Don_Serl

hey fern, timing is still a bit of a mystery of course. we were 5 hrs to the top of 2187 - i was moving slowly on the slogs uphill, but going OK on the flats, and we soloed stuff on LD and esp 2126 that most people would rope. i'm sure i cld do it in 4 hrs now, maybe 3, pushing, with very brief breaks. but you can't push and avoid breaks all day... from 2187 the 3rd peak looked pretty easy, altho there are a cpl pinnacles btwn the two that might cause trouble, and there's a slabby step about 2/3 of the way up that'd almost certainly need to be belayed. maybe 1 1/2 or 2 hrs? could be longer if getting down 2187 gets complicated. there's probably 1 rap (plus scrambling) off the 3rd summit, then the upper part of the SE Pk is roped climbing, either via the SE face (which i climbed years ago when i did the SE butttress) or the rib to its left (which some of the party at that time climbed instead - both are good). call that another 2 hrs. there's one vertical rap off the SE peak, then scrambling across to the base of the main summit. that's soloable if u find the easiest route (or one belayed pitch); call it another 1 1/2 hrs, maybe 2. then it takes about 2 hrs to descend the regular route off the main summit to the basin (2 raps). and I have no intention of continuing north - i don't want to climb all day with bivy gear on my back. there are gully-ramp systems that lead back SE from the 'main' basin to below the S side of the 3rd summit. then it's just a matter of traversing back to the bivy in the pass - give it 4 hrs. looks like about 16 hrs pass-to-pass to me - maybe a bit ambitious for a 2-day weekend... unless you like headlamp walk-outs... sure cool terrain! cheers, don

actually jesse, we DID see you. I'm driving a black Pathfinder now - we passed each other low on the road, but in the dark u can't see what kind of vehicle is approaching, and it was only AS you were passing and then in the rear-view mirror that I went "that's sure looks like Jesse's Explorer". by which time it was too late... sounds like u had a nice day on the enchainment... p.s. the 2 guys in the pickup were from Oregon, headed for the buttress. 1 of them had climbed the NEB 27 yrs ago - i wonder how their day went? cheers, don

Climb: Slesse SE Divide-partial traverse Date of Climb: 7/9/2006 Trip Report: I've long thought it'd be a superb outing to traverse the entire Slesse divide from SE to N. Rob Nugent and I drove out Friday evening and camped near the start of the trail. We were up at 4:30 and away at 6. 2 1/2 hours saw us to the Propellor cairn, where we lounged for nearly an hour, then we headed south for another hour and a half across snowfields (stay high) to the spur ridge at the SE'ern extent of the massif, where we had third breakfast and snoozed another hour. A cool little nearly-hidden descent ledge took us down into the boulder basin beyond, and in 40 mins more we burst out onto the superb 1750m meadowed pass on the Slesse-Nesakwatch divide. This ought to be a popular hiking destination, as the terrain is superb and the views are awesome. We were confident of the weather and just sleeping under the stars, so it was with some hilarity that I heard Robert mumble "You've got to be kidding!" when raindrops started to spatter down at 2 am, but the front soon passed. We got away at about 6:30 under decent skies and cruised up the ridgecrest, generally avoiding difficulties on the left. The first significant summit is that which carries Labour Day buttress; Robert wandered off onto the E face to finish, but that looked to me too exposed, so I stuck to the SE ridge, which was enliven with several short steps surmounted by means of a series of wide-ish cracks. We hit the top at 8 am. Pretty easy scrambling led down the NW face (right of the crest), and a sling invited us to rap the final 20m into the col. The E ridge of the next peak (2126m) looked kinda difficult, but a "John Clarke 4th class" scrambling route unfolded: starting on the left, crossing a slab beneath a bulge onto the right flank, weaving up the easiest (often grassy) line on this NE face to beneath a band of overhangs protecting the summit, then oozing out left again onto the crest of the ridge. Here we pulled out the rope and Robert led a pleasant 20m crack pitch to the top - time for 2nd breakfast! We dropped easily into the next col, then followed the crest till this steepened, at which point it seemed best to traverse left thru a bit of bush into an open sandy gully in the center of the S face. A slow plod up this brought us to the 2187m summit at about 11:30, and the realization that we ought to call it a day - I was fighting a cold, hacking and wheezing, and travelling much too slowly to make completion of the balance of the crest reasonable that day. The return was not uneventful: a somewhat tenuous traverse line led around the SW side of 2126 from the col with 2187, then we had to gain a touch of height to get into and out of a steep-sided gully on the S side, but soon enough we were out onto easy snowfields on the SW side of the divide. Soon we were glad indeed we had turned back, cuz half an hour before regaining the bivy steady rain began. The plod out was sunnier, but the wet bush treated us to the full rinse cycle before flushing us out to the truck at supper-time. Beer and burgers awaited in Chilliwack. Gear Notes: 60m 8.5mm rope; half-dozen slings; 6 nuts; 4 tricams; iceaxe. Approach Notes: normal Slesse E-side approach to Propellor cairn, then traverse snowfields SE. find hidden ledge to gain boulder field beyond - marked with cairn.

