chucK

"Badass" as in fun! I'll stick by that one. Maybe I was a little loose with the "i" word. I am calmed down now, and I would just call it "strenuous", for me that is. A the #4 and #4.5 were nice to have on the next pitch after the badass intense crux pitch. What'd I do to piss you off this time bayyyyyyyy-BEE!

Beta 1: Do the hike up the gulley as early as possible! It's one hot miserable motherf in the heat of the day. Beta 2: reposition all the stuff on your harness so there's nothing on the back loops (fer da chimblies). That one tricky move is so tricky that even STeven Hawking balanced on a herd of chimpanzees couldn't even figure out that tricky move, until like Sunday. Man it's tricky!

Whoa! Great pics! Number 2 is especially prizeworthy (if only Tony was wearing more red ).

Anybody pick up my Victorinox (Red Swiss Army) knife that I might have left laying around at the Spring Ski-in? It had a bootlace lanyard. Will reward it's return with some beers or equivalent compensation.

Climb: Chianti Spire-East Face Date of Climb: 7/10/2004 Trip Report: Jeff and I had an ambitious day planned. We were gonna drive up to WA Pass, hump our bivy up to the base of Clean Break (the plan for Sunday), then climb Rebel Yell. Plan went mostly well, though the weather didn't really help us out much. Didn't rain, but it was c-c-c-c-cold! Anyway, we did our hump in, set up camp at the base of Clean Break, then headed up toward Chianti at around 1:45 pm. Heading up a couloir below the East side of Burgundy Col We started up the climb around 3pm. I lead the first pitch and got the screaming barfies for the first time in a long while. The first time in July probably forever! offwidth pitch and route above Jeff got the offwidth since I led it last year, and Jeff loves those freakin' things anyway . Actually, it was pretty fun, on second. "blind steparound" I did a variation on the next pitch. Instead of using the "blind steparound" guidebook beta, I employed a nad-scum hand-traverse grovel about the tricky arete. It worked anyway, and I only had to endure a bit of heckling disguised as well-meaning post-hoc climbing advice. start of intense crux pitch The crux pitch is badass. Overhanging handcrack in a corner followed by steep strenous fisting for a long ways. Last year AlpineK linked this thing with the previous stepacross pitch. Burly lead. I think the way we did it this year was probably better for all involved though. Final pitch is more of the same clean wide crack goodness, though nowhere near as sustained as p4. A nice finish. Jeff tagged the true summit (I did it last year) and we hurried to get down as the c-c-c-c-old wind was howling up top! On the first throw our 7mm fell behind a big flake and was way hung up (knot in end). I quickly decided we were gonna have to cut it (only lost a couple feet) and hacked at it as fast as I could with my amazingly dull (replacement) pocket knife, while I knew Jeff stood up top getting hammered by the icy wind. I noted another rope hung up inside the crevice. Watch out for this one! We rapped the route, which worked pretty well, but the last pull was really tough due to drag over the rock. You can rap straight down, but I didn't want to muck around in the snow at the base already being so damn cold. it was cold up there Once we were walking, we warmed up a bit, we made it back to camp about 10pm. Quick dinner and cold beers in the freakin' freezin' wind. ...to be continued [Clean Break] Gear Notes: Cams to 4.5, used 'em all. Yellow alien placement in offwidth, too big for #5 Camalot above. No crampons necessary. Did use ice-axes a lot. 60m ropes get you from "Bookmobile" Ledge to anchor slings at base of "blind steparound" pitch in one rap. Approach Notes: About 1:15 from base of Clean Break to Chianti.

