fredrogers

Yeah, well it was a dumb place to camp, but I blame Tim, it was his idea.

We had parked behind Barney's Rubble and threw our bags out on top hidden, or so we thought, by some boulders.

Well, it was about 11PM when he rousted us last weekend for our "illegal" bivvy. Maybe he should have spent some time in the Snow Creek oparking lot, along with the 2 other rangers who showed up to help write tickets.

Anyone have any feedback on the Scarpa Thermo Cerro Torre? I'm looking for aomething a little more comfortable and nimble that my Invernos, but need to keep my tooties warm due to previous frostbite.

Pick up a copy of John Zilly's "Kissing the Trail"- all sots of rides within an hour of Seattle. Out of those, The Carnation-Duvall portion of the Iron Horse sounds like a winner, the CCC road out by Si, etc.. He has a number of rides he rates kid friendly.

Try caling Second Ascent. I think I saw some copies of Burdo's book there in the not so distant past.

Silver Star is 3rd class. I did it about this time last year and we didn't bother to rope on the glacier. Definitely gets your cardio in, though. There's also the N Face of Kangaroo Temple. I think it's 5.4 or 5.5. A little loose down low and the traverse around onto the west face might be a little spicy sans cord, but it's also in a beautiful setting. Bring a rope to rap. Or you could do the S Arete on SEWS...

The gully went easy, but would be pretty unsavory after it's completely melted out. The downclimb from the top of the gully would also be pretty crappy when it's melted out. We did not take a rope, nor did we need one. Tons of stuff to scramble- most of it with some pretty cool exposure down the N. Face of Dragontail.

Climbed Colchuck via the Colchuck Glacier and Dragontail from the Colchuck Col by the "snow gully' in the Beckey book yesterday. In spite of warms temps at the lake Weds. night, the snow on the glacier was very firm at 6:30 AM. Was glad to have crampons for the 2 steeper sections. Glacier is still in good shape and was straightforward. Summited Colchuck at 8:15 AM, beautiful day with every peak imaginable out. Descended to the col to go check out the snow gully, which looked like it had melted out just above the bottom. A short scramble led us to the first snow finger- which was still firm at 9:30. That led up to a short, loose 3rd class scramble until we were able to regain the snow higher in the gully. A short downclimb of 50-60 snow led us out on to the snow slopes on the W end of Dragontail ridge were we tagged the summit and descended in the blazing sun back to Colchuck lake and out to the car and cold beers. Great trip in spite of the bugs and the heat.

"It doesn't matter if they made it to the top or not. They didnt make it back. You lose points for dying." Eric Simonson in reference to Mallory and Irvine.

While looking through Burdo's N Cascades Rock last weekend, I noticed two nice, long (13 pitch), 5.9 routes on Cedar Creek Wall- Solitude and Estatic Cling. Wondering if anyone has done either of these routes and has any beta. TIA.

cool tr. i too have "thrutched" my way up a couple of climbs [at index] -- one a sorry excuse for a chimney. yet, i cannot find this word in the dictionary ... I have always defined "thrutch" as a combination of "throw" and "clutch"- resulting in very jerky climbing just on the edge of peeling. Much like obscenity, one does know it when one sees it.

With the shitty weather forecast, TimL, our friend Fred H and I went east of the crest, hoping to help Fred ease back into the climbing game after a 15 year hiatus. With a sucessful sumitt of the Tooth under his belt 2 weeks ago, Fred was raring to go... as was Tim after spending a week in seminars in Chicago. With sinking hearts we drove over Highway 20 and arrived to cold and snow flurries at the Blue Lake TH. My immediate thought was "This sucks, let's go sport cragging in Mazama", but I was over-ruled and we headed up to "have a look." Given the unsettled weather (and the snow falling) we thought that the SW Arete would be our first objective, because we could climb it in boots and it was easy to bail if the weather shitted out completely. We arrived at the base to see the usual cluster of Mounties crawling their way up the route in boots, carrying full expedition packs on their first alpine climb ever. One of their leaders announced that they were a total of 4 parties of two (or similar numbers) but said we could play through along the way. Which, thanks to TimL's deft passing skills, we did, managing to head them off at the Whaleback. I do have to say that this group of Mounties (Tacoma branch), were perhaps the most easy-going group from the Mounties I have ever met in the Mountains. Very cool about letting us play through on the way up and down with very little delay for either group. We met one other party of three at the top of the 1st pitch who were also accomodating and let us rap through... With the weather looking better and better (not snowing as hard) we decide to go over and check out the Beckey route on Liberty Bell. On the traverse, my trick knee starts acting up and I lag behind Tim and Fred. I arrive shortly after them at the base of the route and we behold something I have never seen in that area before: no one else. We done every scrap of clothing we have with us and our rock shoes. Tim sets off to the first belay, bringing Fred and I up on twin ropes with a reverso (way cool way to climb with 3). From the first belay, the chimney looks icy, and, since I had the pack on, hard. The pin at the base of the chimney has gone missing (or broken off), but some kind soul hase slung a block about 2/3 of the way up with a long blue sling. Tim clips this and works his way up in usual RopeGun style. By the Tim he calls off belay, niether Fred nor I can feel our feet and my hands have gone numb since I forgot my gloves. Fred thrutches his way up the chiney and I follow about 20 feet behind him. With a size 47 jacket shoulders and the pack, not to mention frozen feet and hands, the chimney is cruel. Very cruel. I resolve that this is the third and last time that I carry a pack on that pitch and yard on the sling to get through. I arrive at the belay with clubs for hands and feet, but Fred takes pity on me and loans me his gloves (he did have a down jacket, afterall). Tim sets off again and makes short work of the third pitch. Fred and I follow him into a forest of rimed up trees and the next thing we know we're on the summit, hunkered down, deperately trying to get the feeling back into our feet. it works and we decide that it's time to get back to town- as it's about 7:30PM and getting darker and colder. We get our rope stuck right above the friction slab while rapping off- fuck. Tim solos the slab in his boots and we're back in action. The 2 raps back to the col go smoothly and we're packing up and headed down the snow-filled upper gulley. Both Tim and I slip on the way down, he stops his fall by sliding out onto the rocks at the base of the snow and I self-arrest, setting my knee off in the progress. We limp back down the gulley and follow the trail out, arriving back at the car at 10PM to a couple of nice cold beers and the thought of warm beds and food in Mazama. Given what we heard about conditions in the pass the day before and on Sunday (gleaned cragging in the sun at Fun Rock), we were lucky to have gone for it on Saturday. Super-fun in that kind of "It doesn't have to be fun to be fun" kinda way.

