leearden

is there a tag to rotate my images within the the posting form?

Hey fairweather sport climbing bitches. long new free route is done, it was warm. pictures to follow

we climbed at the pass on Sunday, Monday was even better. Will soon post pictures proving we hiked up to m and m wall with only shorts and t-shirts. On the hike up the gully which is shaded all day we walked on 1 cm of days old snow, only got the bottoms of our shoes wet. We climbed with pants and light shirts. Though certain members of the spokane sport climbers TEAM declined to come with us to climb because his i-book told him that it would be cold, we found this to be the best outing of the year, glorious sun, not sweating or greasy. M and M wall faces dead south, sees sun all day. when the sun moved out of the picture at about 5pm it did get a little cool, but not cold. warm and sunny

Trip: ice cliff arete Date: 9/1/2009 Trip Report: a few weeks back, a plan to do the 40th anniversary free blast of Supercave 166 had fallen apart due to scheduling conflicts. I was quite disappointed to be spending another weekend down at deep creek when Jim Langdon called. He had a plan to climb, possibly a new route, between Ice cliff glacier and Sherpa glacier. Without a thought, I accepted. Jim: has been doing FAs in the cascades since before my parents had pubes, did the Steck-Salathe before I was born, climbed ,onsight, a 10 pitch FA on Eminem wall, and thusly seemed like a great guy to tie in with. My pouting over having had one trip dissolve, changes to stoke as I go down to Mt. Goat, buy a new 200' cord and replacement water filter to keep us from hauling too much water up hill. Sweet..... I pack quickly, Jim arrives, we load my crap and start talking gear..... After he scoffs at my choice to bring a helmet, I change the subject. Proudly I announce that I have a water filter. It seems that in his career in the mountains both as a climber and a USFS employee, Jim has never contracted: giardea, scirrosis, cervical herpetosis, or any water born illness. Jim doesn't treat his water, those pumps are too heavy. Yes sir, I'll trust your experience. The plan is to bivy at the TH, walk in, climb the route, bivy on the ridge, hike out. Driving across the desert, we discover that Jim has a 1st edition Beckey guide. My 3rd edition Beckey guide tells us that our intended route is called "Ice Cliff Arete", and was climbed in 1991 from the I C glacier side of the ridge.... whatever, we'll climb it from the other side. Hiking in... -from left: Sherpa glacier, Ice Cliff Arete, Ice Cliff Glacier, Mt. Stuart. our route will ascend below the Sherpa glacier and make right for the ridge at the right-most tip of the Sherpa glacier. Looking closely at that right tip of snow, you may see an amber-yellow dike leading 250' up and right, towards the ridge. This rose quartz dike was to me the most stunning feature of the outing. Crawling up a huge crystal carpet, 20' wide, littered with crystals like grapefruit. amazing We do make great time up that glacial slab to the dike, but it is still work. Jim swears to me that when he was here last time, in September 1980, the glacier covered the basin from top to bottom, making the approach way easier. Suuuuuuuuuurrrrrrrrrrrreeeeeeeee. Anyway, Jim tells me that I may still use that ice axe he had me bring. It may come in handy glissading down Sherpa pass. Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight. Apparently Jim would have me believe that these basins were, in ancient times (Like before I started climbing), filled with snow and ice, making human travel much easier. Though we don't find any clean water on route, we do find typical, and beautiful, stuart range ridge climbing and block crawling..... We were way down there just 5 hours ago! Jim in front of the northeast face(?) of Stu. Jim and someone climbed this wall from the Ice Cliff Glacier, claiming atypically clean and solid cascade stone. perhaps he'll chime in with beta? On top, Jim can't help but look bad-ass.. Jim Langdon and the Stuart Range Jim tells me of a super secret plan to climb Sherpa peak while we're up here. It seems that Sherpa is the last peak he has to summit in the Stuart range!! I'm in. Walking and down-climbing towards Sherpa, we decide to climb in the a.m. rather than in the dark this evening. Ninja Jim taps a snow field for refill. Alas, I've finally found somethin to do with this silly axe that dings and dongs as I butt-slide down the slabs,...chopping snow. Oh well, at least I'm not carrying Jim's axe.... earlier, I offered to carry Jim's "axe" because it was dragging and catching on everything as he downclimbed. I say axe with quotation marks because this is like no axe I've ever seen before. First of all it's like 45" long or something, second, it's dead straight with no leash, REALLY. It has a standard looking pick, but on the other side where the hammer is supposed to be, it has this spoon looking thingy. Seriously, can you imagine popping a tool and catching that spoony thing in the face? That could leave a mark! So I holster his "axe" in my gear loop to wait for him to down climb a little further out of my trundle zone. Next thing I know, I trip over this silly pole hanging from my harness and find myself heading into the void. Miraculously, I regain balance, carry Jim's "axe" back to him, "Sorry sir, you'll have to carry that THING yourself." Jim replies that those things used to be way more useful when this place was full of snow and ice and stuff. Again with the stories...... Anyways, we bivy. Jim sleeps comfortably in his bag, only slightly bothered by the ridiculous ruffling of me in my "bag", a silver space blanket. (much like wrapping your legs in Doritoes bags for warmth... mmm ... spaceage technology). Wake, climb gully that seems to be leading up, realize in the increasing west winds and dropping temps that we are definately not on the normal scramble route. whatever, we hop over to the east side of the peak to dead calm air and direct sunlight. We end up completely circumnavigating the peak and balanced rock, digging the mad exposure into the mountaineer creek drainage. We summit via climbneying through a hole in the peak... super cool position to be jungle gyming into. Jim ticks the last of the Stuart Range peaks... Jim updates his 8a.nu scorecard We beat it for Sherpa pass, and our knees rejoice in the comfortable 1000' of gravel glissading down the pass. Note the curious item in Jim's hand. It's that "axe", perhaps we COULD have chopped some firewood with it. where's waldo? Jim mentions that when he was here in the early 90's this too was snow from top to bottom, apparently they just slid or skied down the slope without fear of smashing into boulders. oh really, more stories of disappearing glaciers and snowfields...... didn't some liberal wacko make a major motion picture about this very same "hypothesis". yes, we really drank it.....straight off the ground I barely made it back to the car with debillitating nausea and a caffeine withdrawn headache. Jim shows me 8 mile rock for some onsights, which through the strain or fear, eliminates my headache. Sweet, primed for the drive back across the desert! It was an honor to have tied in with a real Master. to recap, throughout my career I've climbed with: Jim Langdon, who has climbed with Jeff Lowe and Royal Robbins, et.al. Jimmy Dunn, who has climbed with everyone, et.al. Scotty Burk, who has climbed with some dude named Almon. So........... that means I.................. am still a tool. Gear Notes: light free rack to #2 camalot(could and should have been lighter), we should have used a 7 mil X 80' rope, I should have eschewed my harness for a webbing seat harness to save weight and space. Approach Notes: take trail don't get lost

