klenke

And who would want to touch the DVD or the sleeve the DVD gets put in inside the envelope?

Last night I came up with an idea for a porn movie version of Netflix. I called it Netfux and my wife laughed. I had her look up the domain name and it doesn't exist. So I thought here's a real opportunity to jump on the idea before it's too late. Then about a minute later I realized it was a bad idea. How are you going to deliver Netfux movies and not get them stolen out of mailboxes by the puerile people out there? Poof! Another dream of making millions gone in a dissipating wisp of disappointment.

Di-am!

That's coincidental! I actually found that Messier book online (same link) about ten minutes before this latest string of posts. I was thinking, "Wow, this guide looks pretty detailed and is just what I need!" Now you tell me this guy is considered in some circles to be unscrupulous. Given that I have no opinion on the matter, I think I will use it. I've printed it out and will attempt to get it bound at Kinko's (I mean a local printing shop ) And the Hubbard cupboard is nice too. Looks like I've got more research to do there. Regarding your San Diego County guide, Off, would this be the same as the one called "San Diego Rock Climbing: A Guide to Sport and Top-Rope Routes in San Diego County" that I've found for sale at Amazon (but currently out of stock)? Sure, I wouldn't mind seeing this book and perhaps borrowing it. If you're going to be up in Seattle soon, do you know a specific date and time? Perhaps we can make a pub club event out of it.

Thanks for the info, everyone. And thanks for the cool Black & Offwhite pics, Off. So I found this book available on Amazon but the $59 asking price (for a used book) seems rather high: Mission Gorge A Climber's Guide Does anyone have any feedback on this book? Is it worth it for someone who doesn't know the area? Is it worth the money? Paul

I'm not sure if those were snowmobile tracks or climber tracks going up the glacier. I didn't see any fast moving specks. The strange thing is we could only hear the snowmobiles when we were on the south side of Washington Monument well down in the Grandy Creek drainage. We could not hear them while on the summit even though it wasn't all that windy (maybe they were on a beer break). When we did hear them the sound seemed to be coming from close by, as if the 'bilers would be coming down the road at any moment to pollute the pleasure* of our day. * "pleasure" doesn't apply to my skiing experience.

Trip: Washington Monument - Grandy Creek Date: 3/6/2009 Trip Report: Whenever I see an odd name for a summit on the map I often feel compelled to go check it out and perhaps see why the summit might have that name. And so it was several years ago when I first learned of the named summit called Washington Monument, which is one mile southwest of 5,239-ft Dock Butte and west of Baker Lake. Dock Butte is the highest summit in the area and Washington Monument, at 4,826 ft, is second-highest. Washington Monument appears as a winter ski in Dallas Kloke’s guidebook. I also was intrigued by the name of the lake southwest of Washington Monument: Springsteen Lake. This lake wasn’t named after Bruce. It is the only natural feature in the U.S. given this name (there is also a Springsteen Ranch in Wyoming). Springsteen Lake also has a small bit of history with me and CascadeClimbers. For a short time I was dating (actually, attempting to date would be the better description) a gal named Shannon (Corona on CC.com). Anyway, she was totally into Bruce (and his music, I presume) and I thought it would be cool to take her to Springsteen Lake. Suffice it to say, I never took her there because the “Tunnel of Love” turned out to be a dead end as short as an Italian grotto. So, on this trip I was mildly enthused by the idea of at least laying eyes on the lake, if not from a distance. Sadly, the lake was not visible from the summit or at any place on the approach. Drat! Fay Pullen, the Northwest empress of logging road skiing, had just done two day-trips to the area to tag the summits of Red Rock Mountain and Goat Mountain on either side of Grandy Creek. I told her to let me know when she went back for Washington Monument. Well that time came soon enough. Last Friday was a most excellent day to be out in the mountains. The only drawback would be that the heat of the sun transformed the snow to less than ideal conditions. We set out walking the road that starts up opposite the Grandy Lake Campground (840 ft). By 1900 ft after crossing the creek we had our skis on and began the long scissoring plod toward the monument. We took the road on the west side of the creek. We left the road at 3200 ft where it crosses the creek’s northwest fork and humped up through tight woods to cross a spur at 3700 ft. We carried on upward to the upper road, hitting it at 4050 ft. We then took the upper road northwest, over a saddle, then into the Nooksack River drainage, where we took the final steeper spur up toward the south side of the monument. From this vantage Washington Monument does have a monumental appearance (it sort of looked like a miniature north face of Liberty Bell in the North Cascades to me). But we knew there was an easier way up the back side along the final NNW ridge. In about five-and-half hours from the car we were at the base of the west side on the end of a spur a few hundred feet below the top. We elected to boot up the final slope because of the steepness and the fact that there was approximately four inches of powder over an icy crust (not good skiing conditions). The closer we got to the summit the more a problem began to appear through the boughs of the evergreens near the ridge. You know how it is: you see a difficulty through the trees and you wonder if the trees are making it look harder than it is or easier. It’s like seeing a tiger lying down in a cage through the bars and not knowing how ferocious it really is. Well, for us, we finally got to the other side of the trees and were faced with a forty-foot 50-degree Styrofoam (icy) snow slope with moderate run-out to the right and no run out to the left (down the NE face). I was a bit concerned with doing it with ski boots on and no rope. But we had fortunately brought ice axes. Also, the boots were a blessing because I could kick steps with more vigor without mashing my toes. In the end the little face was dispatched rather easily. Although, the downclimb was more of a problem. Why does it seem like the steps are always farther apart on the way down when face-in downclimbing? The final summit ridge/rise is a picturesque cornice. It looks cool but it actually is a detriment to viewing the landscape out to the east because you don’t or can’t get too close to the edge to see over the top. 6 hours up. 4300 ft of gain (approximately) including the ups and downs. Some views: And then we had to ski down… Well, the first 200-300 feet down from where we stashed the skis was the best. After that I wasn’t impressed. The snow was either sticky or soft or crusty and alternated between the three often. To make matters worse I hadn’t AT skied for at least two years and my skis weren’t waxed. The long duration between outings meant I forgot what socks I need to wear to prevent blisters on my shins. The lack of wax meant my skis would become too sticky to even slide on a slight downhill. Fortunately Fay brought some quick-to-apply wax. I had to put it on three times in all. We do the ski tour thing so we can ski down. The idea of plodding up AND DOWN isn’t funny. We finally got back on the roads beyond where we left them earlier in Grandy Creek and discovered they were more bermed and cut by stream ditches than we had hoped for. So while we made a good choice to leave the road on the way up when we did (through an area of trees too tight to ski down with efficiency), we now were going slower on the road descent than we wanted. We even had to take the skis off briefly to boot up the steep embankment of a deep stream cutting across the obviously out-of-commission road. The penultimate comedy of circumstances was the long approach road along Grandy Creek on the east slope of Goat Mountain. I could swear it felt uphill on the way in. So why is it now so flat on the way out? When are we going to get enough slope to maintain momentum? We longed for the eventual real downhill we knew was coming… The ultimate comedy of circumstances was when we finally hit sustained downhill the snow was mostly so crusty it was impossible to do anything but snow plow else risk careening off the road. Making parallel turns (hockey turns) on a narrow logging road just doesn't appeal to me. Back at the car at just over 10 hours round-trip. 4700 ft of gain. I bought a 24-oz Budweiser Clamato at the store. Now, it’s not Manna, but it wasn’t Devil Juice either. I could see drinking it again. How else can you get your V8 vegetables while drinking a beer? --Paul Klenke, 3/6/09 Gear Notes: If you're timid with short steep snow faces, I suggest you take a short length of rope (no more than 30m). Oh yeah, and an ice axe. Approach Notes: Drive Baker Lake Road to Grandy Lake. Find a gated logging road opposite the lake campground entrance.

