Alpinfox

Climb: Dragontail-Backbone Ridge with Fin Date of Climb: 9/8/2004 Trip Report: Skyclimb and I made quick work of the hike up to Colchuck Lake on Tuesday afternoon. His 8-mile/4000' hikes to his job in MRNP have made the youngster lean and fit and pretty hard for an "old-timer" such as myself to keep up with. We arrived at the lake expecting to see a whole gang of cc.comers since it was Tuesday night and I had suggested Colchuck Lake as this week's pub club location. To our surprise, there was only one guy laying out in his sleeping bag surrounded by about a dozen MSR fuel bottles and he didn't seem amused when we yelled "HORSECOCK!" at him, so I guess he wasn't a cc.comer. Worst turnout for pub club ever! Since no one showed up for the , we decided to climb Backbone Ridge the next day to salvage something from this wasted trip to the lake. We hiked to the far end of the lake and nestled into a nice sandy spot between some RV size boulders. It seemed like a nice spot, and we ate dinner and enjoyed the evening light show on the north faces of Colchuck and Dragontail. We tried to scope out our route as best we could, but ended up saying, "we'll figure it out when we get up there". North Face of Dragontail: Our approximate route: We spent the night battling off an army of snaffles that seemed intent on running across our faces and sniffing our ears. Fortunately for me they seemed to like Skyclimb better, so I mostly got to laugh at all his spastic kicking and cursing. We woke up at 4am and decided it was too damn early, so we laid around and discussed cosmology and big bang theories until after 5am. Skyclimb then broke the stove, so there would be no warm breakfast for us. We left our bivy shortly after 6am and had some wonderful sunrise views on our approach up the talus field: The approach scrambles and traversing went quickly and easily, and before you could say, "Dude, you're leading the off-width" we were at the base of the "crux" of the route. Fortunately, a kind friend had loaned the "big green off-width machine" to me, so Skyclimb would not have to solo the wideness: *note the bloody hand from bludgening several snaffles to death during the previous night. Skyclimb was masterful on the offwidth. "The key is to bury your leg up to yer nutz and cam your thigh into the crack. It's like you're makin' sweet sweet love to the granite". Yeah, whatever dude: Random nice view of Colchuck and the glacier (name?): After the awful-width, some really nice face climbing took us to the crest of the ridge: A bit of simulclimbing later and we were at the base of The Fin at noon. Certainly not superfast, but we thought we were doing OK. "Man, only three or four pitches and we're off this mother!" This is where things started to get more difficult. Row after row of clouds were forming off to the southwest and blowing across the summit a little faster than I would have liked. Nothing too serious, but definitely something to keep an eye on. Skyclimb led out right on the prominent ledge system along the base of the fin: I then climbed a shallow finger crack to the top of a large block sticking out of the amazingly smooth slabiness of face of The Fin. This block is visible in the previous picture directly above Skyclimb's head. From there, Skyclimb led up an arching-to-the-left layback flake back to the lefthand side of The Fin. Skyclimb starting that pitch: I then climbed a finger crack around a roof/bulge and back onto the face of The Fin following a wildly exposed traversing crack. About 30m out, I stopped at the base of a clean wide crack that led back up to the crest of The Fin. Nick led up this (we took the "Big Green Machine" out of the pack for this) and gave out a blood-curdling scream of joy upon reaching a thank-god hold after running it out past some wideness that was even too wide for the #5. I thought a stowaway snaffle in his shorts had suddenly come to life and bitten him or something. Freaky. I joined him on the crest of The Fin and then led another airy foot traverse with no hands while placing gear at my ankles. This was the scariest "low 5th" climbing I have ever done. Finally I reached a notch in the crest of The Fin and stepped around the corner to a ledge system. WHEW! We then dropped down into the incredibly loose and shitty gully that makes up the top of the Triple Couliors route. I pulled a nice 50lb chunk of granite embedded in sand down onto my shin just for fun at this point. I'm glad my foot wasn't firmly planted or it probably would have broken my leg. As we reached the top of the gully, the rain started. Skyclimb pointed at the final scramble to the summit and said, "Dude?". With rain dripping off my helmet, I replied, "fuck that, let's get out of here". Skyclimb, ever the optomist and cowboy until the end said, "DUDE!". How could I argue? We sprinted to the summit and snapped a couple of pictures: The rain, cold wind, the lateness of the day (6pm) and our lack of any rain shells or bivy gear gave us a great deal of motivation to get the hell out of dodge, so we ran down the descent trail, quickly strapped on our crampons and traversed across the grey ice of the ??? glacier back to terra firma. Tennis shoes and aluminum crampons were not the ideal footwear for this section, but they worked. We descended Asgard pass, only getting off-route 7 or 8 times (stay skier's right!), picked up our stuff at Colchuck Lake, and arrived at the car after 18 hours on the go. "Just another day in the hillz" Gear Notes: single set nutz, cams to BD #2, two BD #3.5, and a "big green offwidth machine" aka BD #5, single 60m rope, crampons, no axes, no bivy sax or tent, no rain gear. Approach Notes: EZ

