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I still can't believe they took 2 in Toronto. When they took 3 straight in Houston at the end of the season....I thought, wow. This is unusual.

DM sent.

Thank god I procured 3 of the memberships.

Ha, no. Apologies, just credit for the link. His OnlyFans channel is full and closed to new members.

So beautiful! I need to get back in there....never been. Thanks @rat and @lunger for surviving to tell the tale!

That third pic fromn the bottom.....thank you for sharing as usual!

Wait….rat has a fing blog??

Trip: Diptop Peak - South face/rib route - FA - 1,000’, 5.8 Trip Date: 09/27/2025 Trip Report: The complex south (or perhaps SSW) face of Diptop, Jason Hummel photo: “Not too bad for a couple of old guys.” “Not too good either.” The statement and its rejoinder were uttered upon arrival at the truck -- just after dark -- and ended 14 hours of moving, including pioneering a route up (with benefit of hindsight) a questionable objective. Apparently one person’s idea of a good time is another’s idea of a bad time. The exchange echoed an earlier sentiment: “One person’s inspiration is another person's embarrassment”. Diptop is just north of Mt Daniel, and just south of the insta-famous Jade Lake. Rolf sketched our approx route below, fairly borrowed from a Wikipedia image (in turn apparently derived from a pic by Martin Bravenboer): Our "meandering-like-a-drunk" route gained 1,000 vertical feet, and entailed 6 roped pitches (the last one v. short) and a fair bit of soloing. Photos from afar inspired hope that 1. we’d be climbing on granite, and 2. there would be appealing lines on the central buttress of the expansive south face, or on the face itself. Upon closer inspection: 1. the rock was granitic, but one might say it has exfoliated "in an unfriendly manner for free climbing." And 2., while there were cracks and attractive features, it was difficult to ascertain if the seemingly discontinuous lines could be joined. We leave that to more competent and/or bolder parties to figure out. The route was reasonably solid for the alpine, and had its moments of fun. It was mostly scrambling, though it had some contrived steeper climbing and some required steeper climbing. Rolf drew the short final bit -- arguably the crux -- to the ridge crest, not far from the summit. On some of the best rock of the route, although with limited pro, he made a couple of sporty moves with a Vlad-the-Impaler flake threatening his nethers: Despite a "limited alpine skill set", perhaps indeed an “ordinary person accomplishing extraordinary things” is possible, if by extraordinary the speaker meant finding an ignominious way up a fractured granitic face. Maybe they were just “projecting insecurities", since this venture was their pet project. We might have been mildly disappointed with the route, but random insults like “twee”, “cloying”, “piker”, and various vitriolic un-printables kept the mood light. And the surroundings weren’t half bad. A couple more photos below. First roped pitch, after several hundred feet of soloing up to 5th class: Relatively high on the route: An oblique look at the central buttress from the summit area: We approached from the Tonga Ridge/Deception Cr cutoff trailhead. This much shorter approach from the north (vs coming from the south) does require travel up/down some steep timber, duff, and a bit of brush, but offers scenery, solitude (until arrival at Marmot and Jade Lakes), and berries. A little off the optimum route on the last steep stretch of the return, while monkey-bar-jungle-gyming from tree to tree down pine-needle covered duff, someone might have mumbled “we can always rap”. I’m happy to share our approximate track if you’re interested in approaching the scenic lakes without the trail slog. More photos here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/H1e1ExQ1PTVEohUE8 And more about the rock in the area here (courtesy of Rolf: https://bluemarbleearth.wordpress.com/2024/09/16/tuck-lake-and-jade-lake-geology/ Gear Notes: Took a standard double rack, but a single would do. Approach Notes: See above. To access the south face, wander down from Diptop Gap.

On a road trip in Idaho and Montana and came across this hat in a thrift store in a little town in Montana when I stopped in to get some steak knifes. Got this and three steak knifes for $2. Thank you Steve and RIP.

Dan I will help you! Let’s also get your phone off here it will get scraped and every bit in the universe will be calling you!

