Re: list (CSAA) of must see animals.

In article <48cb0906$0$89392$815e3792@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>,
Ed Huesers  <ed@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>>>>> Have been going solo lately: 
>>> Not many crev***** here, mostly just bergshrunds and even they are 
>> Schrunds are still fairly hazardous.
>> Not many glaciers in CO.
>
>    Not that big either. Generally speaking, they don't roll over 
>features and bend creating cracks. Certainly not the type of terrain to 
>create ice falls.
>    Schrunds are formed more from sun on the rock than glacial movement.

No, those are moats.
A schrund is defined as the crevasse formed where the glacier (movement
of) pulls away from the non-moving feeder permanent snow fields.

>    The most traveled glacier in the park has a small schrund and part 
>of it tears leaving some setting on rock. This part of the glacier has 
>an actual crevasse or two but I've never seen them deeper than 6 ft. and 
>two feet wide. Generally they are a foot wide and a couple feet deep.

Yeah that's pretty thin.  Are you seeing the underlying ice?  You have
to distinguish glacier moment from creep which the snow will do.

>    Probing with a ski pole has sufficed as the snow bridges are not the 
>type where the whole thing will collapse.
>    Not at all like the Blow Mtns. north of here, not to mention further 
>north.
>
>>> There was only one slope that was an avalanche concern but was able 
>>> to stay on the high side and in features.
>> Thermal gradient OK?
>
>    It was hard below with a foot or so of soft on it. It was bonded to 
>the hard snow and was halfways consolidated itself. I don't think I 
>could have gotten it to slide had I wanted to.

Hey, explosives are your friend.  So is gravity (recently reading about
Attu, lots of boulder rolling and mixing many with hand grenades).

>    I would worry more about the foot not holding me and have myself 
>slide down the loose snow. It was only that steep in two or three places 
>that were two or three steps each.

Yeah, that's a problem, too.

>    I used snowshoes and I was more worried about the descent as most of 
>the snow had blown off the underlying hard pack. I took my snowshoes off 
>and plunge stepped in those two or three steep areas.
>    Thought the winter, I do enough shoveling and digging to know the 
>underlying layers too and they are pretty stable in years of late with 
>the snow fall a bit warmer than it used to. The snow in the ground layer 
>is slush/wet and not the depth hoar of years gone by.

So no more destructive metamorphosis happened?
I was wondering how you knew the hackpack is OK.

>>>>You had skimpy snow in some cases.
>> A rock a hoe basin didn't get its name for nothing.
>
>    If it is consolidated snow that fills the gaps between rocks, 
>climbing can be pretty good.

How big is the local talus average?
I'd be cautious about one of those leg breaking holes.
I'd step on the rocks and not the snow.

>>> A lot of volcanic in Iceland. Lots of colors. Looks like high avi 
>>> slopes everywhere.
>> Iceland is nice.  Some avi.  Temperatures are comparatively warm and
>> uniform.
>
>    Slopes are broad and as steep as flowing sand.

No veg to anchor.
Many on the angle of repose and brief steep cliffs where flows broke off.

They have to snow machine a lot.  It's not like they do a lot in the
interior in winter.  They have a couple of ice sheets.

>>> I still haven't worn out the rockies. I've been doing mostly 
>>> backcountry routes for quite a few years now.
>> They are nice mountains.
>
>    All granite where I go most.

What?!  Youo don't go to El Dorado?  So that's why we didn't get to the
Flat Irons like Clyde and George.

>Some volcanic intermixed through the 
>state. Then you got the metamorphic on the west side. I prefer the 
>granite domes.

Granite is very nice when you get the right blend of minerals.

There was a subtle joke in the current Journey to the Center of the Earth.

They enter a chamber (which I won't explain further) and there are
embedded huge diamonds.  Then the 2nd character identifies rubies.
And then 3rd, eldest character, comes in and says Feldspar which only
has value as fill material.

>    A trip re****t from last weekend should you care to register. They 
>seem to respect your privacy: 
>http://www.rmnpforums.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=13888
>
>> I think you guys killed off your grizzlies as well.
>
>    Enos Mills knew some of the last ones and wrote about them. To a 
>degree, much like Treadwell. What was the temperament of the CA grizz?

I think few knew.
I'm not certain what peak numbers were that they could determine if they
differed from other members of the species.  European browns might be
close genetically, but they might be far more docile than browns in
remote AK, .ca, and deep in Siberia.  When did you guys kill off your
last grizzlies?


>> Momentary break.
>    Gotta go?

Busy week last week.  This is only 1/2 busy.

Expires got rid of Chris' last thread.  Have to figure out this Scotland
thing of his.

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