[img:left]http://cascadeclimbers.com/plab/showphoto.php?photo=49534&cat=504[/img]

two dudes, deep creek on sunday, your gri-gri with Metolious locker. call or p.m. me. love arden

bitchin day at Deep creek sunday... anyway, some dudes I vaguely recognized from the gym left a gri with Metolious locker. personal message me, or get my number from the gym or shannon.

I'm looking to get in touch with local badass Jim Langdon for historical purposes. He was notably present in the Cascades in the 60's and 70's, helped push free climbing standards in Yosemite during the 70's, and partnered with Mead Hargis often. I believe he had a park service and/or forest service career. Thanks to anyone who can help direct my search.

I checked out the climbs on Wed the 28. As noted, the cable looked not so good, though i recall the two climbs to it's left looked to be in/good enough. punchbowl's icicles seemed less ominous than usual. Zenith looked good. Although the connecting pillar seemed longer than it was last year, the color seemed to be more solid for climbing than the foamy suds I recall from last year. (note that this year's Zenith observation is from the road) the climbs way up on the bluff to the East of the highway, just out of Electric City seemed to not be worth the gargantuan (by banks standards) approach. Nothing across the lake looked any good at all. and of coarse there were a butt-load of worthy little pitches between punchbowl and cable, which is where we found our adventure. helmut gud

I know of bolted routes on the Columbia's west side. They are between the 2-rivers casino, at the Columbia/Spokane confluence, and Hunters. They are accessed by boat and I understood there to be a few independent lines, still dirty having had little traffic. These routes aren't on White-Rock, but upstream.

