Jens

The M10 at Alpental Rap wall. Washington State

Anybody in King, Pierce, or Snohomish County looking to upgrade to a nicer bouldering crash pad and want to sell me their current one for cheap? Or does anybody just need some money right now and want to make a deal? private message me Jens

I checked out the white granite boulders visible high up in the clearcut north of Highway 2 between index and goldbar today. It is the sunny clearcut below Zeke's wall above the long straightaway on highway 2. I couldn't beleive the quality! The exposure makes them warm and dry also with no seepage--very cool.

It's gettin' cold up there for sure. A few miles down the road after leaving marble yesterday afternoon my thermometer read 11 degrees F. and my thermometer reads about 2 degrees warm. Sorry Bogen, I don't know the C conversion off the top of my head.

I once talked to a dude who said he was pinned down on a belay on the Golden Arch as some dude was shooting at him (with a 22?) from the top of the wall. Appartently some of the bullets were near misses. ___ Oh and the paraside plowing, I heard it costs them over a million bucks a year to keep it open and plowed. (labor, rig mateninence, sand, etc,)

Despite what others say, I think "Rock Climbing Washington" (Falcon Press) is really good (drawings, photos, descriptions, approaches, descents, trivia, and historical info). For now, it will cover you for all of WA. Squamish Select is good as is A.Watts smith guide.

Sweet pic! I'll put my money on the guy on the right. ___ Does the big horizontal crack at the top of that pitch (out of view) ever fill in all the way?

Why are some of the latest skis labeled as telemark-randonee, just telemark, or just randonee when all the dimensions are the same? Is the flex pattern different for all 3 types of classifications or is it just a marketing thing? I have intimite knowledge of alpine skis but limited tele knowledge as I am not a tele skiier. Anyone know?

wow, I wish I got treatment like that. I may keep him in mind in the future. ---------------------------------------------------------- tool tubes suck

looking at some cheap sporting goods store electric boot & glove driers will they damage my $500 leather ice boots? how warm do they get? anybody use em'? I want something that isn't very hot as to not damage expensive gear. Any other boot drying advice? Lay em' siedways? upside down?

I swear by the stuff. Some brands have made some of my partners sick to their stomache. Take it consistently for a long time.

Yeah, I climbed there 3 or 4 times when it was newly opened. It was the craze at one time I think but now doesn't see much traffic, but I could be wrong about that. OK rock quality (not anywhere near as good as ww1) some seepage and some sharp edges (I'd recomend long draws). I bailed off one route "the goods" a long time ago because if you were to fall at a certain point, the rope runs at a bad angle over a razor edge. There used to be a cool rope swing and people used to make bonfires. Kind of a cool hangout. Worth checkin' out but I don't think you'll be going there a lot.

__________________________________ perhaps I should have been more specific. -Secret 4-star limestone sport crag that is not in Eastern WA, northeastern WA, southeast WA, Marcus, B.C, or Vancouver Island. but instead is in the WA central cascades and IS limestone. Everybody and their dog has a secret bolted crag that they think rulz.

maybee Boreal tanked because? *Their rubber sucked *They were very expensive compared to the latest generation of shoe-startups *They weren't getting many of the top climbers to wear their shoes * They weren't making ice & mountaineering boots as good as Sportiva or Scarpa (the last bastions of expensive shoe companies) *I heard bogus stuff about their customer service (from others) The days of $150 dollar rock shoes are over. REI dropped em' nationwide- not that I like REI, but that's a pretty big contract to lose.

Awesome post Don. __ I've also noticed that limestone is mellow on my stuff compared to some of the metamorphiszed volcanic sh*t here in the central cascades. sheez-- one day at the rap wall will harsh on gear (lots of sloppers where you need sharp stuff to bite). I wonder how many picks went into that M10 "Ghost Dog"? ___ BD & Grivel crampon and pick steel seems softer and smears better then CM, but the BD & Grivel wears out faster. I guess none of the sponsored climbers want the once coveted BD aremet picks anymore because the steel doestn't have the "grabbiness" for mixed.

Thanks Don for sharing some better news. I'm glad it's gonna get cold again.

Anybody go cragging up the icicle this weekend? It is certainly plenty warm. And not enough snow to really seep runoff over the climbs. __ Time to dust off the rock shoes.

