MATT_B
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Posts posted by MATT_B
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Looks farther west than that to me. Dihedral wall maybe? I seem to remember that route is renound for off balance left facing corners down low on the route. That is what it looks like in the picture. Having said that, what do I know, I have never climbed on that side of the hill. Where did the picture come from?
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I agree aid climbing is a good way to get better at placing gear but it is not the place I would start. If you have only been climbing a few months you are putting the cart before the horse. If you try it you will be trying to learn how to aid climb and place gear at the same time. Aiding is not rocket science but it can be a bit complicated at first. Learn one thing at a time. Start following trad routes. Pay attention to how gear is placed, what works, what doesn't work and ask lots of questions. Pay attention to rope management, it's just as important as knowing how to plug a cam in. Read Climbing Anchors by John Long. Your going to have to learn how to build safe anchors form something more complicated than to fat bolts. Once you have the basics down then try some aid climbing to help hone your skills. Have fun and be safe.
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I think marcus hit the nail on the head (pun intended). If your just starting out in the aid game your time will be much better spent figuring out your systems and learning how to place clean gear. You need to learn to think outside the free climbing box. You don't need to have 100% bomber gear for every peice. For the most part it will be faster and less physically demanding to pass on the hammer. As for cleaning most of the time you should not need the hammer. If you need a hammer to clean most of your stoppers, your doing something wrong. That being said I do usually carry one while cleaning. I once bootied almost an entire set of stoppers off a wall with a little help from a hammer. Most of them had very very little use. As for the origional question, try a low road cut. You can't do any more damage then has already bee done. Be careful, the rock tends to be quite loose on those things. You dont want to bring anything down on your head. Have fun and don't even think about placing anything until your at least in you second steps.
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If that is where I think it is, it will be a bit cold and snowy out there. Unless your into that kind of thing. . .
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I have used both static and dynamic lines to hall. I didn't see a huge difference but a static line was a bit easier to hall on. I would save the cash, use an old semi retired lead line and spend an extra month in the valley.
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I would suggest a very early start. More often than not the route is a traffic jam. It is hard to say how long it will take you. Probably longer than you think. Especially if you have not done any aid. With an early start you will have plenty of time if you get behind schedule.
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The first time I went there (95) was a very heavy snow year. The road didn't open until mid July. It is my understanding that this year was a very heavy snow year too. Based on that, I would expect you will encounter snow even on the approach to many of the domes close to the road. Many of those domes are at around 8000 feet and the peaks you named are in the 10-12 thousand foot range. I would recomend skiis, ice axe and crampons. Keep an eye on the snow pack. Part of the reason for the late opening in 95 was that the snow plow driver was killed in a big slide. As far as recomendations for other peaks, a traverse from unicorn peak to the echo sumits is fun. There is nothing more that three pitches in there but if you do all the peaks it is something like 16 summits in a day. North peak is good. If I remember correctly third pilar of dana has a 5.9 variation. The domes have many many good routes in your range. Just look in the book for lots of stars. Regular route on Fariview, West crack, South crack, Great White Book, the list could go on and on. It is hard to go wrong up there. The popular routes will be crouded so get an early start. Most important of all bring, bug juice.
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Why is he waring a harness?
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I have not done any climbing up there but I have spent some time hiking and kayaking in the area. I can’t give you anything too specific but here is what I remember. On the drive up to the trail head, close to the end of the road you get some good views of the canyon. I remember seeing some formations on the across the canyon (south) that looked like some of the formations in the Menagerie. They where much more spread out than the Menagerie and I think access would be much more difficult. I don’t remember seeing anything too large but it was a cloudy day and my memory is a little foggy. Another place that I found was called something like three pools (cant remember the name for sure). About three or four miles before the end of the road to the trailhead there is a sign for the area and a road to the right. Follow this to three pools. If I don’t screw this up, below is a poor picture of a little tower next to the river. I could see some fixed pins and an anchor on top form the river. You will have to cross the river to get to it. I have also heard rumors about the Opal Creek Wall. A friend of a friend of a friend kind of thing so take it for what it is worth. I hear it is 3 or 4 pitches and there is a very big roof. There is some hard free climbing and aid on it. On one of my kayak trips I remember seeing something that may fit that description. I remember I was a mile or two above three pools (or what ever that place was called). I was looking up river and saw a good sized wall on the north side of the canyon quite a ways off the river. If I had to make a guess I would say it was somewhere relatively close to the main trailhead. I would bet if you where to take a day with a few good USGS maps of the area, binoculars and a full tank of gas you could find a couple places worth exploring. If you go I would love to hear a TR.
