genepires

was on again this friday night at 8pm on discovery channel as well for you that don't feel like staying up that late. Not a big fan of the everest books but i thought that this was a good show. So far not a lot of attitude and "radness" drama that one would expect after "into thin air". They had a rescue filmed of some guy with pulm edema which was informative to see how messed up one can get.

lucky dog, you got to see the sheep. I lived there for 9 months and also made 5 trips to the area before and after, and I only saw the sheep one time. was that deep in oak canyon?

given that you are going though hard times, solo or not, your determination to do that route regardless of whatever conditions are, sounds like a suicide mission. I hope you are kidding about this and if not, then don't drag clueless people to their death also.

knots are good. very very good.

sounds cold, very very cold. dark too.

there are some pitches on polar circus that 70 m would be nice. seems like alpine ice with lots of belayed pitches is the place where 70 m shine. North face of robson, n face athabasca, ect, but they will be gone in a decade so why bother?

No expert on rapid rappeling (unless falling is a criteria) but it would seem to depend upon how many raps you had to do. The more raps to do, the less advantagous pairing up would be. It would seem the advantage is having multiple people rapping and not standing around at the same time. Here is one scenerio three rope lengths up with no simu-rapping. (I come in a t 195 lbs so simu rap is scary to me) first rap is set up with two ropes normally. first rapper takes both ropes with and sets the remaining two rope lengths as single line rappels. second and third rappel normally and quickly as soon as the rope is free. last guy does first rappel normally and uses that two ropes for the rest of the raps and throws down the other two ropes. folks on bottom coil and get everythign ready while the lone guy makes his way down which shouldn't be too bad as long as the ropes don't get stuck, which they will. better yet, just take your time and keep out of trouble.

How about throwing out some ideas that are OK to take dogs while BC skiing? I'll throw out a couple that I have taken hounds on. Sauk mtn. table mtn near baker ski area. right across from stevens pass ski area, forget the name. any other good places for hounds?

Doubt that many will ever hike in that far so the need for secrecy is not that important. If it was, then Darin would never have sent in these photos. I can't speak for him, but I would imagine that he is trying to keep the route one for someone to "explorer-ating". He is down on super topos so why should he create one for this area? It is obvious that there is a climb out there. I'll admit that it is really good. Go find it. go do it. have fun exploring. be ready to shwack. If you really need beta, (I usually do as I am super taco addicted) PM me and I may give it to you.

mabe the 8 pitches circumnavigate the mountain. Maybe a real "corkscrew" route?

yeah the pack seems small, but that doesn't meen there was "no send". maybe there was. maybe there wasn't.

Mt matier, a bit north of whistler is a good alpine ice face that is a reasonable weekend trip from van. no 4wd as you park right off the hwy. Nice trail in via the trail that goes by 3 nice lakes. camping right on the upper lake. climb up through the ice fall for a couple pitches to gain the glacier, then hike the glacier, preferably on the left side which is smoother, then over to the face, crawl through the schrund and up the 40 degree face for 3 ro 4 pitches. good descent down skiers R of the route and back to camp. There is another approach (that I haven't done) which bypasses most of the glacier too. Maybe someone else can help you with that. It is in the select guide. I thougth that this route is very cool, like a mini athabasca.

jump rope. (I last something like 5 minutes, but I suck) bike stand for indoor biking. (not that I have done it, just an idea)

visualizing this rappel accident makes me ill. thanks for sharing this accident report. seriously.

there is a well protected (some say over bolted) climb on goat wall. I forget the name right now but I remember it was mostly moderate (5.6 to 5.7) except for the last pitch (5.9?). It is about 10 pitches long and you rappel the route so not doing the last pitch is not a big deal. really nice position. good for crappy weather days in the hills. The topo was only available on north cascades mountain guide service website but I don't think it is there anymore. maybe someone here has a name and topo? Larry Goldie or Scott Johnson?

ditto as oly said. BTW, are you asking about softshells, belay parkas or goretex type jackets? 1. you will find that your outershell should not be considered in regards to warmth. if it keeps you dry, then it will help you stay warm. your outer wear should have no insulation unless it is a belay parka. 2. if it is waterproof, then it is windproof. windproof is more a function for softshells. 4. cost- you get what you pay for so expect to pay alot. patagonia had a big online sale. see if they still got jetstream jackets.