tom, it would not surprise me if no one has repeated the passage of the Homathko canyon that Davidson, the Neaves, and Secord accomplished in 1934. the core of the incident is to be found on page 44 of the Waddington guide, but for deeper insight (and a cpl photos) you need to read the account in CAJ'33 pg 35 ff. suffice to say that 25km in 17 days probably was FAST, cuz there was horse-trail in the upper 10km (almost certainly now fully bushed in) and a survey bridge from 1928 spanned the Mosley, saving probably another 2 days. in my mind this has always seemed directly comparable with the Shipton-Tilman penetration of the Rishi gorge to get at Nanda Devi, done at almost exactly the same time, and a legend of mountaineering history. Mike King at Whitesaddle might have some info - i seem to recall he pulled some kayakers out quite few years ago who attempted (and failed) to run the canyon. the best local knowledge will be available from the Bracewell's, who run the ranch and lodge at the south end of Tatlayoko Lake. mail: PO Box 1, Tatlayoko Lake, BC V0L 1V0; phone: 250-476-1169. you're gonna have to be as tough as nails shit out by an old grizzly bear to pull this one off, so here's to yah! cheers, don

a hint: this is what alpine starts are for. camp at the roadhead (or leave town at 2, or earlier); hike up while it's still cool, starting at or just before first light; day trip the peak so you're not carrying all that deadly, heavy, energy-draining camping gear. the NW face is only 10 to 12 hrs car-to-car this way, and a stellar outing. (p.s. travelling light can be taken too far - i still have in my possession a most-amusing photo from the late 70's of Greg Yavorski butt-naked ('cept for his pack, boots, and bandana) coping with the heat on the approach. effective, but an appalling lack of sartorial sophistication...) try again - now u know where the trail goes. cheers, don

nice to see this thread back from the dead, for whatever reason. speaking of biographies, The Villain, A Portrait of Don Whillans (2005) by Jim Perrin must surely qualify as one of the finest pieces of mountaineering writing in the past century - cuz it actually operates at the level of 'true' biography, not the typical hagiography. superbly done. cheers, don

there have been more spurs put in since A/S was published, so the guide description is misleading. however, the photo gives the general idea of where u need to go, so follow your nose. the most updated road description available that I'm aware of is on bivouac.com (altho it's rather confusing): http://www.bivouac.com/RoadPg.asp?RoadId=1355 u need to be a member to access the info. Andrew Wong reported 2WD to end in Sept 2005. good luck... cheers, don

tks, but nothing I'm aware of. i dropped a carabiner on the NN arete at squamish the next day, but i doubt u found that below yak! cheers, don

i think that's about 9 or 10: Madness once, Yak Crack twice, Reality Check twice, Yak Check 4 (or 5?) times. i gotta get up there more often... cheers, don

actually, not bad. didn't even leave town super-early (6 a.m.), but we enjoyed a pleasant breeze most of the day - it almost always blows thru that gap. cheers, don

