ivan

almost climbed that whole damn thing last night...kinda like almost getting laid...the joy of anticipation...blue balls never tried it before, and was all by my lonesome on a very dark evening...can't believe how much hood's changed in the 2 weeks since i was last there....last time i saw i-rock there was what looked to be a continous snowfield to the top ridge, now there's just a big gully that ends in a wall, with a bunch of overhanging crap snow high up ...tried 2 gullies at the end of the main one, but each time ended up in 5th class stuff that, alone, in the dark, and in crampons brought out the think what ultimately turned me around was pulling lightly on this massive grey handhold, it popping off under only 5 pounds of pressure, then falling a foot before catching myself...got higher by taking the first gully to the right after entering the main gully, and reached the snowfield at the top, but it was overhanging the rock and had no holding power under tools...eventually i just circled around to illumination gap, scrambled up the rocks to the base of the wall right beneath the summit, decided shit looked really cool from that vantage point anyway, decided i had no desire to join the congo line of headlamps making there way up the hill, and took a nap for an hour...woke up and now i'm at work...swell so does i-rock usually go as a winter climb when there's more snow and ice holding the thing together? i've yet to see any route descriptions on it, but i'm sure the oregon high book must have them...

for what it's worth i went over to climb max in portland yesterday with me size 13.5 koflach verticale and xl mountain hardware overboots...spent an hour trying on every brand of crampoon in the store (no small number)...nothing worked...the overboots simply put too much material over the lock points on the toe and heel to work w/ any clip-ons, and strap ons just couldn't cut it either... the whole combination is so bulky that most crampons couldn't fit over the heel section...one solution sort of worked , but they were very weak crampons (10 very baby looking points ) and it would have required extending the strap another 12 inches perhaps this is why the overboots were on sale for 35$ ? no motherfucker in the universe could find shit to put over them? shame....

excellent time last night, me still belly full w/ 10 lbs of raw meat...thanks for hosting chris last call on a hood climb 2night...come on you fuckas, you got better things to do then sleep

to prepare i've already consumed 3 large bran muffins...i plan on drinking a big cup of espresso before leaving for the part-tay to get things moving too

can't say that i disagree w/ rob...slogging uphill on the wonderfully compact groomed slopes is like already having pulled off satan's pants...might as well seal the deal, no? the real question is whether you can smoke out the cat cab...man, every time i'm sweating it uphill and see those fuckers roll past i KNOW they gotta be up to their eye-balls in good times (and a fine reason to give'em a wide berth)

believe i can handle one a dem thangs

i'll bring my award winning personality and ever-suffering wife (someone's gotta drive home)

5.10 is moderate? jesus, i'm in the ultra-wanker class...

i have a solution to our problem: canada yeah, it's been far too long since we had a good war w/ those pesky northern folks w/ all their maple syrup and fucking "eh"s...it shouldn't be a long war, not much longer than the persian gulf distraction at any rate...when it's done, herd 'em into special hockey based concentration camps to repay our debts by wearing skates and beating the shit out of one another on national television...now they're outta the back country and we get all that space to trash to our heart's content...if we want to preserve that quaint leavenworth feel we can rename everything to fit our faux-bavarian proclivities...might make the timber folks around here happy too whaddya say...who wants to start the canadian wmd-connection rumor going so we can get the docile, apathetic non-climbing masses behind our little plan?

can anyone verify if the road's still closed?

i find myself rather, uh, limited by the diameter of the 16 ounce bottle....maybe a mickey's bottle would work just as well?

Post deleted by Lambone

i need a pair that will fit on over my big clown boots (size 13.5) and overboots...anybody got a brand to recommend? grivel's only go up to size 12....

but wouldn't this violate the ethic of self-suficiency, to show up for the big game so woefully undersupplied?

it ain't easy when you just a poor white boy from the deep south shit, denali time is close...reckon i better start shaking the bushes for the rasta bivi kit soon...looks like i might need extra for the flight in now

this makes me feel rather wierd...mostly because me and my buddy had already hired her for our flight into kia in just 2 weeks (maybe going later in the season paid off)....my friend aarash spoke very highly of her after meeting her on his denali climb last year, sounds like she was indeed a very cool chick...my regrets to all who knew her.

ja, wendsday or thursday be better... i got a big backyard but doubt anyone would be interested in having a bbq here b/c: a. it's in the 'couv b. i have no grill c. the grass is balls deep on the plus side, i do have a cyclindrical glass object which holds water and facilitates a magical healing process...also there's a shitload of space and i've yet to piss my neighbors off as much as i want to

only godless heathens drink on tuesdays... ...so what time?

the only rock we encountered was the last 2 feet to the summit...a most difficult lieback my favorite part of this trip, besides the swamp feet and the big slide that wiped out our trail about 2 minutes before we reached it, had to be doing the entire walk out on 1 granola bar and 4 chips ahoy cookies...the miserable slog out proved the immense value of an mp3 player...i think "tool" was not quite what i needed running through my head at the time though...bjork on the other hand oh yes, discovering at jack-off-in-the-box while eating a taco that i had somehow sunburned my tongue was enjoyable too fuck, what an awesome place...don't anybody else go there

ummm, cuz i can't ski and have no ski gear? i'll take freebies in both categories for those who are abhored to watch a normal biped do his thang...

actually running the groomed stuff w/ crampons on was a blast this morning...think it only took about 15 minutes to go from the top of the lift to the car...the mp3 player was a must here hope the snow firms up sometime soon...i'd like to do laps on something a little more interesting than the south side ...i feel the s side route is ridiculed a tad too much perhaps, as the devils kitchen on up is quite asthetic (sans crowds of course)...would be nice to do the sandy and the north face before heading up to the big fridge though....simmer, snow, simmer!

drove up to t-line at 11 pm and left around 1130...leisurely strolll to the top, w/ no one behind me, arrived at 4 as the sun was beginning to perk up...the cracks to the left of the schrund have closed up w/ the recent snow, but the main guy is still big and open...if you fall above it you deserve to die b/c there's a huge escalator of stairs kicked in...lotta crap raining down from the wall above, some rocks the size of tennis balls...back to the car at 530 after running down the lifts (and reclimbing 200 feet after realizing i droppe dmy fucking head lamp) highly recommend the climb before work...makes you feel kinda immortal and totally contemptous of everyday assholes course i'm a contemptous pig anyway

just got back from the south side this morning and found the conditions a good deal better...still, things didn't get too firm until around 3 a.m. and i doubt that'll last long...one again, on a random weekday, i passed 30 people on their way up at 5 a.m. doesn't anybody have to work other than me? fuck, now to find a way to maintain coherence for the next 8 hours...