Wallstein

I broke both of the cam stops off the exact same unit this spring. I took a short soft fall 75ft out when they broke. Suprised to say the least. I've had an older style 00 for close to 10 years that is still working great. Go figure.

I tried this route yesterday. Maybe the hardest route I've been on at Index. I think this would be a harder redpoint than Town Crier (5.12+) or Green Drag-on (5.13-) This is the ultimate sandbag! I've heard people say that maybe some holds have broke but I doubt this is the case. The hardest parts are on perfect rock and have no visible signs of broken holds. The real problem is that there just aren't that many holds... The only pitch I sent was the 5.10 pitch. The other three pitches (5.12a, 5.11D, 5.11b) took some serious figuring out before I could do the moves, like 10 tries on the 11b. This is an amazing route and deserves a full redpoint at some point. I've also heard rumors that this thing never saw a second free ascent. I doubt that is true but in all reality I wouldn't be that surprised that anyone who has seriously tried it got their ego hurt to much to see the project through. Anyone know about the history?

As far as the fixed gear on the Triple roofs goes, it sure is nice that it is there for the free climber. It didn't look like Justin did any removal or additions to what is there. Without the fixed pins it would be a whole different pitch and might be fairly heads up. I don't think Ben G has freed it but I could be wrong... Ya Marc Green Drag-on has had a second free ascent now. Just as of a week ago. Go get on it while there is chalk. I'ver heard talk of a few other wanting to do it soon.