Yup. I have a 1L platy that is dedicated to red wine. Those fucks at Bumbershoot tried to take it from me, but I gave them "what for".

Cool! Can you really see Stuart from Icicle ridge?

I just got a rejection email today. Thanks for rubbing it in Dave. Michael, Those climbs look good, but I'm interested in something more local (easy day trip) for tomorrow. I've done a lot of driving recently. I've gotten a few PMs (amazing!), and to clarify: I'm interested in rolling out of Seattle around 11 or noon and climbing until 6 or 7. Anything from 5.8 to 5.11- would be fine with me. Cheers ya'll.

I think I'd like to do some craggin' tomorrow. Index or X32, your choice. I'm a little sore from my adventures of the last two days, so keepin' it mellow with some beginner-friendly climbs would be fine.

Mikey, Let me know if you wanna hit Index tomorrow. Holland/Arms? Where are you now anyway? Bham?

Did you file a police report? I know, you say, "WHY BOTHER"? But, I had a bunch of shit stolen from the Apron lot and the crooks kept the obviously valuable stuff (my girlfriend-at-the-time's credit cards, cash, etc) but threw the backpacks and climbing gear on the side of the road somewhere. Three days after getting back to Seattle, I got a call from the RCMP. "We found your stuff, give us your address and we'll pay for the postage to mail it to you"

Critters Buggin' was the place to be during the Pixies.

I'll keep an eye out fer ya!

Yes, I'm trying very hard. Next thing you know I'll be putting up 5.10x routes and airing my sexual frustrations on a climbing chat board.

Ah yes... lack of wife/chillens = license to be reckless. I better while I'm still a free man. I was chided this weekend for not putting in any pro on a 5.0 pitch. So it begins...

A lot of my climbing trips are organized in the following manner: RING!!! "Yo?" "Dude, lets go climb the west ridge of stuart!" "OK, I'll be at your place in 30 minutes" "Check" "Bye" So if I had to write up a detailed summary of route/times/contingency plans etc. for every climb, it would really cut into my productivity, not to mention my beer drinking time.

You got some big feet... or at least a big left foot. Identify this shoe (size and model) and it's yours. Send me a PM (preferred) or an email: Alpinfox AT Yahooooooooooo Dot Com

Ben says, "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. "

Ducks are funny. And an "all-purpose" duck? Well that's just comedic genius.

"Fred said 'No'" an Alpinfox/MisterE original route with thanks to DavidW for the name.

Best place I've been this season was the approach to North Twin Sister. That was huckleberry heaven, but that was about 3 weeks ago. Can anyone here explain how to tell the difference between blue huckleberry, red huckleberry, and cascade blueberry? I've heard/seen different explanations. If you want blackberries, can't beat the local Seattle parks: Discovery, Magnuson, Seward, greenlake, burke-gilman etc. p.s. And why is it I see wild strawberry PLANTS everywhere, but NEVER see an actual STRAWBERRY?!??! Do the get them all when they are small/green?

