Dru

Brian, look up Androphobia in the dictionary, and misandry too.

quote: Originally posted by erik: and the pages are to slippery to use as toliet paper! Plus they stick together when Rachel Babekirk gets you excited right Erik?

The long ridge could be the Twin Sisters range - no snow - still no idea what the snowy thing was if it was behind them - would not be Garibaldi from that angle. Got pictures? [maybe it was the thermal plume from Sumas 1 ]

You are gonna have to RUN to get it done

From what I hear the border is open but traffic in both directions has slowed to less than a crawl as every vehicle travelling in either direction is subjected to a fine toothed comb type search. Not a good time to be transporting apples through the 'apple maggot quaranitne area' for instance.

I just re read a bunch of old Climbing mags and compared them to the present ones. The Hot Flashes have gotten more inspiring but the rest of the mag has declined since Kennedy left. Instead of John Sherman, Greg Child, Mark Twight as regular columnists we get Dave Pagel (yawn), Pete Takeda (yawn) and so on. I laugh at Samet but his targets are easy ones. Long hasn't written anything new in 10 years. And once you have read the mags for a few years you tune out the endlessly identical technique and gear reviews. The letters are boring, ditto the editorials, and I liked Tami Knights cartoons better when they were multiple panels instead of just one. What I wonder is, where do all the old sprayers go? What happened to Mia Axon, Alan Lester, Eric Scully and a bunch of other sprayclimbers that used to be in all the ads and hot-flashes 4 years ago but have vanished without a trace. Only perpetual mag whores Hans Florine and Timy Fairfield are still holding in there - and Sharma of course - but his accomplishments are actually noteworthy (bong huffin at the World Cup ) so he does not count...

I think Whillans is jamming on me because i dont get off work til three (If i slope out early) and he has to meet his ex-girl at 5 to drink beer.

The NTA trip report is at http://bivouac.com/mtn/TripPg.asp?rq=TripPg&TripId=48 Its a pretty good route on an unfrequented mountain. Only disadvantages are the views (if you like clearcuts...) and the fact that the first pitch, the crux, is pretty much unprotected 5.8 slab. but you might be able to find a harder and better start on the left or climb higher up the snow on the right and avoid that pitch, so... Here is a picture too. The route goes up by the waterfall to the snowpatch, left to the arete and up the arete to the top, basically. About 12 pitches of which 6-7 were 5th class. [This message has been edited by Dru (edited 09-11-2001).]

"It is nice to have a real crisis to deal with for a change, when for most of your term you have been dealing with humdrum issues like the environment." - Margaret Thatcher on the Falklands War.

The one on the left is the Golden Ears massif, and the one on the right is Robie Ried, I think. That aint what goatboy saw either. I'm pretty sure, east of Baker, it would be Shuksan - but I could be wrong. I dunno what gearbot saw, probably not Garibaldi either, not much snow left on it right now anyways. [This message has been edited by Dru (edited 09-11-2001).]

