Matt_Anderson

Hi, anybody have kids who have outgrown their climbing harnesses? My kids are 6 and 8 and are sharing a harness, I'd like more than one so we can have their friends along. Thx much!

thanks much for the replies, we had a great time and found perfect routes for the kids - I forgot just how fun the jug halls at vantage are! And yes, Kris, I was an old friend of Frank's. Hard to find a more optimistic, helpful can-do soul. He's missed . . .

Hey all, haven't been on this board (or climbing besides with my kids) for practically a decade. That said, I'm taking them to Vantage this weekend, along with a friend and his daughter. I've got a few questions, if anyone's willing . . . 1) Current camping situation - can we only camp at the feathers, or is it cool down in echo basin? are there facilities or do we have to use a bag? Fires allowed? 2) Anywhere to concentrate besides the feathers? Frankly, I've never even stopped to climb at the feathers, but the lack of exposure seems best for the 6, 7, and 8 year-old's that I'm bringing. If we need to move elsewhere, I suppose that I'd move over to cherry pick easy routes on the columns around sunshine wall. I know there's a lot of new development, is there any new low end stuff, that I should be aware of? 3) Biking opportunities? I'm keeping this open for an alternate activity. I seem to remember people hiking and biking on the old roads in echo basin. Any reason that's not still the case? Any better nearby low end mountain biking alternatives? Thanks much!

Bought this 15 years ago and used it one time (the nose). Might've loaned it to a friend for leaning Tower. It has sat protected in my basement since then and is in great shape. There's a hole in one of the bottom corners from abrasion that could be patched. There are also abrasion holes on the bag that holds the fly. The bag (and therefore the holes in the bag) do NOT affect whether or not the portaledge is dry. See pics. Otherwise it is in fantastic shape. I live in Columbia city. Text me at 206-856-6016. DO NOT PM ME! I used to be on this site all the time, but it's no longer a part of my life so you won't be getting any kind of reasonably timely replies. $300.

Now, now sexy, you know I wasn't punishing you. I just happen to climb slow (and love the trio).

