Jens

I have no clue what happened and am not trying to pass judement, but the news made it sound like they kinda just got scared and whipped out the phone. No injuries and the weather is clear on the day of the "resuce". Cell phones....... gott'a love em' and and gotta' hate em'. Perhaps the details will come out later. Sounds like they were pretty green, but I hope they are going to be OK.

3rd hand information here, I heard that some dude fell in the summit area and was in bad shape. He had finished the south butress route? I could be wrong. I'm sure as people log on later, more details will come out. I hope he will be OK

Forged Friends.... *Superlight *predicatlbe loading *don't walk *last forever *Feature a 70's patent on an optimum cam angle that the other guys drool for. BD got around this by making a double axle but their cams way a ton. *You will only need to tie them off a lot if you climb at the gunks. *are tough Or better yet, get them as booty cams. Seven of the cams on my rack were "stuck" on routes.

[: ...anyone ever do monkey lip, apesville, glory days.. (lower castle),or the 11a of jy's next to cat burglar (on upper castle)??...not sure which finger crack jim went up... Barely remember trying monkey lip a long time ago when I was a freshman at CWU. It had pitons that were painted orange. I did a bunch of hangdogging. The 11a you are refering to is called hangdog. It is a nice TR with a short but sweet crux. Be prepared to fall a ways if you are leading. Anybody done northwind or the north ridge route?

JBERG........ Don't try it...... it will kill you It's tried to kill me five times. The most heinous was when we got avalanched going up the CJ couloir in 95. I threw myself into a bottomless moat and survived. My buddy got hit but surrvived. It was louder than any rock concert I have ever been to times 10. I won't spray about the other four times but they were just as serious. PS. Ran into a grizzly bear on the south side the first time I climbed Jberg. It ain't a black bear either (I used to bowhunt em'). Any wildlife biologists know what the lowdown is with a grizzly there?

Bballs rocks.... Anybody done every single route at Castle? My favs.. 1st place Midway (still the best outing) 2nd MF Direct 3rd BBalls 4rth Canary or Damnation INMHO The icicle blows compared to all the stuff in tumwater canyon. Sport/ Trad/ Bouldering/ ice

Yes, my partner and I did it car to car last fall. Since the route is pretty short but the approach is fairly long, it will come down to how fast of a hiker you are rather than how good of a climber you are. If you go, make SURE you do the balanced rock. It is the best part of the whole climb. Many parties go in and climb the west ridge and skip the balanced rock and then never going back to do Sherpa again. My buddy has a trip report and pictures at: www.cascadeclimber.com (go to the chronological index)

Outdoor recreation and the PNW go hand in hand. It seems that every job I've ever had, I've always run into other climbers. Some of my relatives have stories about climbing back in the 60's etc. Sure a lot of people dabble in the sport but how many climbers are their in this State? The reason I ask is that how many million people live in WA? And everyone and their brother seems to climb but I often run into the same people up in the mountains or at the crags. Let's define "climber" as anyone that gets out at least four times a year. Sorry Oregon and BC folks. Maybe somebody could start another thread on those places.

Yes, I guess congratulations are in order. What are some other climbiing legends that have sent us to the far reaches of the state in search of Coronado's Lost city of Aztec gold? As a teenager at spire rock I heard legend of a secret Cascade hot springs that was accessed from the top of Index' s Upper town wall. Supposedly, after you had finished toppinng out, you could stash your gear and the hot springs was no more than an hour or two hike. After topping out, I have run into motor bikers up there. That would be the way to scout. Imagine topping out and then soaking in some secret hot springs as you watch the sunset over Mt. Index. No this is not a troll.

My in laws have lived about 300 yards from the school for the last 20 years. My father in law called BS on this one. As for new crags in Renton, there is a cliff I've always wanted to check out. It is part of a quarry near the Empire Estates Apartments. If you are driving on I405 near southcenter, when you are near that family fun center, look up the hill towards the skyway area. There is a huge quarry that features several bands of different rock types. the lower terraces are still being actively quarried but the upper levels look like they have been dormant for years. I'm sure the bouldering/ climbing would be of low quality, but if you lived in the area..... Anybody checked this out before?

Never saw it but, 100 foot high columns at vantage knocked over with construction jacks. It would be pretty cool to see and hear. Of course this is before most of the sorry ass routes were established there -sorry I couldn't resist.

quote: Originally posted by Skisports: up for the north ridge of stuart this week looking for some one to do that with in one day Ski sports, do you mean "this midweek"? I am pretty hooked up with weekend partners but am looking for someone for possibly a Mt. Stuart Wed.-Thurs. outing via girth pillar. That is if they haven't closed the road yet.

quote: Originally posted by thelawgoddess: looking for current beta, and "hints" for making it a solo event. As someone said earlier, the route has lots of ledges. There are many spots that if you fell you wouldn't ride the range (but you'd be pretty messed up). And lawgoddess, if you do chose to solo, downclimbing the south face is quicker than downclimbing from the west (I've done both with the stopwatch running.).

Jobe, I feel your pain. It sucks to wait but we have to thank those tourists for helping to keep the costs down for us at least a little. Those pilots work there asses off. As for DG's assertion that the tourist's flights are mostly booked months in advance-- he is probably fibbing a little. I've seen many tourists pull up in the mini van, dad gets out asks some questions about booking a flight and then they are off for a Denali flight 45 minutes later. What the longest anybody has been stranded at KIA ? Anybody know? I bet it is an insane number of days. It helps to bury some high proof whisky at your land/pickup point for your return wait.