I dragged a couple of old farts up the South Face of the Tooth on Friday. You'll be on snow from the source lake turnoff all the way to Pineapple pass. It's suncupped, but was so slushy in the 80 degree heat on the way down it would have been a decent ski. It was a great glissade.

here's a TR for the white slabs: http://www.mountainwerks.org/cma/2000/scwall.htm

Looks like NW Corners on NEWS. But Erik's comments about bolts makes me wonder...

The Burnt Finger does rock. Lat year the proprietor was bitten on the finger by a huge rattler, so the locals were calling it the "Bit Finger." Defintely a hard place to be a vegitarian at... Did the SW Coulior on SEWS still look climable? I meant to go check it out, but got ended up hiking and cragging at Fun Rock with the fiancee.

Better a golden shower than a mud-falcon.

Ditto Givler's. One of my favorites in the Icicle. Go early. Bathtub Dome is also a great place to spend a day- from 1st to 3rd tier is awesome. I did all the bolted routes (thought the lower was maybe 5.7 and the upper 5.9) and the 5.7 chimney on the 2nd tier, then "Just Ducky" on the third tier with TimL. Just Ducky is a full ropelength of 5.8+ with some route finding challenges (shit, I followed, what do I know?). Bring lots of small to mid-sized TCUS for that route (up to .75"), double slings and 2 ropes to rap. Up and to the right of that, Condor Buttress will go at 5.8 if you yard on the closely spaced bolts at the 2 or 3 cruxes. There are also some good 2 pitch routes at the Pearly Gates that go at or around 5.8. Both slab and crack. Climbing up to 5.7 will allow you to TR a lot of stuff there too. Do a search here or check Smoot's site and you can find info about that crag. Cocaine Connection on Icicle Buttress is a way fun 5.7, but does not meet the "off the road" criteria. Go do the three pitches on BOB Wall that are 5.8 or less and you've made a day of it. Planet of the 8's is also a good spot- although I have only done 2 of the three routes there (the rightmost route seemed "stiff" for a 5.8+, but that was also my second season of climbing).

Working sucks more and harder, but it will not swallow and wants to kiss you afterward. Enjoy school while you can.

Tim you've had more than your fair share of "incidents"... Here's another story: Right when I started climbing, I headed up to Castle Rock with my friend "Bill" and a friend of his roommates, Mike, who wanted to go climbing that day. Bill was leading up the chimney pitch of Midway, with me belaying and Mike tied in to the end of rope. Bill made the step across to the the top of Jello tower and we hear this "Uh-oh." Bill the screams "off-belay" and something else we can't hear. We yell back up "Belay off" and he screams again, but we still can't understand him. Then his head pops over the edge and he screams "Untie from the fucking rope! Untie from the fucking rope! I'm fucking touching cloth here and need to rap fucking off! Do you have any fucking TP?" Mike and I duly untie from the rope, while laughing at Bill's predicament. He raps down so fast he gives him self a major rope burn on his right hand, cleans the rope out of his device and comes running over to me to collect the three shreds of TP I had in my pack. He then ran around the North side of Jello Tower to release the turtle. Not more than 2 minutes later a large, extended family of Asians rounds the corner, followed not more than a minute or two later by two French Canadian guys. They round the corner and see us at the base of Midway and ask us if we're going to climb it. We answer in the affirmative, but tell them we're waiting for our friend. "Oh, the guy around the corner, in the bushes with his pants down around his ankles?" they ask. We laugh and answer yes. Bill comes back around the corner with a much relieved look on his face, but is slightly sheepish because his gasto-intestinal distress was witnessed by no fewer than 9 people. Turns out all he had for breakfast that morning was some peaches, coffee and a couple of smokes, which apparently primed his pump really well. After that day, his new nickname was "Peaches."

My bad. Still, saving $14 is worth it. And if you think it's a shitty deal, don't buy them, dickwad. Pretty simple don't ya think?

I earned them by donating my time, WTF do you care? Go to Stevens and have yourself a merry fucking time. Wait, I'll trade you those vouchers for your POS North Face tent.

FWIW- I picked up a 10MM, 60M Mammut "Promo" rope with a nifty, overly logoed rope bag from REI for $90 yesterday ($50 off). Feels like it has a nice hand. They had 3 left on the floor.

To corroborate rat's post, I talked with some one in Mazama this morning. Their expectation was that the road would open tomorrow or Saturday.