Alpinfox

Climb: Smiff-Wartleys, Overboard, Morning Star, Heresy, et al Date of Climb: 3/19/2004 Trip Report: YO YO YO!!! MisterE and I managed to herd a couple of cats (Yos and GaperJeff) into the MisterE Van and rolled on South for a little Tuff Lovin' over a long weekend. Got down to Smiffy late on Thursday night so we could get an early start on MisterE's ultra-cool, ultra-secret, hush-hush new project. He cleaned it a bit and we each TR'd on it a bit and did some cleaning, but some gaper's were upset that we were dropping shit on their 5.9 wonder-climb, so we decided to cease and desist. Should be a good climb when it's finished though. We climbed some good schtuff, including "Overboard" which was one of my harder leads at Smith: MisterE must have been bored with the rock climbing at this point, because he climbed up this tree and we had a hell of a time getting him down. I don't know why he climbed up there. Maybe he was on drugs or something. He eventually collected himself enough to lead "Wartley's Revenge" by placing four pieces of pro and carrying a cooler full of beer to the anchors. He's got that climb wired. The promise of beer at the top was enough to motivate Yos to get up there in fine style: On Sunday Yos, GaperJeff, and I headed down to the gorge while MisterE went in search of unclimbed prana babes and tuff. I led "Morning Star" which thouroughly kicked my ass, and still felt hard even when I did it on TR. It's got lots of sharp, thin finger locks that you DO NOT want to fall on. It also has a really cool engraving in the basalt at the base of the climb: We headed home early on Sunday and entered some kind of worm hole, making it from Smiff to Seattle in just over 5hrs!!! WTF!?!?! I guess those portals in space/time open up for homies that be representin' Thanks to MisterE for the driving & evening's entertainment; thanks to GaperJeff and Yos for the rockin' company, great photos, and for putting up with the wiggers. Gear Notes: A laptop with DVD player in a VW vanagon = mobile cinema! Approach Notes: Yeah. Lots of snow.

Poke fun- that'th why I'm pothing. I figure if I thand up and take my thpray like a man, it'll therve ath a reminder to thome poor thucker in the future. I believe my role in thith life ith to therve ath a warning to otherth.

It's a beautiful place to be when the sun comes up.

Damn! OUCH! I'm really sorry to hear about that Squidy. That SUCKS! I walked around the Grasslands on Saturday night looking for you, did you rip out your chompers on Sat? Did you go to an ER or something in Bend? I hope you get better soon p.s. Why wouldn't this be covered under your dental/health plan? Seems like the sort of thing a decent plan like the UW provides would cover this sort of thing. On the bright side: You could be a convincing hockey player for halloween next year.

You're not 5'11" ChucK! Well, maybe with that fez on... We'll have to compare boufants at the next pubclub

Heya, I don't know shit about AT skis, but I want some and I need some advice from all you ultra-plab, BC, jibbers. I'm a pretty good downhill skier, so I'm not gonna be a total gumby. I hope to use them for stuff like going up St. Helens, Hood, Muir, Inspiration Glacier... dat kinda schtuff. What length/type/brand skis? I'm 5'11"/140lbs (skinny bastard) What kind of boots/bindings? Would JoshK's K2 Shuksans be a good setup for me? I'm definately looking to get used stuff as I am unemployed/poor/cheapskate, so if you have stuff to sell, don't expect big $$ from me. I'm hoping to score a good deal at the end of the season. I apologize if this question has been asked a million times.

Hey Billcoe, This is probably old news to you by now, but according to CptCaveman, the route has been retrobolted and isn't "R" anymore. Caveman's post

Damn Iain, you've been busy!