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Are you nizzutz? They been ripe fer da pickin fer weeks.

21198posts/1305 days = 4.5121 X 10^-3 Hz Fortunately for all of us, this is well below the threshold for human hearing. Stay tuned for the next transmission!

I agree with Greg. Since the publication of "Silent Spring" scientists have become increasingly aware of the negative impacts of technology upon the environment and have chosen to study environmental science/fisheries/forestry/etc with the goal of making positive changes from within the establishment. This is a good thing. I believe that the vast majority of these scientists are ethical and perform objective science, but the subjects they choose to study are directed by their philosophical bent. So, to rephrase Greg's quote: " Global warming, deforestation, pollution, ozone depletion, loss of species diversity, depletion of natural resources, loss of habitat, etc are happening. What you do with the information is up to you - believe, don't believe; It doesn't matter to me [actually it does matter to me], nor does it negate the fact that it's happening.

The president proposes legislation and budgets that are passed into law by congress; thereby "making" law and budgets. Semantics. duh. The president also appoints people to run agencies like the EPA and FDA. The people that the Bush administration has appointed to lots of those posts are former lobbyists FOR THE INDUSTRIES THEY ARE SUPPOSED TO REGULATE. This is giving the fox the keys to the chicken coop. I'll loan the book to you when I'm done Greg. SHOW ME THE MONEY! Sources of Bush's campaign contributions and the benefits those c¾ðOibutors recieved

I'm really looking forward to reading this. From Amazon.com: Editorial Reviews Book Description In this powerful and far-reaching indictment of George W. Bush's White House, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., the country's most prominent environmental attorney, charges that this administration has taken corporate cronyism to such unprecedented heights that it now threatens our health, our national security, and democracy as we know it. In a headlong pursuit of private profit and personal power, Kennedy writes, George Bush and his administration have eviscerated the laws that have protected our nation's air,water, public lands, and wildlife for the past thirty years, enriching the president's political contributors whilelowering the quality of life for the rest of us. Kennedy lifts the veil on how the administration has orchestrated these rollbacks almost entirely outside of public scrutiny -- and in tandem with the very industries that our laws are meant to regulate, the country's most notorious polluters. He writes of how it has deceived the public by manipulating and suppressing scientific data, intimidated enforcement officials and other civil servants, and masked its agenda with Orwellian doublespeak. He reports on how the White House doles out lavish subsidies and tax breaks to the energy barons while excusing industry from providing adequate security at the more than 15,000 chemical and nuclear facilities that are prime targets for terrorist attacks. Kennedy reveals an administration whose policies have "squandered our Treasury, entangled us in foreign wars, diminished our international prestige, made us a target for terrorist attacks, and increased our reliance on petty Middle Eastern dictators who despise democracy and are hated by their own people." Crimes Against Nature is ultimately about the corrosive effect of corporate corruption on our core American values -- free-market capitalism and democracy. It is about an administration, the author argues, that has sacrificed respect for the law, public health, scientific integrity, and long-term economic vitality on the altar of corporate greed. It is a book for both Democrats and Republicans, people like the traditionally conservative farmers and fishermen Kennedy represents in lawsuits against polluters. "Without exception," he writes, "these people see the current administration as the greatest threat not just to their livelihoods but to their values, their sense of community, and their idea of what it means to be American."

Sort of true. Cold air is denser (more moles of gas/volume), but it is still 21% oxygen. Seasonal changes in average barometric pressure are pretty much insignificant and are overshadowed by more acute weather patterns. Table of monthly barometric pressure averages for various places in Oregon Basic info on barometric pressure with a cool global map of average barometric pressures by month *check out how much the pressure over antarctica changes with season!

[sarcasm] Yes, obstructing traffic for a political motive is wrong and ineffective[/sarcasm] Might be time for some of ya'll to read "civil disobedience".