jshamster

Hand crack boulders: Roof crack on Hwy 2 west of Leavenworth Backside of boulder across the street from Chuckanut Crack

I second everything said in above post. Lockdown leashes...

TLG - Thank you for putting up with my slab fetish. Look me up when you get to Cali. Rock on.

I've had a fantastic summer in the PNW, but it's time to go back to Cali for fall & winter. I'm looking for a partner for one more long route before I go. Clean Break, at WA Pass, has really caught my eye, so that would be my first choice. Anyone interested in the next two weeks? (Frosty the Tradman, you out there...? ) PM if down.

This is the fourth time I have driven to the end of this road. First time I have had any trouble. That being said, I would agree with neversummer that it is trucks only to the end. Too much abuse on a standard passenger vehicle.

It all started innocently enough... Went out on Wednesday to climb Dreamer with maryk & neversummer. Kinda warm for 10 pitches of mostly slab, but oh well. We met in Darrington around 7:30 am, and proceeded up the wonderfully maintained road to Dreamer trailhead. I have driven this road plenty of times with no problem, but this time the Subaru had a flat tire by the time we parked at the end of the road. No big deal. We'll just go climb and fix tire when we get back. We left the car about 8:30am, and got to the base of Green Giant Butt' at 10am. The rock is hot, but a good breeze is keepin' the air temp managable. I hadn't tried anything quite this big with party of three, but with Reverso & double ropes it seems doable. Neversummer & I swapped leads, with maryk following. The climbing is excellent & sustained & even a little scary at the hollow flakes below Blue Crack. The rope system worked well and definately saved some time. Even so, we topped out around 5:30pm. I always love running up the last pitch and popping out on the knife-edge ridge. Great views. Nice scar from big rockfall on last pitch too. Now time for many rappels. Almost got rope very badly stuck, but got it free without any cutting, whew. Three hours of rappels later we reach the backpacks and start down the slabs. Fun butt sliding down to the trail as the darkness settles in. Oh yeah, we're all pretty thirsty by now, but there is enough water running down the slab waterfalls to slake our thirst. At this point it is turning into a very long day, but everyone is good spirits. The rest of the way down the trail is easy, even though all our feet are burned from hot slab. Now comes the fun. We get back to the car at 11pm ready to change a tire and get on down the road. Unfortunately I undid the lug nuts only to find that the wheel was frozen to the car. Shit!! Never encountered this before. WTF!! We try anything we can to pry wheel off, but to no avail. Now it is 2am and we're out of ideas. Good thing for semi-cold beer & the 420 feelgood. The new plan is to crash out and walk the 11 miles to D-town in the morning for help. Neversummer & maryk get all of my extra clothes and the car to sleep in. I get sleeping bag and ground. No problem, and everyone is taking the whole thing in stride. Oh yeah, freakin' incredible stars!!! Skip to 8am Thursday. Pack up car, lock up & start hoofin' it on down the road. Only about 1/2 mile down the road there is someone sleepin' it the dirt next to his car . Look, it's my buddy boonecounty and his friend from Missouri. They hike back to my car with us with their jack in tow. Manage to put jack against frame of car and wheel and pry the fucker off. My wheel looked as if it had 10 tiny spot welds holding it on the drum!?! Never seen anything like it. Anyway, we are basically saved. Put spare on, drive slowly down to D-town, grab some breakfast at the Burger Barn, and head on home at around 11:30am. All in all a pretty entertaining trip. Seriously owe boonecounty & his buddy many . The end.

I can't climb tomorrow, but Clean Break in a day is at the TOP of my list for Cascades rock. If you are interested in the next couple of weeks, PM me. Route looks amazing!

I'd be into it. Climbed it twice so far. Love to do it again. Thursday is great. PM me.

Registration is required for Little T.

Did the W. ridge on the 4th. Hiked in to a high bivy just below the snow gully on evening of 07/03, and had great views & sunset. The hike to this point is very simple with snow and rock steps above timberline. Left the bivy at 7am, frontpointed up the gully, and scrambled up dirty gully to ridge. Beautiful clear morning. The clouds had sunk in the pm, and did not hit the ridge until about 10am. Hit the summit about 9 or 9:30am. Just one other party on route, and they were doing Torment/Forbidden traverse. If you are a comfortabel 5.8 to 5.9 leader the solo is no problem. Downclimbed the ridge, and made use of the offer of a rope to rappel the gully, but the downclimb would have been okay also. Snow softens up quick up there. Very soon the gully will be a bit trickier due to melt out. I did punch a hole waist deep towards the bottom. A nice hike to the car made it a great 4th of July! Have fun!

That would be me running up NE ridge in boots. Super fun route with fantanstic views. Easily a day climb (6.5 hrs car-to-car), or a great place to camp/bivy. Looks like great early season ski potential.

Bat caves are a great day trip. There are enough routes there to make a few trips worth it. Anywhere from .7 - .12, trad, sport & mixed. Bring enough pads and even the bouldering is good. Check out the caves too. Baker Rocks, on the Mt. Baker Hwy are good, but need use. Not enough traffic to keep mossy sport climbs clean. There are a few in the .11 - .12 range that are dry almost all of the time and are right by the road. Worth visiting & it's quick. Can get good spring/summer riding in near the ski area, and clip bolts on the way home. Have fun!!

I was camped on the White Salmon on Saturday night, and witnessed several large avalanches come off the North face. Snow conditions in general seemed pretty sloppy with more snow falling most of the night.

I am a climber living in B'ham. I am willing to climb just about anything, and have own gear. I also have plenty of free time. e-mail: jshokes@nas.com