Right on. After doing forbidden and looking at that face I knew we had to do something on that face. In the late 80's my buddy Ralph and I started off early July with the intention doing the route that said 20 pitches of 5.6. So just brought handful of nuts,tricams and titons. We ended up going to the left of you and left of that gully. Most of the gully's were wet,we had to use the two tools just to get on the rock after that it seemed constant 5.8 with some harder for 10 to 12 pitches of really good rock. Then we started getting into wet and greasy stuff I ended lowering off a couple of pieces and tried going left and right no go. I found a snow covered ledge that barely fit. We cleared it off put our bivy sacs down and then heard something coming from above well we hugged the wall and a nice chunk of ice landed on the ledge. Oh well it was getting dark so we ate some food and talked how we didn't have enough gear to safely rappel and how long we would probably wait for a rescue all while looking down at the road. We brushed and flossed our teeth and went to sleep sorta. In the morning Ralph thought he seen a runner hanging off a horn way to the left above so wth tension and what was left of our meager rack I got to it and got to some dry rock that easy class 4. Whoo hoo we hauled ass to the summit and started the descent a few rappels and we were at the top of CJ gully. That was definitely the closest we got to getting nailed by rocks. One person would look up and yell when the other would run to (shelter) there wasn't much of that. So getting home looking at Fred's green book it seemed we might of done the route that was written up as generally unpleasant and frightening. A couples years later I was walking around north Seattle and met Don Brooks pushing a stroller with two newborn with another kid walking, it seems they just wanted one more but got a extra one. Anyhow he was with the group that did the unpleasant route, he said he didn't write the entry and felt it wasn't bad. I felt the same should of done it later in the summer and don't go down CJ gully in the afternoon. Ralph said his favorite memory is sitting on that ledge flossing his teeth and thinking we were fucked! Always thought that face would be amazing in the winter.

Lovely photos!

Thanks Jason! I don't get up to the North Cascades very often, but I'll let you know if I do.

Hey Dan! I bet @olyclimber could help you recover your old profile if you'd like..... great to see you this summer in the mountains! Let me know if you are looking to head up to the North Cascades! I can't say I am doing much real climbing these days, but if you are up for a ramble or ski tour let me know.

Hey gang, I'm looking for climbing partners for this winter. I'm from Seattle originally currently residing in Boise. I used to post here under DPS/danielpatricksmith. I've been climbing for 30+ years. AIARE 1, WFA certified. The alpinist and ice climbing community Boise is pretty limited so I'm casting a larger net. I make several trips to the Cascades and Hyalite several times a year. In the short term I would like to do something on Hood (NF Right Gulley, Black Spider, etc.), ski touring in the Wallowas, ice climbing in Hyalite. Longer term I would love to get to the Peruvian Andes. Daniel Smith Please send a DM if interested.

Awesome! Thanks so much for that info and for the strava link, I appreciate it. Yup, I've been there and then did the same. I have the double back harness from ruff wear, it alleviates a lot of worries. Appreciate the beta!

Nice weekend to be out in the mountains!

Here is the compiled cal topo with the full route. https://caltopo.com/m/NV0J5M0 the only significant change id make is avoiding the mega detour to i5 between msh and rainier. FR 25 would be ideal, but it may not be open for a while (years?) the other option could be to climb msh first, then Adams…and take FR 23 (or possibly 21?) to Packwood. The likely barrier there is that the snow may not melt off the highest elevations on that road until July…which isn’t necessarily a problem but I wanted to do this in June oh and there were a few miles between Elbe and eatonville where I was very close to getting hit a few times (called Alder cut off I think)…if I did it over I would avoid this even if it added 20 miles like the alternate might have

Indeed they do. Turns out a few weeks later and Ben told us they were totally absent in the exact places in which we were tormented. So I would think by mid to late August it would be pretty bug free. The lowlands were totally fine, just up where the snow was melting off it was miserable with mosquitoes.

Sick job! Would you happen to have the route you took downloaded?

Great trip Jason! I guess there is a lot more alpine than I realized on Vancouver Island. Do the bugs go away late season?

