almaz wrote:

Daria wrote:except for a dude trying to steal my mountaineering boots in a large grocery store-they were resting in my shopping cart

How big are your feet???

haha!!!

I actually wear a size 11 womens, so shoes would have prob fit him. Dude was a sneaky little bugger. I was sitting next to the shopping cart waiting for my friend to return. The moment I saw his hands on the laces of my boots, I stood up and started yelling "HEY!!! HEY!!!! HEY!" running at him. Think my dictator tone scared him off. If I had not caught it in the corner of my eyes, he would have done the deed and bolted in 1.5 seconds and I wouldn't have a clue where my boots had went.

I wear a size 50 mountaineering boot. Despite the high value of those boots I don't see anyone even considering stealing them.

This is like climber porn...

"what shoe size do you wear, sweetie?"

"size 11, baby"

The worst forced bivy was early in my climbing career. (before internet and cellphones) Soloing the N face of Shuksan in winter and got lost/delayed on the descent. Storm came in, white out, and bivy sack leaked and soaked down bag. Couldn't see the way past cliffs due to white out. Dug my first snow cave with the stove pot, the size of a coffin, 1 can fuel for water and 1 Powerbar. Shivered for 22 hours no sleep, until storm lifted. Got back to a phone 1/2 hour before my rescue callback time. Main mistake was not being sure of descent. Also not taking weather seriously and using an unsealed bivy sack and a down bag.

Main things learned was how to dig a snow cave and how to stay alive by shivering.

Buckaroo, did you take that photo (Slesse?) on your profile? That is one amazing shot!

Sorry for being off topic.

Vitaliy M. wrote:Buckaroo, did you take that photo (Slesse?) on your profile? That is one amazing shot!

Sorry for being off topic.

with conditional permission from John Skurlock, who built and flies a kitplane and takes amazing photographs

http://www.pbase.com/nolock

Oh cool. Great photo. Looks like Devil's thumb in winter...

John is a hero here in Washington. Many winter F.A.s got done due to his awesome images.

So I heard....hopefully he deserved a hero worshiping thread on CC.com

Steve1215 wrote:^^^^^^^^^^^^


Size 50?

That's either a European size, or you have really, really, really, realllllllly big feet.

Euro sizing, obviously. Literally the only boots I could find in that size for mountaineering were the Baruntses. More than a little overkill for ice climbing...

Does losing your bivy gear before a planned bivy in the winter count as an unexpected bivy for the purposes of this thread?