ivan

Climbing a route with significant exposure that you can't see because of whiteout conditions like on Sunday qualifies as hardman in my book. alright, sweet, then i've arrived! and i thought i was climbing in such style just 'cuz i'm really stupid...wow, wait! maybe being a hardman just means you're really dumb - but does that mean, by making such an inductive feat of strength, that i've ruined my standing again?

Post deleted by To_The_Top

in a similiar vein, belaying joshk with the rope running over my leg when he decides to go over to simply jugging the line - incapable of getting the line off my leg nearly my entire lower body goes to sleep - months later i can still barely feel my pee-pee

the cooper spur's hardly a hard man route (see 1890-ish picture of dozens of women climbing it in skirts w/ alpenstocks) it was eerie adn cool to see ya'll emerging out of the fog as we left the summit - i was very surprised to see anyone coming up from the s side at all - i think maybe the whiteout started sooner and much lower on the n side of the hill.

the north face definitly is still in business, and looks a good deal easier now than in prime fall-conditions. the 'schrund lower down looks passable in 2 spots, and the upper mountain is very well covered in snow. i'd be damn certain the avy conditiosn are good and the weather's not too warm before getting in those tight gullies! also, there's an amazing ice flow currently formed on the cooper spur, well before the upper floes like coconut slurpee, etc. looks like 2-3 pitches of awesome ice.

i'm there thursday. 8 stitches...hmm, interesting route name - i think i only managed 4 or 5 on it meself.

of course, there are many paths to mecca....

nice, man...though your pic don't look much better than when we wandered up there at the beginning of last winter!

Climb: That Real Big Fucker in Oregon-Cooper Spur Date of Climb: 4/24/2005 Trip Report: jlag and i were suffering from a nasty case of SAD (severe alpine deficiency) lately, and even as the weather forecast appeared to blow goats we saddled ourselves with the obligation to go get stormed on somewhere. hood seemed a much shorter drive then anywhere else for hanging out in the rain and snow, so we met at the tilly jane trailhead at saturday at noon - he driving from the desert through the monsoon rains, me along the aquous track from vancouver. appropriately for such a quixotic mission (forecast for rain and clouds all weekend) we both arrived independently in a gibbering, incoherent, thc-inspired narco-frenzy. we did a final pack in the weeping skies, paid yet another homage to bob marley, and set off up the trail. little traffic on the t.j trail, 'cept a few fat families and an even fatter weiner dog (or daschund as at least 5 americans insist on calling them). some folks appeared to in the lodges near t-line. rain continued to the bottom of the elliot moraine, where it began to clear. the rest of the day was amazing - no more rain, breaking clouds, the summit began to appear infrequently. we pushed all the way up to 9k and set up camp. by this time the summit was entirely clear and the winds were calm. wild views of jefferson embattled w/ thick lenticulars streaming east, dyed a deep golden yellow in the late day sun. some food, a few laughs, and off to sleep, though it was hard in my super light-weight bag to stay toasty, and the bright beams of the full moon illuminating the tent and the ocean of clouds just below us outside. overslept sunday - never heard the alarm go off. managed to start climbing by 645 in changing weather - winds on the summit and occasional wisps of clouds became stronger winds, blowing light snow, and complete whiteout an hour later. the footing became more solid at least by 10k, and having climbed the route once before i was able to make out the best way up in the soup. topping out was comical - all of sudden it was flat, but visually nothing looked any different. we chilled at the summit for a few minutes, did some screeching, then headed back down even as we saw 3 ghostly images emerging from the south side. the descent was more enjoyable. walking face-first felt fucking eerie - w/ no perspective on the all-white slope i felt constantly like i was on the verge of tumbling over head-first down into the void and down onto the elliot. at one point we diverged from our earlier tracks to avoid a very icy/rocky patch w/ a lot of exposure, but now in the soup i began to feel ill-at-ease - my brain refused to accept the lack of visual data and began to envision the most inspired hallucinations - the occasional small rock 5 feet away looked like a massive cliff 100 yards off, were we too far right? or shit, did we accidentally cross our erased track and are we on the verge of tumbling down the coconut cookie-crumble? in the end, relying on my altimeter worked like a charm. continued downhill to 9k, then began traversing at the altitude until we stumbled exactly onto the tent (a most excellent shade of white, i might add). the rest of the day was an amazing homage to gonzo-mountaineers everywhere; total reduction to a primitive, paranoid personality - a human trail-eating machine fueled by little more than smoke and mp3s. the clouds broke around timberline but then we were back in the rain - didn't encounter a soul till we hit the cars. fantastic weekend, everything i wanted it to be. not a vaunted route, no doubt, but given the many, many reasons for not even leaving the house, the car, or the tent, it was a distinct mental victory to have nailed it w/o incident. this was my first climb w/ jlag (yet another cc'fuck'n'josh!) and our moral limitations make for a distinct, productive team chemistry (pun accidentally intended). no pictures. if you feel you need one, open powerpoint, make a new slide, change the background to white, hit play, then press your eyeball right up to the screen. Gear Notes: we both soloed the route. in lieu of rope, harnesses, and pickets we just brought a second tool. if you fail to bring an axe and crampons 'cuz i didn't mention needing them you probably deserve to die. Approach Notes: the first half of the tj trail is snow-free, the next mile is quite icy. near t-line the snow is deep and soft but a good boot track is in. the elliot moraine is almost entirely bare. the upper spur is deep, but snowshoes made it a breeze.

