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ryland_moore

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Everything posted by ryland_moore

  1. Yeah, tried doing it in a day with two partners a few weeks ago and soon realized at Stuart Pass that our ambition was much bigger than our ability. Definately will hump it in to the notch the night before, bivy and head up. The rappel area was the main area I was concerned about. I am not hard core enough to solo/aid the Gendarme. Will look for folks, maybe will just stick to the West Ridge instead. Thanks for input.
  2. Beckey says 5.6. I usually belie this, but have seen publications that state otherwise.
  3. Looking to find out about the conditions, exposure on the 5.0 section and how long this "pitch" is, any other info. Would carry some pro and a 8.8 mm rope. Any suggestions?
  4. Anyone interested in getting on West Ridge of Forbidden before the gully melts out? Thinking of blasting up in a single push to forgo any permit hassles for BB and from irrate snafflehounds. Meet up Saturday evening. Leave trailhead early Sunday morning, back to car Sunday afternoon. Looking to simul-climb most of the Ridge with a belay here and there near the short, steeper blocks. Also maybe a few raps or belays coming down the West Ridge and gully so's we don't fall in the shrund. Looking to go fast and lite. Interested? PM me.
  5. Sounds good. I'll wait and hear from you. If you do not find anyone, I am always up for something short, but hard. Probably couldn't lead every pitch of Serpentine Arrete, for example. Two weeks ago, we did a one day car to car ascent of West Ridge of Stuart, but we were pretty tired. Jogged the eight miles out. Started at 1am, got down by 6pm. The N. Ridge is supposed to take around 6 hours. If we did huff it into Goats Pass (4-5 hours), It would probably take us around 2-3 hours to cross Stuart glacier, get up on the notch and start the climb. Any other routes you are interested in? Again, if I don't here from you, I'll probably head off to solo somethin' easy or try and jump on with my other climbing buddy and his girlfriend (3rd wheel action)
  6. Wish I could make it tonight but have a meeting that goes til 9:30. I'll be thinking of yous guys!
  7. Just had my regular partner bail after having a tough couple of climbs over the past few weekends and wanted to see if anyone out there wanted to do something like W Ridge of Forbidden, or pretty much anything in the N.Cascades. I can leave work early on Friday and be up there early evening. My climbing experience is broad: lead up to 5.9 old skool trad, have climbed many routes on Casacade volcanoes, and climbed throughout Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Argentina, and Mexico. Would love to do an alpine climb involving steep snow, some ice and a classic ridge with easy rock. Anyone interested? Have to be in Portland by 8 pm on SUnday, so this may limit the peak we do and might have to climb one with an easier approach (sorry, but Goode is out for this weekend). Any takers? I am pretty easy to get along with and really laid back. I'll bring the horsecock if you bring the cheese.
  8. What's up with the snow birdge at the base of Forbidden? Is it passable? Want to get up there this weekend. Any beta?
  9. I will try and make it. Have been scheduling/work related conflicts up till now.
  10. I can actually answer this question. My grandfather who is stubborn and is always right, told my father that you can eat anything as long as it is prepared properly. So, my father, out to prove him wrong, went hunting for a week and shot everything from possum, rattlesnakes, and even brought back a box turtle- and of course, crow for their maid, Lottie to cook up (Think South in the 1950's). Lottie proceeded to prepare my grandfather each item when he came home from work for a week and he ate every bit of everything put in front of him (Lottie was an amazing cook), except when he came home for a plateful of stewed Crow. The house smelled so bad that all windows hand doors were left open for 3 days! My grandfather did not eat the Crow and said that it was prepared poorly.I decided to test this a few years ago while staying at my parent's cabin on the Virginia/West Virginia border. There were around 15 crows hanging out and squawking so I shot one and cooked it up. Very greasy and smeeled bad, but with a little garlic, onions, celery and potatoes cooked in the cavity, it wasn't too bad. I mean you could eat it if you were starving.
  11. What I would do right now to be away from my desk and sitting for 8 hours at base camp on the Kahiltna! Jobe, I guess you've never heard the phrase, "Patience is a Virtue". You should try it sometime. It might actually extend your life. If you want instant gratification, maybe you should stick to the South Side on Hood or spend more time in a rock gym?
