chucK

Check out the SI article linked in his website. It's a good article with some good info. For "crampons" he used 1/2" hex-head screws pounded into his shoes, tips up(?). Sounds like he started doing the AT from the South, then when he got too bogged down by the winter up North, he flew and did 600 miles in New Mexico, then he thru hiked the PCT. Then finished the Continental Divide trail, then finished the AT. The article was written after an interview in July when he was at Crater Lake. The isolation sounds brutal. I get chatty with strangers on a 1/2 day solo climb. This guy was out there 7 months! You ever run into one of those solo hikers out in the woods? They're dying to talk about anything. I remember heading up to Thompson one morning and some guy just about begging me to join him for a cup of coffee up there next to Ridge Lake. Chuck

The new features that allow you to go straight to the most recent page of the multi-page threads is a great improvement. The feature that shows the most recent posting on each board is great. Is it possible to copy that so it would be available for each thread within each board? I liked the ratings. It was fun to automatically one-star anyone who bitched about the ratings or the new board. But like someone else wrote, it would probably get old quickly. Great job guys. Chuck

Dude, I'm intrigued by your reluctance to lead. If it is because you don't feel ready and perceive it as dangerous, consider this. Many of the "leaders" that you are following up a mountaineers climb have exactly the same amount of experience as you do now. You are putting your life in their hands. Wouldn't you rather control your own destiny? If you just want to climb with Mounties on the basic level you can still sign up for the basic climbs as long as you stay a member. I did that for a while. It was a bit harder to get on climbs, but no problem if you just sign up for the harder ones. Chuck

Went and climbed the Tooth in the warm sunshine. Nobody was around. I do think I spotted ScottP up dancing naked on Chair though. Glad I didn't have my binocs. Chuck

Nevermind, too late. I went up and climbed the Tooth. There was NOONE up there? I thought the Tooth was supposed to be crowded. Chuck [This message has been edited by chucK (edited 10-20-2001).]

DPS brought up being sick in two separate threads. That makes it look like he WANTS to discuss it, doesn't it? I hope he's gonna be OK. Get well soon Dan. Chuck

Here's my two cents... Though I enjoy the freedom inherent in anarchy in hills, I do think that the most popular areas could or do benefit from some group taking the initiative to maintain the area and/or delineate some measure of decorum. At popular crags I have concerns with waste disposal (litter and human waste) and unnecessary impact on the surrounding environment (e.g. multiple redundant trails and erosion). These problems could potentially be solved by educating the users to the problems, but probably the best method is for a concerned group to take steps to make it easy for the less-concerned (and everyone) to not trash the place. For example, build some good and obvious trails, block the redundant ones, and provide easy access to waste disposal (honey buckets, trash cans, and the big one, maintenance of said items). In this scenario, there are no potentially thorny issues of who polices whom and how much. By making it more convenient for people to take care of the place, you'll get pretty good compliance. Most people will not be dickheads if it means going out of their way. The crux here is whether or not anyone takes the initiative to do the dirty work. At most popular places some motivated party will get the ball rolling on positive improvements and I wholeheartedly thank those like DCramer and MattP with the drive to initiate this stuff. Once the process does get started I think it's the duty of frequent users of the area to pitch in and help. The topic of "rules" for crags is more problematic. Without a clear governing body it would be difficult to delineate and effectively enforce any rules on route development, obnoxious behavior and such. Establishment of a governing body, especially one that enlisted the feds, would be worrisome to me. I get all touchy about that "slippery slope" stuff. At present I don't see a big problem at the crags I visit in terms of "rules" and people following them. Sure there's some worrisome stuff, but most people act pretty civil, and when someone gets way out of the line the local community appears to police itself reasonably well. I'm not going to go jumping on a bandwagon to create a system that at some point is surely gonna "cramp my style" on the chance that we might need it someday. I'd rather put off a painful cure until I'm sure it's needed. One more problem I see in the climbing community is that damn ice-cream truck that visits the UW Rock and blares its annoying ditty to distortion. Perhaps winter will take care of that, like the fruit flies in our kitchen. Chuck

The report doesn't look too bad for the East side of Cascades for Wednesday. Chuck

