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Very cool. The alpine O/W fix. I love the brand new LS Miura porn shot!

Thanks Rad.

I really, truly wanted these guys to be good, but unfortunately, I had the same experience, re: rounded toes on my normally pointed Miura's. Unusable. Money could have gone towards a new pair.

Thanks Dina!

I kind of like the Cascadian descent because I can turn the mind off and the ipod up for a quick deproach. Another option is hike/climb over Sherpa to the Sherpa/Argonaut Col, then out Mountaineers creek. Yet another option is the nw buttress to Goat Pass. Yet another is downclimb the West Ridge. I think they're all pretty involved compared to the Cascadian.

Well I can tell you that even after two years they were delicious. And if it's not too much trouble, maybe you could include some fresh shrimp with that lime too?

Thanks. Actually, the log crossing at the snow creek wall turn off is at my upper tolerance for sketch.

We saw this on the way back down, unfortunately. Nice find Rolf and fun route, at least the pitches we managed to do before the rain.

Trip: Icicle Canyon: Hook/Rat Creek - Blockhouse West Face Date: 7/14/2012 Trip Report: It's been three years since I've ventured into Hook Creek. And curiously I hold little nostalgia for the drainage. At least the lower part which now has a bed of blown-down, white snags whose bleached branches collapse with a crisp snap that sends you to the ground, the sharp tip gouging your shin on the way by. Chris Martin is able to bull his way through the buckbrush and snags with the momentum of a charging grizzly. It's easy now because we have fresh legs. Blockhouse has been an objective of mine for a few years. The Blockhouse is the crag on the right. From upper Icicle Rd., the West Face stands out as a steep white shield amongst the other craggy faces of black lichen. On 6/28/2009 Dan Cappellini, Kevin Newell and Rolf Larson climbed a route on the W. Face that looked interesting, so Chris and I decided to investigate a little further. There was little information about the approach, so we chose a gully and decided to go for it. We headed up a chossy and dangerously loose gully between the Shrew and Blockhouse. It started out mellow enough, but then quickly transitioned into steeper and even looser nastiness that required a rope and a delicate and tedious lead to the top out at a snag. We lost some time here, but the disappointment was tempered by the feeling of not having been injured or maimed. We descended a west facing gully with a combination of tedious downclimbing and an odd rap or two. Once out in the open, we followed a goat trail around the bottom of Monkey's Head over to the gully that divides Blockhouse and MH. After the beat-down approach, being below the west face was refreshing. The intended route is easy to find, as there is an "obvious corner" and huge off-width chimney not too far up the route. We racked up and Chris set off on the first pitch, which proved to be steep with good pro. However, don't be fooled into a false sense of security, as holds are still loose and must pass the "knock-knock" test before grabbing it. Chris set up his belay just below a small roof. The next pitch saw me pulling through on gritty rock and flared crack. There are jugs to bail you out, but with our previous theme of loose rock, I never fully trusted anything, and hanging on to place pro was exhausting, when I slipped and hung for a bit. The rock improved a bit up higher where I belayed at the base of the incredible chimney. Chris set off up this outstanding feature. The chimney generously offers the climber a perfect hand flake to aid in upward movement, and the pro is excellent to the left. 2/3 of the way up, move to right side in for a few grunt moves more to a comfy ledge at the top. Outstanding lead for Chris! Chris climbing towards the light. At this point, the alpine ambiance was being interrupted by low bass rumblings of thunder. A quick look over to Cannon Mtn. confirmed the bad news. A quick meeting of the feeble minds created the decision that we would gun for the top. I took off on a fun lead on ever-improving rock, and of course a steeper offwidth crack where the camalot #5 came in handy. I pulled up at a solid tree and belayed Chris up, the thunder getting closer and the situation deteriorating. Chris racked up quickly and started off. 10 feet off the belay, gentle drips of rain transitioned to a downpour. He down climbed back to the tree and we readied the rappel where a double rope rap took us back to the overhung and dry chimney. We hung out there until it mellowed but remained saturated. We set up an anchor of a few stoppers at the chimney and lowered back to the starting point and a lone goat to dry out. Not wanting to schwack down Rat Creek from this point, we decided to ascend the gully that divides the north face of Monkey's head and Blockhouse. Most likely trivial in dry conditions, the now saturated lichen covering the rock kept us on edge, forcing us to rope up near the top to surmount a couple chockstones. At the col between the formations, we double rope rapped to the mid-point of the gully we had originally ascended. By now it was 8pm, and we wanted to make it back to the Yellowjacket Tower trail by dark to avoid the stupid bushwack through the worst of it in lower Hook. But we weren't in such a hurry that we didn't stop to enjoy the three Tecate's that we found on the way up! They had been there a while, as the labels had been bleached white. But oh did they taste good! Next time, please include a lime whoever you are. We shotgunned the beer, declared them "Sabrosisimas" and beat it down, reaching YJT by dark as intended.

