mattp

Actually, you did (on the Dwayner thread). Your comments are right on, Jon. Like Jay sai: people who want this site to be more informative and serve more as a vehical for meeting climbers and unifying the climbing community should feel free to add things that will steer it in that direction. Unless you change the board so the posts are screened before they are displayed, there will always be those who are more interested in entertaining theirselves or insulting others than contributing something more helpful -- but this site has and I hope will continue to be a great resource for a lot of Northwest climbers. I'm not identifying Dwayner or anybody else as being "responsible" for this situation, but it would be unfortunate if we let the antics of a few, or even the pervasive culture of banter, cause the site to be mired in the realm of bullshit.

quote: Originally posted by jon: Hey I've got a suggestion, GET OVER YOURSELVES!!!!! ... This site is nothing without the users. The content is as good as what the users post. The more people posting info the better. If you want to see this site realize it's potential then post stuff that is usefull to your fellow climbers and the occasional good laugh. If you just want to be an idiot then register lots of screen names and post about crapping in sleeping bags. Or you can just get lost. Right on Jon. However, while this thread is about Dwayner (sort of), these remarks apply to everyone else here too (this point was made in the thread Dwayner started). Dwayner: don't get lost. Come to rope up and have a beer with us. Invite your friend Donna Top-Step if you can.

Any of the south side routes are relatively accessible and, in general, will tend to "set up" after a new snowfall more quickly than routes facing away from the sun. The Gib Ledges route utilizes the standard approach to Camp Muir and then follows the shortest route to the summit, but it is more exposed then the Ingraham (people fall off of it once in a while and I have not heard of similar falls on the Ingraham) and the ledges are subject to bombardment by rock and ice fall on sunny days, while the Ingraham is more prone to a lingering avalanche hazard. In some ways, a winter ascent can be easier than a summer ascent, with the glaciers more filled in and with approaches made on skis rather than on rock piles.

Did you get any pictures?

All of Blueberry Hill is actively shedding rock -- indeed all of Darrington (the granite outcrops there are all on features called "exfoliation domes" for a reason). I don't think that gully is much more hazardous in this regard than anywhere else but next time you are up there, look up at the flakes that are the West Buttress route -- that gully makes a "slice" in the onion that allows you to see the layers peeling away -- and realize that this same process is going on throughout the area. As you probably know, the exfoliation is what causes so many granite peaks to develop domes and spires. In addition to rockfall, some of the damage to trees and the bending and flattening of bolts looks to me as if it may have occurred not through not a rapid avalanche but downward snow and ice "creep" during the winter months. By the way -- if you ARE into slab pitches with one bolt between anchors, let's get together some time. You'd probably think a pitch with two old quarter inchers was "fat" and you could lead me up some of those old classics.

This discussion has me thinking about just what it is that makes a "good" partner. I've climbed with partners who I found to be safe, strong, reliable, and generally considerate but with whom I just didn't quite "click." Conversly, I've climbed with guys who I had to litterally drag up and down a climb but for some reason I was able to forgive them for it and ended up enjoying the day. I've had excellent partners that I climbed with for years, and I've climbed with some pretty bad ones for many years as well. And I've had some great pick-up partners for some of the hardest climbs I've ever done. It is not only just about how safe and strong someone is, or how motivated, or even about what actually happens -- the partnership experience depends on these things but it also depends on whether or not we "get along."

Cavey - If that picture looks good to you, you are sicker than I thought.

WSDOT shows cloudiness in the Methow now. You may be doomed. [ 10-03-2002, 12:22 PM: Message edited by: mattp ]

I understand your point and I'll give you slack if you want it. I might even try "the hop." But I'm generally more worried about movement (either of my fragile body or of the pieces) more than absolute forces. When I'm on the sharp end, I'd generally rather have you hold the rope tight. [ 10-04-2002, 12:11 AM: Message edited by: mattp ]

Not the dynamic belay all over again. Maybe its good for sport climbing, but for any rock less than vertical, or with less than bomber cams or nuts for pro, I sure hope you don't belay me that way. [ 10-03-2002, 11:55 PM: Message edited by: mattp ]

I don't know that I have any real gossip for you, but I have met Chris and he is a genuine character -- one-of-a-kind, for sure. I believe that the Primal Scream route would not be technical for the entire 4,000 feet of rise, and I doubt they free-soloed endless 5.9, but I bet you'd know you did something if you went and climbed it. Off-Width-Climber and I headed over there one day and we went the wrong way so it took us five hours just to get to where we roped up -- we climbed the route Chris calls the "engineer's route" on the left edge of that prow in the photo Caveman added, and it was pretty good. But bring your Machete.

