TimL

Awesome work! How was the logging road from main highway to the parking lot? We are thinking about heading out there in a week, depending on conditions, and wondering if a Toyota Prius will do the job.

Was wondering if it would be better to take double 60-meter ropes or a single 70? Any suggestions would be appreciated!

We did Burgandy. Didn´t look like there was much snow at all. I can´t say about Rebel Yell. But I can say that I´ve done Rebel Yell in September years back and there was much more snow and we didn´t touch snow to get to the base. My guess is the snow that is left will be pretty hard.

Was there yesterday and didn´t see any snow on the backside of Burgandy Col. I think you would have to work to try to find water in that area. The spring at Bench Camp is still flowing pretty strong. Got caught in a lightning storm on the descent. Had a couple of strikes about a half mile down the valley. When we got to the car we noticed a new fire a couple of drainages down valley. Hopefully it will die out but it could be a problem.

I might be able to make it up. But I have to check with work.

Was thinking about climbing something on Monday/Tuesday. It looks like it is going to be pretty hot. Alpine rock or pure rock route. Not into slogging and I would imagine it is too hot for cragging. I have ideas from Squamish to the Stuart Range and I´m open to ideas as well. PM me if you want to get out!

Thanks a ton! I´ll check out this sites.

Thanks Dan! Does anyone have info on the bypass to the couloir? If I remember right it is to the left?

Nice TR and thanks for the conditions report. I might be going up to Forbidden this week. Would you say the West Ridge coulior is out? Thanks a ton for the beta!

I´ve been to the Bugs a couple times but it is a good idea. West Mac would be the goal in the Pickets and maybe Luna. My brother is fit and has been going to the climbing gym, but not much technical knowledge. Before we head out I´ll be teaching him some things and going up to Washington Pass to do the classics with him. Rogers Pass is a good idea too!

I am lucky enough that my brother recently started climbing a few months back. He knows the basics and when I get home I´ll be able to teach him a few more things. He took a week off during the third week of August for us to go climbing. My problem is I want to take him to a place with easy to moderate alpine routes. The problem is I´ve been climbing for a fairly long time, I´ve done most of the easy to moderate routes, especially in Washington. Can anybody suggest some ideas please? A road trip is an option? I was thinking that the Tetons might be good. Maybe take him to the Pickets. Any alpine traverses in the Cascades like the Ptarmigan? Canada maybe?

If you can´t find a person for this, I´ll do it with you when I get back!

Hey buddy! Lets see if we can get out and get into something!

Trip: Northern Spain - Picos de Europa Date: 6/27/2014 Trip Report: After living in Northern Spain for a good five years, this is the first time I´ve taken the taken the time to sit down, relax and write a couple blurbs about the place. Seems like I don´t have many pictures for as much as I get out, but here you have pictures of some cool places around the province. First to explain, I live In the province of Cantabria in Northern Spain. This would be located just to the West of the Basque Country and not to far from the border with France. The weather is a little better than the NW, but not much. I got the North Atlantic in my backyard. People think of Spain as warm, sunny and dry. This place normally is cold, wet and humid….just like home. This always gives me a nice warm fuzzy feeling especially when dodging water bullets coming in from a North Atlantic storm that frequently try to pick me off as I run from bar to bar, or from car to crag or car to class. As I said, I live on the coast and we have some really good sandstone/limestone crags and spires to climb on. When I first got here I was lucky to hook up with a group of really strong and mostly sport climbers that have become great friends. Every now and then I could talk people into an occasional alpine route but mostly pulling down and hard stuff. As I´ve only been an in the closet sport climber, I took to long distance mountain running to get my weekly mountain fix. My guess because I did this because I didn´t feel comfortable wearing spandex at the crag, although it is Europe, but wearing tights while running is accepted. Which led me sign up for one of the hardest races I´ve done. Stretching across Cantabria and Asturias is a beautiful limestone mountain chain called the Picos de Europa. It´s not a very big range, but it is compact. We are talking tight valleys with BIG relief from the valley floor to the summits. Which makes this one of the hardest ultramarathons in Spain. It´s called the Traversera de Los Picos de Europa and it covers about 50 miles with a little under 21,600 feet of positive elevation gain crossing the chain by going up and over it´s three separate mountain ranges. And the only person I was able to talk into doing is my friend Javi. Now Javi is a friggin mountain beast and one of my best friends. But I´m surprised he started to climb with me. I first met him about three years ago. I had just come back from Seattle and a big group of my friends decided to climb a couple of classics in a local alpine climbing area called “El Agero”. As I had just come back from the States, a couple of good sport climbing friends tricked me into going out for the “proverbial” one beer. Everyone knowing tomorrow I had to be up for an alpine start. Keep in mind an alpine start here in Spain is eight in the morning. Some things I won´t write, I can only tell in flesh and blood. There was a blond with many tattoos and I got home way late or early depending on how you see it. When I finally went to bed it was around 6:30 in the morning and it was in my flatmates bed. I couldn´t find my room and thank god he wasnt home. A short time later I woke up caught up in a beer induced mental tornado. I fell asleep on the floor after taking a whipper from the edge of my bed from a failed mantel attempt to get under the covers. When the phone rang at 8.30 I went straight into panic mode. Skipped breakfast, stumbled out the door and into the back of the car with my buddies cracking up. Then didn´t even have to look at me or ask any questions…they could smell what had happened….booze and perfume. Back to Javi. There were six of us. Javi leading two other people and me leading another two people. The entire time I was thinking of the saying that experience comes from bad decisions. Thank god fate didn´t cash this one in for me. The approach to the 300m 5.9/5.10 route is about 45 minutes. I couldn´t walk a straight line to the base, but I was able to climb fairly straight. With this trip I learned if I ever wanted to train for high altitude climbing I would slam half a bottle of gin and let 15 years of experience take over. I got to the summit right as sobriety and a hangover the size of El Cap hit me like a guillotine. I fell to my knees, then on to my hands and desecrated a good square meter of the summit. All the time with my friends staring at me with mild disbelief and immeasurable amusement. About an hour and a half from my house is one of the most famous mountains in Spain called “El Naranjo del Bulnes”. From afar it kind of looks like a mini limestone Changabang, but up close the 500m West Wall is awe-inspiring. Many good routes but the best are a handful of 5.12 to 5.13 free routes or easy aid that go up the center. The East Face has a lot of nice but run out slab routes and the South Face, which is the rapple route, has the classic moderate that everyone does. Amazing mountain and good times. I´d recommend this mountain to anyone coming to Spain to climb. What would be TR about Spain without several sport climbing pictures.

