Alpinfox

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

"Oh shit! Did I leave the oven on?" After a quick stop in North Bend to call my housemates and ask them to make sure I had turned the oven off this morning, I continued merrily onward, with renewed faith that my house would not be a smoking crater upon my return. Left the trailhead around 10:30 and hustled up the trail to around 3000' where I cut right (west) to the base of the couloir. I had been hoping that the cool, cloudy conditions present in Seattle would be in effect up at Snoqualamie Pass today and provide me with some nice firm snow, but the snow was soft and I had to posthole up about 500' until I found Toast, et al's boottrack. Made quick progress from there to the base of the rocky summit block and then scrambled directly up the North ridge (staying just left - east - of the crest) and reached the summit at 1PM. Found some good booty at the top, just before the north ridge flattens out - describe it and provide me with some or sexual healing and I might give it back. I suppose you could do some 5.6 climbing on the summit block if you wanted to (off to the right from the top of the couloir) but going directly up the north ridge (the way the faint tracks went) was no more than 4th class. Had some OK views from the summit. I could only see the bottom half of Rainier , but the views to the north were nice. Hopefully ya'll can name some of these peaks: I had originally planned to descend the couloir, but decided to do something a bit different and went off to the west. After some fun glissading, I ended up on the logging roads and motocross/Mtn bike trails that criscross all over the west side of that mountain. Found lots of redneck shooting galleries including one very shot-up wheelchair. WTF!?!? I like to think that someone was celebrating their recent rehabilitation from some handicap (maybe Binny Hinn healed them!), but it was probably just some average troglodyte stupidity. Scouted out some spots that might make for some decent (by Exit 38 standards) bolted sport climbs... Anybody have a drill and wanna get bizzy? Fun romp! Don't need snowshoes. Bring crampons (alluminum would be fine), one ice axe, maybe a second tool if you want. Ropes, partners - your choice. Remember to turn the oven off before you leave the house. Cheers All

Thanks for sharing! I'm a little surprised that you are so upset about not summiting. It's quite common - especially in winter - and not a big deal. Have patience young jedi You'll get up there next year if it's important to you. Cheers!

Nice Heiny! Do you know what time you were on the summit and back at the car? How many raps did you do?

Nice TR Fern!

I think I'm going to be at Smith from Friday night until Monday evening this weekend. Probably staying in the Grasslands in the vicinity of a white Vanagon pop-top. YEEEHAW!!! Next weekend is still open.

I ain't yer bitch, bitch! Listen you tutu-wearin daisy pickers, lets make some climbing plans eh? I got ideas, I got schemes, I got da widgets, let's get on some shizzle!

In the photo gallery you can see the TRUE number of posts of a certain cc.com denizen.

Those may be some of the most chopped/replaced bolts anywhere in the PNW. I don't understand why anyone wants to chop those bolts, but if you wanna TR that route, just bring an extra rope (or a LONG piece of webbing/cordelette) and rig a toprope from the tree about 20' back from the edge.

Met MisterE in the Index lot on a beautiful, sunny, Saturday morning and got some "peaches" in. First we did GM, with the 10b handcrack variation on the third pitch. Me leading the variation: That handcrack is fantastic! From the anchors atop that pitich we toproped "Phone Calls from the Dead", but we both got shut down by the 11a/b mantle just below the chains. MisterE then led "Sagiscarius": which was a first time for me, but old hat for the seasoned MisterE. He led it in fine style, though he left a good portion of his rack on the ground, forcing him to stop at the second anchor. So we missed out on about 20ft of steep hand crack bidness, oh well. I led the first pitch of Japanese Gardens next and got spanked on the upper wide crack because I didn't think of LAYBACKING! Laybacking on lead is weird, and I usually try to avoid it, but it seems the best approach on that pitch. We then met up with SpecialEd and GaperJeff who had a TR set up on Zoom. MisterE and I each took a ride and then we all retreated to the parking lot for ceremonial beers and mosquito sacrifices (yes, they have arrived). Thanks to MisterE, SpecialEd, and GaperJeff for a great day!

Nice iain.

That last pic is great! Doesn't look much like a couloir though... Nice work!