I unexpectedly found myself with two free hours this morning before my lunch commitment and figured I'd head up to 38 for some bouldering and soloing by the trestle area. I also brought my rope, to hook up with others. At the I-90 off ramp, I noticed somebody had put up a huge poster that humorously degraded the climbing and climbers at exit 38. I will agree that the place is kinda chossy, and has more clips than moves but it also has some pretty cool stuff going for it. It sure beats bullshitting at the Gym, UW rock, or Marymoor. Sure I'd love to be able to head up to index after work or in the morning for an hour. But if you live in places like Renton, Kent, Auburn, North Bend or Issaquah., that can be sort of tricky to do. The traffic on 405, and highway 2 aboslutely blows. You can have your one lap on Godzilla or iron horse that you've done for the 1001th time. I'll take 8 or 9 garbage pitches at 38 over traversing around a practice rock or getting in 1and and half laps in at index. Or throw your mt. boots on and climb- It's a lot like the North Cascades choss. Besides, 38 has even a few climbs that would give Ron Kauk at least a moderate pump. And not all of the climbs have had their first onsight yet.

You don't need to worry about telling us beffore you jump. Perhaps just scream as you are jumping. I've had jumpers jump past me on the Capitan. Pretty cool to watch. the worse thing that could happen is a climber's heart rate would race into the stratosphere. All you guys need is 300+ feet of vert. to overhanging stone? If that is the case, we've all seen a lifetimes worth in the cascades. Provided you are willing to climb and or rappel to get to takeoff points. Sounds like a cool sport. Have fun

How wet did the approach pitches to the base of Girth Pillar look? Also all you Ice cliffer dudes... As you were climbing up the left side of the route and about a 1/3 of the way up, did you look up or touch some of the rock that leads up to the ice cliff arete' route? That rock looks awesome. Highly featured, steep, and solid. some of the best cragging stuff I've seen in the cascades. Kind of like the face climbing at Castle rock but better. Lots of glacial polishing, It wouldn't really justify itself to put 1 pitch crag routes up on it and it is to far for cragging, but the steeper stuff looks uniquely cool. any geologists/ glaciologists reading?

Nice job guys Sound's like they timed it just right. What's up with some of these Utah guys ticking our coveted prizes? -It has happened before. I guess most of us are lazy (myself included) Anyone care to divulge about F.Descents they are eyeing? What is the "Mount Everest" of ski descents left to be done in the Cascades? Maybe I'll hire Big Lou to porter my alpine lift ski gear in somewhere. I'll wear a bull riding vest and a motorcycle helmet. Anybdy seen one of those prototype "bear proof" suits?. Or how about a parachute?

Since we are talking about critters..... Any bug or arachnid experts out there? Coming out from skiing Little Tahoma Saturday, I got bit by what I think was a spider. I've now got a red circular lump the size of a golf ball on my bicep. The school nurse where I teach thought it was a spider. it looks like I've got two fang marks. What could it be?

The ladybugs also seem to love the Marymoor Rock. The bugs seem to swarm the thing some years I just about cratered once when I accidently made a mashed up mess of ladybugs with my hand when blindly reaching over the top.

Anyone care to spray?

I wish resolers were more like McDonald's -more consistent. With just about anybody it seems like you can get a really good resole or a poor resole. Did the guy doing your shoes have a great morning or wake up on the wrong side of the bed? Ramuta and Page can be good in my experience. A guy called valley cobbler in Kent used to be really, good perhaps the best in the NW but I don't know if he is still working. He would do custom bevels for edging shoes and other specifcs that you wanted. He used C4 and never seemed to put to thick a slab of rubber on like some of the other guys would. By the way , does anybody else think that the latest Boreal Rubber sucks bad? It is worse than the old maestro rubber they used. I don't think anybody on the planet can do a decent toe rand patch job. If the rand is trashed, do the whole rand or throw away the shoes. Or use them for bouldering at wild waves in Federal Way. Speaking of water, who'll give me the beta on the really cool looking concrete pilar bolt on job on above the water at LW?

I was just up there last weekend. The route looked in pretty good shape, (although I didn't climb it.) My plan was to climb it and then ski it. My thought was to leave Paradise late enough in the morning so that the thing had softened up a little. I skinned to just below the bergschrund near the base of the couloir. As all the serracs above my head were getin' full on sun, I heard a huge groan. I decided that it was a little late in the day to be under all that ice and cramponing solo up the couloir, So I had to settle for a ski down from the base of the couloir rather than higher. I guess a better strategy would have been to climb the route, summit, and then wait at the top of the coulor for the thing to soften up.

These don't really apply to base jumping but while we are on the topic, I ran across these: "WA Steepest Mt. Faces in 1 horizontal mile" -Stepehn Fry USGS paranthesis equals what face 1. Davis (ne) 2.Whitehorse (nne) 3. Joannesburg (n) 4.Luna (nnw) 5.Elephant Butte (N) 6.Hozomeen (W) 7. Colonial (n) 8. McMillan Spire (n) 9. Rainier- (n) 10.Hozomeen S. peak (w) The list goes on. A surprise "Seahpo Peak- Mt. shuksan massif" came in at Number 18.

I have a question for anybody that has ever been associated with RMI or the national park service. I din't phrase the question in my post title because I didn't want every Tom,Dick and Harry to read this. An old climbing partner of mine guided for RMI for a number of years. He told me that part of the arrangement between RMI and NPS included a few little known things. He said that if anyone from the general public approached the RMI area at Muir and asked if they could fill their water bottles, that RMI was required to let them. I am not at muir that often, but it would sure be nice to wander over to the RMI water station and get a drink after a day of ski touring, or after descending a route. With all the pesonalities that post on this site I realize that "for the record" the answer will be "no". Perhaps we need Big Lou to clear this one up. Send me a PM if you want to keep this one mum Big Lou.