Climb: Juno Tower-Clean Break Date of Climb: 7/11/2004 Trip Report: It was still very cold the next morning. We were feeling a bit beat up after the hike in and Rebel Yell yesterday, so we weren't moving too quickly. It looked like maybe we were gonna bail, but that woulda been a pretty unpalatable option when looking back a week or a month later, after the visceral assault of that cold wind had dulled. Luckily, the weather appeared to improve and we gave it a go, starting up around 10am. Pitch 1, Clean Break After negotiating the snow field, I dropped my stick/ice-axe in the pile on the big ledge, and Jeff geared up for the first lead. It's a doozy. Steep, sustained, and once you think you got it licked, it kicks back again with a steep, slanting section of thin hands. Glad I was on second. Nice lead Jeff! "The Clean Break" The Clean Break pitch is cool and nowhere near as strenuous. The sun was starting to come out more and we were rolling along. We had some routefinding issues on p3. After some confusion, we went to the top of the LF dike corner instead of taking the less-used looking finger crack described in the Kearney. This ended up working fine, with just a slight downclimb to start p4. The pitches ran together on fine granite. A very thin sequence after a fixed pin, and a strenous diagonal fist crack were highlights. The fist crack pitch had a second crux, a corner with small tips holds and dish-smearing for feet that really got my attention. The Kearney topo says "RP's useful", but I think you'll be much happier if you have small cams for the parallel placements. Easier terrain on upper route A few more pitches and the ridge eases off. We simuled what Kearney calls the last five pitches. We stayed mostly left, and never even saw the "Wild Crack". I thought the rock was very good on this finishing section. Fun scrambling. obligatory "view from top" photo The summit views were stupendous, blah blah blah. No hints of the nasty cold wind and clouds of yesterday. We musta screwed up the descent, because it was heinous. We dropped down the gully just below (SW) of the summit, and couldn't find passage N, until way down. At which point we then scrounged way back up again to the ridge crest, then more down again to Sunset Col. Even though we probably screwed up, it only took about 2 hrs to reach camp. Packed up by 8:30pm, hike out. Made it to the basin and intermittent trail by dark. Home 3am . Busy weekend! the route from below ~8 pm Gear Notes: Brought a 4.5 Camalot (by mistake, still in pack from day before), didn't need it, and probably didn't need the #4. #3.5 found some use. Kearney description seemed right on, and useful. Approach Notes: Snow at base soft enough to ascend with approach shoes and stick. A bit of hairy exposure over the moat right at the top. Gas station in Oso open at 2am! Red Bull!

Exposure is heinous dude . But it's all quite easy and you can sew it up anywhere you want. I'd be more worried about dying in the couloir and/or on the descent. So if you're thinking of bailing halfway up, just remember it'll be harder to bail than make it to the summit!

How did you ascend?

Hey Cracky! Is that Royal Flush?

I saw this pretty woman today wearing a striking T-shirt. It was all white with a small mug-shot of ol' GW in the center. In tasteful red font (Arial Black) in large letters the pic was captioned "LIAR". Very effective.

Hmmmm....maybe in the top three. Dru does have quite the prolific spray factor, probably more than enough to make up for the climbing part ...

Nice going! I've definitely looked up there and thought there looked like some doable cracks. I think you guys are probably #1 and #2 in terms of the cc.com (hard climber)*(prolific sprayers) metric.

Yes that's standard procedure. Some people lower though the chains even, but that is frowned upon by some, especially at sandy places as the grit in the rope, combined with running the rope under load through the chains, can abrade the chain links and wear them down. Usual procedure is to put draws up there for all toproping and lowering until the last person needs to get down. Then last person runs the rope through the chains and raps. Pulling the unweighted rope through the chains probably does not do the damage that a weighted rope would.

I'm not saying they are completely responsible, but I do fault them for doing a shitty job at fixing the problem (if that is even what they are trying to do).

The plain result that these terror statistics tell us is that this administration has absolutely no compunction about telling outrageous lies to support their agenda. Anything they put out at this point is probably regarded throughout the world with as much respect as should be given to Klenke's completely made-up glaucoma statistic.

Saddam had greater ability to control terrorists within Iraq than we have now. I think it's obvious that Saddam enjoyed his power, and he must have known that we would invade and dethrone him the minute any terrorist attack on the USA was linked to him. From what I've read I think Saddam was much more interested in keeping his position than he was in facilitating a jihad on the US for religious or other reasons. But you're right Klenke, we'll never know with certainty. Just like we'll never know whether or not Sadam would have just peacably given himself up once he turned 80 and promoted a wonderful utopian democracy.

Ooops sorry, thought we were talking about Iraq. Guess I better read the thread title . My belief is that we can obviously blame Bush for the Iraq war, and if that ends poorly (produces weak state that can't even control the people within its own borders), then Iraq will be a new sanctuary for international terrorists a la Afghanistan. Unless we get Iraq quite a bit more tidy than it seems to want to be, we could be blaming Bush for increasing the terrorist threat for a long time to come. There's also the deal about whether our agressive takeout of Iraq will prove a deterent to other nations harboring terrorists. At the present, with our hands quite full of twin quagmires, I don't think too many nation states are cowering in their boots over what we might do to them if they get uppity. I'm sure the Wolfowitz plan was to get everybody scared of the big mean USA who invades whomever they want, but right now we've got Iran seizing a British ship, N Korea talking tough, Pakistan too scared of their own populace to let us openly use our forces within their borders, and OPEC getting uppity. Not to mention Spain, France, (S Korea, G Britain soon?), and half our own populace pissed off at anything the lying liars choose to bungle into. I don't know if we're losing the war on terror, but I do believe almost anyone could be doing a better job winning it than the BushCo has done and is currently doing. Face it, this Iraq war is really tieing us down in terms of being able to effectively fight international terrorism. The war is Bush's fault. They lied like hell to get us into it. Maybe they really thought it was for our own good, that it was going to help us versus terrorism, but the plan just don't seem to be working. At present we've got a giant burden on our back and a government front with a huge credibility problem (i.e. NO negotiating base). I guess if you think that state-sponsored torture without any transparent due process will help tkeep us safe against terrorism; then, well you might say the Bush administration scores some points there. Except for the fact that it sort of blew up in their faces? They've now shot our wad in that respect because they weren't even smart enough to keep it more controlled. If they would have kept the torture shenanigans limited to the covert special ops guys versus real high value detainees (as in Afghanistan), we the public, and most of the damn world would still be unawares, and the forces of good could still be using every resource to obtain important information. But anyway, thanks to mismanagement, looks like our hands are now tied on there too. I think Bushco just keeps squandering our ammunition. Time to reload with a new administration.

