JayB

Hey Ken: Any other rec's for NH? A.D. Will be in touchl. Word.

Just in case you are lurking on this board..... -I just moved to Boston from Seattle, and I'm looking for partners this weekend and for dates well into the future. -I've got all off the equipment necessary for virtually any outing, so all any prospective partner would need is a pair of shoes and the ability to belay. I am a climbing slut and will pretty much climb with anyone. -I'm most interested in hitting stuff in the greater North Conway area at the moment, but will consider anything within 2.5 hours of Boston. -Best way to get in touch is by e-mail: jaybrazier-insert the @ thingy here -hotmail.com

Climb: White's Ledge, NH - The Anti-Mox.-Endeavor, 5.7 (+?) Date of Climb: 9/5/2005 Trip Report: After sweltering away the better part of the summer in Boston while unpacking, finding a job, and other eminently disagreeable tasks, the worst of the drudgery was over with and it was finally time for some climbing. Thankfully, the two month long swelterfest abated just in time for the big weekend, and I jumped at the chance to do something with my spare time besides sitting in front of a fan and curse the ill fortune that brought us here, instead of Utah. Anyhow, we figured that everyone in the Northeast with a rack and some gas money would be descending upon North Conway, so we dug through Webster's guide and found something a bit more out of the way - a line called "Endeavor," at a place called White's Ledge. This outing combined a casual approach, solid granite, bomber protection, interesting-but-casual moves, spacious ledges with tree-belays, pre-set rap-anchors, sunny-skies, perfect temperatures, etc, etc, etc - [Hence it's status as the Anti-Mox] all followed by some post climb lounging on the banks of the Saco River, then pizza and brews on the sundeck at Attitash. For a moment, I actually forgot that I was stranded on the East Coast for the next three years.. Route Description (poached from NEclimbs.com) and Pics Below: "Description: Endeavor features wonderful climbing on generally good rock plus a 5.5 hand crack on the 5th pitch that is nothing short of amazing. However, with it’s intricate protection and somewhat difficult route-finding on the 2nd pitch it might not be a good choice for budding 5.7/5.8 leaders.* Pitch 1: Climb straight up to the first tree ledge. 30’ Pitch 2: Climb straight up to the next pine tree on a comfortable ledge. You’ll have to look carefully to find protection. 5.7+ Pitch 3: Clip a pin right off the tree belay and climb up and right to the headwall. Move through the headwall to the tree ledge at an obvious weakness, staying well left of the rockfall area on the right. Be careful of loose rocks on the ledge. Pitch 4: Climb a short slab up and right to a belay at a natural thread just below the start of the upper slabs. Pitch 5: Climb up and right to the hand/toe crack. You’ll probably have to belay about 1/2 way up the crack at a stance. 80’-90’ 5.Pitch 6: Continue up the crack. Where it ends, either head right to a tree ledge, or left to a belay at a tree, just right of a large ledge. From the left belay you can get to the ground where you started in 3 rappels. 5.5 Pitch 7: Continue up a crack on easy ground. Follow a bushy gully to the top of Mt. Stanton" White's Ledge View from P2 View from upper slabs - top of P5(?) View from top of P6 Saco River Valley Saco River Route Pitch 5 Crack - missed this one on the way up but it looked pretty sweet. Gear Notes: Gear to #2 Camalot. Singles and a set of nuts should be adequate, but a couple of extra finger-sized cams might be convenient. Approach Notes: Per Webster's description. Gate mentioned in book is no longer there. Look for two single-car width pullouts on the left to find the trailhead, and stay left at all forks in the trail. P1-2, and P4-6 can be combined with a 60M rope. Seemed like there was abundant, bomber, pro on every pitch.

Others who have been around longer than myself would obviously know more about this - but from reading through various publications like the AAJ, FA info in guidebooks, and elsewhere it seems like there have definitely been some group dynamics at work in determining what got climbed and when. Although others - like yourself and Harry Majors and many more would know better than I - there are definitely some periods come to mind when the topic "eras" in cascades climbing comes up. It seems like theres a late 50s/early to mid 60's era involving Cooper/Beckey and others, a late 60's-early-to-mid 70's ear involving Wickwire and others, a mini-era with in the late 70's where people took the clean ethic and transplanted it to the mountains - and then a mid-80's (?) era where you, your brothers, Mark Bebie, Jim Nelson and many more really got after it. This is completely conjecture on my part, but it seems like the internet has catalyzed something similar in the past few years, where highly motivated people all over the region can connect with others who have similar goals, rather than relying upon good fortune to bring them into contact with the right people. Anyhow - this may be a topic for another thread, but I'd be really be interested in hearing more about this idea of groups/eras from people who actually know what they are talking about

Damn. Love Layton's haunted-by-the-looming-gnar-blair-witch-campfire photo...