Trip: Strathcona Provincial Park Ramblings - Big Interior, Septimus, and Kings Peaks Trip Date: 07/21/2025 Trip Report: This past July @Trent and I went on a ramble to Strathcona Provincial Park up on Vancouver Island. We were supposed to meet up with @wbk at the end of the week to give the Colonel Foster Traverse a go, but we wanted to ease into it. And so we did, sort of. Or maybe we just got schooled by the "Island Alpine" we had heard so much about from @wbk. First off we had to navigate the BC ferry options to the island, which tend to book up early. Nevertheless their ferry system makes ours look decidedly second class, and it all worked our pretty smoothly once we were booked and in line. First stop was the trail to Bedwell Lake which I suppose is a good trail by Island standards, but a grunt nontheless. The bugs weren't bad at the lake but increasingly became annoying as we climbed to our camp just below Jim Lake. We were up early the next morning, rambling up and across on the climber's path to Big Interior. It turns out most use this as an approach to Nine Peaks, but we didn't fancy carrying all of our overnight and climbing gear over the summit and so we settled for the "approach" summit of Big Interior. The bugs, heat, and humidity followed us every step of the way. Nine Peaks from Big Interior: @Trent pulling up on to the summit of Big Interior: The views, of course, were grand, and we barely knew any of the peaks in any direction. So much to do in every range it seems like, there is never enough time to climb them all! But we at least had to climb another on this trip, so we reluctantly retraced our steps to camp. And then promptly moved it to Cream lake, to prepare for the aptly named Green Ridge on Septimus. Camp at Cream lake with Septimus looming above: Septimus: Cream lake: We were up early the next morning, crashing around the lake and down, down, down to meet the start of the Green ridge. Do not underestimate this approach! It is every bit a thrash as anything in the Pickets or North Cascades and was especially character building in the heat, bugs, and humidity. Thankfully we were through most of it in a few hours and soon battling the steep rock and veg into the alpine. @Trent out of the brush and about to do battle with steep veg on the Green Ridge: But soon enough we emerged into the full blown Island Alpine and the grand north wall of Septimus and Rosseau was revealed: Looking down at Green lake from Green Ridge: As we scrambled higher, we came across one of the more vivid bits of rock I have encountered in the mountains. Maybe some pillow basalts that have been smoothed by ice? And then a short rap, some steep snow and steeper rock (but still 4th class) as we wheezed our way above the bugs and on to the summit of Septimus: @Trent on the summit of Septimus: There was quite a flower garden directly on the summit of Septimus: And then the 5-6 raps down the South (regular) route on Septimus. We had heard that you may need two ropes to make this work, but it went fine with a single 60m. Take care if anyone is below you though, much loose rock! By the time we got back to camp it was late afternoon, the bugs were fierce, and a swim was called for to think about our options. It was decided that we would spend another night at Cream Lake, hike out for a "rest" day and then try for a single day trip before meeting up with @wbk later in the week for Colonel Foster. I mean, we're going to do all that, right? But first, there was a sunset to enjoy: In the morning the bugs were still fierce, the heat and humidity back in full force as we packed up to hike the Bedwell trail back to the car. Parting view of Septimus: Big Interior and Bedwell Lake: Thanks to a friendly campground host in the park, we found an excellent free place to camp just outside the park and on the way to Gold River. It was about this point that our appetite for Colonel Foster was waning as the pull of home and no bugs was growing stronger: But first, another peak! We had chosen the "hiker's" route up Kings Peak as the day trip the following, knowing that it was a big grunt and was likely to be hot and buggy as well. Still, it was enough of a challenge as to feel like easy mountaineering, and it was hard to beat the views. There are loads of very steep climbs on Kings, maybe the highest concentration of hard routes on any peak in Strathcona Provincial Park. But we didn't climb any of them! We did oogle other nearby mountains like Elkhorn, for a future trip to the Island: And of course, the Colonel: Soon we were on the summit with the ravens on a perfect day, finally above the bugs and the heat, feeling the bliss of "Island Alpine": But it wouldn't last. We were tired from 5 days of rugged Island peak bagging, and a bit mad from the bugs as we descended. We got in the car, changed our ferry reservation and headed home. Sorry @wbk, we'll have to come back for the Colonel! Gear Notes: 60m half rope (Septimus Green Arete), ice axe, helmet, crampons Approach Notes: BC Ferries

Now that is a good use of a photo! So rad, thanks for drawing that up.