Looks like Colchuck Lake at the top, Colchuck glacier moraine at left, the Hidden Couloir prominently visible in the bottom-middle of the photo, and at the bottom edge of the picture would be Dragontail Peak. What's the prize? [ 10-03-2002, 07:06 PM: Message edited by: mattp ]

Yeah. It's going to look like this:

Dragontail?

quote: Originally posted by MrDoolittle: Ha, ha, ha. Come to Canada. Your options for mountaineering in the summer are VASTLY reduced if you don't have 4WD hc. And from most S10s I've seen, they don't cut it in terms of clearance up here. Waterbars in the Squamish area can be three feet deep by three feet across! If you're ever in Whistler and you notice that there's a lot of Tacoma's without bumpers, that's why. That is a common response I get, and one that may have some merit - if you are into true mountain exploration. But if you Canadian's are like most of the American climbers I know, you mostly go to the famous classics, and nearly all of these are destinations that can be reached in any car-- Squamish, Cerise Creek, Lillooet, Roger's Pass, the Bugaboos .... I know lots of owners of 4 x 4 trucks and suv's that are unwilling to drive them even on a brushy road, let along somewhere they might hit a rock or something and they would never consider loading anything into the back that might scratch it.

I probably agree with you about the Alpine, Gordon, but on the big wall climbs I do, I am probably pretty likely to rap off after a fall where I hit my head so hard that I destroy the helmet. You must be one badass hardcore sicko.

Mine is a little slow in the passing lane, but otherwise it seems quite adequate. Over the last 20 or so years I've driven a Nissan and two Toyota's, about 100,000 miles each, and the Toy's have been overall more reliable. But for most of us work-a-day weekend warriors, why do you want a truck at all? I've said this before, but it largely seems to be an image thing where guys gotta have a truck even though they actually use it like a car.

Isn't this a little more realistic than those fantasies you guys are posting here?

Do they have an extensive collection for BC?

Russ, I don't think you are being disrespectful. The point that the cams may not be totally secure in the parallel sided cracks at Vantage has already been raised here and your suggestion to place nuts where possible is probably a good one.

He thinks you may be in too much of a hurry this morning, Ray. The guy was asking about satellite photos, not satellite phones.

You heard right. That film was AWESOME. The whole talk was fantastic when Lowell presented it last Spring, and there were many old "cascade legends" in attendance. Mingle a little and you can get the real scoop on Mount Index or Willis Wall or something.

Thanks. I have a general mistrust of BD products (though I sure like those Camelots) but again --maybe I'll check it out. I have a collection of those Easter seals headlamps (they used to sell for $13.00 and lots of people dumped them for cheap because the switch was so poor), but even still I am kind of tired of never knowing if my damn headlamp will even turn on or not when I really need it. But when I want light, I want LIGHT. For some trips, I used to carry a 6 volt battery like the size we used to run electric trains when we were kids and that thing supported a beam almost as bright as Larry the Tool's searchlight. That thing was the ticket!

Tyrone may be a troll fisherman, but I HAVE seen painted stones in cairns and painted lines on slabs in New Hampshire, painted circles denoting fixed pins on a hut approach in British Columbia, painted route numbers on crags in Ontario and France, and painted route markers in Germany. I've never fealt the urge to spraypaint any mountain or crag, but when I visited Germany some years ago I heard a story of a guy climbing the east face of the Watzmann and painting red dots along the route -- somebody else climbed behind him with the grey paint, covering the dots. Anybody know if the guy with the red paint went back and repeated his marking? Maybe this is the Euro version of bolt wars.