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TimL

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Everything posted by TimL

  1. Colin - Do you know how long that route stays in shape? Could you recomend any other moderate ice or mixed routes in the area? What is the Cosmique Arete like? Thinking of heading up there maybe in April around Easter. If you decide to travel down south give me a shout.
  2. For anyone who is interested in conditions. It has been warm here the last week. It is currently snowing hard. Besides that, on average the climbs are a little thinner than usual. Weeping Wall L is a little thin but the right hand side is fat. Shades of Beauty is in good shap. Haffner...is Haffner. Meltout is in good shap. a nice easy 3. Lady Killer in Golden is in hard shap. Really sun baked. The upper pitch has a huge crack running acrossed it. Really hard route for only a 3. Going into the Ghost tomorrow and will have more conditions info. As a general note, it looks like there is still a lot of snow in the Parkway area. Canmore and K country had less. The Moonshine area is not as fat as last year, but still pretty fat.
  3. The actual climbing area is in France. The town of Bielsa is on the Spanish side and should be on a map. We approached from the Spanish side. I can look up the roads, but its in the middle of the mountains with no actual big roads around. Two inches of snow didn't stop us, but it was snowing more at the climbing area and the French closed the roads on their side so we couldn't get to the climbs.
  4. Check out this Frenchie link. I is good. http://www.tvmountain.com/topo/index.htm
  5. The Muir Wall or maybe El Nino?
  6. What I do know is that I want to spend half the year climbing in Spain and half the year climbing in the Cascades. What I don't know is what kind of job will allow me to climb in Spain during the winter and the Cascades in the summer. Any thoughts?
  7. I've climbed hard trad routes with Rudy many times. Sport climber or not, thats not the issue. Rudy for President!
  8. When do you want to go. Its a good winter climbing area. Late fall or early spring are OK as well. There is a new guide to the area that you can buy at Desnivel.com. http://www.libreriadesnivel.com/fichalibro.php?id=10263 Sella near Alicante is nice as well. But only in the winter. Check out the Costa Blanca guide.
  9. Climb: French Pyrenees-Bielsa Dorada Wall Date of Climb: 1/15/2006 Trip Report: Spent a couple days over the New Year in Bielsa just across the Spanish border in the French Pyrenees. It is a nice little ice climbing area with a bunch of moderates from WI 3 to 4 with a couple 5's and some drytooling. Nice place to start the season. This is a shot of the French Pyrenees from Bielsa. This is a WI 2 and 3 that is partially formed. Dorada Wall. One of the main climbs in the area. These are about 40 meters wide and about 30 meters tall. There are about for or five routes ranging from WI 2 to 5. The WI 5 is called Americano Direct and was put up by Mark Twight in the 90's. Easy route on the Dorada Wall. Dorada Wall Spanish Pyrenees.The side of the Spanish Pyrenees that I saw looked like a mix between the Cascades and the Canadian Rockies. The snow storm that stopped us from climbing the last day of the trip. Pineta Valley on the Spanish side. The refuge that we slept in is located in this beautiful valley.
  10. I agree 100%. If possible, do not leave an extra tail on the sling. I about bit it on Burgandy Spire when I clipped into the super long extra tail of a sling. It was on the last rap and thank God on a ledge. I clipped in, or thought I clipped in, pulled the ropes, threaded the ropes, clipped them into my device, tested the anchor, them went to unclip my daisy. That is when I saw it fall off the long tail. If I would of leaned back on the anchor, I would not be here now. Talk about close calls and luck. The mistake was my fault, but you could remove the danger out of the situation a little by cutting the tail.
  11. Its funny, moving to a different country I have had to develope a bunch of different goals other then climbs around the NW, Canada and Yosemite. I think that I have explored enough new places to figure out some new goals for next year. As well I knocked my onsite level up a couple grades which was the main goal this year. I find that my technical goals revolve around onsite climbing.
  12. 15 hours is about right. Give or take an our for traffic. If your making good time you can make it in 13 hours.