  12. I am looking forward to a rematch between the US and Korea after we destroy the Krauts and Korea is finished with Spain.
  13. Old school! It is what keeps us all humble! When I was first starting out I would get pissed that I couldn't climb an old-school 5.6 saying to myself who the hell rated this climb? Fucking sandbagger. Now it is the exact opposite. Maybe if we had stayed with the that type of rating, we might not have to listen to those arguing over whether or not a climb goes at 5.14d A4 M7 or 5.15a A3 M6+ in the latest "Hot Flashes"
  14. I thought that part of being old school was being honest. I do not necessarily associate something being old school with the date it was first rated. I think an old school route could go up tomorrow if given the proper grade and done from the ground up and done as an onsight instead of from the top down and have the moves worked out over a period of time.
  15. Libra Crack - that's on Index right? I need to get up there. Does that place get crowded on the weekends? Crowded means something different to everyone. When I say crowded, I refer to Smith Rock or Mt. Hood south side on a beautiful spring weekend kind of crowded.
  16. I made thew offer to them all, including Dru, who I may owe 1.07% of the money. You get money for being published? And it could go the other way, that I act as a belay bitch for a day. I probably couldn't act as ropegun for too many people anyways. I had an 11 year old kid in my climbing class flash a hard 5.11 that I had been working on and could not figure out for a week!Made me feel a little silly.
  17. Good Points erik and Rodchester, and yes, in the unlikely event my op gets published I will be sure to take you out for a beer or act as your ropegun for a day. Some things are obvious like pointing out to someone that is trying to put a crampon on backwards or an entire rope team standing on a snowbridge while taking a break (saw that one two years ago), b/c what they are doing is obviously dangerous and I think anyone would feel compelled to yell, hey, you are standing on a snow bridge! But what about smaller things that as you all point out may not seem major but could later have larger consequences? On a side note, you all have sucked me in and I am not getting shit done for work.
  18. Chuck, I am not saying there is obvious proof that the number of deaths in the Cascades is directly related to the number of inexperienced climbersd in the Cascades. I am saying that I have noticed, over the last five years, an increased number of climbers in the easily accessible mountains and by playing the numbers game, that we may be seeing a trend and not just some fluke incident. Last year, there were very few deaths, if any. Two years ago, there were some freak accidents, but many of these accidents could have easily been prevented. Easy to say in hindsight, but think about your personal experiences. Are you seeing higher numbers and observing folks who seem to be a little out of their league or am I alone on this one? Maybe I have just seen odd things more often than others and it is causing me to feel this way? That is why I am asking. I am all for people getting into climbing as long as they are taking the time to learn properly from folks like you instead of going out and trying to do it on their own after seeing some IMAX film or watching Vertical Limit. Thanks for your posts.
  19. Believe me (as you have already pointed out) I am not a professional writer and got just under 500 on my SATs. My vocabulary sucks, but it still does not negate the fact that we are faced to deal with the situations that face us in the mountains. No, climbing hasn't agreed to print anything, nor am I expecting them to. But I still think that we will be forced to deal with this situation in the near future if we haven't already had to do so. For example, when I first started climbing eleven years ago, I was with an experienced guy climbing in the Tetons. As we passed by a small group, not wearing helmets, belaying improperly and using a rope that looked more like a static line or those tree climbing ropes you see foresters using, my partner turned to me and said, we better stay away from those yahoos or they may get us into trouble or force us to have to rescue them. Maybe they were old-school or hard-core, but I have heard many climbers say this when they see someone doing something they shouldn't in the mountains. Is it my job to point out their errors? Or do we continue to "stay away" so that we won't have to deal with a rescue or them causing us harm? What if someone had emntioned in passing to the guys on Hood, "Maybe it is not such a good idea to stay roped up above the 'schrund, or do you think you guys might be a little too close to the party above ya? Or to the guy on the snowboard attempting the descent of Cooper - Are you sure you wanna board down a route you didn't climb first? I have always taken the avoidance, out of sight, out of mind approach, but am reconsidering my actions. So what if the guy tells me to fuck off - I don't know what the hell I am talking about. I will probably never see the guy in my life again. But, what if I say it to a less experienced climber and it makes him pause for a moment to think that maybe he/she is over their heads and is reconsidering their actions. It could prevent an injury. Thoughts?