Hey Wendy, A good friend of mine does the white water kayak thing. If not photos of him, he may be able to direct to you to kayaking friends of his that would be willing. PM me or FB me if you want to get in touch with him. -Paul

Thanks. Climbingsandiego.com: I should have known. But when I typed in "Rock climbing San Diego" in Google that website didn't come up. You would think it would.

Remember, there are three branches to the U.S. Government, not just one. The causes for what we have now before us has as much to do with Congress as it does the Office of the President. So often people forget that. It's easier to blame an "administration" that is, in theory, led by one person (who is then the go-to goat), than to blame a large group of individuals with different agendas for their own constituencies and who too often toe the party line. I blame equally the Bush Administration and Congress (both Republicans and Democrats) for this mess we're in now.

This Spring I will be in San Diego for a few days. I was wondering if anyone knows of any outdoor rock climbing areas that are within an hour or two's drive of San Diego. The desired range of climbs for these possible areas are Class 5.easy to 5.11. Thanks.

Ding Ding Ding! I think we have found the real winners (Chair Peak and Dayhike Mike). At least my erroneous post got you to create a log in and post your correct answer. It is quite obvious to me you are correct. This is why I said I "think" I have found the answer and that I am not 100% positive. Good work. I love peer review. This now makes me think that the rest of the photos are in the Snoqualmie Pass area too.

Okay doke, with the help of obwan's second post above, I think I have found where this photo was taken: Here is an image I took of the East Face of The Castle in winter. The area we will be focusing on is the left end of the long snow apron on the lower part of the face where the apron meets the snow slope at circa 6,200 ft. Here is a summer shot taken by wildstar. Here it is below with an arrow pointing to a particular area of the face: If we zoom in on this face we can see what looks very much like an overhang left of the magenta arrow: With a little detective work, some things match up: An upper crack (1) of block (4) meets up with a lower crack (3) to meet at a vertex (2). Nearly directly above this vertex is a small feature of rock (5) that looks like a vertical crack. And a little right of the vertex is the overhang (6) the lead climber is underneath. All this is pretty close to the deck (7), which might explain the apparently nonchalant character of the belay. The match up of (1) through (7) is annotated in the two images below: Am I 100% positive? Of course not. But this at least gives us something to go on for a future in the field investigation. But that will have to wait until spring when the snow has sufficiently melted back, as my snowy picture above indicates.

