plexus

Crap!!! I can't remember!!! It's right at the pass, also which name I can't remember. I remember seeing it on an overnight winter trip up there. That spring my friend and I climbed a route there....OK, I went through my old clippings from when I wrote for the SVHerald...and the answer is Palace Rock by Cumberland Pass. There are some routes on the SW side. I remember doing a dihedral with a thin crack, some shrub pro and it being in the 5.9 range. I knew a guy that did a few routes there. Super hard rock with some 10 stuff there. God I'm getting senile!!

The staircase is pretty freakin cool scrambling. One of my favorite let's get up somethng that doesn't scare the bejeezus out of us.

For what it's worth, my wife and I were in Seattle for 15 days, never got about 6800 feet. Came back to Denver, spent two days here and then climbed up to 13,900. We felt the altitude just walking up the approach road, which was an incline any fit person could run up. Point is, while feeling tired and definitely feeling the lack of oxygen, I think it's very doable to get up Rainier in that time. Just keep putting one foot in front of the other. If you were just coming out from Wyoming and climbing it, that might help you. Remember your body acclimatizes in 48 hours, so any benefit from being at a higher elevation would be lost after that.

Chiwawa: Sucked. Used the ice ax for a total of 100 feet. This was on Tuesday. Dropped tot he saddle, felt cheated so wife and I went and investigated Fortress from the SE. The gully/depression was in nice condition. Got to the ridge line and felt like we would have wanted a rope for that 40 feet getting onto the ridge. The meadows were gorgeous. Surprised on how little snow there was. I would highly suggest Fortress over Chiwawa.

It's a little too narrow. Like Matt said, I would make it a performance wall or a giant campus. Also if this is your first wall, put more holes and T-nuts on it than you plan on ever using at one time. Adds variety and believe it or not, the same hold four inches away can drastically change a problem.

That's one of the main reasons we're going. We have never been in that part of the Cascades and the photos I've seen of the area were memorable enough for me to remember, "Must go there before I snuff it." We get in a week from yesterday, have wedding duties that weekend, so looking at hitting the trail in a week and a half. I'm just afraid that my homesick wife, once out there, will not want to leave and I'll get taking a plane alone back to Denver. Ambitious plans on this trip back to the NW were tempered by the fact the wife has just finished her thesis (THANK GOD!!! ) and hasn't done a whole lot outdoors since, well, since we left. So the second trip will either be backpacking 3rd Beach or a trip to and up Lemah and Chickamin. BTW, thansk for all of your help guys. I can already taste that Skagit River Brewery Brown Ale!!!

Finally after two years I am returning to Seattle for a wedding and then 10 days of fun!! My one trip the wife and I have scheduled (the rest is by the loops of our harnesses) is Chiwawa and Fortress. What is snow level like now? We were going to camp Chiwawa Basin and was wondering how wildflowers, and on a play of words, wildfire season is going to be. Since I can only gaze from afar I was looking for some intimate details of what the wx has been like (normal NW fare, drier, wetter?) and conditions are like. Thanks guys (and gals)!!

On Index a few years back, can't even remember the climb only that it was supposed to be "5.8" (that's when I discovered the Index sandbag). Came up offwidth with only one piece of gear for about 45' of climbing, backed off and started downclimbing. Foot slipped with rope under my leg, swung headfirst towards the ground. Thankfully a small #3 brassie held!!

Uh-oh, Dru has done his civic duty for the day. Now he's going to be evil for the next 200 posts!!! =)

Sadly enough it took three times to get up Ingalls. First time, wife slept an hour and was tripping up the trail Turned around at the pass. Second time I slept 20 minutes and had a migrane from being so pissed off. Didn't leave the parking lot. Third time, made approach in Tevas, didn't really think out my rack, got off route onto stuff much harder than 5.6 but, goddammit, I'm not getting slammed by a mountain that the Mountaineers bring beginners on!! Everything else either by the second attempt or have never gotten back for the second attempt. Almost turned around on Mixup because there was so much debris on the slabby but, puckered up and got up and down the thing.

Actually just bring somebody slower than you.

When I backpacked in Denali five years ago, there were no established trails. There were bootpaths you could pick up made by other hikers. But I remember being told to keep with the wild nature of the park, no trails were made.

That is a great trail Darin. I have hiked it many a times and I think I can count the people I have seen on one hand. I got in on the south side and did some stuff down by Last Sister area one summer and was able to drive as far as I could. Unfortunately (or fortunately) they are enforcing the gate closures more vigorously.

That was great!! I think I have had to use every single one of your alpine tips at one time or another!! I think we have all been there before. Lord knows how many "consolation" prizes I've settled with. "It's not chossy, it's just fine for alpine rock!" Climbing kitty litter tis better than no climbing at all.