Trip: Dragontail and Colchuck Balanced Rock- Linkup - Dragons Of Eden (V 5.11+) and West Face (IV 5.11+) Date: 7/27/2010 Trip Report: Last week my ever stoked friend Jens asked me to join him for a couple climbs up in the Enchantments. This seemed like a perfect opportunity as I'd never really climbed with Jens but had always wanted to and I really wanted to climb some of those peaks. Jens came up with a pretty mega idea of trying to climb Dragontail, Colchuck Balanced Rock and Prussik Peak in day. I agreed without even thinking about the magnitude of the objective. I figured if Jens thought we could do it why not try. Upon a little more discussion though we let some doubt creep into our minds and we decided to scale it back to Dragontail and CBR. This idea was a lot easier to choke down given the fact that I hadn't done a route longer than 5 pitches since February. We decided to make our morning a little easier by sleeping at the trailhead even though Jens lives down in Leavenworth. I really dislike getting up early. We got our act together by 5:40 and started charging up the trail at a blistering pace. I've hiked with quite a few serious athletes but I gotta say Jens was one of the fastest hikers I've ever seen. I was moving at full redline pace and could easily see Jens pulling away from me. I almost started to run but figured that would just power me down for later in the day. We reached the base of Dragontail in 1:50. We were both surprised at our time. After powering down a bar and some water we made the transition to climbing mode. Jens took the lead as he's been on Dragon's of Eden a couple times and I was onsighting. I followed him up some loose 4th class to the base of a nice hand/fist splitter. I was warned that this pitch was chossy, but it didn't seem to bad to me. Jens handed over the lead and I got a sweet 5.11 fingers and thin hands pitch that felt fairly pumpy at the time. Superb pitch. Nice belay on a ledge on top of the pitch. In retrospect I should of ran the rope out even farther and belayed right at the base of the crux pitch. So Jens did a short little pitch that brought us underneath a sweet looking finger crack splitter. I grabbed the rack and set off climbing up a couple easy move to the top of a pillar where the real business started. At one point I think this pitch was rated 5.12- or so. I slowed my pace a bit to try to and figure out some of the moves while staring up at it. I placed a small stopper to protect the insecure opening moves and then started slamming in perfect finger sized cams as I moved up. The opening moves were a combination of side pulls and fingers locks with high awkward feet. Quickly though the climbing turned into straight in steep finger locking. I found the climbing to be way more secure than anticipated. Small but good feet were found throughout the crux section. If this pitch was at the crag it would be a mega classic. Really good stone with enjoyable jamming. Felt just slightly harder than the previous 5.11 pitch. For me it was somewhere around 11c/d. Again I should of ran this pitch farther than I did. So Jens had to do another short easy pitch to the base of the prominent headwall. The headwall is MEGA! Steep, exposed and clean!!! Jens took the lead and did a brilliant job of linking all three of the original 5.11 pitches into one stunning 210 foot pitch! It went on for ever and ever. Another pitch that would be classic if it were at the crag. Jens' huge pitch took us to the end of the hard climbing were we unroped and switched into our approach shoes for the long slog (2,000 ft or ?) to the top. Jens warned me that we were in for a pretty long slog up the thing but it went by very quickly in all reality. We celebrated on the cumbre for a few seconds and then scurried down the back side to a couple short rappels and some down climbing. We motored over to Asgard and were bouncing down the trail in no time. We got our second time check (we didn't have watches and had to rely on hikers with watches) almost at the base. It was only 12:20. We gone base to base in a little over 4 hours. The stoke meter was high! And then we had to make the slog up to the base of CBR in the sun.... I down shifted heavily and set a more manageable pace. We reached the talus field just underneath the West Face and had to talk about plans here. We were both feeling pretty darn good and started talking about the possibility of heading to Prussik after CBR. This would cause a couple problems, first we didn't want to climb with our packs so we'd have to cache them there and return at a later date for them, we were down to about 500 calories each and lastly our vehicle was at the Stuart LK trailhead which would leave us stumbling into the Snow creek trailhead at some un godly time in the morning without a ride. But we figured what the heck lets go for it! Jens started leading up the moderate opening pitches and I started simul climbing underneath him after a bit. His goal was to make it to the base of the huge corner but he stopped slightly shy of it. He did a short quick pitch and handed over the rack. Since I was onsighting I got the pleasure of leading the 5.11 corner pitch. So so good! Endless hands and liebacking on perfect stone! I was loving it, though the mileage started to creep up on me and I got a slight pump which caused me to get a little scrappy. Soon enough I was at the fixed belay underneath the roof. Jens took on the awkward roof traverse with a little grunting but still looking fairly controlled. This pitch is casual if you are a midget like me. The crux pitch lay ahead us. I had to get a little fired up for this pitch as the efforts of the day were starting to take their toll. It starts off with perfect hands that leads to a capping roof and a 5.11+ boulder problem exit out left. Jens gave me the running beta spray and with a little bit of grunting I made it through the reachy move out left. As I sat at the belay I tried to figure out where the route exited. There was splitter that ran through a roof but the pitch was suppose to be 5.8. I sat there wondering until Jens popped up to the belay and reaffirmed my suspicion. It looked like the hardest 5.8 I had ever seen. And well it was. Calling that pitch 5.8 would be like calling George Bush an environmentalist. Jens slithered up the steep flair pitch and I followed in a thrutching manner barely sticking the moves. Thankfully I didn't blow the onsight on a 5.8.... In a few minutes we were on top firing off the final little boulder problem on the balanced rock. We weren't exactly feeling that spry anymore and weighed our options again. With only 200 calories left the thought of hiking over to Prussik and firing up another 6 pitch 5.11+ route wasn't that appealing. We could be content with a very civilized day in the mountains or turn our day into a total sufferfest. We choose the previous and bombed down the standard descent gully to our packs and the trail leading back to the car. The pace slowed as our muscles we about done for the day. We reached the talus field above the lake at at 7:30, for the first time I was disappointed in our time. The Heidelburger would close at 9:00 and the reality was setting in that we weren't going to make it. I did the reverse math figuring out that we'd have to be at the car is much less than an hour. I tightened the shoes one last time and started to jog out of there. The jog progressed into a run and then quickly followed by an all out sprint. We were both feeding off of the accomplishments of the day and the drive to push even harder. The trail turned into a blur as we bounded from rock to rock taking the banked turns at full stride. My muscles came alive again and I pushed to the redline for the final part of the mission. We arrived at the car at 8:40pm (1:10 from the talus field) which would be to late for the Heidelburger but made our time an even 15 hours car to car. Overall we were extremely pleased with how hard we had pushed and the outcome due to that. Parts of me wish we had pushed on through and made the masochistic march and climb out to Prussik but on the other hand it was nice to swill a couple beers and crawl into bed at a reasonable hour. As always I was amazed at the gems the Cascades have to offer and the high quality of the climbing we did. If Dragon's of Eden continues to see traffic it will surely turn into a classic. Thanks for the inspiration and such an awesome day Jens!