my oh-so cleverly innuendoing..... love-gun. it's supposed to be nice this weekend, get drater out of the box, take off his ball-gag and leash, and let's go bouldering. maybe if you're lucky you'll find some hapless city-slickers to hoist your "hillbilly magic" upon. love arden

dude, I don't have your number but I'm going bouldering you know where. call me, pm me, or come out. I/we should be out there by noon. also... pm me with your phone # love arden

socially responsible ice climber desperately seeks beta. Could a knowledgable local please send me a p.m? regards arden

way to take the initiative dude, Since I have no emotional attachment to the "FUC$" underneath Jam Crack go ahead, scrub it good--- committees be damned. Be advised though, the word around the crag is that donny B wrote the "FUC$" as a memento to the place where he consummated his relationship with Julie the Broadway flying J princess. Pet name or some such lovey dovey nonsense. I hear that they are very happy together. that aside Marty, I found the east coaster traverse to be significantly easier and more frictiony AFTER our friendly Spokane Mounties sandblasted the s--t out of it. Although it did take me a while to relearn where to place my feet without the letters from "keytronic hom of devil wurshipers" telling me where to backstep, it definately needs to be downgraded to v7a-, your book calls it too hard, but that figures, your footwork sucks. so, if anyone would like to form a committee to elaborate on the specific difference between v7a- and benchmark v7d/v8a, feel free to pm marty. or just go over to his house to talk if over with him, his address can be found in the third stall at the broadway Flying J

If the distinguished gentlemen are present, could you spare a moment to answer some questions about one of your climbs? thank you lee arden pete 509-995-9705 arden_p@yahoo.com or p.m. me at this site

If the distinguished gentlemen are present, could you spare a moment to answer some questions about one of your climbs? thank you lee arden pete 509-995-9705 arden_p@yahoo.com or p.m. me at this site

or better yet: http://mountainproject.com/v/washington/mclellan_rocks/diamond_boulderbest_crack_cave/105921693

I'm looking for hikes in the 30-60 mile range. Could any of ya'll direct me to an area or a resource to study? thanks arden

Yo, great pictures of the Wedge. I especially noticed the black and white photo from the NW. Some friends and I hiked up to a similar vantage point last fall to climb some features we could see from atop the wedge. Of course we had no beta or literature of the area up on that ridge (other than the published routes on the wedge), which made the climbing that much more satisfying. Something about just walking up to a cool looking feature that we spotted from across the cirque with no idea as to it's: difficulty, or clean-ness, or descent options, made it a great and uniquely adventuresome outing for someone who can't afford to go to Baffin Island or the cirque of the unclimbables. Anyhoo, I heard from some locals about a road that has until recently been closed to climbers, that accesses more remote areas of this Southern Californian Spire climbing mecca. If you pm me with beta I swear on my figure-8 that I'll never tell any of those wankers from Seattle about your secret so-Cal spire climbs. peace out

swee-eet, Do you recall if the last pitch, the one that surmounts the upper bluff had touched down?

sounds great, glad you had fun, I'm not sure your post in the E. WA forum described the route I'm looking for though. Did you scramble up a significant basalt scree slope to access the cliff? anyways, sounds like your buddy gave you a burly pitch as a first day on ice, Nice Job, and thanks for the feedback. Can anyone confirm the name of this drip? the first pillar on your right (uphill), as you drive down the hill south of the dry falls parking lot. I've never seen it touch down since the late 90's. Is this our year? ap

hello race fans, has anyone checked conditions recently?,(thursday or friday) I'm interested in the first or second climb south of Dry Falls Interpretive center on the West side of the highway. (ACROSS the road and uphill from "children of the sun"). agentorange or clocworkorange of something? will this drip ever touch down? thanks ap

I've been wanting to climb at the Humbugs for quite a while, but haven't found the Butte climbing guide yet. I've heard rumors of car break-ins at the trailhead, is this a significant problem? Might it be too dangerous to leave a roadtrip-equipped vehicle for a day? Might I leave my valuable jewelry, rare eight-track collection, and our bikes at your house? I like stunning features, sustained multi-pitches on imposing structures, and generally 9's 10's and 11's.... aside from the big spire, which routes should I look for? any Beta offered will be richly rewarded by my partner and his karma angel, I'll try to kick in whatever I can. thanks arden

What happened? I think someone hacked my computer and started insulting my friends. Vague recollections of an ephedrine blackout yesterday afternoon. Oh my head hurts. So anyway, when I wake up this morning, my family are gathered around my bed for some sort of "chatroom-junkie intervention". They say I need help, they say those emoticons and graemlins online are actually real people in real places, not just on my monitor. So I guess I need some time away from cyber-climbing, they say I can get my mind "righted" at a clinic with people who deal with this all the time. If I see Donny Baker I'll say hi I'm so sorry for all those I've hurt love assclown