fern

dunno ... maybe if you have to ask you shouldn't be doing it? without being to wishywashy my experience had always been the climbs telling ME that it's ok for me to solo them, rather than the other way. the guidebook makes it pretty clear relatively how hard climbs are and how to approach and descent ... although it also contains misleading errors and inconsistencies. maybe this thread has a more subtle motive though anyways ... dunno have fun

whatta loser yay Wayne ... enthusiasm is infectious. maybe you can scan some pics for those who con't get to the slidy show in Everett?

which side are you going to jump off?

is that in the Tchaikazan? ... big ice faces?

Murray is not a cop, but a community minded business man who has contributed more than his fair share to the benefit of climbers in Squamish. Access issues in the Bluffs and the Malemute, Adopt-A-Crag day, safe-bolt fund, you name it and Murray has been generously involved. His opinion and input carries some weight in my view. to Murray

some of those Taj-maWalmart tents I've seen like in Camp 4 are so big you could even park your tiny car inside!

me too Slesse was fun. I had a good week, 4 summits, one new route and led my first .10c ... yay me ... thanks for climbing with me dru

the first thing that comes to my mind is this thread the second thought is what is a feathered friends volant

east ridge of mt.trudeau ... oops logan.

he's alive but injured and will be spending the night up there. He jumped off the Prow. Pan Wall would have been a better choice.

I think both of you talked to Stefan ... you headed down pretty much the same time I got to camp. there was about 9 people from the BCMC there to climb Matier. Most headed down Sunday morning. 3 stayed and climbed Joffre on Monday instead.

I think Mills Winram is still alive ... one of Slesse's FAs

popular baby names popularity of the name eric/k, place out of 1000 most popular names: 1950s = 71st, 1960s = 26th, 1970s = 13th, 1980s = 20th, 1990s = 26th.

3lb sledge, cold chisel and a funkness ... it's a quarry after all when you get all the bits out you should mail them back to the manufacturer and ask for a warranty repair

I think we ran into you at the campsite on the ridge on your way down. An abnormally tall fellow and a short girl. Bad weather on Saturday night and Sunday morning sent almost all those partys packing without climbing anything on Sunday, too bad. We climbed some other stuff and never had to share a summit in 3 days. That's a fun area, and still in pretty good condition, lots of snow lingering.

my truck runs fine. just the steering is a little ... shutupdrusubarusheepBAAAAAAA

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!