Coondog

While I prefer to carry an SLR kit heavier than my tent, i understand some folks like lightweight. The Sony point+shoots with the Zeiss optics take really high quality pics, and they're pretty cheap now. Most people I know who've got Canon Powershots like them, and their included software is pretty good.

Climb: Wa Pass (+ loose rock needs trundled from Concord)-Concord Tower, N Face Date of Climb: 7/3/2006 Trip Report: Group of 4 camped at Wa Pass this weekend. Did S Arete of SEWS (aka scramble & downclimb) Sunday, then headed up to do Concord N Face and Beckey Route on Liberty Bell Monday. Concord N Face was much fun; however, (and the reason I'm bothering to post a TR @ all) we noticed a fair size death flake / horn of rock on the 2nd pitch of this climb at roughly the 1/2 way point. At roughly waist-to-shoulder height as you gain a fair size ledge (w/ twin cracks meandering up left and ow-ish chimney to right). Horn-shaped, and movable by hand, this rock is roughly 3' high and 12" deep... <edit> Also note: two slings, purple & believe blue, slung in the 6"-ish chimney on the right side of this ledge. When you see these slings DON'T PULL ON THE LOOSE ROCK ON YOUR LEFT! <edit/> We'd have trundled this ourselves if not for the two groups of folks hanging out in the gully below. Rapped off, waited to see if the two groups on Beckey route of Lib would be fast enough for us to get on before rain came, bailed due to rain. Hiked over to Blue Lake that afternoon, glorious... Awoke next morning to black skies and thunder booming nearby. Broke camp & on trail in 30 min later... bummed to have to leave such a lovely spot, glad we weren't being rained on a pitch or two off the deck... JavaMan in Winthrop makes great breakfast burrito & good brewin's. --Coondog. Gear Notes: More than needed. Approach Notes: Snow in approach gully to Lib Bell / Concord N Face largely melted out; ice-axes not needed.

Howdy campers- If anyone's interested in some ski mountaineering or ice-climbing in Chamonix or La Grave between Jan 2nd to 9th drop me a PM. Cheers- --Coondog.

