Otto

When I was there we humped our loads up to the hut on 7/30 in a snowstorm in which some poor souls' tent was blown off Applebea Dome, and lost. They posted a note later asking if anyone had seen their tent...

I've climbed Big Tree 1 twice in the past year, I find it an excellent route to bring beginners up for a thrill. But I don't know what you mean by "grubbing about". What pitch, and why?

That looks really nice, Mark, thanks for the photos. Fun rambling up there, it seems. The Goats Horns look to be worth a closer look all right. I could look at a map, but is that Tieton Glacier the origin of the Tieton River that flows down past Naches?

Climb: Pigeon Spire-West Ridge Date of Climb: 8/2/2006 Trip Report: Madcap and I went to the Bugaboos hoping to do a route on the West side of North Howser Spire, but we arrived at the onset of a period of unsettled weather. The forecast didn't get any better than a 50/50 proposition each day, so we had to change our ideas to include a series of day trips. The first day we took an exploratory trip to the Bugaboo-Snowpatch col, and backed off at the schrund because of the 4-6 inches of new, unconsolidated snow on the slope above. The next day we climbed McTech Arete, and Madcap did a great job of leading the fine 10a crack on the second pitch. The next day we went to Pigeon Spire, and found the col nicely consolidated and easy traveling. We climbed the famous West Ridge along with several other parties from the Kain hut. Took some snaps with the trusty Kodak disposable: Moving up to the Bugaboo-Snowpatch col in the morning Bugaboo Corner, Snowpatch Spire Madcap rambling up the West Ridge On the summit block, Snowpatch behind Like a ship's prow Otto walking back down the fine white ridge Too much weather behind the Howser Spires Bugaboo Spire Though it was a disappointment to be up there with all that gear and not get on the first objective, the place is so stunningly beautiful that the time and efforts are well repaid.

What a great thread! I can't wait to get on these routes, even if nobody replaces the bolts. Thanks in advance to any public-spirited folks who do so! What guidebook does Garden Weasel appear in?

It can also be done without any hooks. Did it a couple of weeks ago. There is so much fixed gear in it, it is very straight forward.

East Wilmon's Spire has a good, airy route in your range. You get to walk in past the old town of Monte Christo and a gaping mine hole on the way up.

Good advice on embedding the pictures. In addition, you can just remove the "-med" from the filename to reference the big, oringinal picture.

Sounds like a good dream. Nice trip report.

Ah, but you will like best of all - climbing on a weekday!

I learned it from Mark_L a few years ago, and he called it a Skull knot. No "death" in that!

Big fun, chucK, so that's what you've been up to. Way to go! You really cover a lot of ground on that route. Did you get any late afternoon lightning?

So, chucK, have you arrived at a conclusion you can apply to your case? (which may or may not be "based on a true story" - but we both know it is!) I like 4ord's thoughtful definitions. Our case is definitely a Variation, no?

I like going up through Metalline Falls. I don't have a map in front of me, but this route goes to Spokane and turns North. The border crossing is quaint. Follow signs to Nelson. Have a blast!

It sounds like he needs to nail down the time/distance to the big culvert where you turn uphill. Zenny, try 40 minutes next time! It will be obvious, the road suddenly gets very overgrown.

I do that when climbing with my teenage son. It's more for me than him, though!

Thanks, Dave! I will. The photo spec. talk is just a sideline of mine, being a geek.

Sign in at the parking lot with the bathroom, say you're climbing and not shooting the place up with guns. There are three roads with gates, take the middle one. After crossing the little bridge, take the first right, drive to the end at a big log crossing the road. Hike up the road, at a big culvert section, not the first one, with a cairn on top, take a left up the hill on a good trail. Check out McCarthy/Carlstad up the left side of the Pillar, it's beautiful.

No kidding about the heat, sun, dry. I did it with chucK in May this year and I was slurping water out of the runoff dribble toward the end of the rappels... Good job on the foray, guys, you'll get it complete next time! That face pitch is worth it.

You seem mighty strong to me. Keep it going, Jens!

I did Alley Oop Chimney in 1986 and made a note in my Carlstad & Brooks guidebook that I used one point of aid. I remeber it was way hard, and I was leading 5.9s back then. So, yes, I agree it is sandbagged!

Warning of large, loose blocks perched above Thin Fingers base area. While climbing Tatoosh (or "Free at Last" in Smoot, 1989) today, a large flake broke off and smashed into many smaller pieces. One of them is a block a foot and a half long by a foot wide and eight inches thick, perched on a bush. This block, about halfway up the second pitch, the "Dirty Dihedral" (Beckey, 1976), presents a severe danger of falling down at any time. Other, smaller, shards are perched above and below this point. There are also some very large new blocks on the first pitch belay ledge, with the big fir tree, which do not look like they present a danger of falling further. There was a party of four people top-roping Thin Fingers at the time of the rockfall, some sitting at the base. The rockfall came very close to them. Fortunately, none were hurt though one of their backpacks was destroyed. The primary purpose of this message is to warn people as quickly as possible of the dangerous situation at the base of this popular route. The secondary purpose is to inform anyone with the interest and skills to embark on the project of trundling these rocks to eliminate the dangerous situation. Feel free to PM me or email me for further information.

That's what I'm trying to prevent, that's why I've been asking for suggestions. So, this is your experience viewing my photos in particular, but not others (other TRs with photos)? If so, I will certainly choose less than 400 pixels vertical for my next test post. If you get that experience with all photos here, I'll just blow you off and say, "dial-up is Not Supported"! I am certainly thinking about bandwidth, that's why I'm trying to reduce the resolution without introducing pixellation - finding the ideal balance. Thanks for the notes!

Thanks for the feedback! I'll do some testing myself on future posts. On this one, the film and scanning were out of my control. I plan to get a digital camera soon, so the unknowns will be reduced. BTW, all those white flecks were on the prints. Chalk dust on the lens?!

IrfanView provides a "Save quality" slider labeled from "lowest" (0) to "best" (100). On another report, the Price Glacier one, I selected halfway, (50), and the results were noticeably pixellated. Too low. Now I'm finding I can get the desired filesize reduction by leaving compression alone at 100, and just make 'em a smaller viewing size (400 pixels vertical). If 140Kb isn't too big, and Gary_Y doesn't complain, I'm home free!