Great climb guys and great writeup. Don't worry the girl sounds cool if she's going to let you break first-date plans to make a FWA. Sounds like a keeper to me man.

Sunset Slabs was bolted that way as a place for The Mountaineers to go to teach their class. And if you have ever been at Erie on the day they take out well over 100 students, you'd be happy that it is that way because it congregates them at only several locations as oppose to having them spread all over the mountain. I believe several of the crags at Icicle Canyon are the same way. Sorry I jumped down your throat, my line of work makes me.....edgy sometimes. I've learned that working in the media business, everybody has an opinion on very little knowledge. And I get tired of all of the judging. Kumbaya my friend...kumbaya!! =)

So you got all of that on your one trip to Erie? Obviously you never climbed on Black Wall, Pigeon Stool Buttress, the NW routes on Orange Wall, Skyline Rib, Lumpy Crag, Shady Hallow Area. You sure have a lot of opinions on the place for having climbed there once. I've climbed at Index maybe six times yet I never judged the ethics that the routes were put up or the lines chosen to be there. Index has far more bolts than Erie does, for that matter so does a small little climbing area like Little Si. If you don't like it, don't climb there. Who are you to spray on the work some people have done to their "home crag"? You want to see sickly bolting...go check out some of the stuff in Icicle Canyon, Rifle, Tulomne Meadows, The New. What I'm saying is what you see in your one visit is completely different what somebody sees when they climb there 40-50 times a year. Dallas has spent a lot of his time, effort and money in that place to make a climbing area for all range of climbers. Hell like many unsuspecting victims, I mean partners, I've scouted out routes with him, whacked trails and found myself runout into the death zone with him astutely observing, "yeah I think it needs a bolt there."

If a number of stations keep the Mountaineer classes congregated at that one section, then I am happy. I've climbed there for years and that is the one place that needed an extra set of anchors.

So guys, Did any of you get up in that area this past summer? I keep looking at a photo of Tupshin and it looks beautiful. Probably loose, but pretty none the less.

In November of 2002 while impressing the MILFs at Clubsport, I grabbed a thin hold at an awkward angle and my ring finger made a pop and gave up all strength. Being young and stupid (still am), I "climbed thru the pain" and continued climbing that day and that weekend before realizing I had really done some damage. I rested for a few months then tried off and on climbing but it was never pain free. Over 2 years later my finger is still not 100% and there have been several times I've almost fully re-injured it. I'm not that interested in climbing (especially in the MILF infested gym) anymore so I don't mind the injury except it does bother me sometimes when I swim (of all things!). I've been meaning to make an appointment with a hand specialist. Anyone know a good one in the Portland area? Same exact thing happened to my buddy. He took four months off. Started again a few weeks ago with tape and was doing OK. Today he forgot to tape up and it hurt. Hoping he doesn't have a relapse. But then again I've had chronic tendenitis in my left elbow for over 12 years now. Really flaired up a couple of days ago. Today was fine until a hard bouldering problem at the gym when the flood gates opened up. The arm was dead. Pain from the elbow to the hand and also from the elbow back up to my shoulder. Real nice. Icing it was excruciating, same travelling pain; ice the inside where it hurts and an electric current up my forarm to the palm of my hand. On the outside, pain shooting up to my elbow. It's going to really suck 10 years down the road.

Yup, Matt's directions are what I used when I went up there. I remember the correct road is a number off of what the Green Beckey guide says. Super easy and super quick that way. If you make a right too soon onto I think is 2436, you'll end up west of the peak and lower down. The Beckey guide was saying 4-5 hours to the summit by the NW Route. It was a few years ago, but I don't remember it being nearly that long. It's much closer and less elevation gain than Vesper Peak and that's what he says for that peak.

Virgin Gorda in the British Virgin Islands. Cheap to get there: $400 roundtrip. Bushwackers are great!! Girls in bikinis and you have beautiful granite boulder on the beach. Get too hot, go snorkeling, towel off, boulder some more. Best honeymoon I've ever taken!!

Music is a must. Also I'd second the handiwipes. It's amazing how clean you can feel just by getting your hands clean. Melatonin pills and earplugs also in case your tentmate is a snorer. And last but not least, sandals or clogs for camp.

It's all about stretching, cardio and no body fat. John Sherman aside, most of the god climbers couldn't survive two days without food because they have no body fat. As for me, my belly keeps my hydrated with Skagit Brown for a good two weeks!!

Hey Oly, When you get to the top (and I know you can), look down at your tester and say, "A two quickdraw anchor?! When I climbed Nooksack Tower, there was only a rusty piton!!"