Matt_Anderson

scw?

dh/la is on the upper town wall at index. The lovin arms finish vastly improves on the original.

"you cant walk off bellygood until the falcons are done nesting on it matt..." Oh yeah . . . Well, bring something big for the boot flake! I only had a tipped out number three and remember visions of a long fall onto a hard ledge providing motivation to not fall on it. I was way gripped.

Davis Holland-Lovin Arms Finish at Index.

There's always bellygood . . .

I'm also a big believer in racking on my harness only. Gear slings get in the way. Haireball - check out misty mountain. They have six-loop harnesses. You can even aid climb without a gear sling with those bad boys! I lllove 'em. for what its worth, when racking on a six loop haness (four on top, two on the bottom) I put slings on the bottom, because its more important to keep the pro straight than the slings. matt

I believe in finding a company that makes shoes that fit your feet and sticking with them. For me its sportiva - I started with the kaukulators and then got a pair of synchro's. I climbed for a lot of years in them (and did the casual route in them . . .). I think that the Focus has replaced the synchro for the lots of support, good edging/crack/all day shoe. Check those out. As the cracks that I like have gotten thinner, I've switched to Miura's and LOVE THEM. They don't need to be sized as aggressively to climb well and have way more sensitivity than the synchros. Of course, they also have less support (adequate, but still more pain in foot jamming fist cracks). Just the same, the craftsmanship of the liners makes them waaaay comfy for everthing else. I wear them for everyhing except gym climbing these days - cragging, all day climbs, steep stuff, friction, whatever. Give 'em a try. If youre committed to checking out 5.10, every pair of 5.10 i've owned stretched alot and wore out early. Re: the ace, shoes have come a long way since those were first developed. Sure, you'll never feel pain in a crack in them, but then again you also won't feel anything else. And they edge like crap. (just my humble opinion . . . they still have the coolest add ever - Croft on the the rostrum, one ace in the crack, one ace hanging out, one hand jamming, one hand chocking, and no rope Oh my . . .) matt

Whoops, Dru's right - I should have said the blue lowe ball , which protects cracks 3-6 mm. Wild country protects down to 5.8 now. new Answer - the Blue lowe ball!

Aliens are nice. The yellow a convenient size. Metolius are also nice. The best, however, is a yellow lowe ball. Nothing else (besides a pin will fit a similarly sized parallel crack. All other gear is redundant.

Hey, what do you know!? Fred Beckey has the same pack I do. . . and my pack looks older

Regarding what Tex said, I've had a few primary partners over the ears, had many non-primary partners and have also climbed solo. There is great joy in each. Still, I think the greatest joy is experiencing the smooth efficiency and comfort of an old partnership. One of my fondest memories was just heading to index with my first climbing partner/mentor years after I had last seen him (he was in town on some business). The simple comfort and assurance felt when going through the old rutals inherent in climbing still make me smile whenever the memore comes to mind.

An oversimplification, but a useful one when looking for a partner: I've always been a big believer that motivation to achieve the same end is the single most important factor to look for in a partner. Maybe that end is to go out only when convenient for each other and then to climb in a manner that won't push either person to hard. Maybe that motivation is to be able to walk up to any wall and find a free, clean way to ascend it in as little time as possible. Regardless, if both people are committed to the ideal and value that quality in the other person, the partnership is likely to work out. Just about everything else stems from motivation or can be taught. Somethings it just takes a really long time to teach - comon sense, for instance. Once you find a person totally motivated to do the same things that you do, they won't punk out and you guys can fix the things that annoy each other. The exception is when people agree on the ideal, have the exact same motivation, and that motivation is low. Then inertia takes over. Still, its unlikely that they would piss each other off, they'll be happy sitting around drinking a lot of beer. matt

No guarantees on whether we'll even go to the enchantments, Lily and I are still debating between a Tuolumne/Valley/Bay Area trip and the enchantments. If it happens, it'll be the week of September 23rd . . .. Being that its the honey moon, of course, its possible, I'll bring the gear and it'll never leave the tent. [ 07-03-2002, 10:52 AM: Message edited by: Matt Anderson ]

Sounds like the best approach to the colchuck balanced rock route if you're up on the plateau would be heading down the climber's left after locating the blaanced rock from the plateau. We'll try that. I guess I'll just poke around for where I think the balanced rock is, find it and head down. If anybody thinks its more complicated than that (throw in some beckey fourth class gully disclaimers, of course) I'd love to hear it. Poking around is fun, but I'll also be up there on my honey moon with my non-climbing wife, so I want to make sure that my days away from her are spent actually climbing, not just poking around looking for an approach . . . matt

good God! This could outlast the muir on Saturday post!

