sketchfest

Have a great trip Bill, see ya when you get back.

I was just talking to b-rock about this yesterday. I find it extremely humorous that the news always reports an incident out there as a "hiker/climber" fell from the top...blah, blah, blah. Why don't they dig into the truth a bit and say that a crackheaded, meth freak was seriously spinning, strung out on a bad batch of ajax and decided that they could walk on thin air.....Christ almighty, why do they always put the focus on us climbers?

desk, that's when we left, I would shoot for midnight.

I don’t know how much the conditions have changed since this past Sunday, but we found a thin breakable crust from the top of Palmer all the way up. This crust varied in depth from ankle to knee deep and just got worse as the day wore on. The cattle trail from the hogsback to the summit was well worn in and the schrund is starting to open up nicely, although the climbers path was still leading directly through the middle of it. I’m sure that your plan is to leave early, but since it’s been so warm, I would leave even earlier in the hopes of find at least a little firm snow before the sun comes up. Good luck and hope you and your son have a great trip.

Thanks for sharing and welcome!

I was out there about a month ago checking out various climbs on the West side and folks where taking numbers to get on "roam" the line was so long. not to mention the 4 groups that were already on route.

So where was everybody yesterday?? Tex and I climbed all by our lonesomes over at Video Bluff and never saw another sole.

Bump! I should be there around 5 unless my afternoon meeting gets out early/late. I'll probably head down to Silverbullet....anyone??...Hello....is this thing on??

seemed more like a brownpoint to me!!

Ry, Funguy and I were the “poor souls” that headed up “L” on Sunday morning and conditions were really great considering how warm it was. We left T-line at 2:15am and skinned up to the top of Palmer were we switched to crampons due to crusty ice conditions. Ironically a short distance above the lifts we began to encounter a thin breakable crust that varied from ankle to shin deep, but we continued to the saddle sans skis. Conditions down to the Reid were indeed soft, with sections of knee deep sugar, but two groups ahead of us kindly blazed a trail for us to follow. One of the groups (2) headed up one of the Reid variations and the other (1) looked like he was going to “L”. We crossed two old avi paths, one at the base of the Reid and the other at the base of “L”, but nothing was really coming down on us as we passed beneath, probably because there was no and I mean 0 wind. We followed the solo guys tracks for about 200feet up towards “L”, but he wasn’t headed into the couloir, his tracks continued up to the Reid. The snow conditions up and through the couloir varied between Styrofoam, short sections of bullet proof ice, to soft sugar, back to Styrofoam, but nothing felt unstable and both ice ax and crampon placements were solid. Like I said there was no wind, so nothing came down on us, I got whacked once on the knuckle and that was it, if it had been windy with those warm conditions the route would probably have been very dangerous. So unless it’s gotten windy since Sunday you might be able to follow our tracks all the way to the summit. Leave as early as you can, it would have been nice if the snow was a bit firmer when we went because it really slowed us down with the snow as soft as it was, but still a great day in the mountains. Have a good trip.

...but it's sooo far to walk to compared to the butte

Can't do today, got an interview this afternoon.

Who's up for some Thursday climbing at the Butte??

I recently had the pleasure of meeting the inventor of the Hemcon bandage, Dr. Kenton Gregory at a local fundraiser. The bandage is truely the real deal and does what it says. Currently the bandage is being used exclusively on the battle field in Iraq and the number of lives it has saved has been enormous. There is no doubt in my mind that this invention and the proccess created to manufacture this product will be by far one of the greatest inventions of our time. Not only does it create instantaneous clotting, but seals out bacteria. Here's to smart people!

Ya maybe, I haven't put my tool bags on in 7 years, I don't know if my baby soft hands can handle the abuse...

Since I don't have a job anymore maybe I'll stay later than 8:00 and party till the break of dawn!

I don't know that names of any companies in Seattle, but I would check with a construction supply store that specializes in anchors. In Portland there are companies like Portland Fastener and Hilti and all they do is anchors of all shapes and sizes. They are going to have a much deeper selection and most of the guys who work at these places are going to be able to give you pretty knowledgable advice on how to use them properly. my .02

Yes, I agree, Spiderman is a great climb. Here's my boy topping out....what a view!

What about the part that says it's over 10,000k under the sea bed...hhmmmm that doesn't seem right

Ooooh, guess I should pay more attention

I thought the 2nd pitch wandered over to the left and up into the giant hueco with all the loose dinner plates and then meets at the tree ledge on SE Corner, is that another climb?

Hey Bill, how long ago were the chains "returned" on Young Warriors? was that at the top of the first pitch and did they leave the hangers or politely "return" those too?

Does a new thread need to be started for a spring Oregon rope up? or is there a date set for Smith?

There are also some really nice climbs over on the west side (mostly bolted) but well within the 5.7/8 range. I would also recommend the hike over to sunset slab. The book has it rated as 5.9, but other than being kinda long for a sport route (something like 12 bolts) I thought was kinda soft but definately 4 stars. The supplement also shows two new climbs just over from Astriks(sp) pass, one 5.7 bolt the other 5.8 trad, in a sweet little notch, both looked like excellent climbs.

Go take a look at the right and left side of Textbooks over by the Student wall. There are a bunch of trad .7 & .8 that are side by side. Some of the cracks are a little wide, usually gear in the 2.5 to 3" range, but most protect very well.