jshamster

I'd have to agree with jeffski. It's pretty easy to figure out equivalent grades at different areas, and it's kinda fun. Even if ya want to push grades ya just do it at different areas. I'm stoked to do a J-tree 10c, and I'm stoked to climb 11a/b in Squish. At Index/Yos it's more like 10a, sometimes 10b. It's all in the local grading, and especially (I think) in technique required for the type of climbing. climb hard, have fun.

First pitch Reg. route Fairview Dome. Slippery!

Some major Search & Rescue ops goin' on up there today. The rescue battalion wasn't too forethcoming with details, but it sounded like rockfall (possible broken leg?). Hope it wasn't any of y'all. Whoever, get well soon. The heliocopter landed at the Monte Cristo town site just as we got there. Had to wait until chopper took off before proceeding. I was just takin' a dayhike up the the Basin, but that spire looks great. Gonna have to climb it soon.

1. Climb anything in the Valley (been to Tuolomne plenty) 2. Evolution Traverse 3. Canadian Alpine Pretty broad, I know, but that's what it's narrowed down to so far. Still to come this summer: Life on Earth if weather cooperates in the next week.

I can neither confirm nor deny any of the above statements. I did forget to mention that on the third rappel down glacier couloir our rope became stuck. As it was getting dark at this point, we cut the rope a proceeded down. Lost about a third of a good 9.8mm, but this summer was its last season anyway.

1. Clean Break 2. Dragontail - Backbone Ridge 3. tie - N. Ridge Stuart/many solos of moderate Cascade alpine climbs Gee - can you guess who I climb with from above list?

Frosty_the_tradman & I headed to WA Pass on Monday to climb Liberty Crack, but the rain & cold destroyed all motivation. After a few minutes of standing around wondering how to salvage the next couple of days we grabbed a brew and a bit of , and headed for Leavenworth. By the time we got to Pateros the rain (and smoke) had cleared & our spirits were definately rising. Arriving in the Icicle about 3:30pm we quickly racked up & headed up the Bale/Kramer on Careno Crag. Damn fine face climbing with a crack thrown in for good measure. Pocketmeister finish is excellent. Now, what to do with Tuesdsay? The weather is okay, but is it good enough for an all day alpine adventure, or do we stay at the crags? Ah, fuck it, Dragontail is calling & we cannot ignore it. Next day, awake at 4am, hiking at 5:15am. So far the weather is cooperating more than we hoped for . The trail flies by, and before we know it we're at Colchuck Lake. At the lake we ditch one pack and a few unessentials, and head up the hill to the base of Backbone Ridge. Officially on route at 8:15am, we quickly solo up to the base of the 5.9 offwidth. Now generally offwidths and the word fun are not used in the same sentence, but that is one FUN 6" crack. Great stemming on the right hand wall make this a very straightforward pitch. We did end up taking the mighty six inch cam just for this pitch. Never thought that bad boy would see the alpine! After the wide crack a few 5.7-5.8 steps lead up to easy ground. At this point we are pretty much just leading until the rope runs out, and then simuling the 4th & 5th to the base of the Fin. Our plan was to do the Fin direct which looks pretty simple on the topo, but we managed to get off route. We went to the crest of the Fin instead of contouring up the righthand face, and eventually reached an impasse. Frosty did a great job of climbing up & down looking for a way up, but everything was total manky lichen. At this point it is time to get up to get down, so we rappeled into the gully to the left of the Fin and quickly scrambled up to the summit. It is now 5pm and we can't see a damn thing. Pretty much the whole second half of the route we were inside of clouds with snow flurries coming down regularly. The entire summit area is very low visibility, and we have to find our way off of this mountain. We have directions according to Kearney for those who don't carry axe or crampons, but we can't find the raps that he describes. We do happen to find the Snow Creen galcier so we know we're close, but how to get down? We finally agree on a large snow filled couloir leading down to flat glacier, and start rappeling. The first rap was a slung block at the top of the couloir. We stayed on the edge of the snow and the second rap was a single red tricam in a slot. That rap took us into the first 'schrund moat which we walked through to get to the other side of the couloir. Third rap is off of frozen slung block down into the next 'schrund, out the other side and 40 feet down the glacier. After a bit of snow downclimbing with nut tool in hand, Frosty turned around, sat down and did the icy glissade to the bottom. I soon followed, and minutes later we reached the top of Asgard Pass. It is now getting dark quickly. Luckily the trail from the pass to the lake is easy to follow by Tika. We reached Colchuck Lake at 9:20pm. Finally! The bean & cheese burritos and fat joint at the lake have us somewhat revived for the walk back to the car. 2 1/2 delirious hours later we arrived back at the car just in time to wish frosty_the_tradman a happy birthday! Highlights: Full moon & Mars rising at the same time Six inch crack Snowing on route in early September Great route with a great partner All in all a highly enjoyable day of avoiding the westside rain.

Now $65.76.

I hiked in on Tuesday & climbed N. face yesterday. Super fun. Pretty strange to be climbing firm snow & ice in 65 degree temps, but conditions were great. There are now no continuous snow or ice fingers. I had about 40 feet of dirt & mud scrambling about 2/3 up the route. Descended the hikers route then made a high traverse back to Leroy Basin & bivy gear. Fun fun.

You can bypass the entire interglacier by hiking over Mt. Ruth. Nothing but tennies needed. Have fun.

Nice job guys. One of my faves is WA. I have heard that the route can get crowded, but in my four times up there I have only seen one other party. I think the bolts are in perfectly logical places if you think about drilling on lead on a slab. Glad y'all had fun.

Yo TLG - The Leap is awesome! I have climbed there extensively for the past two years, and love it. My faves are: the Line .9, Hospital Corner .10a, Surrealistic Pillar .7, Corrugation Corner .7, & Traveler Buttress .9. Stay away from Psychedelic Tree. Fun route, but the loose blocks are gonna take someone out one of these days. As erik said, camping is free. If you show up on a weekday, camping is plentiful. If you show up on a weekend, you're hosed. The S.F.er's take over on the weekends. Tons o' moderate fun to be had, and the temps aren't too bad in the morning. Have fun. If I'm down there I'll show up & climb.

more deets pleeze. chuckanut crack? South Dihedral (aka Chuckanut Crack)

Newhalem sport climbin'!!

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!