terrible_ted

Hi: Over on the Johannesburg discussion, a mention was made of a 'knife edged snow arete w/ 30' dropoffs' leading to Gunsight notch. Does anyone have any tricks for accessing the East face otherwise? Maybe traverse via the west face after Cache Col? We're planning on camping along Pelton Creek. Some of the party members will be pretty green, so I can't really use anything too heroic ("hanggliding off Johannesburg"). -t

Hi Norman: quote: ...there were obvious changes to the path between Saturday morning and Sunday night this weekend...Yeah, those were pretty much our exact passing times as well and I noticed the same, hence, the question. What were you up for? Did we see you on Forbidden Sunday? We were the first ones up on the route on Sunday, and saw two other groups on our way down. -t

Does anyone know who has been sawing through the little (<5" diam) logs on the Boston Basin trail? I keep hearing that the FS is not doing maintenance on the avalanche debris fields, although the rangers are still apparantly interested enough in getting to the area so they can hike to 6700' and check to see that parties have permits... I was just wondering if this was an actual example of climbing community self-help, or "covert" but minor maintenance by the the FS rangers?

Hey: Because getting anything out of cyberspace other than urban myths, hard-ons and crappy beta seems so unlikely , I'm going to indulge my deeply cynical nature and ask if anyone that's gone down the couloir below the West ridge of Forbidden would get my picket for me? It was left there early Sunday morning, just up from where the couloir turns to the left (going up). The 'biner and sling would be cool as well. You'll not only have my slim thanks (it's only a picket...) and my completely dope-smacked look of surprise, but a 6-pack as well! -t

I haven't been up, but, SE Twin Spire (Hard Mox) is probably the most notorious Washington peak that I know. Lixvar's article on the Bulgar's pursuit of the top 100 gives more details. Beckey is not particularly encouraging either. http://boealps.org/echo/apr99.html#chapt1 "Old Desolate" (MRNP) was probably the largest gravel heap I've ever wallowed up. Nothing bigger than a softball. -t

Saddle Mountain - Clatsop County, Oregon. It fascinated me for years. One of the 'big kids' - Marty - spent an evening at the foot of a cliff cradling the broken body of his best friend. He died a few hours before the rescue party made it up. It was something you always knew about Marty, but you never talked about. Years later, three of my friends and I hiked up and buried a bottle of whiskey near the summit, having just seen "Fandango." We got a bottle of (ughh!!) Canadian Whiskey because it was cheap and came in a wooden box. "Last one left digs it up!" Now I'm thinking it'll be punishment for living too long... Maybe that's why I climb. It was the Steens, however, that really lit a fire under my ass. -t

quote: Originally posted by crazyjz: Jason (ie: shit for brains), ...in the aforementioned scenerio, CPR is only going to prolong death.. Finally, the secret of eternal death is revealed...

Hi Carolyn: I wouldn't worry too much about tuning your climbing experience to match some other bozo's idea of good time. The more you do, the more you'll learn about what you like and don't like. Climbing with a variety of people will be invaluable, especially if you keep your eye's peeled for different approaches to the same technique/problem. I don't see any other solution for you, unless you have a lot of frequent flier miles built up. Here's number one with a bullet. Learn how to tie-off and get out of a system safely. Spend some of your book/practice time covering "rescue" or emergency situations. Most of these rigging systems are extensions of basic principles: learning them will hammer home the essentials of rope handling and will serve you well in the off chance... I mean, you might think you picked an experienced partner... -t

quote: Originally posted by jhamaker: The Intermediate class assumes you can lead. Lots of people can't, so they get partway through the course, and have to bail. The intermediate class doesn't assume you can lead until they've run you through a pair of lectures and two field trips dedicated to placing pro and subsequently demonstrating pro placement. Forrest makes a great point about not needing to 'pass' the course to get value from it. If you lose steam over the 5 years alloted to completing the course, you just drop out. You still walk away with whatever skills you picked up on the way, and you could always sign up for the course again at some point down the road. Most people fail to complete the course because they don't want to do the ice climbs (2 of them). -t

Hey Pay: If you enjoyed the basic course, then you'll probably find the intermediate course more satisfying. The instruction (always a variable...) is going to be more 'personal' and you'll find that leading on rock is approached in a 'baby steps' fashion. Unless you're out climbing regularly with more experienced people, you probably won't find an easier introduction to leading trad climbs. I think the pace of instruction is gentle enough so that by the time you've learned enough to lead your first pitches, you'll be anxious to do so. Most of the folks that do complain, complain that the course isn't 'fast' enough or 'hard' enough. You'll find that the 'basic climbs' that the mountaineers run are really not much harder on lead than they are for the follower. You have 5 years to get a handful of those and and a pair of more challenging 'intermediate' climbs to go, so no big rush in any case. Besides, you need to take on the problems that leading on rock brings up in order to really make much progress as a climber. Learning how to rig and evaluate your rope systems is the next big step to take, even if you don't plan on getting into anything that hairy. In my opinion, the physical challenges are just not as significant as the mental challenges until you get up past 5.7 or so... A 5.11 gym monkey still needs to learn to avoid the Am. death triangle no matter how 'comfortable' they are on rock. Besides, 4 out of 5 proctologists agree that leading is more fun... especially on ice! -t

Because, at the time, he was cleaning casings off a knoll back in Dallas... -t

Gotta agree with you on that one, bone... That feat is the standard by which I measure mountain heroics... Any other nominees? -t

Triple couloirs. They just look so cool. -t

At long last - proof of the great flood...

