mattp

I agree with K that "it all depends," but just to argue semantics I'd say it depends on your skill and judgment abilities rather than your "comfort level" (though I suspect I don't disagree with him). What I mean is that I've seen people that overestimate or underestimate their abilities, and I've seen people that don't seem to recognize the difference in seriousness between a 30 degree slope of summer slush and a 30 degree slope of hardpack -- even aside from what the potential consequences of a fall might be. In general, it'd be hard to argue that ski poles are ever safer, but ski poles do allow you to travel faster and more comfortably. Snow climbing, perhaps more than rock and ice climbing, is an art form that you master by doing lots of mountain climbing. I've never heard of anybody going up to Paradise and climbing up and down snowbanks to learn how, as you might go to a top-rope area or a local ice fall to practice rock and ice-climbing. Somebody with experience and judgment can savely run back and forth, up and down, and all over a snow slope where somebody else should use an ice axe and maybe even call for a belay. Just don't confuse "comfort" with "competence."

If you're a strong climber, you don't have to carry over if you don't want to -- a buddy and I camped at the base of the route and then climbed up and back down to camp by lunch time. Light hiking boots took us to the toe of the buttress, and rock shoes to the top and back. We saw a momma bear and two cubs in that N. Fork creek valley....

Klar, you rapped "Jacob's Ladder," and had you rapped straight down from that chain above the extra long diagonal rappel you would have found a station at a more comfortable ropelength. No, Chris Christianson did not put it up. I did, with the help of about half the active posters on cc.com and a few of my Darrington buddies. No, you cannot see the Dark Rhythm anchors from the ledge -- unless you know where to look.

Sloth, I wouldn't expect anybody to be closing down the place, but I would bet some will stay 'till at least 11:00. I don't think pubclub has ever broken up earlier than that except once at Golden Gardens, when the police chased us away, and once in Redmond, when all the eastsiders had to go home and go beddy- bye.

RuMr- You seem to suggest that there might be someting wrong with Gowan or somebody else criticising the U.S. for its' foreign policy. Is that true? And, in the context of the discussion of why people hate us, do you think our foreign policy has ANYTHING to do with it?

The "hanging in space anchor" should go, as should the rusty old stray bolt above it, and I'd be for removing those two bolts Greg complains of, but I think any reasonable boltless W. Buttress route is probably going to end up in a dihedral about 20 feet to the left at that point. The route remains very good at present - albeit with two protection bolts in the middle of about 8 pitches of boltless climbing. Here's Greg, a few pitches above that point.

Rumor and Gmoney - What is the significance of the fact that so many people want to move to the U.S. -- of course they want to move here because we are one of the richest countries where an outsider can come in and have a chance to make it. But what does that say about our role in/and relationship with/ the rest of the world?

It looks like an interesting book. Does the review I found here properly characterize its message? One thing I would have to say is that I agree that most Americans are pretty ignorant about the rest of the world. A few weeks ago we heard how a large number of Americans think the 9-11 hijackers were from Iraq, and that we have indeed found weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, and that they used chemical and biological weapons against us in the recent war. This almost makes me think that lots of Americans are not only ignorant, but that they WANT TO BE. Afterall, I don't think even the most militant war hawks have said any of those things. But, aside from current events, we just don't know very much about the world: a year or two ago we read that 20% of Americans cannot even find America on a world map! How many people know anything about the history of our interventions in Latin America or Africa? How many Americans know anything about the internal politics in the European Union or the history of China/Korea/Japan? Yes, there are probably other ignorant people in this world, but my impression has been that the people I've met in Asia and Europe knew a lot more about the world than the average American. Do you think his summary of the effects of our foreign interventions is accurate?

The OLD PEQULIAR is at 1722 NW Market. There is no 16th or 18th or 19th Avenues NW, so it is a block and a half west of the Denny's at 15th Ave. NW and NW Market St., on the north side of the street. It used to be green but they are repainting it so it might be a different color. There is outdoor seating on a small deck, darts, etc.

I've heard of a Mount Pugh, and I think it is the peak that is fairly prominent as you drive into Darrington, and which has a steep left (north) profile. Where's Mount Hugh?

I've ridden up to Cold Springs in a Cadillac. You should have seen the bug-eyes on all those people in 4x4 pickups and Subaru outbacks!

Assuming that what you are looking for is a way not to have to do either a carry-over or a one day marathon on the North Ridge, I would say that you should consider the Mountaineer Creek approach and the Sherpa Couloir descent. The approach hike is probably no further (and probably no more difficult) than the approach over Goat Pass, though there is some "off-trail" hiking (if you do it right, as described not long ago in this forum, there is a climber's path most of the way), and the descent down the Sherpa Couloir is pretty straightforward (some have complained about it, but recent route reports have mostly been favorable). Really. Check it out.

I want to hear more about your Tunnel Creek adventure! Got pix??

Indeed, every time Pubclub is more than 10 blocks from Ballard there is a marked drop in attendance and the same usual suspects complain about it. However, every time we go to Tacoma or the East Side, the Seatle folks still outnumber their outlander cousins, and almost every time we stay later, too. So it just doesn't make a lot of sense for us to do it all that often. I'd be game for Everett sometime, and maybe this is the time -- how many north enders are actually interested? Also, are there other north-end places like what about something in Mountlake Terrace or Kenmore, just to make it a little closer to Seattle? One thing to bear in mind, though, is that last week we were out at North Bend. So maybe it should be back in Seattle this week and we might look at a north-end gig in the next week or two?

