Jens

Once I saw a man just below muir on his way up with one suitcase in his left hand, an 80's vintage camcorder in his right ( in a plastic case), dress shoes, slacks, and a members only jacket tied around his waist. He said he had just flew in to Sea Tac earleir on (about 8 hours ago) from somewhere like south carolina. He claimed he was doing the tourist thing and was going to make a summit bid that day. The way the guy was talking, I bet he did try to keep going higher above muir. I saw some dudes tie their first ever prussik knots with hemp cords at 14 thousand on Denali. And learn to lash on crampons to their True Value hardware sorrels.

Sounds like you guys had fun. Climbing over the rock the way you guys did into the final couloir can sometimes be nasty If it is getting a full on runoff of meltwater. When completely soaked and without any ice, the section is easily M5 whereas the "crux" of climbing directly from the 1st couloir into the second couloir if thickly iced is slabby by modern standards. Also both variations share about 75 percent of the same terrain and many springs their is little or no ice to be found on the "crux". Who cares--- it is all climbing.Keep it real.

Pretty cool that some dudes climbed the route in 1982. Some people really keep mum around here. Perhaps to mum sometimes. Oh well, it'sall just for fun anyways. I was pretty young but didn't the winter of 82 see quite a bit of snow? And 83 was the year that we didn't get much?

Not sure about any little Yosemite. I grew up down and in pierce county and used to scratch around a lot down there. I have done some new obscure routes at the Eatonville crag. The cliff has rock quality that is complete shit -- garbage is about 500 feet high, not really a little Yosemite. It could be a quarry down there that a hardman took me to years ago but I am sworn to secrecy of. The cliffs in the high rock lookou t are big but garbge rock.

I left the wrist portion of my android leash out there somewhere yesterday. If you happen to grab it, please send me a pm. I think I left it either between the second and third tier of Icy BC or at the top of no deductible. Thanx

The little sporting goods shop in Lillooet used to have some faily heavy outdoor boots. You could have bought a pair and then lashed a carmpon to it with two dozen or so zip ties and cordage. I'm sure you could follow pitches with one good boot and one light duty boot. Delcate work andFrench technique when you could. My trango extremes that I climb ice with have an upper as soft as the basketball shoes I wore in fourth grade. I even ski a little with them or should I say proceed to faceplant every 10 feet. At least you are heading up to the rockies to get some mileage. Have fun.

Since we are on this topic, Has anybody ever skiied the Northeast Couloir on Dragontail? That one has been on my hit list for a long time. Probably would want to carry in full monty alpine ski geat for it. Not my flimsy randonee' stuff.

I highly recommend the chairlift option. It is really fast. Drop into International and take the highest gate. A few problems though.*The guys working avy control know their stuff but they will often keep the backcountry "closed" even on days when the risk is tolerable. *They often keep the highest gate enterance closed even when all of the rest of the backcountry is open so they can have the reign supreme on all of us having to take the low and slow traverse gate. (although the highest traverse gate is a little more avy prone.)*The lift ops check tickets almost every single minute of the day and night at alpental. Also please do not try to get on the lift without skis or a snowboard on. Even though the local 18 year old lift op may let you on with snowshoes or on foot, it is not good PR for future climber access. *Climbers have a delicate working realtionship here, remember the mindset that patrolmen and all other area employees are always right. Please be polite. I was a ski instructor up at the pass for a lot of years.Have fun PS. How's the TAV? I miss Eburg.

To all reading this thread. If you must climb at this one little spot, (when it is in) please try to use it on Mondays when Alpental is closed.

Yes, Phil you are exactly right about the order. This picture is misleading in the angle that it is showing. Loren and I skiied the Enigma gully which is mostly obscured from view and just to the right of the crooked gully.

1.The Nose -for getting to see both sides of El Cap, or any limestone pocket pulling.. 2. Alex Lowe or anyone having fun 99% of the time. 3.Nanga Parbat alpine style or the West Tiger cable line.

Here is some needless fodder for discussion: What are the routes that we have climbed in the Cascades that are way below our technical limit or "easy" but have one little section that feels to odd to try to free solo? It could be one little rock section that is always wet, a 7 foot ice section, or some funky one move wonder with big air below that prevents you from going up and soloing the thing. I'm not talking about crag routes here, but instead mountain routes. Many of the routes in the mountains here have very short cruxes with long mellow sections. Or it could be a move that everybody else claims is really easy, but for your shape or size just feels weird. I'm bored and figured I'd spray a little.

Diamond Head and the surrounding areas can provide some sweet glade skiing and dry snow. To bad the place melts out so fast. It seems like patches of ground start showing up pretty early.

Good question. Country Club Ramp is supposed to hold some great mixed climbing in winter. I haven't climbed it , but would guess it would be pretty good right now. Jeff Lowe called in one of Washington's best multipitch mixed things back in the 70's.

Fossil is mostly a pile garbage but had one crag that was simply incredible. every single bolt and anchor got chopped abou t 12 years ago beacuse it was a "sensitive" area on DNR land. I haven't been to the "sensitive" crag since it was chopped 10 years ago, but the crag had soaring euro sty le walls and was better than WW1 or WW2 for pure stamina training. It had a few drilled pockets but zero bolted on holds. It was tall also, 2 pitches. To bad it is a crag of yesteryear. I still have dreams about the place. Per haps one of WA best. PS . Anybody no how to get to the Champion stuff at Wileson? It won't screw it up.