TRIP REPORT FOR GIMLI (the one for Louis iscoming) Last week of August – the long awaited Road Trip was on. Fern and I stuffed my newly acquired Subaru wagon full of gear and headed East for some ‘Subaru Alpinism’ namely whatever we could climb from the comfort of the car or possibly by an overnight trip as a last resort. Destination one was Nelson and Valhalla Provincial Park, specifically the south ridge of Mt. Gimli, a four star IV, 5.8 reportedly one of the best alpine climbs of its grade in Canada. On Sunday the 26th, we pulled into Mulvey Meadows trailhead at the end of the Bannock Burn logging road and headed up the trail to Gimli in advance of a large party of Army climbers and their guides. It was the Communications Regiment – I guess they were going to practice yelling “On Belay – Belay On” and similar mountain communications (yodelling?). Anyway, we arrived at the foot of Gimli after a two hour approach hike to find the south ridge festooned with other parties – at least three of them. The upper two parties were trucking along but the lowest party (of three) was well set up on the first pitch. It took the leader an hour to get the belay set up. Then the second climber began climbing – he made it a few meters up, fell off, sucked the slack out of the system and decked. The third climber gave it a try – same result. Fern and I realised we would not get much done if we decided to try and do the route today so we elected to mosey over to Nisleheim Peak, nearby. As we passed the toe of the ridge I suggested to the two climbers still on the ground that they try the easy face on the left as a start to the route rather than the overhanging corner they were experiencing so much difficulty with. Fern and I wandered across to Nisleheim and under its south face. Fern scrambled the west ridge and I wandered up the southwest ridge (class 4-5) under the impression it was going to be easier than it was. On top, we soaked up the sun and eyed preposterous (for us) possibilities on the highly impressive west face of Gimli and on the many granite walls and buttresses ringing Mulvey Basin. Without a guidebook we were free to try and spot obvious lines instead of trying to make our expectations of what we should see agree with what we were seeing. After a few hours we decided to head back out to the car. On our way back across under the south face of Nisleheim we met a party of two climbers coming the other way – a mother and child, decked out in matching white wool outfits, clip-clopping over scree and sliding down snow patches – two goats, actually. When we reached the base of the south ridge of Gimli we found the slow party pulling their ropes, having elected to descend after completing two pitches in 5 hours. “It just wasn’t our day,” said one of the members as we passed. We spent Monday hanging out in Nelson, buying guidebooks, drinking coffee, buying topo maps, buying trashy paperbacks at the used bookstore, and drinking more coffee. We visited CIC Slabs but got lost and ended up sport rappelling down someone’s 12a project. A visit to Slocan Bluffs was what was needed and we did a route or two in the afternoon. It was damn hot. I went for a swim in the lake and a huge trout swam right up to me but flicked its tail and left before I could catch it and brain it on a rock for dinner – I didn’t have a fishing license anyway. Tuesday morning saw us arise not so bright and early after a late night rain storm had passed through. By the time we slowly ate breakfast, racked up, and hiked in, the stone had dried and it was 11 AM. Fortunately the Army was heading out and no one else was in the area. I was designated leader and prepared for the first pitch which I had previously climbed two years before on an attempt with Fred B. “Hmmm this is harder than I thought…” I remembered all the stemming and wide crack work but not the unrelenting nature of this pitch. Originally rated 5.7 it still feels like a sandbag at 5.8. I grunted up and under the roof to where I had previously belayed but this time decided to go a few feet higher to a better stance with a huge webbing station. Another unexpected crux! “Oh you are gonna like this one – it just keeps coming at you!” I said to Fern while building an anchor out of nut racking biners – all I had left after placing 15 pieces of gear on the pitch, including doubles of all the hand sized cams and large (1.5-3) TriCams. A set of hexes would have worked also. After seconding the first pitch Fern decided to delegate the leading of the next pitch to me as well. This actually turned out to be pleasant 5.6-5.7on large blocky holds to the top of a prominent pinnacle. From the pinnacle Fern set out on the third pitch only to be confronted by a very confusing move a few feet off from the belay. Eventually I was coerced into leading this pitch as well and found it to be no give-away. There are slings out left and I had seen parties climb out that way but I was forced to move right right onto the arete. After a long sequence of “is this the right way” moves I ended up in a steep dihedral from which a short overhanging flake with bomber fingerlock jugs got me to the next obvious belay stance and I realised I had actually been on route the whole time. This pitch was also “good value” for 5.8. I led the next pitch as well (a long 5.6) and Fern led the pitch after that (even more 5.6) after which I led yet another pitch of 5.6 to a great ledge underneath a short dihedral at the top of which lay the “Crux Roof” mentioned in the guidebook. From the ledge it didn’t look all that bad – “Oh yeah, no problem”. I led off. Getting to the roof was no problem but the traverse left underneath it was quite problematic. I tried two or three different ways, climbing back don to a good rest each time, before finally working out a few odd undercling moves. A big stretch left and a blind reach around the lip of the roof let me grab the big “Thank God Hold” jug that I had been hoping for and I swung around to easier ground, continuing to another stance. Fern had a fun time cleaning this pitch (I am 6’ and she is 5’3”ish, and I was milking my reach to full advantage)and actually had to back-aid to take out some of my most inventive placements, dropping her nut tool in the process. From above the roof, a pitch of 5.4ish slabs, and two more pitches of scrambling (10pitches now if you are counting) took us to the south peak of Gimli, with its east face overhanging slightly and resembling a cresting wave about to break. It had taken us 7 hours up and it was now past 6PM. We didn’t tarry, but hurried over to the main summit and began downclimbing the east ridge. There was a bit of easy class 4 at the top (no need to rappel) phasing into class 3 scrambling and then class 2 steep hiking as we descended. The ridge drops down into the talus basin below the east face of the peak and the lower sections of the descent involve loose dirt and scree intermixed with boulder fields. We cut around to the trail below Gimli in time to se the sunset and then hiked out to the car in the dark. It actually only took us about two and a half hours from the summit back to the car, and the moon was so bright we did not need headlamps to walk out. The smell of scorched rubber drifting up from my brakes was enough to keep me awake as I piloted the Subrau back down through the steep switchbacks on the logging road to Slocan. Finally after two years of waiting and wanting I had climbed the south ridge of Gimli. This is definitely one of the best alpine climbs I have ever done. I would quibble a bit with the guidebook description – III, 5.8+ seems more accurate than IV, 5.8. Others have suggested YDS grades as high as 5.10a for the route but considering it was originally graded 5.7 I think keeping a bit of a sandbag in place on the numbers seems appropriate. Definitely recommended. [This message has been edited by Dru (edited 09-11-2001).]