Betrayal of "THE PACT": A while ago, I posted a tribute to my wife and the man who gives her Christmas present advice on cascadeclimbers.com A recent story from her shows I'm still married to the most wonderful woman alive, but also demonstrates just how things can go wrong when you ask the wrong person for Christmas advice. For background, here's the old post of mine, posted around Christmas time a few years back: Title: Jim Nelson and My Wife: So Lily and I exchanged stockings last night because we're leaving town tonight. Each year, Santa brings me a climbing widget. The best part about the widget is that I get to imagine Lily buying the gift: Lily sure don't dig climbing (did it for a while to appease me) but every year tramps on down to Jim Nelson's shop to find something that I will be excited about. Anyway, she walks in and talks to Jim, describes me and asks his advice on what to give. Jim may seem like one of the quietest guys around, but that doesn’t stop her from chatting him up, asking about his Christmas plans and what not. Each time she does it, she dutifully checks out the various pieces that Jim suggests and manipulates the gear. (It also has to live up to her definition of cool.). She asks a couple of questions about it, trying intently to mangle a couple of key climbing terms and then selects this year’s present. Past years have resulted in my rack being supplemented with Loweballs (to which I am now addicted), Micro Camalots, and the like. This year, she bought the second smallest zero cam from wild country. She refused to buy the smallest, insisting that she would never allow me to rely on something that small. Of course, I hardly ever aid climb anymore, so relying on the second smallest would also likely be catastrophic (it’s strength rating is somewhere around 4 kilonewtons – not rated for free climbing). Jim recognizes the chance that something she gets may not actually be what I need, so he lets her know that we can take it back if it's off-base. This may be the first year that that may happen. Lily swears that next year, she’s just gonna grab my rack and show it to Jim in order to give him more to go on. . . . Lily always returns and tells me how much she likes talking to Jim. I always picture a bemused expression on Jim’s face. Apparently the tradition has been going on long enough that Jim is starting to recognize her. Anyway, Jim Nelson deserves all the business he gets and I love my wife. . . . New Post: Betrayal of the Pact: Lily was at a loss this year. I've got boatloads of climbing gear and, while I still climb, my focus has shifted to kayaking. As a result, the long standing tradition of asking Jim Nelson for gear-gift advice was not going to do it. She resorted to calling "Nick" an old friend, long time climbing partner and fellow newbie kayaker (The name has remained the same in order to denigrate the guilty). Nick, of course, is bound by the "the pact." "The pact" governs the amount of information provided to those we love. As all people involved in sports like ours know, different people have different risk aversion levels. The description of our activities will often need be censored depending on 1) the risk aversion level of the listener; and 2) the relationship of the listener to the subject of the story. For instance, harrowing tales of daring-do are encouraged around the fire when reliving the experience with those who shared in the experience, but no one's mother needs to hear that their son or daughter almost died. The pact serves the purpose of preventing some people from needlessly worrying and allowing other people to continue to enjoy the activities they love. (This is not the only such pact in our society, nor are such pacts limited to our species. The responsibility of a parent to take care of its offspring is one other such pact, hell an entire episode of Seinfeld was dedicated to the pact between squirrels and drivers, but I digress.) As each of my climbing/kayaking partners know, my wife is risk averse (very averse). I am not (very not). The difference in our risk aversion levels is dramatic, to say the least. My ability to continue in kayaking and climbing depends in large part on a careful balancing act of acknowledging the actual risks involved with my wife and explaining how I will minimize them (for instance, convincing her that the entire mountain won't fall down on my head, only portions of it, and I will minimize my exposure to those portions that are least stable.). This requires careful phrasing and attention. When I am successful, I climb/kayak a lot. When I am not successful, do so less. Anyway, Lily called up Nick, because she knew I wanted a better helmet. Nick was more than happy to provide her with information. . . Lots of information. . . . Sadly, every bit of information he provided was a direct violation of "the pact." He regaled Lily with the details of why I needed a new helmet. Here are the details that she recounted to me (to the best of my memory, I'm probably missing a few . . .) 1) Kayakers hit their heads all the time. 2) Matt hits his head more than the others because Matt spends more time under water. 3) Hitting your head is dangerous. 4) The helmet Matt currently has is inadequate for a number of reasons, including a) the coverage sucks b) the fitting sucks c) it shifts about on his head and leaves his forehead exposed when he come up from a roll d) it make Nick and Todd (another climbing/newbie kayaking buddy) wince. 5) Both Todd and Nick will be relieved when I show up on the river with a new helmet. 6) Todd and Nick have talked about this before. The observant reader will note that none of this was actually necessary to answer the question "What kind of helmet should I get my hubby." This was information that pertained to convincing a person to get a new helmet. That decision had clearly already been made, that's why Lily was hunting about for a good helmet. Normally, the provisions of this type of information in such a heartfelt manner from such a trusted climbing/boating partner would result in dramatic stress for Lily and less fun for me. One of us might cry(probably me). Lucky for me, Lily is aware of "the pact." She quickly identified this as a betrayal of "the pact” of colossal proportions (similar to a parent throwing a small child in front of an approaching bus). She knows that, while the pact is unspoken in many circles that is not the case in my group of friends. The reasons for it (Our differing risk aversion levels and the effect that has on her quality of life and my ability to have fun) are not only explicitly discussed among my climbing/kayaking buddies and Lily's friends, it is a matter of longstanding joke. She was so amazed by the seemingly oblivious nature of Nick's monologue that she focused purely on the betrayal. Evidencing that is the fact that she told me the story that very night destroying any chance of surprise in the giving of the present. Her reaction confirms I'm married to the most wonderful woman alive: While Lily and I are both sure that this will come back to haunt my kayaking (and her sleep) at some point in the future, for now, all is well. As indicated above, it underscores the importance of choosing the right person to give out advice: Jim Nelson's still deserves all the business he can get. What remains to be determined is an appropriate response for Nick. While a proper response may depend on his true motivation, I doubt that can ever truly be known and I'm left to speculate on Nick's motivations: • Was this, as Lily believes, an inadvertent transgression motivated by true concern for my well being, cementing Nick in Lily's eyes as one of the sweetest of my friends? • Was this a calculating attempt by Nick to ingratiate himself to Lily, thereby assuring future invitations to dinner (Lily also happens to be one of the best cooks around . . . ). • Is this righteous payback for some offense that I committed against Nick, long forgotten by me, but festering in Nick's mind? So far, calling him out for public comment is all that I have done. . . Other ideas???

If you had a friend coming out for a week and wanted the best shot of good conditions, when would you tell him to buy tickets?