Trip: Index - Green Drag-on 5.13- Date: 7/22/2010 Trip Report: Is Index the best granite crag on the west coast or what??? I sure think so. During last weeks cold spell I hiked to the top and rapped in on the upper two pitches, which are the free climbing cruxes, and gave them a go on mini-traxion. After a bit of work the intricate cruxes came together. Due to the slabby nature of the pitches I knew that this route would be fairly condition dependent and another cold day would be quite help full for a free ascent. I also didn't want to have a repeat experience of my day on Town Crier where temps were in the 90's and my feet wouldn't stick to anything forcing me to try way to hard... With temps in the low 60's on Thursday it was the day to go up and give Green Drag-on a try. I've got a buddy, Sean, who visiting for a couple weeks and he was game to go check it out. I was setting my expectations fairly low as I figured it would take me a couple days of work before the redpoint. The first hard pitch is pitch 2, which starts off with some cool stemming and faces moves and then an amazing layback flake. QUALITY! The business is a short flare with a pin scar tips crack in the back that is 12a. Sean went up first and cruised up to the flare but had to hang a couple times to clean some dirt out of the crack and figure out the moves. He doesn't fall very often on 5.12 and found this pitch to be pretty hard. This was a classic Index pitch with sequential compact moves. Luckily I was able to follow fairly easily as it suited my small stature well. This was followed by a varied 5.11- pitch that had tricky face climbing section at the end. Below the last bolt on this pitch I made a step left on face holds that brought me to a shallow seam with improving holds and the anchor. Another amazing and engaging pitch! Pitch 4 takes a proud line up a STEEP exposed 5.10 corner with good jamming and laybacking. We were both amazed with the position and quality of this section. We opted to belay at a good stance at the end of the corner just below the 12c crux section as this would make working the crux a lot more friendly. Sean went up first and almost got the onsight. He quickly figured out the large move to the left and sent his next go. After working on this section last week I wasn't to nervous about it and opted to try and climb it in my old comfy shoes but that didn't go so good. I blew off on my first go and had to change into the tight shoes which made all the difference. There is a beautiful sculpted pocket on the move that is one of the coolest granite holds I've ever grabbed onto! Just perfect rock. The last pitch is the crux which checks in at 5.13- (or so..) It follows a line of slabby pockets and slopping edges to final crux deadpoint to a perfect jug/rail. Granite face climbing doesn't get much better in my opinion. My first go I quickly aided up the initial 5 bolts which would be the crux and lowered back down to work a couple of the moves before I gave it a redpoint go. The moves came together much quicker than anticipated. I came back to the belay and let Sean have a go on toprope. To my utter amazement he fell off the last hold going to the jug. A very impressive first attempt. He worked out a couple moves on his way down and then turned over the lead to me. I pulled the rope and set off using my beta that involved stepping way down and right to a series of shallow pockets and high steps. This way proved to be not that efficient and over complicated. I fell off fairly quickly. Not exactly sure what to do I made a decision to change my beta up and try a more direct approach up and right, similar to what Sean had done. This made all the difference, saving me 4 strenuous and powerful moves. The crux holds felt much bigger and positive this go and I knew I was in there. It was nice to be climbing with confidence and a little bit of power to spare. I made the final deadpoint with relative ease and quickly high stepped and reached the 5.10 jugs. Cruiser 5.10 climbing lead to the chains. Redpointing that final pitch marked completion of a long time goal of mine. Years ago I came up with a goal of free climbing arguably the 5 most classic aid climbs of Washington, City Park, Town Crier, Green Drag-on, Thin Red Line, and Liberty Crack. So needless to say I've got a grin ear to ear today and am so excited to wrap a project that I won't soon forget. I'm still amazed at the quality of granite rock climbing washington has to offer. No need to drive north to Squamish, its all right here.... Here's some more exact beta for some of the pitches, hope it helps motivate some others to go check this amazing line out. First off here's a topo I found from Justin Sjong who initially freed the line with Ben Gilkinson (hope Justin doesn't mind a repost of his topo) Justin's rack beta is fairly good, except you don't really need a #2 and #3 Camalot. The only spot they are maybe needed is the 5.10 corner pitch but other gear is available. If I were to go up there again, I would change where I belayed. If following the standard aid belays you end up at fairly crappy stances. This can be improved if you go another 30 feet on past the belay on top of pitch 2. This better stance is on top of the big flakes. Belay would take #1 C3's and small stoppers be good to take two extra small pieces just for this belay. You would then link the remaining bit of pitch 3 with the 5.10 portion of pitch 4 and belay at a good pedestal with a bolt and spot for a #1 C4. This would make communication easier while trying the crux 12c section that is right above this belay spot. It is a much much better hang then underneath the 5.10 corner. This also makes the 12c pitch fairly short which will help with the redpoint. As far as grades go, I pretty much agree with Justin's ratings. Though I did find this to actually be an easier redpoint than it next door neighbor Town Crier (5.12+) and overall about the same difficulty. Once the beta is figured out for the last pitch it felt pretty solid though it would be real hard to onsight. Someone else should go up there while it's cleaned and chalked!!!!