Climb: Yak Peak-Yak Check Date of Climb: 6/24/2006 Trip Report: Rob Nugent and I climbed Yak Check on Saturday, looking for lotsa alpine rock as a day trip. As per previous posting, the route is (almost completely) dry. We were 5 hrs en route, and 8 hrs car-to-car. And the climb is just as good as I remember it. So where was everybody? We caught and passed a couple (Park Rangers from Manning), but there was no one else on the peak all day. Altho there were tracks on the snow below and above from (maybe?) the previous day. Cheers, Don Gear Notes: 10 nuts. 10 cams. 4 tricams. a dozen draws n slings. half-dozen free biners. Approach Notes: 10 mins car-park to trail, then 25 mins to rock.

tyler, i've climbed this face on Yak 7 times over the years (i think) via various routes, 3 or 4 of those ascents via Yak Check, 2 via Reality Check. the earliest date i can find in a very quick check of my diary is June 28. it was dry then. on the other hand, the slab on Reality Check had a small water-streak one year on July 17. mostly it depends on the recent weather. the snow-melt isn't much of a problem once the major snow-load slides off (maybe May?), cuz the route follows a "proud" line. i'd reckon it's ready to go once we have 2 or 3 days of decent weather. note that Reality Check takes longer to dry than Yak Check. p.s. i love the place. i once did Yak Check on successive weekends - just too good! cheers, don

tracks spotted monday 1000 ft beneath summit: http://www.adn.com/outdoors/story/7807632p-7721670c.html

hey todd, good going. i think you've likely done a new route there, altho i climbed Crossover (main summit) with John Wittmayer and Greg Yavorski in March 1978 by some sort of route in this general area. we angled up right immediately from the bridge across the Nesakwatch. there was some bush low down, but lotsa snow, so going was pretty easy. i have 3 photos from close to the toe of what you're calling the NE ridge (centre in jordop's photo), then my slides jump to the one belayed pitch we climbed. i know we were on the S side, cuz we were in the sun and Slesse was BIG in the background, but i think we crossed the col at the base of your ridge and traversed west to the base of the SE or S side of the main summit. i also don't think we passed over the E summit; i just recall a fairly direct ascent to the main peak. our intended day-trip, btw, turned into a bit of an epic. for some reason we decided to traverse N, then descend, but at the notch N of the summit we had to downclimb on the W side because of super-soft cornicey snow on the crest - we intended to traverse a ways below the crest, then re-ascend - but the snow was SO soft we couldn't get back up! so down we went, headed for Slesse Creek. luckily the various ridges and spurs we followed linked up and didn't cliff out, but i can assure you that the nite we spent sitting under a tree down in the valley was not the most comfortable of our lives. once we'd walked back to the main Chwk R road and hitched to Nesakwatch Ck, it was somehow decided that since it was my vehicle I'd have to be the one to walk the 5 or 6km to retrieve it. somewhere along the way i simply lay down on a log in the sun beside the road and fell asleep for a while. but it all ended well. fun! cheers, don

point 1: whenever i've gone looking (which has been very rarely), classical music didn't seem to be very commonly available on sharing sites - maybe u can point out a site which is better in this respect? point 2: i don't mind paying for and getting high quality sound. i don't particularly enjoy listening to music thru the shitty speakers usually associated with a computer. OK, i could play mpegs thru my stereo, but they're still pretty 'compact' compared to CDs. point 3: none of this was available when i was in my big collection-growth days, and with nearly a thousand classical albums on my shelves (about half on vinyl) i don't have cause to be in 'buying mode' very frequently. point 4: mostly, to be honest, i let someone else 'channel surf' for me - namely, the people at CBC-FM and KING-FM. every now and then they play something that REALLY makes me sit up and take notice - then i might want to 'possess' it. cheers, don