If you wanna go climbing in the Chilliwack area I can finish work by 3. I'll take you bouldering and you can crush my projects. I'll PM you my work #.

This might be a dumb question Goatboy, but was it Shuksan?

It's like a Chest Rockwell only it don't have no Dirk Diggler for a partner.

There is no visible snow on the south aspect of Silvertip, so it couldn't have been that.

I got a Gi gi. I played with it a bunch. Can be really annoying to belay with on lower andgle stuff, works best if the belay is set about head height so you have lots of room to pull. I don't use it much. Too bad there isn't an icon where the thumb sticks out sideways, neither up nor down.

"The people are water and the army is fish" -Mao Zedong.

You can't see Garibaldi from Stuart. Guaranteed. I will even stake a beer on this! You might have been seeing the big bench glacier on Tamihi, or something like that...

How did it go? Was that you guys on Saturday with the second jugging the 2nd pitch super slowly at about 4 PM??

Hmmm camp for free in a site with 54 others and a bunch of drunken singers late into the night, or pay a small fee and camp in a quiter spot nearby... that's a tough call. Of course if you plan to be closin' down the party every night then the choice is simpler since you don't need to worry about the rowdies keeping you awake - you gonna be one of them (us?)

After the "catch the tree" incident i thought it best to take some whips and so tried to lead Form (10c). Took several 8 footers at the 3rd bolt and did a lot of dogging arf arf and holding onto draws. I think thats the most I've fallen for a long time! Guess I should be pushin' myself more. Admittedly I have fallen off a lot bouldering recently but that doesn't count because launching/jumping off from 4 feet up onto a big cushion is not really falling.

Yeah and I could call the wet streak a verticalswamp except it wassn't vertical!!!

quote: Originally posted by Andrew Grove:

Maybe someone could organize a demo like the shoe and gear companies do, only it would be a cooking gear demo, and GSI would contribute some of those backcountry espresso makers to demo, and Coleman would demo their top of the line green 2-burner camp stoves?

I've tried pitching a few tents but find baseballs easier.