u/FishScrumptious

Anyone have any tips about switching the auto toe bails for the toe baskets? My single boots (Lowa Cevedale) have a heel welt, but not a toe welt, and I'd like to use my shiny new crampons with them this weekend on a training hiking up St Helens before some other stuff this spring.

I watched the video they have posted for holding the spikes in a vice and using the strap to pull one side of the bail steel out of position, but when I tried this, I simply couldn't pull enough to get clearance through the hole. I ended up stabbing myself on the spikes trying to loosen the vice!

Any extra tips you've got?

I'm heading up this weekend, camping one night and summiting next day. The conditions report on MSHI note that the snow line is around 4700ft. I'm looking to camp around 3700ft, where the Swift Creek Trail out of Marble Mountain Snow-Park intersects with the Loowit Trail. Satellite imagery suggests that there's a grove of trees at that intersection, and the tiny looping trails on CalTopo make me think this is an established camp location.

If you've been up there in the past week or two, can you confirm if there are trees that can be hammocked from? Is there actually water near by to the site for filtering? What does the bug situation look like at this elevation?

I'll take the winter route up in the morning, but hoped to toss up a hammock here since I'll be coming in mid-evening.

Thank you so much for your help!