As promised... sans pics. We don't have a pic of the scar from where this chunk popped, but we'd be interested in seeing one if someone has the chance in the near future. I can add a couple pics of us toting Craig out once i get them. Sun, 4/25/05. L'worth: Castle Rock:: Midway Clapton leading 2nd pitch, believe he's at the large ledge just before the traverse-y portion; belayed by Golan. Craig next to Golan after having lead 1st pitch, belaying up Yves, aka "Dr_Crash." If this image link works, believe Clapton was on the obvious ledge just before the rightward traverse on the 2nd pitch. For more detail, look at MattP's excellent topo @ http://www.seanet.com/~mattp/Midway/midtopo.pdf ; believe flake that popped directly under the "5.5" marking to the left of the optional belay on the 2nd pitch. Clapton downclimbed to backclean a piece, then executed the same move off the ledge he'd made previously, only this time a piece of rock approximately 7' in height, 3' across and 6-8" wide popped with no tell-tale wiggling or creaking, fortunately depositing Clapton sideways directly back onto the ledge he'd just been leaving, while he immediately began screaming "ROCK!!" of course. Our coffee-table-ish size friend tumbled, and apparently hit hard enough to air-burst into a substantial number of smaller size pieces. Craig, at the first belay, was struck by 1-2 pieces of unknown size: major piece directly struck him on the top rear-left of his helmet, glanced off and then struck his left shoulder. Second strike was to Craig's lower left shin, leaving a 4" gash exposing his tibia; believe this piece then struck his foot/ankle, leading us to suspect it may have broken toe(s). Golan, belaying at top first-pitch, dodged as far away from rockfall as he could and fortunately wasn't struck. Yves struck directly on head by a rock of fair size; apparently separate hits from smaller pieces to right shoulder, right arm/elbow, pretty substantial hit to top right thigh with substantial bruising, and right lower leg with some scrapes / bruising. Rock debris continued down face of Castle Rock to pepper area around the 3 parked cars at trailhead, and one piece approx. softball size struck yellow line of Hiwy 2 and peppered... Golan then assisted Craig; he tied off Craig's belay line to Yves, tied off his own belay line to Clapton, assessed condition of folks, and set plan. Lowered Clapton down to belay ledge to assist him, then lowered Yves to ground, re-rigged lines, then lowered Craig with Clapton attending / assisting. Then Golan rapped off and lines were pulled. On ground, I checked out Yves and found him to be in mild state of shock; helped him clean off his elbow hit, checked to make sure he wasn't bleeding too badly elsewhere, and sat him down to eat a donut and not wander off. Once Craig to ground, I looked at his leg and though seeing 3-4" of his bone exposed wasn't exactly heartening was pleased to see that it had already clotted well and there was little bleeding. He was in pretty serious shock after shot to head and shin. Checked for other bleeding, then washed out his shin gash and bandaged him up to keep clean while we got him out. Yves, in his infinite generosity and slightly reduced mental state, kept trying to feed Craig donuts, which I didn't think was a great idea since I think Craig had enough already without spewing rainbow sprinkle donuts once juiced up on painkillers and antibiotics. I loaded Yves down with an extra pack & ropes, and set him off down trail to get my truck ready to transport Craig into the L'worth clinic. Only took us a few minutes to set our plan, pack up, and get Craig mobile down trail. Took turns carrying Craig in arm-bar, then once to mellower ground just helped him along with one of us under each arm. Third to halfway down trail the pain of carrying seemed to have blown through the fog of the rock hits, and he started hopping down trail on one leg so as not to suffer our bouncing him along. He made it a most of the way down one-leg hopping with a shoulder to lean on, then Clapton piggy-backed him out. Threw him into a nest of sleeping pads & bags in the back of truck, then straight into the clinic. Just under two hours from time of rockfall to getting Craig & Yves checked out in L'worth clinic, where we spent a delightful afternoon... x-rays, irrigation and painkillers, o' my. After leisurely afternoon in faux Bavaria's clinic, a leisurely drive home, some take-out Snappy Dragon, and lots of collective "holy crap are we glad to be alive" reflections and a couple well-deserved Observations: 1. We were very lucky: considering everyone was basically lined up like bowling pins in the line of fire from this rockfall, we were very lucky the rock didn't catch Clapton when it came off, very lucky it burst into pieces, and very lucky no one was injured any worse... This could have played out very differently... i'll assume most folks who've been in a similar situation feel the same way afterward... 2. We'd assumed that a route as well-traveled as Midway would naturally be in pretty bomb-proof shape, but fortunately had our helmets on... If we hadn't... well, again, this incident could have been far more traumatic. 3. Only possible thing would be to consciously have tried to belay from a more "out of the way" position, but not even sure how possible that was given the terrain... 4. We all kept very cool and were zero-bullshit in getting Craig out safe asap. And hat's off to him nutting up and hopping his own as out most of the way... Hardman. Here's to with your buddies after something like this... Buhk-soon indeed. Live long, climb strong. --Cd.

Tell me what color & what was inside & be happy to return to you... looks a little beat up after taking a tumble off the cliff... O' yeah, found it this past Sunday 4/17. --Cd.

Re: beta on DT: 1. We camped @ the Natl Park (or Monument?) area which is okay, but sounds like the hookup is to get your reservation at the climbers hostel / camp well in advance... Climbed next to the guy who runs it, super cool guy... 2. Be prepared for the crowd on the weekend; bag the Durrance and Matador on a weekday (if ya can) 3. Ditto on the stretch... unless you're already gumby dat is; Matador is unreal. <if I really got this image to insert, i'm buying myself a bier right now>

from my experience, in order of preference: #1 Jim Mates -- Custom Boot Services <http://www.customboot.8m.com> Will drop the complete boot science and have you in a centered, "balanced," athletic stance in 2-5 minutes. Was impressed when after just having me jump around in my boots for a minute he completely diagnosed what's wrong with my GS carves and steep skiing... $75-150 for complete fitting, custom footbeds were $180. And worth it. #2 World Cup Ski on 24th in Bel/Red: They'll fit your boots for $45+ and do a good job. Most of my friends who've gotten their boots fit at a ski shop and then gone to World Cup, either to fix the initial fitting or for new boots, have sworn by the guy. If I could afford to go see him, my buddy Trevor Munger of Munger Orthotics in Achorage, Alaska would rank #1 for custom orthotic footbeds. But I don't visit AK enough... --Jeff

Gene, thanks for the beta -- mucho appreciated. Norman, maybe hiking / climbing something closer would be more better... will keep an eye on the weather... SnowByrd, haven't you broken enough of yourself lately? No, if you wanna go out and play you're invited... Cheers- --Jeff

Posthole/snowshoe up, alpine down for me, and board down for my buddy Dice. Other takers welcome to come along... probly leave Seattle "early-ish" and be back "late-ish." --Cd.

