slothrop

Uh, the left one. You're not from around here, are you?

Well, I usually start with a traverse from Mount Vancouver, along the coast, past Furry Creek, and then climb the crack to the top.

Didn't anyone climb anything this weekend? Is Chaps right, do we just sit around without lives and post junk all day? WHERE ARE THE TRIP REPORTS? I climbed Mount Washington Park in Portland this weekend with my mom, via the Rose Garden variation. On the way up, I saw some dangerous cliffs covered with chicken wire that I could climb, but the sign said I would be prosecuted to the FULL EXTENT of the law if I did. Instead, we descended into the valley and I free-soloed Mount Tonkatsu with Curry Sauce, with the sit start. The entire Canadian Navy was parked on the Willamette River, so we boarded their ships (arr!), meeting with minimal resistance. I departed Sunday to complete the Portland-Seattle enchainment, topping out on the UW Rock at approximately 6:45pm. This extreme effort was not without personal cost, however, as I was late for helping prepare dinner and my girlfriend was mad.

Hey guys, I found some photos of Chaps. He really does have a life outside of the Interweb. Here's a glimpse into that happy go-lucky existence: And his sister's pretty cute. Maybe she'd like a belayer?

Is the "Snowtube" the thing that's basically an ice axe shaft without a head? A friend of mine has one, but I've never seen him place it.

MSR 24" aluminum pickets (T cross-section) seem to be the standard around here.

Your tent should be fine. Start early so you can see the sunrise! And you will have better snow conditions (assuming it freezes overnight) before the sun turns everything sloppy.

You can do a glacier-free approach to the Kautz high camp via Van Trump Park, leaving from the Comet Falls TH. The approach is described well in Gauthier's book. More vertical gain involved than the normal route, but fewer crowds and it sure is perty. Nice camps at 7000+', 9200', and 10200', take your pick.

1. If it's raining in Seattle, it's probably raining or snowing at Paradise. That said, check the mountain weather forecasts before you go. And go anyway. If you have done any bad-weather hiking and know when to turn around, you'll be OK. Bring a compass or GPS and ask the rangers for the compass bearings up to (and more importantly, back from) Camp Muir. These are also printed in Mike Gauthier's Rainier guidebook, I believe. 2. It's kind of a long drive, since you have to go back around the west side of the park to get from Mowich Lake trailhead to Paradise. I dunno, 2 hours? Have fun!

Cool. You got a full experience, I'd say.

Sweet. I keep forgetting that "speed climbing" is a euphemism for "French-freeing" as well as for "running up volcanoes". Guiding a family with two seven year-olds sounds like a nightmare.

Awesome, Jay and Mark. I almost wish I could have been there. You know, except without the suffering part. Have fun in Boston!

I think that's why they don't recommend smearing it with vaseline or pouring gas on it or any number of redneck remedies. Just yank the sucker out.

Climb: Prusik Peak-West Ridge Date of Climb: 6/4/2005 Trip Report: At the risk of causing West Ridge Beta Overload, here's a brief TR. My friend Ben's on a climbing rampage ever since he broke up with his girlfriend and this last "winter" cured my friend Josh of the desire to ski, so we needed to go to the mountains. Ben packed in a 14" kielbasa and I brought a quart of PBR. Good times at camp. El Puto de Kunzo Up at 6am, we looked for friends Fromage and Jumar Jon, but they were no where to be found. The flatulence of the previous night continued through the morning and was the source of much humor. We started up the West Ridge in a cool breeze (windshirt recommended here). The climbing was good fun, with nice exposure, and went quickly. It's too bad you have to do a couple short pitches because of rope drag around ridge features. For the last pitch, we walked to the right end of the ledge splitting the summit block (above the handcrack) and belayed at the bolt overlooking the west face. A cool knob grab leads to the hilarious 5.4 chimney and the summit. Josh struggles with pack and chimney Josh on the FULLY HORIZONTAL summit crack (5.15c) The descent was annoying. Three 30m raps from the summit bolt into a couloir, downclimbing steepish hard snow in approach shoes, traversing same snow back to the balanced rock. I'm sure there's a better way, but whatever. Lots of fun-looking cracks on the north side. Gear Notes: 60m half rope w/Reverso nuts #4-8 Forged Friends #1.5, 1.75, 2.5 hexes #9, 10 three smallest tri-cams (didn't use) four double slings, three singles clipped several fixed pieces and rap stations Booty Report + #10 Stopper, double Mammut shoelace sling - cordelette * fixed small blue cam on pitch before the slab move Approach Notes: 2:45 to Upper Snow Lake snow-free to just before Lake Viviane, little snow to Prusik Pass awesome bivy spots! larches have nice green buds no skeeters, one tick, no Tool

You can hardly miss the route. It's well-traveled, so you know you're off-route if you are pulling off handfuls of lichen, and there is quite a bit of fixed gear/tat. Plus, it's a ridge. There is a ton of natural pro. It's a good route for beginning alpine climbers. Newbies, go do it!

I want to see marijuana commercials on TV.

Have fun, Tim!

I felt the same way. I had slung that horn for a belay and Ben somehow forgot to take the 20 FEET OF BRIGHT ORANGE CORD with him when he cleaned the next pitch. It would have been a pain to belay him back down the slab move to get it, so we just moved on. It's all yours now, CBS.

Ah, that must have been you guys we heard whooping it up Saturday morning when we were on Prusik. I assume you found the cordelette my friend Ben left around a belay horn mid-route.

Speak for yourself.

Dreamweaver or (ick) FrontPage are both good for designing a website without too much HTML know-how. The cheapest way (free) to get narratives and pictures online is blogger.com + flickr.com, but using those won't give you a website under your domain name. Custom web design won't be cheap any time soon.

Eric, don't you have a few cover sheets to finish up before you can even start to think about the count page? Yeeeeaaaah....

It melts by the time it gets to the west coast, duh. We only have Italian sodas out here.

Cool photo! Matt, are you saying you'd belay right where the climber is?

Many of the detainees are and have been innocent civilians. The military's own estimates put the percentage of useful prisoners (those with actual intelligence information) at something less than 25%. I'm sure the Marines and Army kill the ones actually caught trying to kill them. That's their job. We've killed thousands more innocent people in Iraq and Afghanistan already than were killed in the WTC and in all other terrorist attacks on US civilians or soldiers since then. Innocent people, not insurgents/terrorists/assorted bad guys. Oops, right? Just a part of war. I just can't wrap my feeble little mind around how people equate fighting the insurgency in Iraq with defending the USA. Soldiers fighting in Iraq are defending each other, their possessions, and Iraqi civilians. We lost in Vietnam but magically, somehow, the Reds didn't take over the world. There are policy choices other than "unjustifiable, expensive, embarrassing, interminable war."