chucK

I climbed the West Ridge yesterday. My ice-axe was dead weight. I might have descended a bit low and missed a snowfield though? The West Ridge was scary as it had a bunch of rime ice on it. I kept going because I thought the sun was going to break out and melt it all. It got pretty ugly just past the West Ridge notch, but by alternating between the north and south sides I could usually find a route less crusted. Luckily the final headwall was above the clouds and was mostly rime-free. Phew! On top I was alternately on top of then inside of the clouds. Of course once I was in the Cascadian Coulouir all cloud cover burnt off. Chuck

Is the Teanaway Road open? Anybody know? Chuck

Blue Crack pitch - Dreamer Last (difficult) pitch NW Corner NEWS Damnation Crack First of the Outer Space handcrack pitches Corner Pockets p2 - Vantage Thin Fingers Cocaine Crack Local Boys Do Good p1 - Sqish Chuck

Back to the "Returnable Equipment Inventory" part of this thread: REI has this policy because it sells gear for them. If you're hemming and hawing over buying something, the person helping you (on one of the rare times you EVER get ANY customer service at that place) will use their highly successful deal sealer, "Just take it out to the hills. Try it out! If it doesn't work for you just bring it back." When given that option, how can you go wrong? You buy the damn thing. When I'm swayed by that pitch, I've entered into a contract. I'm damn sure not going to forfeit some of my value in the agreement; that is, I'll bring the sucker back if it displeases me (reasonable time, of course). We made a deal, me and REI. I gave them the money up front. They said I could take it back if I so DESIRED. I agree with Erik though, that it is not right to purposefully "borrow" stuff. By the way, has anybody noticed that they seem to be trying to slowly creep away from their "satisfaction guaranteed" policy? Also it is worthwhile to note that other, way better, gear shops will often give you reasonable satisfaction guaranteed contracts if you ask 'em. Chuck

OK here's the OS beta. Do the RPM start (you can avoid the 10d slab part). If you can't handle the 10b moves through the roof you can either aid them OR you can escape left where it gets hard using an easy but quite exposed traverse, which puts you back on the easy finish of Remorse. I call this the RPmorse start. It goes at about 5.9. Be sure you protect before the crux mantel (you'll figure out what I'm talking about) because you won't find anything after that for a while [and watch the rope drag]. And here's the beta on Dreamer: check out the topo on Mattp's [mattp@seanet.com I think] page. It is WAY better than the topos in Nelson or Smoot. The topo in the Traveller's guide will also suffice but is not quite up to date on the recent boltage. Hope this helps, Chuck

A better comparison in terms of amount of climbing is to do Outer Space and Orbit. Dreamer: shorter driving time nicer approach and scenery less people more bolts well-protected slabs better scenery no goats no trail-pass required Outer Space + Orbit less bolts awesome handcrack walkdown descent more dry more varied climbing goats looks like 7-5 for Dreamer in my tally Chuck

Bring your mountain bike. Chuck

Happiness = Reality - Expectations pack before you pack

Everybody oughta calm down here. If you're walking on the trail and some bonehead asks you to stop for some really stupid reason such the above sicheeashum, just try to think back to some time in your life when you held up a bunch of people due to your own stupidity, like stalling your car as the light turns green and not getting it started again until the next red, or taking 15 tries to get your PIN correct at the ATM, or how about fumbling for change on the bus? Everybodies done it, just let that girl take her turn too. It's usually not a big problem to have to spend 2 more minutes checking out the wilderness. Relax, check out the scenery. If you just cannot get over the indignity of some dork telling you where and when you can walk on a public trail, then berate the guy while he's stuck on guard duty. Heck, maybe you could whip it out right there and make constructive use of that downtime to shed some weight. Ask the guy to guard the trail for you. The madder you get, the more you've lost. Christopher, if yer girl is so shy and you're heading up to an extremely popular, treeless area maybe you ougta pack a floorless tent or something. Also, spraying about packing heat sounds like a good way to get shot. Chuck

So you've all heard the rants that "cigarette butts are trash, why don't smokers pick up after themselves" before,...but here's my new slant. Last week I was climbing Silent Running (3 O'clock Rock) and from the base all the way to the top of the 5th pitch we got to follow a continuous trail of sunflower-seed shells. I don't know why it bugged me so much, but after sitting with them at every belay and following their slimy path on every pitch, it began to grate on me. Don't people know these are trash? They probably think seed shells are biodegradable and so it's OK to leave them. Well TP is biodegradable too, and TP biodegrades a lot faster than those stripey little shells. To the dork who spewed his trash over five pitches of Silent Running, you're probably too stupid to figure out the above argument so let me just state that I'm NOT saying that it's OK to leave your used toilet paper about. I'm saying, stop spewing your f****n' shells all over the place. Have some class and suck on something else (or swallow) when you're out in the woods. Thankyouverymuch, Chuck

