in some part helped you to be safer, got you into SAR and from there to perhaps saving someone else's live. Altogether fitting. Thank you. I was very impressed and very grateful to a...

Very cool trip. Sorry about the ticks. That sux. Little chance of it, but if you see a "bulls eye" shaped red blotch (i.e. a large center blotch with a mostly separate ring around it), you should see a Doctor ASAP (or sooner :D). Seriouly, Lyme disease has reached California. It's really r...

For test#1&3, all I have to do is set my xenon flashlight on the ground. They actually make them now all the way to 1200 lumens which means those could set yards away. Nice light! Still, having a light that points where your eyes do is a real advantage. Test#2, terrrain scrambling,I have done a...

Hi, guys, I appreciate the things you all said. Thank you. You may have noticed, if you hang out herein much, that I pay pretty close attention to SAR type stuff and safety issues. Dean Christy was kind of a weird deja vu. My dad and Dean were both in their 60's, life long, experienced outdoorsmen, ...

2003 - 2004? Yeah, rough year all right. Ron Barbour is (was) my father. Slipped on ice and went over a waterfall head first in Acorn Canyon while doing a PCT section hike. Probably died instantly, but dang he was a mess when I saw him after the coroner released his body. Crack in his skull from rea...

I had my Tikka XP in -17C wx when I was in Canada in January, and my batteries are still going strong. The LED thing is the way to go for most applications. You can still just get an LED flashlight, but there are so many things that you really need two hands for. The simplest things like tearing ope...

If you do it clockwise, you could do a "bike shuttle." By "bike shuttle" I mean you position a bike in the Chantry Flats area, and then bicycle out when you finish your hike. On a bike it should be a fairly easy ride to get back to your car, and the Chantry gate is one you can ge...

I don't think you can camp at Chantry. There are picnic tables but no camp sites. You could call the Ranger Station and ask. You could also just sleep in your car and see if anyone says anything. Depending on your vehicle type and how low a profile you keep (don't use any lights), I bet you could ge...

I don't even carry a flashlight anymore. I bought a really tiny 2nd head lamp as a back up. Once you go hands free, you won't go back. I used to grip my flashlight in my teeth if I had to get something out of my pack or whatever. Now, I just use the headlamp, and it is so much more convenient. Headl...

Hey, Taco, is it Ice Pirates time?
http://www.summitpost.org/trip-report/3 ... -2008.html

Yeah, it's not San Gabs, but it's worth a read.

That second pair of sunglasses on snow idea sounds like a good one. In an "emergency" (I consider getting snow blindness an emergency), one can tie a bandana over one's face, single or double layer as necessary. I know this works -- I found out the hard way (ouch) that you HAVE to do somet...

Yeah, that's what I thought. Rough year.

Anyone been down there (Idlehour) recently? Last time I was through, there was quite a bit of Poison Oak in the camp area which made me think that I wouldn't want to set up there even though, for the front range, it's really a nice secluded spot. The hike I did that time was kind of a cool loop. I w...

Nah, just use snow tires.

Nice pix.

I thought we lost three so far this year in the avvies over in the Mtn. High area?

I just tried it a second ago, and it was fine.

VERY cool area. There's a couple of really BIG pools if you go down far enough, but it's at least class three to get down to the pool because of the waterfall that feeds the pool (although I've heard there's a ridge you can climb around to the east on). I'll bet it's really gorgeous right now with a...

I've got one of these http://www.altrec.com/shop/detail/20405/ I rather like it since I like to back pack and sometimes I like to take (ahem) short walks in the middle of the night. It also helps if you're getting back late or up after dark at your campsite. The XP has a boost mode that really casts...

Wow. Thanks for sharing that.

I've had snow blindness. Does the word "agony" mean anything to you? I wear 'em religiously if there's any significant snow.

I also wear 'em if it's a really bright day out. My basic rule is: If I'm more comfortable with 'em on, wear 'em.

Cool!

Um, I'm glad you asked that question. :shock: And, um, as everyone knows, um, ... the answer is, um ... that I, um ... don't know. :oops: Seriously, that's a good question. Even if your PLB couldn't get an immediate GPS fix, you wouldn't be screwed. A PLB starts xmitting the 406 MHz signal immediate...

One item of interest to note: despite the orange skin, gray hair, apparent blindness, and the military's refusal to transport the bodies, the film in the party's cameras was still good if I'm reading the links and story correctly. The victims' own photos were used as a part of the investigation. &qu...