Travis

Holy crap man, nice work Jake! BTW, have you even graduated high school yet? Man, I have so much catching up to do in this sport.

Some ratings here. http://www.matthewbuckle.net/climb/bcclimbing/squamish/squamishaid.html

A high resolution satalite pic of an alpine rock climb. click here Got any more?

My Nuts are Too Small and I Have No Friends

If you can't get Squamish Select, get the Whistler guide as well; also McLane. Lots of sport climbing just up the road.

I was out top-rope soloing in the bluffs yesterday but I'd like to try again during the week. Tomorrow might be it since it's supposed to rain Wednesday. Anyone?

We topped out about a minute ahead of you guys, making you stop and wait (and sing War Pigs) before simul-climibng the last pitch. Highly enjoyable climb, I think; we had an awesome day and I'd recommend it highly as a nice moderate, low-stress alpine route on nice rock. Some approach beta might be in order here since there were at least three other parties who missed the approach and two of them ended up dragging climbing gear up the scramble route instead. Basically, don't cross the creek after Headly Pass, follow the trail through the tent sites instead. From there its up to the col left of the waterfall and then it's obvious. We avoided the moat issues by traversing into the climb higher up. (stay low on the ledges)

We walked out Saturday, just missed you but met up with others in the hut. Like at least two other parties that week, (of stellar weather) we left with a prepaid day in the hut having climbed enough and accumulated enough bodily wear and tear, as well as avoiding the long-weekend mayhem. I had friends at Applebee who fell on Krause MacCarthy about the time you were arriving. They were able to lower him back to camp and after some rest he was able to hike out. By the end of the season the Bugaboo Snowpatch col will require about a three pitch ice climb to get to and any rocks coming off the Kain route will funnel right down the rap route. The heat in July and August will make for a dangerous fall season up there. (NPI) And don't feel bad about backing off on Kain, on the way back through Roger's Pass we got scared off of Uto by some clouds and had to down-climb past another party on the way up as we (sheepishly) bailed. Glad to here you were able to salvage something out of your trip.

The climbers in the picture are M. Spagnut and K.Lang doing the first ascent of Bugaboo Crack. (taken July 20,2003) Route info was found here... http://bivouac.com/PhotoPg.asp?PhotoId=4132 and here... http://www28.brinkster.com/mspagnut/snesak_bugaboo.asp

I tried and I tried, but it wouldn't attach. Here it is inlined.

The climbers I saw, and not until after I'd taken the photo, are highlighted here. The belayer is in shorts, and the climber hasn't left the ground. Not sure what Dru is seeing...

Just got back from a fantastic tour of the classic routes in the Bugs. We did McTech Arete, Kain Route on Bugaboo and the W. Ridge of Pigeon. I'll be comparing everything to Bugs quality granite now, so I'm fucked. Weather has been super stable for weeks so the hut was a zoo around the weekends but there is plenty of room for everyone on the climbs. Getting up a bit early will get you to most routes before anyone else. By the time you get there, they will have the new elaho guide to the area at the hut (to buy), they currently have a printer's proof that's getting a lot of use and is very accurate, showing new rap chains and better descent beta. It makes the new "Bugaboo Rock" look like crap, and I gather the new edition was rushed out in order to beat the elaho guide to press The condition of the glacier to the Bugaboo-Snowpatch col is deteriorating fast. There is bare ice, the bridge over the schrund is going fast and (more worrisome) the crevasse at the bottom is opening up. Last week we saw a couple of postholes into the abyss that were made late in the afternoon; by unroped parties The Applebee and Boulder campgrounds are open and being used for 5 bucks Cdn. The Applebee will save you some slogging before and after the vast majority of climbs but the Boulder camp is nicer with more private sites and softer tent pads. The hut is heavily booked, so get a reservation and bring your receipt. The system of telling the custodian who's coming is imperfect so he may not know how many reservations he's got. The hut contains all cooking/eating utensiles, and has a toaster and coffee maker (bring basket filters and be prepared to hike out the grinds) but no microwave. The electricity goes out a lot, (every night) but there is propane stove and lighting so it's no problem. (so don't bring a stove, pots, cups, forks spoons etc.) We arrived without chicken wire, but got the last available so I might be tempted to bring my own. Once we hiked out there was a car load of day hikers who required our parking spot and our chicken wire. As for the climbing, it's stellar but busy on the popular lines. Looking over from a few pitches up McTech we saw about 10 parties on the NE Ridge of Bugaboo. There were no fewer than 15 people on the west ridge of Pigeon (midweek) when we were there but we were ahead of everyone so get up early and you'll have no problems. We did the Kain route on Wednesday, started early and only saw one other party, but that one will bottleneck at the gendarme pitch so I'd go very early if it's busy.

Here's a pic I took up there Sunday, can you spot the climbers? Any idea what they're on?

Okay, so here's the deal. Walk out of the airport in Bangkok, continuing past the expensive guys offering you rides to a metered taxi stand outside. Say to a driver "Kao San Road", this is a code word they will understand fully. After a short drive your driver will stop. Get out, find a room, have a beer, meet some backpackers etc... Next day, get a tuk tuk to the Southern Bus terminal and hop a bus to Krabi. From there, (bus station in Krabi) arrange travel to Rai Ley; some dude at a 'travel agency' there can set this up (ride to Ao Nang, long tail boat to Rai Ley). Once at Rai Ley, all will be revealed to you. Endless, dripping, limestone walls and deserted pristine, white sand beaches. Your basic tropical paradise with tons of sport climbing, beach volleyball and other stuff too.

You're not alone in having the Grim Reaper as a 'not yet' climb. It also appears on this page. 'The Dirty Dozen: Climbs that scare me' page. A weird cosmic convergence occurred on the Squamish Buttress a couple of weeks ago. My partner and I were waiting on the ledge below the crux with a bunch of other parties, and the author of the dirty dozen climbs was there. I know this because he was wearing the same tights as he was here. Another party included a couple of old guys, one of which turned out to be Neil Bennet; first ascentionist of the Grim Reaper. At this point in my climbing carreer, my 'not yet' list is too lame to publish.