Guinness! I think I'm gonna puke. Guiness is the Starbucks of the fancy-pants beer world. Only thing worse than Guiness is that other stupid English beer with the f'n stupid widgit in it. Blech. Guiness, the day-old-coffee taste you love to pose to. Chuck

Oh by the way. I've also had very good experiences with rangers at the Marblemount station. It's hit and miss I guess. One tip: If you're getting backcountry permits you will be required to listen to the latest theories on the best methods of feces disposal. Unless you've got a lot of time to waste, resist the constant temptation interrupt the potty presentation with the obvious witticisms. Chuck

Here are my ranger obfuscation experiences up at Marblemount. I was heading up to WA pass with a buddy that had to leave a day early. We planned to meet at Marblemount and carpool from there. I called the RS and this helpful ranger told me of this trailhead right behind the ranger station at which I could park and leave a car. When we get there, I open my big mouth to the ranger now on call, apparently a different one, to ask exactly where is this TH. He gets all huffy about me wanting to leave a car there. I asked him directly if I would get a ticket if I left the car there and he gave me an evasive non-answer ("Might or might not", I think he said). We parked and didn't get ticketed. I don't know what his problem was. Another time I was up there trying to get information and this guy wasn't revealing any. I had called from home and they told me there were still permits left for the Eldorado Arm. When I got there, they said there weren't any. I asked for other places to go and he just basically says "I don't know". Then after I've given up and am looking at maps and such he starts spraying to his rangerette colleague how he was up nude sunbathing at Pyramid Lake and these tourists (you should have heard the condesencion in his voice on that word) arrive and were all freaked out. He then starts spewing how stupid they were to be freaked out by his nudity. I guess the taxpaying minions were cramping his style. Gotta love those public servants (that we're paying). Chuck

Self-registering is (was?) legal if you camp on the other side of Sharkfin Col (i.e. not in Boston Basin). To avoid dealing with the rangers, call them and find out what time the ranger station closes. Arrive there just after the closing time and self-register. Bivy at the car that night then walk in early the next morning. If you've got another night, I think it's legal to camp the next night in Boston Basin after you've spend one night in the cross-country zone. Chuck

Offwidthclimber, Your extrapolation to cams versus nuts does not hold water. I think the reason The Pope gives his blessing on the bolt in his story is because it was put up on lead. That person was climbing the mountain from the ground up. Removing the mountain's defenses is when you find a truly challenging section, and instead of attempting to climb it..FIRST you find a way around, lower down the climb, and remove part of the challenge by installing bolts. Is that more clear? If you can walk around the tough section and lower down, why not just toprope? That way you have not permanently removed the challenge, only temporarily for you, that day. And what's this crap about we're all different but we're all the same? Blech! Did you just call me a rap-bolter? Chuck

Climbed Dreamer on Saturday (6/16/01). Here's the scoop: Conditions were great. Very little seepage. Someone has brushed out the trail, and left a black bra hanging there. Very nice. Snow all but gone from the approach and can be avoided completely. Nobody else there the whole day. Damn crowded classic climbs! We did the "Dreamer Direct/Urban Bypass" variation. Urban Bypass is fun, about as difficult as the Online crux but has about twice as many bolts per foot. With a 60m rope you can link (just barely) the next two pitches. Here's the most valuable beta for this climb: Get your partner to lead the Urban Bypass and the Blue Crack pitches. This will saddle her with the lousy belays and you'll get the cushy ones. Chuck

So what's it like up there right now in terms of the rock route? Anybody actually climbed Backbone or Serpentine in the last week or so? Is it still loaded with snow or not? Please feed me beta. Chuck

Went up to Static Point on Sunday. We got there real early since the good weather tempted us to deviate from our original plan (Snow Creek Wall). When we got to the wall (about 7:30 am) there was water everywhere, and graupel snow on most ledges. We were able to get around most of the water and made our way over to Fuddhat. There was a small pond at the Spaceport! Fuddhat is way cool with some pure friction. Making your way around the water streaks added some sport. There was one spot on the third pitch we called the "veil of tears". The veil was a uniform striping of thin dripstreaks coming from a horizontal seep point. It was a bold lead to delicately pick your way across trying to find the driest features. Most of the mashed bolts have been replaced with the exception of one fairly key one (protects a relatively big runout) on p3 with a munged hanger. It's still clippable but unknown if the bolt is compromised. We climbed the first pitch of "Kill da Wabbit" (Sky Rock guide name. Nelson guide calls it p4 of Fuddhat). It's a nice pitch of sustained face climbing. There's some loose crap near the start (stay right), but it seemed solid above. We replaced the missing hanger on the fifth bolt (rusty 5/16"'ers). We retreated before the steep and intimidating final pitch. It looks really cool. I'm kicking myself now (my courage grows with distance from the rock), but at the time the guidebooks' 10c or 10d ratings had us pretty intimidated. On our way up I noted where the rockfall that munged the bolts came from. It was this HUGE piece of rock (bus size?) below the Curious-Cube roof. I climbed right on top of that thing when doing the Cube two years back. It was a big roofy thing crisscrossed with sharp jamcracks and a verythin flake at the top. I guess it is now down at the base, probably in a million pieces. Anybody been up to attempt "the Cube" since? I wonder if we got the LA (last ascent)? We did it in Oct. 99. By about noon or so most of the drips had dried. We cruised up Lost Charms then rapped down through 3 parties inhabiting the Online area. One of which consisted of two CC contributors with good webpages. chucK