A little intro to your skills may be in order before handing out recommendations. Can we hopefully assume that you are experienced in trad climbing at the 5.10 level and not a exclusive gym monkey? if you can handle the trad lines, then the west face of NEWS and the west face of SEWS are my faves. (5.10 with a little a1 and 5.8 respectively). north face burgundy would be a good intro to 5.8's up there. if you are a gym rat, then head over to goat wall for some of those bolted lines.

you came back alive so it couldn't have been a "failure", more like a typical canadian rockies alpine trip. silverhorn is fun!

One can use a half rope for technical rock. The pitches will be short. I have used a half rope for short rock pitches with one climber tieing into the middle of the rope (with a bowline on a bight or other good knot) and the other climber tie into BOTH ends of the rope. Then there are two strands between the climbers and you have a double rope system, but you can only pitch out 25 or 30 meters. Viola, half rope on 5th class ground.

canyoneering would be much more fun than trying to find a moderate in zion good company for beta and gear near zion http://www.zionadventures.com/ a mini online guide to canyons in zion. with ratings for beginners. http://www.canyoneering.net/content/inde...=20040213074631 too bad the canyons are so far away, I could spend more time there.

So the cover of this summers MEC catalog has some stunning looking rock from cathedral park somewhere. Anyone know what the rock is named? Maybe amphetheatre peak or the deacon? The catalog and beckey guide don't offer much help. thanks

Well it took us a while, I would not suggest to everyone it would take 3 hours unless you were intent on sandbaggin them. Without much belaying, three hours would seem reasonable. Come to think about it, I can't do simple math cause we were out 9am to 6pm is 9 mellow hours camp to camp. Any idea when the new beckey guide is coming out?