I've put up a handfull of routes and completely understand the amount of work that goes into them. I've had routes take over 20 days of work and cost well over $500 bucks to put up. Pretty invested in the send and I sure wanted to get the FFA. Don't think I would be that stoked if someone snaked my project before I got a chance to do the FFA. That being said I've never posted a topo on a community forum and asked people to go climb the route before I actually sent. I think by posting a report and a topo you are pretty much giving the route a green light. If you don't want people to climb the route you don't spray about it. If you want people to climb the route you spray about it. Pretty simple in my opinion.

Way to go Max! Ya linking the pitches to M&M would be kinda miserable. I had massive amounts of a rope drag that forced me to stop before M&M on a small perch/ledge out to the left before the final steep bit. I think thats the way to go.

Way to go guys!!! So stoked to see that thing getting some traffic. Is TRL possibly the best long hard granite free climb in the state? Interesting to see your ratings for the pitches. I always have a hard time rating things especially while on the first free. Here's how I'd break it down. p1 5.10- p2 5.12- (kate thought closer to 5.11 than me. maybe its reachy?? ) p3 5.11- (kate thought 11+) p4 5.10+, maybe 11- p5 5.12c AWESOME pitch! p6 5.12/+ For me this was just as hard to send as the last pitch. Same goes for Kate, in fact she didn't send this pitch but did the one below, if i remember correctly. Maybe this shows our lack of steep sport climbing ability. p7 5.10 p8 5.11+ Again Kate thought this pitch was harder. Nice onsight by Max. I tried to onsight this pitch on our send day and got a little pushed around by dirt and funky pro. Had to pull the rope. Oh bro not sure I just "tapped the Keg!" on TC... Believe me looking at a 50+ ft fall at the end of the day on 12+, with temps in the 90's, and climbing essentially by brail was more like "shot gunning" the keg of stoke. That was hands down the scariest and hardest thing I've done in years. Who's up next on TRL? I know their are plenty of 5.12 climbers in this state, right??

If you top out the cliff you can also easily walk over to Town Crier and rap with one 60m rope.

Glad I could provide a little stoke! It sure got me fired up to climb around the NW for the summer. Cant wait to get back on the Upper wall soon. Does anyone know if Justin Sjong is the only other person to free TC? I sure hope not!!! Its a pretty darn good route and deserves some free climbing attention.