  13. The glaciers are fairly tame, but as Alex said, the Le Conte, especially later in the season can be exciting. These are also big glaciers that we are talking about, not just a small pocket glacier. As well, you are in the wilderness, so don't expect quick help. We first tried the traverse in July and had to bail after a day and a half of bad weather. The glaciers had a lot of snow and looked tame. We came back and completed the traverse in late Aug/early Sept and the glaciers were very broken. I could not believe how many cracks we had been walking over and how broken the glacier was. Several section required down climbing into a crevasse and climbing back out. Alex punched through a couple totallt hidden crevasses on the Le Conte and the Middle Cascade Glacier. The Ptarmigan is one of the best outings I've had in the Cascades, and is not hard, but pay respect.
  14. That just sucks. Sorry to hear about someone getting hurt. Best wishes for a speedy recovery to your partner.
  15. Wow, some great information. Thanks to everyone. Right now we ruled Norway out. Maybe for a week, but not two later in the year. Thinking about France/Italy, or back to the Canadian Rockies. I want to try to search for more information on Briancon. La Grave and Chamonix. For sure I don´t want to spend the entire time in one place, but split it up. As for the Rockies, Although I´ve been there many times, they are high on the list because the place is just so good. Not to mention the exchange rate for the Euro is pretty good now.
  16. Anybody have experience climbing WI in Chamonix. If so, how does it compare to the Rockies in amount of climbs and crowds? Taking a two week trip at the end of January, and its a toss-up between Norway, Chamonix or the Canadian Rockies. Weird enough, with the Euro everything is around the same price. Norway looks nice, but the general area appears to be equal to Littlewet. Not sure I want to hang out in the local bar every night for two weeks. Any ideas?
  17. West face of peak-a-boo tower is a good route. i´ve done it a couple times. Although the last time I climbed it, i remember a really tricky slab section at the beginning of pitch 2, or maybe 3. Clay at Index. Oh, can´t forget the Perverse Traverse at Index either.
  18. Yeah, 2 days ago on some mid 12 something I was trying to onsite. Whipped on the crux traverse about 10 feet right of the bolt and took a tweenty five foot tumbler. At least I had a good belayer. It at least made sport climbing a little exciting.
  19. climbing until failure no matter how big the fall.
  20. PP - Get out and friggin climb. I remember climbing with a good friend of mine in Banff. Some place we lost a screw. We decided to split the cost. Then, he comes back and points out that one of his ice screws had the tip grinded just a little bit down because it hit rock. A really small blemish. And he blamed me for doing it. Being a nice guy, I traded him screws. His BD for my grivel. Two years after we are chatting after climbing and he trys to get me to retrade screws. This time he says he wants his BD back because he doesn´t like Grivels. I called bullshit. I have another partner that everytime he lost a piece of gear he would search my harness, then his pack, then my pack before always finding the lost whatever on his harness or on the ground next to him. Really annoying, but if you know this person it is really funny. Funny thing. Both people are engineer-type people.
  21. Debs Crack is good, but I thought hard. Has anyone tried Willians 12? For a good destination for harder cracks do Radio Sex, Scholar with a Dolar and Lazy Boy. All really good routes and all next to each other.
  22. At the base of City Park theere is a nice crack for a couple cams, then tie off a couple bolts on the way up. At the bast of 10%, which is a nice solo, there is a large crack that will take 2, 3 and a 4. You should be able to find a good solo anchor at the base of Iron Horse. Especially soloing, make sure to put an upward and downward force directional piece. I can´t tell you how many people I´ve seen zipper every piece from the beginning of the climb to the pin half way up.
  23. Nice climb, but I don´t no about 3 stars. I thought the bottom overhanging, funky start was harder than the top. Sor sure a nice route, although short. Zig Zag Crack on Alphabet is a better route close to the grade.
  24. Doing BOC in one pitch is the way to go! Mega classic. I have always wanted to do Marginal Karma from the ground, but never have. I think to make it better, break right from Rogers Corner early before the tree and plug away. A nice 11b in Levenworth with a small overhang and some thin fingers is Pumpline at Careno Crag. BP, you should check it out sometime! Sitting around at the top of Rogers Corner or on the GNS always brings back memories. They is nothing like sitting on top of the slab on a hot spring day and watching avy´s shoot out of the buttresses on Index.
  25. TimL

    WHO

    Look at the date on the original post. I´ll be back either in Feb to go to Banff, or next summer which is most likely.
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