Does that mean you're (finally) not sick any more? And, aren't you going to --ski-- Mt Fujiyama??? If not, why not? If so, convince me why I shouldn't go back to work or remodeling my house and spend a week in Japan, then a month in Thailand climbing in the beach, drinking bier, living on the cheap??? Hey wait a minute, umm, i'm going to Thailand -- forget Mt Fuji...

Anyone had the chance to compare the Volkl's NJ's or Mountains to the K2 Shuksans?

TR: "Soul Purpose," 11/3 @ Mt. Showbox, Seattle: Inclement cold did little to wither the surprisingly long approach to theater -- nearly 40 minutes sidewalk loitering. $12 fare was charged & got a t-shirt from "evogear.com" (?). Around 8:45 a great deal of shwag was thrown into audience, and some randomly raffled, main goodies being pair of Rossi B3's, a couple NFace backpacks and many assorted NFace & TGR shirts & hoodies. Film started around 9:00-ish, til 10:15-ish. w00t!/stoke!/powder-porn! factor was high, say 8.5/10. Sick chutes, chest-deep powder, a great many aerials w/ reverse landings, but only a few of the obligatory ragdoll yardsales, which bummed me cause I enjoy them (guess since that's what happens to me when i try most of this sheeit). solid

Hey Bogen- I'm interested in climbing some Banff ice, drinking biers and watching mountain porn movies... I'm gainfully unemployed, what else should I be doing? I've got an appointment Thurs morning which I could probably change anyway, then open for the weekend... Lemme know. Cheers- --Jeff

Hey Frosty- Having suffered from two hernias myself, i'll try to help if i can. What I learned is that a hernia is a rip of your abdominal wall muscle tissue, generally caused by over-exertion... not 'lifting with your legs.' "Uncomfortable feeling behind the jewels?" Yep, definite symptom. Is there any way you can figure out on your own if you have one? Well, in my case it was easy to diagnose since my tear was large enough some of my innards would slip through it, which I had to shove back into position. I'd encourage you to -not- let this happen to you... by (foreshadowing)... Will physical activity make it worse? YES; in my first hernia I continued playing basketball & skiing, which seriously aggravated the tear and worsened it; my second one i had diagnosed almost immediately after and had it operated on 2 days later & I got a kevlar patch placed in to help form the basis of the scar tissue, so bullet-proof crotch, which is cool. Get health insurance soon, and 'accidentally' lift something heavy without your legs shortly thereafter and have to go get yourself checked out -- not worth messing with. Good luck. --Cd.

Thanks for the comments all. Yeah Nolse, did find out it's not an NA Classic, but agree it's better than many that are... and probably better it's not anyway. Didn't see Brock's comments in the summit register, guess we should have checked it out... darn, guess i need to go back next year... Cheers- --Cd.

Aaron, some beta is mo' betta than other beta... yeah, Trei totally PS to my TR: after consulting several medical types, general conscensus is I hairline fractured my right tibia at its top in a pendulum'ing fall on Myopia; hence the 1/4" bump that is just beginning to subside after 5-6 weeks, and likely why my body said "dude, you're just plain done" and let me puke my guts out when we'd finished our exit from the Perch. Huh, who knew... Thanks for the comments. --cd.

I've snapped eye-stems on 3 pairs of Oakleys, 2 within the "year," and haven't yet gotten a fix from them... but i really dig the Natives I replaced them with --cd.

Couple of nice climbs -- good weekend. --cd.