Re: Camping - Just keep driving up the road and at some point it just about all becomes forest service land, I think that that point is marked and I think that it happens when the road becomes dirt, but am not possitive. There are a multitude of places to pull off a few hundred feet from the road and camp by the rifver. If you hunt around, you should be able to find your own free shangri-la pretty easily. Re: climbing must do's - You are probably aware of it if you are intending to go to goat wall, but Burdo put a route up the goat's beard that is a blast. Everything except the last pitch is mid .10 or easier (think Exit 38 ratings). The good news is that, because it follows a major water streak, it appears that a substantial layer of limestone has covered 3/4 of hte route, improvingt he quality of the rock, allowing for a multitude of pockets and pinches and generally making for a novel experience for the northwest (better than if it was just ascending the metamorphic . . .) The bad news is taht the two weeks ago the route was still drenched with runoff. Hopefully it has dried by now. Finding it was easy, go to goat wall. Look for the goat's beard ( a major water streak (ice climb in winter), then look for the bolts (no pro needed). There is a better trail that ascends to that route than ascends to the other routes on that wall. Here are the notes I have for finding the trail:  1 mile past fun rock, below goat wall, the road has already taken a turn, at crest of first signifiicant hill, goat wall is on your right, river visible on left.  Large turnout on the left  Before turnout, large boulders , first is road cut, second back in trees, third one is close to road  Between second and third boulder, ascend up  See trail Hiking back towards mazama  Trail takes ubrupt left w/I 30 – 40 yards up through forest  Trail angles up and left  Reaches talus  Couple of cairns in talus  If lost, look for large decomposed tree 1/3 up hill side (reddish). Trail crosses it.  When close to the rock, it diagonals up and right  You’ll see  20-30 minute approach You rap the route with double ropes until the top of pitches 3 & 4. Then the rap route diverges to the climber's left. Reputedly horrendous rope drag if you rap the routes 4 lowest pitches.

Tex, didn't mean to imply I'd freed Lib crack, just clean aid and easier free climbing. I remember thrutching for a sandy ledge that sent me for a 20 footer on the .10 hand/fistcrack . . . My first fall on my first alpine climb - magicaly delicious! Regarding Freedom or Death - I've been on the first three of four pitches, but got snowed off. It's a really nice variation that would enable you to eliminate any need for aid on Liberty crack (but you'd still have to deal with that crappy rotten block pitch). The people who put it up struck a decent balance on the number of bolts (for me). The rock and moves that I experienced were top notch. Anybody have more info about that silver star route? I've never been on the mountain, but it always looked like a giant choss pile from the distance. I'd be hapy to find out I'm wrong and get a pointer to the good rock . . .

Bobby - re: colchuck - does that route finish on the enchantments plateau, for an easy jaunt back to camp at one of the lakes? Re: best pure pleasure routes? 2 - The petit Gripon - but its in Colorado, and Burdo's new route on Baring - its fantastic 1400 feet of vertical and overhanging rock that starts 1500 hundred feet off the valley floor. If your psyched on Wa Pass, the Passenger and Independence routes both offer fantastic fun, but be competent above your gear. Right nw, the last 5.10 pitch of hte passenger is a mud fest, wait a could of weeks.

Yeah, the passenger is sustained. Combining the 2nd and 3rd pitches makes for one of the nicest pitches up at Washington pass. Also combine the crux pitch with the traverse to the bombay flare. Cool thing about the passenger is the variety of climbing. Re Colchuck. So, if we're camping up on the plateau around prusik or whatever, we'd have to hike to asgard, go down asgard, hike to the route, do the route, descend back to our packs, and then hike back up asgard to return to camp and our friends? Bogus. Any possibility of just topping out on the balanced rock and traversing straight to the plateau?

I just bought a pair of miura's from them. They came quick. and checked up on me to make sure everything was all right. They're legit. matt