Good Luck
http://www.cascadeclimbers.com/plab/uploads/3572/THORS_PLAY_ROOM.JPG
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1/2 dome: Wind, however is a totally different story. I staked and guyed the shit out of the tent and it still tried to buckle under every big gust. I would highly discourage using it anywhere with high exposure to wind.
I got a 1/2 dome a couple month ago and took it to Death Valley. We had a couple days that where very windy with very very strong gusts. The dust kicked up was so bad that visibility was down to less than 1/8 mile. I very carefully tied everything down. The only damage we had was one slightly bent pole. I saw more than a few flat tens in the morning. The bigest problem we had was after a big gust of wind, the sand get under the fly and rain down on us through the mesh. I wouldn't exactly recomend it for high winds but when push came to shove, ours handled fairly well. In general I really like the tent but I have not had it long enough to really get to know it.
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I have a friend that lived in a little town on the McKenzie river called Nimord.
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Try Outdoorplay and/or PDXkayaker
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As such this is most likely considered a criminal matter.
Only in America. All this for one parking ticket
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I think a lot of people, especially clothing manufacturers have put gore-text (and all the other waterproof/breathables) up on a golden pedistool. The thought is that it can do everything. Well, it can't do everything. The way I see it you have a spectrum of fabrics with completely waterproof but no breathability on one end. On the other end you have completely beathable and not at all waterproof. Some where in the middle you will find your waterproof/breathable fabrics. Some will be closer to one end of the spectrom than others. Some will cover more of the spectrum than others. Nothing will do it all. I think the modern waterproof/breathable's are the best compramise for me. If it is raining they do a prety good job of keeping the wetness out. I will still get damp but not usually too bad. 20 minutes later when the rain stops and the wind kicks up I can keep the jacket on to block the wind and it will breath. I don't expect the jacket to keep me comfortable, thats my job. If I'm too hot take the jacket off. If I'm too cold, put something else on. If it starts raining, batton down the haches. Put the hood up, zip everthing up and make sure the storm flaps are all fastened down. If I'm still uncomfortable, too bad. Deal with it and climb on.
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Auto racing, like climbing there are a billion variations on the theme. What is OK in NASCAR may not be OK in drag racing or formula one or demolition durby or bouldering or mixed ice climbing or big wall climbing or or or . . . .
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I miss the days when you could just go to the mountains and just start walking. No permits, fees or other red tape crap. What is this Oregon Coast Permit, where can I find more info? This too is a new one for me. I have also heard that there is some kind of cross country ski trail fee on mount hood now. Anyone know anything about this one?
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Me too, me too. One of these days I will get back to the mother land!
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Anyone have any experience shipping a stove? I'm flying down to southern CA next week and would like to take a stove. I know the airlines don't allow you to fly with a stove even without fuel in it. I was going to send it UPS ground and they would not touch it either. I could buy one while I'm down there but I would rather not do that. Anyone have any other suggestions or know of a shipper that will take it?
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Oregon Field Guide will be airing something tonight on shrinking glaciers on mount hood. Could be intresting. Here is a link to some more info:
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Damn I almost fell off my chair just reading that. Got any pictures? A topo? Maybe I could talk my wife into trying a second ascent. Not sure we can do it in a push though.
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Looks like my spring break plans are crapping out. I'm trying to come up with an alternate plan. I want to get out of the area (portland) and do some easy easy easy climbing with the wife. Think 5.6 and under. I would like to see some place new. I have been to most of the big name areas in the west so J-tree, redrocks, yosemite and the like are low on the list. I was thinking about City of Rocks in Idaho but don't know if it is too early for that area, never been there. Has Arizona been hit by all the crappy wheather down south? I was origionally thinking Death Valley (I know there isn't really any climbing there) but most of the roads where closed due to floods and not expected to open until april. What do you think? Where would you go?
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Alpine Aretes at smith? I'm confused.
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I know there is a place just outside of Cedar City. I don’t remember the name of it though. I hear it has really good skiing but isn’t hyped up like the other resorts in Utah
NOVA Denali show coming up
in Climber's Board
Posted
One thing I was wondering about the core temp thing is what was the cause of the different ranges of temp. Fluctuation. The show leads me to believe it was physiological. After thinking about it for a while I began to think it may not be. The guy with large temp. Fluctuation was the astronaut. I got the impression he had little or no experience climbing. If that is so he probably is not very good at using his clothing layers to regulate his body temp. I bet he was roasting him self when he was moving. As soon as he stopped I bet he became cold and clammy. The experienced climbers would probably be much better at using their clothing layers to regulate temp. If they are much less sweaty when they stop it would seem logical that their temp would drop too far. Anyway that is my stupid theory and I'm sticking with it.