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hooblie
climber
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just happy to be here so i could help out son. it's my reward for turning back at just the right times cross referenced by all the times my number wasn't up. but to be spared and acknowledged...sweet. ain't life grand?
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Apr 23, 2009 - 10:34am PT
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I had to fish around for this one and found it in Mountain 31.
Ze Bomb Shelter!!!
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hobo_dan
Social climber
Minnesota
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Apr 23, 2009 - 12:14pm PT
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I had a pretty good winter in Minnesota- I knocked down about 1000 kms of skiing
I usually do a 10-15 km loop.
I skate 50% of the time and I'm trad the rest- But if the temp is around freezing I'm on my waxless Rossi's- they ski really great- Just as fast as my Peltonen Infra's ( well maybe not) I have been on boards since 1974 and The new Generation of Waxless has been great- much better than the original trak fish scale pigs. I have Rossignol Xium's- the model just below the top shelf- $200 retail I scarfed up mine for $100.
Sad to see the snow gone
Hey Doug i just re-read A night on the ground.....The story of the ski tour is my favorite from your book- nice job
murf
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guido
Trad climber
Santa Cruz
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Apr 23, 2009 - 07:16pm PT
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An excellent read!
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Apr 25, 2009 - 05:54pm PT
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A little more Summit funk from May 1966.
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T2
climber
Cardiff by the sea
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I don't know how I missed this incredible thread first time around. Thanks for the bump Steve.
DR: Thank you so much for taking the time to post this.
Jensen's jount is one of my favs at Tahquitz.
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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There's a Tahquitz Tales thread that Lauria started if you are so inclined. What was the route like?
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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May 19, 2009 - 09:43am PT
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Bump in the Sierras...
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Fuzzywuzzy
climber
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May 19, 2009 - 11:29am PT
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Doug -
I climbed the 26th of July Arete with Allan thinking the name had something to do with the Cuban situation. Funny. Also did the Twilight with Bardini - excellent. Advise - stay right on the arete - it goes at 5.8.
The Jensen pack design has never been surpassed. Its evolution culminated with Dana's Terraplane then overdeveloped into a bloated wearhouse with a waistbelt.
Knowing how to pack the Jensen - Ultimate Thule - Terraplane allowed us to ski those lines! Thanks for introducing us to the way!!
Carter
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Don Lauria
Trad climber
Bishop, CA
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May 19, 2009 - 11:34am PT
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Haan,
Amy Brennan took that picture of Pratt in the summer of 2000. She sent it to me to be published in the Winter 2000-2001 issue of the Bardini Foundation newsletter.
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Don Wittenberger
climber
Seattle, WA
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May 25, 2009 - 12:19pm PT
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I'm the present owner of the original Rivendell patterns for the Jensen Pack and Bombshelter Tent. I purchased the Rivendell Mountain Works assets from a federal bankruptcy court in 1981. The Jensen Pack patterns are currently loaned to Eric Hardee of Monroe, Washington, who maintains the Rivendell Mountain Works web site, and makes and sells a few dozen Jensen Packs every year. Eric's regular job is maintenance supervisor at a ski area in Washington State. The Bombshelter patterns are currently stored in my home in Shoreline, Washington. I'm interested in making the tents, but it takes time, effort, and some money. All I can say right now is that it has taken much longer than I expected, but is much closer now than when I purchased Rivendell's assets 28 years ago. I simply want all of you to know the patterns were not destroyed, the packs are available now from Eric, and the tent may reappear too.
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Doug Robinson
Trad climber
Santa Cruz
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Topic Author's Reply - May 26, 2009 - 12:23am PT
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Hey Carter,
I didn't realize before that you credited the Jensen Pack - Ultima Thule evolution with helping you guys ski stuff like the Red Line. I posted a shot of you doing aerial turns in the big gullies on your thread. Here it is again:
Knowing how to pack them was definitely key, and not easy. Seems like another key element was keeping it down to short stages of just a few days so the loads could stay under 25#.
But help me here, cuz then you say the evolution continued into the Terraplane. All I remember of that pack was after it became, as you say, "overdeveloped into a wearhouse with a waist belt." Heavy too. Was there actually an early Terraplane that was light and Jensen-like?
And as an elephant-in-the-room kind of a by the way, is it not amazing and disappointing that in nearly 30 years no one has repeated the Red Line?
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east side underground
Trad climber
Hilton crk,ca
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May 26, 2009 - 12:31am PT
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hey DR, really? no repeat! wow, got a route description?