Climb: Finger of Fate, Sawtooths, ID-Open Book Route Date of Climb: 8/29/2004 Trip Report: After making our way out from climbing at Elephant's Perch (TR @ http://www.cascadeclimbers.com/threadz/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=UBB22&Number=399647#Post399657), Ascanio & I talked about what next on our road-trip. Whilst in my cold/flu, sprained ankle and tired state I may have opted for continuing on to City of Rocks for a shot at climbing with my buddy Mark from Burley, Ascanio would hear nothing of it. "Dude, we're HERE -- when are we going to be HERE again? Finger is a (cue angels singing) "North American Classic" bro -- we GOTTA do it!!!" Well, okay, if it's a NA Classic and all, yeah, sure, we gotta do it. So, we hit the road. The "road" to the Upper Hellroaring Lakes Trailhead barely being an almost truck-friendly boulder scramble straight out of a 4x4 commercial, which is apparently why Subaru's & Volvo's get to use the "Lower" trailhead and suck on a few more miles of trail dust instead. Ascanio didn't sleep so well, so we didn't leave camp til around 11:30. +Coondog at first of upper, small lakes under the Finger We scrambled scree and walked by the numerous beautiful lakes, getting on route about 2:15. Climbing was pretty stellar: several pitches of pretty bomber corner/dihedral goodness +Ascanio going thru the window, 3rd pitch +Coondog finishing corner section (no posing whatsoever) Ascanio tried to take us up directly above the corner, which ended up with him staring up at a 5.11-stout-ish section unable to figure a move out... I thought aloud "ain't NO way that is 5.8 NA Classic brah," and got him down, and swung way out right above the corner to the twin crack goodness. +"Well sure, i mean, yeah, we -could- climb these cracks..." This pitch was pretty awesome. When I got to top Ascanio asked "Holy Crap Dog, wha'd you do to your finger bro???" "huh, what finger???" I looked down to notice i'd flappered the fingertip off my left ring-finger and was gushing some red, sticky stuff. Apparently the beautiful orange granity goodness can be fairly sharp as well, cause I didn't even feel it. Couple minutes tape work had me all good. Topped out 5:30, chowed, made the obligatory "o' my god how amazing" remarks to each other you're supposed to make when surrounded by miles of clean rock, clear alpine lakes and only snafflehounds for company, then took off. +Upper Hellroaring Lake on descent... Sawtooths umm, umm good Apparently Finger of Fate - Open Book isn't an NA Classic... huh. But it should be. Gear Notes: Half-set nuts Mixed Camalots from .5 to 3.5" Approach Notes: Road to Upper Trailhead for Hellroaring Lakes -is- really as bad as all the warnings say; expect this couple miles of road to take an hour, unless you really don't care about your car.