Trip: Index Upper Town Wall - Town Crier 5.12+ Date: 7/8/2010 Trip Report: My girlfriend Kate and I left Snohomish with the super cragging alpine start of 2pm. At 3:30 we had started up the trail, after taking a quick dip in the Skykomish. At the base around 4. We then sat underneath the trickle of the Waterfall to try and cool off from the temps in the lower 90's. Worked pretty well. We each shoved a Gu packet and box of raisins in our pocket and clipped our water bottles to our harness and blasted off sometime shortly after 4:30. I linked the first two pitches which brought me to the base of the pendulum pitch. I'd been free climbing on the route a couple times before early in the spring and knew we would be doing a slight variation here. After bringing Kate up I lead up and left to the shallow corner/arete feature to the left of the standard pitch. This pitch involves a compact layback move over a small roof (maybe 11+??) which leads to a fairly scary big hollow flake and runout climbing. Cool pitch though its heads-up. The next pitch is the triple roofs pitch, which I was fairly unsure about. I'd toproped it once before but had never tried to lead it free. I set off thinking I'd just dog up there and get things figured out but I couldn't help myself and went for it full throttle. Though I came up short mid-way through the roof and took a fair size whipper as its to hard for me to clip all of the pins. I dangled around for a bit and figured out some completely new beta and came back down to the belay and pulled my rope. Somehow even after botching my beta and climbing poorly I sent the pitch second try. Not as runout as the last pitch but still fairly heads up! Really cool dynamic moves on the pitch, maybe in the 12+ range but hard to tell. I brought Kate up as quickly as I could as the shadows had moved fairly far across the valley floor already. She got a little pushed around on the crux and had to pull on a draw to make it through. We both powered down our Gu packets and tried to get psyched up on the next pitch. Again I'd only tr'd this pitch once before and hardly remember anything about it. I placed a couple stoppers off the belay and then punched it to a fix pin 10ft up. For a second I thought I was going to plummet into Kate but I regained my composure and clipped the pin. I continued up working small knobs for my feet and pin scars for my tips but I was climbing poorly and nearly pumped out up a little higher in the awkward wide/flair funky crack. When I hit the belay I was feeling cooked and a little worried about the shadows that were half way up Mt. Index. Kate pulled through on draws to speed things up for my sake. (She'd hike the pitch if she had the time) I could tell my chances of sending the crux final pitch were fairly low, given the time of day, the heat somewhere in the mid 80's still and my general lack of fitness but I sure wasn't just going to rap without trying. I tied the shoes a tad bit tighter and started up the flare finding good heal-toes and armbars the whole way. I botched my sequence through the steep section but managed to hold on till a good rest jug. My confidence was starting to fail as much as my muscles but I had to keep going. For the first time of the day I actually executed my beta correctly for the crux but then managed to mis a couple key footholds higher up on the pitch and took a good sized fall. The variation clips the first bolt of the ladder and then goes out right a ways without any pro and produces some big falls if ya screw things up. After falling I threw a full "Smith Rocks Sport-o Wabler" that I'm sure everyone in town could hear. But it actually felt good to get a little pissed off and want to send so badly. I sat there slumped over my harness for awhile not sure what to do. The sun had long left Mt. Index and I should of just called it quits then but I had to give it one more go. I lowered down to the belay and pulled my rope and tied right back in. There wasn't time for any sort of rest, as we were already going to rapping without headlights in the dark. I motored up the wide crack not taking any of the rest I had before, powered up the steep lieback section and quickly made it to the "rest" jug. This time I only briefly shook out and kept going knowing that at this point nothing I did was going to help my chances of sending. I had all but given up and nearly just grabbed the draw but the desire to climb and send pushed me on through. I executed the crux and managed to to use the correct feet this time and continued climbing farther and farther away from the bolt. My legs started to shake. Things were looking bad... but one hold after the next I kept climbing. My feet had become useless at this point as I couldn't see the foot holds at all anymore. Blindly I kept pasting them hoping they wouldn't blow off the little bits of lichen they were on. My forearms screamed as I drained every bit of energy they had. I should of fallen. Every indicator and variable was wrong. I could barely see, I hardly knew the moves, I was way beyond pumped, and I knew I was failing. But I was to scared to let go. I had managed to climb 15ft above my last piece and well past the point a sane person would let themselves fall. In reckless desperation I let out a scream and dug deeper into the core of why I climb and found the remaining strength I needed to keep climbing. The holds started to get bigger as I traversed back left . The final jug was in sight. I wrapped my fingers firmly around the huge hold, threw my right leg up and mantled up to the anchor. That was a little to close for comfort I thought. I quickly fed the ropes through the anchor and slowly lowered. We were back at the base at 10:00pm. Climbing sure is fun! Gear Notes: single set of cams from green C3 to 1 Camalot. 4 stoppers. from #3- #6 BD 10 Quickdraws 60m rope Approach Notes: UP the steep hill past the hole in the wall.

Regular route on Higher Cathedral Spire. One of the best summits in Yosemite. Arrowhead arete is also very spectacular.

You cary a gri-gri and a pulley on your harness while leading sketchy aid pitches? Hard aid is just like hard sport climbing, take all that crap off your harness and make yourself light, it makes a difference. At least thats been my experience and I've lead way to many scary aid pitches in my life.

I'm not understanding this logic. People use toothed ascenders to ascend ropes all the time and you are saying this is dangerous? Do you only use prusiks? Using a mini-traxion is only slightly different than using a third ascender except the mini is even harder to come off the rope. Petzl states mini-traxions can be used for self belay. Read here : Tech info Yes mini-traxions and Petzl ascenders can cut the rope if you take a fall onto them, if you are trying to safeguard against this I recommend a separate belay line, but this isn't what Layton was asking about. The only system i can see possibly preventing a cut line is to use a prusik above your top ascender, but in real world situations this would be a complete pain in the ass and never worth the compromise you'd loose in efficiency.