People asked for a trip report on Banks Lake when I asked for beta, so here goes - Climbed on Thursday at Banks lake. Went to "Roadside Rock" (aka Highway Rock). The guide book indicated that there was climbing on the East, South and West faces. The guidebook also called the rock granite, but it looked more like Gneiss to me - think Tonasket or Newhalem). The Rock is a few hundred feed tall. It promised to be blistering hot, so we decided to chase the shade and start on the west side. Walking around the southern tip was amusing, with a bit of scrambling. We didn't see much that interested us, so we decided that we'd wait for the eastern side to get in the shade. We also figured that we'd have some time, so we'd just hop around the north side of the rock Circumnavigating the rock wound up turning into an adventure that got us dehydrated and tuckered: Much exposed scrambling, much sun on our neck. We found the climbs on the west side still in the sun for an hour or more, so we jumped in the lake and had lunch. Got on three routes on the west side. They were about 80 feet long and had overhanging sections at the top. I don't remember the names, but I think that they were the northernmost climbs on the east side. The moves were fun, but the rock quality and bolting lessened the enjoyment factors: Rock quality - little flakes and granules sloughed off each of the climbs pretty constantly. My guess is that they were not cleaned very well and need more traffic. Possibly, the rock is just crap all the way through. Bolting - The climbs were marred either by a shoddy chop job or careless placement (or both). There were a great many bolt holes, some of which were empty. There were bolts as close as three feet apart and runouts of 15 - 20 feet above ledges. There appears to be a dichotomy in the style of climbing. Under .10, the climbs appear slabby and trad. .11 and over the climbs were sport bolted (some aggressively so). The aesthetics of the place were great. Huge amounts of rock end in water landings. If I returned, I'd rent a party boat, get some fishing rods (you could see groups of 20 fish - all over the limit and probably trout - lounging at the base of the cliffs) and just do sea cliff bouldering/routes. In the evening, we checked out the other area described in the guide - gibraltar rock. Same type/quality of rock. Relatively spread out climbing. Some boulder's sprinkled here and there could also amuse you. The best part of the day was searching for a particular boulder pictured in the guidebook. It was supposed to be located at a local golf course. We threw on the pads, gabbed some coronas from the bar and toured the course. Couldn't find the boulder, but we did amuse the locals and after three corona's a piece, we didn't care if we found the boulder. If I lived in the area or was more into bouldering, I'd check out the wealth of basalt plugs that exist between Chelan and Banks Lake. The plugs would take a fair amount of cleaning, but the you could explore for a lifetime and not tap the place out. All in all I'd give Banks Lake a "C." It's got great potential, but I'd bet it takes more time than we had to find the gems. Matt

I'd be very surprised if it hasn't gone clean by now at a reasonable grade. Me and a friend climbed it after I'd only been climbing about two years and my only previous aid experience was the Regular Northwest Route on Half-Dome (A1-2), Liberty Bell, Town Crier and City Park. I was the experienced one. So while we were good at placing for free climbing, we definitely weren't aid afficianado's. We got away with placing four pins total. I think one knife blade, one one lost arrow and two angles. The angles were definitely placed just because I had run out of comparably sized free gear. The lost arrow was placed because it was 12:00 at night and I'd just taken a fall and wanted security, so I doubt that it was necessary(I think I was shying from another hook move . . .). The knife blade was placed by my partner, who was basically learning to aid on that climb (he might have done town crier just prior). Our clean gear was: A free rack (doubles of cams, all sizes and a double set of nuts) along with some lowe balls, a range of hooks, Pecker's and similar items, some micro nuts and mayby cam hooks (I'm not sure if I owned those by then). We also brought some bagels and some kind of berry cream cheese. It tasted very good the morning of the bivy. I remember some fixed gear, but believe the cruxes were mainly climbed with our own placements, so I would expec the info given would still be relevant. Have fun! matt

Thanks, It sounds like there are sea cliff's there? If so, is renting a possibility on the lake. Where are the cliffs that are only accessible by water? matt

Hey all, I may be able to climb at Banks Lake next thursday, sat and sun, depending how plans work out. I don't know where anything around there is. I don't have any idea where the climbing in the area is. I understand the climbers in the area keep info pretty close to the chest, but can anyone give me pointers? I prefer roped climbing to bouldering. I'll try stuff up to low .12. But anything would be a blast. Thanks, Matt

I got on it a couple of years back - There's also a description in Burdo's North Cascade's book - I think its more complete that Beckey's. We got cought in a blizzard and hustled to the top, so we bypassed the reputedly sweet last pitch. No problem getting there, but be careful on the way back: We never did find a convenient way off, wound up traversing and rappelling over to the col to return to our packs. There's no mention of such tomfoolery in the descriptions, so I assume we missed the good way. I'd put some effort into finding beta on the descent (I guess if you keep your packs with you, you can just descend down to the switch back . . .) Also wound up traversing to much scree on the lower part of the trail, thinking we were to low, when we were actually to high. We did it in a looong day (like 24 hours) but it could be far more reasonable sans snow and sans descent routefinding issues. Very nice route, didn't see another person all day (hmmm. . . maybe because we were climbing in a blizzard). Routefinding on the rock itself was fine. The first pitch is painfully obvious. From memory, there's some pitch (mabe the fourth) where you neeed to traverse over to some LOOOOONNNG double cracks. My partner and I disagreed vehemently: I wanted to go to the left (the traverse) , he wanted to go straight up. I won the argument because he was unwilling to give me a strong tug and pull me off the lead , which I told him was the only way I was going his direction. Turns out the traverse was the right thing to do. As with all NC's routes, the routefinding at the top is a whole lot of doesn't matter where you go, just head up and you'll find a crack or ledge. Have fun - post a report! matt