fuck the piper and fuck you. i haven't complained about shit till now when i complain about comquat-fuck-nutz like yourself. i was looking to get info on options, not peanut-gallery comments from sell-out bitches. it wasn't that i was hoping i wouldn't get caught, it was me not giving a shit about getting caught. having been caught, i'm sorting out just how bad that can be. the piper isn't owed shit, though w/ a cannon-sized dick up my ass of course he can take whatever he wants...i'm glad you're so agreeable with that. hmmm, i think i need some coffee this morning...

soooo, you've managed 14 posts since the big meanies went away?

i read you matt, i was just looking to see if it was even an option. i love the irony of running afoul of the law in the very act of trying to spend time in a wild, lawless place maybe leon czolgosz was right? i doubt it...

da'lright, so are there any rule-conscious and kindly portland-ites who are equipped w/ a forest pass who want to help me in this subterfuge?

i'm surprised at neither but nonetheless indignant at both. still trying to figure out what kind of pass it was that i needed so i can work your sorcerous ways, lord williams anyone know what it was that i needed? nw forest pass? i've no real desire to drive back out there to find out...

funny to mention, but i spent most of my time that day on a trail off the backside of dog mtn that connects to gravel roads that follow the powerlines. went for a 15 mile run and spent only 4 or so of those miles on the dog mtn trail - the other 11 miles were either put in by a power compnay for their own profit on public land or were totally overgrown trail so thick w/ brush i pulled a half dozen ticks of me on the way home. i see no value in the parking fee - making a pull-off of the highway costs basically nothing, and so many people bash their way up that trail the trail makes itself. you'd think in a nation w/ an obesity epidemic we'd want to actually try encouraging fat-asses to get out in the woods and get some excercise.

does anyone know more about the fee they charge for hiking at dog mountain? is it in fact the new RAT fee, like the old fee demo fee?

Actually every night this week is bad for me, 'cept Friday, when i hope to be doing something real in the alpine. If anyone's interested in either dting or something more exciting then rock-turbating at rocky snatch, pm me.

so i didn't pay the parking fee at dog mtn last month; now i get a letter today from the united states district court telling me i have to show up in court next month for not paying (they will not accept payment, i must show up). i'm threatened with arrest if i don't show...well, actually my wife is, since i was driving her car. questions: 1. what the fuck? why the fuck are they wasting my time w/ this penny-ante shit? 2. anyone else gone the scoff-law route on this sorta thing and had their balls chopped off as a result? 3. this seems more serious then the kinda crap i've seen on the board from time to time. is the Man just getting frustrated over this inability to find osama thing and hoping they'll scoop him up by persecuting assholes like myself w/ a distaste for user fees on public lands? anyone looking for pro bono work out there?

i agree another show is in order, and we should try to get it done sooner rather than later as the summer seems a harder time to get the cats herded. we need a portlander to volunteer a home, and a day to do it too. i say we should do it friday...hopefully it'll be rainy as hell so no one will feel they're losing a climbing day...everyone else can limp off to smith w/ a raging hangover on saturday.

who showed? monday's just too damn hard a day to escape my familial duties (probably b/c i so thoroughly neglect them on the weekends). any lewd or lascivious behavior documented?

we throwing down this week?

well there wasn't much else to do on a very rainy saturday morning, so consuming a great deal of at 6 a.m. and manning a pair of binoculars sounded pretty damn exciting...i enjoyed meself and was impressed by the eagles we saw. i gather from bill that the rock stays closed regardless of what's observed, and that a single pair of falcons on big ledge have already been confirmed by a state biologist. i would presume they'll maintain the closure until the birds are removed from the threatened list.

hanna wins the best vocabulary word of the day award!

looked at it, thought about it, looked at my partner, thought about the unknown amount of icy scrambling to get off the upper part, did the traverse i'd never done before. don't regret it either - it is certainly very cool. next time i'd do another direct variant off to the right of the one we did. that fixed pin w/ the webbing and attached pulled pin is still there

pictures! guye in the mist sketchy third class on pitch 1 first piece of pro=shrub the good stuff - bob on the improbable traverse summit cheese and sweet views