I pm'd you my cell phone. You may want to call after I get back on 3/26 or so. I'll be swamped, don't check the site much anymore and may not remember to check in. matt

Check your pm's for contact info - Have the same type of trip, with launch date of 3/1 and takeout date of 3/23. Plan to leave this coming thursday morning and get back 3/25 or so. We can talk beta.

glacier is vance

Got on Centerfold on Saturday. Haven't been on it for about 8 -10 years (maybe more). Seems to me someone added a bolt or three to the second pitch. The old pin at the end of the traverse is still there, 6-10 feet or so above it is a bright shiny bolt. There's a placement not far from it (small cam or small nut). I don't think that bolt was there when I first climbed it. Matter 'o fact, there are a bunch of bolts on that pitch. By "bunch" I mean about 4. Essentially theres about a 4 botl stretch where you don't need to place a single piece of pro if you don't want to. Someone let me know if I'm wrong and they have always been there. If they haven't always been there, it doesn't seem that the extra bolts have helped the climb, regardless of whether the first ascentionist approved of them. I remember that pitch being a bit heady, but that pro was there when you needed it (for anyone who could lead the rest of the route, anyway), you just needed to be creative and mind your P's and Q's. Also, if anyone is getting on it, I'd bring along some gardening implements. There's a four foot tree that's growing in the middle of the last pitch and a few black berry bushes growing on that same pitch. They don't make it horrible to climb right now, but It'd be a good idea to get a head start on nature. Finally, someone left 3 or 4 long orange slings on the first pitch of Heaven's gate. It looks like they used them as pro when climbing it (slit the knots into the crack). They were spaced throughout the pitch, so it's not as if someone bailed and used them to get down. They seemed pretty old/bleached by the sun (although I was on it a few weeks ago with another friend and they weren't there then - amazing how fast the sun can tatter webbing if they were fresh when placed). Anyway, I removed them, there's no need to have ugly fixed gear on that route. It protects fine, without the webbing protection, and if you insist on using the knots instead of normal gear (Maybe not a bad idea, given the hollow nature of some of the flakes on that first pitch) you can clean them just like you would any other gear. Matt

What's the rock quality like? Looks like a lot of potential other lines . . . anybody know what else has been done?

"hmmm, were you intending to climb beckey-davis or burger-stanley?" Neither, we just meant to go climb what looked attractive and didn't look at the guide, hence the vague allusions to the "standard route."

Climb: Prusik Peak-Somewhere on the south face Date of Climb: 7/29/2006 Trip Report: Went and climbed on the south face of Prusik. Had one of the best faces in the northwest all to ourselves on a gorgeous Saturday despite a beautiful day. Did a couple of pitches that were really nice and should see some/more traffic: Started climb with a straight-in crack that varied between fists and fingers about ten feet to the right of the big corner (is that the corner where the standard route starts?). The crux was just before the face slabbed out a bit, pulling over a bulge as the crack bottomed and flared. The route was varied in technique, but had sustained climbing for a good long ways. It would be three stars at Index, felt about .10c. Anybody else done it/know the name of the route/like to comment on grade? More people should get on it. Trended up to the right of where the standard route went. (I think the last two pitches of the standard route ascend a couple of prominent left facing corners?). Anyway, just to the right of the bottom of those two corners (our second to the last pitch) is a straight in offwidth/squeeze chimney accessed by a an easy traverse to the right and with a comfy belay ledge. It is pretty obvious when looking at the face on the approach, although it looks like a smaller crack in a groove from there. It definitely doesn't see much traffic, so we were cleaning a bit of dirt/gravel off the chock stones. Also a bit of lichen. Very little chicken wing/true offwidth technique because chock stones/laybacks/chicken heads presented themselves when necessary. It is possible to join up with the standard end to the South Face by exiting through a roof at the end of the chimney to the left. Felt low .10 to hard .9. Anyone who likes a good chimney should get on it. Anybody done it/know the name of the route/like to comment on grade? We brought a #4 cam and were very happy to place it. Although the protection is not entirely obvious from the belay, that's the only big piece you need, although you could, of course, place a whole bunch of #5 and #6 cams if you chose to. I also placed a low ball, near a chockstone, but you could probably find another placement near there. Thanks to Erich for a good time! Thanks to the four guys who went up the west ridge for the summit photo! Gear Notes: We brought doubles to #3 cam, and a number #4. Approach Notes: Just a couple of snow patches in the upper enchantments.

Just what I wanted to hear. Thanks!

QUESTION: Any info on how snow covered the upper enchantements are right now? REASON: Heading up to prusik tomorrow over asgard. I'm deciding what shoes to bring. It's either running shoes (my preference) or some hiking boots(don't want to carry them up the south face, don't want to walk back to my boots in climbing shoes). The only reason that I would bring the boots is due to a lot of snow.

