nightfly

Hey Everybody. Only two weeks left for me in the pacific northwest for awhile. With a week and a half of time off before we go i wanted to get out a bit. i have been looking around but time is short. Looking for condition beta on these routes and any others that have been kller outings for folks. feel free to post if you have any info i would appreciate it greatly thanks. How cold has it been getting at night in the pickets lately? has it been consistant? Buckner north face. Any Ice? Norheast face/ridge Forrbidden? Stairway to heaven coulor, J-berg? (that just my name for it) North central rib Triumph Fisher Chimny"s and the north face on Shuksan Baker's north ridge. Or anything else for that matter that has been good to folks. I would like to get in some good ice but it just might be a bit early for that yet any way thanks for your posts. James

Anybody out there been on this one, any beta? just looking for any little tidbits that might help. I have the becky guide but were just looking for some extra info. thanks

What's up. just went up to play in my back yard yesterday. the road is finally open to the upper dungeness. fired up tyler peak on a semi clear day and got a good 360 view of things. royal basin looks like clear sailing until you gain the lake. things are still looking way alpine up there. We had a bunch of snow this year. the peak at the end of the dungeness ? is looking sick. better be up for the twelve + miles to get back there. Buckhorn and Iron and that whole cirqe is looking mighty tasty as well but i am sure you will need skis past the tubal cain mine. Tyler was cruisr, killer dear trails the whole way. semi soft in the afternoon but things firmed up on the north east face. the summit pyramide was kind of a bitch, short but lots of up and down and around steep chossy gendarms getting over to the proper coulor. I decended the snow into the basin then traversed/ bushwacked left as it pinched off. regained the trail after about twenty minutes of side hilling. maybe four hours but i was'nt counting a nice day all the way around. I don't know what to tell you about the permits, i have yet to get a ticket myself but i am sure it is only a matter of time. peace out

I found this one intreresting so i thought I would putin my 2 cents and let folks know what is going on in my neighbor hood. We have a local crag. it's chossy buy it is all we have that's close. it is a crag. we have an individual i will call him --- rockhead. rock head has climbed for two years. I will give him props that he has a lot of energy but he has little experince base. rockhead, bolt ladders up routes with his bosh. bathooking his way up and leaving a nice dotted line of holes behind him. throwing a nice 1/2 incher in every three feet. natural gear abounds throughout his lines but your will find a shinny hanger next to a bomer nut or cam every time. rockhead defense is that the place is a chosspile, and that no natural gear can be trusted, however, he has hardly any experince with the sandstone with which he is dealing with let alone places like the Fisher Towers or Black Canyon that are far worse. He says he is bolting these hard climbs-(5.11-5.12) on lead and that this is in good style, but in fact by aiding things first and placing bolts as he goes he is sandbagging clips and putting anchors in the wrong places. Now here is the crux of things,as climbing in our area it starting to take hold and become more popular. newbies are climbing these routes and thinkng that this is how things are done. Now as this mindset like a virus spreads and these kids disperse to other areas and there own "new area" they hang some shiny clips in some old man backyard. He calls the forest service to complain and then one day that forest service manager becomes head forest service manager, Now that's a bummer for us all. If you can't do it without bolts leave it for someone who can. That person will eventually come along. In the process you are preserving a resources for future generations. Bolting next to natural gear even on sport routes/areas is not the direction we want our sport to go. As a community we need to help shape the future. Just my opinion

Fired the Green Dragon this week. Pretty basic with a few exciting moves here and there. A small step up from the Town Crier here's what i brought. Metolus: gey - red / doubled up on the blue - redWild Country: 2-#2 / singles through #5 + an extra #4 camalot and #4 Hugh Banner flexi-fit these last two ended up being just more wieght. Another purple Metolus would have been nice.Full set Wild Country Rocksdouble set of Hb brass RP's2 hooks: BD Sky Hook? & a talon-leave the talon2 cam hooks: mini & thin regularsix lockers / 10 free climbing draws / six extra biners / one double length sling.I also brought a hammer, 2 blades, 2 arrows, & two heads. !!There was absolutely no reason at all to nail at any time on this route!! What few fixed pieces were totally bomber, the only copperhead was on the last pitch and it's looking really good. So bring your hammer like a good climber should -- and leave it in the bag. didn't do the true first pitch, maybe next time.second: pitch was wet and mungy. long third: has a short pucker section. >100'fourth: is the goods, just killer. >100'fifth: well, when you get past my nut you tell me? The best beta however is for the decent. - you can make it to the top of the second pitch from the top of the fourth. keep in mind that i have 200' ropes. Just my opinion Oh yea I almost forgot.The new owners of the index cafe have new hours. They serve up one mean Burger and a whopping plate of fries to boot. six bucks-now that's a steal [ 04-05-2002: Message edited by: nightfly ]

Nightfly is headed out of exile on the Olympic penninsula for a bit of R $ R at the Index Town tavern this morning. Will be there till Wedensday evening/Thursday morning. I am sure i will be doing a bit of climbing as well. White and grey VW With Colorado plates. Bring your jugs. Don't have an objective but the upper wall keeps calling me back. and the weather should be killer. come on down.

