Farrgo

I messed around with this a little last season. It seems like BD just wanted to get something out that is strictly leashless and oriented toward ice climbing. I would still go for a more all around tool like a viper, imo.

Nice TR, I've heard that's a good outing. Did you get any pics?

This may not be the approriate place for this comment, and if so just let me know, but since your talking about adopting routes I'll throw it out there. Has double dirty overhang gone into hibernation, or from the looks of it yesterday, is it just apt naming?

I'm down, is it still 5h30 and still Video Bluff?

I've had the mammut 8.5s for a couple years and have used them for alpine, rock in the bugs, and mixed and they still look brand new. I'd say they're very durable, and they hold their dry treatment longer than other ropes I've tried.

Was there still a lot of snow on the route? I'm wondering if you could still ski it?

What about doing a solo traverse of the Tatoosh or the Twin Sister range up near Mt. Baker, you could get away with not too much technical climbing so long as you don't mind exposure.

Im in will bring rope/rack. You guys still going to be at toothpick? Or am I a little slow on the uptake?

I'd love to do some climbing today if anyone is heading out. Send me a pm.

anybody interested in getting out tonight?

Mark, I'm game for a little climbing midweek. I'm down in PDX area right now, but everything I want to do is north of here anyhow. I'm thinking about checking out a couple things on SR20 on monday and tuesday. What kind of climbing do you do. Hopefully these would be rock/ice routes. Are you interested? Nate

Aztars shouldn't even be mentioned as all around tools. They do one thing easy ice. Quarks are a much better all around tool. They climb harder ice, climb mix well, and can still do fine in the alpine.

All the good ice i've done in PNW has been in the mountains. But saying that, I've climbed a bunch of sweet flows coming off Heliotrope Ridge three years ago. The waterfalls on the trail were all frozen as well. There is quite a bit of fall water ice around bellingham, but its all in the mountains.

The weather is nice. Anybody want to crag? Beacon, Broughton, the Butt, I can leave now. Call me 360.903.7370 If I don't go climbing I might have to go for a run

Westside weather looks bad this weekend. Does anyone from PDX want to head down to smith for sat/sun?

i'm gonna try to make it, but i'm coming back from the eastside that day so i might be late?

Anyone want to go check out the N side of hood or I rock on any or all of these days?

Off White - The rap route is actually a pretty interesting climb. You go up left of the chockstone, then traverse right on 5.6ish terrain past a mank bolt to the top of the chockstone. From there you walk up the gully to the notch, and follow 4th class terrain to the summit. I would recommend the route if you want and easy route to the top, not one with lots of rock climbing. Although, it is pretty interesting climbing in the gully system.

The approach does suck, but I don't feel like the NF should be considered a hard 2-day climb as the Nelson guide calls it. When I did it we bivied below the face for a few hours and still did it under 24 hours. Word to the wise, no matter how appealing it is just to straight-line-it to the ski area, follow the way you came in.

We left the car at 6 am, but didn't move very quick on the approach. NOLSe and his partner had left the parking lot a few minutes before us and we figured that we would rather have them a couple pitches ahead of us then a few feet, just because of icefall. If your gonna do it, I would suggest getting on the route no later then 7am. I was amazed at how many point releases were coming down. I think once you get out of the couloir and up above that snowfield, you should be quite a bit safer, but down lower, you are in the shooting gallery. The route is in fabulous condition though. It so fat that I think the difficulty is far less then the guide suggests. Nothing harder then WI3, albeit with some crummy ice. Have fun, stay safe.

I wear a 10us street shoe and I wear 44 in scarpa boots

I know that if you are soloing an aid pitch you need to set a bomber anchor for upward pull, due to the nature of system. However, if you are short fixing an aid pitch with a partner do you need to construct a bomb-proof, multi-point anchor for both upward and downward pull? It seems that if you construct a bomber anchor for downward pull with one oppositional pice, then by your partner by jugging up on the line below you, they would provide a "dynamic" belay. So, if you were to rip while short fixing, your partner would take a lot of the impact off of the anchor. I'm sure it is safer to have an anchor (or two) set up to take any imaginable force, but is it good enough to have one mainly set up for downward pull and rely on your partner's body weight to make it dynamic?

I know that if you are soloing an aid pitch you need to set a bomber anchor for upward pull, due to the nature of system. However, if you are short fixing an aid pitch with a partner do you need to construct a bomb-proof, multi-point anchor for both upward and downward pull? It seems that if you construct a bomber anchor for downward pull with one oppositional pice, then by your partner by jugging up on the line below you, would provide a "dynamic" belay. So, if you were to rip while short fixing, your partner would take a lot of the impact off of the anchor. I'm sure it is safer to have an anchor (or two) set up to take any imaginable force, but is it good enough to have one mainly set up for downward pull and rely on your partner's body weight to make it dynamic?

If y'all are lucky, you just might find the man himself hitting up some fine bellingham establishments (read: the royal) after the show.

Timmy O'Neill is doing a slideshow at WWU Fraser Hall 4 on March 2 at 7:30. Tickets are $5.