Casualties

There were many this weekend. The list looks like this:

1. My Eddie Bauer down sweater practically went up in flames like some sort of cartoon when embers from the fire got on it. I woke up in the morning with about 10 holes in it and feathers were coming out of each one. That jacket is stupid lightweight compared to my North Face Nuptse one (which I've had for over 10 years now and sat around multiple fires in) but it is definitely NOT fire resistant.

2. Similar to the above. I bought a new pair of REI convertible pants for this trip and they are riddled with holes as well. Again...I've got 2 pairs of North Face pants that have sat around loads of fires, hiked multiple 14ers, ridden hundreds of miles in, and generally been abused and there are no holes in them. Dharma even once found a left over piece of hard candy in the pocket of one pair and chewed on them while trying to get to the treat. She mangled that area of the pant but no hole. Now that's a testimony.

3. One of my favorite pieces of gear is a pair of fleece mittens from Simms. I've had these for 8 years and they've seen tons of action while fishing and riding. I loved them because I could really quickly flip open the mitten portion to reveal half finger gloves on the fingers and the thumbs. I went to grab a log from the fire and relocate it. Said log was hotter than I thought and it burned through the right mitten portion. I let the explitives fly. Simms still makes a version of this glove but mine used velcro to keep the mitten half of them out of the way and now they use a flap. Looks like I'll be buying some new ones and cutting the flaps off and then sewing on some velcro. Also looks like I have some nice Simms half finger gloves now.

4. Perhaps most devastating of all is something that I just discovered I left up there next to my bivy spot. Dr. Slick is a company that makes fly fishing tools. Having a good pair of Forceps (or clamps) for fly fishing is critical. The flies are tiny and these allow you to quickly unhook the fish so you can get it back in the water and revived. Most guys have stainless forceps. Not me. Several years ago I found these tie dyed ones from the good Doctor. I got compliments on them all the time. They were the shit. They were buried under the snow. The irony with this one is that on my hike in, I knew I was catching up to Scott and the others. The tracks kept looking fresher and then I was finally seeing watery boot prints on rocks. Then...I found a set of forceps. Nothing fancy...just stainless ones. I knew no other jackasses would be heading up that high to fish during an early storm so I grabbed them. They were Scott's and I gave him a healthy rash of shit for dropping them. Now that I've put this out there...I expect him to chime in at any time.