TimL

A5 - I totally agree with you and they way young people are learning and the ethics (and lack thereof) some are carrying into out sport. Bolting cracks is one thing we never use to see of ever her of. Euros (French) in particular have also been known for leaving all their trash after an expedition to a remote pristine part of the world (Here's hoping they don't do that any longer). It looks like they did have the wide gear. Check this pic. roof pic Some pretty good pictures given the environment. Well, that lacks impact! You guys, AFive and Bill, are silly. The young people/ethics/gym argument is so played out. Really, how old are you to be preaching to young people about ethics? How many of these "young gym climbers" do you see out bolting cracks? If I had to place a bet, I'd say that most of the folks placing bolts next to cracks are far from young. People learn ethics from watching other people doing proud send, not from having some idiot beating them over the head with their ethics bible. Really, if you want to bash bolts next to cracks, I have an idea for you. Go down to Yosemite, start up the Nose and start bashing every bolt next to the wide crack before the pendulum into the stove legs. I’d like to mention that the people who put those bolts in place were neither young, nor gym rats. Were do you get off saying Euro climbers/French expeditions for trashing pristine parts of the world. What evidence do you have for that statement? Really, that is just a stupid comment. If you look back historically, it is the Asian expeditions that leave trash. Read the AAJ article, I forget if it was this years or last, and you will see an example of this in the Trango Towers. You statement about Euro climbers is almost the same as the statement that I sometimes face here that Americans are “fat, dumb and drive big cars that destroy the environment”. I guess I'm a Euro climber now and I don’t trash the environment, nor have I seen others trash the environment.

How funny. You mean to tell me that you teach English as well? ha ha ha. I've been working under the table teaching English at a school here in Madrid. Now that I have my papers, I've been thinking of a real job, and have even interviewed for a real job. But here, a real job, in a company is hard to come by, and the pay and the hours they work here suck. Not to mention their style of working. It's like running on a treadmill versus actually running. Your running, but not going anywhere. I've been hired on By an English teaching company to teach business English and tutor students. I get paid more and have a better schedule that if I had a "real job". Funny thing is, when I came to Europe, I thought that in Europe, Spain especially, that people worked less and enjoyed life more. Bullshit. Here people work more and get paid much less, but the cost of living is less than in the States. The difference is you get a month of vacation versus 2 weeks. Wow, I'm done with that rant.

Yes, we reign supreme. Doing well. Finally got my EU papers. Enjoying climbing every weekend in Spain. Too much rock here. a lot of alpine too, but tons of rock. Sometime I'll get around to posting a TR. How are you doing? Congratz on the news of the baby! You nplan on staying in Asia or returing to to the States? Let me know if you have any questions about paperwork for taking your family to the States. I'm working right know on getting Elena paperwork for the States as well.

wow, who pissed you off?

Go to the 5 Open Books for short easy multi pitch. There is also a place close to Yosemite falls viewpoint called the beach, at least I think, that has a couple moderate routes. Go to the base of El Cap if it looks safe. Pine Line is a nice route. the first pitch of the Salathe is good. And for the real Yosemite experience is Sachar Crack. I think there are other good routes further to the left. The Cookie Cliff might have some good routes for you guys to try because it is a little warmer there, but the hards are pretty hard there. I would save the longer climbs for the end of the trip. Let the group get dialed first or else you will epic. On another note, I would go to Red Rocks or J Tree this time of year.

You'll be able to find dry rock if you want after a day or so of sun. Most of the place will dry enough to climb by the afternoon. The GNS will be dry. Traverse from the top of GNS to BOC. PA will be wet. Iron Horse will be dry. Jap Gardens will have a couple wet spots at the beginning, but will mostly be dry. The start of Godzilla will be wet, but the route is doable after that section. The top part of the first pitch of thin fingers will be a little wet. Just aid through it to save your ankles. Most of the sport climbs in the Country will be dry. The slab pitch on GM will, as always, be wet. Basically, if you want to climb, you'll be able to find dry rock.

In town for a week and looking to get to Index one of these days if the weather holds. Want to climb mostly classics at the Lower Town Wall. PM me if interested.

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.

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.

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.

Check out this Frenchie link. I is good. http://www.tvmountain.com/topo/index.htm

The Muir Wall or maybe El Nino?

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?

I've climbed hard trad routes with Rudy many times. Sport climber or not, thats not the issue. Rudy for President!

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.

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.

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.

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.

15 hours is about right. Give or take an our for traffic. If your making good time you can make it in 13 hours.

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.

That just sucks. Sorry to hear about someone getting hurt. Best wishes for a speedy recovery to your partner.

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.

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?

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.

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.