My best friends Dad was 'bouldering' in a sense, about 4 or 5 years ago. He was on the coast of Oregon (south of Astoria) picking mussels. Now, granted, the greatest objective hazard here is a sneaker wave hitting while your back is to the ocean and sweeping you off to sea, but nonetheless he was also out on slippery rocks. Mind you, he'd been doing this sort of thing for at least 30+ years. He was headed back to the beach when he slipped and hit his head. Fortunately, someone was there and helped drag him up the beach. It seemed like a minor thing at first, just a little slip on the rocks... He had a big lump on his head and had a nosebleed. They got him to the hospital. He went downhill fast. After a week of touch-and-go, he pulled through. For the next two years, he suffered acute double-vision. No driving, glasses wouldn't help, difficulty in getting through doorways, vertigo, splitting migraine headaches - no fun. He also lost his sense of smell. In the intervening years, his vision has stabilized and he doesn't have the degree of coordination problems he had earlier. Still no smell - and probably never will. The famous (hah, hah - not really) philosopher Marv Levich asked, "Are we all just brains in vats?" The answer is, I don't want to find out. Of course, I have no more problem watching people I don't know climb without helmets than I do watching people ride motorcycles without helmets. Darwin rules! Carpe diem, dude! -t

Gotta keep this going - maybe we could get a pool going on which post Charlie is gonna completely lose it on... My bet is on response #8 - "NEVER GET OUT OF THE BOAT!" The problem w/ pee pee's advice is you'd have to buy a copy of an 'updated' edition for a typo-corrected version. I think all routes everywhere are underrated. Except the ones I've done. Those were fucking EASY!! Oh yeah CC: I talked to Fred, and he said you were off route... -t [This message has been edited by terrible ted (edited 10-01-2001).]

N. face Mt. Buckner. We turned around just above the second moat on top of Boston Glacier. It was really warm on Saturday night (the smoke from the Stehekin fires was a bit annoying) and for whatever reasons, we just weren't moving quickly enough. In fact, it was surprisingly hot all weekend. I'm not experienced enough to say I can judge the actual route conditions from half mile away - either of the two North face routes may have been a go. My concern was the time we were looking at spending in getting across the Boston glacier. The high traverse looked pretty tough, and I was inclined to try to weave down the center. Beautiful views, though. Maybe next time I'll try to recruit Dave to short rope me! -t

Lightning sprites? I'm not familiar with the term. Was Tinkerbell a lightning sprite? Little glowing ladies? That'd be cool. Just wondering what to look for... -t [This message has been edited by terrible ted (edited 09-14-2001).]

Right now a friend of mine (a forest ecologist) is getting the 3rd degree from wildlife researchers down in Oregon. He has an "unconfirmable" siting (like yours - no pictures, no reliable second witness) of a wolverine following a brief encounter. Last confirmed siting down there was back in the 40's, I think. If that's what you saw, then you're VERY lucky, and I'm VERY jealous...

Not what I was looking to hear! How close were you to the base of the climb - i.e. did you cross the Boston or was this based on eyeballing things from the Boston/Sahale col? I'm planning to getting up there this weekend. I got a pretty favorable report on conditions from someone who climbed it about two weeks ago.

"Better to sleep with a sober cannibal than a drunken christian" - H. Melville's "Moby Dick"

What the hell is a chest rappell?

I think the biggest problem the Mountaineers has is that the whole club catches shit for the actions of each member. Yin and Yang of climbing with a club. Tough draw on Kangaroo Temple (I would have let you rapp through if I was hauling a bunch of gumbies around), but I've also been stuck up on any number of rock, snow and ice routes waiting for people to clear bottlenecks. It's just part of the experience, unfortunately. Seems to me there's at least two ways down from Ingalls, however... (Although I'll admit both require at least one rap) -t [This message has been edited by terrible ted (edited 09-10-2001).]

Observation Rock You can do it in 3 pitches w/a 60M rope. The ice was in fantastic shape through the morning. The views of the mtn. from on top (the rubble heap, not just the icewall) are as good as it gets. Cap'n: The Ushba's definitely don't start as easily or drive as smoothly as a BD express. -t

I'm gonna start practicing disconnecting the rope. it's obvious that seconds count... -t