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Doug Robinson
Trad climber
Santa Cruz
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Topic Author's Reply - May 26, 2009 - 12:53am PT
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Hey Underground,
Yeah, no repeat. Everybody's skiing gullies now, then off to happy hour. Not that I have anything against either pastime, but...
They never published an exact route description, but the basic deal was to ski from Mt. Whitney to Mammoth without deviating more than half a mile off the Sierra Crest. Or as Bardini quipped, "It was the first time that Mt. Russell got used as a pass."
Along the way they made, on those skinny nordic mountaineering skis (Karhu Comps), first ski descents of scads of gullies. Starting with the North Face of Mt. Whitney and including the North (or NW?) Couloir of Mt. Sill. And the one in the photo above, which I'm pretty sure is Mt. Humphreys.
They did it over a couple of years, in short bursts of 3-4 days when the conditions were perfect.
We should scan up their article. Pretty hilarious.
But, no... Nothing to see here folks... Move along now... Off to Happy Hour with you.
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gimmeslack
Trad climber
VA
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May 26, 2009 - 08:17am PT
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Back in the 70's(is that right?) i owned two packs, which in retrospect were very "jensen like".
The first was a Jansport, which *did* have internal frame, but had the "twin tube" style upper with a separate sleeping bag lower which wrapped your hips. It was in fact a really nice pack, though not of same build quality as other top-line packs of the day. A couple of years ago I sold it online to a Japanese collector, for much more than it was worth(!).
But the REALLY great pack, was a Yakpak, which I foolishly discarded a decade ago. It was a softpack, very carefully shaped to hug your hips, bomber construction, and which carried beautifully. It also incorporated an "x" suapension, meaning that the shoulder straps crossed over in front of wearer, which resulted in great carry, but a PIA to don/doff. I miss that pack.
So, I've been curious if anyone else knows the hereditary lineage, particularly of the Yakpaks, with regards to Jensen?
I routinely google for Yakpaks (ebay and such) and have never seen another.
Great to see that Jensens are being made again...
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Tarbuster
climber
right here, right now
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May 26, 2009 - 11:34am PT
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gimmeslack
Trad climber
VA
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May 26, 2009 - 12:07pm PT
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I must be pathetic and old... makes me feel all warm and nostalgic...
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Don Wittenberger
climber
Seattle, WA
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May 26, 2009 - 12:32pm PT
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Tarbuster, I can answer your question about the Yakpak, as I was the Yakpak's designer. I'm also the inventor and owner of the patent on the Yakpak's X-Suspension. The Yakpak was conceived and designed independently of the Jensen Pack. I was looking for something that would balance better in climbing situations than the popular packframes of the era. There are some significant differences between the two packs. The Yakpak was larger than the Jensen, and had an internal slot next to the back for carrying the sleeping pad inside the pack, which provided cushioning for the back and limited vertical support for the load. (In general, though, the Yakpak like the Jensen used the load itself as the "frame.") Unlike the Jensen, the Yakpak also had a separate padded waistbelt like a packframe. The key feature of the Yakpak's design was the X-Suspension you mentioned. Yes, a PIA to get on or off, but it allowed the shoulder straps to lengthen or shorten in opposition to each other. For example, if you reach upward with your right arm, you can get the needed slack in that shoulder strap by taking up the slack from the left shoulder strap, so you had greater freedom of movement without any looseness in either strap. We all know many things that look good on paper don't work in real life, but this idea worked pretty well. I left the Yak Works shortly after acquiring Rivendell Mountain Works, as a result of irreconcilable conflicts with my former partner, and the Yak Works went belly up a couple years later. When I left, I retained ownership of the patent and Yakpak design, and licensed it to the Yak Works as part of the legal settlement with my former partner. I have no plans to bring back the Yakpak, but from time to time I've toyed with the idea of putting the Yakpak's X-Suspension on a Jensen Pack. I've casually mentioned the subject to Eric Hardee, who makes the Jensen Packs under a licensing agreement he has with me, but we haven't seriously discussed it, because he's busy making packs and my focus is on the Bombshelter Tent. If someone wanted a Jensen prototype with the X-Suspension, there's no legal reason why Eric couldn't make one, if you can talk him into it. Because I'm the legal owner of both designs, I can (and would) give him permission to use the Yakpak's X-Suspension on the Jensen Pack, at least for the purpose of field testing it. The two packs are similar enough that I don't see why it wouldn't work on a Jensen. Playing with that hasn't been one of our priorities, though. It took 25 years just to get the Jensen Pack back into limited production, and nothing about that was easy. Eric and his wife live in a log house they built themselves in the mountains above Monroe, Washington, and they don't have electricity up there; he has to run the sewing machines off a generator.
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