fern

I am hoping someone will photoshop Mr. Blueblockers onto the guy on the right

"we" was a party of 6. I will answer in the form of a logic puzzle: 5 canadians 4 accents 2 married 2 summitted logan 1 circus performer. no swimming pictures. Snoboy would ban me for posting pictures of naked people .

Climb: Mt. Alpha - Tantalus Range-East Ridge Date of Climb: 8/1/2004 Trip Report: McLane's Alpine Select guide says this route can be done in a day by a fit and fast party from Squamish. Well good for them - we did it in 2 1/2days We crossed the Squamish River ninja style on the cable. The best method is to clip yourself right up to the cable with a single steel biner from your belay loop. Hang your pack from a separate biner and drag it on a leash. It's good to clip the pack high enough to put your feet on it while resting, but keep the leash long enough it doesn't tangle with your feet while you are pulling along. Work gloves are handy too. here's a picture of Cadet Murphy practicing before heading in there next weekend: http://www.umich.edu/~armyrotc/stakes/ropebridgemurphy.jpg The Squamish River is very cold (colder than Lake Lovelywater) - I wouldn't recommend trying to swim it. We camped in the meadow on the lower East Ridge. There is water here from the snowfields on the north side. The trail from Tantalus Hut to the East Ridge is well flagged and starts from the camping area at the corner of the lake. The East Ridge is mostly a 3/4th scramble. There is about 5m of steep 5.7 at the start with a fixed pin protecting the crux and this was the only section we used the rope for. A couple of medium nuts and a handsized piece is all the gear I would call necessary but YMMV. The descent down the west side is not quality and if I was to do the route again I would go back down the East Ridge. If descending the west side, traverse skiers left above the chossy gully, then traverse right back towards Serratus to get to the top of the grassy bowl. Where the slopes steepen again there is a boulder slung with a handline - steep downclimbing of slimy slabs gets you to the top of a small snowfield. From the base of the snowfield follow the talus and gametrails through the krummoltz until you are completely lost. Rappel through slide-alder, downclimb a waterfall and wade waist-deep through log-choked mud until you find (or don't find) the Lambda Lake trail. Gear Notes: ninja gear to cross the river swimsuits are for wimps Approach Notes: you will lose the trail at least once. I guarantee.

strap the axe to your pack. If the spike sticks out above the lid it is too long and will be a snaggy PITA while bushwacking so get a shorter one.

I thought carharrts just made me a poseur fashion victim like the rest of you.

if alpinfox got grief for his pic of Timcb calling him a pimp you guys are gonna be in REAL trouble for the iCougar joke

bump

you are a dirty rotten liar! there are FOUR bolts. one on pitch 5 and three on pitch 6 - and I noticed one chopped stub at the base of the challenging pitch, maybe Bruce put that one in too? I felt that 10c (1pa) was a fair rating to indicate what level you would want to feel solid at comparing it to routes on the Chief, especially as an onsight. I did not lead those crux pitches (I got the odd numbers), and Steve and I both hung a little to figure them out - once you start working the friction it's all ace and nicely 3dimensional. Our friends did Cat O' 9 Tails and reported it challenging and fun too. Thanks for developing the crag Brian, you are right about future potential

