klenke

Klenke lummox X 2 Sphinxter Necrophiliac Tomcat Fence_Shitter catshiteat Dreg_W michael_latent mattp erikkk wirlwind RuM(p RaNgE)r Billcoe X 2 (for using his real name) Wayne1000+100+10+2 Fairweather You've been demoted, Bill. Now I'm #1 Fuckhead. Oh, and Wayne, it's all in good fun at this point (isn't it? Necro, isn't it?)

Nice pics. So now you know: the pic you think might be a view of Bonanza is actually of Dome Peak (with Sinister Peak the point immediately to its right).

I carry all my gear in my teeth while leading and cleaning up as a second. This invariably makes the gear very slick on the hand off, so we lose a lot of stuff. But seriously... I prefer the sling method with runners (singles and doubles at least) racked on the sling too. I just find it easier to locate the gear I want when it's pretty much right in front of me as opposed to contorting my body to look at the gear around my hip(s). However, I don't like the way all that pro can clang against the rock when I'm leaning forward. Yep, we all know that clanging cowbell sound.

A couple of more pictures of Buck from the southwest: > From Clark Mountain > From Luahna's south saddle

Billcoe lummox X 2 NecroDickHead Sphinx Klenke

I tried to explain this very point to my parents and a family friend last night over dinner but their eyes were glossy. I guess I bored them. But this is exactly the point I was trying to make: why should I put money into a system that can't account for itself and the money it receives? You might as well flush your Trail Park Pass money down the toilet because, in the end, it's the same thing.

Jonathan, I have put two pictures in the picture gallery from our last year's climb. See here and here. We climbed the North Summit. It contained a register. Apparently, the Middle Summit (the one you climbed) also has a register (and maybe a cairn at the summit). I don't really know which is higher of the two, but for sure they are both higher than the South Summit. More later. I've got to run to a dinner engagement...

THIS POST SHOULD BE DELETED!!!! AND THE AVATAR BANNED!!!! Here here!

Lummox: where in my post is this supposed "proof" that I'm a fucking wanker who hates kids? All I said is that the litter is becoming a serious problem in the mountains. I offered no solution such as banning them from fairs, etc. It was you who made the assumption and suggestion. Reading for comprehension. Give it a try, bub.

Dude, that sucks. Get well quick, Mr. Mefford. When I was last laid off (many moons ago), I was offered that Cobra Insurance while my severance played out. That would be too bad if John didn't have the same insurance available. Albeit, I don't know what Cobra would cover in the event of a climbing accident.

The first time I saw balloon entrails was on the west side of Malachite Peak in May 1994. I was in the middle of nowhere taking a break and there it was, this unnaturally colored thing on the ground in front of me. I thought it was a fluke. I even picked it up and took it home to "show some friends." In the next couple of years after that I continued to see them, maybe one or two a year, thus making it seem less and less like a fluke. Now, in the last few years, I average seeing about one per hike/climb in the Cascades. Of course, I am climbing more now than I was 7 years ago, so the chances of seeing the popped balloons are greater in that regard. Still, though, I do wonder whether or not these balloons are becoming more popular in the Puget Sound at fairs and the like. It's not like I'm going out specifically searching for them. Balloon entrails are becoming a serious litter problem in the mountains.

Nice, guys. Tell me, where in B.C. is Princess Mountain and the Monarch Icefield? For mid-August, there sure is a lot of snow still about, which makes me think it's way north.

I bet you haven't done the Squock or the Mazama or the Rainbow. Probably not even the Talum.

Gordon Bennet! What a geeky bunch of questions those were from Richardaiken! Made my otherwise lackluster evening a little more laughable, though.

It's a wide glacier. I'm surprised you were not able to find at least one way onto it wide left or wide right. Once beyond the initial icefall apron, the glacier is less-steep and less crevassed (at least that's my recollection from last summer). Maybe you climbed something else while there. Logan goes easy from Bridge Creek. North Face of Storm King would be a wild climb (don't know how difficult the class 5). Or there's up to Black Peak. There are still others. After the long approach--whether by boat/shuttle from L. Chelan or foot by SR-20--I'd be making sure I did something in the area.

Glad to hear everything's okay...right now. I like the part about the wife possibly calling out the calvary. Mental suffering for sure, but no crucifixions please. Although, she may have crucified you when you got home for being so foolish to do this alone or do that alone or....

