chucK

That rockfall was huge! It lasted for about a minute, no exaggeration. Check out Uncle Tricky's report of Gato Negro. That million-ton rockfall gulley may well be their descent route . That West face of Silver Star looks nice ('ceptin for the huge rockfall gully shit). Also, we walked up there and back with hardly a hint of a trail. There's gotta be a trail! Uncle Tricky talks of one in his description for Gato Negro. Not tha I'm complaining or anything, but WHERE'S THE CONFOUNDED TRAIL ?! Can anybody fill me in? Oh yeah, and a #5 Camalot sorta protected the offwidth, but not well enough to erase my fears. There was a hidden yellow alien placement about the same height.

p1 hard for 5.9 p2 'bout right. Would be nice to have about 3 .75 Camalots p3 easy for 10c. Small wires for crux. p4 hard for 10b go right then left then right then up p5 easy for 10c if you go up the chimney then to the easy hand traverse (the easy one, up a bit higher, not the sucker one right after the squeeze that diagonals down). HB offset about size 5 or 6 or so (about the size of a #6 or #7 WC Rock, but offset like an HB offset) key piece for me. The yard on the sling way is not easy for 10c. p6 hard for 5.9 unless you do one of the easy weasel way outs You can use a #4 Camalot on p's 3 and 4. Info to help you decide which leads to take: Good belays atop p's 1,3,5. Cramped belays above p's 2 and 4. Also pitches 2,4,6 seemed scarier relatively (as long as you have that key HB offset). Best pitches 2,4,5.

I've never gotten lost, climbed the wrong route. Uh uh never noway . Never climbed the wrong peak. Nope not me.

I didn't do the intermediate course, but I'll bet it's a good way to find partners. The people in the intermediate course have graduated (or tested out) of the basic class so, while they may be nowhere near proficient in any sort of technical climbing, it is likely that they are reasonable fit, capable of finding their way around the woods, and are pretty serious about getting out in the mountains. If you got a lot of time, not tons of money, want to be able to have climbs set up every weekend, I'd say the intermediate class might be a good thing. You can find partners on this board, but your partners and amount of responses can be quite variable. Plus you have to write and read "f**k" a lot.

There are no two-pitch free-solos. They are all one pitch.

Are you bringing a rope? If so, walk over to the rib beneath the East peak. If you see no snow, you're golden. That means no snow. If you do see snow, just scramble down the rib a hundred feet or so and pop back over below the snowfield. Of course, at that point you will be cliffed out above a big slab. But since you have a rope, you can rap it (or downclimb it, it's pretty cool). There's a couple stations there already. You probably might wanna also bring some bail webbing. And bring two extra water bottles.

guess where

What an interesting and cordial discussion of bolting. You guys are the best. Let me please step in here and take a couple jabs. I think it is interesting that North Bend and Vantage are being used as examples of places that bolts didn't ruin . Seems like using that argument is kinda shooting yourself in the foot if you ask me. The mention of bolts on the Canary ledge intrigued me too. Though I don't advocate chopping them like Thinker did ( ), they do seem pretty unnecessary and stupid. You don't need 'em to rapell. They are big fat 1/2" pieces of convenience. They probably help speed up the trains of people climbing up Canary and Saber, so that's probably a good thing. But a lot closer to 'convenience' than 'necessary' or even 'useful'. Hell for convenience, I think it'd be pretty convenient if someone went and bolted just one more pitch on Total Soul so you wouldn't have to carry all those heavy cams up that brutal Three O'Clock Rock trail. Oh, and I'm totally for bolted belays with chains wherever that belay is going to be often rappeled from.

details!!? Spill Alex. Route? Length of fall? Dogbone draws involved?

Hey Dru, About that contingent of Canadians that are coming down to the Icicle, and that kegger that you have invitied disenfranchised ropeuppers to. I think it sounds lame and you should change it.

"...ask for Bubblebutt." "Hi, can I speak to Bubblebutt?" "Who?" "The one with the big piton?"

Mattp, You are WRONG!!! The piece for that spot is a #8 Black Diamond Hexcentric. There is a slot into which one fits perfectly, like the slot (or hexes?) were made for it. It fits so perfectly that the hex will fit in only one orientation. It fits so perfectly that I would not recommend taking some other brand hex up there. I believe you should include this vital information on your topo. And Mr. Whitelaw, are you reading this?

Start of school for Seattle SD is Sept 3.

Did you have an orgazmik beer experience afterward, or does that require doing the whole route?

Oct 15

Why not have grass-roots, non-corporate, bring-our-own, "party" in September sometime? This would allow those who seem put off by the Octoberfest to do their thing. This would also allow all those who want to attend the big extravaganza to do that thing. AND it would not require the groups to be divided. If you got enough free time, this way you could do both! September is a good time for just about ANYWHERE in WA. Darrington or Washington Pass come to mind if Leavenworth is all booked up already. C'mon AlpineK, I'm sure you got enough firewood for two events.

I think a 50 would get you all up the Gendarme. First person leads on doubled rope. The other two follow separately on single strands. The problem I see with your plan is that having three people climbing is going to either cause you to go real slow (pitching it out [with 25m pitches ] the whole way up the ridge), or increase the danger (simuling with three people).

But you did say Roosevelt to Kaleetan was a traverse. I call it climbing two distinct peaks. Glad I could make you laugh. Better than a "rap on the beezer" I guess. Good to see you posting again.

Just Stuart-Sherpa or Dragontail-Colchuck might be good objectives for mortals? Hmmm...maybe not the latter due to the road closure.

Hey Fairweather, It looks to me like Mattp articulated a bunch of his beliefs. You on the other hand just acted the evasive crybaby . I don't think Matt's point was that NPR is not biased to the left. I think his point was that NPR reports closer to the truth than does FoxNews. What do you think about this statement?

Sounds good to me!

Nice pic too!

Matt, I think if the demos did have leadership it might be bad. Then they would have all their heads on the same chopping block. I kinda like them "diversified" .