Climb: grimface-matriarch-macabre-grimface traverse Date of Climb: 7/3/2006 Trip Report: Pasayten matriarch-macabre-grimface traverse trip report So, my good friends Jeff Irving, Laura Bedford, my wife Gabi and I went into the Pasayten range on the 4th of july weekend. It was a great time and it was surprising that we had the wall creak basin to ourselves. I theorized it was because of the lack of a “select guide” or supertopo to the area. Maybe it is the long drive and no one can afford the gas. Maybe it is the bad exchange rate. Whatever. This TR is written around the idea offering a detailed description of the route (along with beckey’s guide beta) and helpful ideas for trips in the area. No chestbeating as it is an easy route. Approach driving: Beckey’s guide is spot on. Park at the stated mileage and look for the large pedestrian bridge to cross the river. Expect 4 to 5 hours from Bellingham. Approach hiking: the trail is very easy to follow. Start on the centennial trail. The going is either flat or a slow steady moderate uphill. After the major slow uphill, there is a cutoff the main trail you must take. It is about 1.5 hours from the TH and right before the only trail sign on the trail. The sign says that straight ahead is centennial trail and some lake. Look for a right branch that may have tree branches blocking. It is very flat from here to the camp meadows. Expect 4 to 5 hours on trail, car to meadows. Don’t know the mileage but maybe 10 to 12 miles. They go by really quick. There are some bogs but it is easy to follow if you stay on the logs laid down to keep feet from getting wet. Camp meadows: we stayed at the first meadows we came to because we were running late and tired. Unfortunately, we camped on pristine grass and meadows. Yeah we impacted the place. But keep going another 5 minutes and you will get to another set of meadows with camping on dirt. They are really nice with trees for hanging food bags and running water nearby. Bring lots of bug dope and netting. Forget about bivy sacks alone. If anything, I would just bring a BD betta bug or mega bug or make your own with a bunch of bug netting and hang it from trees. Route approach: from meadows, beeline for the right side of the traverse. Don’t go to the saddle but rather up a scree/boulder/flowery gulley that leads to ridge, just right of the 1st summit. Most of the elevation gain will be done there and is in the shade in the morning. Route: The route has been equipped with some bolts (after the latest Beckey guide written) but you still need an alpine rack. The bolts are some belay anchors and the aid section. 1ST pitch was around 90feet and ended before the notches. 5.4 seems right. One of the notches has a fixed rope to bolt anchors. Easy walking to the easy but tight chimneys. There is a sweet looking 5.8 crack to it’s right that avoids the scraping. Need a couple #2 camalots for this crack. Might be the only place where this size is really needed. This gets you to the top of matriarch. From the top, scramble to another rappel (bolts?) and then walk over to another drop off. You must downclimb to another set of bolts that is hard to see from above. Downclimb on the crest, nice fixed sling and cracks for downleading. Rappel from anchors to another set of bolts in notch. (look up to find them) Pretty much a full ropelength gets you up 5.4-ish ground to the steep and blank looking wall. There are bolt anchors about 20 feet from this wall. 3 or 4 closely spaced new bolts allows easy aiding over this blankness and a sling belay right on top and then some more scrambling to the top of macabre tower. Walk over to a bolted rappel anchor and about 40 feet to another bolt anchor in the notch. This next part is confusing. We climbed up and wrapped the rope around a big horn for a belay. Then we traversed from just below the summit of the dome and downclimbed somewhat dirty slabs to big cleft chimney and flat area. Our friends traversed in from lower and seemed to have a cleaner time, coming in from just above the cleft. A rappel off of pin and bolt or something else gets you down to some dirt. I think it was a 100 foot rappel. The going up ahead to grimface looks grim, but it is not as bad as it looks. There is a steep and thin looking ridge that you can easily cross via a gulley then it is a walk to the base of grimface SE notch route. One pitch of easy then a little bit of dirt walk to another pitch or two of chockstone filled chimneys and such. Could have used a larger cam in there but you could get by without with a little running it out. Top is nice and flat. Descent: There are several cairns that show the way down. STICK CLOSE TO THEM! The way down is full of several little drop offs and is more of a maze. But the cairns will get you down the right way, even when it seems to go the wrong way. Lots of little 4th class bits and a single rappel bolt for one tricky part. This gets you down to dirt and a small trail traverses over another ridge to more dirt and a final shot down scree and little flowers a long way to the meadows. Expect a longer time than one would think for the day. Maybe 10 to 12 hours depending. 1 hour if you last name is croft. The guidebook says 5.7 but I am not sure where that was. It was mostly low 5th. We used one 8.8 mm 50 m rope. We had one person tie in the middle and the other tie into both ends. This way we had two 25m ropes for leading short pitches (which most of them are) and able to rappel the many short raps. My rack consisted of: set of nuts (not used very much), tricams (pinkie to violet, fairly used), hexes (#4 through 8, used heavily), #1 and #2 tcu (use a couple times). Would have been nice to have either a BIG hex or a 3 camalot for the se notches grinface pitches. If you want the 5.8 hand crack on matriarch, then you will need a couple hand sized pieces. There is a possibility of thunderstorms in this country. Our third day in the area had lightning at 10am. There are numerous possibilities for bailing from the traverse down gullies between summits. (will probably involve a few raps though) There are lots of potential for new routes in the area. Everywhere, solid looking granite. SE chimneys look sweet. I bet it would be very nice up there after the first cold snap kills all the mosquitoes, maybe early September? Sorry about lack of photos but the website doesn’t seem to want my photos today. Will try to post them later as well as a scanned topo map. Gear Notes: nuts, tricams, tcu, hexes, 8.8 mmx 50m rope Approach Notes: see above

I've had stuff stolen at the smoke bluffs and the apron. Also index. I didn't think snow creek had such a problem. I have witnessed some break ins at the north side of baker TH and heard about one at sulphide TH.

I have had a couple la sportiva shoes (never owned trad master) do the same thing. When they were resoled, the soles stayed on fine. Bad glue?