jshamster

FWIW, I skied for 15 years before ever putting on a snowboard. Besides the surfy feel of a snowboard, the best thing for me about snowboarding in not having to put stiff, plastic boots on. And, after all that I have said, I have been shopping around for a reasonably priced AT setup to combat the occasional shortcomings of the splitty setup. Cheers. Jimbo

Guess it's about time I weigh in here. It is true that there is no perfect solution to snowboard mtneering, but after a number of years of experimenting I am happy with my current set up. For 90% of my backcountry use I just use regular highbacks with snowboard boots. For spring, and other mtneering uses, I just wear whatever climbing boot I want in my normal highback snowboard bindings. Pretty easy to adjust the binding straps to fit any boots, and I have not found that much performance loss due to lack of support. The caveat here is that, in general, I ride powder when using the splitty. That makes a huge difference when there is less ankle support. I used to use the Voile mtn plate binding with yellow Koflachs, and felt like I less ankle support than I do now with Trango S in a highback. I have not used an AT boot, but have a few friends that went that route for a few years, and have switched to highbacks (Sparx) and a variety of other boots. For me hard boots and snowboarding just do not mix. YMMV With all that said, the Spantik/highback route is probably what I would go with now if I had $600 bones for the boots. Cheers. Jimbo

Not gonna look it up fer ya, but there is a recent TR on TAY for the Muir.

Tuesday would be perfect! Cheers. Jimbo

Only a guess (which you asked for), but I bet it will be super fun. It's on my list for sometime or other.

Any other day work for you this week? Wednesday is the only day I have commitments all week, but I am hot for some D-town slap & pray fun. Cheers. Jimbo

Climbed the Slab Daddy on Saturday, 9/12 with Geoff Cecil. Besides being a bit hot, we had a great time. Our plan was to climb/bivy @ balcony/climb mostly because we weren't quite sure what we were getting into, but the first half of the route goes really quickly. We ended up climbing the whole route on Saturday, leaving packs at the top of 11, and bivying on the way down. We arrived at the top with barely any light left, and rapped back down to crash and finish the rappels the next morning. As nice as the Balcony bivy is, next time I'd take one small pack with lots of water, and do it all in a day. Here's some pic stokage (I'm working on editing the bit of video I took): Racking up the night before Looking down the first two pitches... ...and up at the rest of the wall Early on Start of Pitch 11, the '50 meter headwall' Did I say it was a bit warm that day? Umbrella Tree and top third of the route Looking down at the Balcony bivy Following pitch 12. Packs are left behind! Another view of the upper wall. Actually, only the last three pitches of Slab Daddy can be seen in the right portion of the pic. Finishing up pitch 12 Savoring the shade of the pitch 13 corner. It was short lived. Finally. Full time shade around pitch 18 Easy, wide layback. Pitch 19 East Face of Whitehorse Whooped! The approach and other beta from Dave is great. We had a 3.5 and old 4 camalot, and would have been fine with just the 4. Super fun route with a great partner. Thank you again to David Whitelaw and company for their huge effort in seeing this vision through, and sharing with the rest of us. Cheers. Jimbo

I agree. Not too long, but the spelling/grammar could use a little work to make for an easier read. Glad you didn't let THE MAN bring you down, and yer still gettin' after it. Jimbo

That there moonshine was yummy! See y'all there. Jimbo

Saw one of these little gizmos drivin' around Snohomish today. It's actually smaller that my Chrysler T&C minivan that I have kitted out with a bed. Sure, more bells & whistles, but pretty tiny lookin'. Cheers. Jimbo

Ummm.......... The Passenger is a route. 5.11. I'd love to go, but got plans already. Jimbo

Paparazzi stalking Nelson looks like.

I'd say mixed reviews is exactly what Erie deserves. It can be fun, and is great for a quick hit, but doesn't even come close to Index, especially for trad. I can't really remember any trad climbing except for zig-zag. The sport can be decent, but bolts are generally not where you would want them, i.e. after pulling crux moves, not protecting crux moves. Someone recently told me that the Bat Caves is seeing new activity of late. My first trad lead was out there. Longer but more straightforward hike, shorter drive than Erie. If you have a whole day to climb then I would just make the drive to tasty granite. Cheers. Jimbo

Pic of first pitch from 9/8. First bolt marked in red. Cheers. Jimbo

Did the approach with my 12 year old yesterday, just to check it out. She read the approach info from here, and found our way up there no prob. Pretty easy, short approach for a D-town big wall. Kinda curious if the first pitch ever really dries. The first bolt was in the water course yesterday. Anyway, thanks to Dave and crew for all of their hard work. If anyone wants to jump on this any day in the next week or two, let me know. Cheers. Jimbo

FS RD 39 – Work Plans: *Plans may change. Expect Heavy Truck Traffic. Sept. 3 - Road will OPEN at 5 PM Sept 4 - 7 - No road work planned. Sept 8 – Road Work. Watch for truck traffic. May see flaggers. Expect delays. Sept 9-14 - No road work planned. Sept 15 – Road Work. Placing road aggregate subgrade rock. Expect delays ALL day of up to 60 minutes minimum. Sept 16 - No road work planned. Sept 17 - Contractor will be placing road asphalt surface. Expect LONG delays ALL day. You may be waiting a very long time to get through. Advice…hike somewhere else this week. Maybe Hannegan Pass via FS Rd 32. Glacier Creed Rd. schedule for the next week and a half. Cheers. Jimbo

Thanks a lot! Been hearing the rumors for a while now. Looks fantastic. Cheers. Jimbo

Cool. That's what I figured. I'm not full time up there right now, but split time between B'ham and Snohomish. I'm unemployed and looking for partners quite a bit. Especially for Dtown. Jimbo

Sweet! Thanks Blake. I'll keep my eye out.

Thanks for the reply. From your edited posts with numbers, I was kinda thinking that some new shit had gone down, and you might have some info. (If you do, please share!) Otto's reply alludes to new route(s) as well, and I have heard the rumors, and am waiting for the FA's to maybe let folks in on the goods. Cheers. Jimbo

Beware the DMB hordes from the Gorge this weekend. Should be quite the party out there, whether they are climbers or not.

Parka sounds a bit warm for summer, but there was a helicopter rescue off that bitch a month or two ago. Seems I remember some gear getting left behind. Jimbo

Yo Blake. Nice list. Thanks for taking the time to put it together. Couple of things: - there is one more route put up by Chris on the Roan Wall - Stage Right .10b III - it's Johannesberg with an E at the end not a U. Thanks again. Cheers. Jimbo

Yo! What's up with the tease? What was climbed? New or old? Also, what's the best place to leave the trail and beat across Squire Creek? Cheers. Jimbo