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fleblebleb

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Posts posted by fleblebleb

  1. Actually cracked's post makes a lot of sense when you consider there more than hundrend million people in the US, the way political system is set up, and the fact the Bush and kerry are our options

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

  2. 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...

  3. 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 grin.gifgrin.gifgrin.gif

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