Yea, but he is pretty funny though.

Hey there folks,Does anyone know where I am going to find a WFR intensive in the next three months. Somewhere on the west side of things would be the nice. But i am fairly easy and mobile. Any bites would be greatly appreciated. Thanks [ 03-07-2002: Message edited by: nightfly ]

You must have been psyched. Let me clarify things. I am not as much down on the individuals, as i am down on a system that they must support-(simply by working for the park service). They Defend their actions in the name of preservation and wildlife diversity. Now I have a story for you. An old girlfriend from Alaska was working the summers for the service up there. It was determined by someone that a particular species of Spruce Hen was to be introduced to some area in central Alaska. (Anybody who has seen a spruce hen will tell you that this animal will not thrive anywhere it is not suppose to). Her job as a forest service employee was to eradicate all possible natural predators. Six weeks of bloodshed was enough for her. This was three years ago. I regretably have only met one young fellow that was enduring the company bullshit in the hopes of someday having a say in stopping the continuous flow of band aid solutions. In my opinion; for the most part the 'company' is all about walking a line drawn by some unseen entity with archaic ideas, and making others walk it too. If it is not broke don't fix it!

I will say this much about the Olympic National Park. Those guys sure get paid an awful lot to sit on there ass. I have rarly scene a forest service vehicle (let alone an employee on a trail), on my many trips up into the park.--I live thirty minutes from multiple trailheads. Poor Road conditions, Washed out roads, deadfalls in the trails, this is the reality of a park service that prefers to sit in there extra cozy headquarters instead of actually driving, and hiking they're turf. With the Constance Trail road out, that makes three of the four major access roads into the Eastern Olympics closed down. And that my friends is the future of our park system. Did you know that the Olympic park has the highest paid employees in the nation. Go Figure.

I was just up at Angeles lakes three days ago, there was five to six feet of snow. We crused around and checked things out. We were sloging, and wished we had brough our skis for the last half mile of the trail. Things were phat up there however snowpit test revealed a solid snowpack on east and west facing slopes with both shovel shear tests backing up the findings, finially cutting loose at the surface. This was before the recent storm cycles and we have been hammered since. Things started out cold and got progressivily warmer and you all know what that means. But things should firm up in a few days if we get a break. The Mt. Angeles trail is fairly steep and 4 miles long. But once in the basin a hours skin will get you where you want to be. Leave no turn unstoned

Nightfly is headed east for a few days of R&R at the Index tavern. (My home away from home). just hanging around and thnking about getting on the upper wall if the weather holds. Drop on by, Old VW Camper w/ Colorado plates. I'll have a cold one in the cooler. Thinking about taking a two day recon up to Mazama. Any Takers?

Thanks to all. We are headed down for a go at the Plish. We are way psyched and thanks everyone who left imput. By the way caveman, You know folks are in trouble when I'm doing the guiding. Our team is called the Olympic Penninsula Pinhead Squad. To the summit or death! Not a lick of Spanish between the three of us so things should be interesting.

Any news from the Southern regions? Have folks been climbing with all the recent events going on down there? Any info will be appreciated.

To make our public wilderness available to only paying customers or should I say the finanicaly elite, is a drastic and fundemental shift in the state of our park and public land affairs. In my opinion an increas in user fees will reduce number of visits to our public lands. I for one do not have five hundred extra dollars a year to take my family and myself out into the woods, one of the only forms of recreation that still (and should)cost nothing. I do not feel that I should have to support the park service every time I enter a public wilderness.(money for advancements such as new state of the art campgrounds or a paved walkway to the top of local monoliths(That I do not use) I pay my taxes and I expect that my money should go towards things I care about, I expect that my wild places should be taken care of(proper trail care and sanitary functions at high use areas). These and others like them do not have to be high revinue expenses. The direction the forest/park service is going distress me. Gates everywhere and user fees in the name of conservation is a bandaid fix. I believe in the long run, less use will result. This could mean a loss of appreciation for our wild places, creating generational gaps of non wilderness users, in the long run these people will have no appreciation for wild places. I will not dare to speculate the next evolutionary step, for who knows what will result. I do know that the effects of a population born and bred in an urban environment with 911 around the corner, and a Macdonalds on every other block with no respect for wild places could be drastic. I do not have any answers but I believe teaching sustainability starts at an early age. This is not a bandaid solution. Any comments welcome [ 01-07-2002: Message edited by: nightfly ]

Tried to get up into the Upper Dungeness today. Mudslide has taken out the road just pass the first Y. Maby 8+ miles still to go before the Royal Basin trailhead. Bring your mountain bike. Road looked clear all the way snow level still high enough, Things looked sweet back in the high valleys. Warmer temps lately.