Climb: Elephants Perch -- Sawtooths, ID: -Myopia & Mtnr's Route Date of Climb: 8/27/2004 Trip Report: First TR from 4 week roadtrip; others will follow as film gets developed. My buddy Ascanio flew in from LA 8/23/04. Weather ruled out Squamish, so turned south for Smiff Rock; warmed up there for a couple days of perfect weather on the classics at Morning Glory (Tammy Baker's Face, Zebra Direct, Gumby) & Dihedrals (Xenolith, Helium Woman, Wartley's Revenge & end-o-day on Heresy). Ascanio redpointed Heinous Cling to prove he wasn't tired from his flight, and we decided to brave the weather and try the Sawtooths. Arrived Stanley late Thurs eve, with fresh snow above 9000' Huh. But, packed our gear and got ready to catch the shuttle boat across Redfish Lake early the next morning. $6 well spent. +Coondog enjoys morning boat-ride Arrived trailhead around 7:30am, and hiked on up to base of Elephant's Perch. +N Face of Elephant's Perch in fog; Mountaineer's Route begins under large 'blank diamond,' then swings left around it. Beckey Route is rightmost of prominent crack/dihedral systems from this view Dropped gear at a campsite amongst boulders on Perch side of lakes, then headed around to N Face of the Perch. Ascanio immediately wanted to head up Beckey Direct (IV, 5.11c, 10-11p) but I thought the dripping wetness in the lower finger cracks looked didn't look too inviting. He headed up anyway, then rapped off the first pitch... I suggested we head around the South side to find something in the sun that'd be dry. Off we went... +Myopia, after the hard stuff I led the first two pansy pitches of Myopia (IV, 5.11a, 11p), then Ascanio took over for the 3rd & crux pitch. This pitch, and the slew of 5.10c/d pitches following were "stout" in our opinion; I fell 3 times on the crux pitch, and pulled on gear to get through a 10d crux pitch (booh). If using the topo's from Mark Weber's article in Climbing #204 please note that the pitches he's shown are rope-stretchers... Topped out Myopia at sunset. +Coondog atop Myoppia after a long day Cooking pasta at altitude sucks btw... Ascanio didn't sleep well that night, and we slept in til 10:00-ish next day. After chowing & filling water, headed to the NA Classic we wanted to tick, the Mountaineer's Route (III, 5.8, 8p?). On route around 11:00, and linked up most pitches so we did in 5 plus simul'g the top scramble. On top around 2:30. +Triple Roof's pitch on Mountaineer's Route Ascanio wanted to try to squeeze another route in that day, but since a) I was fighting off a cold/flu bug, b) we still needed to descend, c) we needed to break camp & pack up, then d) hike out to catch the last return shuttle boat back @ 7:00, I didn't think we had the time to make another grade III/IV route. A grabbed the rope and took off, apparently slightly pissed at my lack of uber-enthusiasm. I surveyed the vista for a few minutes, then packed up rack and headed down. ***Please note: if descending Elephant's Perch via N Face descent route, the cairns on descent are apparently placed primarily for accessing the far-left N Face climbing routes -- Following these cairns on descent will cliff you out... these can be easily rappelled, if you have a rope. Since Ascanio had taken the rope with him, I re-climbed and made my way around to the actual descent hike-off. Back in camp around 4:30-ish. I was packed up in about 20min, and we were on trail out around 5:15. Twisted my ankle trail-running on descent... booh. Made our boat, then decided to puke my guts out in celebratory glee when I tried to pound some water... Stoopid cold bug. Fortunately, Don Patron & improved my condition dramatically. Sawtooths: orange granity goodness & hardly no one else around Gear Notes: Single set nuts & RP's Alien offsets: light-blue to red Camalots: .4 thru 3; doubles in .75 thru 2 Approach Notes: Shuttle boat service from Redfish Lake Lodge is great. (edit -- how could I forget this?) The Patron, & elk steak @ Redfish Lake Lodge are even better; bartender is a climber & gave us some great beta -- he

Frenchie- I rack my cams and slings with BD Neutrinos -- they're light and have a much more substantial rope-bearing surface than most of the other 'small' wires. SierraTradingPost and some other sites seem to occasionally have blowouts on the blemishes of these that you can buy by the box for cheeap. And I hate it when my nuts get hung up in a notch , so i rack nuts/hexes on keylocks.... works well for me...

Devils Tower, 3 weeks ago: my partner decides to skip past the first belay station (a large, flat ledge atop a pillar), beneath a 25' 5.10b thin finger crack / dihedral. Placed 2 pieces of pro on that section, then froze on the topout move... With 3/4 of my 60m rope out, i guessed rope-stretch to be about 15-20' should he fall, and he was 8' above his last piece, which equated to him decking. He reached for a piece of pro & peeled. I jumped from the spot I was belaying at down at my pack roughly 8' below me and did a big rope-pull at the same time. Still, rope only began to catch his weight at roughly 6-8' above the 1st belay ledge. He hit hard, and lay there moaning in pain for roughly 5 minutes before I could get him to respond. The Climbing Ranger was there, and we got him down and checked him out ASAP... He didn't break anything fortunately, but was limping for a week after. If he hadn't linked the pitches, he wouldn't have decked, plain & simple. Rope-stretch and gear placement. Only venting on this since I spent an afternoon sketched out and monitoring my friends health instead of cranking on amazing dihedrals... and hope you don't have to. --cd.

Ditto Lummox on Elephant Rock & backside of Bath has a couple stellar climbs -- morning or before sunset for them though; trying them in afternoon sun was stoopid of us, but excuse was we were only there for a couple days. Have a great time... envious.

I heard the FS was going to chop some bolts to see if they can get the route written up in some climbing mag again... "oooh, demo fee revenue is up."

I'm blissfully unemployed til Thanksgiving. After the month roadtrip I just took, I need to do some work to get my lead-head back on, but am following 11b/c.. (delete "nospam") nospamjeff_coon@yahoo.com --cd.