I'm not sold just yet, Lowell. Here is a photo of Red from Lundin. Does it look like the background peak in the old pictures? Here is a photo of Lundin from Guye. This would show your possible rock wall on the subsummit in the middle of the photograph. What's intriguing is this shot of Red from Guye which shows a left skyline profile of Red that is a reasonable facsimile of the two old pictures in the post above. Here is a good (large) photo of Lundin from the direction of Red. Is our mystery wall shown here?

I really don't think it's The Tooth. But I admit I'm not 100% positive it's not. Some views from The Tooth: pano looking SE from summit a view toward Chair Peak from the summit (what's funny about this shot is if you reverse it the background matches up okay [but not great] with the photos in Lowell's second post) There just doesn't seem to be the right terrain around The Tooth for it to be The Tooth. And, like I said, there's something different about the rock.

Is that a small lake in the background at the base of the hazy area of your most recent photo upload? I don't think that's glacier, Matt. It seems too low (not alpine enough). But this was the 30s. Based on the licheny-ness of the rocks and the haziness of the background peaks in the other shots, I'm thinking the walls are north facing or even northeast facing. If we look at the first photo (top left) where the guy is pointing, there is a shadow. Assuming this is one of the first shots of the day (in sequence with the rest), then they would need to be on an eastern side or northeastern side to capture the sun. The last shot reveals fairly long shadows formed by the trees. The shadows are pointing roughly away from the camera. If these shots are in the late afternoon, then the wall is west facing or northwest facing. And since the climbers are not in the sun, they must be shaded by a larger buttress or mountain behind the camera. I didn't say it couldn't be in the Tatoosh. I just said I don't think it's on Castle or Pinnacle proper. I PM'ed Mike Gauthier to see if he might know.

I've checked the web for photos of and around The Tooth and my conclusion is the wall is not on The Tooth. The rock isn't the same type, for one.

The Tatoosh Range is a good guess. The Northeast Face of Pinnacle Peak would seem like a good guess but there is nothing to Pinnacle's Northwest that is remotely rocky or buttress-like as indicated in the enlarged pictures above. However, the NE Face of Pinnacle has some rock walls that "look" right. See here (Warning: this is a large picture). But then, it is possible the photos are reversed (it does happen from time to time), which would mean The Castle is the rocky peak rising in the background. But I don't think this is the case either: view of The Castle from Pinnacle (note all of the trees). And I don't think the wall is on The Castle: the view of Pinnacle Peak from The Castle. Conclusion: I don't think our mystery wall is on Pinnacle or Castle.

Do you have a bigger version of the one at bottom right?

But what if she's a he? Does the dude who wins the auction still have to pay...still have to "suck it up" and go through with it? Dude who wins the auction ought to read the fine print first. Dude!

Nice boot story, Reilly. Here is one of my own: The Engadi Boot

I heard about that guy. He used to be a cop. He once was the long arm of the law.

Whatever.

Off: That could be used to great effect against the Somali pirates. Mal_Con & rbw1966: Colombia, not Columbia.

The NBC story is basically a re-write of the Seattle Times series happening right now. The NBC story even says, "...the Seattle Times reported Thursday." Here's the relevant part to Ichiro in the Seattle Times story. Note how some paragraphs are missing from the NBC story and thefore can change the tone and thus the negativity one might generate toward Ichiro (I've bolded the missing paragraphs): "And it was a clubhouse in need of some direction, given the problems engulfing it as the season came undone. When it came to Ichiro, who got off to a typically slow start in April and part of May, the internal turmoil nearly hit its boiling point. "I just can't believe the number of guys who really dislike him," said one clubhouse insider. "It got to a point early on when I thought they were going to get together and go after him." [this is conjecture on the insider's part, by the way; it was what he was thinking might happen, not what did happen] The coaching staff and then-manager John McLaren intervened when one player was overheard talking — in reference to Ichiro — about wanting to "knock him out." A team meeting was called to clear the air. It was a repeat of May 2007, when Mike Hargrove was in charge and a team meeting had to be called during a series at Tampa Bay because of clubhouse bickering over Ichiro being a "selfish" player. Ichiro this year had to battle a midseason hamstring problem, and he was shifted from center field back to right because McLaren thought Ichiro was a better defender in the corner. While Ichiro is said to have recovered from his injury, his stolen-base totals dropped as the season progressed. He also did not get to some balls in the gap and the right-field corner at times, prompting more clubhouse complaints that he cared only about piling up hits instead of sitting out to heal properly. But others point out that Ichiro, along with Ibanez, is one of the few Mariners to put up consistently high numbers during a season in which the team has all but collapsed. They also suggest that Ichiro, being Japanese and not a vocal clubhouse presence, is somewhat vulnerable to scapegoating in a clubhouse that at times appeared divided along linguistic and cultural lines. "He goes about his business, works hard, sets goals for himself and achieves them every year," the team insider said. "How is that selfish? With him, it isn't about the 200 hits. It's about playing the game the right way and playing it hard every time out." No one can dispute the value of a leadoff man who has reached the 200-hit plateau eight consecutive times and scored at least 100 runs each time. Especially in relation to the overall poor performances around him."