Tough topicI like the scrapbook idea. Can I buy bon bons in bulk? Here are some things Cascadeclimber and I use on some of our trips. * When it is time to retire for the evening Go to bed and say you are going climbing "tomorrow". Wake up at 1:00am and go. * Pick real estate somewhat close to the hills, ice, skiing and "good" cragging (Sorry all you Olympia, Bremerton, Banbride island, and Tacoma folk. Try somewhere like Mt. Vernon, North Bend, Issaquah, or Monroe. Remember the traffic. It is better to leave on lots of little 6 hour bouldering, moutain trail running, or ski yo-you trips than to be stuck at home. * Find a job that gets out about 3 hours earler than hers. *Unpack geart to dry out of site. Out of site out of mind. Let her pick the movie. Another Richard Gere flick won't hurt you. You can pick out bouldering lines on the walls of the theatre.

This site kicks ass. It is pretty cool to be able to save a tank of gas by getting conditons from trip reports or get info about that obscure route. We may be lulled into getting the feeling that the cc.com community is bascially a pretty good slice of the Cascade climbing community. It is not. It is amazing how many climbers I associate with either have never been to this site or have lurked once or twice early on and then not returned, or lurk about once a year. I am refering to newbies and also some of the most bad-ass climbers in this part of the country. When one runs into climbers out in the hills, some people think that this site is the last word on issues. It is a great site, though and these are not necesarrily my opinions but I thought I'd spray a little. I'm bored. Feel free to flame away.

I am always looking for new ideas as to how to upgrade my home climbing gym. Anybody seen any ideas for a homemade crack climbing machine? I was trying to think of any easy way to make one. Perferably one that lets me adjust the size.

While you are up at snoqualmie pass If you look close enough at the West face of Guye peak you notice that a huge icicle comes out middle of nowhere. I've checked it out with the binoculars. Has anybody been underneath or at least fairly close to it in the Winter? How big is it? How difficult would the rock be like getting to it?Although, I have climbed the face in winter, I was not able to get a good look at the icicile. The reason I posted this here rather than on the ice conditions page is that lots of people that don't check the ice conditions page (non waterfall climbers) go to this page and might have seen it up close.

I have summer sport climbed at the drip wall up tumwater canyon and have noticed that a continual stream of water is coming down on the left side. Does this "drip" touch down many winters or is it a freak thing that only comes in like once every 10 years? I found an old chouinard ice screw at the base of the wall one summer about seven years ago, so people are at least slogging up to the thing in the winter.

Anbody step out of the car and use binoculars to see if the pencil might form this year?

Lots of folks will read the above posts and then think they have a right to get bent out of shape when they get passed by a soloist. There are no rules to passing whether solo or as a team. You just try to be polite. Many of the attitudes people have about having a right to a routeor waterfall is due to the fact that we Americans are as a whole pretty slow climbers. I had a French dude and his partner clip my belay and simul past me at breakneck speed . I didn't get pissed.

It is kind of fun to read this pull- up stuff. As for this one arm pull-up stuff, it is kind of cool but it doen' t really impact climbing ability.According to the rags, one Amercian climber who has redpointed 9a has never been able to do one. And other climber who has redpointed 8c+ has never been able to do one either. As for spray about who can do the most- I have coached wrestling at the school I teach at for a few years now. Some of the lightweight wrestlers can do pullups untill the cows come home. On the ice it even matters less,Except for perhaps radical serrac problems. the future of ice climbing is on the glaciers and in ice caves anyways. PS. I took a 103 pound wrestler out once to a steep sport crag. He ran up an 11a for his warm-up climb , despite never having climbed before. The dude placed in state and could bench something in the mid 200 pound range. He was about 5 foot 1 inch tall. A lot of wrestlers seem to go into the marines. Maybe some of them will end up with the crusty old drill Sarge that Tom Hargis had if the dude is still alive.

My distinctions:*I've almost been hit by a paper bag full of shit.*Took the ballroom dancing course from the mountaineers (just kidding)*Never stuffed my shorts. As for the earlier disinctionsIT'S SPRAY TIME!------1. The tooth record- You guys aren' t even close to my time. 35-40ish minutes car to car. High speed quad ride, two seater ride. GS turns on 210cm boards down upper nash to the high traverse and over. Ditch skis, run to pass. Throw on rock shoes minutes of throwing down holds up and down. Run to skis. Tuck down.2.Classic crack 1 arm-- mere child's play.3.Clean crack solo fall. If he was wearing high frictiony Levi's and long sleeves, it would go cleanly.The crux ain't to far above the railroad gravel. Perhaps requires balls to big for me. --Done Spraying. What the heck-- it is a rainy Nov. nght.PS In my younger days I saw a drunk guy pass out and do a pure back flop off the top of spire rock. He lived to walk away!

cascadeclimber When I read your poem, I was unlucky enough to be drinking a beverage. I laughed so hard that I snorted it up my nose. Perhaps the best cascadeclimbers post ever made.