Is Crystal's base currently at about 4 inches because they opened with a 12" base and it has only been super warm since then- And to warm to use the snomaking machine? __ Time to dust off the rock shoes and head to icicle creek canyon.

just checked CBC weather site currently +10.1C and supposed to get up to +14C this afternoon. To warm for a hard rock redpoint of a sport route! Anybody know if this is an all time temp record? It seems like there have been years where Lillooet hasn't even gotten that warm during the calendar month of October? Anybody know?

just a few more I've heard: Weird Monte Cristo stories? Alpine climbers that have very LARGE gear caches (not just a rack) located at several different climbing areas? Little pockets of houses (communities in the foothills) with all the elements of the movie "Deliverance"?- I'm not namin' names or where. Weird stuff that has gone array in the Cascades from McCord Air Force Base? Climbers that have found very large gold nuggets while approaching climbs? Recent Grizzly encounters as far south as Glacier Peak? Junked cars in places literally impossible to get a car? Weird geological faults? Rockslides/ Rockfalls that defy Physics? Climbers that have gone insane in the hills and stayed for a while? Bull Elk that have tried to kill people? Strange lights in impossible places? Again, I've heard these from others (don't ask for details)

let's hear some Cascade mountains urban legends you've hear from climbing parners Here are some: * Lost diamond mines? * Bigfoot? - Deep in the wilderness -B.C.? * Wolverines? * naturally occuring radioactive material in the ground near Cascade Pass? * Ancient log cabin remains in literally the middle of nowhere (Picketts etc.) * Strange magnetic field anomolies? * Secret gold Mine shafts? * human remains seen in crevasses? * valuable debris dropped from airplanes? * Strange sounds? * Hermits living in the woods near Darrington? * Super secret Hot springs - 1hr. hike from the top of the upper town wall? * other secret hot springs? * Indian Burial grounds/ hyroglphics in the alpine that only climbers know about? * 4-star limestone bolted sport wall/ cave hidden and kept hush-hush in the cascades? * weird stuff on the crater of the top of Mt. Rainier? -Don't ask for details, but in my 17 years of climbing in this state, I've actually heard at least one person make a factual claim for every one of the above statements. Anybody else have some good ones you've heard around the climber's campfire?

What's the most extreme sporto-climber diet, you've tried or had a climbing buddy be on? I knew a dude that ate nothing but rice, brocolli, beans, & drank whiskey. The dude could crank.

What country is consistently producing the best climbers? If you were to consider and average every single type of climbing together. (competition, aid-bigwall, sport, bouldering, himalayan,etc.) Anyone on this board do a lot of travelling and care to weigh in? here's my voting: 1st place: France 2nd-Slovenia 3rd-Russia 4th-Japan 5th-Italy/ Poland tie 6th-Switzerland 7th- Germany 8th- U.S. 9th- Austria 10th. Canada 11th-UK 12th- Ukraine I'm my little world -I've seen a disproportanately high number of incompetent Austrailian and Korean climbers. How about for Beer drinking? The Germans can sure put em' away!

I was gonna put this in the spray section but decided to post it here: Any opinions on UK trad climbers publicizing their "headpointing" style gritstone ascents over here? I know I would't have a prayer on any of the extreme routes and consider myself a wannabe climber but is anyone else unimpressed with these "ascents"? Here is what I am seeing in some of the photos: * up to a dozen crash pads below the routes * up to a dozen spotters below the routes * friends on top of the routes with bights of rope ready to toss should the leader start to feel shakey in any way shape or form. * photographers hanging on ropes that could be grabbed. * Ropes hanging on adjacent routes (could grab in an emergency) * They are rehearsing some of these routes like 150-200 times! * 40-50 chalked tick marks and written notes * many of the extreme headpoint routes are only like 35-50 feet tall! * All stones and rocks are mass excavated and moved from the landing areas * Gear pre-placed and then they want to slag the French sport ethic--- but many French sport climbers have done some way bad ass soloing sometimes 1,000 feet off the deck at the highest grades. Bachar thought that British rock climbers talents were overhyped and that the British headpoint ethic was lame. -I just want to get a little discussion going. I'm bored and decided to spray a little

How many of us wankers like myself have rock fitness levels that fluctuate wildy within one calendar year? For me it's crazy. For a few months I am weak and then I resolve and train, stretch, do visualization excercises, and diet like crazy and get into top form and then I regress later in the year. And then next year it starts all over. Maybe its cause we all ski and climb mountains so much around here whereas if we lived in Arizona the situation would be different. I'm not complaining, I'm just curious if a lot of us are doing the same thing as me? I've been pretty much doing the same up and down thing every year. Sometimes as much as 3 NUMBER grades for my top repoint level in one calendar year! Any other wankers do the same thing as me? I'll bet some of you guys that go to the Himalaya a lot have this go on? It seems crazy. Eat big, slog, lift, climb high. Then pull plastic, live on brocolli, and shrink the thighs. The start back to the Eat big,slog, lift, climb high, etc.