I think we can squarely give blame/credit for the Iraq War on Bush, no matter how long it lasts.

Truly a 5 star report Nice pic too!

If you are at that dangerous level of recently graduated newbie (i.e. 2-5 years climbing experience), then be extra careful. Climbers at this stage can tend to get a little cocky and cut corners, but often they don't yet know what they don't know.

I could watch that all day!

Climb: Mt. Stuart-West Ridge Date of Climb: 6/21/2004 Trip Report: Climbed the West Ridge yesterday. I know trip reports without any pictures (especially solo trips lacking the colorful character interplay) are usually , so I will try to fill this with any helpful beta and conditions info that I can. Driving up the Teanaway River Road near dawn I spotted (i.e. almost ran down) one elk and several deer. Drive safe! Snow coverage is almost complete once over Ingalls Pass to past Ingalls Lake. They have some new BIG ORANGE signs up at the pass specifically excluding snowmobiles. One of the signs was attached to a nice size tree laying on top of the snow in headlight basin that had been recently sawed down. (Angry snowmobilers ?!) I traversed the lake on the West side (which I know is preferable to the other side) then stayed on top of the ridge all the way to Stuart Pass which was way better than dropping down. It is not difficult, does not require much elevation gain, and is very scenic. From the pass, follow trail up the spine to the base of the West Ridge (at one point it traverses low on the right, do this). You can climb directly up the ridge from the spine. No need to traverse down and into one of the couloirs, unless you like snow better than rock. You can/will traverse over into the couloirs up higher (follow the path least licheny). There's still snow in various places (couloirs) that is mostly unavoidable, but it was very soft yesterday. I had an axe. Some spots I broke it out other places I didn't. I was happy I brought it. Instead of heading to the notch above Long John Tower I headed up the spine of the ridge. This seems preferable. That LJ Tower way looks a little difficult, and appeared to deal with much more snow to boot. There's a sketchy little ledge that lets you traverse to the right under the S Face of the West Horn, then it's a bit of downramp to the West Ridge Couloir then up to the notch. Traversing on little ledges above the main one saved me a good deal of elevation loss. The rest of the way is pretty straightforward and well-documented. There's still snowpatches on the North side of the ridge that makes the parts where you go over there a little sketchy (snow-covered ledges with major exposure). Descended the Ulrich's Couloir. Quite steep but the snow was quite soft. A couple of scary holes to stay well clear of. Near the bottom I cut onto cliffy scrub to the West then down through flowery meadows. Wildlife: One (1) Elk. Many deer. Cows. Lots of tweety birds (one that appeared to be eating bugs off the snow up by the summit). Lots of ladybugs (summit), many chipmunks...errr..snaffles, and three marmots. Oh, and lot's of purty flowers. And one more thing, the bugs are starting to come out . Gear Notes: lightweight ice-axe, approach-type boots (NIKE CINDER CONES!)

Alright!!! Nice job. Checked out the photos in the gallery too. They don't seem to be linking up in this TR for me though.

The hike that fits your bill is the Dutch Miller Gap trail. Drive your car up to the very end of the MF road and keep walking (up the road if your car doesn't make it all the way, and further). Beautiful giant valley, and soon you will underneath Bears Breast Mountain, Summit Chief group, Mt. Hinman (Mt. Hinman is a hike-up peak that your friends would probably be loving you for once they made it up there). One good place to camp is Williams Lake. Great area. Last year to be able to walk in there without 7 extra road miles tacked to your journey. (All this great advice is optimized by camping up near the gap, but you could have a good day hike up there. I've bagged Little Big Chief car to car in a non-marathon day.)

The RED line looks like it matches up more with Scott's photo. Did you mix your left and right's up Off? Why not just use the colors in your description, so much less likely to get mixed up.