fleblebleb

BRING BACK THE HARDEST RUSSIAN CLIMBER!!!!

They don't let you into bars either, do they?

That's the same reason you don't get the rest of it

Ya sorry about the weather crapping out before Sat. I can't go although I'd really like to, I'm nursing a nasty bruise.

The C-D was great skiing on Sunday May 23. You can drive to the parking lot. Baker got > 2 feet of fresh snow May 29-31. There is extensive discussion about this on telemarktips.com.

Need partners - fleblebleb@hotmail.com or PM. Volcano skiing, north face snow climbs, Index are all good. Won't really get into rock climbing shape until July.

I need midweek partners, pretty much any time after this Friday. The email is fleblebleb@hotmail.com, get in touch. I tried your sowder@... but it bounced.

Are they proper climbing kittens then? Can they belay?

Are you guys OK with one more?

I skied... 2 inches of fresh on a firm base, good times

http://westernmountaineering.com/thebags.htm Get them at http://www.promountainsports.com/

I climbed to the lunch counter (~9000') yesterday. Adams is encased in a sheath of ice from 8000' to at least 9500' and we didn't see any reason why the rest wouldn't be the same mess. The stuff is so bulletproof ski crampons don't get purchase without stomping, you'd need a hammer to get a self-belay and self-arrest is equally feasible on bare concrete. We guessed that it got nice and soft, then was hit with a whole lot of rain (we certainly did...), and then froze solid overnight - repeat for a couple of cycles and you get the water ice-type of snow slope we found up there. Sorry about the non-enticement of hordes of potential searchers. Would you mind posting a little bit about the conditions you had? I'm curious...

Three pairs of crampons in closet, duckbill toes: nothing fits properly. Ideas anyone? What works for you guys? UTB binding anyone? Regular 12 pt crampon models people are using? What's the cheapest solution?

Looks fun, too bad I prolly have to be in town Sunday night.

Cool, thanks guys! Dave, I'll take you up on that, then I can get my own after seeing how indispensable it is I've never used one...

I'd like to rent/borrow/steal one for a week but have no idea how to go about it. Hints anyone?

You should buy it, so it sticks around, so I can keep buying it.

Have fun dood =8)

I call bullshit on this one... Wagen and buddy finished the route, rapped ~20 pitches in the rain and were still cracking jokes when we got to the car.

I was with Wagen Saturday. I did some mellow skiing yesterday and had a chance to think the route over. I'm don't have any strong negative feelings about it. Here are some thoughts about the route, and about our climb. First, it's a very long route that doesn't really have a consistent character. It feels more like three routes on top of each other. I would climb the first fifteen pitches with my wife, as a relaxing, fun daytrip. The bolts are very close together on the beginning slabs. The steeper pitches are very carefully bolted. The second part of the route, the bolt-free middle part, didn't exactly impress me while we were there. But, I'm much more mellow about it now. The anchors at the start are at the beginning of an obvious right-trending stairway/ramp that reaches a ledge in approximately 50'. That's where we left the TCU, and the next anchors are directly above. I think the third section is a lot harder than anything below. Pitches 3 and 5 counting from the top are long and sustained with fun, hard moves that I was too cold and gimped out to properly pull. Peter and I were two pitches away from the top when it really started to rain, Wagen and his partner had a half-pitch to go. I led another half pitch in the rain and had to huck myself off when I went the wrong way and couldn't reach the right holds. That was pretty fucking exhilarating, with 2000' of air below my ass. I had just gotten back to that bolt when we decided to bail. Before we went I was 90% sure it would rain on the route. I mean, if the west slopes forecast is "30% chance for rain" and you go climbing right smack dab center of the Snoq convergence zone you pretty much know what you're going to get. The clouds closed when we crossed the bolt-free section, that's probably when we should have bailed, but we all wanted to make it go - especially when we found those anchors. We had three ropes, so we knew that if it all became a big waterfall we could always leave one to get past the downclimbing section and rap the rest on the other two ropes. Anyways, I think the route would be nicer if it had an anchor at the ledge on top of the right-trending ramp. Everything else about it is great - I'm very impressed with the route setters, what a shitload of work they did. Sorry Wagen - just a different opinion I guess, and I completely understand where you're coming from. To each their own. The however-many hours of soaking wet raps definitely built enough character to last through the summer, heh. I'll post some funny pictures of us shivering in the rain on this thread, when I get around to it

The final curtsies -

... and narrowly avoids flattening a certain avalanche safety instructor skinning up the chute:

... slams the brakes...

Perkins rips it up

"Dead soldier beer" (You know... from the glasses on the table the morning after... let no drop go to waste)