Good luck, I had bulging cervical discs, hybermobility in the neck, not enough mobility in the middle back and hypermobility in the lower back. Also a fair amount of the overdevelopment of the upper traps and under development of the lower traps/rotator cuff muscles. It's been a long road but my neck/back/etc seldom holds me back these days. PT is the first place I would go. I would also go to a few PT's and get a few opinions, some are better than others. I'd ask them to look at what is going on throughout your back. One part of the back definitely affects the other. Chiropracty (sp?)has its place, especially for mobilization of undermobile areas, but I've also had bad experiences, including adjustments to a hypermobile neck that aggravated it. Bottom line, you should never give up control of what others decide to do to your body, ask questions of everybody and you can make good decisions (its not like these people are smarter, they just have more information, and should be able to explain to you why certain decision are the right ones). Ultimately, I'm a big believer that correcting the muscles and how you use them is the best thing you can do to have long term health on your back. This takes effective analysis of what is going on in your back, a dedication to doing the exercises, etc that will correct the problem and going back and re-analyzing it over time.

the long/middendorf book is fine. Mainly, though, just go out there and do it. None of it is rocket science, just be aware of what seems efficient and keep working at making it better. If you do get the chance to go out with someone more experienced, just look at everything they do and ask yourself if there is a better way. Plenty of people with expereince don't think about efficiency, and there is no reason to take any longer on a wall than necessary. Personally, I think that doing loads of multipitch trad as quickly as you can is the best way to become efficient at everything except sleeping.

Uhhh . . . S.C. does climb like an albatross. Never seen so many drive-by crossover's ina single night of bouldering.

I climbed at WW! at Si a week ago Tuesday. I think that I left a pair of Miura's there, Probably a size 37, but maybe a size 37. Anyone find em? I'd be happy to trade them for a six pack if you did . .. . Thanks, Matt

done it. won'd do it again.