I'm not trying to defend CB here, I don't know her and wasn't that impressed with her at the slideshow she gave, but I don't think she is a "gaper" or a total newbie hack either. Yeah she might be a poseur type; trying to get some flattering climbing shots for her guiding brochures/website/whatever; but hey, she's got an image to present to potential clients, I can't condemn her for that. My guess is that she is probably a better than average climber. It takes more than just money to attempt K2. Anyway, I don't really care. Flame her if you wish. p.s. Ade, the CB slide show I saw had great pictures of Nepal, but her comments about the people/monastaries/cultural centers/etc left me feeling like she didn't know shit about the culture or the issues facing the local people. She said stuff like, "you don't want to overtip these people because you will spoil them... remember, they only make $300/year" (not verbatim). I've never seen Kitty Calhoun speak.

The attached picture is of Mr. Caveman on the traverse pitch (pretty sure...)

Oh OH! I know who she is! I'M SO COOOL!!! Christine Boskoff owns/operates Mountain Madness guiding company based in West Seattle. She's climbed several 8000m peaks and attempted K2 with Charlie Fowler, so I doubt she was sketchin' on a WI1 . She gave the second worst slide show I've ever seen.

Do what Lummox says. Aid climbing is the best way to learn about placing gear because you are placing a piece every 3ft and you put weight on every single piece. You will quickly learn what will stay put and what won't and how to place things so they are retrievable. I learned to place trad gear while doing easy free climbs and (since I didn't fall) never really tested my placements. Sure, I had my second inspect them visually and they passed that test, but I never felt that confident about my placements until I did a couple of pitches of aid. Then I felt like I knew what I was doing. If I had my learning to do over again, I would go aid climbing sooner. "City Park" at Index will teach you to place nuts well. Aid climbing as learning tool. Unfortunately, aid climbing a full pitch requires a lot of gear and some extra shizzle (aiders, daisies, fifi, etc) that you won't need for free climbing which makes it a bit more expensive, but it'll learn ya reeeeel good.

WOW! A rideshare to Smith leaving this evening and coming back Sunday night! That's fantastic! Looks like there is one more seat!!!

I think after he turned 12 he decided to find a new hobby.

"When you ride your bike, you're working your legs, but your mind is on a treadmill. When you play chess, your mind is clicking along, but your body is stagnating. Climbing brings it together in a beautiful, magical way. The adrenaline is flowing, and it's flowing all the time." — Pat Ament. "Climbing is the lazy man's way to enlightenment. It forces you to pay attention, because if you don't, you won't succeed, which is minor — or you may get hurt, which is major. Instead of years of meditation, you have this activity that forces you to relax and monitor your breathing and tread that line between living and dying. When you climb, you always are confronted with the edge. Hey, if it was just like climbing a ladder, we all would have quit a long time ago." — Duncan Ferguson.

WOOHOO! We got one victim! One more (for two groups of two) would be ideal, so speak up kids! Hey Distel, tell Orrin Hatch I said "hi"

Thanks for editting that Timmy. I'm not one that usually approves of censorship, but that was just dumb and gross.

NO! SMIFF!

Anyone from Bham or Seattle wanna go to Smith? C'mon! Quitcher job and go climbin'! The Mystery Wagon leaves Bham around 4pm on Thursday and leaves Seattle around 6pm. Returns on Sunday evening. C'mon! C'mon! C'mon! C'mon! C'mon! p.s. we could probably even pick up someone in PDX! You Vancouverites could meet MisterE in Bham and ride down from there! WHAT A DEAL!!! WOW!

Hi WBC, Welcome to cc.com. If you do a search for "Liberty Ridge" on this site you should find lots of info. Potterfield/Nelson's "Selected Climbs in the Cascades" has a good route description. I doubt anyone has been on the route yet this year; you'll probably have to wait another 6-8wks to get specific route condition info. Cheers.

Hey Will (or someone else with the info), When you know the time/location/charge for your slideshow at UW, please make a post in the "Events" forum.

Nope, that's not the booty I found, but I like Neutrinos so maybe I'll have to go back up there.

Sabertoothed, bug-eyed, three-toed

Thanks Klenke, YOU DA MAN!!! Annotated view to north of McClellan Butte