telemarker

Sure. People lose fat, but gain weight all the time because they're working out, putting on muscle mass. I've seen some consensus about weight not being a big issue when climbing, but I've climbed being over 200, and climbed at 175, and there's a very noticeable difference in my endurance and psyche. If I feel lighter, I mover easier. But where does it end? If 175 feels good, then wouldn't 165 be better? Let's hear some of you bulemic, malnourished climbers sound off.

Jeez, you're like a climbing friend I have who is 145 and change, when he gets to the top of a climb, it's hard to lower him, especially if there's added rope drag because I can't tell if he's weighted the rope or not, "Lean back already!" I'm used to belaying more solid species, 185 plus.

I fluctuate between 175 and 180, which at 6'1" is probably pretty normal, though I think 180 is getting into clydesdale, don't use any rope below 10.5mm range.

Just curious...How much do you weigh? And does it influence how high you climb above your pro, assuming you're trad climbing (or your ice screw for that matter)? If you're not happy with your weight, what's your ideal?

So true...

Two weeks ago a friend and I noticed a new road had been plowed out, almost directly behind the prow bouldering area. This road also plowed out the Careno Crag trail, which could possibly affect access to the crag via the established trail. Maybe, maybe not, we'll see. The hell with the underground lab, how about uncontrolled growth in the Icicle?

Climb: Careno Crag-Hodge-podge Date of Climb: 11/8/2004 Trip Report: A photo essay of some fine fall cragging on Careno Crag. The past couple weeks of climbing in Leavenworth have been perfect, though the days are shorter. Here's a collection of some of the climbs we did. Wade stretching through the thin crack section of pitch one of the Regular Route: 5.10b The crack turns into good crimps past 4 bolts. Robbie on the 2nd pitch of Reg. Route: Nice 5.7 handcrack. Robbie moving around the small roof of the 5.10b 3rd pitch crack of the Bale/Kramer route. Testing the limits of his rotator cuff??!! The crack turns into lockdown fingers. And finishes with a few o/w moves. Wade on Pocketmeister, 5.10a. Robbie pulling through the fun corner crack of Heave Ho, 5.10a. Gear Notes: Up to 3 inch cam. Approach Notes: Trail

A Voyage of Madmen

I would say the average grade was 5.6 to 5.7. By staying right on the crest, there are only a few sections of 5.8/5.9, but never sustained, and easily bypassed on the north side. Easily doable in a day if you camp in the basin at the base of the ridge. The rock was so sound and clean when we were expecting loose choss, so we were quite surprised. By the way, what the hell happened to the pictures in the TR?

God, I forgot about this one. I wouldn't say it's a great route, it's something like a couple moves of 5.10, then the rest boring as hell. What's worse, it's the first thing you notice looking up that way from the road. Like a huge, white scar.

"Coffe's for closers" "Two in the head, ya know they're dead"

[-Remorse start to Outerspace...From now on, I will get to those upper pitches as quickly as possible For the quickest, funnest and most direct route to the upper pitches do the RPM start.

1. Condorphamine: Booorrriiinnnngggg! The challenge isn't the climbing, it's finding good feet around all the bolts, and not back clipping. 2. Ingalls Peak: Booooorrrriiiinnnngggg, plus elbow to elbow climbing. Sweet! 3. Serpentine Arete: Why bother when you're that close to Backbone Ridge? 4. N.W. Buttress of Colchuck Balanced Rock: What, all that effort to get up there for a couple loose, dumbass pitches instead of the W. Face?? 5. Lightning Crack: C'mon, do you really think those cams will hold in shallow, flaring, swauk sandstone? How many fatalities now? Plus, the first pitch crux is miserable loose.

Cams are confusing and complex as compared to nuts. Nope, not it...I know what the DMM cams look like tom, in fact I have 20+ cams of my own...check out the ad in Rock and Ice. The cam looks to be a spring loaded tri-cam device...

Anyone notice the DMM ad in the latest R&I regarding their new cam? Freaky looking thing. Too many moving parts, plus looks like it would be very heavy. Just wondering if anyone has had a chance to tinker with it a bit.

Right, a notch, not a chimney. A few other points I want to add: The E. Ridge isn't longer than N. Ridge of Stuart, but very comparable in length; 16 total pitches, with about 11 belayed (for us, anyway); even though we were three, we had reversos which made simul-following more efficient; the approach is 7 miles approximately from Trinity, 5 hours of which is bushwacking to reach the buttress from Buck Creek Trail.

