fern

forget about hands ... I've jammed my chest in that climb, bring gear to 38C

sez who?

there is a parallel slab route next to Diedre called "Passing Lane", I dunno the grade - maybe 5.9? Sparrow rarely has crowds, ditto Pineapple Peel, Sickle, and Slab Alley. Calculus Crack and St.Vitus are often at near capacity on nice days, Vector and South Arete are more likely to be free but a convergence on the top pitch can bottle neck. I think the total distance of quality climbing on St. Vitus, Calculus etc. is the same as on Diedre, just the pitch count is different. Diedre has >50% vertical gain over ho-hum climbing and only 2 quality pitches IMO.

I agree with this idea. I prefer commentary over guidebook specific "2nd tier" systems. The death heads are funny, but I think the Watt's Smith Guide is funnier in that he even gives 1 and 2 stars to routes that he considers worthless or low quality. I flipped through that book and saw all the stars and thought ... "whoa what a quality climbing area!" ... nope.

you can tie a bunch of butterfly knots up a hefty static line and hang that down your runout route from your top-rope anchor and clip your way up as if you were leading a sprot route. No need to put bolts in.

I think those are porphyritic. the starbursts are phenocrysts ... crystals that froze out of the magma at depth while the background matrix was still molten. At a later time and shallower depth the background darker rock mass froze quickly into a much finer grained texture. but then I am not a geologist. Maybe I should limit my comments to ..."oooo pretty!" ... where did you find these?

nope. Alasdair. no pics

I don't like writing TRs. maybe this contains useful info if you want to climb this route also. It is not a difficult route. A Proven Plan for Climbing the Leaning Tower West Face Day 1 - Spend most of the day wandering around yosemite village buying tins of chili and such, add these to jellybeans and granola bars found in random bear boxes around Camp 4. Organize the rack. Choose the oldskool approach thus eschewing all modern trix like aliens and offsets and ballnutz in favour of plain nuts and rigid friends slung on faded, tied 8 mil. (hint: throw a few small aliens/TCUs in to save time and stress). Calculate water rations of 11 litres, pack 16 instead. At approximately 5pm hitch a ride to the Bridal Falls parking. Locate the well cairned approach trail about 50m from the toilets. Lose the well cairned approach trail about 100m from the toilets. Thrash uphill through big boulders talus until you reach the base of the wall. Continue until you reach a nice bivy site, well marked by a stash of 20 litres of water and a gallon of lemon Gatorade. Drink a gallon of Gatorade! Go to sleep, wake up 5minutes later and pee, repeat several times. Day 2 - Hike haulbag and gear along the 4th class approach ledge towards the base of the bolt ladder. Pull 5.6 moves to get off the 4th class approach ledge. Base of bolt ladder is well marked by a stash of 4 litres of water. Also bolts. Climb the bolt ladder. (hint: persons under 160cm in height will likely need to 2nd step most placements and top-step 1 or 2). Reach first belay. Fix and haul. Organize belay. Flake ropes. Reflake ropes. Look down and notice partner has by now successfully cleaned the 2nd bolt. Reflake ropes and eat a candy bar. Look down and notice partner has by now successfully cleaned the 3rd bolt. Get tired of hanging in harness, climbing is more fun. Short fix and start soloing P2. Clip clip clip clip. Anchor, fix, haul, organize. Sit on BELAY SEAT(hint!!!), belay partner up p3, dum de dum, eat candy bar, belay partner up p4, drink ice tea, dum de dum, take off t-shirt to sun tan, dum de dum. Jumar, clean, up up up, sketchy polished slab moves to bivy ledge. Sit on ledge and belay partner up p5, rebuild belay to free ropes (hint: cordalettes are very tidy and convenient ways of building belays, using the rope can lead to complication). Jumar and clean, lower out from pretty much every piece. Up, up, up. Rack for p6, free up 2 moves above belay, run out of holds, decide free climbing is better done in rock shoes than approach shoes. Swap rope ends and rack with partner and belay instead. Jumar and clean. Rap to bivy ledge. Eat chili. Sleep. Day 3 - Repack haulbag. Jumar fixed rope to top of P6. Lead P7, mostly medium nuts and cams and fixed pieces. Take a big whipper when a poorly placed cam pops. Free last moves to belay. Fix, haul. Lead P8 (probably more sensible to link 7 and 8). Use tiny nuts to avoid super loose block. Fix, haul. Sit in belay seat, belay partner up P9, take shirt off and work on tan. Take pictures of partner on supercool roof moves. Put shirt back on, jumar, clean awkward steep pitch with many lower outs. Leave a cam behind because you can't reach it. Arrive at nice, though sloping, ledge. PLace bet with partner about who will lead the final pitch. Win bet. Lie down on ledge with shirt off to belay. Put shirt back on. Jumar, clean. Leave ANOTHER STUPID CAM behind because you can't reach it. Clean awkward roof, topstepping off your jumars to reach cams clipped with shoulder length slings , get cranky at end of awkward roof when facing a long pendulum around a corner once the last piece is unclipped. Faff about. Finally get all the gear cleaned. Hurry up it's getting late and you have to go down! Pull up manky fixed rope to the summit ... whoa steep! Uhoh, notice storm clouds over El Cap. Get more cranky about maybe getting caught in a storm. Sort out rappels. One, two rappels to the bottom of the slab. Scramble into gully. Rappel, rappel, abseil, rappel, abseil, abseil etc. into the sunset. Reach base of the wall again about 1hr after darkness. Drag haulbag 100m down scree back to nice bivi site well marked by a stash of 20 litres of water and an empty gallon Gatorade bottle. Share one tin of salmon for dinner. (hint take more food!) Sleep. Day 4 - eat half a granola bar for breakfast. Repack haulbag. Hike down well cairned trail to parking lot. Hike out to road. Stick out thumb. Watch many septuagenarians in RVs drive by. Finally catch ride back to Camp 4. Congratulations you are done!

