Alpinfox

[pm]Why don't you give me a call sooner and let me know what I should bring (food? gear?) besides the rope we discussed earlier and where/when we should meet.[/pm]

Even if you gotta carry da shizzle???

Note: I'm a vegetarian + fish-eater I think instant oatmeal has essentially zero value as fuel. I still take it on short winter trips because it is quick, warm, and easy, but I always have an energy crash about one hour later. If you can find them, instant grits are the SHIZNIT for breakfast. Make sure the ones you get are INSTANT because real grits take a lot of boiling time. Add butter and hot sauce (Franks is my favorite)! Any kind of pasta+cheese combo are great for dinner. Add foil-packaged tuna or smoked salmon for protein and gustatory delight! Put butter and cheese in everything. Miso soup is good. Chai tea is good. Lots of hot liquids are good good good. For lunches, bagels+cheese, powerbars or equivalent, etc. Deserts (DON'T OVERLOOK DESERT!) Instant pudding is good. Add powdered milk, water, stir, mmmmm... Candy (I really liked fruit-flavored Mentos when I was in AK for some reason???) Bring an assortment Buy a food dehydrator and you can make some really tasty+cheap stuff. Dehydrating a bunch of veggies (onions, peppers, etc) weighs nothing and adding them to pasta+cheese dishes makes things more interesting. Try things out at home before you go. NOLS says 2lbs total food/person/day which is generous. Gatorade powder Plain water gets old and you want to drink as much as possible. Sugar, electrolytes and yellow #5 will make this sometimes onerous task more pleasant. Do NOT take instant TVP chili, maybe just avoid TVP altogether :stinkyfartinggremlin:

"Return to the Womb" (10b) "Follow bolts up to a large hueco, where crawling inside it(!) provides a rest before the final steep section". We didn't get on that one - next time!

If they promise not to use a parachute that would be a good deal!

OK OK OK... You're right. It was a reasonable question. It does seem like lots of people don't use the Search function to its full potential though... Back on topic, I agree with Gene that the ice routes on Chair are probably gone for the year, but I haven't been up there in a couple of weeks. Anyone have any recent first hand beta for Mr. ClimberExtremeoMtDude?

Hey Mr.E, Is that Patch? I've never seen a real pic of him.

Minx, I'd say you should be able to climb the TumButt (hehehe) route with a very small rack, but keep in mind that it is a new route with quite a bit of lichen on it. The route does not follow a continuous crack system, so there might not always be a gear placement exactly when you want it, but it is low angle and has lots of steps. Take home message: It's easy climbing on licheny rock with sparse, but adequate (my opinion) protection. I led the second pitch and I placed two pieces of gear in 30m. I wasn't really looking to place more though... The best way to find the route is go to the gas station when you first come into leavenworth. Do a U-turn and go back west on Hwy2. Drive maybe an eighth to a quarter of a mile until you see a small pullout on the right side of the hwy that is big enough for two or three cars right at the base of the buttress. Park and hike up some talus (there is a trail) for a couple hundred vertical feet to an obviously stomped out belay platform. Rope up and scamper straight up the crest of the buttress. Routefinding is pretty straightforward (pretty much straight up the crest of the buttress), but right above the first anchor you want to go straight through the little roof thing. It's not really a "roof", but I don't know how else to describe it. This protects well with a small cam (I think I used a BD 0.5) and is easier than it looks. Maybe this route is in the new guidebook??? I don't know, I only have the old one. MisterE, Good to see you out there. You sure styled the wideness on "Meat Grinder"! I'm looking forward to our outing this weekend and will be free/ready to leave Seattle this evening!

On Tuesday we climbed at Alphabet Rock. The 10a face climb just right of Dogleg Crack (also good) is really nice with one delicate stemming/high reach move. The Z-crack is a brilliant climb though it was a little wet and sandy in the horizontal crack making up the top of the "Z". The arete climb on the far left of the crag called "Jaws of Life" has some wow-golly-gee-fun arete slapping on slightly overhanging terrain, but that isn't the crux! Oh no. The crux is the less-than-vertical blankness topping out above the arete. I couldn't figure it out. Good thing the esteemed Mr. Peru is back in fine ropegun form. We decided to finish off the climbing day with a romp up Tumwater Buttress. This is an easy (probably 5.5ish?) three-pitch route up the licheny, but otherwise pretty clean and solid buttress. It is in a very aesthetic spot; right above some largish rapids in the Wenatchee which drown out the highway noise nicely. BP and James on the route: With more traffic, this route will clean up nicely. It might take some patience to find gear placements, but the whole route is low angle and there are plenty of nice hands-free stances, so it might be a good beginner climb. The pitches are a FULL 30m, and you may even have to stretch the rope a bit on the first rappel. Anchors are 1/2-inch bolts with chains. Enjoy! James and his housemate Brian put us up for the night and we feasted , drank , , and listened to lots of . Thanks guys! On Wednesday BP and I headed to Trundle Dome. Lots of nice routes up there! We climbed Sonic Boom, Flake Fest, Hundred Dollar Dash, and April Mayhem - all fully deserving their two stars. Here is a picture of BP atop the aptly named, "piller de cowboy boot": After Trundle Dome we sat down by the river and had some lunch and chilled out a bit. Nice scenery: Overall it was a great couple of days climbing and I'm looking forward to getting out there again soon. Hopefully by that time my partner will have some new shoes:

Let's get down to brass tacks people - the important question here is do you put your belay biner through your belay loop or through both bands of your harness?