Try a Petzl Mini Traxion. Tiblocs really don't like dynamic loads in my experience. They can trash the rope really quickly. I've never been a fan of the Gri-Gri. Definitely safer but way slower. And as far as lower outs go I don't think there is significant advantage using a gri-gri over other techniques. If you use a Mini-Traxion (or a pro) and the terrain become really low angle you can just pop off your ascenders and start free climbing and still have a "belay." You can also just start batmanning the rope, which is actually really efficient sometimes.

I promise Kate and I have some good stuff to share. Here is some more info on our climb in Venzuela. The Cleanestline Blog

Hey Bob not sure why you throw patagonia into the mix. You seam to be a guy that throws around facts and not conjecture. Patagonia does indeed require usage rights for music as I've had to deal with it before.

For Sale: BD Cobra ice tools $200 for pair SALE PENDING BD Sabretooth pro crampons $50 Scarpa Freney XT size 38, worn a couple times. $125 BD Chaos (older style) size medium, used twice. $35 Patagonia hardshell, size small. been worn plenty but no holes $50 BD I-tent, well used. few small holes in the floor. zipper needs some work. poles are not so straight. sorry no pic... $200

See ya there!

Richard that is funny you say it seams like a fair amount of effort for 13-, hell i thought the exact opposite. I've never been one to dispatch of that grade very easily. I'd say it's on the lighter side of 13a when pinkpointing. I assume it would be a little harder to make a true redpoint, though you'd really only be placing 4 pieces at the most on the pitch, so maybe it wouldn't be much harder. You should head up there and give it whirl. You are after all the roof crack master, right? @Pink. Lets just consider that money I lent you an investment. I hope it continues to pay. Maybe I'll take a draw on it in another 10 years. And as far as comparing it to Cosmic, I'd say Cosmic is way harder for me. I have small fingers and ain't much of sport climber so really pumpy things like cosmic can shut me down. I've found myself to be better at subtle bouldery routes, that require equal amounts power and endurance. If you are going to head up there I'd probably recommend Thin Red Line over Lib crack as a free climb. That is unless you just want to free the Lip.

Ya I need to do a TRL report sometime. Overall I'd say TRL was a harder day out. The crux was indeed a little harder on Lib Crack but pretty short lived. TRL stays pretty hard all the way to pitch 8 and is way more sustained. You got it Dru. It was a pretty good route. Not even close to a free ascent but good climbing with some yarding on bolts.

