Otto

Nice going getting across p4 in the rain! That would be dicey when wet. Is that last shot out of sequence? Or was that taken on the Tidbits rappel?

Was there a road repair project in progress, before the fire?

I drove across it last week. Drives great! Thanks for organizing that, Mark, and getting it done! Did you get some help?

I wish I could take it. Thanks for the link!

Great thread. And good thinking shapp - there needs to be a similar thread two number grades lower! Substitute .10 for .12 in the original post, ha! Now I'm included! I like your list, shapp. I would add, Revolver, pitch 5, .10a, three o'clock rock Oso Rodeo, pitch 7, .10a (the Black Overhang), squire creek wall

That was a good time on Wednesday night! Thanks, Kevin, for making this happen and being a good host. There were cool slideshows of a fine-looking new route on Triumph, a wild ski route on Goode, a run around Mt. Rainier, and an expedition on Denali. Also, some mundane low-angle, low-elevation chaff from Darrington... Thanks again NW Peaks for an interesting evening!

Really, people, all you have to do to see the photos is click on the link. It works in IE 11. That second-to-last shot is fantastic! The one after the "false summit of Rexford". What is it, please?

Haha! Love the use of caps for the X-RATED DEATH CHOSS! Appropriate, and funny. Thanks for the entertaining report!

Well, that is pretty cool! A great use of these interwebs. I am certain you find the owner with these excellent photos. Nice of you!

On that day I climbed the standard route of Mixup Peak with Marty Sorenson and Nancy Neuerberg. We heard a distant boom on the way up, and on the summit viewed the ash column far to the south.

Thanks for the good report, so glad you enjoyed the route! The nuts do seem to loosen up over the winter; I always bring a wrench but it looks like a few nuts, washers and hangers are next. Did you free the Exit Groove (pitch 20)? Regards, Bill

The photos are great, especially the b/w one showing the fluting, love it. Thanks for posting!

These state-of-the-art crampons were available from REI in the 1940s. My Dad used them on the Washington volcanoes in his school years. Those are the original rawhide straps, steel rings, and otherwise forged iron frame and points. They are stamped with the lettering, "GESCHUTZI BHEND 43 Made in Switzerland".

Thanks for the beautiful trip report!

Thanks for the update, chucK! And it was nice to hear about your solo adventure as we whiled away a lazy day on Saturday...

Trip: Three O'Clock Rock - Till Broad Daylight Date: 7/17/2014 Trip Report: Climb: Till Broad Daylight Date of Climb: 7/17/2014 Trip Report: Remember that 4-bolt constellation of rusty old steel to clip into after breathlessly tiptoeing sideways across the sloping knobs finishing the third pitch of Till Broad Daylight? Hoping for a bomber belay above the abyss of the Great Arch and getting this array of old stuff? My buddy Jake and I geared up for the extraction the other day and got in a modern anchor. After leading the damp first pitch, water running over the crux knobs with no apparent source, Jake wasn't surprised when it started to rain after the second pitch. We stood like stolid farmers while it pattered down, and after a while agreed to bag it and go down. Just as we were getting ready to rappel, it stopped. I racked up and slid across to the mank. Here is the junk at the end of its honorable career, in roughly this arrangement, with quarter-inch split shank bolts on the bottom three. The 5/16-inch one on top was hard to pull out, but the mighty Stanley bar was adequate. I lost the old bolt in the grass at the base of the Tidbits descent, so there is treasure there... And what a fine old folded piece of thin plate for the upper hanger!

Wow great trip, Mark! Way to go, looks great out there!

Cool video on Buckner, looks like classic Cascade ridge climbing, nice! And I liked the one going down Slab Daddy, thanks for posting.

Great to see the Bugs again, thanks for posting up!

We're very glad you enjoyed the route! Thanks for posting the story and photos. BTW, did you find pitch 12 hard to follow?

On Friday I went up there with DavidW, and another rope team of Kellie M. and Micah L. I wanted to look at Penny Lane, so we let the other team clean piles of tree needles and other debris off of all the bolts on the first two pitches. Micah said he'd look around for a bolt, see a big pile of duff and push it off, and there would be a hanger, or sometimes not! Spooky lead for him. Anyway, the third pitch was clean. We didn't do the fourth pitch. Then we hopped over and did Stance or Dance and Northwest Passage, which cracks were filled with old needles and dirt. We cleaned 'em out and had a good time. It is not sandy or gravelly over there, but there are some new scars where chunks of rockfall must have bounced over. Northwest Passage needs to be rebolted. What a good finger crack!

Here's a note from NW climber Julie Brugger clarifying the issue. Read the Access Fund link and get involved: Hello climbing friends, The Access Fund created an Action Alert regarding the potential designation of the Cochise Stronghold as Wilderness. I am forwarding that to you in hopes that you will read and consider it. Access Fund link The local story behind this is that Southern Arizona Climbers Coalition members and climbers responding to an earlier Access Fund alert wrote 100-some letters in support of the Forest Service's preferred action in the draft Coronado National Forest Plan to make the Stronghold a wild backcountry land use zone. SACC members also appeared at the public hearing for the plan held in May to advocate the preferred action. Meanwhile, the Wilderness Society asked their members to write letters advocating Wilderness status for the Stronghold. The FS received over 600 letters from Wilderness Society members and decided to change the final plan to Wilderness status for the Stronghold, without having an additional public comment period. Now we need climbers to send enough letters to try to outnumber the Wilderness Society. It is likely that most of the WS members who wrote letters have never been to the Stronghold and wrote based on a belief that more wilderness is always a good thing. In the case of the Stronghold, there is practically no threat to the area from off-road activities because the terrain is too rugged. There are few other backcountry users besides climbers. But wilderness designation would greatly impact climbing activities by restricting new route development and the maintenance of old routes. Please consider writing a letter for the Access Fund campaign so we can out-number the Wilderness Society. Please forward this email to other climbers you know. And come on down and climb with me in the Stronghold! Thanks, Julie

Please check your PMs

I can pm you the few words we've put together on the approach.

Thanks for the photos and tidings of what looks like a very interesting route. Great looking rock and features! Kudos and regards, Bill