It´s such a bummer this guy had a bad experience in Index. When I lived in the NW I have many good memories of the place and the people. I guess times changes or you can always run into the token asshole. I always heard of people getting things stolen but it never happened to me. I hope this guy gives the place a second chance. I´ll be back in the NW this summer and psyched to climb at Index after a good 5 years. Any good new lines put up over the past years?

If anybody goes up, I´d like some info as well. I´ll be back in the NW this summer and Slesse is something I´d finally like to climb.

I agree, if you can go to Galayos. It has some of the best, if not the best, alpine granite in Spain. And then you can´t forget the limestone gyms in the north of Spain, Picos de Europa!

Hey Rad, I live in Northern Spain, well not Catalonia or Lleida which people here don´t consider the North, although it is in the North. The places we have here in Cantabria and Asturias are not as known as some of the places like Rodellar, but I would say they are around the same quality or better. I´ve had a pretty crazy year so far, but let me know what you need and maybe we can hook up to go climbing. I live in Cantabria which is less than two hours from San Sebastian. Barcelona has some amazing climbing. Montserrat is really good. Costa Blanca will be way too hot this time of year. Forget about it. You´ll fry! Send me a PM with any questions you might have.

To add a bit, I´ve found that climbing is a good way to actively rest after training for marathons or long marathon training days. As your body adapts to your training, you´ll find you´ll be able to do more in turns of training volume with running as well as climbing. Many times I´ll do a morning of running, followed by lunch then an afternoon of sport climbing. It´s funny though because my climbing friends don´t get running and my running friends don´t get climbing, but I´m lucky to have two groups of friends that hammer me with solid motivation. With running be careful with the loss of climbing muscle. This year I´m training for an an alpine ultramarathon thats going to be around 74k with 6,500 meters of positive elevation gain and 6.500 meter of elevation loss. I´ll post of TR when I finish the race and with some of the race prep. My problem is with the high training volume and the hours logged running in the mountains, I´ve lost a lot of muscle and weight. On the other hand I´m lighter and that compensates for the lack of strength. With a little bit of planning, you can do both. Everyone has told me I can´t, but so far it has not been a problem. I´ve been climbing for a long time and running for a while as well. Times are just another way of a chest beating for runners as grades are for climbers. Just get out and have fun, that what it´s all about anyways!

Proud! Looks like you had a good time!

Thats a bummer, I was thinking about doing the Enchantments loop on Friday or Saturday. How easy would it be to bum a ride from Snow Lakes TH back to Stuart Lake TH? Or maybe better other way around?

I havn´t read anything so absurd since the last time I wasted time on this site….if anyone wants to see if they are a 5.11 climber, come with me next week to Index for a day or two cause I wanna see if I can be an off the couch 5.11 climber…ha ha ha ha ha….so does not leading a route after two or so years mean you can consider it as an alzheimers onsite…if so maybe I can wiggle my way into being a mighty “NW 5.11 climber”…..

I might be interested in climbing something next week. What are you interested in doing? I´d be psyched on some alpine rock. Something long and moderate. Or a glacier route would be fine. Something like Shuksan. What are your ideas? I don´t have any specific dates because I´m on vacation for the next month so it is just based on family, but I´d be down to climb. I´ve been climbing alpine and rock for about 15 years and a lot of it in the PNW and in Spain. I have not touched rock in about two months because of work, but I would say I´m an off the couch 5.10 trad leader at least. PM me or email, timothy_w_lawrence@hotmail.com. Cheers, Tim

This dude is a bad ass and to me inspiring. https://sites.google.com/site/leorpantilat/philosophy I´ve been doing runs like these in the mountains close to where live in the North of Spain, but I was wonder if anyone had any good suggestions for mountain or adventure runs besides what he has on his site. Stuff like the Enchantments Loop and Carne Mountain High Route is good, but maybe other suggestions that would be pretty and challenging as well as runs to summits on terrain that leads to not too techincal climbing where maybe you have to do some low 5th class but nothing where material is needed. I´ll be back climbing in the Cascades this summer for the first time in two years and I´m super psyched to get out on a couple runs in between doing more technical routes and rock climbing. Thanks!

Read a little bit or the page, not too interested but hopefully in the near future somebody chops the bolts they placed so their route would go. Its a bit hypocritical to drill bolts "by fair means" then chop bolts on another route. Guess it's part of the self-rightious circle jerk group.