That's cute, but I would have rather seen something else in that film canister on smoke out ledge

Not to bust anyones bubble but I have to say that the Lower Elwaha has some sick routes. There just what the aspiring big wall climber want to climb on. Runout choss, But if you have the stones and you crank solid ten you can have lots of fun, two very steeeeppp 12's a fifteen foot offwidth roof that is worth the trip by itself---but you better be cranking, Several 11's lots of good heady 10's even a two pitcher. Climb with caution as things tend to be on the dirty side even though we try our best, watch out for the ocasional boned clip. Without bolts this place would not exist so have some tolerance, it sure beats driving four hours. This is not your lycra clad fairy clipers hangout. You will only see crazy logger's kids messing around and board locals rope soloing. But in the right eyes she has has some serious goods. Come on over we need more traffick bring your helment and your broom and have at it. Chimicam is not worth the bother unless you bring your drill----but then the spirits of the indians that hurled themselves off the thing to avoid capture might tourture you forever---better stone but way more sacred. (more than once I have stumbled upon traditional dressed folks chanting and dancing at the base) best to leave that place alone. The ones that are there look hard. The guys in PT might have a different view but we never see them our dirrection anyway.

Hugh banner RP's & the good old BD #5 Cause there there when you need them. that a fifth on the metolius in general, those units are indestructable. !!!All I want for Christmas is a petzel Tikka!!!!

Hey Dru, I bought a grivel screw once, It was a few years ago so i don't know if they still are made this way, but man it sure looks cool and she went in fine, no worries. I saw my buddy fire it in and move on without a hitch. But upon my attempt to remove this bastardly unit i spent the better part of five minutes. That unit had this funky minutely groved machined finished on the out side, Goes in good but once it melts that thin water layer from the friction of screwing it in, and then sits there-------and then refreezes, holy sheet man! that thing was welded. This hapened several times until we started getting smarter than the screw. I don't know where that 50 dollar piece of shit is now but it probably looks good on someones shinny new rack. Smily's are the only way to go. the user friendly knob just saves your gloves, but then again real ice climbers don't wear gloves right.

Hey there, you all better bring the headlamps, sounds like long days to me. I am kinda interested. I am new to the area last january, psyched on that killer mountain I was able to make it up the Liberty for my first Rainer trip in mid july. It was a killer three and a half days round trip from the car. The thing never ended and midnight caught us on an ice ledge just before the tiny vertical section at the very top. up super early and back at the car by two the following afternoon. Good thing too cause with consistent sixty miles an hour on the summit we we in a full on raging blizzard by seven am. Things are looking like I might be headed far south for Febuary. This sounds like a good warm up. Maybe we should go out and do some ice climbing. just to see how we all mesh. that trip could be killer, but it also sounds like it could get serious in a hurry. This is the front line and storms out here hit way hard. I am not super fit now but I am slowly getting back there, but i am definately dialed. E-mail me if you are interested. [ 12-11-2001: Message edited by: nightfly ]

HEY THERE, just checking in, I am jonesing hard and if there is anything up there in and worth doing that sounds good to me I might have to drive my bus so I have a place to stay but I would be psyched to go north. Nightfly45@yahoo.com quote: Originally posted by Cpt.Caveman: Venturing to BC in search of ice. I have climbed there before and lead. We got the car just want to make it 2 parties to tackle more routes. Plan on leaving friday afternoon round 3 ish. Please no replies from sorry ass Dan E But all else welcome.

quote: Originally posted by Cpt.Caveman: Venturing to BC in search of ice. I have climbed there before and lead. We got the car just want to make it 2 parties to tackle more routes. Plan on leaving friday afternoon round 3 ish. Please no replies from sorry ass Dan E But all else welcome.

Hello to all, I met some guy named brett at Index this weekend he lined me up with some email sites to see who is out there. I am new to the area and the lack of climbing and climbers in the northern Olympic Peninsula is forcing me to travel lots. I am up for just about anything. Versed in all disaplines I just love getting out. Work is slowing down for a bit and i have too much time on my hands. Looking for folks to hook up with. Cracks are my favorite with ice comming in a close second. Totaly psyched to get up into Canada and go exploring this winter. drop in and say hello.