Climb: Argentina-nahuel huapí national park-refugio frey-lots Date of Climb: 3/1/2006 Trip Report: Patagonia Light Short Version: Todd and I climbed at what may the greatest alpine cragging venue around. You should go there. Long, long long version: Refugio Frey is a picturesque hut that provides food, shelter and toilettes at the end of an alpine lake sitting at the base of alpine cirque similar in scale to Washington Pass. The cirque it sits in and an adjoining cirque offer an unlimited amount of rock climbing from single pitch crag routes to 5-600 foot granite spires. The longest approach time from the hut is about two hours. It sits in nahuel huapí national park just outside San Carlos de Bariloche in Argentina. Well to the north of the Fitzroy and Paine groups and well to the east of the Andes Crest, it offers far more predictable weather at a latitude and elevation similar to Tahoe. Perfect for a couple of out-of-shape, overworked putzs like Todd and Me. Todd and I left Seattle around 9:00 a.m. on Thursday and arrived around the same time next day in Buenos Aires (five hour time difference). Todd took the day to do some work for microsoft and I had a day to kill checking out Buenos Aires. I spent the time walking around seeing the sights and trying to find a gift nice enough to make up for the fact that I left my wife for a week and ½ and went without her to an exotic location, but also innocuous enough that it wouldn’t remind her of the same fact for the next few years. Ultimately torrential downpours stopped me from getting much of anything besides a few pictures: Todd and I are suckers for the gear sorting shot. Thanks to Microsoft, preparation for our burly adventure took a different tone: We also love the “expedition shot” just as everybody gets ready to hit the trail. Rough times: A plane ride, taxi ride, stop at the grocery store, bus ride and 3 ½ hours hike deposited us at our camp an hour or so before sunset, just seconds from Refugio Frey and a freshly cooked pizza dinner: Strong winds and a hangover the next day delayed the start of our climbing. We climbed the Aguja adjacent to the Refugio in about three full rope length pitches. Winds picked up to well above 50 mph on the last pitch, necessitating a hurried decent and another bottle of wine. . . The refugio is at the bottom left of the photo. The route follows the skyline. Day number two dawned clear and beautiful. We poked our head over the saddle into the neighboring cirque to try our luck on a different formation. We started some exploratory climbing on La Tapia, but got off route and wound up munging up clean, but primarily 4th class chimneys to the top. Back down to another formation and got on Naka Naka Crunch Crunch, a beautiful route that ascends the right hand side of this formation: Again, three full rope length pitches got us to the top. Like many other routes, the crux involved face climbing between cracks on huecos. The ever present wind howled all night, at one point, making both of us wonder if the tent would collapse. Day number three was windy and rainy, so we amused ourselves with a couple of bottles of wine, 10 or so games of chess and a hike up the neighboring ridge to see what we could see. We moved the tent to a more sheltered local. Same weather on the fourth day and I started going a bit stir crazy, after all, this was Patagonia LIGHT. The showers stopped by the end of the day, but the winds were still strong and the temps still low. An ascent of Refugio Frey stalled as it became clear that protection would be hard to come by. We set the alarm in the hopes of good weather on day number were not disappointed (also the only day we got out of the tent before 9:00). We headed over the saddle to the neighboring cirque and headed towards Campanile Slovena. The refugio is at the viewer’s left at the head of the lake. Naka Naka Crunch Crunch is to the right of the saddle. The campanile is the second highest spire in the area, has the best position and the pride of the area. Everybody said it was just a two hour approach, but it looked more on the scale of the approach to the north face of Mt. Baring - a half day of vertical talus and end runs around cliffs. The campanile is the prominent spire in the top right corner of this photo. The approach traverses the brush covered slopes at the bottom of the photo, heads just left of the snow patch in the center, and then traverses’ back left across the talus above the center cliff band. The great thing about this place, however, is that everything looks waaaay more burly than it actually is. The approach took two hours as promised and ended in a beautiful little oasis just below the campanile: The wind was howling and our chosen route wasn’t looking like much fun, as it sat on an arete totally exposed to the winds. We didn’t have the guidebook, so we chose a dihedral out of the wind and hoped for the best. Our route was is the dihedral on the left side of the picture, just catching the sun. The dihedral was beautiful, hand, finger and fist cracks through overhangs on perfect rock. The protection petered out 1/3 of the way through the second pitch, so I headed for a bolt out left. Regularly spaced bolts (one every 30 feet or so) peppered a gorgeous hueco filled arête until a perfect belay, 15 feet before the rope ran out. The views from the top were out of this world: The last day of climbing was more exploratory climbing on a formation called La Piramidal. Once again, perfect cracks and rock dominated the route: The roof above Todd was about 30 feet and was split by two cracks, one a splitter off-fingers, the other hands and fist in the back of a flare. The summit, like every other summit in the area was super exposed and afforded great views. We got up and packed at 7:30 the next day and got back in Seattle 35 hours later. On the way back, we stopped at restaurant called “Desnivel” go there if you can. Super casual, super cheap, super good food (meat), super friendly staff (they stored our expedition packs and carryons while we ate) and super good wine. Notes: The Climbing: This place is out of this world. Although there are a couple of sport routes, the vast the majority of routes connect crack systems. The rock is way solid, way covered with hueco’s and edges, and a dream. Most formations can be climbed in three to four full rope length pitches, so if you’re motivated, you can do a couple of routes a day (or more). If you’re lazy, there’s a lot of time for soaking up the sun afterwards(if it is out). The guide book can be bought at Club Andino Barilloche, which is in town on Moreno Street. The described routes start at 5.9 (french 5), with plenty of 5.9, 5.10 and 5.11. There are a lot of cracks that go at less than 5.9, the guidebook just doesn't bother describing them . . . Gear: Double ropes are very handy to reduce rope drag and allow you to connect up the cracks (the cracks wander also). We brought doubles up to # 3 camalot, and would have occasionally liked a #4, but sucking it up got us past that. There are a whole lot of fist-sized cracks there going through steep rock. Weather: The wind is super strong and almost always around. Bring a strong tent and be prepared for blustery weather. By the way, when planning to avoid/soak in the sun, a south face there= a north face in our hemisphere . . .. It took us a day or two to figure that out. The refugio: There’s no need to bring anything besides lunch food if you don’t want to. That said, the refugio offers stoves to use for a small fee if you want more variety (there menu is here: http://www.clubandino.org/data/i_refugios_frey.asp, the current exchange rate is 3 pesos to the dollar). Bring a tent, though, because the refugio can get crowded at night and I doubt that it would be quiet. (It is on a popular trekking route.).

Yeah, I wouldn't expect ledges except at the start of the real climbing. PM me if you want a ridiculously detailed description of the approach. Be careful about the approach - there was a lot of rock fall up there a few years ago - the approach was littered with kitty litter. It cause Burdo to think the approach was no longer safe. I don't know if I'd go that far, but I'm sure that Burdo has been up there a whole lot more than anyone else in the past few years and you might want to contact him about any recent geologic activity.

Which route on Dolomite are you talking about? Pretty much all of them will get the benefit of some shallow caves which will protect you from light rain (and maybe more) on the huge bench at the start of the steep rock. After that, ledges are sparse. There's nothing that I remember past the "4th" pitch (they are almost all half rope length, so it's easier to link) on vanishing point. I didn't see much of anything to hang out on the other areas of the wall. Bringing a ledge up the approach slabs/schwacks would be horrific. If I was going to go that heavy, I'd probably hike to the top and rappel Vanishing point.