jshamster

Yeah Matt. You got #420!!

I tried out a couple of years ago, and it's exactly as danielpatricksmith describes. I totally disagree with fidosbitch, as it seemed that not only personality/communication counted for a lot, but that who you knew & how many times you've tried out seemed to make a big difference. It's part skills and part popularity contest. I second the opinion of others that either AAI or another guiding company would be a much better experience that RMI.

Nice guys! We saw y'all bailing from your 9/17 attempt when we came up to fix a pitch of LC that evening. Good to hear ya gettin' back on it. I second Index for aid. First three pitches of Dana's Arch are great!

Yeah, some flagging could be good, but ya gotta earn the Green Creek cirque. Having flirted a bit with the route Blake took, and taking pretty much Darin's route exactly, I think staying above Green Creek & crossing closer to the talus is much easier. Getting back has seemed to be a crap shoot both times I've been out there. Bottom line is that it is really easy to get out there if you can just maintain the schwack. It's short. Nice job guys. I was definately eyeing that line.

I have used one on a sailboat. Worked great. Alcohol from West Marine in quarts or gallons.

South Ridge of Black is the descent route for NE ridge. IMO it would not be that fun of an ascent, especially being completely melted out. NE Ridge is very easy, with only short steps of low 5th. Highly recommended. Have fun.

Nice job. The altitude can be a bummer going that high that fast. I spent the night on the summit a few days later & it was perfect weather. Ended up acclimatizing for 2 days prior at Camp Schurman. We spent the night on the West crater rim & ended up right on top of a steam vent in the dirt. Warmest bivy I've had all summer! Explored the caves all day the next day & headed down around 3:30pm. Well worth it to spend the night on top! Props to both y'all!

Word! Got mine in the mail a couple days ago.

Spoke to Glacier Park Warden this morining. Sir Donald trail is open. Bears have moved along.

SUFFER!!!

Nice work gents!

Climb: B'ham Big Wall-Mythic Wall Date of Climb: 8/12/2005 Trip Report: Intrigued by Darin & Mike's new climb near the Twin Sisters, Tyree & I schwacked up to the Mythic Wall to see what all the hype was about. Well, let me tell you, it's the goods! We climbed the route is five pitches, if you count the very short 5.4 as a pitch. The grades given by Darin are right on. Route finding is really basic. If you don't want to down climb the Green Creek Arete, it is very easy to drop down into the gully opposite the climb and rally round the toe of the buttress back to any gear left on the ground. GO DO IT!!! Thanks for the great addition to the climbs of the North Cascades Darin & Mike! Gear Notes: Full rack of aliens HB offset nuts Camalots from .5 to 3 few Metolius cams to round out the bigger sizes No 3.5 needed (we didn't take) Approach Notes: Easy trail to hour schwack to massive freaking talus field 3 hrs in 2.5 hrs out

Aw Yeah! Quality all the way! Great trip, with a great partner.

It was cool seeing where you guys were and remembering it from last year.

...and we thought we were all alone on the North Rib. Saw a party of two on NEB, that's it. Great couple of days out.

Thanks for the info Dru. Just to add, the Nesakwatch road is driveable past the parking area with h/c 4X4, but doesn't really help to drive farther. Park at the old trailhead/spur road. Right now there is only one sign, at the parking. Go up Nesakwatch road for approx. 10 min. and look for the ORANGE tape on the right. There is a ton of tape on every tree conceivable, but the trail is the only one with ORANGE tape. After that it is very easy to follow the new trail to where is connects with the standard Slesse east side trail. The Nesakwatch Creek is crossed on a perfect log bridge.

Any info on current conditions? Still crossable? Huge ice chunks raining down on the passerby? Any info appreciated. Jimbo

I have the Whitelaw CDrom guide. Fantastic artwork and local knowledge. The scale in the topos is a bit skewed, but the features are very recognizable. We actually weren't sure where the first pitch was until we realized that we had soloed the 5.5 variation thingy. Seems to me that pitches 2-5 are the real deal anyway. My buddy & I thought that the grades were spot on with what DW has in the guide. Rainman is a great mix of different climbing styles, and I highly recommend it. Cheers, Jimbo

Hi Matt & Trog. My buddy & I were on Rainman on Sunday. Thanks for the confirmation on where the route started. Great day out!

If ya want to spend some time up there, the bivy 100 yds. from the start of the route is killer. Great climb!

Yeah, we were off to the right. The buttress crest likely has better rock. Because of all of the loose rock we encountered, I am having a hard time saying, "Go do this route!" But, it may be much better sticking to the line of first ascent. Anyway, it was still a grand adventure that I'm stoked we did.

Set of hybrid aliens #00 & #0 TCU Green to Orange + clear? aliens #.5 to #5 camalot + 'nother #2 Purple 4CU One set HB offset nuts #6 & up Nine shoulder length runners w/wiregates 6 or 8 quickdraws one double shoulder length + one cordolette one 60m 9.6mm rope Oh yeah, nice job Forrest & Dan on the first ascent.

Climb: Mt. Hardy-Disappearing Floor Date of Climb: 7/5/2005 Trip Report: Frostytradman & I climbed the NEB of Mt. Hardy on Tuesday. From the only description we had, Nelson's Selected I, this climb looked right up our alley. Multipitch, alpine, 5.10 range & doable car-to-car. Cool. We left the car at 4:45am, wanting light for the entire approach. The approach is very chill. An easy two hours to a col, another 1.5 hours to the base. The bottom few pitches are moderate, and we simul-climbed the first few hundred feet left of a large gully. From this point until the upper headwall pitches I am not really sure if we were on route. I think we found the 'obvious chockstone,' but who knows? Anyway, we definately missed the 'improbable traverse,' and the 4th class traverse of p.9. Instead, first I, and then frosty, wrestled with a series of chossy, loose mantels. Frosty finally pulled through only to face 35' of unprotected face climbing to a mantel onto a ledge covered in 6 inches of kitty litter! I'll let frosty go into more detail, but it was fucking nuts. This did put us directly under the 5.10a corner of p.10. Now we knew we were on route at least! The next few pithces consisted of the meat of the technical climbing, and we hoped to eliminate the aid used on the first ascent. Alas, the cracks are still filled with mud, and required much cleansing to hold both pro & body parts. The 5" offwidth pitch is by far the most solid rock on the route, and great fun. Given more time I would have liked to take a crack at the 8" crack above. By the time we reached the top of the butress we were both mentally fried from route finding & constant loose rock. Weather was threatening at this point, and we hurridly simuled across the knife edged ridge to the summit. The exposure on either side of the ridge didn't even register, it was just time to be done. A quick tag of the summit, a pic, and we were out. An easy traverse back to the col, and the rest of our gear, and we finally felt like we could let our gaurd down a bit. Yeah, right. We lost daylight about halfway down the wooded rib leading to the road. After that we lost the ridge, ended up in a draingage, and took 3 hours to reach Hwy. 20, the car, and beers. In the end we found all of the adventure we were looking for, and then some. Character building is a great description. We found absolutely no trace of anyone else on the face, and left only one fixed nut. Gear Notes: Large alpine rack to 5". Used #5 camalot often. One rope. If you wanna bail you probably want two. Approach Notes: Easy offtrail approach. Don't loose the rigeline on the decent.

Day trip from S.F.=Lover's Leap!!! It's not the shortest of days, but well worth it. I also had a great time at the Consumnes River Gorge, but my guess is it's gettin' pretty hot. Sorry...no knowledge of SE Asia. Jimbo

Shweeeet!! What happened to my midroute phone call? Glad you guys had a good time. I'll be back from Ontario in a few days to join the fun. Jimbo