You are probably joking, but this is a common misconception. There's a bustle of activity to repair the damage, but the net affect on national wealth and long-term GDP growth is the same as destroying your home - which you work out of, then depleting your life savings to cover the loss of income and rebuild the house. Yeah - you've got a new house, and you depleting your savings provided temporary work for some people - but the net improvement in your lodgings/office equipment is zero, you lost a ton of income, your savings have been depleted in a massive way, and your capital that could have been deployed in a million other ways that would have increased your own output, or someone elses - has done nothing but get you back to square one. All disasters result in a real depletion of and less-than-optimal allocation of resources, and I suspect there are very few people out there who will not feel the effects of this one in some way, as this hit core energy and transportation infrastructure in a way that no previous disaster in the country's history has.

You also have to look at total compensation versus wages....

Just a random note - but if anyone has the time and inspiration I think that brief historical biographies of significant PNW climbers would make a great addition to the NWMJ. Folks along the lines of the the elder Mahre, and many others.

In rerospect its easy to see how quite a number of things could have been done differently - but I wonder how well the PNW has prepared for the damage and disorder that would result from a magnitude 7.5+ earthquake, and we also have some of our own land-use patterns that are open to question - such as large-scale development in river valleys that would be at extreme risk from catastrophic mudflows if Mt. Ranier were to warm-up all of a sudden.

As one who was just in New Orleans and Gulfport about a month and a half ago, while another hurricane was bearing down on the coast - my sense is that the magnitude of the storm simply overwhelmed the emergency response capabilities of that region. When I was there there was a clear plan, dedicated evacuation zones, contingency plans for handling the flow of traffic out of the cities, and the like - and the vast majority of people were able to get out safely, but in retrospect it seems clear that there wasn't enough planning or assets dedicated to evacuating the most vulnerable - basically those too old, young, sick, etc - to drive out of town on their own. I think that there comes a level at which no amount of organization is sufficient to deal with a crisis in a timely manner - and for New Orleans and the Gulf Coast I think this was it. The region had plenty of time to prepare, but there's only so much in the way of resources and manpower that people who live on those places are willing to dedicate to preparing for a threat that while omnious, just hasn't materialized over the course of several decades or longer - especially when it's a struggle just to keep things working from one day to the next. The other thing to remember about this situation is - sorry if I offend anyone here - that we are talking about Louisiana and Mississippi. As a visitor I got the sense that the place was barely functional and bordering on chaos under normal circumstances, with a murder rate 10 times the national average etc, etc, etc - so I'm disturbed and saddened by the chaos in New Orleans, but terribly surprised.

I started something along those lines here: http://www.cascadeclimbers.com/threadz/showflat.php/Cat/0/Number/495961/an/0/page/0#495961 Feel free to chime in.

Isn't the major deterrent that's discouraging a WW attempt the probability of being pulped by a serac avalanche? It would seem that they would release more frequently during hot weather, but my understanding of the phenomena is that trying to predict when a particular serac band will collapse is kind of like trying to predict the radioactive decay of a single atom - even if you know the probability, there's no telling when it's going to break down.

The TR for the line that Jens and Loren posted for their route on Johanesburg made me think of the lines on Willis Wall, many of which seem to have seen a single ascent and then lain dormant for decades. It seems clear that the objective hazard associated with those lines is such that snagging the FA might induce someone to roll the dice, but once that's been done no one really wants to put their life in that kind of jeopardy to second the line. At least that's what it seems like to me, but I could be basing these conclusions on bad information. If I were to place a bet, I would wager that the line that Loren and Jens put up will fall into the same class as many of the lines on Willis Wall - enticing enough to induce someone into the FA, but otherwise too unappealing to warrant a reapeat. So - if I'm wrong about Willis Wall, I'd be interested in learning which routes have been repeated and when. While we're on the topic, it would be interesting to hear about other major lines have yet to see a second ascent, and some speculation about why. In most cases I suspect it's a combination of unappealing climbing and a high level of objective hazard - but perhaps there are other reasons as well.

Take the probably out and we'd have a geopolitical statement that we both agree on

The prince of propaganda? Lex Luther of the Lexicon. Maharaja of Malapropism Emir of Erudition.... The Potentate of Pedantry, The Sachem of Sophistry Caliph of Composition, Emperor of Eloquence, Lord of Loquacity, Monarch of Melifluousness, Viceroy of Volubility, Windsor of Wit, Duke of Declamation, Ceasar of Circumlocution, Onassis of Oratory, Ramses of Rhetoric, Jehovah of Jeremiads, Alexander of Allegory, Viscount of Verbiage, Patriarch of Profundity, Monarch of Metaphor...

The prince of propaganda? Lex Luther of the Lexicon. Maharaja of Malapropism Emir of Erudition....