Indeed, I enjoyed the climbing yesterday. We climbed 8 pitches of damn good rock and, even though there are some of the usual DTown flakes and the approach up the sidewalk is mildly gnarly, the side of Blueberry Hill is one very cool place to be in a rainstorm! As the second thunder cloud rolled overhead, the big raindrops had sunlight on them and shown just like Bush Sr's thousand points of light! Here's looking up and down from the "thousand points of light" belay:

The first time I skied Mt. Adams, we left the parking lot at 10:00 am, sat around on the summit, and started the run down the South Spur from the false summit at 5:00 pm. Because it was late in the day, all the hikers were out of the way. The suncups were huge (I believe it was the first week in August), and we were glad that we waited until very late in the day so they would be maximally softened. If you want to be extra cautious, bring them but I'd be very surprised if you needed crampons and an ice axe to climb or descend the South Spur. (The first few hundred feet off the false summit are very steep, though, and if you are not comfortable with that sort of thing you may not want to ski it and you may want the axe.) There will be a staircase kicked by others and, if it's a nice day, you'll see other people up there in sneakers. The last slope up to the actual summit may be a bit icy, but it is not steep.

This is what you'll see when you land at the airport: The airport is in Hagensborg, 10 or 15 miles up the valley from Bella Coola. There isn't much in the way of facilities there, but perhaps a half mile or mile away there is grocery store accross the road from a hotel with a cafe. There is also a park that is FULL of mosquito's and I believe there was some kind of commercial campground nearby as well. We found mosquito-free camping at a park down at the bottom of the valley, a mile beyond Bella Coola -- there was a saltwater breeze that really helped a lot (I think the sign said it was "day use only" there, however). There is big granite all over the place within about five or ten miles of the airport, both north and south facing, and I think there is some description of a few climbs in the area in one of the BC rock climbing guides -- perhaps the "inland" one or whatever it is.

Go for the SW Chutes!!!!

I don't know where you guys live, but that's not really a bad forecast for a June weekend in the North Cascades. Take friday off and try to avoid the weather if you can, but even on a "clear" weekend you better be prepared for a storm if you head up on big climb or are going to go way above treeline on a Volcano or something, and there is always a significant chance it will come in early if you head up a day ahead of a predicted turn in the weather. With this forecast, you could get some wind and some moisture and some poor visibility, and even if you know what you are doing you might end up wandering around and getting stuck like those folks did last weekend, but it is far from a forecast that says "go and you will die."

By the way: in a very impressive display of juggling, Dryad made the CATCH OF THE NIGHT! When she saw that Brian was catching some air, falling over the massive roof on the East Wall of Repo I, she did the "reverse Lambone maneuver" and dropped to the ground, thereby taking an additional three feet of slack out of the system and reducing the chance that he might pull her out of position somehow. It was actually quite impressive! Take note, all of you! (And she didn't even drop the cell phone call.)

Nobody died. Some predicted disaster, but PubClub went climbing and everybody had a good time. Wayne was the leader of the pack, lugging a medium sized cooler full of coors light up there early in the afternoon to get a head start on us. Lacking a belayer, he self-belayed just about every climb on the two repo rocks before the rest of us showed up. Part-way into his cooler, he was ready for action and led Goddess and then cruised Little Hitler (Wayne is leading Little Hitler in the first picture). Catbird set a rope on Human Foot, Dave Schuldt put one on one of the Repo Climbs, and Ctuller lead Kinder and Gentler Carpet Bombing. Between stories and speculation about what had happened to the lost dog "Dakota" whose owners were desparately running back and forth along the trail calling their lost pooch, we took laps on these climbs and just as I eyed the last cruxy bit before the chains on Goddess, Wayne (my belayer) took a phone call from his climbing partner for the next few days. Hang on, Matt -- no it's OK climb on. Fred Beckey is known for requiring his partners to stop at every pay phone booth on the way to and from a climb so that he can line up his partners for the next trip, but Wayne was doing it while on belay! Picture's two and three show our refinement of this tactic. As you can see, we found that with careful juggling one can drink beer, talk on the phone AND belay at the same time (thus, climbing is almost like bowling - the only sport I know where you can have a cigarette in one hand, a beer in the other, and STILL throw the ball). Anyway, less than a minute after the last picture was taken, Dryad actually caught Brian, who took a leader fall and ripped out a stopper before being caught on a small TCU. We can definitely say it: TCU's work! WARNING: DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME. ROCK CLIMBING WHILE HANGING OUT AND DRINKING BEER IS DANGEROUS!!!!! DO NOT, REPEAT DO NOT, TAKE CELL PHONES AND DOGS TO THE CRAG. THIS IS ONLY A JOKE.

Meet either place. If you are at the trailhead and nobody's there and you have a partner, I bet you're not going to want to wait.

Just a guess, but I'm pretty sure you'll find the brush in the bowl below Shuksan Arm is melted out and probably leafing out by now. By the way, if you do head in there, try the trick used by a friend of mine from Kodiak, where there is a thousand feet of willow brush to crawl through before you get to the skiing. Tie your skis together, bottoms facing each other, and hang them from the side of your pack, a little above the bottom attachment of one of the shoulder straps, so that they are fully in balance or nearly in balance with a little more weight to the rear and the tails forward (tips trail behind you). You rest an arm on the skis and steer the tails wherever you want to go. They do not get caught up in the brush even a tiny fraction of the amount that you do carrying them the normal way.

The Cave would be a cool place for pubclub. Ever been in there? Last time I was there, they had computers and stuff so we could have pubclub ONLINE.