telemarker

I don't remember seeing this TR!

Great read! His car parked right behind me Saturday morning at the Snow Lakes TH. I thought, "that rig has seen better days." Freaky tangent about crawling through those bear caves. Now that's ballsy!

In my half witted opinion, WA's diversity of alpinism doesn't seem to be conducive to a single-minded focus on hard alpine rock climbing, though there are those who have made it happen. There's just too much distraction in WA as a result of our diverse recreational landscape. For instance, I would rank some of the hard alpine ski descents by the likes of the A Squad (Dan, Pete, Eric, Ryan, et.al....) as equal to a lot of the cutting edge alpine rock routes being put up. But then,like cragging, there are probably a lot of skilled, bold skiers with no interest in moving beyond The Slot. Interesting question Blake.

You better savor that one, eh?

FWIW this deep into the weekend, Leavenworth air was crystal clear today. I imagine it will be just as good tomorrow!

It's gotten bad again. Wenatchee is back to Hazardous (my eyes and throat are burning), and Leavenworth is Unhealthy. Click on the link I provided in the previous post for updated AQ reports.

I was out yesterday after work and it was fine. Of course, I was breathing Hazardous air for two straight weeks, so my baseline may be lower than yours. But the air has cleared considerably in Leavenworth. I think the web cams are a bit deceiving. It's better than it looks.

Thank God! Leavenworth is looking much better: Air Report Health Dist.

I've started putting smiley chalk faces on all the rock that's safe to pull on.

What's with this trend of marking loose rocks with a big chalked up "X" caked on it? C'mon, cut that crap out. Especially at the crag. I'd rather look at Geoff's cigarette butts at the base of the climbs than that stupid-ass graffiti telling me that a pebble might come loose!!! If you want to feel heroic, buy yourself a year's supply of chalk, go to Sunshine Wall and knock yourself out. Leave Leavenworth out of this stupid practice. okee doke!

Climbers are generally very fit individuals. Climbing in a little smoke won't kill you. I've been climbing this week and feel fine, other than the random bloody nose and pounding headache I got today. You'll be fine...

Oh yeah! Tom was grumbling loudly as he tip toed through that section. And on the last couple placements to M &M ledge he swore off aid climbing altogether.

Well, it's been a process, but... Starting out in 2005, I've been trying to finish this stupid route. This weekend it finally happened. For a small wall, Thin Red Line sure feels bigger. It is distinctly different than Liberty Crack. I'll leave it at that. My friend Tom Michael and I climed it over two days 9/16 to 9/17. We fixed up to pitch 5 on the first day, then sent the rest on Tuesday. I had the privilege of meeting badass Darin Berdinka on the wall as well. Thin Red is quite the route up to M & M ledge. So, basically, 8 pitches of aid, french free, and free. We used both the new Supertopo guide (Tom bought the E-Version) and the Mike Schaefer Version . Personally, I preferred the simplified, easy-to-read Schaefer topo, as it proved to be more accurate in terms of fixed pro, route finding and grading of each pitch. My other musings are: **From the anchors at the top of pitch 4 (arching corner pitch), two 70m ropes will get one back to the ground, tied together and tieing in to the anchors on the way down; **pitches 7 & 8 can be combined with a 70m to M &M ledge, preferable to avoid another hanging belay; **M & M Ledge would make a miserable place to bivi, and dangerous to those below; **The sustained steepness of the route is 2nd to none! **There is fixed pro, but not a lot of it. But, the heads are in a helluva lot better shape than its neighbor LC; **There is a lot of climbing left once you reach M & M ledge. If you're hauling big wall style, then the last 500' will be pure hell and hauling will be next to impossible. Tom and I climbed both classics on NEWS on Sunday (W. Face and NW Corner). With a 70m rope, we were able to climb the W. Face in 3 pitches and the NW Corner in 2. Tom warming his hands on the big ledge: Me higher on the thin crack of the W. Face: Tom starting out on the Freedom or Death first pitch on Monday. Fun climbing on bolts, 5.10: Me higher on the pitch: Me on the 2nd pitch, which a lot goes free and french free: Tom cleaning the classic pitch 3 corner on TRL: Tom turning the roof on pitch 4: Tom cleaning the pitch 5 funky arching corner: Tom getting ready to commit to the 5.9 big wall mantel at the start of pitch 5, start of our 2nd day: Me cleaning the double roof pitch 5: Tom traversing to the nice but small ledge at the top of pitch 6: After a ton of mid-5th climbing after M & M ledge, we reach the top: Completing this route was very satisfying, remaining unfinished business since 2005. It was bittersweet as my long-time climbing partner Kyle Flick, who failed with me each time on this route, was not able to join me. But damn, it sure feels good to check this one off!

The smoke is terrible, the particulate count hazardous. I'd recommend you wait until next July to climb in Leavenworth again. If you are in the Seattle area, please tell all your climbing friends the bad news as well. Haha I should have known this is the response I would get. I understand us city slickers are not welcome No, don't get me wrong. Seattle climbers are great! I'm just trying to save you a wasted trip over here, considering the high cost gas these days.

The smoke is terrible, the particulate count hazardous. I'd recommend you wait until next July to climb in Leavenworth again. If you are in the Seattle area, please tell all your climbing friends the bad news as well.

This was a film produced by Steve Marts, of Jim Wickwire, Dusan Jagersky and Al Givler. Givler and Jagersky fell and died on the descent. Steve's sister in Wenatchee has a copy of the film, on VHS, as well as a lot of Steve's produced works. I remember that as a pretty somber film.

How'd you arrive at 6 pitches? Like the idea though! Both routes can be done in three, rope stretching pitches with a 60m, with a wee bit of simul climbing on the first pitch up to the large alcove. When we going to climb something?!

Sol, it's a classic if you link it up with the West Face route a well. Do the W. Face first, and if you rappel and scramble fast enough back to the NW Corner, it can feel like a continuous, 6 pitch route.

Admit it Chris. You've started chain smoking in your rig! The crappy part of the other breakin that Chris mentions is that it was a beater Toyota with obviously little to nothing of value amongst other vehicles with potentially more to steal.

I was on Backbone last Saturday. You will want crampons for the short hard snow traverse from the moraine to the rock. A fall there would ruin your day. The backside is straightforward heel plunging, as the snow was still soft. As an alternative for descent, I've gone around the backside of witche's tit and down blocky rock back to Asgaard, which is not that much of a deviation. Plus, it lets you avoid the hard snow/ice on the backside of D-tail.

Ballsy Dan, venture solo out on new-ish terrain! Coincidentally, I was right across the way from you taking a solo lap on Backbone to a deserted Dragontail summit. The days are just about perfect now, eh?

This happened at Hobo Gulch. I think around the climber's right side of the crag.

Wow, that 3rd photo sunrise shot deserves to be viewed super sized: Sunrise Photo

Thanks Scott. Rumor has it that you're projecting some of those hard cracks on Heather Ridge...Top secret? Like that unknown north facing couloir no one knows about?

A north side approach to access the half ridge gully entrance is most likely easier if approached by hiking all the way around stuart lake then up to the glacier. But if I were only climbing the half ridge, I would probably use the Ingalls approach.