Climb: Fluffy Kitten Wall - Squamish-The Wonderful Thing About Tiggers Date of Climb: 7/24/2004 Trip Report: The Fluffy Kitten Wall is 5 miles up the Stawamus road behind the Chief in Squamish, below the north side of Mt. Habrich. Routes are described in the McLane Squamish guide and in the 04/2003 issue of Gripped Magazine. Though I have heard of a few people going up to climb on the Kitten wall I did not have a good idea of how popular it is. After having climbed the "*** 1/2" on the wall I can definitively say that it is NOT popular. Which is too bad, because it is a beautiful setting and nice rock and on these scorcher days it is 7 pitches of shady rock right through the afternoon. TWTAK is a fun route with some long sustained pitches. It is clean enough, though definitely a little dirty and greasy by the Apron or Grand Wall standards. Lots of secure laybacking and freaky barely secure flaring handcracks - great exposure. The granite is super sticky and brilliant clean white on the faces - just dirty in the cracks. It reminded me a bit of the NW corner of Liberty Bell, though longer and harder and better. All the bolts are truck, though it would be worth bringing a little extra tat to retie some of the rap slings and maybe a few rings to replace some rusty quicklinks. There are a bunch of stations in bizarre places (some were installed in winter for a mixed route so they aren't even reachable) and the photo-topo in McLane's book is almost uselessly lacking detail - but just look around for the least grassy cracks. I don't think it would be possible to link any pitches without hanging gear belays, maybe with a 70m? Gear Notes: some long pitches. One gear belay. single set of nuts or less is fine due to flaring nature. double set of cams from #1 tcu to #2 cramalot plus one #3 is lots but one "challenging pitch" doesn't vary much and eats up the finger and hand-sized cams. Hybrids would be cool. Approach Notes: fun burma bridge over the river! lower part of trail right above river switches back and forth a lot, keep an eye for the flagging tape.

Some friends of mine have been (and still are) sailing up the BC and Alaska coast this summer. They climbed Mt. Fairweather and have been visiting coastal glaciers and sights. Currently they are on their return open-ocean leg from the Aleutians to the Haida Gwaii. They have some very nice photographs and some entertaining reports of life on a boat. Check it Out (some of you may know CeCe who took part in the Fairweather adventure as she has been a guide in PNW for many years)

the Mini-Me he's carrying in the backpack freeks me out. WTF?

this horse is dead

that's the comparison that I thought of too, and the one I used to delude myself into thinking I could do the route The people at Cattermole were extremely nice and accomodating. Ted OFFERED me the key when I phoned just to ask where the gates were and whether there were trucks on the road. We were originally assuming that we wouldn't be able to drive past the first gate and were going to MTB. I think they are logging madly in case they get shut down by a fire ban soon. We dropped the key off with their workyard watchman late at night. you're probably right, the rock on the left edge of the ramp is better. I ran out one long pitch (3-4) along the right edge in the choss. The top part of the ramp was better than the first 3pitches of kibble. No we went the same way as you. The hardest moves were off the belay no I think Mike could hear my swearing and sobbing quite clearly and was able to haul me like a dead weight through the hard stuff.

did you do a search? I seem to remember a thread on this topic last year with lots of suggestions. There were even some recommended routes that are easy enough you could do them with a girl!

work is busy? is that 'cause we're actually getting weather now? good job

I want to add some beta to complement Mike's. if you belay at the stupid bolts you can do a wicked looking finger crack up the middle of theslab to the overhangs. There is a fixed pin at the top. I dunno how hard it would be. The hard lieback flake is off to the right above the more vegetated cracks and has dirty feet. Belaying on the slab immediately below the overhang is kinda sucky but you could probably step right over the chasm and onto the ledge at the base of the next steep 5.9 crack to belay at a good though slightly crowded stance. I think that there are stations for 50m raps too, our first rap was somewhat less than 60m, and we skipped one station and rapped right to the gully floor in a FULL 60m. this downclimb is fairly long, and has a short steep section just above the next rap station. This takes you OVER the water course to a small ledge system on a slab. Walk right on the ledge and over to the other side of a knob. Scramble down through the kibble about 100m until the rock gets better but steeper. also I speak from experience that all the 5.10 sections and several of the 5.9 sections can be easily aided or crack-jumared.

negative. hardest ever lead was 11worth 5.6

the hut itself only sleeps about 6. the lake camping areas can probably absorb up to about 30 people before you start to feel oppressed by crowds. You can camp wherever you want though. It won't be crowded like Camp Manuire.

talk to your local Greek restaurant or specialty supermarket. Or skulk in their alley looking for empty olive barrels to steal which is what my friend did for a trip to Baffin. Or buy 100L of olives yourself and start eating!

$175 each or for the pair?

isn't jail overcrowding largely due to "3 Strikes" laws which result in life sentences for repeated relatively minor offenses (eg. drug possession).

yeah it was an AWESOME party ... thanks for inviting me d00ds!!!!!

3 days ago