Hmmm I wonder...could there be a site that tells where the mounties are going? Hmmm....? Maybe www.mountaineers.org? Hmm....? chuck

OK here's some quick and dirty figures: The Washington Post article in my above post has the rate of complications from the vaccine to be 0.07% or 7 per 10,000 vaccine recipients. According to that chart I linked to, there were 137 reported cases of Lyme disease over 10 years in Washington State. Let's double that to 274. There were 5 million people in WA in 1990, more now. Say only 1/20 of those people (250,000) are as exposed to ticks as much as climbers. That makes an estimate for risk of catching lyme disease over 10 years to be 274/250,000 = .0011 = 11 per 10,000. Now factor in that the most rosy estimates of vaccine efficacy are 80%, you get the number of people that the vaccine may actually help to about 8.8 per 10,000. Summary: Helps 9, hurts 7, no effect 9984. Step right up pay yer $200/dose. Chuck

There is a reason why docs here don't have the Lyme-disease vaccine readily available. Here is some information on Lyme-disease cases in washington over 10 years (1987-1996). http://healthlinks.washington.edu/nwcphp/lyme/page13.html July is the highest incidence month with 3 cases per month in ALL of Washington state. There are probably more unreported cases out there, but this still seems like a small risk. You won't get lyme disease unless a tick has burrowed into you, AND the tick has lyme disease, AND it transmits the disease to you. Rates of transmission are low if ticks are embedded for less that TWELVE hours. IF you do get lyme disease, there are supposedly effective after-the- case treatments with antibiotics. [The effectiveness hinges on early treatment, so make sure you watch for symptoms after a tick bite, and if you're real worried, go to a doctor, and SAVE the tick. You probably want to call the doc to get instructions on how to save the tick.] There are currently cases of people claiming some terrible complications from the vaccine. Though it is difficult to determine whether their problems are actually being caused by the vaccine, they ARE scary stories. http://www.msnbc.com/news/561936.asp?0nm=V14O&cp1=1#BODY also http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A54527-2001Apr7.html Next, you should note that the vaccine is NOT very effacacious (estimates range from 80% effective to being harmful depending what symptoms you look at). So...here's my summary Lyme disease is scary but... Lyme disease is pretty difficult to get here in Washington. If you do get it, it is usually treatable after the fact. Vaccine may not work and might even hurt you. Add these up and MY decision is not to pay a bunch of money to my doctor and Smith-Kline Beecham to stick something in my arm (3 times over a period of two-years) that might hurt me in order to get weak insurance against an improbable event. I am not a medical doctor. Do the research yourself and/or ask a doctor that you trust before making your own decision. For a start I suggest Google with the search words: lyme disease vaccine complications. chucK

Pope (?), I admire your efforts to restore the route in the "light of day". However it might lift the veil a bit more and assist the retrobolters in contacting you if you made your email address or real name available. Don't you think? Chuck

Yeah, there's a bunch of whiners there. Chuck

If you want to climb a currently-occupied climb at a popular crag, the proper etiquette is to wait your turn. It is nice if you don't spew beta or make disparaging remarks about the climbers. It is really nice to not chat up the belayer if they don't appear to be into it. Expecting someone to vacate the area is asking a bit much at a popular crag. Camping out in the wilderness is a different situation and there it is proper to attempt to not invade the solitude of someone who got there first. It would definitely be poor etiquette to do laps or be purposely slow for the express purpose of pissing someone off who dared wait in line for the climb you were on. Sorry, but I don't see where the problem was. Did the guy drop his cams on your belayer's toe? Were they giving you shit or something? It is sort of tough to tell from your story. Chuck

I don't think he was being "snide". And even if he was, he was right. Who was I to ask someone else to put bolt rap anchors in? If I want a better rap anchor on top of Total Soul, I can do it myself with some webbing around a better tree (and I will if I climb it again this year). I'll state again that Matt et al have done us all a favor by putting up a fun and very safe route. Thanks for all your work! So Matt, it sounds like you were out there at 3 O'clock Rock last weekend. How are the climbing conditions? Is there snow all over, or is it all gone? Chuck