Trip: Washington Pass - Liberty Crack V 5.13- Date: 7/23/2009 Trip Report: Yesterday I had one of those "coming full circle" moments in my climbing life. I first climbed Liberty Bell when I was 17 via Thin Red Line, and Liberty crack when I was 18, which was about 12 years ago. Both of those ascents were monumental for me at the time. On my long ago ascent of TRL I had my first real wall bivi experience and it was one to remember. My partner and I shared a single Fish portaledge and pretty much gumbied our way up the route aiding almost every possible inch of the route. On Liberty Crack we had planned on a one day ascent but of course didn't send in a day. We pulled an all nighter making it back to the car by noon the next day. For me times have really changed since those teenage ascents. I've been fortunate enough to spend a good majority of the last 10 years climbing, living and working in Yosemite. I've learnt a few things down there in those years. A couple of which are how to free climb and how to climb really big routes. The only problem with spending all that time in Yosemite is that I haven't really been able to climb in the Cascades much. Luckily for me I quit my job in Yosemite two years ago now which has allowed me to make it to some destinations other than the Valley during the summer months. Last year I managed to spend almost a month in Washington and loved it the whole time. So far this year I have only racked up a total of 5 climbing days here in the state. I've tried to make the most of the them though, a day at Si, Index, Der Sportsman on Prussik Peak, and two days up at Washington Pass. I barely squeaked the two days in at the pass. It was actually a last minute decision to go up there on Sunday night. Kate and I were driving back from climbing up in the Powell River area of BC and had finished the route a little quicker than expected which left us with a little free time. We had driven well into the night on Sunday night so there wasn't going to be any serious pre-dawn starts for us on Monday. We slept in Newhalem (the last place with phone service) and had a leisurely morning. Without a guide book we were pretty limited in route selections, I tried to do some topo hunting on my Iphone but didn't get to far. I was able to get some beta for the Independence route, from Jen's Holsten blog and thought that would be a good option for us the next day. By the time we got out of Newhalem it was close to 11:00 which didn't leave much time for anything but cragging. We decided on low commitment cragging on the first few pitches of Liberty Crack So before we knew it Kate was leading the 5.11 first pitch of Liberty Crack. I then took over and free climbed and yarded on a few pieces up and over the Lithuanian Lip. grabbing a few holds and ticking a few key foot holds. I setup a good high piece and lowered back down to really try and climb it. The first part of the roof seemed a little cryptic at first even though there are pretty good locks going out it. I knew the real business would be turning the roof. It turned out to be a good style of climbing for me, really scrunched up climbing that involves a lot of core tension and a couple thumbs up pinky locks. After about 10 or so attempts i was able to pull over the roof and get established in a really good lock with some ok feet right above the lip. I could get a pretty good shake out here. I attempted to continue leading on from my high piece at the lip, but the tricky thin locks and funky gear shut me down pretty quickly. I pulled on a few pieces and gained a small ledge with a bolt to lower down on. The funky locks below turned out to be not so bad on top rope. Good locks a few feet apart. Really straightforward climbing. Pull the lock to my waist reach up and grab the next one. Repeat 3 times to the ledge with a bolt. I continued up yarding on the bolts to the anchor on top of pitch 2. This section had me a little baffled. I had seen a topo mentioning the free variation goes out right of these bolts and the original ladder was never freed. The variation out right only has only one bolt on it though, which would be a problem for me, as I have no interest in climbing mid 5.12 slab 15+ft above a bolt. I brought Kate up to the belay and had her lower me back down for closer inspection. Feeling the blank wall as I lowered down pass the original bolts assured me that I wouldn't be going that way. I swung over right and started tick-tacking my way up micro edges. I quickly came zinging off and swinging out of control to my left. This pitch was proving hard to even toprope. I gave the pitch a handfull of burns and after much cursing I declared it to involved for the short amount of available time I had. I eyed the next pitch which started with a couple pins and then a bolt to some fixed heads. I had climbed the upper portion of this pitch while doing Freedom or Death awhile back and remembered it not being to hard. It would have to wait. We rapped and headed down the pass to the east to go have a BBQ at a friends place. Much eating and partying ensued which wasn't going to help us get out of bed tomorrow. The alarm still managed to go off at 4:15 regardless of the jedi-mind trick I tried on it. Kate stayed in bed while I motored the van up to the pass. By 6:30 we had taken care of all our morning rituals and were about ready to head out. Kate was making the final touches on a hand written topo for the Independence route when for some reason I thought it would be a good idea to go and try Liberty Crack again. I wasn't really sure what I was thinking at this point, or maybe I was still asleep. Jens had made the Independence Route sound kinda scary, hard and a little more than I could muster right now. Kate was an easy convert to the Liberty Crack idea. Clean, solid and classic are hard to beat. Kate was leading up the first 5.11 pitch by 8:00am. Four hours from the alarm to the first pitch wasn't an awful start but it wasn't very promising either. She made quick work of the funky pitch. I thought to myself this will be perfect I will be leading the hardest pitches just as it starts to getting really really hot out. I had already come to terms with an A0 ascent so I didn't let the heat get to me. I quickly free climbed up to the lip and promptly pulled on a few pieces up and over the lip again. I continued on to the bolt