  20. Erik, I do not work for Climbing but am writing an opinion article. I do not have an editor, I am just a guy off the street who finds it necessary to point some things out-kind of like we all do on this site. You could write one if you wanted. Anyone can. I am not doing research for the article, as my opinion has not changed. Just wondering what others opinions are.
  21. Nelly states: Is a beginner, less experienced climber more/less likley to get killed on a dog route than an experienced climber on a hard route with lots of objective hazards? Check the stats in the Himalaya, hard men/women get the chop at a fairly high rate. Nelly, I do not disagree with this statement but I think that my question is, is a beginner who is climbing with beginners more/less likely to get killed on a dog route than an experienced climber on that same route. I do not think that the problem, if there is one, is less experienced climbers going out on technical routes in the major ranges around the world, but inexperienced folks in the mountains most easily accessible here in the Cascades. Yes, Mt. Blanc has the highest number of deaths annually, but it is the number of climbers that go there combined with the lack of experience that is the problem. Is this happening here? Can we expect Mt. Hood or Rainier to be on that list in the near future? After my experience two weeks ago on Mt. Hood, I don't really have an urge to go back, or at least do a route that would warrant a descent down the SDOuth Side. After climbing the Leuthold and heading up the summit ridge, everything was perfect - the weather, the climbing, the snow conditions. Until I reached the summit. The summit was filled with people - about 60 or so - with many more heading up the SOuth Side - roped up above the bergschrund and in line one right after the other. I estimated that I saw around 20 people chatting away on their cell phones like it was Monday morning at the local coffee shoppe. "Dude. guess where I am? Top of the fucking world, Baby!" to "Did you catch SNL last night? Who hosted?..... Oh my Gawd, No Way!" to "The Cell reception sux up here!" Does this mentality piss you off? For me, I will be spending my weekends deep in the North Cascades this Spring and Summer.
  22. Sorry Dru, I will be sure to use as less "magniloquent" phrase the next time. You might do better grading the new sections of the verbal SAT than sitting behind your computer all day like ODDTODD.com and spraying everyone else to make yourself feel better about your life. On top of that, you still didn't even attempt to give your own perspective, which I have actually admired from time to time on this site. Why don't you actually deal with some of the realities that are facing you as a climber. Who knows, maybe that could have been you below the climbers who fell on Hood?
  23. It bodes the question, Are there too many climbers in the mountains with too little experience or is it just as Sleeveless states, that it is just a numbers game? I am writing an article for Climbing magazine on this very topic. With the easy access to Mtns. like Hood and Rainier and others around the world like Mt. Blanc and Aconcogua coupled with large urban areas and the glorification that the mainstream media has placed on all aspects of climbing, is it that people do not realize the danger of stepping onto a glacier, even if it is a dogleg route like the SOuth Side route of Hood. I am not some Mark Twight scoffing down upon the peopns of the climbing world, just your average weekend warrior who has invested a great deal of time and effort into improving all of my climbing skills, safety and technical. Maybe people do not understand the inherent dangers when it is a bluebird day and the lights of their city can be seen while they chat to their friends on a caell phone. Maybe the proximity of these mountains to major city does not remove one less experienced in climbing from the comfort and security blanket that the city affords and they feel they are still in that environment. What are your thoughts? I am not asking for regulations, but it may be necessary for the general public to learn that this endeavor is a serious committment. Sure, we all have a good time up in the mountains, but most of us are constantly aware of the dangers that are around us. Thoughts? Am I totally off here? I am just going on my 5 years of experience in the Cascades and my two years in the Tetons. I have also seen huge differences between mountains like Aconcogua the numbers of people up there who appeared to have little to no experience and then spending some time in the Cordillera Blanca and seeing practically no one for weeks. So, I agree with Sleeveless that it is a numbers game, but with those numbers come more less-experienced "recreational darwinists". Thoughts?
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