There is a TR from June 2003 on www.sverdina.com Don't know if it will be useful for conditions but may be useful for routefinding issues.

Let's see if I can tell the story before it happens: Erin (Lodi-dodi) goes to Squamish and meets up with a climber or two that befriend her or make her think they are befriending her. Unbeknownst to her, they watch where she goes every night to stash her gear (under this rock or under that log). Then, when the climbing fun is nearly over, off walks your gear and your new friends are nowhere around the next morning. Beware the tricky thieves. You could leave your gear stashed on a ledge some 40 feet off the deck on some super-hard 5.11 only you could free climb. My line of thinking is no thief would have enough balls or agility to bother trying for your gear, despite it's hanging (shining) out in plain view. A good plan in theory, risky in practice. Have fun...with the climbing, the pseudo-friends, and the stash arrangements.

Which taste better, the male pigeons or the female pigeons?

Re: cairn: for a six-foot man, you have to stretch to your maximum overhead reach just to touch the top rock. We all made the ritual touching of the fly on the top rock. It might have been a flying ant. We were off route because we went up the prominent SW Gully which ends at the South Ridge. Beckey's description from my older red CAG is to "climb upward (right) to the summit ridge which is followed south to the summit." Well since we followed the South Ridge northward (by way of the 5.6 slab/crack), we couldn't have been on the route he is describing above. In hindsight, we should have taken this really narrow gully that led up to the NW side of the summit tower. Since the main SW Gully makes for a feasible downclimb, that must be why Beckey says to take a rope for a rappel. You can easily rappel back off the summit tower that way (the picture of me dangling is that rappel). On Golden Horn we took my 30m rope along. Since we had hours to dissipate, we decided to do an ad-hoc belay for the final moves along that tiny ledge. We figured you might as well be 99.9% safe if you've got the time to kill and not yourself to kill. Eric hip-belayed me by throwing the rope around the left (SE) side of the horn to give me a sort of top-rope effect. But once I got out onto that ledge and found the one semi-bomber fingerhold for my left hand, I realized it was totally easy. Since Eric did not have his harness with him, he did a arm rappel while I did a standard rappel. Just killing time, mainly. Still got back to camp with too much time to spare. Boredom. Took like an hour-and-fifteen to get from the lower lake to below the summitblock of GH. Since we figured Tower was even closer to our lower lake bivy than GH, we set a goal to get to the summit in an hour-and-a-half. We would have made it if it weren't for that 5.6 pitch. Luckily, Chris of Seattle and Tom of Wenatchee (we didn't know them before) were coming up behind us and they had brought pro for the crack. They graciously agreed to belay us up once they got up. Otherwise... Another interesting coincidence: saw my ex-boss from two jobs back that day in the western talus basin. I hadn't seen him since 1999. He and his two partners were doing the West Gully Route. This was after I was earlier that trip telling Eric about my ex-boss' and my nighttime bushwhack adventure in Stetattle Creek in May 1999. What a coincidence that I should see that same ex-boss up there on our Tower trip!

You know, if we had had all day, I would have probably begun dimantling it (much to a lot of people's dismay, probably). You could see the damn cairn from Golden Horn some two miles away. From a distance, I don't like seeing some unnatural object on top of a natural one. It just doesn't seem right. It's like big crosses on summits in South America. But that is just me.

Did the SW Couloir/S Ridge Route of Tower on Sunday. A good photo of the 5.3 crack with 5.6 completion can be seen at Eric's Base Camp. 5.6 is what the guys ahead of us rated it at and they were wearing rock shoes. In our boots I would rate it a point or two harder. But it's only one or two moves (smearing on steep rock with boots is not a simple procedure). Even so, if you fall, you'd be apt to go off the East Face, whereupon you might not touch ground again until you've plummeted 1,500 feet. That East Face is frickin' stEEEEEEp!

You didn't see my name in the Redoubt register cuz I taint been up dere. Glad to hear you had a nice trip. You must have been on Redoubt the day we were hiking into Golden Horn. It was overcast until about 3 or 4PM Saturday over there by Rainy Pass. Sunday was picture-perfect though. The forest fire smoke stayed hidden until after we were done with the view-taking.

I've been in Skeleton Cave and Wind Cave down there by Bend (back in about 1989). Which one is the one with the hole in the roof where you could lower the beer down by a rope? I remember both those caves were way cool (my first lava tubes). One of them had some radical squeeze spaces.