Is this poison ivy or poison oak or just harmless? Found on the castle rock trail, tumwater canyon:

Fantastic, Dan! And congrats to AJ for the the first descent. So, are you climbing yet? Give me a call!

Nice one! That big yellow gash up high on the crag has always looked impressive!

Bummer! Consider that your official Yakima welcome. Our car was broken into last year while climbing at the Bend, right under our noses.

You should have come over! Easy to say in hindsight. AFT would clean up nicely with just a bit of scrubbing for the next party to climb it in a year or so.

Trip: Leavenworth - Outer Space, April Fools Tower, Pearly Gates Date: 6/19/2012 Trip Report: I work for WA State, and as such get regular salary freezes and cuts. As consolation, we are given "mandatory" vacation days. Yesterday was one of those days, so what the hell, may as well go climbing. My friend Dean Olin joined me for this fun outing, shooting photos with his fancy camera. We warmed up on Outer Space, taking the more direct RPM roof start. At 5.10b, and mostly 5.9 fun crack climbing, it's a high-quality alternative to the Remorse or standard OS start. The roof has fun moves and is nicely exposed. We caught a couple parties higher up, but everyone was chill and having a great time, and the waiting was not too bad. Outer Space never gets old no matter how many times I do it. The day threatened rain a few times, but never materialized until late in the day. The temps were perfect for climbing. We scampered back down, and over to April Fools Tower to climb Tarkus. AFT sits at the far north end of Snow Creek Wall. From Outer Space, AFT stands out as a sharp pinnacle calling out to be climbed. I've climbed this before, and done it in three pitches. The first is a gardening fest with good cracks for pro. It goes at about 5.dirt (5.8). Belay at the huge pine after about 40m. From there, climb up to a roof and go left up and around to a layback, smearing on abundant lichen. At least it protects well. To reduce rope drag, belay at a nice ledge just past the roof at an old, rusted out smc bolt. This pitch, with the lichen, felt 5.9ish. The third pitch is a steep hand crack with chicken heads and a flaring crack. Abundant lichen on this headwall to the top of AFT. There are a couple ancient bolts on top of this tiny summit, but there was no way in hell we were going to trust them. Instead, rap off the nearly detached horn that is seemingly being held up by ancient webbing, installed around the 1920's. We slung the horn with a couple slings and leaver biners, held our breath, and weighted the horn. Good look at the flake: With Dean's 70m rope, we made it all the way to the ground on the backside (west) of AFT. We schwacked down to Pearly Gates, and fired off Leap of Faith before being drenched by a squall. Great day out, and Tarkus would be a great climb with a little cleaning and a new anchor on top of the summit.

Well, since you onsight 5.8, I guess it would feel 5.10 I think mentally it is hard to commit to that step-out, making the rest of the traverse feel harder than it actually is.

Anyone around to get a lap or 2 on snow creek wall? I have a rack and rope so that's not a problem. John

You know it's late Spring when the discussion starts on CC.Com about the merits of climbing the O/W on Backbone with or without the green monster. Ok, continue...

It's useless tryng to explain what he's doing, since the essence of it can never be explained. The most justice one can serve him is that he's merely puting on his rock boots and chalk bag for a long day of climbing.

From that ubiquitous current conditions photo archive, NW Hikers: Stuart and Such

They sure the hell aren't employed, so it shouldn't be too difficult.

"Kyle stepping over the roof," is the way we've always done it. From that crap anchor, clip the bolt and friction left to a nice, shallow dihedral you can't see from the belay. Climb this flake/corner to near its end to the roof where the dihedral ends and merges with the rest of the shield. The crux of that pitch is the friction climbing left. Please rebolt that belay!

We climbed at 4th of July crag recently, and noted a few climbs worthy of some ASCA attention. 1) Facelift. The last two bolts are old with leeper hangers. 2) Beer and Loafing. The piton that protected an awkward move around the shallow corner pulled out while I was being lowered. The last pro before that piton is a couple body lengths below that. The hole from the piton scar does not look like it would take any natural pro, and the shallow corner is too pinched off. I think a bolt would be warranted at this spot on the pitch. Fun climbing that crag! A bit dirty but great routes. Is Kurt still actively replacing bolts?

Great video of the old dude sending. Love his comment at the end: "People say you should do routes that tax your weaknesses. Fuck that. When you get my age, you avoid your weaknesses." Love it!

What a playground! Thanks for posting your experience!