by the little stance and had Kate lower me from there. I made sure all of the gear was where I wanted as I went by. A pinkpoint attempt would have to do right now. Back at the lower belay I pulled the rope, gave myself a little inward motivational talk, laced my shoes a little tighter and started upwards. For some reason I had the heebee jeebess inside me, which is something I usually only get when I've been trying really hard to redpoint a pitch. At this point my attachment to sending this pitch wasn't that high so I was surprised to feel this way. As I reached the base of the roof a strong breeze kicked up cooling the stale morning heat. I stuck the entry sequence better than I had previously and was quickly and blindly pinky locking over the roof. A few primal screams, a heal hook and deadpoint to the good lock brought me over the roof. I shook out from the good lock in a state of amazement wondering how the hell I just pulled that off. Kate says I have a knack for pulling shit out of my ass, this may have been one of those times. I finished up the next short tricky sections with less thrutching than expected. I chilled out on the stance for a bit trying to decide what to do. I ended up yarding past the original bolts to get to the anchor on top of pitch 2. Kate quickly followed with some good french free technique. I had to figure out what to do about the steep slab section below. There was no way I was going to lead that thing and I really doubted that Brooke Sandahl (who did the FFA) had lead that pitch with the single bolt. He must of done some sort of monkey trick to protect it. I had heard stories of him fixing a line from some anchor and using that for pro but I had always figured that was for the section past the Lithuanian Lip. I have no idea what he did but I don't know of many people that would lead that pitch in it's current state. If it were me doing the FFA I would of had a total of 4 bolts protecting the slab. I need to email Brooke and find out more details. I decided I would have to settle for the toprope for the time being if I could even pull that off. After an hour or so of toiling on the pitch yesterday I still had a couple moves I couldn't do and a move I only pulled off once. As I lowered down with my nose 6 inches away from the rock inspecting every fleck, chip or bump for potential I realized this was going to be really hard. I worked the upper moves on the pitch for almost an hour before I could figure out the 10 foot traverse back to the anchor. This was the move I couldn't do yesterday so I figured I had it in the bag after lapping the move 3 times in a row. After a short rest I lowered down to give the whole pitch a burn. To my dismay I fell off the lower portion of the slab over and over and over again. I had done this part somewhat casually yesterday but that was in the shade. It was now approaching noon and with high's in the 80's things weren't feeling very sticky. I can't even count how many times it took me to figure out the moves on the lower bit. Again after 3 straight laps I figured I had it wired. Up at the belay I rested for awhile pondering my chances of sending. I wouldn't of put 5 bucks on the table saying I'd send next go. But luckily i beat my own odds on my next attempt. It had all the makings of good redpoint (though i was only on TR) , blown sequences, deadpoints to crappy holds, fighting back the urge of the Elvis leg and just barely sketching it out to the belay. I was glad to have that one over. Even though it wasn't in the best style I'll take it for what its worth given the lack of info and time I could put into it. The pitch could really use some more bolts if anyone besides the likes of Tommy or Honold are going to go up there and truly redpoint it. Onwards and upwards we went. Pitch 3 went down with out nearly as much blood, sweat and cursing. If there had been anymore required of me on the pitch I am not sure I would of sent though. At the top of the pitch it started to sink in that I had actually just free climbed my way up here (with a short top-rope section but again I'll take what i can get right now). We were finally able to kick it into to gear and make some good time up the remainder of the route. It had taken close to 5 hours to do the first 3 pitches and then only 3 hours to do the remaining 8 pitches. It felt nice to just be cruising up there without anymore hard pitches left. The summit arrived quickly as did the descent back to the Van. I wish I could say the same for the drive back to my parents place in Snohomish.... We found ourselves stumbling into bed at 11:00pm totally exhausted but very content. We had done close to 50 pitches in the last week, driven 900 miles, taken 6 ferry boat rides, taken a short side trip to Gulf Islands off the coast of Vancouver Island and just did one hell of climb. I laid awake for at least an hour rehashing the unlikely outcome of the day and how it took 12 years to get here.

Hey Pink! How bout you meet me down there in a few weeks for a 10 year reunion? And you can finally give me that 80 bucks you owe me! How's the finger?

Well I didn't make it to the country but did hit up the lower wall. Zilla, city park, sloe children. Full Japanese Gardens. All pretty much dry!!!! Way warmer than expected. Definitely a perfect day at Index!

Hey Tim- I have been using a pro-traxion and mini traxion for years now. I probably have close to 100 days of climbing on them and have never had a problem. Which includes an incredible amount of falls and never have I seen anything close to any sheath damage caused from the traxions. The only sheath damage I have seen is from abrasion due to the rock while using a dynamic rope. This is why I choose to use a 10mm static. I use a pro and mini combined if I think their is any chance I might fall. I only go with a single device if its really easy. Its best to rig another belay loop so the their is a little more redundancy in the system. When I fall on the devices both of them engage and hopefully share the load. Like I said above, never have I seen any sheath damages from the traxions, even after 25 or so repetitive hard falls on the same spot on the rope. The best biners for traxions seem to be the oval lockers, Petzl recommends the "ok" biner and I agree with that. If you use the pear shape biner the device gets tweeked a fair bit easier.