Word. Check it: bombast (n.) 1568, "cotton padding," from O.Fr. bombace, from M.L. bambacem, acc. of bambax "cotton," from Gk. pambax, from Persian pambak "cotton." From stuffing and padding for clothes or upholstery, meaning extended to "pompous, empty speech" (1589).

The prince of propaganda? Lex Luther of the Lexicon.

Step away from the Bombast No can do. I am the Ballanchine of Bombast....

"myr·i·ad ( P ) Pronunciation Key (mr-d) adj. Constituting a very large, indefinite number; innumerable: the myriad fish in the ocean. Composed of numerous diverse elements or facets: the myriad life of the metropolis. n. A vast number: the myriads of bees in the hive. Archaic. Ten thousand. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [Greek mrias, mriad-, ten thousand, from mrios, countless.] Usage Note: Throughout most of its history in English myriad was used as a noun, as in a myriad of men. In the 19th century it began to be used in poetry as an adjective, as in myriad men. Both usages in English are acceptable, as in Samuel Taylor Coleridge's “Myriad myriads of lives.” This poetic, adjectival use became so well entrenched generally that many people came to consider it as the only correct use. In fact, both uses in English are parallel with those of the original ancient Greek. The Greek word mrias, from which myriad derives, could be used as either a noun or an adjective, but the noun mrias was used in general prose and in mathematics while the adjective mrias was used only in poetry. myriad adj : too numerous to be counted; "incalculable riches"; "countless hours"; "an infinite number of reasons"; "innumerable difficulties"; "the multitudinous seas"; "myriad stars"; "untold thousands" [syn: countless, infinite, innumerable, innumerous, myriad(a), multitudinous, numberless, uncounted, unnumberable, unnumbered, unnumerable] n 1: a large indefinite number; "he faced a myriad of details" 2: the cardinal number that is the product of ten and one thousand [syn: ten thousand, 10000]"

Wow - what an amazing panoply of misinformed* moral narcissism masquerading as compassion we have on display here. Given the response on this thread, I expect that all of you will be consistent in the application of always putting losses and tragedies sustained by those close to you in the appropriate global context before indulging anything as petty as grief or sympathy. One can also hope that on those occaisions this tendency to use a tragedy to grind one's geopolitical axes will also be indulged in as readily as it has here, as I am sure that will go over quite well with all in attendance. "Yes it's terrible about Ron's death in that wreck and all, but it only serves to illustrate the real tragedy of fossil fuel consumption that fostered by our predilection for SUV's, which is symptomatic of the larger ills that consumerism has inflicted on our culture, which in turn has its genesis in the ruthless capitalism foisted on the planet by a coterie of multinational businessmen...." *Total cumulative AID to Africa now stands at over 500 billion dollars, but it's not the myriad of difficulties that come along with insuring that aid intended for the most desperate actually arrives in their hands actually does so, rather than into the coiffers or armories of those responsible for their condition, its....racism. Carry on.

My hunch is that people in the midst of it were groping for a convenient, readily understandable way to communicate what they were seeing to the rest of the world, rather than suggesting that there was actually a literal equivalence between the two disasters. Also - I am operating on the assumption that (hoping, that is) the ire on display here is directed at the commentators viewing the destruction from a remote locale, rather than the people who live there and are coping with the destruction themselves. Otherwise, heaven forbid that they should offend us with their ill-considered analogies in their hour of need.

Way to persevere despite the multi-gnar.....

I agree with Geek about the broader environmental impact, but my hunch is that the principal environment that JosephH/Gosolo are focused on is the rock itself - which is fine if you believe what you are really concerned with is the preservation of a certain kind of route. As long as we are talking about environmental impact, though, it might be worth revisiting one of the points that's been made over and over, which is in the grand scheme of things, whether we are talking about species preservation, deforestation, etc, etc, - the impact of climbing relative to other forces is virtually nil, and is probably a net positive when one considers the conservation value of people who actually care about preserving cliffs, mountains, etc - as a result participating in the activity. And as long as we are on the subject of JosephH and gosolo here, I have a question for you guys. Is it that you just dislike sport climbing and the tendencies of the climbers who participate in the activity - or do you really believe that the mere existence of sport climbing and sport climbers somehow threaten your ability to climb dangerous lines in particular, and non-bolted lines in general? The only way I could see the latter being true was if there were actually people out there systematically bolting trad lines, especially bold ones, into oblivion - but if one confines one's ruminations on this matter to what has actually happened with respect to the addition of new bolts to existing lines, then it's hard to imagine how anyone could really object to the existence of sport routes or climbers on the grounds that they are going to lead to the elimination of adventure, risk, etc, etc, etc in climbing.

Cross post: http://www.cascadeclimbers.com/threadz/s...2677#Post494499