Climb: Mt. Berge-East Ridge Date of Climb: 10/2/2004 Trip Report: The idea for this trip came about the same way a lot of interesting trips are planned: sitting in my bathroom reading the Beckey Guide. Beckey makes mention of a Grade III climb on the E. Ridge put up by Gordon Briody and Ken Eisenberg back in 1985. Beckey states it's a "recommended route." A phone call to Briody confirms Kyle Flick's and my suspicions when he says it's one of the best routes he's ever put up. Gordon says it's granite, and solid. We're sold, but he warns of a long, brushy approach and is slightly amused we're trying to climb it in a day. He and Ken bivied on the summit, and hiked out around Buck Creek Pass, which is a helluva long way. Paul Kelly, Kyle and I meet in Cashmere, and are at Trinity hiking by 5am. We hike Buck Creek Trail 4 miles, to roughly 4,100 feet to a clearing where we can spot the E. Ridge of Berge. Briody recommended hiking past Berge and contouring around a timbered ridge, which we did and find the going easy with a few brushy sections. We reach the cirque below High Pass by 9am, and traverse around steep heather slopes to the toe of the E. Ridge at roughly 5,500 feet. I notice the E. Ridge is quite massive, and a sinking feeling tells me we're not climbing this in a day. Noticing the lower 1/3rd of the ridge is choss and low angle, we traverse around the toe on a cairned ramp (Buck Mtn. scramblers trial), and enter the basin on the S. side of the E. Ridge. 800 feet later, we're on the ridge roped up by 12 noon, and are quite pleased at the solid granite and great pro. It is no stretch to say this ridge compares to the N. Ridge of Stuart in rock quality, but it's so much longer. The route finding was simple, as we stayed on the ridge crest as much as possible. The climbing was never harder than 5.8 to 5.9, and the exposure in places was wild. Views of the north wall of Buck Mountain were inspiring, as well as that of the Entiat Range, Mt. Baker, Bonanza Peak, and so many others. With daylight running out, we skipped the last pitch of the ridge crest and scrambled around to the west side of the summit, hoping to rap down to the trail back to High Pass. The west side gullies were way too loose, so rapping it was out of the question. Kyle notices there's a loose, exposed 4th class ledge system leading to the south side of Berge, where my map shows is low angled, but it was dark by that time, so we settled in for the night after tagging the summit. The freezing level that night was something like 12,000 feet, so it was pleasant enough. We bivied with a front-door view of Glacier Peak, and first light, we were traversing on those ledges one pitch to the south side pumice slopes down to the W. Basin of Buck Mtn. We basically traced our approach for the long hike out. East Ridge of Mt. Berge Frontal View High Pass Area Kyle Flick low on E. Ridge E. Ridge Rock Paul Kelly with North Wall Buck Mountain in background. Small chimney part way up. West Basin of Buck Mtn. Paul and Entiat Range in Background Glacier Peak in fading light Pumice slope descent Clark Mountain Range Gear Notes: Medium rack up to 3.5 inch cam. Approach Notes: The approach is rugged and long, with considerable slide alder in the High Pass cirque. Staying high in the cirque seemed to make sense. One can descend west towards High Pass, which may be quicker, we just didn't have the time to look for it.

White gas, just don't let the gas touch the runner.

Good aeriation....

Oh, I get it...It's on the west side of the crest. Sorry 'bout that. From the top of the pass, if you look west, you'll notice a hanging meadows 200 feet below. APS is just north of there.

I think of the pass running east to west, with dragontail on the south side, and Sentinel on the north side.

Climb: Aasgard Pass Sentinel- Date of Climb: 9/12/2004 Trip Report: We had a novel idea for Sunday, Kyle Flick and I. We thought, "Let's get more climbing in than hiking for once." Careno Crag, get lots of pitches in there. Get to Kyle's house, and I ask if he's ever heard of Spineless Prow. Careno Crag gets put on hold and we're hiking towards Aasgard Pass 20 minutes later. We get to where I THINK the base of Spineless prow is, and nothing is matching up with Beckey's description. Spineless looks good on the pic I took back in June, and we see a wall that looks to be about 5 pitches, but no cracks or obvious climging features leading up the prow above the 1st pitch. We move 100 feet uphill and we argue. Kyle: Stay and explore, me: get the hell back and crag. I begrudgingly agree to what looks to be a day of scrambling. Kyle and I 4th class it for two pitches up blocky terrain and reach some wet rock. We pitch it from here, and climb 200 feet in a very loose gully. I take the belay up and east and we find what looks to be an outstandingly clean and solid left-facing corner. Careno's a thing of the past in my mind at this point. Kyle takes off up the corner, jamming and stemming on a great 120 foot pitch. Perfect 5.8 hands all the way, with stemming on chickenheads. My pitch begins in a 20 foot, 4 inch crack, that felt steep, but still solid. The crack turns into an easy chimney, somewhat gritty. 15 feet up the chimney, I see it narrows down to a 4 inch crack again, and note my #4 camalot is well below me. I look up right, and there's a clean flake that provides gear and a literal pull-up out of the chimney and onto the arete, where solid hand jams and airy stems take me to the exposed arete, and a couple thin crack moves, lead to the final 20 foot lieback on a perfect left-facing corner/ramp to a comfy belay ledge, 5.10- pitch. The final 15 feet to the summit "cannonhole" starts out bouldery, but then eases nicely to the squeeze through the hole. At two pitches you probably won't choose this as your destination climb, but then again Ingalls Peak?? At least do this one on your way up to Prussik, or on your way down from Dragontail. It's very much worth it and not at all out of the way. Kyle beginning the scrambling. Below the start of the good climbing. Pitch one of the Sentinel. Pitch two on the arete. Find the hikers for bonus points. Cannonhole. Scamper upwards. The view isn't too bad, either. Gear Notes: Medium rack, 4 inch cam. Approach Notes: Aasgard Pass Sentinel is about 200 feet below and north of the top of Aasgard Pass. It's pretty obvious, because it has the cleanest rock on that side of the pass.

Took a break at the Gnome Tarn and I was taking a bunch of photos with my big camera and ate lunch. Hey Capn', just curious what size camera you're talking about...medium format, large?? I've hauled a 4x5 up there a few times, but have since lost interest in lugging my heavy tripod, so the point 'n shoot has sufficed.

I think it was the Bridge Creek Fire two years ago, but I'm not sure.

Yep. You get a good look at Ice Cliff Glacier and entire north side. Looked like there was a skiff of new snow as well.