Right on. The Masiky CD sounds cool. Was he playing with his wife (Argerich)? Their recording of Franck is amazing. Stay away from the Casals Bach Suites recording. Casals did the world a favor by breaking out of the mechanical Baroque style, but his recording, done when he was going senile, is subpar. My favorite Bach Suites recording is the older Yo-Yo Ma recording from the early '90s. Best Cello Album. Ha! I wonder what's on it. Saint-Saens's Le Cygne for sure. Bruch's Kol Nidrei? Faure's Requiem? Probably not flashy enough. Some transcribed showpieces (Flight of Bumblebee, Paganini shit, the overplayed Air on a G String)? the elgar and dvorak concertos will be a much-played disk. i agree on the ma version of the bachs - maybe the finest disk i own for evening/quiet/cerebral. the "best of" disk actually had a decent compliation: DISC 1 1. BACHARACH: South American Getaway The 12 Cellists of the Berlin Philharmonic 2. ELGAR: Cello concerto (1st movement - Adagio-moderato) London Symphony Orchestra / Jacqueline du Pré 3. FAURÉ: Sicilienne [Philharmonia Orchestra / Han-Na Chang 4. HAYDN: Cello concerto in C Academy of St Martin in the Fields / Mstislav Rostropovich 5. FALLA: Jota John Williams (Guitar) / Jacqueline du Pré 6. GERSHWIN: Prélude no 2 The 12 Cellists of the Berlin Philharmonic 7. TCHAIKOVSKY: Nocturne Philharmonia Orchestra / Han-Na Chang 8. DVORÁK: Silent Woods Philharmonia Orchestra / Han-Na Chang 9. Deep River The 12 Cellists of the Berlin Philharmonic 10. PIAZOLLA: Adiós Nonino 'The 12 Cellists of the Berlin Philharmonic 11. MILLER: Moonlight Serenade The 12 Cellists of the Berlin Philharmonic DISC 2 1. RACHMANINOV: Vocalise 'Philharmonia Orchestra / Han-Na Chang] 2. BACH: Unaccompanied Cello Suite no 1 'Ralph Kirshbaum] 3. SAINT-SAËNS: Cello concerto no 1 (3rd movement - Allegro non troppo) 'London Philharmonic Orchestra / Mstislav Rostropovich] 4. MONN: Cello concerto (3rd movement - Allegro non tanto) 'London Symphony Orchestra / Jacqueline du Pré] 5. DVORÁK: Cello concerto (1st movement - Allegro) 'London Philharmonic Orchestra / Mstislav Rostropovich] 6. BRUCH: Kol nidrei 'London Symphony Orchestra / Han-Na Chang] 7. SAINT-SAËNS: Le Cygne (The Swan) from Carnaval des animaux 'Philharmonia Orchestra / Han-Na Chang] 8. FAURê: Après un rève 'Philharmonia Orchestra / Han-Na Chang] 9. BRAHMS: Lullaby (Berceuse) 'Truls Mørk] a really good start... cheers, don

speaking of and not that Virgin is bad, but Sikoras is the place... cheers, don

in the introduction, Chouinard is clear about Robinson's contribution: "...Doug Robinson... helped a lot with the writing." good job, whoever wielded the pen. cheers, don

so, to turn to alt-country, let me pitch family friend and frequent dinner guest, Kent McAlister: http://www.kentmcalister.com/ have a listen... they're all highly talented guys, and they're just about to get their 'big break' - they're opening for Johnny Cash's Band in Calgary at the beginning of May. ain't music fun? cheers, don

whew... i wondered where the time came from... not to mention the fortitude (most modern music isn't much to my taste). which brings to mind: one of my favorite late 20th century composers happened to live and work in Seattle for most of his life: Alan Hovhaness. he only died a few years back. a very tuneful, spiritual composer. i'd recommend the Seattle Symphony/Gerard Schwarz recording of the Mount St. Helens Symphony to anyone with even the slightest interest in classical music. and yes, it IS 'about' the volcano. the drumming in the eruption sequence is awesome... cheers, don

yup, amazing. gut-wrenching... ...the finest. ever hear either of the Martinu concertos? pretty nice. i had the great pleasure of catching the 2nd live in Munich once. a highlight.. btw, i 'amazon-sampled' the Weinberg - it sounds superb. i'm gonna buy it. cheers, don