Well this one doesn't even compare to NW face of Forbidden, but if you're short on time, check out the N Ridge of Foggy Peak. With a bike it's a short day (I was home for dinner in Seattle at 6pm) but you won't find near as many people as the Tooth. There's a bit of bushwhack then you climb up and pop through Ida Pass. The scenery gets cool here. Glissade down about 600 feet then traverse around and back up to N Ridge of Foggy. Awesome granite up on the crest. Easy climbing for about 400 feet. Lonely summit. Take the shorter way back down the SW face route. Chuck ps I posted a report earlier this year, http://www.cascadeclimbers.com/ubb/Forum2/HTML/000195.html about another obscure day trip in the Monte Cristo area I stumbled on this year.

That Dave guy is is pretty cool. Just make sure you don't let him drive! Chuck

I did Thompson about a month ago, via the Direct W Ridge. It is easy, but the pro is pretty sparse for a beginner leader. If you are getting worried and needing to place a piece every 10 feet or less then you might take a REAL long time to do the climb. That might be a concern if you are doing it from the car as it's a pretty long trudge. There was a party or two that got there just after we did (Thank God!) and they were VERY slow. I'd bet it was because of the beginners*no pro factor. The Tooth would be an awesome climb to let your beginner partner lead if it weren't so goldeen crowded. You might try that. You probably wouldn't have to worry about being held up by anyone. A good possibility if you have mountain bikes (or the key to the Monte Cristo gate) would be the N Ridge of Foggy Peak (Green Beckey guide). Two-three pitches of nice granite on the ridge. It might require crampons to get to it this time of year. The SW-face route is OK too. It is shorter and would not require crampons now. It has only one short but good rock pitch up on the ridge, but throws in a couple of nice, though exposed, 4th class pitches. I'm not sure if there's good pro on the 4th class stuff. Chuck

My birthday's the 16th. Can I come too? Chuck

I do recall that West of the summit was a precipitous dropoff and that I got to the final summit point from the North. That would imply that I traversed under it on the right (East). I don't recall any scary parts there but perhaps it's being blocked from my memory by post-traumatic stress? Like I wrote above, I did find a summit register. I don't remember thinking that I hadn't summited. I do remember thinking it would be cool to climb that crazy balanced rock (with a partner). Here's a cool picture from Alex Krawarik's page. You decide which is higher. Chuck

I climbed it last year via the SE route. I remember two harder sections. One was a short chimney. The chimney turned out harder than I wanted on the way up and I had no rope with me so I chained two or three bootied rap slings together to make a little prison-break rope to aid my descent. After the chimney I came to a decision of an exposed traverse on the right of a tower or a 25' high or so corner with a crack (and slings at the top) that led to ledges left of the tower. I took the corner. From there I went left of the tower then right of the balanced rock then easy to the summit. I don't remember(?) any other difficulties. I probably was on the summit as I do remember reading summit register entries. I also remember that the insecure summit combined with the foreboding about my upcoming descent precluded me from enjoying myself very much on the summit. Does this sound familiar? Did you find my flag of rap slings? Chuck [This message has been edited by chucK (edited 09-24-2001).]

That bolt above the pedestal replaces an old rusty one. I can understand how people would miss that old one since I missed it myself the first n times I climbed OS. Didn't find it until someone else led and clipped it. Yes, it does work very well to reduce rope drag. If you're just worried about rope drag though, it seems like the old one would have sufficed. Maybe it's to protect RPM? Chuck Chuck

Peter, I was not suggesting that you threatened anyone. I should have used "one" instead of "you" but it would look pretty silly if I went back and edited that post now. Chuck