Bob McIntosh was a Squamish doctor beaten to death by a group of Squamish youth at a party.

the worst flight I ever had was a 747 converted to 1/2 cargo, so only 1 toilet. It originated in Delhi, 10hrs later I joined the original passengers in London. 4hrs later the toilet overflowed. 6hrs later I could breathe again when the doors opened in Vancouver.

I don't understand why the need to try and shift some blame onto the 3 washingtonians. Regardless of what words they may have said they shouldn't have been beaten up or threatened with a knife, or vandalized. Each side of the story is biased but they agree in essence that it was a one sided fight with property damage to only one party. This thread is funny to me because it exposes the wacky ideas that some americans have about canada. Like that it is a uniformly peaceful safe place, or that the RCMP should be some Dudley-Do-Rights who "always get their man" ... that is a hollywood fantasy. ... if this incident makes you stay away from Canada, well

I think this thread ran its course. Time to start a new one. I suggest a trip report from your upcoming adventures with the fabulous people you met through cascadedat...uh cascadeclimbers.com!

two friends of mine died this past spring. I chose not to attend the large essentially public memorial that was held soon after, and I don't regret that decision at all and none of my friends thought less of me for doing so. At a later time another smaller group gathered again and for me the extra weeks prepared me to deal with the experience in a group situation. Everybody's grief schedule is different I think. But I think whether you do or don't want to go to a memorial service is a different question from what activity you would pursue during the time of the memorial. Among many non-climbers the act of climbing, especially solo climbing is viewed as an extremely selfish one. And for you to declare to your friends that you would rather spend the memorial time climbing alone rather than being with them and sharing ... well of course that looks selfish and disrespectful.

It is used with a chest harness, and the modification makes it self feeding supposedly, without sawing off the flap you would need a hand free to help the rope along. I have used an unmodified Gri-gri with no chest harness for solo aiding (you don't specify aid or free?). I don't recommend it, but in some circumstances it is fine. In others it is not. for me that's not so much device dependent as situational. Are the wind and the terrain going to conspire to f*$^ you over if you let the rope hang? I don't like the idea of carrying the rope with me for example in a backpack because I don't want it to get involved around my neck if I fall. YMMV

hey sparky! I sent the whole thing. And it was 15 minutes of my life I will never get back.

The Jigsaw Flow at Neat and Cool is the worst waste of time contrivance that was ever bolted. Someday I will chop that route so that no-one else ever makes the mistake of climbing it. Stupid squeeze-job PoS . I suggest you all take a jiffy marker to your Squamish guide and excise this route completely.

I am an experienced "F!@#@$King top ropers!"-deterrer . I combine high-volume vitriolic epithets with burning angry glares and sub-breath Tourette's-style grumbling to create a crag atmosphere most "F!@#@$King top ropers!" find uncomfortable. Proven Results! Even on tenacious "F!@#@$King top ropers!" species like the Mountaineers - just ask erik my services can be rented at a very competitive rate ... PM for details. ... other services include dealing with "F!@#@$King Dogs at the Crag!", "F!@#@$King Screaming Kids!", and "F!@#@$King Sport/Trad Climbers!" (whichever is situationally appropriate)

makes me wonder how many quit the sport when the relationship ends. hope maryk finds what she is looking for

cool, good job . Which route was this? doesn't sound or look like the Kain route. Mt. Louis is a big mountain and a fun adventure for sure!

uh yeah, that was my point . so don't be so surprised when people start asking for confirming details. ever hear of chicken little? dunno what you jokers are battlecaging about.

anyone looking for a cover-up misunderestimates the Canadian capacity for self-loathing. Our media gets off on this kind of story, if they miss out on this latest story they will be so trask do you feel defensive about something? I didn't mention any names and don't even remember who started those threads. I just remember they were all based on falsehoods.

Only very foolish people take everything they read on the internet at face value for truth. Some people think it's fun to start threads about having just lost their job when they haven't, or about the US bombing Saudi Arabia when they aren't, or about being a hot chick looking for climbing partners when they're not. There's a difference between skepticism and cover-up. I would still like to know what campground this was at, so I can strike it off my list of places to stay.

Same as I said before, that I doubt the truth of this story. Is it so impossible for you to believe that violence CAN exist close to home? I say carry a hickory pick handle in the backseat and watch Eastwood in "Pale Rider" before you leave. squamish youth violence #1 squamish youth violence #2 Squamish is a small town with many bored kids. Usually these 'events' get pretty heavily publicized with much community hand-wringing. I, like others have said, have so far heard nothing about a violent incident involving 50 teenagers in a Squamish park campground recently. I hope you have a good trip up Greg, I think you will find most people very friendly and welcoming. But if you feel threatened by anyone hit first and hit hard, I am sure you know how

and I can't tell you why because I would just start crying and I don't think you would get it anyways....