OMG; where did that list COME from? have you actually listened to all of this? and how? i like both Kalinnikov symphonies a lot; then (despite recognizing the occasional name) i'll admit to being almost completely baffled. wow... don

a technique i've found useful now and again is to pull up amazon.com and listen to likely samples. that's a catchy sequence (i had the bassist in one of my son's bands play it for me), but i don't know the tempo, and i've got a terrible 'ear' for tunes anyway. back to cello music, i presume it's the Kodaly op.8 that you're into. very nice... but RVW didn't really write much (any?) cello music, did he? who else do u like in the 20th century cello field? Shostakovich? what about the Britten suites? (i like those a lot...) btw, i did some surfing and came across a guy named Weinberg (a.k.a. Vainberg). one source had his cello sonatas as "equal with the solo cello suites of Bach and Reger as the greatest cello music ever written". jeez; impressive, if even half true. and i've never even HEARD of the guy. do u know his music? tks, cheers, don

btw, tks for stimulating this discussion CBS. what a pleasure it has been to pull out and re-read Climbing Ice. i had forgotten the intensity of information in this book - the equipment and some of the technique is dated, but the underlying wisdom is still absolutely relevant. i find myself nodding in agreement with nearly every paragraph, and continually stimulated by the fineness of definition and detail that's a hallmark of this text. Chouinard was plainly a great master, and despite his protestations of difficulty with writing, the end result is magnificent. cheers, don

I don't think full-on "French Technique", as laid out in Climbing Ice, has survived at all as a viable part of the modern climbing repertoire beyond roughly 45º neve slopes. But that's exactly where is was intended to be used. Even the master, Chouinard, says in CI of FT: "The natural terrain for this technique is the hard frozen snow (neve) or soft ice of the Western Alps, where crampon points will penetrate easily..." The reason for the limitation is easy to see when you examine the photos in CI and think about what's going on: FT was a way of coping with steep ice in a time when tools were barely adequate for the job, so technique had to suffice. FT, despite its physical challenges and relative insecurity, was faster than cutting steps, is the real bottom line. Over the past 3 decades, immense improvements have come along in crampons (which were not all that bad back then) and tools (which were totally inadequate for steep ice - say beyond 60º). Technique has been supplanted by technology. Of the original FT, essentially only "flat-footing" remains. And that is an essential alpine skill. As others have pointed out, unless you can flat-foot with confidence on quite steep terrain, you're forced to front-point, and your calves pay. But over 50º, even with perfect neve (the easiest frozen medium to climb), there's hardly a person alive who would NOT front-point (or "hobble", with one foot flat and the other front-pointing) these days - it's faster yet, and (given 2 modern tools, or even solid technique with one) immensely more secure than balancing around 'a plat'. 'Old' techniques can often teach us things, and practising FT offers a wealth of insight into balance, security of crampon points, how to grip an ice-axe most effectively, and so on, but it's these underlying skills rather than the technique itself that are useful today. Besides, it's been obvious since the 1st ascent of the Eiger in 1938 that front-pointing was THE way to climb steep ice. Remember Harrer's beautifully incisive quote: "...I looked back, down our endless ladder of steps. Up it I saw the New Era coming at express speed; there were two men running - and I mean running, not climbing - up it." It was Heckmair and Vorg, wearing 12 point crampons. The days of what Harrer himself in the neighbouring paragraph calls "the technique of the past" were over 70 years ago. cheers, don p.s. to be clear, i flat-foot more than most, and love its speed, ease, and freedom. in its place and time...