I searched for "Chair" in "Alpine Lakes" forum Last 3 years (beta from past seasons is valuable too) and selected "Show main post" only I got lots of results back, including this one which is probably the most relevant in this case: Heiny's TR 3/13/04 Do I have to do everything around here!?!?

Nifty feature of the website

Did someone say "highball"??? Ingredients: Whiskey and Ginger Ale. Directions: Mix in a tall glass with ice.

Stephen_Ramsey said: Wow Steve, you and I sure feel differently about "The Man" and the mountains. I hope there aren't a lot of people out there that feel the same way as you about wilderness/mountain access or we'll all be kissing our "privileges" goodbye in the near future.

Nope second one is also from the book "Axe Handles". That poem is actually part of a larger "poem medley" called "Little Songs for Gaia". Here is the eponymous poem from the book: Axe Handles One afternoon the last week in April Showing Kai how to throw a hatchet One-half turn and it sticks in a stump. He revalls the hatchet-head Without a handle, in the shop And go gets it, and wants it for his own. A broken-off axe handle behind the door Is long enough for a hatchet, We cut it to length and take it With the hatchet head And working hatchet, to the wood block. There I begin to shape the old handle With the hatchet, and the phrase First learned from Ezra Pound Rings in my ears! "When making an axe handle the pattern is not far off." And I say this to Kai "Look: We'll shape the handle By checking the handle Of the axe we cut with-" And he sees. And I hear it again: It's in Lu Ji's "Wen Fu", fourth centure A.D. "Essay on Literature" -in the Preface: "In making the handle Of an axe By cutting wood with an axe The model is indeed near at hand." My teacher Shih-hsiang Chen Translated that and taught it years ago And I see: Pound was an axe, Chen was an axe, I am an axe Any my son a handle, soon To be shaping again, model And tool, craft and culture, How we go on.

On Top All this new stuff goes on top turn it over turn it over wait and water down. From the dark bottom turn it inside out let it spread through, sift down, even. Watch it sprout. A mind like compost -Gary Snyder I dreamed I was a god last night. Melting the winter snows with my warm breath. Bending low over snowy mountains with the black sharp scattered fir and pine, breathing, "Haaaaaah" -Gary Snyder Both of the above poems are from a book called "Axe Handles". For those of you who don't know, Gary Snyder is a pacifc northwest native (though he currently lives in California) who did a lot of climbing and tromping around in the woods around here. He is the inspiration for the main character "Joffe" in Kerouac's "Dharma Bums".

John Muir - One of the first Americans to climb technically difficult routes for the thrill of climbing itself and experiencing the majesty of the mountains. One of John Muir's TRs Zebulon Pike - One of the first gapers Warren Harding - He was a heretic (bolt ladders!), but he sure was a visionary and very influential. John Bachar - first person (that I know of) to do technically hard free soloing. From the new school: Lynn Hill - Maybe the most talented all-around rock climber ever! And, she's a woman! Dean Potter - Soloing hard new mixed routes in patagonia! Chris Sharma & Tommy Caldwell - 5.15 I don't have a great depth of knowledge of climbing history like a lot of people on this website and I look forward to reading ya'll's responses! Good topic!

Cool! I graduated in 97, I think Squid graduated in 96. Small world! It sure has changed a lot since I graduated...

Hey Jon, How about making it so we can edit our photo gallery comments too! -AlpinWhiner

Cool! I'll be interested to hear your impressions. BTW: You are welcome to borrow any of the books I listed above. Here's a little something to bring back some fond (?) memories Iliad

BP! Index or Leavenworth sounds good to me for those days weather permitting.

I see someone else reads the NYT. Apparently Der Governator (Schwarzeneger) owns two of these things.

recommended Me Talk Pretty One Day - David Sedaris (laugh out loud funny, ) The Island Within - Richard Nelson (brilliant ecopoetic prose) Desert Solitaire - Edward Abbey (better than Monkey Wrench Gang ) Into the Wild - Krakhauer Ishmael - Daniel Quinn (the most poorly written good book ever) The Only Dance There Is - Ram Dass (Oh, I've said too much) The Human Zoo or The Naked Ape - Desmond Morris (Sociology) Catch22 - Joseph Heller (brilliant "pointlessness of war"-type book) The Family of Man - Time Life photography collection (very cool) Bugaboo Rock - Green & Benson (Faster Summer! Faster!) None of Chomsky's political books really stand out as being better than all the rest, but I have some you can borrow if you wish (Prosperous few and the restless many, Media Control: The spectacular achievements of propaganda, 911, maybe some others...) Anything by Ayn Rand, Franz Kafka, John Muir, or Jack Kerouac that you haven't read already And Squid! Maybe it's time to re-read the Iliad SHIT! I totally forgot about Tom Stoppard! Thanks Dru. I got a really cheap copy of the Bugs guide, but I'll look for that other one too. Arcadia - Tom Stoppard (my favorite play of all time) Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead - Tom Stoppard (also rent the movie! ) For the sake of brevity, my top two rec's are: Island Within Arcadia This was my 911th post and I recommended a book titled "911"

We here at cc.com have a policy of flaming anyone who lists their Ebay sales in our "Yard Sale". Consider yourself flamed and take that shit to rockclimbing.com.

You are going to climb Rainier right? Assuming you are going to be climbing in May/June, you won't need most of that really warm stuff (fleece pants, 0deg bag, big down parka) and you'll probably be happier with lighterweight stuff like leather boots instead of plastics and alluminum vs. steel crampons, etc.