ivan

yup - man, i remember doing that bowl in the bone-dry days of august and being mildly freaked by the total lack of protection - doing that in the soaking wet? yoowza!

you mean you don't put your crampons on for that part in the summer?!?

no worries - it's the interweb, which is basically thunderdome - i like wearing my tina turner outfit! shit - if you've seen the peaks lately and they look clean, then you'll most likely find the route in summer shape - if you're a strong, competent climber then soloing the traverse is not unreasonable - the crux is def getting out of the notch between the n and middle peaks - i woulda been really scared soloing it, as it's kinda crumbly and steep w/ a dickload of exposure - i'd go prepared for a bivy somewhere though, unless you're colin-fast - the days are short now and again, the descent is tricky, tricky and i doubt i could do it in the dark it's an awesome route, so def do it sometime - then the ne butt of jo'burg, then nooksack tower for the bushwacker trifecta!

i recommend campolybacter - got it round colchuck lake a few years ago - cheaper than acid and lasts a hell of a lot longer! high fever for days and what my ass was doing was more like class 9+ on that pg 1 scale

i've done the traverse and would be skeptical of soloing it at the moment w/o getting to give it a good stare down first - while it's not technically all that hard, many portions could be scarey if lightly covered in crappy snow/ice. colin did the full traverse last winter, look for his tr. don't minimize this climb b/c it's near the road - it's a real deal grade v, and the descent (at least if tryign to do it in the clouds like we did) is not at all easy or strait-forward.

who needs water when you can drink coke?!?

hey, i remember being in on that! the nice thing about that setup is you can also then just bring the 32 degree bag even in the dead of winter, 'cuz it'll be so toasty anyhow

Yes. It is always dry enough for the corner. Good thing about Beacon.....it is in the gorge and its windy in the gorge....so it dries quicker. That is my experience. i wouldnt' imply from that though that the corner is always dry - it was damn sodden on sunday, kinda like climbing a waterfall if the tap had just been turned off on it - it's an easy enough climb though that it can be managed in just about any conditions

i'd trade the temp for the dryness! felt like climbing a vertical frozen sidewalk on sunday.

almost, but not quite, completly unlike whitney houston

long way to walk for so little climbing in an area w/ a dense collection of routes - guess if you just have a long weekend....it was a stellar place to spend a week for sure though!

is it really that new a thing, the president disregarding the constitution and the rule of law? didn't president jackson say, after the supreme court told him that the cherokee nation had a right to their property and could not be forced to move, "they have made their decision, now let's see them enforce it?" that was a 170 years ago, and shows, then as now, that if no one gives a shit (especially if the people getting fucked are people the general public could give a shit about), the man who holds the bat gets to do as he pleases

dan - i'm sure it'll be stupid wet, but hey, it's the pacific northwest baby! sounds like more than a few folks will be out there - i'll be there round 9 w/ my friend mike - likely go up the corner, then lower down to do the upper pitches of flying swallow, then whatever tomfoolery seems right afterwards - if you can't find anyone else needing a second on the ground, bring a rope and you can tag along...

it helps if you're too stupid to be properly afraid

hell, i had that very issue w/ a pretty big-name climber on this board, after driving 3 hours north too - w/o a damn word either - luckily i had brought stuff for a solo outing. you only get to do that kinda shit once.

now do you see? do you see, larry, what happens when you fuck a complete stranger in the ass!?!

ahhh, rainy saturday morning existentialism!

now that's fucking funny! long before i learned it's true name, i was calling it "the dog pound" after that most notable of landmarks

3 can keep a secret...

cool - lets make it happen - or does this mean i have to watch 3000 lbs of moss and carpet flying off into the abyss all day again?

snow shoes are critical to big stupid fools like me that can't ski & are a menace to everything between the heavens and earth on the rare occasions that we do strap them on

just look out for the fucking poison fucking fucking fucking oak!!! feel free to napalm all vegation in the process

hey, it'll only be kinda really damp - oughta be super-fun anyhow though! lap up the se corner? maybe the steep stuff will be vaugely dry? hell, aid climbing if nothing else! sharpen your alpine-adverse-condition-climb'n-skillz to a keen edge!

hmm, it'll have to be more like a counter-counter-counter revolution or somethign - there's more than a few going in all kinda gaddam directions! and on that note - hey, it'll be kinda dry sunday - who wants to run some beacon laps in the damp w/ me?!?

you would too if your fawk'n belly had grown big enough to hold a full term grizzly bear cub interesting contrast in singing abilities there...