Peter, I still consider your remarks condescending, but I'll take back the smarmy part. I guess I don't know what that means. In respect your attempt to "civilize" the discussion on this board, I felt I should elaborate on my terse comments. An idea I find to "simplistic and ignorant" is that bolting is always a net positive. I've heard many times that people who want a safer climb will like the bolts, and those who don't can "just skip the clips". Anyone who thinks you can just try to ignore the bolts and retain the character of the original unbolted line just doesn't get it (yet?). I think I give the benefit of the doubt to champions of this idea by calling them ignorant. If someone out there doesn't get why this argument is vaccuous I'd be happy to discuss it via email. Which brings me to explanation of my view of the CC anti-bolter's style of argument. I called them "colorful" because I think they are often humorous and entertaining, as long as they are not threatening (to people, not in situ bolts). I understand that what is considered "threatening" varies depending on who's on the target end, but let's get one thing straight. If you're out at the crags or in a bar and someone gets in your face and starts insulting you, then that could easily be construed as threatening. Being called names on an internet chat board is more like someone yelling at you out of a car as they drive away. It shouldn't be too scary. You have no exposure, ESPECIALLY if you're one of those here who chooses to remain anonymous. Threatening to hurt someone by "mixing it up" or dropping rocks on them is not appropriate in discussion, even in an anonymous setting. What I find especially cowardly is getting in your threatening shot, then going back and editing away the evidence in an attempt to hide your attack from the rest of the community. Chuck

quote: Originally posted by Peter Puget: [We should in a civil manner but direct manner tell these jokers to get lost and that they are not only behaving poorly but shamefully[/b] Hey Peter, Isn't that: 1. Contemptuous insults, 2. An attempt to stop any real discussion? It certainly is condescending, and perhaps smarmy. I find many of the anti-bolt tirades on this site to be "colorful". I do think it gets out of hand when the Cap'n threatens people. I find most of the pro-bolt missives to be simplistic and ignorant. Chuck

JJ's beta sounds pretty good. You can check out my melodramatic account at http://members.home.net/cspieker/stories/stuart.htm You probably oughta buy or steal the (Brown) Beckey guide to get an idea of where the route goes. There's a pretty good picture of one possible route on Michael Stanton's web page http://www.mountainwerks.com/cma/stuart/stwhole.htm People are slagging the Cascadian Coulouir here, and maybe they're right for the way up, but on the descent all that sand and dirt is way cush. Chuck

I just drove in to the Dutch Miller Gap TH today. A bit less than two hours from Seattle. It is getting pretty bad at some spots, but mostly it's not too bad (if you got a high clearance vehicle). I used to drive my Rabbit in there though. Chuck

They're probably selling them on EBay. Chuck

I second the Aries chimney as a sandbag at 5.8, and definitely agree that the boulder start of the BK route is harder than 5.9. I don't know if it would be a sandbag to everyone or if it was just me that day, but let me take you back to a day a couple years back, on a sunny day, in the month of May... I'd climbed Davis-Holland-> Lovin' Arms and felt all proud (led, onsighted, the odds). Even though we'd been out of water for the last 3 hours or so we still wanted to climb something else and thought we'd go against all the bad press and try "The Back Road". I nearly soiled my pants on the first "5.8" move. Only made it after excavating a new hold from below the moss. I wimpered on the following paper-thin flake. Then I got up to those zig-zag (5.7) flakes and could not pull over on the last move. After a couple of tries I was trashed and resorted to shameless aiding. Maybe I was trashed from the last climb and/or the lack of water. Maybe that pitch really is hard? I sorta doubt it. Anyway, at the belay, I say, "That first move sure was hard for a 5.8!" My supportive partner replies, "It wasn't that hard". Chuck

check it out http://members.home.net/cspieker That one doesn't work anymore [12/04/01]Chuck [ 12-04-2001: Message edited by: chucK ]

Climbed Sawhorse Tower up near Columbia Peak a few weeks back. Waited to post this until I had the pictures. The way we did it was 6 pitches of sustained 5.6 or thereabouts. The rock is solid and the approach pretty nice (via the '76 Glacier). A very nice climb. TR with more pictures is on my new webpage. Sawhorse Tower Check it out

I soloed. I have rope-climbed above the notch before (West Ridge Coulouir route) and the protection is plentiful. I found the crux be below the final headwall. It was a handcrack about 5.6 probably. There may be a way to avoid it, but I didn't look too much because I like handcracks and this one was rime-free. I found a very easy way to get up the final headwall: traverse as far right as you can then go up and traverse all the way back left on a big ledge system to around the corner, then you can squeeze through a chimney under a chockstone which gets you to easy broken-up rock on the North side. Chuck